A topic of some discussion at work this week has been the length of my work blogs. At least two individuals, including the tele-marketing specialist shown to the left, have suggested that I need to be more concise in order to accomodate the busy office reader.
Now, keeping in mind that these comments were about a work utility, not this here blog, I suppose it's not all that unreasonable. But in thinking about their point, I realized that brevity and matter-of-factness isn't what I want in a blog, whether it be as reader or writer. That sort of thing's certainly appropriate for an FAQ, or a Wiki page, or a Help screen... but when I visit a blog, I want to hear the author's voice! I want to know what he or she is thinking, not just the facts, ma'am! So I suppose if the direction we went with our work blogs was to declare they be boiled down to the essentials, I'd probably lose interest and leave the cultivation of the corporate blogosphere to those who have considerably less to say - or are able to say it better and in fewer words - than I do. If it comes to that, in the final analysis.
1 comment:
Remember, "Brevity... is wit!"
Seriously, I think it would be an excellent idea to try and structure posts such that the bulk of the info is up front. So the 1-paragraph or RSS-1st-line-only people get the idea properly and then you can gloriously expound upon the idea below.
It's something that I aspire to, but I definitely don't tend to when I write in my own blog. For "relaxed" writing, I use a 'stream-of-consciousness' style that lends itself to rambling discourse. Not the best way to convey info, but hopefully a good time. When I attempt to write work-related documents I try to summarize and then expand. It's easier for work stuff (for me) because I have to edit that stuff, where I don't like to edit my comments or posts much.
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