A List Apart has a wonderful article this week by Mark Bernstein entitled “10 Tips on Writing the Living Web”.
Although some of the tips - like writing about your sex life - may not be appropriate for the business blogosphere, there are many excellent points here. I liked what Bernstein had to say about keeping prose clear by omitting unnecessary text, and his thoughts on how passion and enthusiasm make the most interesting writing.
It’s a can’t miss article for anyone who wants to improve develop all-important and under-discussed skill of writing for the blogosphere.
Update: I thought of a tip I’d like to add to that list. I learned somewhere along the way that the best writing is usually about the things that you spend a lot of time thinking about. If you pick up a new concept and try to write about it without having even begun to grok it yourself, you won’t pass any real understanding along to your readers because you posses none.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Scott Ahlsmith 05.29.06 at 4:54 am
Here’s another tip for the “Writing for the Living Web” list. Avoid using jargon without explaining its meaning.
In your post, I read, “without having even begun to grok it yourself.” What’s a grok? Does “grok it yourself” have anything to do with Bernstein’s encouragement to write about our sex lives?
Teresa Valdez Klein 06.29.06 at 6:17 pm
Scott: Sorry it took me a month to approve your comment. We’ve been under hardcore spam attack.
Grok is a term that was coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his groundbreaking book Stranger in a Strange Land, which was first published in 1960.
The term was used by his man-Martian character Valentine Michael Smith. It literally means “to drink,” but in the context of the Martian culture, it describes a complete and total understanding that can only come from fully absorbing and becoming one with a concept.
Thanks for calling me on my jargonishness.