2004 / August 22^nd/ Reason for blogging

I hate the word blog. Whenever I read it I think “yet another 12 year old behind the wheel.” But blogging changed. Big time. Before I put this web site live, I took a moment out of my day to think - why should I blog?

• To become an effective copywriter
• To become an effective communicator

I’m not going to lie. I blog for myself. That’s right folks, I didn’t come here to blog for world peace or even for a few backlinks. Before you start assuming too much, let’s look at it in a little more detail. I blog for self improvement.

You’ll always need to know how to write well - no matter your job

- Kristina Mowles (Mother)

My mother is an English teacher. This was her reasoning that I should continue to write book reports in Junior High. I’ve heard this phrase throughout my life. But I’m a left-side-of-the-brain kind of guy. Equations are sexy. I’d rather work out a statics problem than write a short story about Oliver the dog. So when I was in middle school and teachers were constantly telling me I would need my English skills later on in life, I was skeptical. I didn’t believe them. Turns out I was right.

Whoa - how can I be right? That’s right folks - you will not need those silly English skills you learn in school later on in life for certain professions. Of course exceptions apply - authors for example. Now, what justification do I have for this?

Different writing styles require different thought processes. This is a major issue for me. I’ve come to the realization that writing an essay on The Great Gatsby in high school has done nothing to help me now that I start to author documents that I will use throughout my lifetime. I’ve encountered three different styles of writing in my lifetime.

1. Creative Writing
2. Technical Writing
3. Persuasive Writing

Creative writing requires the author to leave reality behind for a while. The goal in creative writing is really to make something out of nothing. Use descriptive sentences that make the reader feel they are “at the scene.” Sentences are long and full of adjectives and adverbs.
Example: “The cold evening air graced my blistered lips, bringing a moment of relief as miniature dew drops saturated my broken skin, but the wind soon picked up and pierced the wounds with its unforgiving intensity.”

Technical writing on the other hand requires the author to become entrenched so far in reality that there is no escape. There must be absolutely no room for error or question. This is the stuff legal contracts and user manuals are made of. Sentences are long and heavy with technical terms. The goal is not to do anything other than inform the reader of some real-life event/product/procedure/etc. There is no room for any extra sentences, anything that is not absolutely essential is tossed off the page. The reasoning for this is that most technical pieces are extremely large pieces and unneeded content only serves to tire the reader. Because of this need for simplicity, correct grammar is often set aside for clarity.
Example: “The composite beam pictured in figure 1.3 has been designed to withstand a load of 103.5 kips on location A at room temperature with a safety factor of 3.”

Persuasive writing is most often found in advertisements. It’s writing that moves people to commit to some sort of action. This type of writing often breaks most of the rules you learn in grammar school. Punctuation. Capitalization. Complete sentences. The point is not to pummel the reader with technical jargon or adjectives - in fact both of these elements are often excluded completely. Sentences are written so that even the least intelligent person can understand them. Space is at a premium - any extra words take away from the message.
Example: “Try our steak. You’ll love it.”

I chose these three styles because I’ve had experience with them. There are limitless numbers of other styles of writing - and that’s just my point. Each style takes a completely new approach. Technical writing requires an extensive vocabulary aimed at the subject matter. But would you ever need these while writing a persuasive brochure? Would your readers need to know exact model numbers or operating specifications? Of course not, these elements would be avoided. The only common denominator behind all of these styles in the language they’re written in. Grammatical rules are often discarded for functionality or artistic style. Would Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises pass Microsoft Word’s grammar checking tool? I doubt it.

Back to the point

I mentioned earlier that I blog for self-improvement. I aim to become a more effective communicator. Whether my medium be a postcard offering a free consultation, or a memo to my supervisor reporting progress on my project. To me, blogging is a way to communicate directly with other individuals. The blogging community has sometimes been referenced as the “living web.” I couldn’t think of a more suiting title. Few times can you voice your opinions on a novel and have the readers and author take note and retort.

Perhaps in the end the reason I blog is irrelevant. Whether you come to this site to learn or just for entertainment - your goal has been met, and so has mine. With that in mind, I look forward to interacting with you. If at any time you have any feeling about any of my entries - please feel free to voice your opinion. I want to hear from you. Next week I plan on posting some more about different writing styles and how they relate to your target audiene. Until then.

1. 

   erik kolb

   August 23^rd | #

   would you say that being a good writer is directly related to being a good speaker. i feel that the more i have improved on my writing, the better speaker (communicator) i have become. im not critisizing you at all, i agree with most of what you have to say. i guess it also depends on WHO you are communicating, your writing and speech skills that is.

2. 

   Kyle Neath

   August 23^rd | #

   I would definately agree with you Erik. I suppose it just comes down to being able to have another person understand the ideas you are trying to convey. Whether they be words spoken or written, the medium is trivial. If you become good at one (writing) you are bound to become better at another (speaking) by simply improving your communication skills overall.

3. 

   Donnie

   August 25^th | #

   Hey I think we are in the same boat. I just launched a new personal site as well, I swear you copied exactly what I was thinking when you were explaining why you blog. I’ll be interested in seeing what is to come. Good luck.

4. 

   dave

   August 26^th | #

   Since you seem concerned with your communication skills I am willing to give you a tip. This blog post was WAY too long, I could not finish it and judging by the number of comments; I am not alone. Make future posts shorter and you will benefit. Good luck.

5. 

   Chad Coleman

   August 26^th | #

   I disagree Dave. If you would have read it all, Kyle writes for himself, not for you or I.

6. 

   Kyle Neath

   August 26^th | #

   Thank you for the feedback dave. While I value your opinion, I’m going to have to disagree. I really don’t feel this entry is very long. However, I will agree with you that the latter half of the post is an assault of text. I should have included more quotes/lists/etc to mix it up. One of the things I’m continually trying to improve :) Would have made it feel a lot shorter.

7. 

   Paul Watson

   August 26^th | #

   Good writer therefore good speaker? I think history proves that wrong with many great authors being shy, reclusive and quiet individuals. Often good writers are good writers because they have much to say but can’t speak it well. They need to express but cannot through vocal means. I know I can better articulate my thoughts through the written word than the spoken one.

8. 

   Herm

   August 28^th | #

   You hate the WORLD blog? Your English teacher mother would not approve of your proofreading skills… ;)

9. 

   Kyle Neath

   August 28^th | #

   Point well taken Herm. I absolutely loathe proofreading. And when I do it, I sometimes find myself reading what I meant to write, not what I did write.

   Paul> I agree, I didn’t intend to say that by becoming an effective writer, you instantly become an effective speaker. Let’s take good ol’ GW for an example. I bet the guy could write a killer essay. Too bad my 12 year old brother sounds better than him at the podium.

   However, you do become better by association. Maybe not good. But better. It’s kind of a one complements the other sort of thing in my mind.

10. 

    Kemal Faruquee

    February 8^th | #

    very true…… the different writing styles require different mental processes….. that’s one of the things i really like about writing poetry…. it can be a type of meditation….

    take care,
    kemal

11. 

    Mom (Kristina Mowles)

    December 6^th | #

    Oh my. I happened upon this site, along with all the others you have posted. Herm, you could not be more wrong. I am proud of what Kyle has written even with errors. Even as an English teacher, I do not catch all my own errors. That is why proof readers exist. What would irritate me is to read sentences with all kinds of weird symbols or tons of misspellings on purpose. Bad grammar makes my hair stand on end. I see none of these with his writing.

    Kyle, I have so many comments, but want to keep this short and sweet. Yeah, right, like Moms AND English teachers don’t have the gift of gab…in that case, I’ll keep it as short as a Mom and English teacher can… 1) I never said you’d use book reports in your job–I said you’d use English skills in any job you do. From what I have seen that you’ve written, you’ve done an excellent job. For someone in your profession, you will use the technical writing skills acquired rather than the creative ones authors use. For the most part, middle schoolers aren’t ready for technical writing. 2) The skills you DO use from book reports and all that useless analyzing of characters and plot and all that other useless garbage are not as apparent in your job. Do you not automatically analyze clients, figure out and predict what they want or what they would like based on your impressions of who they are and how you can make the most money from them? Isn’t this what you did in the book reports? Figure out the character’s motives. Describe how this happened and why and how it directly affected the character and his/her ultimate actions. Don’t you silently plot out the direction to go in a campaign based on present and past experiences with the client? Can you not write a pretty darn good memo or a proposal using correct grammar and good sentence structure? These are the English skills I pushed, and not writing book reports. In fact, my students don’t do book reports. 3) One of my colleagues said she received an email from a parent thanking her for teaching poetry. Her son, who was shy, picked up his guitar and because of the poetry is now writing songs.
    What a shame it would be if we only taught to one type of student. We aim to please and to teach technical and creative writing. 4) I could easily argue that math or science was pointless for me as a kid. However, I can add, subtract, multiply and divide quickly because I learned it. I can estimate my grocery bill, measure the floor I plan on laying and figure out how many square feet of oak laminate I need and then figure out how many boxes that would be, I can double or triple or half recipes, most of all I KICK BOOTY ON A POOL TABLE to this day because I loved geometry! I can take apart and repair a toy because I learned how things moved and worked together in science. I can’t keep a plant alive to save my soul. :)

    With that said, I’m proud of you and all you have done. You know that and I know I don’t say it enough.

    Love,
    Mom

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    September 29^th | #

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