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Re: Structured Programming
Posted:
Mar 7, 2014 2:09 AM
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On Mar 7, 2014, at 12:44 AM, Louis Talman <talmanl@gmail.com> wrote:
> But you need to read more, too. Both in quality and quantity.
Good point.
> But the central part of precise writing is precise thinking---not just about what you write, but about what you read, as well.
I disagree with this insinuation, that one?s writing is a reflection of one?s thinking. Believe me, I am a bad enough writer, and enough people have made that mistake about me. They usually regret it after a few more posts. I wrote a paper in high school making the point that our vocabulary can and does affect our thinking, and I believe this still. But that doesn?t preclude good writing. To be honest. I was getting hit with so much red ink, not having anything to do with my thoughts, but with grammar and spelling, that I gave up. I had to take creative writing not twice, but three times and only got through with the help of a spell checker I bought for my C64, that required switching floppy disks halfway through the damn spell checking. After that it was all science and math and programming. I was so relieved. I didn?t write (creatively) again till I started blogging 8 or 9 years ago.
And I don?t have an answer as to why writing was so difficult for me in school. You can always throw lazy in there I guess, but that doesn?t tell the whole story. Were you lazy in not learning how to play the piano? Or did playing the piano not reckon high enough in your order of things. For me, I always found something more interesting to do, like reading and mathematics. I think the spelling thing though is a wiring issue, and if I were to turn off my spell checker right now, I bet you might just believe me.
With regards to reading, and your point, it isn?t just reading and thinking about the ideas the author wrote about, because I had that in spades, and I read a lot. It is reading and thinking about what the author actually wrote, which is what you?re saying I hope. The words themselves. I realized later that I had always skipped that part. That might certainly be construed as ?lazy?. Fortunately, spell checking removed the stigma of bad spelling, and I started writing again. I think going forward, I will take more time thinking about what I write. Although, I do enjoy a good hashing out of ideas, freestyle like.
Bob Hansen
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