First of all…my sincerest apologies to those that subscribe to this blog via email. You received my post yesterday with many uses of the word “cemetery” spelled as “cemetary”. Then, later on, my friend @pbeens let me know that I’d screwed up using the dreaded “it’s” instead of “its”. Gasp. This is all so bad. I’m convinced that the “it’s” problem comes from reading it so much online that it becomes engrained. I normally don’t make that mistake but, when I do, catch it on the proofread cycle. It just slipped through the gaps yesterday. How embarrassing.
Let me tell you how I blog. I used to just write and post. Using that pattern, posts could appear at any hour of the day or evening.
In a desire to be more consistent, I started scheduling the posts for 5 in the morning. My logic was that it was a little less annoying for those who don’t care that I’ve “Just Blogged…” and that it was ready for those who do some reading in the morning before go to work. It turns out to be the very best decision that I ever made. It gives me the flexibility to blog when the mood hits and to be able to start a number of posts and file them away until I feel like I can finish them. Sometimes, I’ll use Popplet as a graphic organizer in the pre-writing, other times, I’ll just add a bunch of bullet points and then flesh them out when finalizing my writing, other times, I’ll go a screen capture of something that’s of interest and then write around it when the mood and availability hits, and yet other times I’ll just sit down and write from beginning to end while the thoughts were in my mind.
That’s what happened yesterday.
Now, depending upon where I am (rec room, home office, patio, Tim Horton’s, …) I might write in the WordPress editor online, with LiveWriter, with OmmWriter, with Qumana, with ScribeFire, or with the WordPress iPad application. The bottom line is that it could be written entirely online, entirely offline, or a hybrid of the two. Each have their own advantages but the WordPress online editor has a wonderful set of writing tools. I brought the post into the editor and used Google Chrome’s search to find and correct all the “cemetary” mistakes. It was later that I fixed Peter’s catch. I certainly appreciate the writing helper and feedback from readers like Peter.
As I brought the post into the editor, the writing helper looked like an English student’s worst nightmare!
Could there be more wrong with it! The red underlines are spelling mistakes (that I would certainly have caught had I used the WordPress editor from the beginning) but the green underlines are messages that I’m writing in the passive voice.
As I sit back and reflect on this apparently butchered attempt of a post, that really has me thinking. One entire flagged sentence appears below.
Even as I look at it now, I can’t think of any other way I could have written the sentence!
For a long time now, when I use the WordPress writing helper, I get flagged for using the passive voice. I know that, in school, English was my poorest subject. Am I continuing as a blogger?
I’ve thought about this quite often. In my mind, I rationalize it this way. There are times when I post very aggressively when I’m positive that I’m right and want to convince my audience. Most of my posts though, are designed to get people thinking and perhaps challenge me with opposing viewpoints. Using that logic, I typically glance at these suggestions when I see them and usually ignore them.
But should I?
I know that there are many readers of this blog that use blogging as a writing form in the classroom. What are your thoughts about the passive voice? Is it something to be ignored when blogging? Or, is it a red flag that all bloggers (especially me) should be addressing at all costs?
I thought that yesterday’s post about cemetaries, er cemeteries was one of my most inspired and interesting posts in a long time. The WordPress writing helper thinks otherwise. I’ve illustrated just a couple of things that were flagged. In fact, the entire post was riddled with suggestions. What say you? Do I need help?
Related articles
- Recognizing Passive Voice (nokeinthecloud.wordpress.com)
- Recognizing Passive Voice (carolynncareyblogs.com)
- Recognizing Passive Voice (dailypost.wordpress.com)
- Writing Tip: When To Use Passive Voice (4writersandreaders.wordpress.com)
- The Voice Of Tyranny (personalliberty.com)
- Recognizing Passive Voice (montaignecommonplacebook.wordpress.com)
- Recognizing Passive Voice (scotzig.com)
- This Passive Voice (anoveljournal.wordpress.com)
- Writer’s Block through Active and Passive Voices in the Head (bottledworder.wordpress.com)
- What I Learned Yesterday… (dougpete.wordpress.com)
doug --- off the record 