Rambling Rhodes

The Re-Learna-ning

I've basically spent the last decade writing and editing magazine articles of a fairly technical nature. In that time, I've developed a particular writing style that relies heavily on long, complex sentences, with em-dashes and semi-colons and some punctuation marks I think I may have invented entirely on my own--the paranthe-colon, apostro-period and the dash-postrophe.

I just tend to assume my readers are smart enough to follow and understand long and complex sentences. It's a failing of mine, I suppose, this unwarranted faith in the intellectual capacity of the word-absorbing public. Still, when my audience has long been comprised of technically proficient individuals who understand operating systems like AIX, Linux, UNIX, z/OS, and IBM i and who can make sense of green screen displays that look like something you'd find on the bridge of an alien space ship, it's understandable why I would infer they're capable of also reading. . . well. . . this sentence, for example.

Ah, but the world of the Web has meant a revolution in the way people absorb the written word, if the experts are to be believed, so now we have to believe online readers are undergoing a process of dumbening, as Lisa Simpson might say.

I don't like to believe the online world is populated by knuckle-dragging keyboard mashers, but then I read a YouTube comment thread or a comment thread tacked onto any article or op-ed that has anything remotely to do with politics, and I have to face the harsh possibility that the "experts" may just be on to something.

As empowering at the Internet has been, it's also enabled a digital buttload of intellectual laziness to creep in, to the point I now have clients asking me to write "punchy" sentences or--in the case of a previous writing gig--write to a fifth grade level.

It's not that I can't write to a level Forrest Gump can understand; most anyone from fifth grade and beyond can write to a fifth grade level. Rather, it's that I resent having to write to a fifth grade level. I earned a journalism degree based largely on my ability to string together sentences that pack a lot of information between the first capital letter and the eventual period, and I've spent many consecutive years doing the same at a professional level, so writing the equivalent of "HULK SMASH!" justifiably irritates me.

Also, I simply can't shake the idea that seasoned readers--those who appreciate and enjoy reading--feel somewhat insulted by "punchy" writing. I base this assumption entirely on my own experience reading Web content that seems as though it was written by Dennis the Menace. Sure, the sentences are short, punchy and easily absorbed, but they read as if the writer is patting me on the head in a condescending manner, the literary equivalent of having a waiter cut my steak up for me.

Still, freelance writing pays the bills, and if a client wants punchy, fifth-grade caliber writing, I suppose I really have no choice. I don't have to like it, however, and when possible I'll attempt to inject a sentence or two of rebellious length and complexity.

I realize rebelling against the evolving Web writing world is sort of like jousting at windmills, but it's just the principle of the thing.

You know?

Posted by Ryan at July 25, 2011 12:18 PM | TrackBack