My Writing "Style."

My Writing "Style."
(Personal note.)

by
Dean Gotcher

Do these issues justice (despite my writing "style"). I am not a writer and do not claim to be one. I know when an article is well written and greatly appreciate the skill and the gift a good author has in writing it. Having studied Turabian, which is used in writing a doctorate and having read many doctorate's I know what a research paper should read like. Having learned to read "whole word," i.e., "look say" in school which causes problems in reading, writing, and speaking, which I came out of when I taught my children phonics, the problems still creep in when I am tired. Many of my articles are written late at night so, despite my effort to proof-check my writing, "things happen" (I am "amazed" at myself when I miss some errors, staring me in the face, i.e., "How could I miss that?"). I do not have a proof-reader (do not trust them). So it is what it is. If you see errors let me know if you want, I would greatly appreciate it.

Secondly, when I research a book, such as Theodor Adorno's, The Authoritarian Personality (over nine-hundred pages, small print, and someone left all the pictures out) I usually read it three times, realizing the first read I make it subject to my opinion, the second read I understand more clearly what he is writing, and the third I could present it to others, sometime better than the author, although I would not. I have researched over six-hundred social-psychology books in this way. One book I read sixty pages over twenty times trying to understand what the author was saying (Norman Levine, Dialogue within the dialectic) only to realize I was not confused, he was. Many times I make my point or present key information in the last pages. I am also guilty of writing paragraph sentences (you have to read over and over to understand them) as well as repeating myself (deliberately done at times in order to make each paragraph a stand alone issue). I am trying my best to break them up and make it easier to understand (I am getting better at that).

This is research material, presented in the hope of giving anyone interested in the subject of authority a heads up on what it is, who is attacking it, why they are attacking it, and how they are doing it. I say all this because sometimes people respond to my issues in a way I am convinced they did not read it to the end or read it at all. Many of the questions they ask are answered in the article.