Providing Context in Your Blog Posts - My Typos - A Specific Grammar Lesson - Generalist Reading

Now that you've had the experience of writing a few of these posts, I want to discuss an issue that many students seem to have with the blogging.  The problem is that the reader (in this case the reader is me) wasn't there along with you during the particular episode you are describing.  You are an eye witness to the events that you participated in.  Some of you are writing as if you are discussing the matter with another eye witness.  That simply won't work.  You need to consider whether the person who wasn't there can understand things armed only with what you have written.  And in doing that you need to be a bit skeptical about your own powers of explanation.  To convince yourself that you've told the story in a way another who wasn't there can still understand takes some effort and some patience.  If you are dashing off your posts quickly (as I gather some students do who are submitting these posts late) you will likely come up short on this goal. This is something that many of you need to work on in subsequent posts.

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I make errors when I write.  I try to correct them by proofreading.  I have noticed the errors cropping up in the comments that I have written on your blog posts.  I apologize for those mistakes and I will try to improve my performance that way in the future.

Here is one particular reason for the errors.  The comment box doesn't enable a lot of text in it, unlike the box where you make your posts, which is ample in size.  In older versions of the software, there was a comment preview function and I got used to previewing my comment before posting it.  It seems that newer formats have gotten rid of the preview function.  That has altered my routine.  I need to proofread directly in the comment box.  I haven't been doing that, but I will in the future.

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I have gotten on some of you about distractors in your writing.  Here I want to mention a particular distractor that so many in the class seem to be making.  It is so common in your posts that I thought I bring it to the attention of the full class.  This is about the misuse of the word "myself."

proper use of myself - tribunedigital-chicagotribune via kwout

Can I get your meaning from what you write even if there are distractors in the writing?  The answer to that question is, yes I can.  The follow up question, then, is to ask - why do I need to avoid distractors?  The answer is that you communicate many different things with your writing, some of which you may not be aware that you are communicating.  One of those is whether you care about the writing (and indirectly whether you care about making a good impression on the reader).  Having distractors in your piece may show you don't care, especially when English is your native language.  Alternatively, it shows you were poorly educated about proper English.  Neither of those things are desirable to communicate.  

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Here is one suggestion for how you can self-educate and improve your chances of rising in the ranks of management at wherever company you find gainful employment.  This will help, in particular, in making the leap from middle management to senior executive.  You need to spend a significant amount of time each week reading high quality generalist writing meant for an intelligent audience.  This will expose you to ideas that are well thought through and expressed in writing that is high quality.  I am talking about reading one of the major newspapers on a regular basis and/or reading well respected magazines.  You would do this in your leisure time.  Some of your leisure time needs to be devoted to self-education in this way.   If you find yourself commuting - taking a train into work - this sort of reading is a fine activity to do on the ride.

Of course, you won't do this unless you find such reading enjoyable.  After all, leisure is meant  to provide enjoyment.  Like many activities, we get enjoyment from things where we've developed the habit already.   If you are not doing this yet, the first several times you read such pieces it may not be enjoyable at all.  It may seem like work, rather than play.  That is to be expected.  You have to get past that phase.  You get better with practice and the enjoyment comes when it isn't such a struggle.  

Now I will make one other point.  I find our news quite depressing these days and even well written pieces on news topics are hard for me to digest.  So, perhaps, you don't want to bludgeon yourself with bad news.  You then need to pick and choose the pieces you read so you can get at interesting ideas that are more uplifting.  They are out there, though you might have to spend some time looking for them.