Hello everyone,

General:
I have now joined my son in having a leg out of action – somehow I’ve got a seriously inflamed knee and lower leg, and I can barely walk. And I haven’t the faintest idea how it happened (although it is conceivable that I upset a wasp in clearing leaves). It doesn’t help that the local medical centre can’t diagnose anything other than a bit of time, and something to make it easier. But I can’t complain – I rarely suffer from problems of this kind, and it is minor compared with other people’s.

My problems didn’t end there – my laptop which I’ve been using because I couldn’t get my new desktop PC working suddenly acquired a nasty virus which destroyed quite a bit of my work. On the fortunate side, I had backed up all my work on disks just two days before, because the laptop had been showing hardware failures. Fortunately, as my son is in a bit of a lull (because a tender he had been working on has just been completed), he was able to spend time helping me out and getting my desktop working. I’ve had to reconstruct the members’ list this morning, and I hope I’ve got it right.

So if anyone wants an old laptop with a rampant virus and untrustworthy hardware – well, you know who to ask.

On another topic, I was very interested in reading of Chris's writing life away from Alpha (should we describe it as an Alpha alter ego?) I don't think I'd have met him in that sphere, but I doubt if he'd have met me in my statistical world either!

Challenges:
We’re now expecting the first set of results from this season’s challenges – and having read the 14 entries, I expect the mark matrix will show that there is little difference between them all. What I find interesting is that, even after 6 years, I cannot still identify the authors of the pieces, barring once or twice when the style or creativity shows through.

Crime Writing:
I’m in the middle of reading “The Suspicions of Mr Whicher” by Kate Summerscale. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and I recommend anyone with any interest in the genre to read it. More than the story, though, is the description of the development of police detection methods in the 19th century which I find quite fascinating.

In the introduction to the book there is this passage which I thought worth repeating for all of you to read, even if this genre doesn’t interest you.

“The Victorian detective was a secular substitute for a prophet or a priest. In a newly uncertain world, he offered science, conviction, stories that could organise chaos. He turned brutal crimes … into intellectual puzzles.” and later “His conclusions helped create an era of voyeurism and suspicion, in which the detective was a shadowy figure, a demon as well as a demi-god.”

I’ll do a review of the book next time.

Short Articles:
Last time, I mentioned the article that Christine had written for The Link – the magazine which is distributed to all writers’ clubs – and some individuals – who are members of NAWG (the National Association of Writers Groups), and I circulated a copy to all of you. There is no payment for publication, but it is a place where you can get something published. They only just have enough articles to fill each bi-monthly issue. However, I think that any article must be of a worthwhile standard, both in topic and language.

So I’ve been thinking that we have a number of topics recently that have been discussed through emails, and the responses, and I wonder if they could provide the theme for possible articles for publication by illustrating pros and cons about the topic. Articles should be anything between about 500 and 1,200 words. But what would be nice (isn’t that useful word?) if members, when writing, could include at least one, if not more, other members’ names as contributors to the pros and cons. For instance, I might say, “I thought this approach would serve the purpose, but Sue pointed out that …”. In that way, we will emphasize that we are a group and just not individuals sending in contributions.

I’ve been thinking about who could do what. Christine still has another ace (and no-one else could do it) in describing the difference between O and Oh – but I’d like contributions from others first. Zena, I’m sure (well, I haven’t asked her, but she is such a good writer with interesting ideas) could write a little about ‘Prologues’, which we discussed as a result of our Summer Showcase. Then there was something about writing lapses mentioned by Chris and Zena, and there was Zena’s dialogue with Chris about names (this could make an amusing short article). Anyway, that’s something for you all to ponder over – and if you think there is something that we’ve done in the past that could make an interesting article, well, why not have a go? I have good relations with NAWG, and will try to get anything that’s written published.

The Demands on language:
What I have been thinking about, during that time when I’m sweeping up leaves, is the quality of language. English is a highly sophisticated language, and is therefore versatile and applicable to communication of all types. Yet it is that very sophistication which makes it difficult to be precise in communicating. It’s easier to explain by looking at three different categories of writing.

Journalism: I am sure that no two people would describe the same situation in exactly the same words, and the words chosen will convey minor differences in detail and some difference in impressions. (there are some excellent examples of this in te Mr Whicher book. But although similar, the difference is probably not going to matter a great deal. I summarised the key features of this kind of writing as (1) impression is important, (2) content is selective, (3) detailed accuracy is not vital, and (4) the time scale for writing is short.

Scientific Research: This is carefully written using data collected over time, and the data will be exact. The analysis and conclusions drawn from the data will be correct, although there will be doubts whether the methods are appropriate, and whether the conclusions are realistic. There will be little room for variable interpretation of the content. So using the above approach (1) Impression is irrelevant, (2) content is not complete, not selective, (3) detailed accuracy is vital and (4) but the time scale for writing is long.

Plans of Action: In a tender for a major project a plan of action must spelt out in specific detail, so that the person(s) reading (which will include people with just financial responsibilities as well as those familiar with the detail of the project) can understand, without doubt, what is meant. (1) Impression is important, (2) content should be complete, (3) accuracy is as important as assessing all future scenarios can be, and (4) the time scale for preparation is often very short.

In each of these cases there are shortcomings of the language. Anyone got any comments on my musings?

Notices:
I’ve mentioned Writing Raw before, and I don’t know it appeals to anyone, but I’ve just had another communication from them – I don’t know if they’ve latched on to any other Alpha members. It’s quite a long email, so I’ll only put the initial statement here, but I won’t circulate anything else from them.

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That’s all for this time folks – enjoy your writing and discussions.

Best wishes all

- Olaf