I write rather poorly. This is not a talent deficiency that should be suffered by a blogger. My hypothesis is that TheSnowWay.com is read despite the quality of writing rather than because of it. Quality of content and subject matter carry the web site, not the prose or writing style.

That may be an exaggeration. I write at a higher level of proficiency than average. And I write well enough to entertain and engage. But I do not attain the highest levels or artistry with words that I desire nor what better than average writers are capable of. My opportunity to improve my style is significant. And my current level of proficiency is concurrent with my effort, or lack thereof, to improve upon it.

My pre-collegiate English and grammar classes generally filled me with disgust. Whether bad teaching or lack of aptitude and natural talent were the cause, I don’t know. Likely a combination of both.

My collegiate Composition classes further failed to instill good writing habits. Instead, my Composition instructors in college focused on their favorite pet subjects in lieu of teaching good writing. My two biggest take a ways from Composition I were the definitions of connotation and denotation. My two biggest take a ways from Composition II included a profound appreciation for e.e. cummings and redefining my understanding of Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken (“I shall be telling this with a sigh…”).

My writing skills, as they are, were developed primarily in writing research papers in College and in writing emails in business. Both learning environments have created a tendency for overly long and excessively wordy writing. Neither environment produced stylistic writing but both get the job done effectively and were practical.

In my undergraduate classes, page count was of ultimate importance. I learned how to effectively stretch sentences. Excessive usage of multiple prepositional phrases within each sentence often accomplished this goal. Overly wordy sentence structure was key. Incorporating complex words and spelling out their definitions was a must. And I was rewarded for these poor writing tactics with good grades. Here is Calvin on academic writing:

Business writing exacerbated an already terrible style. My email writing is always thorough, complete, and detailed. I attempt to cover all the bases and answer potential questions before sending a message. My emails become technical documents in and of themselves. If a communication is really that difficult or causes concern for misinterpretation, a telephone or in person call should be used rather than an email.

In both cases, as with all writing, less is more. Last year I read a great book called Letting Go of the Words by Redish. This book was more about web site design, navigation, and code styling than actually about how to write. But the principle is still the same with writing: Less is more. Another lesson I have learned is eliminating conjunctions in favor of periods.

I continue to struggle. But my writing is improving. As a result, hopefully the quality of this web site and your reading experience are also improving. During this online epoch of 140 character limit Twitter Tweets and quick hit Faceook status updates, I will continue to flesh out subjects and trip reports in depth and detail. Less is more stylistically. But I find this online epoch of social network communications to be at a point of diminishing returns.