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| FYI
SOUTH
Who we are CONTRIBUTOR'S GUIDELINES
HELPFUL LINKS
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F.Y.I.
SOUTH Who we are.....
F.Y.I. South, a bi-lingual full color monthly magazine, is your FREE city guide to Kaohsiung, Tainan, Kenting and Chaiyi. Operations are managed by the Compass Publishing Group which also produces city guide magazines for Taichung and Taipei regions. Content is upbeat and current, including What's New, What's On, Roundup Features, Diversions, Fashion, Nightlife, Movies, Music and MORE! F.Y.I. SOUTH Philosophy.....
F.Y.I. SOUTH
Just give us a call or send an email! back to TOP
CONTRIBUTOR'S GUIDELINES Feature Articles approximately 600 words highlighting a destination, activity/event, cultural theme, special shop-restaurant-pub, WHATEVER. Contributions can be made in Chinese or English. Features ("What's New") are approximately 150 words
When preparing a feature, please include:
FYI South has prepared several links to help if you're new at it. back to TOP CONTRIBUTOR'S GUIDELINES Happenings If you know of any happenings (sports, entertainment, performances, social, etc., etc.) for adults/chldren/singles just pass 'em along and they'll be posted. Be sure to include a contact name/number/email for the individual or organization that's in charge. Happenings are accepted in English or Chinese. FYI South will make sure that readers are NOT the last to know! back to TOP CONTRIBUTOR'S GUIDELINES Directory Listings Because FYI South is published monthly, new spots can be added easily, and closures can be removed. Categories contain Restaurants; Coffee/Tea House; Bakeries; Pubs/Bars; Movie Theaters; Museums/Cultural Centers; Shopping; Education; Art/Antiques; Doctors/Veternarians; Hospitals; International Organizations; Foreign Affairs Police Dept.; and Sports/Leisure Venues for Kaohsiung, Tainan, Ping Tung & Chiayi. Listings can be submitted in Chinese or English. FYI South is designed to help readers find exactly what they're lookin' for back to TOP FYI South will post "Buy & Sell", Personals, Employment Offerings, Language Exchange and other notices of community interest. Slight charge for classifieds of a commercial nature. COMPENSATION WRITERS (Freelance) Professional Writer: NT$3/English word or NT$1.5 /Chinese character. A “professional” is someone who is, or was, employed as a full time writer, or someone who has two or more articles published a month in a recognized publication. Non-professional Writer: NT$2 per English word or NT$1 per Chinese character. PHOTOGRAPHERS (Freelance)
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| Writing Features
by yippee THE BOTTOM LINE: Think about what you plan to say BEFORE you start typing. Categorizing the information helps the reader to better understand and retain it. Following are some of the "patterns" I have developed and honed over the past few months in writing, which tend to concentrate in the Health and Beauty, Travel, Restaurants, or Music categories. For all, I always write a draft first, and then look at it with a "fresh eye" a day later to see if it could use improvement, before submitting it. Not only do I look for information that I forgot to add, but I also look at the flow of my paragraphs, and in particular, whether or not I accentuated the key points. Is the content appealing ?.... This is usually accomplished by a LOGICAL use of paragraph breaks, and by clearly categorizing the information by using BOLD or similarly noticeable headings. The longer your story, the more essential it is that the information be divided up into "categories". HEALTH AND BEAUTY NOTE: These
tips could also be applied to curious products we sometimes encounter in
Taiwan's market place, or interesting imports that local readers may want
to know more about.
TRAVEL
RESTAURANTS
MUSIC
OVERALL
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Guidelines for
Writing Restaurant Features
excerpts from USRG (the U.S. Restaurant Guide) February 4, 2002 The best articles have some specific restaurant details - this makes them memorable. The most successful capture an elusive sense of place that helps ground the reader. To capture that elusive sense of the place, write with the following three things in mind. a) Write with your voice. Stop and write exactly as the words come from your mouth, not from your hand. Let the sentences flow as conversations with a good friend. Occasionally, read your restaurant feature out loud to a friend. There should be very little difference in the writing and what you say. If you can't speak smoothly what you write, then others will probably fail to read you. b) Say what recalls a place. What little things really mark the place? A well observed detail brings it to life (The restaurant off the Cable Car line in San Francisco with the brass dolphin handle can be none other than Aqua on California street) Skilled diners relate and recall such instances to start a larger conversation. c) Be helpful - guide people. If the place is hard to find, help the reader quickly find it in the first sentence. Speak of the special dishes to inform the skilled diner. For example, remind the diner they should try something not on the menu that everyone orders, such as Yucca at the Cuban restaurant. By writing of the special dress of the clientele, you inform a diner of the social comfort level. No one wants to be "out of place." By mentioning color of the room or how waiters or the crowd is dressed, you know how to "fit in." Writing Template A newspaper style is effective - The most important matter should appear first. Write no more than three paragraphs. Tell the reader in procession: 1) THE PLACE - Begin writing about the architecture of the place. How do you recognize it from the street ? What is the space like inside? Mention the light, smells or other first impressions that are unique. 2) THE ATMOSPHERE & PEOPLE - Who comes here, what might they be wearing, talking about that recapitulates the culture of this place? What are the scenes one sees here? How is service paced and how are guests managed? 3) THE FOOD - Look at the menu. Are there a large number of selections? How often does the menu change? Does it follow the seasons? Write carefully about selected dishes. If there are remarkable finds, things not on the menu then share this with the world. 4) HISTORY - Find out when it was established. What were the motives? What was the history of this location before? Food, Atmosphere, Service Many say that a place is great - very helpful to know, but almost immediately we want to know why was it great? So mention a few items that give you cause to notice the place. Price and Value Note the price range which gives an idea of the average price per meal such as $5-10. Extra Credit If you have the time, include a restaurant recipe. Readers value the process of cooking and ingredients as much as dining out. |
Tips Just
for Taiwan (Restaurants)
by Karen Schmitt We're lucky to be in southern Taiwan when it comes to food. We may not have all the glitz and glamor of Taipei's haute cuisine, but ours comes closer to the real taste of Taiwan. Southern fare is unpretentious and totally authentic to the island's ethnic heritage. However, "southern style" cooking often combines a curious mix of flavors, styles and ingredients unfamiliar to western palettes. What follows are tips when writing about "the unknown".
(aside from address/phone/hours):
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| Your First
Restaurant Review
Copyright © 2000 fabjob.com PAGE 4 If you only have one visit, make it count. Here ’s how: •Ask questions, walk through the restaurant and notice
how all the staff interacts with customers and with each other.
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•If the chef ,during his tour of the dining room, stops
by to greet you and your guests, use this opportunity for a mini-interview
:“Where did you study? How long have you been here? What is
the philosophy driving your creations? Think this makes you too obvious?
Listen to the diners around you. People with a passion for food love to
ask questions and discuss food with a professional chef. Even while
asking all these pointed questions, you ’ll fit right in.
•Once you ’ve taken your notes on the food, take a walk through the dining room ,noting decor, available seating and the view from the room. •Stroll through the bar area ,noting whether it ’s a small courtesy bar for diners to have a pre-dinner cocktail while waiting for their tables or whether it ’s a large gathering place specializing in martinis and jazz. •Go all the way to the restrooms, then on the return trip, study the clientele :are they elderly, families,couples or middle-aged groups of singles and couples? •You ’ve got a fairly comprehensive view of the restaurant dining experience that most people will have at the same place. Once home in your office, or even in your car, write down details not previously noted ,including your impressions of all aspects of the meal. •Write the review as soon as possible after your dinner. from "Become a Food Writer".
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-ADDRESSES--All addresses should feature the street number (do not write
"No.__"), alley or lane (if
applicable), street or road, floor/apartment number, town/township/village
(if applicable), and city/county. At
some times, the city/county will not be necessary. *FYI SOUTH writers,
however, should ALWAYS list
city/county, given the wide scope of the magazine. Abbreviate street/road/sections,
except in What's New,
when complete spellings are used. Use appropriate romanization system (see
"Romanization").
Address examples:
34, Alley 5, WenXin Rd., sec. 1, Taichung City
5, WuChuan W. Rd., sec. 3, 5F, Taichung City
-ETC.--NEVER use "etc." in a story. Rather, try "and so on", "plus others" or something like that.
-EXCLAMATION MARKS--Unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, do NOT use exclamation
marks!! They are
easily overused.
-MONEY--Always used "NT$___", not "___ NT dollars" or anything like that.
-NAMES--When mentioning someone for the first time in a story, always identify
them by full name. Avoid
using last name only, unless it is a subsequent reference. There's usually
no need to use "Mr." or "Mrs.".
Example: "Chef Chen Huang-ming is a master in the culinary arts. Chen says
he got his start at an early
age."
*ALSO, when romanizing names, first try and use the romanization they use
(check their name card), no
matter how unusual or non-standard it may be.
-NUMBERS--Within stories, always spell out numbers between one and nine.
For numbers above that, use
digits, like 10, 45, 233, 3,321 or 10,222.
-QUOTATIONS AND QUOTATION MARKS--When using quotations, always use the
double quotation mark
("____") and not the single ('___'). In direct quotes, punctuation should
go inside the marks. (Example: "I
loved the restaurant's Italian cuisine," said Jack Huang.) When using a
partial quote or in a title, put
punctuation OUTSIDE the quote marks. (Example: The boy said he felt a bit
"queasy". It is well worth the
time to watch "Star Wars". I wanted to see "Turandot", but lacked the time.)
-TIMES--When listing opening hours for What's New, restaurant write-ups
and other similar stories, always
write: "Hours:" followed by a space and times. Leave a space between number
and "am" or "pm". Example:
"Hours: 5 pm-3 am" or "Hours: 1-11 pm" *Inside the text of the story, always
insert periods, as in "a.m." and
"p.m."
-WHAT'S NEW--What's New write-ups are, by definition, short (usually about
150 words). The goal is to
introduce as much as possible within a short space. Do NOT insert your
personal impressions or use
first-person style (as in "I thought..." or "I loved..."). This is not
a review, just an introduction.