One of Jeremiah Owyang’s (@jowyang) tweets caught my attention today. He actually tweeted, “Wow, It’s so rare that I see a blog that captures my attention, read the rest of @penelopetrunk ‘s blog”. If that doesn’t pique anyone’s curiority, what else will?
Penelope’s post titled, ‘Writing without typos is totally outdated‘ is dated April 4, 2008 – almost an year ago…and has almost 160 comments!
And it actually speaks in support of typos!!
Here’s why I think this post is completely off the mark and is nothing but sensationalistic drivel.
- Yes, blog posts are about content – content is and will always be king. But tell me honestly – what is your perception of a post that has typos? Mine? I’ll manage to read the post but my opinion about that blogger will not be good.
- I don’t worry about audiences to ensure good spelling – yes, you need to worry about them too – but my interest in spelling is not driven by my audiences. I’d rather worry about what my kid/ professor/ teacher will think about me when I do a typo-filled blog post!
- Blogs are competing for attention from established media outlets these days – TV, print publications, Radio, billboards…you name it. If you cannot manage the basic language of your post, how do you think you can command any attention in such a crowd (besides sparkling ideas, of course)?
- Worrying about spelling and typos is not a disorder – its basic sanity. If that’s a disorder, why bother going through school, perfecting your spelling and grammar? If you cannot manage something as basic as typos/ spelling, what good is your education?
- I agree on one thing though – a blog post need not follow the AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style. Fair enough. A style guide is created to help editors deal with the intricacies of a funny language like English. Not to create blog posts. But AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style is NOT EQUAL to correct spelling/ grammar.Â