I was going to write what SpoilerVirgin wrote until I was beaten to it.
I’ve always been a polished, glib writer, going all the way back, yea, unto grade school. But I’ve been able to organize the roiling mass of trivia in my head into coherent, well-constructed arguments only after months and years of practice here on the boards.
Or to put it another way, polished writing is roughly analogous to the fancy plastic binder you used on your college papers in the hope that the cosmetically pleasing surface might somehow blind the professor into overlooking the dearth of original thought contained between the covers. It may fool some people, but not the ones who matter.
::shrug:: Hell if I know. I’d been doing it so long it became second nature to me. But, apparently, the standard English Writing guidelines were updated for the “computer age” or something, making the double-space obsolete, and, in some cases, a nuisance.
Once upon a time, I thought my writing skills were adequate. Nay, even above average. Then I came here, and quickly learned that I was lame. And that I knew nothing.
I haven’t been a member long enough to attain the wonderful clarity of expression I see in many members, but I have become far more aware of my own lameness. I think that the “conversational” style of exchanging written information is very helpful - if you aren’t being clear, someone is sure to ask. After you’ve extracted your virtual foot from your mouth a time or two, your writing becomes more precise.
I don’t argue here (yet), since I lack the debating skills or the awsome research capabilities of the most prolific GD posters. I read and keep my mouth shut in GD.
Lately, I’d begun to aspire to being less lame. And then, in this thread, I learned that two spaces after a sentence is wrong. They changed the rules without consulting me! I am lamer than I knew! And in typing this post, I had to go back and delete a space every single frickin’ time. There has been much swearing. The people outside my office must think I have Tourette’s Syndrome.
I don’t think it’s improved my writing skills but it has made me even more aware of my dyslexia – I assume its dyslexia because otherwise I’m just plain stupid.
Oddly, I never even gave the possibility of having it a thought before owning a computer (it was never mentioned by teachers all the way up to post-Grad Law) but since then, although I’ve never bothered to have it clinically reviewed, my (apparent) dyslexia is all too apparent. I find my postings on the board a useful, if embarrassing, reminder that I do need to take especial care as the bloody things just sit there staring at me and I can’t edit 'em ! Frustrating but a useful reminder.
If you met me IRL, you would probably remember me as the girl who talks an awful lot. I always express myself with too many words.
Unfortunately, that also translated into my writing, until I started posting here. Brevity is the soul of wit? Maybe - but brevity is definitely the best way to get my point across. At first, I continually previewed my posts until all the superfluous words were gone. Now I write without all the extra nonsense, and my outside writing has improved as well. I find writing papers easier because I can express myself more clearly and concisely with fewer words.
I still get those “RUN-ON!” comments slashed across my papers in red ink, but I’m making progress with that as well.
Otherwise, I’ve always loved to write, and writing has always been the best way for me to convey my thoughts.
I’m also of the opinion that reading as much as possible makes you a better writer (well, it works for me), so the huge amount of reading this Board involves has helped as well.
Rats. I wish I could leave it just at that, because that would be so very amusing that you would all fall over laughing, then form the Smeghead Fan Club, but I find I must expound further.
Yes, I think my writing now is better than it used to be. I think back to some of my early threads and cringe. But it has also done wonders for my sense of perspective. I’m not nearly the rapier wit I used to think I was. See the start of this post for an example. There are a distressingly large number of you that could run circles around me. Dag-blast it.
I’d have to give this a big yes. Since I joined the SDMB, my writing has gotten more precise and more succinct than it was.
In fact, I’ve got to give this board credit because I’ve gotten praise from my boss on my ability to make complex concepts clear and easy to understand. That comes from the practice I get posting.
Yis, I tink dat posting on SdmB has made my writin skeels gooder.
Who’d know that 13 shurt munts ago that I could not puta word together to make complete coherint sintence
Butt now, after completing the stratedop massage board writin course, in conjunkshun wit da Evlin Woulhed Sped redin course, my redin an writin have improvd wunderful ly. My redin comprenshun hasa lso goten more good.
I now have da confidince to fullfill my liftime dreem, and ebcome a member of jEsse Ventura spich writin teem. I feel dat i wood be a valuuble adiction to it.
I’m another whose writing is better because of this joint.
I love the clear sassy tone that many of the best posters have, and I’ve tried to apply it to work memos, sometimes to good effect.
But when I did a long BBQ Pit style rant on the internal email to “Everybody” about how irritating it is to deal with other people’s bad habits in the communal office kitchen, it was not to good effect.
I called it “What I Hate About Working Here” and it detailed the unattractive consequences of leaving teaspoons in the kitchen sink. There was a lot of discussion, but none of it within my hearing!! Took about six months to live that down…
Spoonboss
When I first saw this thread, I said to myself, “Self, that makes sense.” Then I went back and checked my early posts and compared them to my more recent ones.
I found that I was much more careful about what and how I expressed myself in my early postings. In my more recent posts, I have been brief and to the point, but perhaps not as precise as I had been in the past.
If anything, I think posting to SDMB has made me something of a sloppier writer. It used to be that what I wrote was exactly what I wanted to say to create the mood I wanted to create in the manner I felt it needed to be. But now I just want it out there (hopefully, before the mods close down the thread).
In response to the “two spaces at the end of every sentence” quandary, I read somewhere (here I go, making unsubstantiated claims!) that the reason that rule of typing was abolished is to save print companies some space in their manuscripts. While one instance of double-spacing between sentences seems relatively insignificant, if your manuscript has 80,000 sentences in it, they can easily make the difference of a few pages, which makes a vast difference in cost when printing hundreds of thousands of copies.
That said, I haven’t posted here long enough to improve my writing, but I know it will improve the more I post. As will my intelligence, or eloquence, or something, I hope. I will admit that from three years spent on a previous message board, my writing style did improve. I even learned that I have a “flair” for high fantasy fiction.
