Unlike the mass media in the US, I will not participate in the deliberate dumbing down of America. I recently discovered, while checking this blog's results at the Website Grader and The Blog Readability Test, that the reading level needed to digest the contents of this blog is above the level most people in the US graduate from high school with.
I'm not going to preach about how to write properly. The medium used for writing dictates how to write properly. I am, however, going to ask you to examine what you write before you publish it.
I prepared myself a "Maruchan ® Instant Lunch" meal today and was reading the caution label when I realized that it could have two meanings, simply because the word "to" was left out.
Examine these two sentences:
Original sentence: Product is hot; please handle with care especially when serving children. (Do children taste good?)
Suggested sentence: Product is hot; please handle with care especially when serving to children.
As an American who speaks English as a first language, I knew what it meant but what about people who speak English as their second language? Of course, this is a minor example but it's important to make the distinction, especially when writing on a blog. Your readers come from every modernized country in the world and many of them speak English as a second language or use a translation service to read what you write.
One way to prevent a simple "mistake" like this from happening is to read what you have written out loud, pretending that you're speaking to someone else in the room. You'd be surprised at how many times I've found myself leaving out "a", "at", "in", "to" and other connecting words by including this step. Grammar checkers such as the one included in Microsoft Word won't always catch omissions and aren't reliable enough to implicitly trust.
Have you visited a website recently that appeared to be a rehash of what someone else wrote? I see this all the time. Is there so little to write about that people have to resort to regurgitating someone else's material? Or is it just because they're lazy?
I prefer to read blogs over regular news sources. Most blog writers are engaging and original. Not all of them, of course. There are those that spend all of their time plagiarizing everyone else and not producing anything new. I believe, however, that they're the minority.
There are online services that will provide you with a lot of UNORIGINAL content, reworded to fit your blog, for a modest fee. Don't fall for it. It won't win you any popularity contests, especially with the person in the mirror.
If you have a great story to tell, tell it and don't be afraid of the consequences. If you're posting something that's not your original idea, make sure it appears clear as to why you posted it. Do you need help just getting your ideas down in writing? I have a secret for you. It's called natural writing.
Here's an excerpt from the Department of the Navy Correspondence Manual. It's written for sailors, but some of it applies to what I'm talking about:
Make your writing as formal or informal as the situation requires, but do so with language you might use in speaking. This isn't a call to copy every quirk of speech down to grunts and ramblings. And, granted, some people don't speak very well. Still, because readers hear writing, the most readable writing sounds like people talking to people.
A spoken style means fewer gears to shift each time we write. It also means less adjustment for new personnel, who find the old style increasingly foreign. You probably remember your own difficulty in getting used to roundabout writing.
To make your writing more like speaking, begin by imagining your reader is sitting across from your desk. If YOU are writing to many different people but none in particular, picture one typical reader. Then write with personal pronouns, everyday words, and short sentences–the best of speaking.
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