I blog therefore I read
No, seriously. Blogging, especially around a particular topic, requires constant observation of relevant content. News, other blogs, wikis, scraps of paper laying on the counter… all of it is relevant.
My latest favorite is StumbleUpon, wherein I stumbled upon (unfortunate pun-ish repetition) a site outlining common grammar mistakes for when you just can’t decide, is it “a lot” or “alot”? To the owners of that site… you’re welcome, for the relevant back link a la gratis.
The reason I mention it is this. I wince… no I cringe at how frequently common and simple grammar mistakes are made in internet content, especially in Christian themed content. This is relevant to church marketing because in we are so often in the position of defending our credibility as intelligent humans. The world is of the opinion that we are stupid and ignorant for believing in such an obvious fairy tale and when we can’t tell the difference between then and than or their, there and they’re, we prove them right. If we are sharing the message of the master we need to be as aware of our speech and writing as we would be if we were crafting our doctoral thesis.
If you do nothing else this month, focus on your writing. I have a little handbook at home called 101 Ways to Improve Your Writing that I read at least once a year to remind myself that this skill is as important as any other in communication. It’s out of print but google has about 234,000 results for the same topic.
Let’s show the world that we have a reason for the hope that is within us. That we are not mindless drones believing the brainwashing that has been forced upon us since birth or that we are weak minded requiring a crutch to make it through life. We are smart, we are educated, we are as reasoning and calculating as the best of them.
