TurquoiseB wrote: > As another exercise in "thinking out loud," here's another > installment in my musings on writing about spirituality. > > I'm a language freak. Not in the same sense as Card, but > I really get off on language, its nuances, and the ways in > which the *ways* in which people write often says more > about who they are and what they believe than *what* they > choose to say. > > In other words, it's often not the *content* of what a > person says that communicates, it's *how* they choose to > say it. > > Take some phrases and acronyms that sometimes appear in > people's writing about spirituality and spiritual concepts > here on FFL. One of them is "IMO" -- "in my opinion." That > one, and the use of it, speaks volumes to me. It's someone > making an effort -- going out of their way -- to point out > that the things they're saying ARE opinion. Not fact, not > truth, or Truth -- just opinion. > > Compare and contrast to those who write in proclamations. > Anyone who has spent any time around the TMO should be fairly > familiar with proclamations -- they're the lingua franca of > that spiritual organization. They're not just suggestions of > how things could be; they're declarations of How Things Are. > > No judgments here, no "better" or "worse," just an attempt > to call people's attention to the difference in styles. You > can make your own determinations as to *which* style appeals > to you more. > > Take another phrase that very *rarely* appears here, "I could > be wrong." Curtis uses this phrase a lot, and a few others do > as well. I always savor and appreciate it when I see it, and > find it refreshing, often *because of* its rarity. Other folks > don't tend to use this phrase very much, IMO :-) because it > often doesn't occur to them that they *could* be wrong, or > that there could be another equally valid way of seeing the > situation. They're "right," and they know it. Again, this > view of people and why they write the way they do is not a > declaration of fact, just my perception of writing as it > is often done on FFL, and as such, *opinion*. It could very > well be *wrong* opinion -- I've been wrong before, and most > likely will be again, and this could be another example of it. > And again, *you* get to decide which style of presentation > you like better. > > Take a third example of language style and usage, the tendency > to argue strongly for your position being "right" and someone > else's postion being "wrong." I know it may come as a shock to > some here, but IMO that's not the only way to have a discussion. > Curtis often goes out of his way to present his ideas as just > another way of seeing the situation, just another point of view. > So do new.morning and Rick and Marek and Edg. I *rarely* see > any of them get heavily involved in head-to-head arguments about > who is "right" about a subject and who is "wrong." Again, I'm > not saying one of these writing *styles* is "better" than the > other; I'm just pointing out the difference, for those who are > as fascinated by language and its usage as I am. > > I'm pretty sure that if I *did* make a judgment here, and > declare or proclaim that one of these writing styles *was* > "better" than the other, or that one of them *was* more "right" > than another, that someone would reply angrily, "rebutting" my > "proclamation" and attempting to turn it into a head-to-head > argument, and attempting to "win" that argument. And I find > that more than a little boring, so I'm just going to content > myself with pointing out the differences I see *between* these > styles of writing, and allowing people to make their own > judgments about which they prefer, or whether they have a > preference at all. Whatever they decide is fine with me. I don't think people on an email list such as FFL are necessarily into it being an exposition of their writing skills. That is not the purpose after all of an email list. The purpose is really just chit-chat. Who wants to waste a lot of time crafting text that most people will skip over if it is too long anyway? It takes more craft to say something well in one word or a sentence than a 10 paragraph rant. So I wouldn't judge anyone's writing skills by what they write on an email list. That seems to be a hang-up you have and project.
I know you love to write but I am reminded of a friend who has a blog and proclaimed that he was starting it to force himself to improve his writing skills. Well he has more or less failed because in an effort to try to write something on a regular basis and of course he is already falling down on that "regular basis" concept is often writing a bunch of nothing.
