SMS communication — or "texting" — has reportedly laid waste to our English spelling abilities. E-mail is said to have bastardized traditional letter-writing formats. And now, blogging? No, there’s nothing that blogging has done to our communication skills. But, I saw this article on the Web that’s dishing out how-to’s on blog-writing. Most of it was OK, but there was one piece of advice there that I just couldn’t stomach: that one should write using bullet points!
That article actually suggests that a writer should use simple language, short paragraphs. Well, long-winded sentences are never a good idea, but advice-givers should be careful not to generalize. A blog, by its very nature, could be one by a human rights lawyer — so how can such a blog prosper intellectually without even a bit of legalese? Or: on a blog about Renaissance art, wonderfully complicated language would be the norm, and it wouldn’t be a failure of a blog.
Imagine this:
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SEO is a fast-growing Web-based biz
still in infancy in RP but picking up more practitioners daily
an SEO contest in the country is ongoing
Ituloy AngSulong is the name of the game
2 Davaoeños are in the top 10!
I don’t subscribe to the idea that language is static. I agree that language evolves. But, grammar and spelling and idiomatic expressions of the present age must not be flippantly set aside. Blogging is one way of expressing oneself. Therefore it should also be a tool for improving linguistic ability and literary skill.
