Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Totally a copy! From the Foxview blog...

Style- and not in a fashion sense!
Style- what and how does my style impact how people read what I write, and do I convey what I want to write well enough to make sense?

For the past several years, I have written for the USPC(United States Pony Club) National Publication. Sometimes as myself, but often as a ghost writer for someone else. Here is an example of one of my articles- Um...it starts on page 4, is a large file, and I have noticed mistakes that I did not see before! maybe you DON'T wanna click on this!! not one of the best, but... you can get an idea. I have written the past 8 opening letters of this quarterly magazine.

Several times I have had to write something for someone as if it were my point, but in all honesty, I often have not agreed with what I am supposed to be stating. Despite this, it has been some of my best writing! Nothing like seeing a letter to the editor that says "Great Article! Well stated, and I appreciate you sharing your viewpoint." Ha ha! It's not even HIM that wrote it! :) This is a big time where revisions have come in to play however- removing any traces of me- inserting whomever I am writing for. Googledocs is great for that!

So, IMO, style changes to suit the audience. For USPC, I am usually dealing with a mixed population of horse parents, as well as kids. Often when doing the writing for this publication, it has to be geared someplace between those two groups. Sometimes, I have had to address tough issues (deaths of horses and kids being an all too common one in the past year) and for that, there is more thought that has to go into the delicate balance. Currently, I am rewriting the standards of proficiency. This is dry. No personality needs injecting, as a matter of fact, the less words, the clearer it is, the better it is. I bet you can tell, however, that I can get wordy! :)

In my younger years, I used to think that I needed to be...artsy in my writing. I now see there are many places to be in the written world, and while there is a time for that creativeness, I like being able to be readable by many.

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