A community challenge, my bloggers
Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association, writes in a recent article that blogs consist of the thoughts of random people, “unpublishable” and “untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar.” He continues his diatribe:
“Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs.”
It’s entirely possible that Michael Gorman is completely wrong. Of course, in his “blog post” in the Library Journal, he covers this case:
“Perhaps that latter thought will reinforce the opinion of the Blog Person who included “Michael Gorman is an idiot” in his reasoned critique, because no opinion that comes from someone who is “antidigital” (in the words of another Blog Person) could possibly be correct.”
Unfortunately, Michael Gorman, you do a disservice to bloggers. We are entitled to some amount of pride in our work, even if self-published. The blog is an expression of literary and personal value. The best blogs focus around originalityof ideas and facts. Rather than be insulted, take this as a call to action.
Make your blog a complex text.
| This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2005 at 4:55 pm and is tagged with american library association, michael gorman, rules of grammar, personal value, random facts, disservice, library journal, recent article, accumulation, bloggers, paragraphs, habit, critique, pride, expression, editors, texts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
Oops, pardon me. You will probably never read this given that it is like a month on, but you were top of the pile when I plugged in ‘facebook ascii’…
I only found this site again because I typed in ‘facebook ascii’ again, actually!!
I don’t see the search results? Could you provide?
I am going to express it better than that guy ^, but yeah – it seems a bit irritating that you are #1 on google for me when I search for ASCII. Where’s the bloody ASCII?!?!?!
*Growls madly and foams at mouth*
**** you, you stupid *****, for linking me to your website when I searched for ascii pictures..go **** yourself, stupid useless piece of ****, rot in hel….******…
Your pushing links for Xanax over something called SearchMeUp? Sketchy, sketchy. I learn by example, and yours is not one that intrigues me.
Make your blog a complex text.
Gorman sounds like the typical elitist you find in every field of study. The elitist attitude can be summarized, in this instance as: “I am the expert in the written word and writing is not meant for amateurs.”
Speaking of complex sentence structure, check out this excerpt from the article written by Gorman: “It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote.” In my opinion, the sentence is well written, but has little meaning. (I was under the impression that reading involved interpretation on the part of the reader.)
I believe content is more important than complex sentence structure. There were some reasonably successful authors who did not use complex sentence structure, for example Hemingway.
I just find that that statement, while obviously a caricature, is so poignant…
Maybe if Gorman had included actual examples or verifiable facts in his article instead of glittering generalities, the thing would carry more weight. Obviously, his editor is a lot more lax than mine! Either that, or the editor is in the habit of publishing Gorman’s articles regardless of how good they are, which is a form of “self-publishing” I’m not sure I can support.
Complex texts? I’ve been having enough trouble lately just keeping my blog afloat, let alone writing coherently!
But I’m sure Gorman’s critiques could also be applied equally to the majority of newspaper journalists and TV talking heads out there.
I think you both have points. Quality is a rare thing. There are too many distorted twisted blogs out there. (The political ones are astonighing in chaotic thinking and name calling)
On the other side there are many excellent blogs that inform, educate and amuse. Some of them are very well written as well, but only some. We all seem to have an urge to create something, to express something, but not that many of us take the time to learn the tools to make it happen easily.
Your comment “Make your blog a complex text.” My response: Screw that! A blog is a personal reflection of the blogger. They are free to choose the reflection they wish.
Maybe he’s just been reading the wrong blogs. I notice a lot of blogspot blogs are just inane ramblings (no offence to those that actually do manage to write decently on blogspot!).
Not that I’m really in a position to comment, I tend to just write what I feel like writing. I don’t particularly focus on quality, though I do try not to get too silly. If I’ve nothing to say I just don’t make a post.