My writing has been getting worse lately, and before I do some of the drills in Speed Studies (not to increase speed but only to improve clarity) I thought I might show what my Anniversary writing looks like – in the form of a “quiz”.
The quiz part of this is for you to identify the book from which this short extract comes — but perhaps keep it to yourself for a while so other people do not read the answer. I have read and re-read the book often and find it quite inspiring at times, especially this bit. (I have inserted most of the apostrophes and commas which I hope does not make it harder to read.)
It is here
http://www.nicksalkilld.com/subpages/quiz.pdf
(I am afraid that I was unable to attach it within this text or put on some ‘cyber-blog-space’)
But of greater interest to me is for you to spot any errors I may have made. And also, which is even more important, to suggest what I should address to improve my writing — which forms are difficult to understand, etc.
Many thanks,
Nick
Hi Nick,
I found it easy to read. Nicely done!
I only noticed four errors: "mistakes" is just "m-s-t-s" — no need to write it out in full; "falls" you wrote "f-u-s" instead of "f-o-s"; "no-one" should be "n-o-n" — you can skip the extra "u"; and for "that's", I believe the "s" should be written outside the loop.
That being said, none of these decreased the readability of the passage.
Thanks David. Glad you could read it. (Had you read the book?)
I knew about "no-one", but had been writing it like that for a long time before I found its correct form. But I find, despite the extra "u", that it is easier/quicker to write by keeping it.
I'd not though about writing the s outside the loop — it is certainly more elegant. What I wrote looks weird, though the word "that" is kind-of emphasised.
Sorry about "falls"! And I'll certainly add "mistake", m-s-t, to my vocabulary.
Wow, this is very good!
Other than what David mentioned, there are some outlines that could have been phrased (for example, "many of the things", "what to do", "so much", "to learn", "at all", and others), and others need some minor corrections ("matters: m-a-t-left s", "can't: k-t", "affects: a-f-k-right s", "everything: e-v-h dot", "everyone: e-v-e-oo hook-n", "becomes: b-k-right s") to make it consistent with Anniversary theory. However, since the outlines were placed correctly in relation to the others, and since the proportions were kept, this is very well written, and very readable.
(Incidentally, in my own writing, I write "everyone" the way you do, but it's not according to theory,
).
By the way, I have never read this book either!
Good job!
Thanks Carlos.
I'll try to phrase so-much and to-learn, and try to remember what-to-do — for that is a good one. I should also use at-all, for it it is an obvious phrase, but the form has a tilted "o" which needs care.
In "matters" it was my bad, small, writing that made it look wrong. I have always found loops difficult – they either loop over the whole of the previous line or turn out too small. I'll do some exercises on this.
"can't" was not a brief form in my original booklet, but it is in a later list I found on-line (possibly from angelfishy). I'll use it now.
"affects". The book has "affects". But the use of 'affect' or 'effect' has always been my downfall.
I'll try to remember "everything" and "everyone" – though "everyone" seem odd despite its correctness.
And I really had fallen into a bad habit with "becomes".
Many thanks for all your points. I appreciate them very much.
I feel that I make too little distinction between the p and the s, and between b and p (similarly v,f,s). When I read my writing I see this and need to ponder over it too long. And my "s"s sometimes are too straight. And generally the curves of p,b,f,v are too straight. But I'll start on the exercises I mentioned.
;
I think it's time to give the answer
http://www.nicksalkilld.com/subpages/quiz_answer.pdf