nothin' like a late night blog

Smith writes about the importance of self-image to the writer and I sort of suppose it is true. I mean, technically I may be a writer, because my hopefully degree(which is upcoming) will say so on it. It will be raised, embossed print on a parchment certificate saying I am a “professional writer”, but I have always felt my writing is technically sound but crappy shade of gray from an creative view point, but as it has been written about in a few of our readings, inspiration is out there to be discovered, it may be right in front of you but didn’t know yet. I don’t see myself as a creative writer, so Salinger should have no worries over me stealing his fan base. It certainly wouldn’t hurt if I read more, but as stated in my case study paper, with school, family, work, a love of HBO, and sleep I have had very little time to do “extra” reading other newspapers, online reading, and Golf Digest on the can, with the latter being the most reliable forum. Resisting my digression I have to admit that reading can only help one’s writing. Reading makes people ponder and reflect; it is constant feed if one is up to the task or has the time. Word choices, sentence structure, idea generation, style, voice, grammar, and punctuation are just a few positive by-products of reading. I read Smith and some of my classmates’ responses to this and I can only imagine some of these technical aspects of writing may only be important in handwritten documents. I say this because that is the only way that our grammar, spelling, some punctuation, sentence structure are exposed as terrible with emergence of the computer. My trusty computer solves all of these writing woes so quickly, so what’s the point? I will say that while I misspell the same words seemingly all the time (especially recommend, see my computer already corrected it so you wouldn’t know), I have become more aware of some of faults and it is primarily punctuation and spelling, but is has come so far since high school that’s its comical. I also wanted to address the petering out of my handwriting skills because the computer, most of classes requires a lot of writing and reading, but not too much note taking because of the ease of printouts and Angel; it allows the student to have no excuse to not be informed. My handwriting has had to come out of the closet and pat the dust off with my internship which requires me to take hand written notes almost extensively. It was a little rusty, but it’s coming around, thanks for asking.

And just some comments on WTL, it is easy, and I apologize for de-emphasizing grammar by simply stating that my computer will just take care of it. Good readers will always pick up on poor or suspect grammar. My grammar is far from stellar, but I do understand that knowing grammar reflects one’s seriousness in understanding the limits and capabilities of their language. So, while knowing when to use relative clauses and modifiers can be exhausting and painful, it will prove beneficial in your writing.