Motivation

On By Editor Karolyn HIn Editing Projects, Projects 2017Leave a comment

motivation

Project quote

“If you reach the point where you don’t care about your work or the quality of it, this is usually a big sign of lacking motivation. When you don’t care, you stop putting forth the effort. Don’t think you are fooling anyone.” (Tom Henricksen, 2017; Pursuing IT: A Practical Guide for Discovering Your Future Technical Job)

My thoughts

Lack of motivation is one of the items listed in a checklist designed to help readers determine whether it’s time to move on to a new employment opportunity. I completely agree. This is one of several factors that influenced my decision to leave positions I’ve held before; even to change my entire direction career wise.

While there’s something to be said for making the best of a bad situation that you can’t find a solution for yet, I feel that so often we settle for less than what we’re capable of, less than what we need. To truly succeed, we need to feel motivated by our work, and have a desire to do our best and please our boss and serve our customers or clients. Fear can hold us back, I know it’s held me back. Fear of not finding something better, fear of failure. But finding a job or career that you’re good at and a position that you love can do wonders for overall happiness and fulfillment.

Editing projects for weeks ending December 24, 2017
Nonfiction business book
Client countries: US

 

Noble Pursuits

On By Editor Karolyn HIn Editing Projects, Projects 2017Leave a comment

pursuits

Project quote

“The goal of education is not to produce secondary school students who can only obtain high scores, but to train them to pursue their own knowledge independently.” (Feng Teng, M., 2017; Predictive effects of writing strategies…EFL writing proficiency.)

My thoughts

Oh, what a noble goal. Oh, if only that were really true of the current educational system in the US. Maybe it was in the past. Maybe it still is in random towns and other countries. But today’s system appears to be focused predominantly on test scores and political correctness. I remember when it was more important for teachers to focus on teaching students how to learn, and how to think, not WHAT to think. Or maybe I only wish I remember that time; hard to say. Luckily, parents can still play a part in raising their children with a curiosity and quest for knowledge, and teach them how to question and reason and not simply learn to recite facts and numbers and call it a day.

Editing projects for weeks ending December 10, 2017
Recommendation letters, Academic Research Articles, Website content
Client countries: China, US

 

 

Assumptions

On By Editor Karolyn HIn Editing Projects, Projects 2017Leave a comment

assumptions

Project quote

“In the 1960s, Soviet astronomer, Nikolai Kardashev, devised a scale to rate the kind of theoretical civilization that we might develop into and the kind of alien civilizations that the SKA might reveal to exist elsewhere in the universe. In broad terms, according to Kardashev, out there in the cosmos, there may be intelligent life capable of making contact with us and it will be at one or another level of development. He classified these civilizations as Type One, Type Two or Type Three civilizations. For a benchmark, humans at this moment are—yep, Type Zero point five; we don’t rate, we’re barely on the scale. This comes as a real blow to our collective ego, especially if we think the whole universe was made only for us.” (Michael Smorenburg, 2014; A Trojan Affair)

My thoughts

For the record, one of my favorite authors to edit for. Unique writing talent, in my opinion.

I love reading science fiction, especially space related and military fiction titles. It’s fun to contemplate what non-human beings would look like and act like and how we would interact with them. It’s also an interesting intellectual exercise to theorize how their civilizations would compare to our own. But I feel it is unscientific and ridiculous to approve funding for programs costing millions or billions of dollars based on something that has not been proven to exist to any extent whatsoever. How can we possibly rate humans on this Kardashev scale in the real world, when it’s based on unproven guesses? On wishes and dreams?

Logic, or deductive reasoning, is defined as the following process:

“Deductive reasoning goes in the same direction as that of the conditionals, and links premises with conclusions. If all premises are true, the terms are clear, and the rules of deductive logic are followed, then the conclusion reached is necessarily true.” (Wikipedia contributors. “Deductive Reasoning.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 1 Dec. 2017. Web.)

If one of the premises of the argument for placing humans at Type 0.5 on this scale and justifying building this huge development and disrupting people’s lives irreversibly is that “Alien civilizations exist”, the conclusion is NOT “necessarily true” and is NOT logical because that premise has not been proven true. The problem I have with many accepted views in the ‘respected scientific community’ is that they are very often based on at least one false assumption, if not multiple.

Thoughts?

Editing projects for weeks ending November 26, 2017
Academic Research Articles, Fiction book
Client countries: China, South Africa

 

 

Captured

On By Editor Karolyn HIn W.W. poetry, Wednesday's WafersLeave a comment

Wednesday’s Wafers: weekly series in which I share some of my own recent writing

Romantic fool strikes again.

Captured by Karolyn H

captured

So many words written about love,
tears, smiles, promises
captured in a song.
Hearts — aching, hopeful, trusting, shattered.

But those words aren’t enough.
A million songs can’t tell this story.

The music I hear
is the soft touch of your soul,
the flames in your eyes,
and the strength of your arms.

When I laugh
I want to share it with you
If I’m smiling, then you’re on my mind.
If I sing, it’s about the bliss you pour over me.

The warrior in you
moves the desire in me.

Pain that washes through me
from separation and want,
is healed by gentle whispers,
fingers caressing, connecting through the screen.

The blazing light of your love is warm on my skin.
It glows and builds in my heart
until the melody is complete.

-11/30/17-