What your writing reveals about you
There is a common thread among some of the superstar bloggers that writing good English doesn’t matter. The objective they claim is to get an article posted, preferably every day. The long-term goal is to get as many readers as possible with the idea of blogging for profit. The content must be great; it doesn’t matter much if the writing sucks. It matters to me, and I think it is safe to say, it matters to writers in general.
The fact that many of these super-bloggers write below a third grade level is apparently irrelevant. Perpetrating the idea that further dumbing-down, more instant gratification, butchering the language is acceptable, is unacceptable for me. This is not about a few typos or absolute perfect English. It is about horrible English.
Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution
With fortune, power and fame comes responsibility. These are good people, with good intentions for the most part. Granted, the attention span of the average web surfer is measured in milliseconds, and must be grabbed sometimes with outrageous hooks. I have no problem with chunk writing, choppy, to the point, simple sentences, usually without subordinate clauses, and few polysyllable words. What I don’t like is what appears to be English as a second language, written by English speaking people.
In fact, many bloggers are content to use incomplete sentences. Like this. Again, this is unacceptable for me. We send our kids to school to learn proper English. I believe the superstars have a responsibility to write proper English. Those who write for a living should not perpetuate or endorse bastardizing the language.
I do agree that for blog writing, somewhat imperfect grammar, punctuation and style are adequate. but when i see a sentence like this i cringe an git sic. There is even difference of opinion about what is proper and what is not among teachers and writers of English. The English language is rich and has more words than any language on earth. There is bound to be some controversy in the academic world.
Is poor writing acceptable to you? If this is the new communication, then why is there so much consternation about American schools? We learn more by example than rote memorization. Often we can learn more about someone by their writing ability than what they are trying to communicate.
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