I am experiencing the bad writing blues. They appear when I read too many poorly written pieces in a short period of time. Within the last 48 hours I've read several sad excuses for blog entries and tortured myself with the worst written of the magazines for Macintosh users, MacHome. Though, as some of you know, I have written for Mac periodicals and sites in the past, I try to avoid MacHome, because, despite changes in ownership and staff, it is consistently inferior in regard to both writing and content. Still, I pick up an issue from time to time lest I let something slip by me on the Mac beat. Pick it up only to throw it across the room in frustration numerous times while trying to read it.…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
26 - Mac Diva
Your writing IS great, Dew. Greatly in need of improvement. 'Dumb darkies deserve approval' pats on the ole nappy head notwithstanding, you need to go back and learn what you missed in the fourth grade.
As for the 'smart darkies are poison,' perspective, that is nothing new. It is part and parcel of the insitutionalized and individual racism used to keep black people down for centuries.
27 - Eric Olsen
I vote thumbs up on the smart darkies.
28 - julia
I tend to be discursive when I write, but it's not an attempt at style - I talk this way too (strange but true).
I think some blogs are written in much more of a personal voice than others - they don't get the most hits or the highest traffic (lord knows I don't), but they're probably equally satisfying to the people who write them (at least mine is).
De gustibus, I guess I'm saying. Of course, I have a mad passion for kimchee, so my gustibus is a little singular, I also guess.
29 - Mark Saleski
"I think some blogs are written in much more of a personal voice than others"
that is exactly what i attempt to do...make my writing sound very close to my speaking voice, funny noises & all.
30 - Natalie Davis
A lot of the best writing sounds like the author is speaking. I try to accomplish that in my work, to varyingn degrees of success. Then again, everyone tells me that I speak like a teacher, so whether this is a good thing, in my case, is debatable.
31 - Eric Olsen
No Natalie, you teach like a speaker, and that is a good thing (you know, usually)
32 - julia
I dunno, I was impressed with the way you stayed on focus in our one conversation, considering that I (as usual) was bouncing around topics like a charged particle.
Oh, also I parenthesize far too much.
33 - Mac Diva
As I mentioned to Natalie in an email, an important piece of advice I forgot is to suggest the writer read his material aloud to himself, particularly if the sentence construction seems bumpy. One can identify awkward sentences better orally most of the time. Natalie's oratory style is a good example of how speech can be an effective guide to good writing.
Julia is not giving her blog its due. Yes, she does some personal blogging, including keeping readers aware of what her little girl is up to. BUT, she also is one of the best writers of political commentary in the blogosphere. She has a knack for blending the personal and the political few bloggers can hold a candle to.
Julia's point about stats is also accurate. Currently, many of the third and fourth tier blogs' stats are mainly the work of link exchanging among the mediocre. Good writing has next to nothing to do with it.
I am not ignoring you, Mark. I need to become more familiar with your blog.
34 - Eric Olsen
Julia should join us, then.
35 - Natalie Davis
Must echo MD's comment re: Julia. Her Sisyphus Shrugged is a compelling, well-written blog that is on my daily must-read list. And she's a great person too.
36 - Phillip Winn
MD (#26) I'm very confused by your comment, which seems to be in response to mine. It seems that you're implying that Dew skin is of a darker hue, a fact I know not one way or the other. I assure you that my comments to Dew were in no way related to her skin color, but were rather simple statements of my opinion on her writing skill.
You then seem to be further twisting my words and attempting to turn them into some sort of racial slur against you. I assure you again that my words were chosen with no thought whatsoever to the color of your skin, only to the bitterness of your words.
You missed my point entirely in comment 18, which is not surprising. Hint: It wasn't aimed at Dew. You don't seem to be as smart as you think you are, or maybe the bitterness overpowers your intelligence. You won't have any more comments from me to worry about, however, as I should have learned some time ago not to feed the trolls.
37 - The Theory
for the record, i cannot spell, don't know grammar, have no clue about proper sentance structure, or anything like that. So most of the entries i just grind out suck 100%. A few entries, however, capture my *sparkle* or something and become my inner voice which then become the entries which I look back on and say, "Yes, that was a good piece of writing, flaws and all."
38 - Eric Olsen
The point of this entire exercise is, or shuld be in my opinion, not to dissuade anyone from writing, but to encourage those who have something to say - as does everyone here as far as I am concerned - to make their expression as readable as possible.
As Phillip said somewhere along the way, the better you know the rules, the more cleverly you can break them, or something.
39 - Dew
welle ced theori
40 - TDavid
Just thought to mention this as a possible helper for writers:
There are at least two grammar software programs out there that while not being perfect teachers by any stretch, are still kind of cool to throw one's text in and see what the machine churns back.
- RightWriter, which is an old DOS proggy and I'm not sure what has become of it (google it?)
- Grammatik, which comes with Wordperfect (at least version 10, it does).
41 - Mac Diva
Are you utterly delusional, Phillip? Referring to me as 'poison' and now a troll leaves no doubt as to your intentions toward me. Nor did I not realize it was me you intended to insult in No. 19. I just chose to turn the insult on its head. That comment is one of the most inane remarks I've encountered on the Web, denoting a person who has neither a sense of race interactions or of group psychology. Furthermore, your ridiculous rationalization (if multiple people participate in an abusive act, the abuse is deserved) justifies ALL racism and most abuses of other sorts -- something a smart person would have realized when he wrote it.
Frankly I could care less about not getting further comments from you. You are obviously so threatened by someone like me you can barely breathe and type at the same time. Stick with 'great' bloggers of color who can't write a readable sentence. They will never threaten your sense of white privilege as I do.
42 - Mac Diva
Correction, No. 18.
I hope this IS the last I hear from Phillip Winn. When white people can't tolerate equal relationships with people of color I think it is best they leave those of us not willing to accept unequal relationships with them alone. As Bell's Rules 4 and 5 point out, there are always people of color willing to play the inferior role white people like that are comfortable with. That is the kind of person Phillip should be seeking out.
43 - Eric Olsen
At this point I only think it fair to reveal that Phillip is black.
44 - Eric Olsen
Okay, I made that up
45 - Mac Diva
That would be funny, Eric. But there are a few black people so brainwashed they would make the same blunders Phillip has.
Note that I am not calling him names or abusing him as he has me. May he live well and prosper . . . and leave me alone.
46 - Mac Diva
BTW, I am boycotting the guitarist poll because Buddy Guy is not on the list, Eric. How can there be a poll for the ten best guitarists that omits him?
47 - Eric Olsen
Fair enough
48 - Natalie Davis
MD, with all due respect, just because someone calls you out for the abusive comments you have been throwing around does not mean they do not view you as equal to anyone else. Also, just because someone disagrees with you does not mean that they have necessarily been brainwashed by anyone. One more thing: All the oppression in the world does not justify abusing other people. Golden rule and all.
49 - Eric Olsen
The poll can only take ten options so we just took the top ten from the Rolling Stone list. But that's why we also wrote a post about it so people could complain about the options and put in their own. Buddy rules.
50 - Dew
The only level of 'relationship' that should exist is an intimacy level. To feel that an 'equal' level of association is deserved denotes a mindframe of inferiority. To be equal should be expected and silently understood.
just a random thought
51 - marsden sanford
MD, the phrase is "couldn't care less".
/pet peeve
52 - Mac Diva
Natalie, I completely deny having abused anyone anywhere on this thread. Telling the truth about someone's ability level is not abusing her. Nor is telling the truth about why some white people 'adopt' blacks of low ability as sort of house pets abusive in any way.
I will grant that I could IGNORE more of the stupid things people say and I may adopt that policy. I know at least one other bright Blogcritic has decided to limit his responses because one spends a lot of time talking to people who will never, ever, grasp what one is saying. I don't know why I haven't adopted that policy more often online. When I go to the beauty salon or the grocery store, I talk to the hairdresser or the clerk about the weather or a tabloid's cover, not Critical Legal Studies or communications theory. But, for some reason I tend to treat people online as if they are more capable of intelligent discussion than most of them are. Perhaps it is time to stop doing that.
53 - Mac Diva
Gotcha, Mars. Thanks for pointing that out.
Eric, the Buddy Man is just IT! And, when he performs with Johny Lang it is as close as one gets to nirvana in this life.
54 - Mark Saleski
i got to go to the Buddy Guy record release party for "Damn Right I've Got The Blues"...it was in a basement function room of a church in the middle of a peabody, ma. suburban neighborhood.
it was just so weird to park in the back of this church, to then enter a huge room full of cigarette smokin', on-the-way-to-being-drunk blues fans.
and buddy rocked. oh ya.
55 - Mac Diva
I'm jealous, Mark. The closest I've ever been able to get to him was maybe 15 feet away, despite having a press pass. I've leaned on local blues dudes, such as Curtis Salgado and Steve Miller, to let me tag along when Buddy's in the area, but so far, no luck.
56 - Eric Olsen
The thing about Buddy is when he is on, his playing just stings like no one else.
57 - ideaful
You wrote: "Contractions require commas."
I believe you meant to write that they require apostrophes. No?