Quick Thought: The Importance of the Dictionary
This past week has seen a lot of thought bandied about whether bloggers are writers. The debate has gone both ways, but I say everyone could’ve saved themselves a ton of time if they had just consulted a dictionary. For my purposes, I decided to rely on the trusty standard promulgated by the Oxford English Dictionary. Because if anything knows English, it’s, well, the English.
Our good friend Oxford tells us that writing is:
“1 the activity or skill of writing. 2 written work. 3 (writings) books or other written works. 4 a sequence of letters or symbols forming coherent words.”
Since blogging involves the lattermost definition, sorry anti-bloggers, bloggers are writers. There are some assertions made as to the motives of bloggers: appealing to the masses, poor writing, opportunistic, no original thought, et cetera and so forth. These statements reek of a kind of elitism that is simply unwarranted.
I believe that the purpose of writing is the same purpose of blogging: sharing ideas and communicating information. If anything, blogging represents the essence of what it means to write. Yes, there are plenty of awful bloggers. In step, there are also plenty of bad authors, journalists, and artists. When’s the last time a Harlequin Romance novel won an award?
I believe that advances in technology bring advances in other areas. Writing (and perhaps printed word in general) has been greatly affected. Blogging is just another one of those technological consequences as it were. We can now share faster, easier, and simpler. For these “serious” writers to deride blogging as they do is silly at best, hypocritical at worst.
Further reading:
Life Without Pants: http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/friday/friday-quick-hits-writers-bloggers-and-maury-povich-oh-my/
Modite: http://modite.com/blog/2010/01/19/bloggers-are-not-writers/
January 24th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
A dictionary definition isn’t particularly satisfying especially when you look around at the proliferation of “bloggers” and realize that the words and vocabulary we use is not keeping up with the times, and as you state, advances in technology.
Obviously I am not anti-blogging as I blog. For a great response to your argument, look at the retort one of my commenters gave, Lance (it’s almost at the end). Journaling is quite different from being a writer. Quite romantically, yes of course, we’re all writers, but it was quite fun to provoke the discussion nonetheless.
January 25th, 2010 at 5:24 am
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January 25th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Thanks for the comment, Rebecca! I think it’s great to look critically at what you do, so thanks for starting the discussion.
Lance is great. I follow him on Twitter and his blog, and his response definitely put the argument in a better perspective for me. I suppose for me, I’ve never seen blogging as superior to any other form of writing – it’s just another form. Blogging has its place and utility, just like writing a book does. I do agree, though, that a part-time blogger isn’t anywhere near the ability of someone who writes as a full-time career.
This distinction, for me, is pretty common sense, but apparently not for others. I definitely don’t want to come off that I’m better than a full-time writer!
January 25th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
My feeling is that Rebecca’s post got read into too much. People
That being said, I am anti-defensive about my writing. What goes on Rehaul and what goes on, say, marketing copy is night and day. I can spend 40 minutes on 800 words for my blog. I can spend that same 40 minutes on an opening 100 word paragraph for work. Maybe.
I just want to make sure people acknowledge greatness in writing. I think it is a real gift. And I don’t know why but I don’t think those people have made it to the blogging world yet. Seth Godin is a great writer but I don’t think his blog is as exceptional as many of his books. There’s a big difference. The effort, the editing, the honing… it makes a difference.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Thanks for sharing, Lance. I agree with you that writing is a great gift and yes, great writing is certainly not present in every inch of the blogosphere. While bloggers and authors are indeed ‘writers’ in the dictionary sense of the word, blogging has always carried a sort of “so easy anyone can do it” aura, whereas true writing is much more of a discipline. Then again, I’ve read some pretty awful published stuff… so it seems to truly come down to the skills of the person and how best they can convey their thoughts.
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I think it all depends on how seriously you’re taking your blog, and how much pride you take in your work – it’s certainly an overgeneralization to say that most gifted writers haven’t made it into the blogging world yet. Bloggers are bloggers because, in one form or another, they write. The quality of the writing definitely falls on a terrible to above average continuum, but nevertheless the person writing it is a writer. Would a terrible salesperson no longer be considered a salesperson? Would an average athlete no longer be considered an athlete? Where do you draw the line? (In response to Lance.)