Do you have a strange writing style? (Do I?)

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Do you have a strange writing style? Do you think I do? (be honest please, you won't - can't - hurt my self esteem. I am who I am.)

I use a lot of things like very long statements in parenthesis, sometimes even with parenthesis statements within those parenthesis statements. I also will use hyphens, or lines, much like someone will use commas or semicolons - I use them to separate clauses which could stand alone as sentences - I've even used this writing style in most of the papers I wrote when I was in university, and professors seemed to love it. I also use semicolons and other things that many people avoid; although, generally I use semicolons more in academic writing than I do in other forms of writing. They never remarked on the hyphens, but they always said my papers were very well written.

I also tend to be very descriptive and I think I probably am overly descriptive. Often I feel like I might be giving many unnecessary details, but I often can't figure out which parts of the things I'm writing are unnecessary - I feel like they're all necessary - that if I remove anything, it will remove some vital detail.

In the past, people have asked me to be more concise - to not write so much, and say everything in fewer words, etc.

I don't see a lot of people writing like I do, so I wonder, is my writing style strange?

Is your writing style strange? Do you think it is? Have others said anything about it?

I think I use semicolons a lot; way more than the average person. I don't think of it as strange though; more of signature; style; ;;;

As I haven't seen much of your writing - other than this post - it is difficult to say. However, your writing in this post is not strange at all. I also use hyphens, semicolons, and other punctuation marks. Perhaps people avoid using elaborate punctuations marks, simply because they do not know how to use them. You have pointed out that your University professors seem to love your writing, which is great. Think of it like, you are just more literate than the average person.

Your post here has a good balance of descriptiveness/conciseness, I feel. If you want to show me examples of your writing for me to comment on, please feel free to do so. Be proud of your writing style.

I don't really know about the way that I type/phrase sentences, or how weird or normal it is. Im pretty sure that i overuse words and phrases when I write essays and long texts.
However, the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of your post was the way that I use a pen, which people tell me is weird on a very regular basis.

Edit. I also have terrible proof reading, and only notice spelling mistakes after I've submitted.

I don't think you have a strange writing style at all. You seem, to me, to have art and technique.

You probably suck at tweeting, I'm guessing. ; )

(Man, this forum is so weird. I come across all sorts of people who are so... much... like... me. I have many of the same compositional 'tics' you assigned to yourself: a high frequency of parenthetical statements [including parentheses within parentheses and brackets, though I do try to avoid this, as I realize it is going overboard a little... ha!], a fondness and predilection towards semicolons, hyphens & lines, ellipses, Latin abbreviations and expressions, etc. When I actively studied German, German expressions would pop up into my writing as well. This I did/do actively fight, as I understand that it's problematic for numerous audiences, for numerous reasons. I'm also fond of repetition and pattern in writing, too.)

We could probably discuss the 'why?' of this one helluva long time.
- Why you/me/us might tend towards this style of writing.
- Why (and if) it is important to be able to 'code shift' between disciplines and styles of writing based on audience, intent, etc.
- Why this style of writing has merit and/or is problematic.

There was another interesting--and perhaps related--thread that I was checking out the other day. The subject of the thread was the OP's tendency towards writing and speaking in the passive voice. The comments that folks chimed in with were most humorous.

Do you like using the 'passive voice'? Wrong Planet Thread

Practice, by way of proofreading and editing my work, has "helped" some over the years, in that it's lessened some of my more egregious tendencies, those most likely to be considered 'incorrect.'

I do respect and admire the 'Hemingway' approach to speech and writing. I'm just more of a 'Faulkner' man, I suppose.

Sh_t, I ought to get back to work. Have a great day, everyone.

In all forms except for my most familiar of friends online, I tend to type overly-formally and with a strong, straightforward voice. Because of this, I have an advantage in college because I inherently type as if I'm writing some sort of college paper.

I also tend to use certain conjunctions more than others, such as "as/as if" and "of", moreso than other people do, in odd (but correct) places. An example would be something along the lines of "It is as if one had done [whatever]" or "It is something of most interesting tastes" or whatever.

Based on your posts on this forum, I don't think that you have a strange writing style. I think that your writing style is straightforward and easy to understand. I don't know if you have a strange writing style in your papers.

I know that I have a strange writing style. There is a spiderette of my strange writing style in my posts on this forum, but my posts on this forum are not nearly as strange writing styled as my posts on another forum, where I write MySpeak all spacetime.

My writing style has been characterized as "autistic" by random Internetz persons without random Internetz persons knowing that I was autistic, but that was because my writing style was stranger in the stories that I wrote and posted online.

I see nothing strange in your writing style. It might stand out because the average person doesn't use punctuation signs such as comas, semicolons that much. I don't know why. Maybe it's an NT thing. I also use loads of punctuation marks when I write in my native language (not English), while most of the people in my country don't. To me, it feels natural to use them, they help give meaning to the sentences.

I suck at tweeting and IMing, they always come off as more formal and more literate than those of my NT friends...

_________________
Probably 75% Aspie, 25% NT... and 100% ADHD

Aspie-quiz results:
Aspie score: 138 of 200 / NT score: 78 of 200 => Very likely an Aspie.

I am not very good at grammar either.

I'm kind of lazy when it comes to writing things out. I am much more expressive in my writing than I am at talking out loud, and I'm not half bad at it either.

Well, as a former techinical editor/writer, you can imagine how pedantic I can be with my writing style. I use semicolons a lot. In fact, I think they're not used enough by so-called journalists. I can't stand reading something online from AP, for instance, and seeing run-on sentences. For example, you might see, "The man died in the crash yesterday, he was 66 years old." Drives me crazy.

I don't think it's strange (granted I tend to do the same thing in regards to parentheses) at all, but then again this is coming from an aspie. I tend to use a very distinct structure (which is not incorrect, but merely seems foreign or archaic to others) when writing reports. An example of this is "Down the road ran the clutter (or clowder) of cats."

My handwriting is even odd (so I've been told); it is a combination of print, cursive, typewritten (with the "a" looking as it does with this font) and Fraktur.

I guess we all have our own style...

@Atomsk:
I do the same thing you describe with the parenthetical statements. I think it is a way to put down in writing the tangental things that come in my head that would normally have me going off in a different direction when speaking. I have found though that if I cut out my parentheticals during the editing process that my writing seems more succinct and professional to the reader than if I left it like it was in the first draft. This is especially true of me when I write things in the comments on automotive blogging sites as my huge amount of knowledge makes me go off in all different, odd directions as I seem to want to dump it all when I write. The thing is though that most people are not as interested in finite details as I am and just want to read something that is entertaining. Once I realized this, my writing got much better and much fewer negative comments.