Writing, in my crappy words
Feb. 8th, 2004 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seasleepyGood thing of the evening: finding Megatokyo Volume 2 at Barnes & Noble.
Sucky thing of the evening: finding out when you get back that you missed someone you wanted to talk to by about 10 minutes.
Slashdot had an article earlier about how the internet helps some kids improve their writing through fanfic, which I thought initially made good sense, but upon reflection really doesn't so much. The distinction between someone who improves their writing and someone who doesn't basically comes down to whether they care enough to work at it, and that's true online or off. Certainly the internet can provide slightly more incentives to improve (people can actually read what you write and comment on how you can improve it as well as offering encouragement) than just a pat on the back from the english teacher (and you may not even get that if your teacher doesn't like your style), but if you don't care, it doesn't matter.
I suppose that's one of the reasons that I get so annoyed at people who put such little care into their posts, because while I've always been a decent writer with respect to syntax and the like, I had to make a fair amount of adjustment to my writing when I got more involved online so that I could say exactly what I meant without giving the wrong meaning (and I'm still not really there yet).
I honestly don't get how so many people can be so apathetic about how badly they communicate concepts in writing. We're too reliant on body language and gestures, and it's astonishing to see how much people are crippled when you take them away as you do in a purely text-based setting, as most websites are. So as far as I can see, posting something like "lol did u see taht show!" is essentially the same is saying, "It's not important for you to understand this," because if it was important, you would improve your writing skills so that you convey what you intend. And if you don't want people to understand you, why are you saying anything at all?
(And yes, I know that whole last paragraph's barely tangentially related to the article. But it's important to me, so I'm writing about it. ;))
<looks at LJ calendar> Lordy, I've not been updating this much lately at all. I need to fix that.
Also, how did it get to be nearly 3 AM?
Sucky thing of the evening: finding out when you get back that you missed someone you wanted to talk to by about 10 minutes.
Slashdot had an article earlier about how the internet helps some kids improve their writing through fanfic, which I thought initially made good sense, but upon reflection really doesn't so much. The distinction between someone who improves their writing and someone who doesn't basically comes down to whether they care enough to work at it, and that's true online or off. Certainly the internet can provide slightly more incentives to improve (people can actually read what you write and comment on how you can improve it as well as offering encouragement) than just a pat on the back from the english teacher (and you may not even get that if your teacher doesn't like your style), but if you don't care, it doesn't matter.
I suppose that's one of the reasons that I get so annoyed at people who put such little care into their posts, because while I've always been a decent writer with respect to syntax and the like, I had to make a fair amount of adjustment to my writing when I got more involved online so that I could say exactly what I meant without giving the wrong meaning (and I'm still not really there yet).
I honestly don't get how so many people can be so apathetic about how badly they communicate concepts in writing. We're too reliant on body language and gestures, and it's astonishing to see how much people are crippled when you take them away as you do in a purely text-based setting, as most websites are. So as far as I can see, posting something like "lol did u see taht show!" is essentially the same is saying, "It's not important for you to understand this," because if it was important, you would improve your writing skills so that you convey what you intend. And if you don't want people to understand you, why are you saying anything at all?
(And yes, I know that whole last paragraph's barely tangentially related to the article. But it's important to me, so I'm writing about it. ;))
<looks at LJ calendar> Lordy, I've not been updating this much lately at all. I need to fix that.
Also, how did it get to be nearly 3 AM?
no subject
Date: 2004-02-08 11:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-08 11:47 am (UTC)That being said, yes, people do need to pay better attention to their writing, I think. If nothing else, just to keep the spelling errors to a minimum. (8-)
JGH
hhhhmmmmm
Date: 2004-02-08 06:36 pm (UTC)I think anyone can improve if they care enough about it and fanfiction is an incentive, but only as much as the author lets it be, but I think alot of fanfiction is original...even an overdone idea can be presented a new way. Various authors have various styles - some are crappy. That doesn't mean they cannot be enjoyed (unless you are like Di).
Anyhow, good fanfic writing is out there. It's just that half the battle is finding it. I personally found something I liked so much I printed it out and gave it to my mother (it was not slashy Di). This thing was book length, but I still keep it cause like a good book it was enjoyable.
Re: hhhhmmmmm
Date: 2004-02-08 10:47 pm (UTC)Re: hhhhmmmmm
Date: 2004-02-09 08:07 am (UTC)Re: hhhhmmmmm
Date: 2004-02-09 08:08 am (UTC)