I want to invest in others. Being able to give money to those that need it is great. There is only one obstacle that is stopping me from this goal - I'm not rich. My luck! Not having enough money stops me from investing in others!

Kiva (kiva.org) allows me to accomplish this goal. It gives me the opportunity to be a partial investor in a business or businesses. In their own words,

"Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back."

Let's look at a make believe example.

Carla lives in Brazil. She makes blankets and want to start a business selling them. She needs $500 to buy a space and buy shelving for her store.

Kiva allows you to loan Carla money in increments of $25.00 You can loan her $25, $50, $100, and so on. Others can also loan her money.

Carla pays her loan back to Kiva who in return pays you. There is no interest. This is not a traditional investment where you make money on the loan.

I think this is a great idea. However, action talks and bullshit walks! It is easy for me to write about this organization, but why not put my money where my mouth is! I made two fifty dollar loans.

I made my first loan to an electrician in Paraguay. I chose this business because I wanted my first loan to go to a person from either Central or South America; I teach many students from Central and South America. I've become close to the people from these continents. Here's Martin's story.

"Martin is 45 years old, and married to Bernarda Roja. The couple have three children: the oldest is 20 years old and is a university student, their other son is 16 and is studying at middle-school. Their youngest daughter is 11 and is still in primary school.

In his youth he worked in the Yacyreta hydro-electric plant, where he was able to accumulate capital through saving his money through much personal sacrifice and then establish his own workshop for car electrics. Now he has 20 years experience in the business. His wife cares for a store that operates from their own home which also generates extra income for the family.

One part of the loan will be used to buy spare parts related to his business, which can be obtained for a better price if bought in bulk, and the other part of the loan will be used to purchase merchandise for the grocery-store. In this way, they will increase the family’s income and consequently its members quality of life."

My second fifty dollar loan went to a lady in Nigeria. Healthcare is a vital issue. Here is Mrs. Comfort Eseneh story.

"Mrs. Comfort Eseneh is a 58 year old woman, who has a chemist shop (pharmacy) for the care of people in her community. She is married with seven (7) children, and lives in Benin City, Nigeria. She hopes to get the loan amount of $400 for business improvement, i.e., buying more drugs for sale. She has been in this business for 2 years."

Kiva has an excellent repayment record. They do thier due diligence. Here's some more info from their site.

• What We Do (www.kiva.org/app.php?page=about)
• How Kiva Works (www.kiva.org/app.php?page=about&action=how)
• Risk and Due Diligence (www.kiva.org/app.php?page=about&action=risk__overview)

This can be a great school project and a way to teach students about giving. Teachers can incorporate geography, social studies, and other topics related to the country where the business person lives.

You make your payment with a credit card or through your PayPal account. At the checkout, Kiva will ask if you want to make a 10% donation based on your loan to them. Kiva takes no money from the loan. All of my $100 is split between Martin and Mrs. Comfort Eseneh. I donated 10% to Kiva ($10.00 based on my loan).

As a writer, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are the most important rights that I believe in. These rights allows me to say what I want and to publish what I want. They also give you, the listener and the reader, the right to agree or disagree with me, or to ignore me. Sometimes people forget that with the rights to say and write what you want, others have the right to not listen to what you say and what you write. These rights are a two-way street.

What do you do when speech of hatred and propaganda requests a stage? As a society that believes in freedom of thought do we censor or refuse to give those unpopular or even downright stupid voices a stage?

There has been much debate and protest over Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at Colombia University. Did he have the right to speak?

There is a popular saying, "It is better to remain silent and be thought an idiot than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." I believe that it was right to let Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak and to not remain silent. Let his words remove all doubt. He is an idiot. The more he speaks, the more he loses credibility. Let him see that the United States is not afraid of speech filled of hatred and stupidity. Let him see that the more he talks the less he incites. Let him see that the United States believes in freedom of speech, even if we abhor those words being spoken.

I don't believe in censorship and believe anyone has the right to make an idiot of themselves if they are dumb enough to choose to.

What are your views concerning freedom of speech? Freedom of the Press? Censorship? 

I use the Internet every day for research. What are the rules for using information from the Internet in your work?

Always cite your sources. The easiest way is to include the link. For example, if I am writing about soccer, I simply reference the link as follows:

The Major League Soccer web site provides a wealth of useful information. The site's address: is web.mlsnet.com/index.jsp.

Often, it is important to include some text from the web site. Here is an example.

Some teams win easily. However, not all teams are that lucky. The Toronto Football Club is one of these teams. From web.mlsnet.com:

"On the bright side for Toronto FC, Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Columbus Crew saw the club finally score for the first time since July 7. Unfortunately for the Reds, Miguel Canizalez's breakthrough goal didn't suddenly cure the problems with finishing that led to the 824-minute goal drought in the first place." - http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20070922&content_id=118611&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp

Wikipedia is a popular site for research. I use it all the time. It is a user-written and user-edited site. However, this does not mean that you can freely copy information from this site without the proper citations.

If you use information from Wikipedia, provide the link to the reference. Free information does not mean that you can plagiarize. Plagiarism, as defined by Wikipedia is:

"Plagiarism (from the Latin plagiare, "to kidnap") is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

If you didn't write it, cite your source. Would you like somebody taking credit for your work?

The more you write the better you write. The more you practice writing, the better writer you become.

A good way to practice is to start a blog or journal. It teaches you discipline, you need to write something daily or a specific amount of times per week. Whether your blog or journal is theme-oriented or just a collection of random thoughts, this activity forces you to think about a topic and write.

It doesn't matter if the entry is short or long, it is the discipline to write something and ensure that it is grammatically correct and interesting that is important. I recommend blogging or keeping a journal as a way to improve your writing.

What is your best excuse for not doing your homework?

I teach a few evenings at a community center. When I give my adult students homework they don't always do it. This is especially true for writing assignments. Some are too busy with work or with family. Many are just afraid to write.

I use humor with my students. I tell them that if they don't do their homework, they need to give me a really good excuse. I tell them to be creative!

My next homework assignment for them - write an excuse note explaining why you didn't do your homework.

Why should they have all the fun! My online students and respected readers - share your best excuse notes in this blog. I'll use them in my class. Be creative!

My job requires me to write. I write computer documentation, some marketing materials, business-related documents, and correspond with business people throughout Asia. The most important rule for writing is to know your audience! In real estate, the three most important things are location, location, and location. For writing, it is audience, audience, and audience! It seems obvious but many writers forget this rule.

When I write computer documentation, my first question is who is my audience. Am I writing for computer novices? Programmers? Engineers? The person whose boss said they have to use this program and just want to learn it as quickly as possible?

If I'm writing for programmers or engineers I can use technical terms, acronyms, and assume that my readers have a specific level of technical knowledge. If the person is a novice, the opposite is true. I use analogies and scenarios when I write for beginners.

Get to the point right away. I hate when people use the build up approach, the climax and drama at the end. The problem - you may be the only person that reads the end. For example, if you are raising money for a charity, tell your readers in the first paragraph that you want them to give money. The rest of your document convinces the reader to give you money.

Be careful when you write email. You never know who will read it. You send an email to a friend and they send it to another friend. That friend sends it to someone else and before you know it, you don't know who's reading your email. When I write an email, I never write anything that I don't want a stranger to see. Writing email is like writing a message on a postcard.

Be careful with humor. This is especially true when you are writing to a person from another country. Humor is cultural. What is funny in one country is not always funny in another country.

Don't make stereotypical or political assumptions. You may have a blog that discusses charity or a blog that discusses the War in Iraq. Don't believe the political stereotype. You never know who is reading your blog. No need to offend people that like your writing.

Always respect your readers. People often ask me what is the hardest aspect of writing? My answer - getting people to read it.

In a previous entry, Writing 101, I talked about the four different types of writing: narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive. What are the differences? When should I use one or the other?

I am going to illustrate each style by providing examples of the same topic in each of the four styles. We are going to read about Women's Football.

Expository writing explains things. Wikipedia is an excellent source for this type of writing. So what is Women's Football? Click here to find out and also see an example of expository writing.

How could I write about Women's Football in a narrative style? Narrative writing tells a story. The story can be true (non-fiction) or a creation of my imagination (fiction).

 

Narrative Example

Football season begins Thursday, Sept. 6^th when the New Orleans Saints travel to Indianapolis to play the Super Bowl champions, the Indianapolis Colts. Lisa can not wait. She loves football.

"Why can't I play for the New England Patriots?" she thinks. "I'm a good football player. I'm better than most of the guys on my college football team!"

Lisa doesn't like the idea that she cannot play football. She doesn't like the idea that men think that they are better at sports than women! It is not fair!

If not being able to play football is unjust, life just got a little bit worse. Lisa's English teacher gives her homework. She has to write a composition.

"Can you imagine that!" exclaims Lisa. "I can't play football and now I have to write a composition!"

Lisa doesn't know what she wants to write about. Since football is on her mind, she types "women's football" into Google and to her surprise she finds a wealth of information about this topic. 

Life is getting better. She has a topic that she wants to write about, the National Women's Football Association. Here is her composition

Why can't women play football? This is something that Catherine Masters thought about. "There is no reason why women can't play." thought Catherine Masters. With that belief, Masters began the National Women's Football Association.

It was a simple beginning, just two teams, the Alabama Renegades and the Nashville Dream. These two teams played each other four times in an exhibition season. From this simple beginning, the National Women's Football Association has expanded into a professional women's league comprised of 31 teams.

 

Persuasive Example

Thirty-one teams! Is there venom in you? That is what the Arizona Venom want to know! Do you love mutiny or the force of locomotion to be victorious at all costs? If your answer is yes, check out the Mass Mutiny or the Chattanooga Locomotion. Maybe it is the passion of victory or the karma knowing that you are the best. If so, there are the Pittsburgh Passion and the Kentucky Karma. 

This is a glimpse of the world of Women's Football. Join the excitement. Be a part of the National Women's Football Association.

 

Descriptive Writing

The grunts of the players! The crack of two football helmets making contact! The tackles! The determination! The National Women's Football Association is the place where women forget their manners, trade their dresses and designer jeans for padding, a uniform, and a helmet.

They practice in the evenings and spend their spring and summer weekends playing football. The players don't become rich. There are no endorsements and no lucrative commercials. You won't find people bidding for their autographs on eBay.

They have fun. They play a game that they love! There is a sense of team, a bond of family that only a group of players fighting for victory experience! There are also the tears when the victory celebration is in the other locker room. This is life in the National Women's Football Association.

 

The previous examples illustrate National Women's Football Association as seen through the lenses of narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive writing. Use narrative writing to tell a story, expository to explain, persuasive to persuade, and descriptive to describe.

Pennies for Peace is an organization that teaches children about the world and how to make a difference. In their own words,

"Pennies for Peace educates American children about the world beyond their experience and shows them that they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time."

Your Homework

1. Review the Pennies for Peace website.
2. Write a composition telling me how this organization makes a difference.
3. The composition must be at least 300 words.