4 ms·

I wish there was a concrete way of improving writing skills and getting feedback ala Hackerrank

by arvinsim 7y ago

alexpetralia 7y ago
Commenting because I'm interested in this as well.
- Cactus2018 7y ago
  You might like "Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes" by Stephen King https://msu.edu/~jdowell/135/King_Everything.html https://msu.edu/~jdowell/135/King_Everything.html
  - alexpetralia 7y ago
    This was entertaining, but I didn't find it particularly edifying. I enjoyed "Bird by Bird" more.
pixelpoet 7y ago
I think caring is the most important first step, and much of the "decline" (it's debatable) is due to people not caring and disregarding linguistic standards. By the way, in the sentence you wrote, people used to use the subjunctive mood, "I wish there were"; this "rule" seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur and "was" in place of the conditional "were" sounds so terribly wrong to me (probably because of the German "wäre").
ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
"Just do it." That sounds familiar... There's no substitute for repetitiveness and habit. Feedback is important, but also valuable. It can be hard to get good feedback for free. I've found that just slapping stuff up there is important, as long as I keep doing it, and make sure that whatever I "slap up" is of the best quality possible. Every few weeks, I stop what I'm doing, and spend a day or so, writing up an entry about something. My usual read length is under fifteen minutes, but I have a couple of prolix entries. You can see what I write here: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/ https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/ and here: https://medium.com/chrismarshallny https://medium.com/chrismarshallny I'm not a widely-read author, but everything I do; whether coding or writing, is done as if I were publishing to the masses. Establishes good habits. I also find that writing in the vernacular seems to be received well. But that's just me. YMMV.
- arvinsim 7y ago
  I am an avid book reader and developer. I write book reviews and also try to write good documentation as a means to improve my writing. The only problem is finding someone or a group to receive good feedback.
argonix 7y ago
Nice idea. It would be interesting to explore if it possible and if something like this has been attempted.
pjc50 7y ago
Accept that writing is subjective. Then find a critique group, which will usually be writers in a similar position. Certainly this is how fiction writers do it.
Cactus2018 7y ago
Flip through the many US Government's writing on "Plain Language". For example: https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/dash-writing-tips/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/dash-writin... Many more: https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/

I wish there was a concrete way of improving writing skills and getting feedback ala Hackerrank

alexpetralia 7y ago

Commenting because I'm interested in this as well.

Cactus2018 7y ago
You might like "Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes" by Stephen King https://msu.edu/~jdowell/135/King_Everything.html https://msu.edu/~jdowell/135/King_Everything.html
- alexpetralia 7y ago
  This was entertaining, but I didn't find it particularly edifying. I enjoyed "Bird by Bird" more.

pixelpoet 7y ago

I think caring is the most important first step, and much of the "decline" (it's debatable) is due to people not caring and disregarding linguistic standards. By the way, in the sentence you wrote, people used to use the subjunctive mood, "I wish there were"; this "rule" seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur and "was" in place of the conditional "were" sounds so terribly wrong to me (probably because of the German "wäre").

ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago

"Just do it." That sounds familiar... There's no substitute for repetitiveness and habit. Feedback is important, but also valuable. It can be hard to get good feedback for free. I've found that just slapping stuff up there is important, as long as I keep doing it, and make sure that whatever I "slap up" is of the best quality possible. Every few weeks, I stop what I'm doing, and spend a day or so, writing up an entry about something. My usual read length is under fifteen minutes, but I have a couple of prolix entries. You can see what I write here: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/ https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/ and here: https://medium.com/chrismarshallny https://medium.com/chrismarshallny I'm not a widely-read author, but everything I do; whether coding or writing, is done as if I were publishing to the masses. Establishes good habits. I also find that writing in the vernacular seems to be received well. But that's just me. YMMV.

arvinsim 7y ago
I am an avid book reader and developer. I write book reviews and also try to write good documentation as a means to improve my writing. The only problem is finding someone or a group to receive good feedback.

argonix 7y ago

Nice idea. It would be interesting to explore if it possible and if something like this has been attempted.

pjc50 7y ago

Accept that writing is subjective. Then find a critique group, which will usually be writers in a similar position. Certainly this is how fiction writers do it.

Cactus2018 7y ago

Flip through the many US Government's writing on "Plain Language". For example: https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/dash-writing-tips/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/dash-writin... Many more: https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/ https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/