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I'm really wordy.
I have this tendency to say what I want to say in lots and lots of words.
The words and sentences themselves are clear, but the length of my writing turns off some people.
IJBM, how do?
Comments
Are you planning to dethrone Alex as wordiest poster here? If not, well you're unintentionally doing so anyways.
I can't figure out how you and Alex do it, honestly. I usually get in, make my statement, and get out. My only problem with this approach is that it leaves me with little room for eloquence.
I know I have some trouble putting my thoughts into words.
glennmagusharvey,
One idea would be to artificially limit yourself to a set number of paragraphs per post so you have to think more about being concise. Another would be to establish the core points of your message in the first post in a thread and then only go into more detail when someone asks, other people focus on one of the points, or the thread has progressed somewhat.
That being said, if you (or anyone else) have/has any advice about how to write clear sentences, I would be glad to hear it. I know I have significant problems with both that and the lengthiness you mentioned earlier and I figure that other people might benefit from hearing some tips too.
I know I posted this elsewhere on IJBM, but...wanna see wordy?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097922/-How-far-we-ve-come-and-what-to-do-next#comments
Same here. My mind's a chaotic mess.
Me three. I tend not to say what's going on in my head anymore because I can never really tell. I guess that's the main reason my Twitter account hasn't seen any action for almost two months.
@Glenn: That feel bro. I know it.
Well, we've all seen it, anyway. As in, I hardly need to remind you that I can get really wordy too. Alex has definitely got me beat, though. I'm not as eloquent as a lot of people on here/BTL, either.
Whatever the case may be, Evergreen and Glenn certainly rival myself when it comes to irreverence for the concept of laconism.
I have difficulty trying to explain things without going into gigantic spiels that end up being more confusing than I intended. It's small potatoes compared to Alex's War on Laconism, but I'm still not proud of this trait.
I become really wordy because I try to be really specific and unambiguous and I spend lots of words doing that.
^ That's an advantage for you, yeah. Sometimes I either leave something out, or put so little thought into what I'm talking about that I misspeak.
I really annoy some people when I do that, though. Both my parents, for example. They're the "get to the point quickly, and give me only the point" sort of people.
Here's an example: Let's talk about backing the car out of the garage. I'll dramatize it a bit, but this is something along those lines.
"Make sure both sides are clear, and look behind you." - doesn't tell you what obstacles there are, and barely tells you what to do.
"Make sure both side rearview mirrors have reasonable clearance from the slightly-narrower side walls of the garage entrance, and then look to both sides of the sidewalk and the street for obstacles." - specifies particular obstacles and describes them in detail, allowing much more fine-tuned planning, but taking three times as long.
Whenever I see this thread on the mobile site with your avatar next to the title, I read it as "I'm really swordy."
It should suffice, though.
Someone who can't figure out that the mirrors are the farthest point out, and wouldn't pay attention to whether they're hitting the garage entrance unless specifically told to, shouldn't be driving a car at all.
^ Point taken. Not a really good example but I tried to come up with something on the fly.
Then again, if you had to tell someone even so much as to make sure both sides are clear and look behind their car when driving, they shouldn't be driving a car at all.
And I'm probably infuriating Alex with a straight-sword name after a katana swordsmith.
Anyway, here's a better example:
"Is that Shinji?" (without context, as a comment on someone's Steam profile)
versus
"Is the character in your avatar Shinji from Evangelion?"
To be fair, a swordsmith is unlikely to only be able to forge one type of sword. If you look at the famous smithies of late medieval and Renaissance Germany, Italy and Spain, for instance, they churned out an ungodly number of highly quality longswords, arming swords, kriegsmesser, falchions, rapiers, estocs and more. Certainly, Japan had none of that diversity in its sword design, but many of the skills involved in making those weapons are similar or identical. Essentially, there's no reason Masamune couldn't have made an excellent straight sword as long as he used the correct cross-section, hardness of steel and blade angle -- all of which he was well-versed in, no doubt.
I think a straight sword is named "Masamune" in this context because Europe didn't exactly have singular famous smiths -- it had whole forges of dozens or hundreds of smiths, each doing one part of the process like an assembly line. Naming a sword after an organisation doesn't have the same oomph, and anyway, most swords produced by famous forges had a trademark on the blade.
In short, it's forgivable and you may all go about your business unbloodied.
Oh god, this. I try hard to avoid it, but this happens so much. Well, more from my mom, but that's mainly because my dad is the more naturally relaxed person.