What kind of writing style do I have?

Question

If I have one that appears fairly regularly.

The following needs to be said: Yes, that would mean you'd need to look through my questions and answers, or recall what you have already seen of them, to have a decent basis for your answer. If you don't want to, then don't, but please don't only tell me that you don't want to, I consider that points gaming. You can make up a style if you want, whether it exists or not. But I'm not interested in how "you don't want to." I'm not making you.

yofatcat1, that's up to you, but, no, it wasn't intended to be reviewed. I just felt it necessary to say based on my experience.

Cobra Commander, the paragraph lays out my intent. I made it that way in the hope that I can avoid having to read certain types of answers. I don't see how it can be said within a sentence and still be complete.

guy_us_1900, the first "that" does refer to something, though the other ones don't appear to.

It's ok to criticize, but please note that I'm more interested in knowing if I have a style than in knowing how good my writing is.

Also, I disagree, good writing is complete when meant to gain knowledge, etc. I don't write poetry, and such, so being concise and simple doesn't appeal to me. But I do thank you for the advice.

I forgot to mention: I call it trying to get points without actually answering, or attempting to, the question. A complaint about a question alone, is simply trying to get points, unless the complaint has some validity, such as pointing out if the question doesn't make sense.

Answer 1

Since you gave me license to make up a style, I will do so. I call your style "partly cloudy with short periods of dry wit".

Your style, in longer paragraphs, is rather dense. I see no problem with that. I think, if you are receiving negative criticism, it is because people in general, and on this site in particular, are looking for the written equivalent of "sound bites". They want a short, quick, to the point answer. The problem, of course, is that they don't always get a complete answer. It's quite difficult to answer some questions in one concise sentence. I imagine that many of the people on this site who are happy to answer a complex question about race relations in the US with 10 words, a comma and a period, would never dream of answering that way in spoken conversation. In face-to-face conversation, they would want to make sure they were being understood, and might speak for five whole minutes (hundreds of words!) at a time. But people seem to not want that here. I want complete answers, regardless of length, but I am in the minority.

If I were editing your writing for some reason, I would take out some words, and I would change some of the very long sentences to shorter sentences. But I am not doing that. I have no trouble reading what you have written, and I recognize that each of us has their own style, so I simply read and respond.

In my mind, life is too short to spend all my time criticizing another person's grammar, spelling, or writing style. I am more interested in content and the communication of ideas. I was under the impression that this site was devoted to the exchange of ideas, information, and opinions, but judging from the number of spelling and grammar police out there, I sometimes wonder if I am mistaken...

Answer 2

Your writing style - definitely verbose, and long winded. I don't intend that to be a critique, but simply what I've noticed from some of your previous questions - this one included.

You obviously like long, very involved sentence structure. Rather than making a paragraph with three or four sentences, you put all those ideas into one long sentence.

I'm not sure what name that style would have, but definitely verbose, somewhat choppy, and not rhythmic at all. Of course, as you mentioned in another question, you don't aim to be rhythmic.

Answer 3

Less is always more. Your writing is choppy sometimes and you overuse "that". Remember "that" is a pronoun, it should refer to something you previously mentioned.

Drop the "only" in "but please don't only tell me that...". While we're at it, drop the "that" in that sentence too. Too many syllables.

"I consider that points gaming". Don't you mean those? By the way, what points? I have no idea what that meant.

Always read out your writing. The best writing rolls off the tongue easily. It doesn't matter if it's verbose, it just has to have rhythm. It should sound like you're rolling and swaying.

Answer 4

Am I supposed to use this paragraph to get your style or am I supposed to do as the paragraph says? It's really confusing. Well, I checked out your other questions, but they're really just little blurbs so I can't exactly categorize your writings from so few samples. However, I believe you try to be philosophical or someting.

Answer 5

Yes, confusing. A sentence doesn't have to be packed with a paragraphs worth of info

Answer 6

based on what i just read, kinda confusing! i kept tripping over words...but that it just that paragraph!