Rules in Making a Crossword

Everything has there own conventions. Rules or guidelines are there to help maintain quality and ensure a uniform standard which becomes the basis of evaluation which promotes, eventually, further improvement or development. You might ask why the serious tone. We’re talking about crossword puzzles and the first few sentences you read are about rules and standards like I was talking about ISO standards that need to be followed. You have to pardon me for the seemingly out of place and an over reaction of an introduction. I was so accustomed at enjoying crossword puzzles that it never occurred to be that there are actually rules in making a crossword.

Yes, believe it or not, that small square of entertainment that you fill out in your daily newspaper does follow certain guidelines during the creation process. Although, it appears that the guidelines may differ depending on the editor of the entertainment section or the editor of the newspaper. For example, some newspapers will require crossword puzzle submissions to be of a symmetrical nature. This basically means you will get the same pattern from the crossword grid when you view it upside-down. But make no mistake, the symmetry is purely the reference for patterns only and does not really affect the answers in the puzzle.

Despite having no standardized guidelines for making crosswords, there are some well accepted rules that most papers follow.

One guideline that seems to be followed by conventional puzzle makers pertains to the use of black squares. Traditionally, only 16% of the squares in a crossword puzzle grid should be black ones. But today, editors and even the target audience frown upon a crossword puzzle with too many black squares clump together. Today the idea is to create a puzzle with as few black squares as possible. It is also now strongly suggested that puzzle solvers can go from one corner of the grid to another.

The minimum length of an answer in a crossword should be less than three letters. Two-letter words should be avoided. You should take care of not accidentally creating two-letter words from the intersecting words. When selecting words for the grid, you get the longest one and make sure that the across and down boxes are symmetrical. I do maintain that this practice is a personal reference. There are several crossword puzzles out there that are not symmetrical in any way. So it would be your decision if you want to publish an asymmetrical crossword grid.

Other guidelines include not repeating words in the grid. This is something that a puzzle maker should do. In the first place, there’s no need to repeat a word in grid since there are a lot of word or terms out there that can be used in a decent crossword. Repeating word entries is inexcusable. Also, inventing your words to accommodate a word resulting from intersecting answers is never allowed. Often, editors will require puzzle makers to produce their set of references for the answers they placed inside the crossword. Also, wrong spellings and punctuations in both the answers and clues are unacceptable.

Speaking of clues, you need to write concise clues. Avoid writing questions as clues. Such practice is often avoided unless absolutely necessary. When writing the actual clues, be sure that you follow proper grammar rules. The first word of each clue should be capitalized as well as proper nouns and names.

When making your own crossword, do not forget for whom you are creating the puzzle. Coordinate with them closely to see if they still have other specific rules and guidelines.

June 20, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles

Website Building Tools

If you interested in website building for your home business, here are some great tools you might find useful to learn how to earn online, step by step. These are the tools that I use after checking out a lot of tools in the market. Hope it helps you in some ways:

1. Site Sell University

If you aren’t familiar…CHECK IT OUT! If you are… Congratulations!

Site Sell University will offer you a goldmine of information about “pre-selling” your customers and, in my opinion ( and I don’t endorse too many businesses this strongly), they have the best web hosting service on the planet for new startups, complete with mailing list features, newsletter integration, promotional tools… and much more.

I have to be honest with you. When I first came across Site Sell University, I was very excited to try it. A lot of ordinary people were raving about it. I thought if they can do it, I can do it, too.

My excitement fizzled out after a while. The reason being, I wasn’t very focused with my goal. However, after thinking about it and resolving to Take Action, I saw great results. That’s why I’m very very thankful I found Site Sell University and I’m not ashamed to tell the whole world about it. Check out this video to learn about Site Sell University in just 3 minutes.

2. Maverick Money Makers

If you are a novice at making money online, Maverick Money Makers is one site that you might want to check out to learn step by step methods. I’m a member of this private money making society online and I have learned many things from it. It’s a wonderful tool to use whether you want to start a home business on a low budget, medium budget or a high budget.

What’s great about it is that it has tons of resources like videos, audios, ebooks and many other tools which makes learning so easy. It has quick money blueprints that you can implement and skillset videos that will help you develop your skills as you grow your business. Above all it has mindset coaching which is very vital for your success. Mindset represents 80% of our success and strategies only equal 20% so this is an amazing tool for your business growth and success.

It’s the best one you’ll ever need to create an income online. Yes, this online coaching club will charge you $97, but it has a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee with no questions asked so what have you got to lose? If you try it, you can create an income you have never imagined you can have. I’m an insider so I know. Of course you have to TAKE ACTION for it to work as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme type of club. TAKE ACTION and you’ll see RESULTS!

What you will discover inside the club (among many other things) is the ability to help other highly successful companies in promoting their products and get paid a handsome commission for every single bit of business you help them get.

It’s pretty cool that you don’t even need your own product isn’t it?

You see, companies are rapidly moving toward a new model of marketing, and that model is based on people like YOU to get the word out about their products.

You can do this anywhere in the World. You’re no longer an employee, you can be a partner! When you sign up now, you are becoming a partner of a company working for yourself! You can start building your financial future.

3. The Minisite Formula

Another great product for novices is The Minisite Formula. It is one product that teaches you step by step to build your online business. I’ve checked it out myself and I’ve learned many things from it. It’s a great tool to use whether you want to start a home business on a low budget or a high budget. What’s great about it is that it’s a video course which makes learning easy. This video course was launched in 2009 and has a lot of new information like Web 2.0 that are used these days.

The Minisite Formula is unlike any other course because Joel Peterson is not promising you a site that make thousand of dollars a day, or even $10 a day but only $3 a day.

The system is actually teaching to build a mini-site in half an hour that make you $3 a day consistently. You might think that $3 a day is not a lot but what if you have 100 sites or 1000 sites. It will be $9000 a month if you have 100 sites and $90000 a month if you have 1000 sites.

The main product contains over 5 hours of “Quality” step-by-step video training on EXACTLY how to build a mini site empire. Everything is organized to optimize the user learning experience and keep people excited. Extensive helps and resources are available in the download area. A Top-Notch product that is worth 10x the price.

4. Micro Niche Finder

If you have an online presence, one of the many ways that people will be able to find you is through the search engines. Search engines list you in their sites according to the keywords that you use in your website.

With Micro Niche Finder, you can get the jump on the competition and profit from a goldmine of under-the-radar niche markets.

Uncover Completely Overlooked Niche Markets that are so Profitable You’ll be Absolutely Shocked at How Easily You Found Them. (you’ll find so many profitable niche markets your biggest problem will be deciding which one you want to exploit first!)

Micro Niche Finder is guaranteed to “sniff-out” red hot, low competition, high demand keyword phrases that you can turn into quick profits. Here are just a few of the ways you can use Micro Niche Finder to create New Income Streams:

- Create articles to promote affiliate programs and collect regular commissions.

- Create Adsense content pages that pay you residual ad revenue.

- Create eBay feeder pages and make money when new users register for eBay.

- Create Squidoo Lenses and claim your share of the profits generated by the traffic.

- Create niche market private label rights packages and sell these rights for a quick profit.

- Find Unregistered Domain Names that have Built-In Profit Potential from Type In Traffic.

- Find New Markets that are just Begging for Hot New Info Products that You Can Create and Sell.

5. Fat Cat Blueprint

A great blueprint for anyone, whether novice or expert in making money online. If you want to start a high profit online business, Fat Cat Blueprint is a must read. It's simple, straightforward, and just about anyone can do it. I've personally checked out how his system works, so I know first hand that it can work for others. So check it out right now – grab this opportunity with both hands.

The above are the tools that have been profitable for me in my website building. You can copy this formula or you can make your own. However, remember that you need to FOCUS and be COMMITTED to your end goal. NEVER GIVE UP! Success won’t come overnight but I promise you, if you TAKE ACTION, you will see RESULTS!