Blog #2, Unit 1

“Writing is like a creative free flowing expression trapped in the vocabulary of a career military person’s brain.  Just about the only time they mesh is when I’m taking a literary composition course at a College/University.  My wife calls my writing style writing in “Navy-ese”.  Case in point: I just used upper-case font for College and University.”

Everyday at work I spend half of my day corresponding with other Navy personnel via e-mail or official Navy correspondence (Memo’s, instructional documents, military directives, evaluations and FITREPS).  I will use fictitious evaluation bullets as an example to convey a portion of my writing style.  Part of the reason for this type of writing style is I’m limited on the amount of space I have to get my point across about one of my Sailors.  In a typical evaluation I may use bullets to summarize a person’s performance:

- Sought out by all levels of the chain of command to resolve both technical and personnel issues.

- Mentors over 200 Sailors in life skills and professional development, 25 advanced and two were Sailor of the Year.

However, I’m fortunate on two accounts: 1. The Naval Institute provides me a “Guide to Naval Writing” and 2. My spouse has a degree in linguistics and often tells me when I’m writing too much in “Navy-ese” for classes such as this one.

Has my writing style changed from my teenage years to present date? You be!  I had to adapt my writing style from English 101 to one of a more formal, militaristic style in order to effectively communicate with my subordinates, peers and superiors.  As much as possible, I do attempt to apply rules learned in my high school English/Lit and college English 101 classes.  At home when doing homework of such, I’m a sip, think, write type of person.  I sip a glass of wine, think about what I want to write and write. So what do I think about when someone says the word “writing”: “Honey, crack open a bottle of wine, I have another paper to write.”