In whatever language, when you write, it’s always sound practice to do it well. This has been the case in ‘traditional’ media, where we’ve been treated to titillating and immensely gratifying written works of art. Consider the Inquirer column of Conrado de Quiros, for example: he has a way with words that leaves you panting for more. In blogging, on the other hand, the proper use of language is not exactly prevalent. Perhaps it’s due to the nature of blogging that grammatical discipline, for one, is rather lax in this particular medium. Just the same — even though there’s no such thing as a language police in the blogosphere — I believe that being conscious of good writing style goes a long way. Especially if you intend to be a problogger.
Increasingly, blog clearinghouses such as ReviewMe and TLA, as well as problogging networks, are becoming more discerning of the blogs that they bring into their fold. OK, some of them have been known to accept bloggers with below-par language skills…. But if you take a look at The Problogger Job Board, for example, nearly all employers explicitly or implicitly require English proficiency. While Google PR, blog traffic, comment activity, etc. are important benchmarks for determining a blog’s overall standing in the blogosphere, I believe proper writing skills will also become an apparent necessity very soon.
I think the only reason why language proficiency and good writing style in blogs aren’t measured in any useful sense is that, they’re almost impossible to quantify. For certain, in the present state of human technology, there is no metric akin to PageRank that can be employed to measure a blogger’s proficiency in any language. Use of language is just way too subjective. And employing people to review and rank blogs according to, say, good writing style will involve staggering man-hours and unwarranted costs (not to mention opening a Pandora’s box).
The most cost-efficient way, therefore, is to police yourself. Very few people can claim to have never made any mistake in grammar, spelling, punctuation, what have you. Indeed, writing in any meaningful form is considered an ongoing process of improvement. Blogging should be treated the same way: an exercise in improving your way of communicating through the written word.
Having said all this, I plan to blog about good writing via this blog. I’ll do my best to post language usage tips, too. English only, for now. As a Filipino I’m ashamed to admit that I am not able to write in Tagalog or Cebuano as well as I can in English. I also write in Nihongo, but at this point I’m in no position to offer writing tips in the Japanese language.
What I’m planning to do is to impart knowledge. I hope that you, my dear readers, will not think of my tips and advice as impediments to your own writing style. Continue with your own blogging ‘voice’, by all means. But please consider this: proper language usage always translates to an enjoyable reading experience for your blog’s visitors. (Of course, content also plays a huge part in that, but that’s a whole other ballgame. 
)
1:20 am on 13 Jun 2007
I agree, Blogie. I cringe everytime I spot some mistakes in my posts and though I try to correct them as quickly as possible, I know that somebody has already read it and has already judged my writing skills.
They say I write well (I was EiC for our school paper back in college), but I know deep inside that I can only do so much.
I know I have my own style but my vocabulary has not improved since I was 17. I kid myself that J.D. Salinger wrote an important novel (The Catcher in the Rye) using the point-of-view and English skills of a fifteen-year old lad and so maybe I can also get away with it. But it’s becoming more evident in the blogosphere who can write well and who “think” they write well. I can only hope that I’m one of the former.
You, however, I admire because the way you write is simply overflowing with confidence that can only come from someone who has mastered the language. You make it sound like writing in English is easy as pie.
I’m getting rusty as the years go by so this idea of yours is a welcome refresher course for me =) If you can touch on comma use I would be more than happy =)
7:43 am on 13 Jun 2007
I make mistakes most of the time!! Specially, when it comes to punctuations. To hide it, I use …… dot dot dots. Hehe. I think I have to read my mom’s lil book about punctation often since it’s my waterloo.
Part of the reason why I’m blogging is to improve my writing skill, and I still have a lot of things to work out.
I can’t wait for your tips! Hehe.
11:58 am on 13 Jun 2007
Pinapabilog mo naman ulo ko eh, Jap…
What a coincidence! I was actually thinking of talking about punctuation usage in my first post on writing tips. Watch out for it, guys!
1:03 pm on 13 Jun 2007
Blogie,
I envy your writing style, it exudes confidence. Keep them coming. Can’t wait to read your tips too!
5:46 pm on 13 Jun 2007
Hi Blogie - I do believe that good writing is important in the blogosphere as it is elsewhere in life. When I go to a blog for the first time and find that the writing is poor, it says to me that the blog lacks credibility. Good writing means that the person is well educated, which in turn means that their opinion has more value in my book.
7:25 pm on 13 Jun 2007
I’ll let you in on a secret. Actually, it only seems that I am full of confidence in my writing. Truth is, it takes me several rewrites before I publish anything. Some people might think that that makes it unspontaneous. But I disagree. Writing should be considered a work of art — don’t artists labor on their sculptures, their paintings, and endeavor to make it perfect?
9:46 pm on 13 Jun 2007
as people may think that they know what to say or write, but others abusing it. they have this “right of speech” thing, yet those morons around doesnt practice their rights. my point is, practice safe blogging, just like sex, we need to be protected and to protect.
12:29 am on 14 Jun 2007
Hi!
This is my fist visit and I must say that this post will really be a “wake-up call” for most of us who make grammatical lapses. I agree with you on self-police to make sure we adhere with the basics of writing. This is elementary, it may seem, but your writing tips (on grammar & punctuations) will be a welcome treat.
I am relatively new to blogging. My friend, Jap, has encouraged me to visit other spots. And I am impressed. Yours is indeed a good read.
By the way, Davao was the first and only city in Mindanao that I have visited. I was there for a few days. I loved it.
You remind me of my favorite columnist here in Cebu, Melanie T. Lim.
3:16 am on 14 Jun 2007
Hello intsik! I hope you can visit Davao again, especially for the Mindanao Bloggers Summit in October. For more info on that, please check out http://www.mindanaobloggers.com.
9:06 am on 14 Jun 2007
Like Jap, I wretch in shame everytime I discover grammatical errors in my articles. And I see it all the time.
The balance is always between writing in an interesting but grammatically correct point of views that my readers understand what I wanted to convey.
Indeed writing (and reading) is a skill that needs continuing improvement, no matter how slow our brain cells will be in the future.
3:33 am on 17 Jun 2007
I agree, Blog. The Pinoy blogger is unique in that he blogs in a language which is not quite native to him yet not entirely foreign either! This accounts for all the grammatical errors one encounters in Pinoy blogs… and really in a lot of English-language media in our country. Eminent broadsheets like PDI and PhilStar are not exempt. Using “would” in place of “will”, for example, is so rampant (like “The grand prize winner would receive P1 million” instead of “will receive”) but most Pinoys don’t even realize it’s ungrammatical.
You’re right, many Filipino bloggers are more comfortable writing in English than in our (truly) native language. Then again, it would be hard for a Manileño to understand the “gani”, “gyud” and “bitaw” of a Davaoeño…. Blogging in English, no matter how erroneous, ensures that many more Pinoys get to read and appreciate your opinions.
@Remo — sanpits ko si Blogie! What a small world! Blogs, Remo is a brod (and classmate) of mine from UP Med.
7:28 am on 17 Jun 2007
hey Che! nice of you to drop by my blog
ah ok, brod mo pala ito si Remo? got to know him when i was looking for davaoeño bloggers to include in the Davao Blogspace.