How Bloggers Can Use Linguistics to AMP Your Creative License

This is another great article by Darin Hammond. I understand Darin’s point, but I’m not sure if I agree entirely. I happen to think of myself as one of those people who likes to uphold the "tradition" of correct grammar. The one part of English/language arts classes that I always liked and did well in school was grammar. Grammar also helped me get through countless foreign language classes (I’ve taken courses for five other languages–not counting computer languages–and mastered none of them). Even if I didn’t master any of them (you don’t use it, you lose it), I was always able to do well in those classes simply because I had a good handle on the grammar of my native language. 

That aside, as a blogger, one needs some linguistical freedom to speak–or write, as the case may be. I remember taking a workshop recently about how to write more tightly, and the sample I used from my own work was a blog passage. While we could tighten up the language to be more effective, the end result, while more grammatically correct, was one in which my voice was lost. The corrected passage didn’t sound like me anymore. There was another blogger in the workshop whom I befriended, and he had come to the same conclusion. While one can still apply many grammar rules to a blog–and one should write as professionally as possible using proper grammar as much as possible–some license should be allow for the freestyle methods of bloggers. Allowing bloggers to write freely allows true freedom of speech, and allows the writer’s personality to shine through. 

–techcommgeekmom