Write it Right?

I've been trying to write regularly in a journal that I keep on the language practice site Lang-8.  It works this way:  the user writes a brief post in the language he's learning and other members of the site who speak that language edit the text.  I sometimes correct the English of other contributors. 

By and large, this is a good venue for practicing Spanish.  I think it's best for bolstering grammar skills and vocabulary.  It's important, though, not to let the (often very intensive) editing of one's text intimidate too much.  As we've discussed many times, writing is not speaking and written Spanish usually needs to adhere to syntax and word order rules much more tightly than conversational Spanish requires.  This is why that when I correct others' English texts, I don't overdo it.  Getting a text back that has every sentence completely ripped apart can be demoralizing for a language learner, who is probably already frustrated by his seeming lack of progress. 

I'm not a scaredy-cat, so I don't mind it when a reader edits my work thoroughly.  But it's really not my goal right now to write grammatically perfect Spanish sentences.  I'm working toward fluency in speaking and oral comprehension.  Still, it's a good exercise to attempt to form concepts and express oneself in Spanish and to present my attempts to people who use the language every day.  There's always a better way to write a sentence, but at this point in my Spanish studies, I just need to be able to produce decent, quite simple sentences that get my point across and allow me to be understood. 

A la proxima....