Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How has your writing changed as you've aged?

The worst thing that happened to my ability to write was my college English class, which taught a stilted, formulaic, form of expression. Somewhere along the way, I learned to switch to writing conversational English, and my product was better.

A big change happened a few years out of college, when I had to write for publication for my employer. I dutifully sent my work to the editor assigned to review it, and she did a marvelous job. The result was shorter, clearer, and expressed exactly what I wanted to say. So I asked her to teach me how to do that for myself, and she did, in just a couple of hours. I don't know that I always hit the high mark that she set, but I do try. I wonder if she knows the impact she had?

The most valuable course I took in high school was touch typing. Since I was in the "academic track," my mother made me take it in Summer school. NOw as I age, i often hit the wrong key.

Penmanship? Fuggedaboudit. I often can't read my own writing--or printing.

denton,

I don't know how or why that stilted (usually passive voice) writing style became standard in high school, and even in some universities.

In my 20s I made quite a bit of money turning university theses and dissertations into understandable English, along with field reports from a couple of historical/archaeological research companies.

Reading the first few post there seems to be some confusion between penmenship and writing. Taking you at your word I assume your are asking about writing. Yes, I notice a cognitive decline with age, but so far it is in significant.

It became popular because it comes off as confident and authoritative, which is important when you're a tiny and meaningless part of the university system.

John, you'd love a book called Ad Infinitim (https://www.amazon.com/Ad-Infinitum-Biography-Nicholas-Ostler/dp/0802716792). It traces a lot of the problems of modern English back to the Dark Ages when the church was the arbiter of style. Fascinating read.


Okie John

Interesting historical perspective there old-timer. Kind of like getting photos developed.

My handwriting is hard for me to read after it gets cold, so I now print.

Before computers as pervasive as they are now I had do handwritten condition reports on equipment here in the refinery. These reports had to be legible and sometimes several were done per day. I dropped cursive writing and started spelling. It was very legible and neat and remains that way years later. I'm lucky with no arthritis in my hands even after 25yrs of cutting near frozen meat in my former trade.

About 5 years ago, I started editing my work emails for passive voice. I was able to cut about 1/3 out of each one........

I started having this problem myself, compounded by the mechanical drawing I took in 7th Grade Shop. My printing is in that style, but the careful directional strokes I learned went all to Hell long ago.

When I was still working, I was a self-taught half-assed touch-typist, good enough for the short snippets I had to write. The use of an iPad has totally futzed that up. Now, on the rare occasions when I use an actual keyboard, it's a disaster, worse on a laptop with no numerical keypad.

I also keep finding my self stabbing the screen with my finger and wondering why nothing happens.

The thinking and formulating have always come fairly easy for me, and still do.
Getting my fingers to co-operate has become problematic.
My cursive, which was once beautiful, left years ago.
My printing is on a serious down-slide.
Hands cramp just writing a few checks - the only thing decent is my signature!
My keyboard work is slow, but tolerable.

When I'm really on a role, I can do about 2 pages of technical writing a day. At about our second class reunion, I told our typing teacher that was my most valuable high school class.

Because others have mention it, I will too. I failed penmanship early on in school, by third grade as I recall. Nuns made me stay after and practice that stuff that was tacked up above the blackboard all around the room. I failed art a lot too. Maybe there's a connection? I always told the nuns that I was going to be a Doctor or such and didn't need to write legibly. Well, I eventually learned how to print sort of well. Occasionally, I look back at some college notes I have from when I was in my late 30's.I used some sort of combination of cursive scratching and slanted printing, likely out of a need for speed and whatever I could get on paper could be deciphered later. I still print most written communications. I try hard to make them understandable to regular folks.

As for writing, besides a few emails on occasion for business and personal reasons, most of it seems to be here. If I know Travis (deflave) might be reading it I try to be as long winded as I can and use words as big as possible for the meaning I am trying to get across. It seems to bother him a bit. Besides, terseness has never been my strong suit. I have the ADHD stuff and get off into tangents trying to express ideas at times.

I can never remember if I use too many commas, or not enough. Teachers and I went round and round about that at times. At least I attempt to use punctuation, unlike some other members of the 'fire.

I am left handed and my cursive was pretty good until I retired. Now, after twenty six years of doing little cursive it is pretty poor. I can still print well and things like reload labels are legible. My signature has changed a bit. Like others I get finger cramps quickly these days if I write for a few minutes.

The sisters worked daily for,
The Father,
The Son,
And the Holy Ghost.
Not Simon and Shuster,
Or the Huffington Post.

Commas are, for editors, to check.,

You have always used the correct amount, but others have used more, or less...more or less.

Being able to put pen to paper was, for me, a powerful tool in achieving my goals. Being capable of writing a report, a critique or a justification for funding training or equipment was a portal to the big leagues. I learned at an early age that communicating via the written word was the difference between imagination and realization.
Being a good communicator is an art form that is a product of very hard work.

I do not miss the effort required to produce a meaningful product. Those that can create a written image that enthralls and illuminates have my greatest respect.

I scribbled in pencil in spiral notebooks and had suffering secretaries to translate my thoughts into meaningful prose. I hate to type.


mike r

While I am a decent typist, whenever I have a writing project I find that I have the best result if I hand write the first couple of paragraphs and then I type that up and continue to compose on the computer. I think the handwriting slows me down just enough to get my mind well into the project.

I am envious of my wife. She is a fabulous writer - she learned lots of grammar in her years in a Catholic grade school.

I never was a John Hancock, but my God the last 20 years I've written very little. I'm always typing on one of these things. I got a Bachelors Degree in Legal Studies on line at the age of 63. I actually Did it with my BS skills. I figured out too late in life that I could probably been an author. I made the Dean's List numerous times and the president's list once and it was because of my writing. However, my penmanship sucks. Especially the last 20 years as I write very seldom. I can barely write a check. My signature looks different every time I sign something. Then there's my spelling which gets worse as I get older. If it wasn't for spell check I'd never gotten a degree.

BTW, I'm a self taught touch typist.

But thank God I'm not a gun writer, LOL!

LOL!!!