PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

An article under the headline – “I’m not the grammar police” – caught my attention the other day because it dealt with what, for me, has been a key proposition over my years in journalism and lobbying.

It is this: Good writing is one key to good thinking. No guarantee. Just one key.

I relayed my emphasis on writing to many applicants I was interviewing over the years in the state agencies I helped manage or in the lobbying and public relations firm I co-founded where I spent 25 years before retirement.

For me, there are several keys to good writing, as follows:

• Develop your own style. Don’t try to copy someone else.
• Find the best words to make your point. And that requires just a bit of focus.
• Understand that more words don’t necessarily make better writing. Strive to limit the number of words you use, but….
• Also understand that good writing has a lilt and sense of rhythm to it, not just the paucity of words.
• Strive to use active verbs, which can bring writing come alive.
• Practice the art of what I call the “spring transition” – which means that the end of one paragraph springs to the next. Let me provide an example, which I am making:  Governor Kate Brown won plaudits for her effort to find middle ground on various issues at the Capitol.  Call it an attempt at bi-partisanship. Then, on to the next paragraph:  Bi-partisan efforts also marked the work of Senator Mark Hass as he tried to forge a compromise on tax policy in the Senate Revenue Committee.

Back to the “I am not the grammar police” article.

“To be sure,” the writer said, “there are certain standards that persist by consensus and more or less inarguably because they quietly, invisibly support clarity. Subjects and verbs should agree in number, for instance. Yet, there are many more shades of gray in ‘good English.’

“What’s left is more important than so-called good English: Effective English. English that clearly, strongly and unambiguously — unless you have a penchant for ambiguity — conveys from writers’ brains through their typing fingers and onward to the imaginations of their readers what it is that writers are attempting to communicate.”

To that, I say kudos. Good grammar makes sense especially if bad grammar contributes to bad writing.

But when all is said and done, keep striving for good writing because, among other things, it often illustrates good thinking.