Writing Styles

Writing doesn't come naturally to me as it may for others. Each person has a different style, which shows why there are different varieties of essays. The way I would write my papers revolves around logos. I would create a point and use strong pieces of logical information to prove that point. I am also more of a formal writer, which can create a scenario where my audience can treat my paper more seriously. However, this way of writing can cause the reader to be bored very quickly. After thinking about what to write for this blog, I realize that my writing style hasn't changed at all. There are different writing styles that I may need to use for different types of papers. For instance, the opinion editorial we are doing for this class is an example where I would need to change writing styles. The formal way of writing I am used to using for papers isn't the best method for this paper. So, I should probably figure out more ways to write for the upcoming papers this term.

Logophile: a lover of words

Style is something that often matches the personality of the person writing.  Looking at everyone else's description of their own styles, I can pretty much guess what they are like outside of class and/or match it to how they act in class. Style can't really be taught, it's just present in writing even if you are not trying to write with "style".
I think that my style is pretty flowery. I have been told numerous times that I use weird words that aren't heard in everyday life. I have very distinct memories of getting made fun of for it in middle school. My roommates tease me when I say "the apartment is frigid" instead of "the apartment is cold". I just like using really grand and majestic words when I write. There are so many splendid words in the world, so why shouldn't we use as many of them as we can. We should all use more words like "halcyon" or "plethora" not only because they are super fun to say, but because they are add beauty to our writing. I  know I sound like I'd be that one person in class that uses unnecessarily long words to seem really intelligent, but it's not like that. I just like to use certain words that I think sound pretty when I write or talk because it gives me joy. I was that nerd in high school that kind of had fun with the vocabulary tests because I got to learn a lot of cool new words. A person who has a love of words is called a "logophile", and I definitely am a "logophile".

I don't enjoy writing very much. It's not something I would want to choose as a job. It amazes me how some people can write these huge long books that we read today! I don't think I could ever do that. I have a hard enough time thinking of 250 words for this blog post. But when I do get around to writing I like to write in a light, humorous style. If I get too serious I feel weighed down. I have the most fun writing when I can write about something happy. Even if I'm not writing about something happy I still try to keep the tone of my voice light. I struggle sometimes, and did a little in my op-ed, with being to casual in a way that seems to detract from my authority. But I like making jokes and trying to tell funny stories that a reader will find interesting. With op-eds I think having that kind of voice is good because it's interesting and it can keep readers involved in your paper. When we get to the other papers for this class they are probably gonna be more serious and I'll have to find a good serious voice so people will think I have something good to say.  If I had to choose between writing op-eds for the rest of my life or writing research papers I would definitely go with op-eds. I like expressing myself in an easy, light way. But good thing I won't have to make that choice! I don't want to spend the rest if my life writing.

I Can Go The Distance

Let's be honest. I titled this "I Can Go The Distance" because I am now listening to that song from Hercules. I needed inspiration to write this post.

I have kind of been pondering the question, "What is my writing style" all day, and I've actually been a little bit afraid to find the answer. But I did it. What I really came up with, what it really came down to, is one word: personal. My writing is very personal. I've found it difficult to put myself in my writing in this last assignment because I didn't do a great job of picking a topic that I am all that passionate about. And I regret that, but everything else I have written that I look back on was done directly from me. I hope it doesn't sound cheesy when I say this, but I honestly love to write with all of my heart.

I think it is because I have found that it is easiest for me to communicate my thoughts and emotions through my writing. I can describe everything that my eyes see, my ears hear, my nose smells, my lips taste, and my hands touch. Experiences I have had can be shared with readers and they can understand exactly what it was like to be in my shoes. And through telling my perspective, I always hope to gain even just a little of theirs.

I can share who I am. That is something powerful. To give yourself to your reader. To be personal, to be vulnerable, and to connect through something beyond the spoken word, but instead, the written one.

 

My Stlye

I feel my writing style depends on what I’m writing. I may act different at a Friday night party or a football game than I do at church, both ‘Tatiana’s’ are me. I don’t only have one attribute or trait: dancer, passionate, reverent. The same goes with my writing. When writing my opinion editorial I think my style is more directed to reaching out to the emotions of the readers. Addressing such a serious subject, I like the readers to get a sense of what I feel and hope to evoke emotion in them as well. With some writing styles I am very descriptive with my imagery. I like the reader to be able to clearly depict what I am writing about. As for length I am generally pretty concise with making my point. I have a very hard time writing long (over two pages in my head) papers almost always doing the bare minimum. Even though I don’t consider myself a good writer, it’s never been a strength of mine, I do write with all my heart. Whether it is an OpEd or a research paper about nutrition with tons of statistics, you better believe it will have a bit of me in it. 

I HATE defining things, Webster dictionaries, and tight gymnast pants

I HATE defining things. When someone stands up in sacrament meeting and opens their talk on tithing with a definition from Websters, I just want to throw something. Like those old, real Websters dictionaries- the ones that weigh a million pounds- right at their face! Kapow!  Then 4th graders everywhere could cheer that the bulky dictionary their elementary teachers always insisted was necessary for class could finally be put to good use. At any rate, rather than defining my writing style, I'd rather just show you.
Tonight I went to a gymnastics meet. When I first walked through the sweaty track doors, I was nearly blinded by the lights reflecting off the gymnasts’ tight, shimmery pants that sucked so tight on their legs you could hardly tell they were pants at all. For all you know, they could have spray painted red and blue shimmer all over their muscles. At any rate, as I sat down in the stands I was feeling one thing: out of my league!!
So I’m a runner. I go to the gym six days a week. I pride myself on the number of pushups and lunges I can crank out. But my thighs look nothing like the tanks I could see in front of me. These chicks had muscles I didn’t even know existed!
Thinking about their muscles led me to wonder how they could possibly define them so well. I mean, these girls must lift way more than my two 50 pound plates on either side of the leg press. Maybe they just press with those old Webster dictionaries.

Writing style

Writing style. My style, if you can even call it a style, is very formal and to the point. I guess growing up with my experiences in English classes and always having a specific prompt that required a specific thesis, led me to develop a very formal, concise writing style. It's hard for me to express opinions like in this last oped assignment. I'm just not used to it. I'm accustomed to reading and analyzing and then proving one point of view through credible sources and presenting an unbiased view point. However,  I think developing a style would be good for me or adding new characteristics to my already existing style would be beneficial. I guess just because it's hard doesn't mean I can't or that I shouldn't do it though. So that's one of my new goals now, to learn and develop how to express myself and how I view things.

Blog Post 3, My Style

I write to style.  To say this not in my style, “style is the biggest reason why I enjoy writing!”  Before studying my own writing abilities much, I used to consider myself a horrible writer.  This didn’t make sense to me, or any of my friends, because I don’t have any problem talking.  None at all.  In fact, I probably have the opposite problem.  Anytime I eat a meal with family or friends I’m always the last one to finish because I’ve been talking the whole time instead of eating!  So you would think I would be able to write well, but for some reason my mind seemed to lose all sign of life whenever a paper and pencil was put in front of me.  Luckily though, I have discovered that maybe I’m not as bad of a writer as I thought, but only when writing casually, because then it’s not even writing, just me talking, as usual.  My goal for this class, which fortunately I am already seeing myself make progress towards, is to be able to write casually with my style even when writing more formally.  My mom has always loved my personality, but she spent all her time and effort throughout my childhood trying to strap some manners and etiquette on my personality and style.  Hopefully I can now do this with my writing style too, throw some writing tips, rules, and manners on it that can help me write more formally without making my papers lose all voice.  Without doing this, reading my papers is like staring at a blank wall without blinking. 

Blog #3 Writing in Style! :)

Do I have my own style and voice in writing? Well, of course I do! I tend to adapt my style to the context of what I'm writing though. I'm a lot more casual in this blog than I am when I'm writing news articles for my Media Writing class. In general though I'm a fan of puns and wordplay. Throwing in sassy one-liners when the mood strikes is fun for me, as is inserting German words here and there that don't have direct translations into English and then explaining them in the context of what I'm writing about when appropriate. For example, once I finish this blog post I've got Feierabend [Fire-ah-bend] (a German word meaning the rest of the night off), and in the immortal words of Porky Pig, "that's all folks!"

Blog Post 3: Writing Style

         My writing style is very passionate but reserved at the same time. I have a strong desire to let others feel the way that I feel. I want my reader to be impacted by the words that I have to say. My favorite thing to use while writing is true stories. When I see movies or read stories that happened in real life, I am affected in a completely different way. I find it so interesting to realize that what I’m reading is something that has actually happened in someone’s life. I never really use big words or make my writing sound super professional. I just like to get my point across and make sure that the reader understand what I’m trying to say. I love profound, deep statements. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I can actually write them, although I may try. I also plan to be firm in what I am saying, and I plan to stick to my guns.  My writing has never been anything too interesting, and I’m not really the best and grabbing the reading and taking them for some kind of joy ride. I just put my thoughts into words and hope that the reader can take a step inside of my mind for a bit. Summed up, my style is very plain, simple, true, and heartfelt. I work hard so that the reader doesn't have to. I love to make other people happy and I find that writing is a way to accomplish that. 

Voice is my essence

I feel that my writing style is very laid back. I make it so the reader can easily know what I think about the topic. I don try real hard to put in fancy words like coalesce or pococurante to sound smart. Heck id get confused myself. To put it simply my voice is like Im having a conversation with someone through my paper. I enjoy writing when I can write like that. Now Im not just making that up, plenty of people have pointed that out to me. My friend says that she enjoys reading my papers because of my voice. She likes how she can hear me saying what I've written. Unlike others where it seems like there is no voice at all, just facts being retyped. Often times I also can get off track a little and put in something that's funny, like a small comment of what Im thinking. Yes I do agree that it can take away from the paper but that's also how I talk sometimes. I find that I can get off topic sometimes when I'm in a groove writing my paper and everything is flowing good. Now on the other hand people have told me that my voice can overpower my paper, that I need to bring back my voice. They say that the type of paper Im writing should not sound like that. Well I think that's down right stupid. I hate papers where I gotta just write down facts and figures and not get to express myself. I find it boring and can only think that others will find my paper boring to read. But anyways I enjoy my voice.

My writing "fingerprint"

Everyone has their own unique writing style, it’s like a fingerprint. My “fingerprint” is a combination of formal writing skills that I have learned from years of honors/AP classes and I like to throw in a little bit spice here a there to keep it fun. I don’t have a very humorous writing style, but I think its fun to say things that will shock people. Not in a controversial, appalling way, but in a way that makes people think or focus back in on what I’m writing. Maybe I do this because I know that I have hard time paying attention when I’m reading boring informational papers, and maybe I’m not even that good at it, but I feel like if someone is going to read something I wrote I want them to at least enjoy it a little bit. I’ll be honest, writing is not my favorite thing in the world, but sometimes when I feel like my ideas are just flowin and coming together really well it makes me like super excited about writing. In those cases, it’s easier for me to add my style into the writing because I feel confident about what I’m saying. My writing style could benefit from a greater variety of vocabulary. Instead of just using regular, everyday words, I could probably add some flavor with a few more fun vocab words, as long as it’s not too much. It’s important for people to stay true to who they are in writing and find their own "fingerprint".  

writing style

My writing style is probably pretty boring.  I don’t know if my writing style developed because I don’t like English or writing or anything like that and I kind of struggle in those areas.  My writing style is extremely straight forward, cut and dry, and I just like to get straight to the point.  I don’t like trying to add a bunch of “fluff” to make it more entertaining or anything like that.  If teachers give me certain page lengths for essays and stuff it’s usually really hard to meet that required length.  I also feel like my writing style reflects my personality a lot.  I feel like it’s usually pretty laid back.  I don’t use big words or anything like.  Writing isn’t always hard for me though.  If I can write about whatever I want and just given freedom to write how I want then it can be a pretty enjoyable for me.  I just really like having freedom to write how I want and not being told what to do.  Anyway, that is basically what I think my writing style is like.  This probably didn't make much sense but whatever.  I guess I could just some all this up and say I basically like to write like I talk.  Super straight forward, super chill, not really caring all that much what people think.  J

The "voice" in my head

Identifying and describing my style is a new thought, I might have to think about that a bit. Do I even have one? But I have noticed that when I talk to myself, (which I seem to do often even in chem lab...sometimes a bit awkward) that in effort to understand things better I compare to something that I do understand or have experienced, my kids, the garden, my goats, cooking, my bees, etc. then I can put it all in perspective and move forward.  So if I were to say what my "voice" is like.....maybe it is like the one in my head that tells stories and makes comparisons to bring understanding to myself and others. What is difficult, at times, is that what makes sense to me might not make sense to someone else. For instance, many would compare personalities cliches with some character out of a famous novel, But I, I compare them to my goats, bees or a herb in my garden. Believe it or not goats and people have many of the same good and bad characteristics but in goats there is no shame or hiding it so it is much easier to identify and understand. Not many understand goats (or want to) and so as good as my comparisons are I try to keep them to myself.....your welcome!

My Writing Style

Writing style, eh? Yeah… I don’t really know. I couldn’t even describe myself as a person, let alone my writing style. I suppose I don’t really care. Not that I completely do not care, but the I’ve-never-bothered-to-take-the-time-to-think-about-it kind of carelessness. That is a very specific kind, but I think you know what I’m talking about. I’ve never thought too much about writing and I’ve never really wanted to. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I hate writing. I actually enjoy it sometimes, especially if it’s on my own terms, and by my own rules. I guess I just don’t really care for “academic writing.” Does anyone actually enjoy writing an essay? I guess I just like freedom. Freedoms is whats make ‘Murica the bestest darn nation in the earth. God Bless America! I suppose I just prefer to do, rather than to sit back and philosophize about who I truly am. I am who I am. And I’m cool with that. Because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.  So, as much as I would have liked to leave it at that I asked those that have read some of my material to answer the question for me. Their answers came back as the following: “Inspired.” “Free-flowing.” “Profound.” “******* good, man.” “Honest” “Real.” “Gangsta.” On second thought, I probably should have asked someone that has read some of my “academic writing” and not just my texts and Facebook messages. Also, I should probably get new friends. Oh well.

Blog Post 3: Writing Style

While going through school and throughout my life i've tried to establish a writing style for myself. I believe, i still have not quite yet found it. In my high school, almost all of the papers that i was tasked to write were formal essays where expressing yourself or showing personality was frowned upon. Because of this, i believe my voice, what drives a writing style, was swept under the rug. Although, within the past 1-2 years, i have taken up some of my own personal writing habits. I took up journaling (maybe more considered sketching with an occasional paragraph), and decided to create a blog. Through these outlets, i believe i have been able to try and find myself as a writer. The way i express my thought processes through writing is constantly changing as i learn and read more. However, there are some things that i do like to incorporate. I tend to lean more towards a sarcastic sense of humor, or dry humor, and shy away from blatantly obvious funny statements. I love when you're reading a piece that you have to go back and reread to make sure it actually was supposed to be funny. I also really enjoy using a lot of punctuation to create a certain sound when my sentences are read.

My Style is Rapidly Changing...

I have never thought about what my writing style is before, so this blog post made me deeply contemplate my writing, my style, and the techniques I often use when I write.  I am not one who enjoys writing, unless my topic is something that I am deeply passionate about.  I have noticed that as I have written papers over the years, the papers I have been most absorbed in writing pertain to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have noticed that I have a love and passion for discussing things that relate to the Gospel and how it has the power to change people’s lives.  Because I often write about religion, my papers tend to be more formal.  Almost all of the papers that I have written have been informative papers that have needed to sound official, demonstrating that I knew and understood my topic and what I was writing about.  I have recently noticed that I have struggled with my clarity in my writing.  I have multiple ideas swimming around in my head, but I have a difficult time writing them down in a way that makes sense to my reader.  I sometimes struggle with finding transitions that show my audience exactly what I am trying to explain in a way that they can understand.  I am grateful for peer reviews because it has helped see my peer’s writing styles.  This has helped me be able to see things that my peers do in their writing that I could work on to better my own personal writing style.  I would say that my personal writing style is still in development, it has come a long way, but it is still rapidly changing as I am improving and learning new ways to write.  

Blog Post #3 Writing Style

What is my writing style? This is a very good question. It took a little while for me to figure this out. I never have put much thought into individual ‘writing style’. When I really started to pay attention to it, I realized that everyone is very unique in the way that they write. We are all individuals with opinions and specific writing techniques. The great part about style is that it is our own. Throughout my years of English classes I have always tried to write exactly how the teacher wanted me to. I hope to become a better writer by learning how to add just enough style while still staying within the guidelines of my assignments. In my writing I notice that I like to use lots of supporting evidence. I like to help the reader relate to my writing. I’ll be honest I am not the biggest fan of reading, so it really helps when the writer keeps it interesting. I try to avoid sounding like a ‘textbook’, if you know what I mean. The straight up facts can be extra boring. If I ever have the option to choose my topic I like to pick things that I feel strongly about; that way I can make a stronger emotional connection with the reader. I try to help them feel and understand what I am feeling about a certain topic. There are many different things that go into making our writing uniquely ours. I feel the best way to get other people to enjoy your writing is to be yourself and make sure that you love it also! 

Blog post #3

I have to admit, when I first read what this blog post would be about, I thought to myself: "What the heck is my voice." I had to go back and read my opinion editorial in order to even know where to start. One of the first things that I noticed is that when I really think about what I am doing, I like to be verbose. For some reason big words fascinate me. Another thing that I noticed was that I really like to present counter points, and then utterly destroy them. I often find myself getting off track however, and I lose sight of what I'm actually supposed to be writing about (like right now for example). Let's talk about voice some more. I also noticed that I seem to really try to make an emotional connection with the reader. I want so badly for them to see and understand my point of view. If a person completely understands my point of view, and still disagrees with me, then I find that acceptable. However, if there is someone who disagrees with me and that person doesn't completely understand why I think what I think then I push and push until they understand or get frustrated and go away. I think that I've discovered through trial and error that the most effective way for me to make the connection with the person I'm trying to make my point to go at it on the emotional level. Finally, when I write I try to get the reader to laugh. I feel like if the reader is entertained, they will likely continue reading and pay attention.

Tommy Williams