Looking for resources for writing

[dfrecore]

Right on two counts, at least. You'll learn vocabulary, sometimes by osmosis (Greek root - Latinized) ; you'll suddenly understand many words you once might have had to look up. Won't help with words like leitmotiv, perestroika or weltanschauung, though. And once you learn Latin grammar, you know grammar, period. Latin grammar will give you a framework you can apply to many languages. Doesn't work too well for Chinese, though - Latin's not a panacea; oops, that's got Greek roots too, not Latin. Greek is good, too!

What Latin won't do for you is make you an interesting, stylish or sensational writer. One thing that might help with that (possibly - no guarantee) is reading the work of people who are - then practice x 3 and revision x 4. Expressive writing is akin to expressive music. The late, great jazz musician, Charlie Parker, said it best: "If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn."

I took Latin from 1955 - 1960. Loved it! Still do!

J.

I agree - Latin is great for grammar & vocabulary. BUT, it will not make you a great writer.

[yb1]

https://www.class-central.com/report/wri...e-courses/ this garnered interesting results

[KayV]

The Purdue Online Writing Lab is great.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

[KayV]

Also, Colorado State has an outstanding online writing studio with lots of resources on writing craft (check out the resource index):
Writing Resources

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also has a great writing center:
Handouts - The Writing Center

[amilitab4k9]

Write. Then run all your writing through grammarly.com. Read all of the corrections they suggest and if you don't understand them, Google it to learn more. I write as a side business and the secret to writing is doing it. The more you do it, the better and more comfortable you will be. Even taking 2 weeks off totally throws me off and it takes a bit to get back into the groove.

For vocabulary, read. Read classics and academic writing. Blogs and news articles won't be much help because they are supposed to be simple and basic. Another thing you can do to broaden your vocabulary is listen to nerdy, academic podcasts. Econtalk is my favorite and I have learned a whole lot from them.

[hightecrebel]

Only suggestions I have that are different to anyone else here would be regarding voice and vocabulary.

For voice, if you're serious about looking into fiction/short fiction writing, I'd recommend checking out the Writing excuses podcast. The episodes are only 15 min each, and it's rather easy to power through a lot of them (especially the earlier seasons). The even have had some episodes about voice.

As far as vocabulary, while I am all for expanding it, I have to recommend caution when utilizing it. The number of people I know who try to immediately start using a new word or term they learned in completely incorrect ways or inappropriate circumstances boggles my mind, and it often leads to people dismissing what they're saying regardless of relative merit. Like Mark Twain said: Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.

Other than that, good luck, and good on you for recognizing a weakness and working to shore it up.

[cookderosa]

No doubt reading is key.

I'll look into the class your kid is taking.

I was thinking more along the lines of prepping for grad school. I am considering a mfa program in professional writing with a focus on creative writing.

I wonder if an mfa is a waste of money.
I can tell you that my current job would be easier if I was a better editor.

Editing and writing are 2 entirely different things. I would also add that creative writing (fiction) takes a different skill set than professional/ technical / non-fiction writing. For me, I hate everything related to editing. I self-published a handful of books, and I always farm out the editing to others. In fact, even teaching my own kids grammar makes me want to stab myself in the eye. <shudder> OTOH, I love writing. I'm trained as a chef, but I took an academic position in the 90's that required a lot of technical writing - handbooks, procedures, etc. that "pushed" me into just doing MORE writing. As silly as it sounds, being active on a forum like this one also helps me articulate better using written words instead of spoken ones. (I used to be active on a highly controversial debate forum in the 90's, and that helped too).

I wanted to add that I am an avid non-fiction reader, and don't read fiction at all. I hate-hate-hate reading anything by people who are overly in love with the English language. 20 word sentences, adjective-happy. Ugh. So, my point with all of that, is you're writing will probably reflect your reading and speaking to some degree. I tested out of my gen eds for my TESU degree, and took classes in social science for my major. I was very very nervous about writing in grad school, but Owl is the best resource. Let me say, outside of academic writing, NO ONE writes that way. Academic stylized writing is a specific kind of writing, not a "better" kind of writing, so what you need to learn for grad school will likely be very specific.

EDIT to add: what kind of writing do you need to improve upon for your career? An entire DEGREE in writing may be overkill.