Interesting point. I know John Chow has a huge readership on his blog. And he definitely writes with passion. What’s interesting is that his readers still enjoy his posts even with the mistakes he leaves. Goes to show you what’s important – at least to his readers.

The key, it seems, is to know what your readers want.

Look at John Chow, for instance. If I were to critique his writing, I’d say its mediocre, at best (sorry). Spelling mistakes, bad grammar, the works. But his enthusiasm for the message he is trying to get across beams out of every word.

Forward away, brother. I like juicy ezines.

I also wrote Daphne this morning to let her know I’ve linked to her through my blog.

Mark’s right; they’re juicy.

That’s helpful, thanks. I’m heading over to sign up for her ezine right now. Does she have archives of her ezines? I’d love to read the piece about using verbs powerfully.

Something she wrote recently spoke about not trying to write for long chunks of time- instead try writing for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, and coming back to it later.

She’s also talked about how to use verbs powerfully, and the impact they have. And etc, etc, etc. I think if you sign up for her ezine, you won’t be sorry.

Amazing that as a human race we’ve never had so many mediums for communication yet we probably as poor at it as any time in history. If you ever want an interesting read, find a book about the American Civil War that highlights letters written from the infintry men who were farmers, tradesmen and the like. It’s incredible the vast usage of English to express themselves. They are much more descript – and with much fewer words then our best scholars today.

Mark,

Great resources. I’ve heard Daphne’s pretty good at what she does. Care to share any of your experiences with her?

And I only learned grammar and language structure when I studied French- I never really took it in with my English language classes in the US.

If you want some great writing resources that will painlessly, and even enjoyably, improve your writing, check these out:

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss.

An amusing, easy-to-follow book on punctuation and structure.

Daphne Gray-Grant runs a site called Publicationcoach.com, and her weekly Power Writing newsletter is short, to the point, and always helpful. Recommended HIGHLY.

Feel free to let me know if these resources helped!

Well that goes to the general state of our education system. I can say that if you were educated in the States, you likely left high school – and even college – lacking some fundamental life skills. Writing being one. Just the state of things in the “most powerful nation in the world.”