Supaproofread Blog

What’s It All About Alfie? or Why Bother With Good Writing?

No pop metaphysical descriptions here on the life of a rake, my son is too young to really appreciate the humour and pathos in Alfie but he put me on the spot during half-term with some rebellious comments on homework.

“Why do I have to write good stuff anyway Dad?”

At the time I was busy with the hectic shuffling that ocurrs around dinner time so my initial response was along the lines of “Because I’m your Dad and I say so, now just get it done!”

During dinner, we talked about this a little more not least as #1 heir was in something of a strop over why he had to do some homework when his younger sister did not.

As I’m increasingly learning, the questions I get from my offspring are rarely less than thought provoking. I can picture my nan in heaven looking down with a knowing smirk on her face and thinking how poetic justice is particularly after all the grief I gave her when I was a sprog.
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Aristotle, Aristotle was a Bugger for the Bottle….and Brainstorming

“Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle and could drink you under the table.”

Monty Python

Brainstorming new ideas for scribbling is a key part of the composition process. In a practical sense, brainstorming is essential when you have a commission to produce 40 articles on the same topic and by the time you’ve gotten to the 10th you’ll be scraping the barrel for off the top of your head approaches.

Now personally, if I drink I know perfectly well that there is an answer lying at the bottom of the bottle, it’s just I’ve always been too drunk to read it and certainly never rememebered anything the morning after.

Aristotle, if Monty Python are correct, certainly was able to read the answer because he came up with an excellent summary for brainstorming that is as relevant today as it was a couple of thousand years ago when he wrote about Rhetoric.

Braoadly he came up with five main ideas to use:

Definition
Comparison and Contrast
Relationship
Testimony
Circumstance

I’m going to cover definition here in this posting but we’ll come to the others in future postings.

Definition

For a definition you can simply reach for a decent dictionary but there are other ways you can approach determining a definition by asking questions about what something is and how it interacts.

For instance:

Blesse or Blessay?

Having an idyllic weekend i.e. no kids, I was able to do all the man type stuff normally reserved for such rare times. Watch rugby, drink beer, wake up with a hangover at what ever time of the day I damn well please!

After chopping a ton of firewood I retired to my living room and the mansize TV and slapped on “The Longest Day”. There is a line in the movie “Blesse mon couer avec une langeur monotone” and in English “Wound my heart with a monotonous langour”. Blesse being the French word for wound (pronounce the last “e” as “ay” or in other words as you would Blessay.

Now Blessay is not in the English dictionary … yet!

My television fare into the late hours was Stephen Fry’s QI and as coincidence would have it, I had drifted over to his blog for a read as he is also one of my favourite authors. Blessay is Stephen’s corruption of Blog and Essay to describe his blogging efforts. If he’s using Blessay as a word, surely it can only be a matter of time before it finds its way into some Oxford type dictionary?

Essay or Blessay writing can be fun and simple to do. I write them virtually every day for my own amusement and to practice with a medium I think many writers employ as a development arena for good ideas.

Here is a summary of Supaproofread’s advice on writing essays and you can find the full info on their site here:

Plan your work early – I think this is aimed at essay writers who are students working to assignments but I also find it applies when I have an idea; ideas zip around at neural speed so write it down as soon as you can before you lose it;
Understand the question – my old law lecturer and I still meet up for the occasional brain cell hammering session and I mention him as he used to write “RTFQ” quite a lot on my papers – RTFQ stands for “Read The F*****g Question!” – if in doubt ask for clarification before you head off in the wrong direction;
Organise your Research & Thoughts – again writing your ideas and reference materials down on a blank piece of paper will help you get everything into perspective and visualise how the essay will flow from point to point – I use a blank sheet of paper regularly and you will find me carrying around a hardback A4 notebook just for this purpose;
Short is Sweet – unless your name is Stephen Fry, don’t use a long word when a short one will do. If you are familiar with a word and understand its application in your particular context, that’s fine but otherwise you are on a slippery slope which only results in loss of credibility and a poor reception for your work; and
Stay On Topic – this is my own opinion, and it may seem obvious but veering away from topic is anaethema unless the direction you take is a logical extension of the ideas that have been developed and presented earlier. Sentences are units of sense, paragraphs also as they develop an idea which flows into the next while the essay stands as a coherent piece presenting your ideas as a unified whole – going off at a tangent is something reserved for geniuses or for your own fun so stick to your brief.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I spend a fair amount of time with my children’s school helping out when I can. I was recently asked to talk to my son’s class as part of a “bring your parent in so the little ~~brats~~ darlings can grill them” exercise.

“What job do you do?” was one of several eager questions thrown at me to which I foolishly replied “I write for a living.” Immediately, there were moans and groans, the spotty oik with the earring exclaimed “BORING!” and Ms F, the young school teacher with the ink not quite dry on her PGCE, suddenly took a closer interest in me which was not a bad thing.

My son looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him having fed his school chums on stories of Dad jumping out of planes, landing in a greenhouse in Holland and shooting a monkey with a grenade launcher while liberating the Falklands single handed. Right now I was blowing these myths out of the water and ruining his promo work by telling his mates I was something really boring like a “writer”?

“Better think of something quick sunshine,” I thought to myself, “the natives are distinctly restless!”
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Why should you critique your own writing?

Writing gives a two dimensional structure a three dimensional look. It creates visuals in the mind of your readers. It gives some form to a non-existent structure. Once put down in print, you have actually captured and contained it. Your idea has been made presentable. The more you do it, the more you are able to do it and it thus becomes easier for you to churn out writings and express yourself through words. Use words that you have learned in your mind to express your ideas. You really don’t have to wait until you learn the perfect words. The words that you have right now are enough; one can always refine everything later.

You should allow your writing to be free flowing. You should not stop yourself from putting whatever you are thinking into writing. Just write down whatever thoughts come into your mind about the subject. Make notes. Jot down all your ideas and phrases as they occur to you, and as an open minded writer, you should always keep a pad where you can write down notes where ever you go. It’s much easier to build upon existing material than it is to create it from nothing. Editing can always be done and refined later. You will generally find that you have an abundance of things to write about when you plan things this way.
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The Five Most Common Errors

Grammatical errors can show you up to be disinterested in your writing. They can detract your credibility and make your work look immature. In cases of blog writing or creating web copy, the case is pretty much the same. People will not read your blog, or subscribe/link to your blog if you make silly mistakes when you write. I believe that copywriting and blogging should be conversational and engaging, and breaking some in the formal convention of spelling and grammar can often be a good thing. Though, I also believe that you have to know the rules in order to break them. Here are some errors that you’ll never convince anyone that you wrote intentionally in the name of style, and even then, there will be people who will doubt your credibility.
So, let us look at some common errors that could diminish the credibility of your writing.

Improper Use of the Apostrophe – It is used generally in two cases. One for contractions (don’t for ‘do not’), and secondly for showing that something belongs to someone (Bobby’s pen would mean this pen belongs to Bobby). If you are ever in doubt, leave the apostrophe out. It generally causes more confusion if you introduce an apostrophe where it does not belong than it does to omit one.