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Tips for Better Writing
It doesn't matter which language you use to express your thoughts--if you learn the proper grammar and learn the necessary skills for expressing yourself in that language, you will achieve the desired results. What is the desired result? To share your THOUGHTS with someone else (the reader). As a writer-editor for the past 27 years (and as an English grammar and composition teacher before that), I've learned that there's always something to learn to improve one's skills with COMMUNICATION--whether it's written or spoken (or, in the case of art or photography, put into an image). To get better with English, note that there are rules (called grammar) for the spoken language that may be different from the "rules" for written language. Some of these "rules" can be broken by experienced writers who know what they are doing. The "broken rules" of a skilled writer will seem almost invisible to the casual reader. However, there are certain rules that will be recognized as blatently wrong by most readers if they are not skillfully violated. Some of these so-called rules include ending sentences with a "preposition", splitting an infinitive, and starting a sentence with a conjunction! --however, one who is really familiar with English grammar will know that some things thought to be a "preposition" are nothing more than part of a "phrasal verb" and therefore are accepted used in the manner they are used. One way to learn how these "rules" work is to get a collection of good reference works. Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" is a classic--and all writers or aspiring writers should have a copy of it. Another book, sadly out of print, is "Mrs. Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins" --it's an entertaining exploration of the myths and misconceptions about English grammar. Before anyone thinks that I'm being "English-centric" here, I've taken classes in formal linguistics, and am relatively fluent in Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. I've also picked up tidbits of conversational Tagalog, Kampampangan, and Chamoru. I've lived and traveled extensively in the Western Pacific--including Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Micronesia. Another source of interesting grammar comparison is the series of books with titles such as "English Grammar for the Student of Russian", "English Grammar for the Student of Japanese", and "English Grammar for the Student of Spanish". When you understand that for some languages there are things called "prefixes" and "suffixes" ... but in some languages (such as Tagalog and Kampampangan) there are things called "infixes", if can really help with your understanding on how words work. This understanding can also help with your written communication--basically, your writing. I currently take on clients from places where English is not their 1st language. I edit their manuscripts (using the "track changes" feature) and then, accept their payments through PayPal. Many are using this new way of improving their writing and to communicate their thoughts to audiences in their target language (yes, you can write a Russian manuscript and send it to folks who will edit it to conform to Russian standard grammar and usage, or a document in Japanese, with folks who will fix it to fit standard Japanese usage). My specialty, however, is to help folks with their English grammar and usage. (When translating a document, the editing and fixing should always be done by a specialist editor of the target language--they are the only ones who can catch the idiomatic and cultural faux-pas that a non-native might miss.) I hope this brief bit of "intel" has been helpful for this forum.
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Contributor's Note
I typed up this tome while on a weekend break, while waiting for some repair guys to come to the house. Time tha would otherwise be wasted, eh?
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How to Make Your Words Work Better
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