Re: Re: a new idea

[OfTraquair <OfTraquair@aol.com>]

Poster: OfTraquair <OfTraquair@aol.com>



> Secondly, say I don't feel very confident about my ability to put my
>point across in words about why I think lord Bob should get an AoA.  Say
>I'm just really bad at writing, not good with words, just very insecure
>about the whole thing.  Now my friend Lady Alice writes a letter
>recommending lord Bob for an AoA.  I know she writes well and clearly
>with skill, so I ask her if I can copy some of her wording because it
>says what I want to say.  
>
>What's wrong with that?  If TRM's call me to ask why I think Bob should
>get an AoA and I can't answer the question, that's one thing.  If I CAN
>answer it, then why shouldn't they accept copied verbiage?

If you can say it with your voice, you can say it in writing, so why the need
to copy someone else's?  There is no regulation that the letter has to be
written in a particularly grandiose or period style, is there?  If you are
capable of speaking the phrases in plain English (or even broken, accented
English!), then simply write down what you would say and rather than copying
someone else's manner.  You can then go to Lady Alice for advice if you feel
it must be prettied up. If Lady A is as good a writer as you think, she
probably has some spare verbosity laying around which would allow your letter
to look and sound as spiffy as her's without being a direct copy.  If your
writing really is bad, poor grammer and spelling, she will probably be glad to
give you a great deal of assistance rather than have you copy her own efforts.
But more likely, your own writing skills are perfectly acceptable and you've
just got "stage fright" about writing somewhere along the way. Hopefully Lady
A will help you get over it. 

My take on Duke Logan's opinion of copied letters was that if everyone copies
off the same letter listing the same three incidents, activities or whatever,
it leaves TRM wondering if these three things are it.  Surely, if the
candidate is that good, a variety of people will come up with a variety of
incidents and reasons for the award.  Some will be well known and public, many
people would have heard tell of 2 or 3 incidents and these publicly known
incidences may be almost enough for the award.   But the candidate has surely
perfomed deeds less publicly as a matter of course?  Are there not personal
incidences to relate in addition to the well known tales? I would expect TRM
to be looking for a pattern of behaviour, a history of service and growth, not
just a few notable occaisions.

>> 2.  If you cannot think of at least two or three reasons why an award
should be >>given (not counting "he is a really nice person"), you probably
should not write >>that letter.
>
>I disagree.  TRM's are apparently not so flooded out with letters that
>such self censorship is necessary.  Besides, in some cases, one really
>good reason is all it takes, and TRM's can certqainly judge that for
>Themselves.

My take:  we are all really nice persons, are we not?  It's polite to mention
it, but it's no reason to give an award.  If I were a royal, I don't know that
I'd ask the scribes to go to the effort and expense of making a scroll, if all
I heard was someone did A, B and is a really nice guy, no matter how many
times I heard it.  If I heard that and only that over and over again, I really
wouldn't want to make the award.  I might want to contact folks and ask them
to elaborate, but (as a royal) I'm sure I don't have the time to do that very
often, and I don't really know if that would be the proper thing to do.  

Anne of Buckston
(note new e-mail)



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