The readings certainly suggest that blogging is a form of writing and a specific genre in it's own right. With that, there are inherent ethical, legal and stylization conventions attached to this particular genre. Additionally, the readings hint that blogging could be considered a form of journalism, which certainly has ethical implications attached to not only what is written, but how it is presented (fair and balanced, attributes included as necessary, etc.).
Altough I agree mostly with these insights, I do have questions about stylization conventions - or more specifically punctuation. In my experience with bloggging (mostly we've used it at work with our child participants in the games lab), if the kids had their way, they wouldn't use "proper" grammar and conventions, but seem to lean toward using text messaging slang to get their points across. Because I help facilitate their responses (I come up with the prompts) I usually have them adhere to more "proper" grammar practices (most times) because part of my responsibility in the research facility is to help them become better communicators. I bring this up because, honestly, the more I think about it, I don't know if I should do that, and instead let them answer the way they would to give researchers a more authentic answer and allow the participants to more authentially express themselves.
Also, I bring this up because I would say that style and grammar usage is probably a very personal, individual decision rather than restricted by an overarching "blog grammar standard."
2 comments:
Your question about using formal rules of grammar in blogs is interesting... It seems from the readings that there are actually different genres within the blogosphere, and some require adherence to formal rules while others don't...
Like Susan, I am really interested in your discussion about "proper" grammar and conventions in the use of blogs. In certain contexts that would seem very important (I wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in news or political blog where the writer couldn't be bothered to spell things out in an appropriate way). However, in your situation working with kids it seems that the more important issue is getting them to express their ideas and views and that standards would be less important. As Susan mentioned, there do seem to be multiple genres within blogging, each with different expectations of readers and writers.
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