Do You Want People to Read Your Writing?

I know I Do. I make it a point to read every article that has recently published in the Triond, whether the title interests me or not. Then I really look at the article – ok – sometimes I can tell “it aint goin no-o-o-where but at least I did my part. If I like the article that’s good, then I take a look at a few things (take into consideration I’m no expert); punctuation, grammar, spelling and flow.

Punctuation is really, really, hard; it can make or break a point in your article. I know I like commas, I put a comma everywhere I can and don’t need one. I guess I am just afraid, I am going to have a run-on sentence (is that right?) that is too long, which I do a lot. And what’s up with that colon? I want to use them, just not sure where; or when; or why; I just know you aren’t supposed to use them too much.

Grammar is not as hard as punctuation is, but it can be tricky. You want your words to be correct, but sometimes if they are too correct you can sound kinda stuffy. I don’t want to sound stuffy, do you? But then if you are too relaxed in your grammar, it’s as if you hadn’t gone three years to college. This brings up that helpful hint about writing like you talk. I don’t know where someone came up with that little gem. My writing sure isn’t the way I talk. I try…and then I look at it and wonder, who is that person?

Spelling is one of my real pet peeves; I used to be a great speller in about fifth grade. I don’t know what happened; somewhere between getting married and then having toddlers around, I lost track of real words. Oh sure I could always spell damn (when I was talking to my husband), and had no problem at all spelling spit-up, but where had the words of substance that I had learned in school, gone, like Tambourine, Mississippi and Elephant? That’s why I am glad we have spell-check on our computers, though you have to watch out for words sounding alike that aren’t spelled the same. You want to maintain some kind of public respect. And doesn’t it beat all that you can tell when someone has spelled a word wrong, it doesn’t look right anyway you look at it, but you just can’t figure it out. It slows down the reading when you come upon word after word that is spelled wrong.

Flow is very important in writing. If it don’t flow, it don’t go. You should look at the writer’s flow before you purchase a book, just so you aren’t fooled into spending all that money on something you won’t finish. You can usually tell if something is going to be a good read right from the get go, if it takes you fifteen minutes to read the first page, don’t get it. Like sex, flow should sometimes be fast, sometimes slow, but it should keep you coming back…to the next line.

I am no expert on writing, (I can’t critique someone’s writing – you know – nit-picky like some people do, although critique’rs are welcome to nit-pick mine as it can only help me), but since reading is a passion with me. I can tell good writing, I just can’t always tell what is wrong with bad writing. But this I do know, the more I read, the more I learn, the more I write, the more I learn…