So I’ve been thinking about the difference between blogging versus English Composition. Huh? What has brought that on? Well….I’m taking online classes and one just happens to be English Composition.
Let me start out by telling you that I’ve never taken a composition class, especially not an English one, in my entire life. I was born and raised in Germany, and doing English Comp just didn’t come up much. So this whole class is a new experience for me. And let me tell you – it’s a struggle to figure out how to write a formal essay, what the thesis statement might be, how to structure it etc. It seems more like Greek than English to me.
Why do I post that here in a business type/oriented blog? Well, I thought that as much of a learning curve this class presents to me, so might the issue of blogging present itself to someone who’s never blogged before, never had the opportunity or time to express him- or herself; not based on some assignment and/or format, but only based on their own thoughts and ideas.
If you’re new to blogging and you begin reading posts, you’ll come across the topic of “Finding your blogging voice” on occasion, and you might wonder, just what this voice might be? I believe that your blogging voice is the personality and perspective you bring to your posts via your writing.
How do you find that voice? I think you write and then write some more. You continue and one day, you’ll look over what you posted, and you realize, that you now have a certain style of writing, whether it’s formal or informal, very personal or humorous, but this indefinable “you” – your blogging voice – is there, for the entire world to see. Sometimes it might take someone else to point that out to you. In my case, it was a friend who was reading my blog, and told me that she recognizes me in all the posts. (I’m still not sure if I’m thrilled about that or scared of what that voice might say….)That even if my name wasn’t there, she’d know that I wrote it. And to me, that’s what it’s all about – expressing yourself, your personality, your perspective, while sharing with others.
What’s your blogging voice? Does it establish itself in your emails? Letters? Advertising?
See some more info on this topic…..
What is the sound of your blogging voice?– by Steven Bradley, at “TheVanBlog”
Whose voice is it anyway? – by Rick and Ines, at “Rick and Ines’s Miami Real Estate Blog”
5 Minute How To: Find Your Blogging Voice– by Ray Dotson, at “FreshBlogger”
Filed under: Blogging, Business Tips, Internet Presence, Small Business Owner | Tagged: Blogging
Thanks for the mention – it really is not easy when a lot of people think you’re supposed to write formally.
The whole idea of blogging is for people to know the real you, not the “formal letter writing you”.
Ines,
Thanks for “letting me mention”! You hit the nail on the head – it’s the whole “You versus Formality”.
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