11 Random Monday Acts

1 - Ate half a packet of Tim Tam’s
2 - Cooked Bombay Masala for dinner – note to self: try that new restaurant on ul. Nowy Swiat 23, ‘Buddha Bar & Restaurant’ which has Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisine. Yummy.
3 - Wrote lots, well came up with lots of ideas for articles anyway – that’s still being productive isn’t it? At least now I don’t have any excuses not to write query letters.
4 - Procrastinated about exercise – maybe I’ll do some weights tonight, my planned interval run will have to be put off for tomorrow
5 - Commented on Facebook – twice…weird I don't normally do that. Could social networking be growing on me?
6 - First day of session 2 uni, I’m doing Public Writing and Media Debates and Controversies – I’m wondering if I’m going to be the endless student?
7 - Hold on I did write a chapter of my chick lit work in progress
8 - Tried to think positively though it becomes impossible every time I have contact with Poland’s health care system, in particular their hospitals. They constantly break the European Patient Laws (Prawa Pacjenta –www.bpp.waw.pl) but I suppose I did a lot of that yesterday. I’m working on some ideas for an article regarding this area. The problem is that people are afraid to stand up for themselves in case a doctor will leave a needle inside them after surgery, forget to check their blood pressure, or something much worse. Accidents do happen.
9 - Wasted a lot of time surfing the Internet. It’s research okay. I’m really enjoying going through the Matador site. www.matadortravel.com
10 – Taught a TEFL lesson, just one, it’s so lovely to be finished by 10am, than again it is the holidays so many people are taking a break from learning English.
11 – Looked for jobs in London, thought about working in Spain or Austria or maybe even China. I’d love to spend 3-6 months working in one or two more countries. What is stopping me?

Getting Organised

After a long sleep in, breakfast of pancakes with cottage cheese, jam and nutella, we spent Sunday morning cleaning. I don't mean just a dust and a vacuum and the job is done but actually going through every shelve, drawer and corner and throwing everything that isn't needed out into the trash. It feels fantastic. Now I know where my sport magazines lie,where all my writing materials are, teaching books, and wedding magazines and planning. It's all sorted and organised so that it will be much easier for me to find when I need it all.

Unfortunately I know that within a week it will all be disorganised once again. I'd love to be pedantic about keeping things clean. When I have books, magazines and everything else all over the place it drives me up the wall. My sleep is disrupted, I feel tired and unmotivated. Obviously something needs to change. I dread parting with things. This time around I am going to have to be tough on myself. Today we threw out about four bags full of rubbish. Once it was all done, it felt like a huge relief, a weight lifted of our shoulders.

The next four weeks I'm going to focus on getting a little bit more organised so that I am more productive and I'm not losing things when I need them the most. The only way to do that is go shopping. I will need to buy a small bookcase or some shelves, photo albums, three four-ring binders, magazine stacks, and a few other bits and pieces. That will be the fun part. The next four weeks I will slowly start to part with items I really know I don't need and make room for things that I do.

Week 1 - Organise my writing. Get folders and file ideas under categories - woman's, commercial, parenting, TEFL, education, health and fitness, travel, other. Dispose of any useless pieces of paper that are never going to be used. Bundle all the magazines that I want to write for so that they are all in the one place. Recyle all the magazines that I know I will never read again. Clean up my computer files so that everything is easy to manage, find and use.

Week 2 - Go through all my TEFL books, notes, magazines and miscellaneous items. Recycle all the loose papers that are not used. Sort through work contracts, attendance lists and other items and file them into three folders. One for each school that I am employed by.

Week 3 - Sort through all my clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. Last year I disposed of about three bags full of clothes I no longer needed. Some went to a younger family member and the rest went to a charity bin. I need to do that again, and this time be more generous with what I throw out. I can honestly say that I only wear about 50% of the clothes I own. The other simply take up space. This week I will be making more room in my wardrobe.

Week 4 - Sort through all the miscellaneous items left over. Get rid of any magazines that are collecting dust, empty chocolate containers that are never going to be used for anything, used up perfume bottles that don't need to be left as an ornament on a bookcase.

Once all that is done I anticipate being a much more productive individual. I will no longer be wasting time searching for the items I need to do my job. My living space will also become a much more pleasant and ergonomic place to be in. A couple of hours a week is all it's going to take.

Plain or Sophisticated?

There's something relaxing and motivating about sitting in cafés and writing. They're one of my favourite places to write. The only prerequisite is a comfy table, good coffee and quality sandwiches. Whether what I write is legible, decent or crap is irrelevant. The most important thing is that I manage to put words on paper. I can worry about coherence later.

In one of today's TEFL lessons my students and I discussed the issue of communication. For writers communication is very important. That's what we do. Our purpose is to communicate information across to our reader in the most comprehensible way while trying to avoid jargon and verbose prose. Instead we want brevity that will transfer all the information necessary as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Should we use plain or sophisticated language?

I found there's a mixed argument when it comes to deciding on an answer. It all depends on your audience. Are you going to communicate with doctors, lawyers, and business professionals? Or students, housewives and the general public? If you have a look at most consumer magazines, they are written in plain language that a primary school student is likely to understand. Trade magazines on the other hand use more technical terminology. Once you're clear on that you can safely decide whether throw in a bit of sophisticated jargon or stick to the plain, intelligible stuff. My language use is usually very plain. I talk to people who sometimes try to throw in fancy words to sound intelligent but unless it serves a larger purpose it downright sounds silly. Personally, I don't see the point in using terminology that makes you sound smart but no one understands.

So the conclusion I've come to is;

- avoid rambling
- limit the use of jargon because it's likely you won't be understood
- use brevity to get your point across effectively
- verbose prose with technical terminology will not necessarily make you sound more intelligent
- effective communication is important whether you're speaking or writing
- in the end do what feels most comfortable for you

For me this shows that I need to be more aware of my audience, and keep jargon, buzzwords and slang to a minimum. Yes, sometimes it's nice to use fancy words, just make sure they work with your topic and its purpose. In the end, which you choose to use will depend on what you're writing, who you're writing for, and your personal writing style.