Monday, August 26, 2013

My Weakness

Oh, that just brings up big ideals, doesn't it.

  Sadly, I wasn't going there.  I figured it was time to mention my style of writing.  And if you haven't figured it out, then well - thanks you have more faith in me that I thought.

I am a stream of consciousness writer. I sit down, start writing and sooner or later I get to the end.

One would hazard to say,  "But don't you teach writing?"  "Isn't this what you tell you students NOT to do?"

YUP, exactly! Although, I can make one major distinction. I am pretty sure that I do not completely write this way when I have to do a research paper. It has been about 6 years since I wrote a research paper, and oh the grades were not pretty on those. All my "reflection" papers got A's. Hence, you would be allowed to say that I have broken the laws of writing.

"Why?" You may ask, am I actually looking at this.

Well, I picked up the book they are using to teach English 101 at the Community College I work at; The Longman Reader, tenth edition. Today, I read the first chapter.

Actually, I noticed the difference in my writing compared to others lately, when I read several blogs that interested me. The Bloggess, is one of those blogs that I keep track of.  I caught a few more yesterday when I checked out the Time Magazines list of Blogs of the Year.

Most of those blogs are VERY WELL WRITTEN. A couple were silly with moving pictures of beer labels. ( I spent at least 10 minutes there). Another was of this guy taking pictures of his Coon hound all over the United States. (I spent WAY more time there- Pictures- Dogs- Cool places in US- How could I turn away?)

After checking out at least 5 new blogs and a couple more I have encountered from Facebook, there was a very disturbing trend of people who actually write and edit their work, before they post it on their blog.

I would guess my writing style comes more from what I started using this blog for in the first place. (Oooh, see how I used first there- wasn't even trying.) I started this blog back before Facebook was a real thing. I think myspace may have started, but I didn't have a clue how to make it work. (I did not want to spend the time to learn and it's dead now, so no one cares.) I started this blog to share pictures and my life with friends and family.
People were starting to spend a lot more time online. I had just gotten married in Vegas, and everyone wanted to see the pictures. This is where I put them along with notes about whatever was going on at the time.
So, really my blog is Facebook, before there was Facebook.

I have to admit that when I look at all the silly stuff I have on here, it's quite easy to track the last 9 years.  Or most of the last 9 years, as I moved most of my rambling to Facebook.  Although you have to admit, I get really long winded on here.

This brings me to my Dilemma!!!  Do I really start writing and editing my blog for Grammar and Content, or do I continue the off the top of my head, writing like I talk blogging?
Please weigh in on this topic....
Thanks

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