Thanks for pointing that out.

The very best students are the ones who called me out on class evaluations for being too permissive towards the slackers, though.

What other rules do they protest and claim are now irrelevent or obsolete? Any laws they simply don’t like? Grades (bad grades, at least)?

(Back in the 1980s I was already so irritated that I wrote a letter of complaint to the editor of one newspaper that was published under the title of “Please Use Correct English In the Newspaper.” It’s pathetic if the kids you’re teaching seek the opposite.)

Then there’s the plague on the Web of acronym abuse, which is as irritating as seeing “4″ for “for” or “[-]fore[-]” in addition to “four,” and “2″ for “to” and “too” in addition to “two.”

Anyone saying “TWWIHBR?” rather than “To what would I have been responding?” is lazy or has a behavioral problem.

I sometimes will substitute an acronym or a one-letter abbreviation but that is typically only when I am trying to insert strong language to make a point and want single or multiple letters only so as to make the text appear less vulgar, and the special use of one or more letters is intended to be unusual, not routine or normal.

I don’t read blogs for long, elaborate retrospectives but for real time type news.

That and reader remarks, which are often more interesting than what the bloggers themselves have to say.

Bloggers essentially are columnists who are on-line rather than in the print media, radio, or television.

News, yes. Reader remarks, even far left remarks totally disconnected from reality — these are fine; those that are wrong can always be corrected by wiser readers. The childish, self-aborbed “all about me, me me” drivel is irritating (like Maureen Dowd but with extra fluff atop the vapor). Overall, a number of blog sites are worth visiting.

Having said that, the longer I blog, the more I believe that the short and concise posts cost more craftmanship than one might think. It’s an art I have not mastered fully yet, but I’m working on it. If it’s too short, people will misinterprete what you wrote (also because people do not click on the links), if it’s too long, well, you’re in the danger of writing too many long posts (which people don’t read due to lack of time).

Meanwhile, I do agree with your point about the essay-bloggers – I was merely pointing out that there is an ‘other side’ to that debate

It has evolved, and is now being used for different purposes altogether, but there are many differents types of weblogs. Literary websites, obviously, should be well written, political websites are more about ideas, as Dan Schneider once put it, whereas literary websites are about words / language.

Then there are also websites about sports, diaries, entertainment, and so on.

Your approach is often the “essay” approach. I, however, seldom write essays for blogs (mostly because essays take a lot of time and I participate on blogs that publish a lot of posts per day, so they will be removed from the frontpage quickly).

In this regard, it is interesting to ask what is good and what is bad writing at a political blog?

Andrew Sullivan is a great writer, but his blogposts are short and to the point: is he a bad blogger? I’d say no. Concise, to the point, can be very good in the blogosphere as well.

I don’t need the writing to be polished up and worthy of an “A” from Mrs. Finklestein in the English Dept.

Perhaps it should be. Pride in workmanship shouldn’t be derided, whether it is in constructing a house or constructing an essay.

I don’t read blogs for long, elaborate retrospectives but for real time type news.

I don’t need the writing to be polished up and worthy of an “A” from Mrs. Finklestein in the English Dept.

To be fair, I don’t need that from the evening paper columnist either, it’s just I don’t want to have to wait that long.