Being a non-native English speaker and writer as you can read my writings, they are not perfect. The way i choose to write is very conversational and grammatically incorrect. However, I'm taking up a New years' commitment to improve grammar, diction and clarity of my writings.
I tend to use simple, direct sentences but i dont vary the length of the sentences not do i mix clauses to sound them interesting. So inspired by some advice from Strunk and White, I'm going to try and experiment with my writing style.
One other problem I run in to is I dont tend to think the way i write. Infact, sometimes i think in several different languages (including symbols), this being a by-product of growing to learn 3-4 languages. I'm going to try and think as I write and force myself to think the way i write. I hope that this exercise will improve the clarity and thought process of my written work, and may be also improve the way I think.
So here it is New Years' resolution #1 - improve grammer, diction and clarity of my writings.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Try the Elements of Style book. Its like a bible for people like us who are quite a long way from thinking and expressing fluently in English
hi DJ -
Yes - I totally agree Elements of Style is the Oracle. I learned to change my style a little bit from various clause construction tips in the book. However, given our technical jobs, its hard to practice getting more practice on good writing style. I frequently type emails which are not expected to abide by any such rules..
Post a Comment