Task 4.1 Finding your voice
Article Summaries:
“10 Tips on Writing the Living Web” by Mark Bernstein:
1. Write for a reason – my reason is to document my learning in this subject and to publish my responses to activities.
2. Write often – I must write blog posts frequently
“If you cannot write for a time, and the reason for your absence is interesting, write about it.”
3. Write tight “Omit unnecessary words.”
“…Read your work. Revise it. Don’t worry about being correct…”
4. Make good friends – I will make sure others add me to their blogrolls
5. Find good enemies – I’m not sure about this one unless I try to start a debate about e-learning.
When it’s over, try to make good friends with good enemies.
6. Let the story unfold“The Living Web unfolds in time, and as we see each daily revelation we experience its growth as a story. Your arguments and rivalries, your ideas and your passions: all of these grow and shift in time, and these changes become the dramatic arc of your website.”
7. Stand up, speak out“If you know your facts and have done your homework, you have a right to your opinion. State it clearly. Never waffle, whine, or weasel.”
8. Be sexy“Undressing, literally, figuratively, or emotionally, has always been a powerful force in personal sites and web logs. Pictures don’t matter in the long run; what matters is the trajectory of your relationship with the reader, the gradual growth of intimacy and knowledge between you.”
9. Use your archives
“When you add something to the Living Web and invite others to link to your ideas, you promise to keep your words available online, in their appointed place, indefinitely. Always provide a permanent location (a “permalink”) where each item can be found. Do your best to ensure that these locations don’t change, breaking links in other people’s websites and disrupting the community of ideas.”
10. Relax!“Don’t worry too much about correctness: Find a voice and use it. Most readers will overlook, and nearly all will forgive, errors in punctuation and spelling.”
“How to write a better weblog” by Dennis A. Mahoney: The two main points are – Offer Something New and Amuse Your Readers.
“If you want to share an anecdote or story from your life, pretend the readers weren’t there. Because they weren’t. “You had to be there” never makes a joke funny…Readers crave your anecdotes and stories. They really do. So give ‘em the whole megillah. Instead of, “The party was a riot!” or “I’m depressed today,” carefully explain why. Elaborate. Parties and depression are perfectly good writing subjects. The Great Gatsby, for instance, has plenty of both.”
“Being a writer is funny. Don’t take yourself too seriously.”
“10 Tips for a better weblog” from Rebecca Blood:
1. Choose an updating tool that is easy to use.
2. Determine your purpose.
3. Know your intended audience.
4. Be real. Speak in a real voice about real things.
5. Write about what you love.
6. Update frequently.
7. Establish your credibility.
8. Link to your sources.
9. Link to other weblogs.
10. Be patient. Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates your audience will grow.
Bonus tip: “Have fun! Whether your weblog is a hobby or a professional tool, it will be more rewarding for you if you allow yourself to experiment a little. Even a subject-specific weblog benefits from a bit of whimsy now and again.”
Task 4. 2: Referenced, informed writing
‘Weblog Ethics’ from Rebecca Blood
Rebecca’s 6 Standards of Weblog ethics:
1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
