A Writer's Forum

[JohnV]

[u:4ba614afcf]First, a note to the Admins and Mods:[/u:4ba614afcf]
Instead of just making a suggestion, I hope you don't mind if I open this up for discussion first. I have no right to make such a decision, and I mean no disrespect. Rather I am anticipating your just and kind rulership in this matter. We wouldn't want to open up a new forum that won't get used. I certainly don't like the idea of my being all alone in this forum, answering my own posts, should it be implemented.


[u:4ba614afcf]The Suggestion[/u:4ba614afcf]
This is both a suggestion as well as subject for discussion. I hope I put this in the proper forum:

I have been using my posting to try to say things in as clear a way as I can manage. I try to avoid the use of italics, bold, underlines, brackets, and such like conveniences, so that it forces me to say things with a better command of language. It is a discipline that I like to add to my thinking, and so convey my thinking in a better way. And that is why my posts may sound strange to you, sometimes trying to sound more scholastic than I really am.

I notice in journalism, such as in newspapers, that the commodity of time has allowed, or perhaps forced a degrading of the discipline of spelling, grammar, and appropriate wording. I think that we could do well by affording a little discipline ourselves as we hurry to post our latest thoughts or concerns. It would be helpful to our own thinking especially. [i:4ba614afcf]Writing makes a more precise man[/i:4ba614afcf], to paraphrase as well known saying.

May I propose that we have a forum in which we can trade ideas on how to phrase our ideas to more precision? Our Board displays a wide array of disciplines already, demonstrating Christ's sovereignty and aving power over all of life for each of us, no matter our interests and concerns. This is one area yet uncovered by this Board. But it would be nice to know if there is enough interest in this suggestion so that the Administrators would know if it is worthwhile. I'd like to talk about it first, to see there are others who would like this idea, because I don't suppose it would be a very busy forum. We could do this in the Library as well; but I think it deserves its' own place. Indeed, I hope it becomes a well used forum.

What are your thoughts? A writer's forum? or no?

[Puritan Sailor]

So are you talking about a forum where we may submit articles we have written for constructive criticism by the Board? It sounds like a good idea to me. The only thing that would concern me is the whole copyright tangle that may happen. Someone else could copy an article and publish it themselves somewhere else. But maybe if we used a special members only forum, kinda like the prayer or Men's forum, not searchable on the net, then it might work. It may also help Matt to find some more good articles for A Puritan's Mind.

[JohnV]

Patrick:

Writing involves the communication of ideas. That's what this Board does: it communicates our thoughts to each other.

[u:28f7117de9]I'm not [/u:28f7117de9]suggesting a forum for trying out articles. I agree that we should be doing that in a closed forum. And this could be done as well. I was thinking rather of trading favourite tactics or suggestions for things that we find hard to formulate. We could post ideas in this forum, and ask how each would use his language skills to accurately portray them. I would submit pieces from posts I had already submitted. In such a case the ideas are not up for debate, but rather we put our efforts together to help each other with making the ideas more exact. And as we learn to write them that way, we will also learn to think that way. We may be able to communicate it better, or we may come to realize that we were not as well thought out as we thought. The use of language is a skill, and I am suggesting a forum to aid the growth in that skill.

{hint: in written form, contractions such as "I'm" should be rendered, "I am". [i:28f7117de9]underlined[/i:28f7117de9]}

[Puritan Sailor]

I see now. I like it. I could use the help in formulating my thoiughts too.

[kceaster]

I will only be a party to it if everyone agrees to use spell check first.



KC