Article Writing Course

SYLLABUS
© 2011 by Sean D'Souza. All rights reserved.
Published by PsychoTactics Ltd.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,
or stored in any database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of
Psychotactics Ltd.

If you need permission, you’ll have to ask. Ask, because you never know (we may say yes).

The information in this document is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time
of writing. As a reader you need to accept full responsibility for your actions and should
consult with a professional about your own circumstances before following anything in
the book. Results are not guaranteed (Heck, nothing in life is guaranteed).

Further, the author and publisher have used their best efforts to proof and confirm the
content of the files, but you should proof and confirm information such as dates, measure-
ments, and any other content for yourself. The author and publisher make no warranties
of any kind, express or implied, with regard to that content or its accuracy.

For more information, please write to:

PsychoTactics Ltd., PO Box 36461,

Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand.
Phone: 64 9 449 0009 (If you need to call, check the time in NZ before calling).
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.psychotactics.com | Facebook & Twitter: seandsouza
iTunes : 4am Guy (iPhone/iPad App) + Psychotactics Podcast (Audio Only)

Published in New Zealand (Where else?). Any person flouting the rules above will be sent
(at your own cost of course) to pick sheep poo on some farm in New Zealand.
How To Learn Rapidly
This course isn’t about learning something new.
There’s probably little or nothing that’s new in this
course. There’s only so much you can do to learn
any skill and just about any learning requires at least
three core phases.

1) The Overview Stage

2) Implementation and Mistakes.
3) Construction and Deconstruction.

The first step is to simply have an overview of any information.

This is a lot like listening to a song on the radio. You don’t ever listen to a
song, and feel “Omigod, I have to learn those lyrics”! Instead you listen to
the song for the tune alone; for the rhythm alone. When you hear the song
for the second time, you start to recognise the tune. When you hear the
song for the twentieth time, you know part of the lyrics, and in time if you
really persist, you’ll learn the tune, the rhythm and the lyrics.

Most people make the mistake of trying to learn the “lyrics” when trying
to learn a new skill. If they read a book or an e-book/report, they want to
make notes as they go along. Some of these notes will be on paper, or be
mental notes. If they listen to audio, they get agitated because they feel
the audio is going way too fast for them to pick up the information. And
anyway most audio learning is pretty crappy. It’s filled with some pompous
know-it-all giving information in a very unstructured manner. With a
book you can see the drivel, and turn the page. With audio, you can’t turn
pages. So you’re kind of trapped to listen in a linear fashion, and this drives
people absolutely crazy.

You’ll find the courses at Psychotactics to be a little different.

This is because the audio is always prepared in a manner that’s structured
and isn’t just blah, blah. Each audio is always broken into sections and
each set of notes have their own structure. So I would encourage you to
take to audio. Or if you’re an “audio” person, take to reading the notes.
In most cases, the audio and the notes don’t correspond exactly, so by
avoiding either audio or notes, you’re not doing yourself any favours.

And this brings us back to the absorption concept.

When you’re starting out, don’t bother to learn. Don’t bother to take notes,
if you don’t want to take notes. Just listen to the audio.[1]

Now let me rant a bit here…

Most people classify themselves into “audio learners” or “text learners”.
The fact remains. We are neither. We develop a bias for one type of
learning over the years. But as we grow up there’s one clear fact: All babies
are dependent almost exclusively on sound. Sound bias is predominant
as a baby and in early childhood. All communication, including whole
languages are learned solely by listening and speaking. In fact, even at the
age of seven, most kids can’t so much as read more than a few lines in their
language, let alone write it.

Then school comes into play

We get books. More books and even more books. Suddenly 100% of us are
switched off audio, and turned into readers. Almost every teacher on the
planet will tell you to learn from your books, refer to your books, copy from
your books etc. This causes the sound bias to go to the written bias. It’s a
bias no matter how you look at it.

As I was growing up, I had almost zero access to audio learning

Till I got to New Zealand in the year 2000, I’d never really learned via audio.
Then I had to go to meetings and I was desperate to learn. So I put tapes in
the car, and listened to each one ten, twenty, even fifty times. I was never
trying to memorise anything. Just listen to it like you listen to music. But
the brain will memorise things, even when you’re not trying to memorise
it, because the brain is just a pattern-recognition device. It sees a pattern
and stores a pattern. Then when it needs to pull up the pattern, it pulls it
up and uses it.

What I’m asking you to do is get rid of your bias

I really don’t care whether you consider yourself an audio learner or a

1  Audio is most boring to listen to when sitting down at your computer. In about 15 minutes you’ll start to
yawn. Audio is a “movement based learning method”. You need to be in your car, or walking or dusting or do-
ing something. Never ever try to listen to audio while sitting down—unless you want to fall asleep, that is.
reader of sorts. I just care about you moving ahead. To move ahead rapidly
and become a genius of sorts, you’re going to have to squeeze lots out of
your already busy day. So the sooner you use several media, the sooner
you’re going to get to genius level. At times, it may well be impossible to
listen to audio. So yeah, curl up with your notes. At other times, you will
not be able to read notes (e.g. while driving). At this point, listen to audio.
And sometimes, you’ll find that video or a graphic e.g. a mind map will do
the job just fine.

The sooner you stop labelling yourself, the better off you’ll become
So yeah, don’t try to learn the lyrics just yet. Just listen to the “music” of the
notes and the audio. And just get the tune and the rhythm for now. Later
you’ll get the lyrics.

That’s the first stage: Just listening. Just getting the overview.

That takes us to Implementation and Mistakes

Most people will tell you that you can’t go forward without making
mistakes. We’ve heard this “oh you have to learn to make mistakes” so
often that in fact we don’t hear it any more. Our whole goal is NOT to make
the mistakes. So yeah, we’ll play it your way. You’ll learn how NOT to make
mistakes for most of the course.

Of course it goes without saying that you’ll make mistakes

And yes they’ll be fixed as we go along. However at one stage we’ll have
sessions where you deliberately get things wrong. Now this is a skill, I can
tell you. To know how to get things wrong—and get them deliberately
wrong, you have to know how to get it right. And then get them wrong (if
you get what I mean). It’s actually hard to rite wit duh rong speling whenn
u no how to spel rite.

Mistakes.
Make mistakes galore.
And you’re going to spend 14 minutes a day—every day, come hell or high
water, creating headlines and making mistakes. That’s the way you’ll learn.
And then you’ll see the mistakes from a mile away. And fix them.

This is what we’ll learn. To deconstruct. To become not just a person who
constructs, but who can deconstruct as well. And that’s how you’ll learn.
That’s how you’ll get to genius level.

Not by being born with “talent”, but by acquiring it along the way. By using
your wonderful pattern-recognising brain to recognise patterns quicker
than ever before.

So let’s just summarise here:

1) Get off your learning high horse. You can learn through audio,
text, graphics or just about anything. The audio and the information
in Psychotactics courses are designed to save you time and distill
information. Use the information you get, and stop waffling.[2]

2) Don’t try to learn. Listen to the “music”. Get the overview. And listen,
read several times over. It’s not a waste of time. Your brain needs to
recognise the pattern. People who read or listen just once are actually
“wasting time”. And equally, people who try to absorb everything on
the first sitting, are again setting themselves to learn a lot less than their
potential. The brain is about repetition. Keep repeating. And use all the
tools at your disposal to learn.

3) Mistakes are part of the course. Part of the learning. At some point you’ll
make inadvertent mistakes. And yeah, we’ll fix them all. At some point,
you’ll get so darned good at what you do, that deliberate mistakes will be
hard work. You’re entering a mistake-making zone. Welcome to the place
where doing stuff wrong (and then fixing it later) is the fastest way to learn.

4) Construction and deconstruction. You have mostly learned by

construction. Well, that’s only half the deal. Deconstrution allows you to
see deeper into the learning. When you can spot mistakes from a mile off,
and know how to fix the glitches, you’re truly on your way to mastery.

Welcome to a Psychotactics course. :) Let’s get this show on the road.

P.S. Another good trick to learning is to mix things up. If you listen or
read something in sequence, then break up the sequence. Start from the
middle. Or the end. You’ll be astounded how you suddenly hear or read
something brand “new”. Try it. :) And yes, have fun!

2  Waffle: To be indecisive.
Course Syllabus
Three Months (And A Bit)
Three months. That’s the official amount of time it takes to learn how
to master the art of article writing. And yet, we know better. For one you
should be listening and reading the information in the audio and notes
repeatedly.[1]

There’s a method to this madness of having to read and listen repeatedly.

The reason for doing so is to achieve two things. The first is to create a
safe zone in your brain. When you get on a course without at least some
(if not substantial) preparation, it’s easy to get intimidated. We don’t learn
very well when we’re intimidated, and so it’s important to remove the
intimidation factor as soon as possible.

The second reason is actually a very important part of learning. Research

has proven time and time again, that those who get to the finish line are
more likely to be those who’ve already achieved something.

So technically speaking if you’ve just done 20% of what was recommended,

you aren’t 80% behind—you’re 20% ahead of pretty much everyone else
on the planet. And being 20% ahead means you’ll be more likely to get to
the finish line because your brain is not struggling as much as it used to.
When you first start learning something, it’s a massive struggle. But as you
progress, even tiny achievements are wonderful motivators for the brain.

So when you think about it, the course has pre-course learning of 6-8
weeks. Then there’s about 12 weeks of the actual course. And then there’s a
few weeks tacked on at the end that establishes your expertise. And yes, it’s
about three months with a few weeks here and a few weeks there. And that
will give us the mastery we seek.
1  If you’re doing the live course, you’d have got your notes and audio between six-eight weeks in advance.
That’s a whole month-two months in advance. And if you diligently went through the information, you’d be
well versed in the facets of article writing. Yes it’s not the same as actually writing, but it’s the core preparation
and it’s a very important part of learning how to write faster and better.

If you’re doing a homestudy course, you may want to get right into writing the articles before you lose any
momentum. Technically speaking, that’s OK. But you want to make sure you listen and read, and listen and
read and listen and read. You’ll find things you’ve missed even when you’ve listened and read the course four
and five times over. So for the duration of your learning, make sure that the Article Writing Course is all you’re
listening and reading for the next few months.
The next few months may seem like forever, but they pass quickly if you
follow instructions. If you’re doing a live course, you’ll have instruction
from me (as you would expect). If you’re part of a mastermind group in
5000bc or doing the course with a “Taking Action” buddy, you’ll find that
following the syllabus will really keep you on track.[2]

May the force be with you :) (Not that you’ll need it that much)!

Oh and there are some videos you may want to watch on YouTube
The Wax On Wax Off Series

Wax On Wax Off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PycZtfns_U

Then it’s paint the fence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37pbIySnjg&feature=related

Then it’s get mad time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1oMCES56a4&NR=1

2  Yes I do mention 5000bc.com a fair bit. And gosh yes, it’s an up-sell (if you’re not a 5000bc member). But
if you’re not a member, there’s probably no better way to implement a taking action plan, because of several
reasons. The first reason is that you’re in good company. There are many who’ve done this course before
and it’s likely you’ll get help and encouragement from them. So it helps to be a member. If you’re already a
member, then there’s no charge whatsoever (and as you can tell, that’s a good thing). Whatever you decide,
be aware that the up-sell is more as a matter of ‘care, protection and guidance’ than just to get you to sign up
to yet another thing. So make your decision accordingly. :)
As you can see, outlining isn’t just some fanciful concept. It’s the crux of everything you do.
And everything I do. The Article Writing Course Syllabus was done in rough outlines (yes,
that’s my rough handwriting). And here’s the proof.
The 12-Week Roller Coaster*
Here’s a rough estimate of what you’ll do
It’s rough. It’s not fixed. I chop and change based on the ‘weather’. Based
on how you’re responding. If you’re going slow, we slow down. Or speed up.
If you’re going well, we change tack again. But this agenda will give you an
understanding of what to expect.

This is the reference guide of what you have to do over the next few weeks.
There is a far more detailed explanation of what you have to do in a follow
up guide. That guide contains examples, what to, what not to do and how
to do it. This is your start up kit, so you can quickly reference what you
need to do and get on with the job at hand. So here goes.

Week 1: Non-Work Based Articles

Day 1: Non-Work Based Article
Day 2: Non-Work Based Article
Day 3: Non-Work Based Article
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Non-Work Based Article
Day 6: Non-Work Based Article
Day 7: Non-Work Based Article

Week 2:
Day 1: Non-Work Based Article
Day 2: Non-Work Based Article
Day 3: Non-Work Based Article
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Non-Work Based Article
Day 6: Non-Work Based Article
Day 7: Non-Work Based Article

Week 3:
Day 1: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 2: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 3: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 6 : Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 7: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Week 4:
Day 1: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 2: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 3: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 6 : Work-Based Outlines x 6
Day 7: Work-Based Outlines x 6

End of Phase 1.

Week 5:
Day 1: Connectors
Day 2: Connectors
Day 3: Connectors
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Connectors
Day 6: Connectors: Find 3 Examples
Day 7: Connectors: Find 3 Examples

Week 6:
Day 1: “Disconnectors”[1]
Day 2: “Disconnectors”
Day 3: “Disconnectors”
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: “Disconnectors”
Day 6: “Disconnectors”: Find 3 Examples
Day 7: “Disconnectors”: Find 3 Examples

Week 7:
Day 1: First 50 Words
Day 2: First 50 Words
Day 3: First 50 Words
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: First 50 Words
Day 6: First 50 Words
Day 7: First 50 Words

1  It’s not really a word in the English dictionary.

Week 8:
Day 1: Sandwiching/Next Step
Day 2: Sandwiching/Next Step
Day 3: Sandwiching/Next Step
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Sandwiching/Next Step
Day 6: Sandwiching/Next Step
Day 7: Sandwiching/Next Step

End of Phase 2.
Analysis of Self-Progress: Self-Report
Analysis of Progress: Mentor’s Report

Week 9:
Day 1: 3-Point “How To Article”
Day 2: 3-Point “How To Article”
Day 3: 3-Point “How To Article”
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Summary + 3-Point “How To Article”
Day 6: Summary + 3-Point “How To Article”
Day 7: Summary + 3-Point “How To Article”

Week 10:
Day 1: Random “How Headlines” x 20
Day 2: Work “How Headlines” x 20
Day 3: Random “Why Headlines” x 20
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Work “Why Headlines” x 20
Day 6: Knew/New Headlines x 20
Day 7: Knew/New Headlines x 20

Week 11:
Day 1: Add Examples
Day 2: Add Examples
Day 3: Add Examples
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Add Examples
Day 6: Add Examples
Day 7: Add Examples
Week 12:
Day 1: Add and Defuse Objections
Day 2: Add and Defuse Objections
Day 3: Add and Defuse Objections
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Add and Defuse Objections
Day 6: Add and Defuse Objections
Day 7: Add and Defuse Objections

End of Phase 3—Moving to the “Wiz” Zone.

Analysis of Self Progress
Review of Article Writing Course

Week 13 and 14 comprise of the “Wiz” Zone—named after one of the

alumni who was the first to get into this zone. In these weeks, you’ll be
involved in analysis of what makes good/bad articles + speed writing. This
is a crucial segment as it takes all the previous 12 weeks and gets you to a
stage of speed + drama in your writing.

Week 13:
Day 1: Analyse The Brain Audit
Day 2: Analyse The Brain Audit
Day 3: Analyse The Brain Audit
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Analyse The Talent Code
Day 6: Analyse The Talent Code
Day 7: Analyse The Talent Code

Week 14: Speed Writing

Day 1: Write Article in 45 Minutes: On Your Work Topic
Day 2: Write Article in 45 Minutes: On Your Work Topic
Day 3: Write Article in 45 Minutes: On Your Work Topic
Day 4: Day of Rest
Day 5: Write Article in 45 Minutes: NOT On Your Work Topic
Day 6: Write Article in 45 Minutes: NOT On Your Work Topic
Day 7: Write Article in 45 Minutes: NOT On Your Work Topic

Next Step Advice will be given at this stage. Other courses that apply and
build on this information will also be recommended. Phew! :)
If you find anything that bugs you, please click on the bug above
to send me an email. Nothing is too small or too big. And if I can,
I’ll be sure to fix it. Email me at: [email protected]

PO Box 36461, Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand

Tel: 64 9 449 0009 | Email: [email protected]
Facebook|Twitter: seandsouza