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I've been writing for helium for an entire six weeks now and I've seen some really well written terrific articles that could be sold in magazines. And I've seen some that have great ideas, but are written in what seems like record time. And then there are the stories that are written like an email. They're done really fast, with no editing at all, and no reading back what was just written.

After reading the rules for writing on helium, I found out that the powers that be at helium want people to write like they're writing an article for a magazine. We're not getting paid for writing the articles, but we are getting exposure, a place to communicate and a place to build up our portfolios.

Okay so not everyone who writes for helium reads the rules. Not everyone who writes for helium is reading and writing articles because they want to write for a living. Many people are just going onto helium to vent like you do on a blog, or an-mail, or a text message. It seems like some people are venting as fast as possible, and not looking over their work.

Not to say that I'm the all knowing and powerful OZ, but I saw this title and I wanted to just show writers how not to write so that everyone can understand what it is that you're trying to say;

here's where the fun begins, because i'm writing this really fast and i'm trying not to capitalize anything at all, or use periods or commas which i'm really having a hard time doing,and this is so much easier having one continous run on sentence, but i really have to think what i'm doing cause i'm so used to writing with commas and periods and sentences that have endings, and thoughts that are thoughts, and i can misspell words too-Oh yea!

I just had my teenage son read what I wrote and he said, "Mom, you're being ridiculous." Okay fine, maybe I am, but I'm just trying to make a point without sounding like I'm lecturing.

Okay, so what have we learned here today? (Doing it again, aren't I?) First, take your time when you're writing. Think through what you're going to write first. Don't just write everything that pops into your mind. If you have to write your main ideas on a piece of paper first, then think about it and organize what is the most important thing first.

Use punctuation and capitalization. I know this isn't elementary school, but using capital letters and commas and periods helps people who are reading what you wrote. And then they can understand it.

Don't write one long run -on sentence. Write shorter sentences. Then, they

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