19
submitted 2 months ago by Mothra@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I'm not too bad at casual writing but when it comes to sales, especially to sell my skills, I keep feeling like I lack a certain grace or flair with words.

Chat gpt can help with suggestions but I always find anything I write with its assistance feels, well, robotic in a way. Awkward.

So I'm reaching out to you for your inspirational word material out there. English isn't my native language so I'm hoping to improve it further with your suggestions. Authors? Websites? Perhaps eloquent YT creators I can learn from transcribing what they say?

Thanks

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

I like your thinking. I know you are suggesting an audience of feedback, I'll see how I can work on that but I wonder if you know of any good authors or books specifically for editing or writing this way?

[-] MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 months ago

I've been given some books on writing through the years, but never thought much of them. I didn't read these full articles, but what I saw looked good: Article 1, Article 2 (mostly contains links to other articles on the topic).

There's a lot to consume there in terms of writing theory, but one of my favorite exercises is taking a certain writer's style, identifying some of what is interesting about their style, and applying it to your own writing. The writing needs to be something connected to you and it helps if you can pick a topic that evokes emotion in you, even if it's otherwise not something you consider to be a notable story. The important part is being able to tap into your own vulnerability because it can help what you put on paper to be genuine. This doesn't mean everything you ever write needs to be this way, it's just helpful and a good place to start and learn. It's the whole idea of "putting your heart and soul or a part of yourself in your writing" but that people sometimes talk about. Once you learn to tap into that and break down the barriers, you can channel yourself into other writing much easier. Writing like you naturally talk can help, but it's probably bad grammar for writing (except when writing conversations).

Again, it's not always easy and I have no clue how much harder this is if you live somewhere without native speakers in the language you are writing, but you need others to read your work. That's what most writing is for!

If you end up doing technical writing for science or similar, my best advice is keep the layman in mind. Most science writing is overly clunky and full of jargon and buzzwords that not only drive off the layman, but drive off scientists not in that particular field. It's stupid and bad writing all to stroke the ego of the writer to get a false sense that they sound smarter. To many, it just makes the writing hard to consume. Technical writing should go into sufficient technical detail while aiming to be as easy to consume as possible, even if you make assumptions that the audience understands a topic. Here is an example of good technical writing.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the reply! I'll look those up. Also appreciate the vulnerability tip. I remember in the cover letter I did for my breakthrough job I added something which at the moment I considered to be a bit stupid, but it did show vulnerability. Perhaps it wasn't as dumb as I thought.

Thank you!

this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
19 points (91.3% liked)

Asklemmy

44002 readers
1025 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS