Even the most professional authors rely on simple techniques such as these to make their writing clean, direct, and accurate.
    •    Don't overprove your thesis.
    •    Make a production schedule. Block out a daily quota of pages to be written. Start writing by getting something down on paper. It may be rough and unorganized, but you can refine it later. The point is, get started.
    •    Check all data, particularly dates, figures, and proper names, against the original documents.
    •    Keep your sentences short; one independent and one dependent clause are usually enough.
    •    Try to use the active, not passive, mode. This may come hard for those who have drafted a lot of official correspondence.
    •    Strive for clarity and vigor in every paragraph. If you bore the reader, he may quit reading.
    •    Generally, it is best to use a topic sentence for each paragraph.
    •    Assume that the reader is intelligent but knows little of your topic.
    •    Avoid use of big vocabularies and unnecessary jargons. Many our readers are civilians. If you must use acronyms, define them parenthetically, e.g., sea line of communication (SLOC). You may safely use SLOC in subsequent paragraphs but not too far apart. If you use dates, include the year, e.g., 12 July 1986. Otherwise, your reader will flounder.

Dedicated and prolific freelance writers looking to be published in our print and web publications  are welcome to submit their articles at any time. However, we are often faced with several challenges—a huge bank of already accepted manuscripts. Hence, the competition is stiff for getting your manuscript accepted in the first place and equally so in having it published.
That said, a good story will invariably make it into the magazine more quickly than a "for the record" reminiscence of life at sea. This is not to say that we are uninterested in well-documented facts. We are simply looking for an engaging narrative to accompany them.
Queries are always the best bet before an author assembles a story. We may already have related material in the bank, the topic may have been recently exhausted, or it may simply not be right for this publication. Because of the amount of mail we receive, the query should grab the editor's attention from the start. Give away the best part of the story in the first paragraph of the query. Then delineate your qualifications for writing such a piece. And have a thick skin, because a favorable response from the editor will likely elicit only a form letter agreeing to see the manuscript on speculation, with no commitment on the publisher's part. Completed manuscripts are always welcome and are evaluated in the same manner as all others.