I read a pair of posts today that are more interesting in tandem. First there was a post at Performancing that suggested not everyone should blog which included:
There’s little point in blogging unless it’s going to make you look better. Say you have bad grammar — or even if you have perfect grammar but are boring or can’t express your ideas clearly — is writing really going to help you look better? Could it possibly make you look worse? I don’t know about you, but I think 9 out of 10 blogs positively suck, and if you’re not gonna be in that top 10%…
Then there was this post on lifehack today that included:
If you can read, you can write. There are only two obstacles to successful writing. They are fear and lack of desire. Fear can be overcome. Lack of desire is a terminal affliction.
I tend to agree with the lifehack view of things. I don’t consider myself a very good writer, but after posting at jaxn.org and various other online sources for 5 years I have become a better writer. Hopefully I will continue to improve as time goes on. If I am lucky I may one day get to the point where my blog doesn’t “positively suck”.
While my blog does serve as an extension of my resume, my primary responsibilities are not usually writing. Yet the process of writing not only helps me to be a better writer, it also helps me to be better at critical thinking. Also, when I was in college I had a really hard time writing persuasive arguments. I always wanted to qualify every statement; maybe it was a fear of being wrong and maybe I was trying to be objective. However as a direct result of writing on my blog I can now nod in agreement with the following passage from Getting Real:
If our tone seems too know-it-allish, bear with us. We think it’s
better to present ideas in bold strokes than to be wishy-washy
about it. If that comes off as cocky or arrogant, so be it. We’d
rather be provocative than water everything down with “it
depends…” Of course there will be times when these rules need
to be stretched or broken. And some of these tactics may not
apply to your situation. Use your judgement and imagination.
I think that as soon as my sons learn to write I will get them to start “blogging” in some form. I probably won’t let their content be accessed by the general public, but the process of writing regularly will help them grow and learn, just as it has helped me. While I agree that “if you can read you can write”, I also know that my sister is so well read because of a program she has in grade school called “writing to read”.
It is really very basic:
20 write
30 GOTO 10
