Apr 15, 2009
“There is a new economy for writing” (so don’t worry too much about online typos)
[F]ocus has shifted toward taking risks with conversation and ideas, and away from hierarchical input (the editorial process) and perfection.
(via John McIntyre)
so does that mean I can’t lose respect for people any longer when they write “There coming over tonight for dinner” or “It was amazing to here Coldplay in concert?”
Please don’t tell me this means prolific paragraph breaks don’t really matter…
I guess that takes the pressure off if we misspell your name or put Abimelech instead of Abraham in Towers, right?
haha, this came in my google reader right after this:
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-fail-in-spelling-without-really.html
I don’t see how Penelope’s stated, but certainly not proven, idea that “[F]ocus has shifted toward taking risks with conversation and ideas,” means that writers shouldn’t bother with ensuring their copy is clean, clear, and correct.
How the one idea necessarily leads to the other…I’m waiting for a more substantive explanation.
Attention to detail (in the following case, one comma) is the difference between,
“Let’s eat, children.”
and
“Let’s eat children.”
Two very different meanings dependent on one very small punctuation mark. There are likely scores of such examples. My English professor once told us how a single punctuation mark in a legal contract cost someone tons of money.
That said, if bloggers and other online writers want to use the idea of “a new economy for writing” as an excuse for publishing sloppy writing, have a ball.
But, if you want to get published and paid beyond your personal blog, you’d be wise to ensure you put out the most excellent writing you can muster.
As well, rushing to publish something without taking the time to check for typos probably stems from the same place as rushing to publish something without taking the time to truly think about the subject.
Thus, online, we often end up with sloppily written, myopically argued content.
We can and should do better.
Rant over. Ha.
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[...] “There is a new economy for writing” (so don’t worry too much about online typos) [...]
I completely agree with Jesse. As I nyself write a blog, I am constantly caught in revising, and re-revising my thoughts. Especially for a blog that revolves around deeper thinking/religion, I think the same amount of time put into thinking about the subject should be put into working on how exactly to state those thoughts.
Of course, as soon as I type that up, I immediately see the gramatical errors that I just typed. Ha.