Ariel Ceylan's Blog

An Evolution in Writing December 13, 2011

A Guest Blog by Melanie Slaugh.

Remember when we used to read books and magazines? Remember when everyone got the newspaper, and sat down at the breakfast table, unfolding each paper page by page? Remember those days… maybe just a little? With things like the internet, online publications, blogs, tablets and e-readers, writing has taken a drastic turn from the writing we once knew.

1. Timeliness of News
At one point news only came to you from someone tossing a newspaper on your doorstep in the early morning hours or because you picked one up from the store or gas station. This meant that you received all your news from either the TV or the paper – and it was a thick paper with equally thick pages chock full of material. With e-readers, tablets, laptops and smartphones, though, the news is literally at our fingertips. Because we’re able to obtain news as it’s breaking, newspapers have shrunk in size and quality, they’ve become an outdated afterthought, unless you’re one of the few people that still likes to sit down at the table with your coffee and paper.

2. Writing Well
Because the internet allows us to access news as it’s occurring there is less focus on writing with grammatical correctness. Sure, we still hope that everything flows in a cohesive and correct manner, but the focus has shifted from who wrote it the best to who wrote it and published it the fastest. This has resulted in less well-refined and polished stories and more hurried content thrown up on a website so that they came claim bragging rights for “who broke the news first”. Writing quickly has trumped writing well.

3. Anyone’s an Expert
Blogging has transformed the way we look at so-called experts within certain fields. With enough time spent blogging about a subject anyone can call themselves an expert, whether they have any formal training in the subject matter or not. This is a huge contrast to the old-fashioned view of finding actual experts with credentials to validate articles, and has led to a lot of people relying on unqualified bloggers for information that should actually have been obtained from a qualified professional.

4. Publishing, what’s that?
With tablets allowing you to download books instantly, a lot of authors have switched from going through the whole publishing process to making books available in e-reader format only. This cuts back on the time and cost associated with getting a book printed, and allows instant access, as well as nearly eliminates the need for the more traditional methods of obtaining books such as libraries. And while convenience may win out in this instance, it’s a little sad that the feel of actually holding a book and turning its pages is slowly dying out.

5. Promotional Tactics
Before e-readers and the internet authors promoted their works by getting in front of the camera or going on book tours around the country. Now they send out email blasts, link to their book in blogs, and promote on websites. The actual face time that gives people that real-life connection to an author is eliminated.

While e-readers, tablets, and the internet have made it overwhelmingly easy to get written works in the blink of an eye, what has been lost is the connection that you get from picking up a printed book or paper. There’s a certain quality of printed works that is lost when translated onto an electronic screen. There’s no doubt writing will continue to evolve as technology does, let’s just hope that the quality doesn’t completely disappear.

Author Bio
Melanie Slaugh is enthusiastic about the growing prospects and opportunities of various industries and writing articles on various consumer goods and services as a freelance writer. She writes extensively for internet service providers and also topics related to internet service providers in my area for presenting the consumers, the information they need to choose the right Internet package for them. She can be reached at slaugh.slaugh907 @ gmail.com.