In writing, reviewing, and editing, I find myself continually considering and commenting about words and voice or tone. I tend to write complex and run on sentences and my awareness of this may make me more attuned to it in the work of others. Also, as my confidence in my own knowledge has increased, I am more likely to make comments when things do not make sense to me, rather than assuming authors know what they are talking (writing) about.
I'll be honest and say 2023 was not a great year and this is evidenced by very low activity in this blog, although by that measure 2021 was not very good either. I'm happy to say farewell to 2023 and entering 2024 with some enthusiasm, which will no doubt increase when the weather warms up! I'm planning something different for this blog during this year - instead of blogging about things that strike me as interesting, I hope to devote most of the space to posts about words, language, and precision. Unfortunately some of my peers consider language use, and maybe writing in general, as bothersome tasks to be delegated to (subordinate - students or junior faculty) others. I do not believe this is because their competence is so great that they can afford to pass along practice opportunities to others. Somewhere in something I read the author Ray Bradbury suggested writers should write daily, and I think that is excellent advice for writers of any type, at any level. But over and over again I've heard things like "we don't have time for wordsmithing," "we'll clean up the details later," or even with regard to style and formatting "that is for the copyeditor to deal with." These things all to me suggest that the actual act of putting words on paper is not highly valued by all. In contrast I tend to think, with regard to research, an article written for publication is probably the most important output, most of the time. But if it is hard to understand, poorly organized, unclear, includes errors, even is tedious or boring, the consumption and appreciation potential of the work declines. On the other hand, I will, and have happily read things outside of my interest area (or use) that were engagingly written. I'm following this introductory post with one about peer reviewing and hopefully that sets the tone for a productive blog in 2024. The title of this post is a lyric from the song "Words" written by Terry Bozzio and Warren Cuccurullo and recorded by the band they were in at the time Missing Persons. The rest of that line is: "What are words for when no one listens anymore?" I cannot get the usual link process to work so the link to the song is below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IasCZL072fQ
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3/6/2024 03:20:22 am
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AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
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