Team-BHP - A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

Wonderful thread.

I have a problem which I'd like to share here. I am very interested in writing. Whether it's complete BS or makes sense, I just have to be writing. That is what my mind says!

Now,the problem. Everyday,I read a lot about how to improve writing skills. The first basic is READ,READ,READ till you burn your retina and,then write everyday regardless of what you are writing on. You just have to WRITE. This way your vocab,knowledge improves and you grow as a writer.

Trouble is, I read a lot but when it comes to writing my vocab is still that shitty what it used to be 3-4 years back. Right words just don't click the right time. And, that as a result leads to long-long unending posts, like this.:Frustrati

@Shivank,

Firstly, if you love to write, why such a low post count? :p

Seriously though - i didn't think your post was hard to read or unending. Perhaps you could have exercised that vocabulary instead of typing "long-long" though?

Here's a method that might help you incorporate new words into your writing :
- Pick 5-15 words that you do not typically use
- Make sure the words are usable, and not extreme / rarely used words. (Perhaps look through SAT word lists?)
- Write a SHORT story using ALL those words. They should flow well in the write-up and not seem forced.

Also, what you said earlier about "read, read, read" might be true to some extent, but you also need to be able to recognise and then analyse what methods and tricks the writer is using. Complimenting this read-read-reading with some basic study of the components of writing might make that reading pay off.

cya
R

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 2482088)

@Shivank,

Firstly, if you love to write, why such a low post count? :p

lol:

Well,I have recently started to post here in team-bhp. Also,as of now I am more of a rider than driver. So,I am mostly active on other biking dedicated forum. I try to contribute here too but many times seeing so many talented/mature posts by bhpians around I set myself back,thinking would my post be of any value or make sense? Almost hundreds of posts have been typed and trashed just because of this.

BTW,I am into the blogging business as well. Would love to have you read those and comment. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 2482088)

Seriously though - i didn't think your post was hard to read or unending. Perhaps you could have exercised that vocabulary instead of typing "long-long" though?

Here's a method that might help you incorporate new words into your writing :
- Pick 5-15 words that you do not typically use
- Make sure the words are usable, and not extreme / rarely used words. (Perhaps look through SAT word lists?)
- Write a SHORT story using ALL those words. They should flow well in the write-up and not seem forced.

SAT list...That seems to be a nice idea.

I have always suffered when it comes to writing short stories. They just don't end!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 2482088)

Also, what you said earlier about "read, read, read" might be true to some extent, but you also need to be able to recognise and then analyse what methods and tricks the writer is using. Complimenting this read-read-reading with some basic study of the components of writing might make that reading pay off.

cya
R

Could you please shed some more light on the things mentioned in bold?

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k (Post 2482137)

Just reading and writing everyday is not enough. You need to develop your thoughts on what you need to write. Without content, any piece of text is useless.

There, I added another step. Think :D

You make 100 % sense to me! But I wouldn't consider that piece (without content) to be useless. At least for me, it isn't. I have personally seen and experienced this. Suppose,if you just want to write without bothering your brains much, you could do with writing about anything like,a personal diary sort of thing. That way many 'new' words just come and fit directly into the text. This method works fine for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shivank (Post 2483236)

....Suppose,if you just want to write without bothering your brains much, you could do with writing about anything like,a personal diary sort of thing. .....

Well, it depends on how you spend your days, or nights, for that matter!
I would imagine there is some 'content' there!
The brain has to be involved, regardless of what you choose to write about.
In fact, writing nonsense probably requires more of an effort than writing about an event that you have witnessed or been a part of.

And you must note there is always a space after a punctuation mark (and none before it).

Quote:

Originally Posted by anupmathur (Post 2483769)

Of course, I didn't mean that you have to be sleeping while writing anything. But a diary can be done on regular basis much easily as compared to any other writing exercise.

MSWord highlight these punctuation mistakes. Mostly experienced when typing project reports for college works. :P

I will take care of this thing from next time. I am in a bad habit to type quickly and post it without editing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Ravi (Post 2483926)

I was taught [in typing institute] to leave two spaces after full stop/interrogation mark and one space after the other punctuation marks like comma, colon and semi-colon.

Two spaces? Are you sure? Anyway, nice info there. :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by anupmathur (Post 2483949)

This is certainly not the accepted norm!
You can check in the thousands of the most respected publications.
The typing school you attended seems to think they can create rules as they please! :eek:

May be, he's right!

I just happen to come across this rule:

Quote:

Rule 1.
With a computer, use only one space following periods, commas, semicolons, colons, exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks. The space needed after these punctuation marks is proportioned automatically. With some typewriters and word processors, follow ending punctuation with two spaces when using a fixed-pitch font.

Excerpts from another article on the same topic:

Quote:

It is generally accepted that the practice of putting two spaces after a period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence is a carryover from the days of typewriters with monospaced typefaces. Two spaces, it was believed, made it easier to see where one sentence ended and the next began. Most typeset text, both before and after the typewriter, used a single space.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anupmathur (Post 2483949)

This is certainly not the accepted norm!
You can check in the thousands of the most respected publications.
The typing school you attended seems to think they can create rules as they please! :eek:

Sorry. That was not the creation of typing institutes. That was the norm prescribed for the typing examination conducted by Tamil Nadu Government in the Seventies. We were trained like that to type both in the typing classes and in the examination. If a student commits mistake even in spacing, marks were deducted for each mistake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Ravi (Post 2483973)

Sorry. That was not the creation of typing institutes. That was the norm prescribed for the typing examination conducted by Tamil Nadu Government in the seventies. ....

Well, here is what Wiki says about this: (...and I was born after 1950!)

Quote:

With the introduction of proportional fonts in computers, double sentence spacing became obsolete, according to many experts.[14] These proportional fonts now assign appropriate horizontal space to each character (including punctuation marks), and can modify kerning values to adjust spaces following terminal punctuation, so there is less need to manually increase spacing between sentences.[11] From around 1950, single sentence spacing became standard in books, magazines and newspapers.[15] Regardless, many still believe that double spaces are correct. The debate continues,[5] notably on the World Wide Web—as many people use search engines to try to find what is correct.[16] Many people prefer double sentence spacing for informal use because that was how they were taught to type.[17] There is a debate on which convention is more readable, and the few recent direct studies conducted since 2002 have produced inconclusive results.[18]

Source: Sentence spacing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But, yes, I concede that this was a practice that was followed at some point in history, and has been much debated.