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.”

It’s sad really.

Writing is important, don’t get my wrong. After all, writing is the mechanism for communicating on our blogs.

What I want to convey is that passion, clarity of blog goals, and authenticity will usually create more readership than great prose. Blogs are about relationships; they’re about conversation. Write how you’d speak, as though you’re truly having a conversation with one of your readers. Which means, mistakes and imperfection are fine.

Exactly. If you’re writing about software, development, seo, etc – it’s still, likely, about passion. Developers are often quite passionate about their projects. This is just another example where passion trumps writing skill.

It never hurts, but it really is dependent on the quality of your subject matter, not your writing skills.

Yeah, exactly. To me, a good writer begins as a good communicator. And ideally we’re striving to communicate with our readers the best way we can.

Personally, I don’t care too much about great writing. I’m more interested in great conversation. Thanks for being a part of it.

Mark,

I knew this one would be right up your alley. Great points.

From a blogging standpoint, I think of it as a conversation. So I try to write just as we were speaking to each other. So, to me, in this setting of the blog, I think it’s important to be clear in thought – then let that clarity be spoken/written on my posts and comments.

thepaperbull,

Yes! Yes! and Yes! From what I’ve experienced, rich conversation comes from rich life experience. So great point.

A rich life away from the PC leads to a rich life to share online.

I mean a subtle distinction between trying to be a good writer on the one hand, or just completely ignoring your bad writing haircut and refusing to learn more about written communication on the other.

As usual, the middle ground is where the action is.

I think there is a subtle distinction between ‘trying’ to be a ‘great’ or ‘good’ writer. That self-consciousness can make you less readable.

At the same time, if you are going to try to make an impact using the written word, I think it pays to become conscious about it. And to learn.

In business we learn all kinds of skills. Learning to communicate with clarity and engagement is worth your while.

As others before me have said: The medium IS the message…

The trick is, I believe, that we all have this notion in our heads about what a “great” writer is, as if it means to be on par with Hemingway, or Maya Angelou, or Arthur Plotnik.

I’d say that Dawud’s definition, “good bloggers are people who are good communicators,” could just as easily be:

good bloggers = good communicators = good writers

Because what real standard exists, except the one in the mind of the reader?