zenmonkey wrote:Editing isn’t about reducing word count. It’s about creating clarity which itself happens to remove ineffective and redundant phrasing and words.
We really don't differ that much on that one per se. But I am increasingly trying to figure out how exactly that can be applied. The main part of course isn't about whether a few "filler words" would be necessary or not, but about something much more general. To be specific, it is about how exactly language-related information can be conveyed in a way that always can be understood by most readers [*], rather than being sometimes unclear to some or even many.
[*] Writing something that can be understood by every single reader (without themselves asking for additional clarification) is something I, generally, don't really consider possible, no matter who is writing it.
If you feel almost « every single word you wrote is necessary » then what kind of input do you want?
What I wrote was about especially about that particular post, not about all of the other posts.
SGP wrote:Because I consider (almost) every single word I wrote down in that post as necessary.
Maybe it would become more clear after "disclosing" my reasons for not having skipped some parts you consider unnecessary.
"Currently I am pondering on how to make my posts
more / even more useful (whatever applies to you)."
If I wrote "more useful" only, rather than "more / even more", then I can easily cause, to some readers at least, the impression of considering my own posts as simply useless. Because phrases like "this can be made more useful as well" often are used as an euphemism for "currently it is useless".
"This is about all of the following:
- The way I am documenting my own language learning process.
Including, but not limited to, the multi-language log."
When I said "including, but not limited to ...", I did so to emphasize that I am not only asking about the multi-language log, but also about the other ones, like Angewandte Kommunikation (the one in German).
"- This very thread, i.e. the Language Lab. For those of you who don't know yet, it is
the place where I sometimes also would write about German and one of my C2 languages."
That "... where I sometimes also would write about ..." part couldn't be removed without causing a loss of significant information. Because this very thread isn't restricted at all to these two languages. For example, there was a recent post on how arts can be connected to word exploration, and some other posts on various subjects, too.
zenmonkey wrote:In short my advice : write more about « language and learning » and less about the future of logs, or vague phrases.
zenmonkey wrote:"Write more about the now and what has been done and not the plausible or imaginary future.
As for that one, I am still trying to figure out why exactly you suggested it. Because I read a lot of that content on many others logs as well ("not only writing about the now and what has been done, but also about the plausible or imaginary future").
(Some of this post's quotes belong to zenmonkey's previous one, rather than his current one, because I didn't reply to most of it up to now.)zenmonkey wrote: Be concrete. Work for clarity. For example, in prior post you talk about Esperanto tools for C1/C2 learners. As it stands, for me, it’s an unreadable mess (that sounds negative, please read on) but I think it might have some good advice if you were to make it more clear (not more verbose).
Underneath it all, this is
exactly the kind of input I was thinking about. Because as the time went on, I did realize that some couldn't always easily understand some of my posts, even if the reason/s didn't fully become clear to me up to now.
@Those of you who understood
the Esperanto-related post: Would you have any
concrete and specific ideas on how I could express things like these more clearly (to almost everyone, not just to "people like you") in the future?
However, if you feel that your posts need to stand as is, without editing or modification, then I can only leave you with Voltaire’s apology « I’m sorry I wrote this too long a letter, I did not take the time to write it shorter ».
Again, that "I consider almost every single word as necessary" thing was about that very post, not about all of them in general.
Be concrete. Summarize. Use simple sentences.
I really like that idea, and I already have been doing so in the past as much as I was able to. Still trying to figure out some more how to balance both of being concrete (adding a certain level of detail) and summarizing (not writing anything too long or detailed).
Avoid lyrical writing or prosody unless it is a specific effect you are looking for.
Ah yesss... that one I really should work on some more.
And as for anything related to learning techniques (or some other subjects as well maybe), someone told me in a PM that I would have rather many ideas that not everyone else would have, while some of them are better than others. I am pondering on that one as well. If anyone would have some (
concrete and precise) input on it, I'd be interested in hearing it as well. This could be about any language technique post of mine, about that recent picture on how arts and word exploration could be connected (yes, I do realize that this one really is sorta unusual), or about anything else.