Writers (or, like in my case, people who write) are not perfect. All of us make mistakes. However, acceptance and ownership are key tools in writing. A friend of mine brought to my attention errors I made in my blog post Are You Smart, Selfish or Accidental? It was funny because I took her comment to mean something else. She said, Wow! So I have to wonder, were you a bit emotional when your wrote this one up? My reply, Emotional? No! However, I am passionate about my views. I would learn through a few more comments that it wasn’t my tone or topic that was called into question, but typos and word usage. I thought to myself, Typos?! Word Usage?! Does she even know what she is talking about?! Indeed, she did because she has been reading my blog and immediately knew this particular piece was inconsistent with my other posts. The difference was simple. I forgot to edit my work, which is one of the fundamental rules of writing. I am very anal about the process, and systematic about my approach. I write my posts and allow them to marinate in my mind for a few hours. I come back to them, reread, make changes, perform a final grammar check and upload. (I wish more people would edit their work, especially as it pertains to basic daily correspondence, which refers to online writing - chat, instant messaging, etc.) I’m not sure what happened this time around, but I am thankful to my friend for sharing this information with me. Thank you for reading the posts, feeling the need to edit and for being bold enough to bring it to my attention. However, in the future I hope my readers will send responses regarding errors to my email. Some might think, Why the big deal? Well, this is a big deal and worthy of a blog post because it speaks to some very important principals of communication. Communication must be clean, concise and well edited. At the same time, as writers and communicators, we must be willing and able to accept constructive criticism about our topics, content and even typos and word usage. Yes, there might be some hurdles, obstacles and embarrassing moments, but that feeds into growth, development and makes us better writers. There are some who attempt to edit our work and do so with the intention of reworking or rewriting the material in order to interject their particular style. This to me is not editing, but borderline plagiarism. Typically this happens in school, college and on the job. Yes, be open to constructive criticism, but also stand up for your personal style because each of us has one. One must also take into consideration the different types of writing, personal vs. business, which will factor measurably into your writing abilities. Lastly, writers and readers have a responsibility to each other. The writer’s responsibility is to be factual, consistent, open to feedback, perceptive in thought and theory, while attempting to be engaging and purposeful. Some of this falls to the wayside when blogging. Some consider this acceptable, but I do not. Regardless of the format, we must try to stick to some of the basic principals of writing, as well as being open to the critique of our readers, especially our consistent followers. Readers are the best because they take the time to read our articles, channeling our written words into their minds, thus tapping into their emotions and views, which will hopefully feed back to the author. Readers, if they have access to the writer, must never be silenced from sharing their views. At the same time, they must never be swayed, but encouraged to report challenges to their reading, which might just be grammatical errors. Communication, in any format (writing, reading, miming, sign language, etc.) must never be taken for granted. We must never use it to make others feel small and useless. We must be clear with our words, never misleading and always making sure others know what is fact and what is fiction. A good writer accepts the totality of his words with ownership, but also with acceptance of the outcomes. Dear Reader, think about writing your own blog. Learn your style, share your views and open a whole new world of possibilities for you and your readers-to-be. A special thank you to my friend Denise for being my inspiration for this blog post. – paerki (02.09.2009)
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 20:42:35 +0000
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