A glimpse of Cuban blogging Via the Vancouver Sun, a Reuters report: Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs. Excerpt: For Cuba's freelance bloggers, the difficulties in getting online can mean days, weeks and even months between one post and the next. "My access to Internet is very irregular," said the anonymous author of a blog called My island at midday. "Like all things in Cuba, one has to resolve the problem of scarcity...
Via the Vancouver Sun, a Reuters report: Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs. Excerpt:
For Cuba's freelance bloggers, the difficulties in getting online can mean days, weeks and even months between one post and the next.
"My access to Internet is very irregular," said the anonymous author of a blog called My island at midday.
"Like all things in Cuba, one has to resolve the problem of scarcity by hook or by crook, be it Internet or toilet paper," he told Reuters by e-mail.
The Cuban government blames the limited Internet access on the U.S. sanctions that bar Cuba from hooking up to underwater fiber-optic cables that run just 12 miles offshore, a highway of broadband communication.
Instead Cuba must use expensive satellite uplinks to connect to the Internet via countries such as Canada, Chile and Brazil.
Critics say that is just a pretext to maintain control over the Internet, a powerful tool that some believe could play the same role in spreading information in Cuba as the fax machine played in the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
The story has links to three or four blogs—all in Spanish. In general, they're pretty well designed. I understand Spanish fairly well, and these blogs' layouts make the text readable. Any comments on them?
Michael Kane Interview Michael Kane, owner of InLip Designs, is one of my all time favorite designers. But he tends to be a bit private showing his work to the general public. So, one of the most common questions I have heard lately, is “who the heck is Michael Kane?” Now you know. The truth is, I literally drool over [...]
Commenting on a Commenter's Site If you visit the Comments list, you'll see that someone going by "Juno 888" recently commented on Rottweilers, a post I made in the early days of this site. (All the other responses date back to 2003, so this really is ancient history. My post even includes a broken link to a 1996 article.) Juno 888 may well be right that my comments were pure drivel. Publish twenty books and...
If you visit the Comments list, you'll see that someone going by "Juno 888" recently commented on Rottweilers, a post I made in the early days of this site. (All the other responses date back to 2003, so this really is ancient history. My post even includes a broken link to a 1996 article.)
Juno 888 may well be right that my comments were pure drivel. Publish twenty books and a thousand articles (plus numberless blog posts), and your drivel content is likely to be fairly high.
But since the commenter had also listed their own URL, I visited it and found it technically interesting. I sent a fairly detailed critique in an email, but my message bounced; Juno888's address "has been disabled or discontinued."
What a shame. Maybe the site isn't even Juno888's. Some folks are eager to share their opinions, but not their names.
But I hate to waste web analysis, so here's what I suggested about the site:
Hi, Juno--
We'll have to agree to disagree about my analysis of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, but since you provided your URL, it seems only fair that I offer some comments on it...after all, web text and design are one of my specialties. Moreover, I teach communications and marketing to tourism students, so a site like yours is professionally interesting as well.
Overall look of the 1Explore site is super--good mix of blues, attractive but not obtrusive graphics. I like the wavy curves in the banner. The two-column layout works pretty well.
Big recommendation for the home page: Shorten the sentences, shorten the paragraphs (6-7 lines max), and break up the text still more with two or three subheads. A stronger contrast between light-blue background and dark-blue text would also help. (See how the right-column text stands out so well against a white background?)
This is your site's first impression, and it should be an inviting one, attracting readers to find one welcome surprise after another before moving on to the various packages and the other pages. (I realize some people strongly prefer a sans serif font for webtext, and I use sans serif myself on some of my sites, but for relatively long text, serif fonts are more readable.)
As for the other pages--please ditch the "website under construction" graphic. That may be the first such piece of dancing boloney I've seen since the 1990s, and it was hokey even back then. If the site's under construction, it shouldn't be out on the web in the first place--all you're doing is wasting visitors' time and annoying them.
Webwriting really relies on the "you" attitude--putting the reader right in the center of the story. Your home page starts with "We," which tells us we're not the real object of your interest. Consider:
You're going to enjoy the best accommodation in paradise!
It would also help if the home page gave clear instructions on what to do to get into such accommodation.
Put yourself in your visitors' shoes, imagine what they're looking for, and offer it to them. They'll understand that you really want to help them, and they'll respond accordingly.
Hope this helps--best of luck with the enterprise!
Cheers,
Crawford
Political Bloggers as Webwriters: I I would post here more often if I weren't such a political-blog addict. But I'm going to try to exploit this vice by posting an occasional critique of political blogs as examples of webwriting. After all, some of these blogs attract enough visitors to generate ad revenue, so they must be doing something right. Or are they? So I'll start this series with Hugh Hewitt's blog. Hewitt is an American...
I would post here more often if I weren't such a political-blog addict. But I'm going to try to exploit this vice by posting an occasional critique of political blogs as examples of webwriting. After all, some of these blogs attract enough visitors to generate ad revenue, so they must be doing something right. Or are they?
So I'll start this series with Hugh Hewitt's blog. Hewitt is an American right-wing commentator, and he shares the blog with several other writers of similar persuasion. Their politics aren't very attractive to me as a Canadian centre-leftist (which puts me, in American terms, out there somewhere beyond the Nepalese Maoists). But that's not the point.
An Attractive Layout
In its general layout, Hewitt's site is very attractive: an off-white background for black sans serif text, with colour used for headlines. Hewitt and his associate Dean Barnett write in (mostly) short paragraphs with (mostly) short sentences, and they break up their text with blank spaces between paragraphs and short quotes that stand out clearly from the main text.
Another poster, going by the name of Generalissimo, is much less effective in basic post design. The first paragraph of the post I've linked to is 19 lines long. Most of the sentences within that great block of text are individually short, concise, and readable—but they're buried alive. Better to break the text up into three or even four paragraphs.
Generalissimo's difficulties are compounded by the basic column width of posts, which allows lines that average around 15 words long. This is tolerable (barely) in paragraphs of 6 or 7 lines, but the whole site would benefit from a narrower text column.
That's because most readers are more comfortable with a line of 10 to 12 words. It's easier to track back and down to the next line.
Hypertext and Eye Candy
The Hewitt site uses links well. Links either have blurbs or are self-describing, and they don't distract from reading the text. Webwriting depends on orientation/information/action, and the site design is excellent on offering options for action: email the post, print it, take action, comment, or trackback.
On orientation, the site could improve. Navigation is a problem unless you're only there to read the latest posts. Some posts are long and take forever to scroll through, so it's hard to see what else is new on the site. Providing a click-through to a new page would permit putting more headlines on a single screen. Subheads, like the ones in this post, would also help to break up long posts and tell readers what to expect.
The text dominates a wide column on the left, with ads and other links in the narrow right-hand columns. The ads stand out fairly well (they'd better), but the links to archives and sympathetic blogs are hard to find and hard to read with blue text on a dark-grey background.
Graphics can certainly enliven a text-rich site, but a good computer-graphics person needs to have a quiet talk with the Hewitt posters. Site graphics tend to be too big (see the "stupidity meter"). A flyer for Mitt Romney's Iowa campaign is held up as "a nice piece of mail" when it's atrociously ugly.
Readability
I haven't run any of the Hewitt site text through Readability.info, but I'd expect it to come through very well. As mentioned, most sentences are short, punchy, and full of single-syllable words. Readability would improve still more with fewer monster paragraphs.
No doubt the site attracts thousands of readers a day, most of whom will patiently read much of what they find. The site is preaching to a particular choir, so readers will put up with design and writing flaws for the sake of the message.
Still, a site's fervent fans deserve the happiest experience the writers can provide. Even the idly curious (and the actively hostile) will recognize when a site shows respect for them by making the material attractive and accessible. This site is partway there, but could improve with a more navigable design and tight editorial consistency.
So as an example of webwriting, I'll give the Hewitt site a B.
Rousing the OWLs Since the 1990s I've belonged to the Online Writers' List, which at one time was an exuberant bedlam of folks figuring out how to write for this medium. In recent years, alas, it's become very quiet. Then some feckless spammer recently started using it, a couple of list members complained, and it occurred to me that a lot of webwriters aren't even aware of it. So I suggested to the...
Since the 1990s I've belonged to the Online Writers' List, which at one time was an exuberant bedlam of folks figuring out how to write for this medium.
In recent years, alas, it's become very quiet. Then some feckless spammer recently started using it, a couple of list members complained, and it occurred to me that a lot of webwriters aren't even aware of it.
So I suggested to the list that we post news about ourselves and see what issues we're dealing with these days, and some intriguing replies came in. Perhaps it's time we recruited some new participants and started sharing ideas again.
Along the same lines of getting people in touch with one another, if you're a webwriter or editor and you're not on the list here (right column, near the bottom), send me your URL. And if you know of any good resources for online writers, send them along too.
Web text versus web copy Sometimes it pays to ego surf. I just checked myself on Google Blogs (using the chronically misspelled version of my last name). The search came up with some intriguing notes on a blog called Information Squid: AEAChicago2007 - “Writing the User Interface” by Jeffrey Zeldman. The notes are just that, clearly jotted down as Zeldman was speaking, but they convey a lot. Just at the end I found this: how...
Sometimes it pays to ego surf. I just checked myself on Google Blogs (using the chronically misspelled version of my last name). The search came up with some intriguing notes on a blog called Information Squid: AEAChicago2007 - “Writing the User Interface” by Jeffrey Zeldman.
The notes are just that, clearly jotted down as Zeldman was speaking, but they convey a lot. Just at the end I found this:
how do you reconcile people-read-less with SEO[search engine optimization]?
cutting the fat and natural language help both
so does using markup so important words are in headlines
can sometimes get funding for editing content by saying will help SEO
what are some questions to determine what’s brand-appropriate?
discovery process. what materials have you already produced
about yourselves?
what do you know about your stakeholders? compare with real users.
there are no good books about copy
there are good ones about writing for the web, but they don’t address
these issues - i.e. Crawford Killian, Writing for the Web
Zeldman is thinking of writing this
pronouns in copy? used to be more we, now with blogging more I
Of course I'm delighted about the compliment from Zeldman. He's one of the best thinkers about the web and on the web. I would love to see (and buy) his book on web copy. But the field isn't entirely empty. Nick Usborne has done some real pioneering in this field.
Web copy is text designed to sell; text designed to inform and persuade is also copy. So the two genres overlap to a considerable extent.
That last note about pronouns reflects an important point. Good copy in any medium needs the "you attitude," in which the writers pay more attention to the reader than to themselves or their organization. (The We We Monitor, also listed in Webwriting Resources, provides a useful reality check on corporate egomania.)
So to the extent that web writers in general, and web copywriters in particular, talk about themselves, they put themselves at a disadvantage.
But the "I" of a corporate blogger may evade this hazard. We turn to such an individual when we want a relationship with an informed person who clearly wants a relationship with us. So he or she can rant on about "I think this" or "I wonder about that" and still maintain our interest and respect.
I've seen this happen on a couple of my own blogs. Ask the English Teacher is almost entirely user-driven: The posts are based on visitor questions about English usage, and my answers reflect my own (sometimes cranky) views on good usage. (Some commenters beg to differ with those views, I'm glad to say.)
On H5N1, which is essentially a clipping service about avian flu, some visitors credit me with far more authority than I have. A few even email me to ask when the pandemic will start. This is actually a little scary. So when I do venture an opinion, it's usually with the reminder that I'm an elderly Canadian teacher of business writing, not an epidemiologist.
The key seems to be to convey, both verbally and nonverbally, that the corporate blogger really has the customer/visitor's best interests at heart. Verbally, the text should be clear, simple, suitable in tone, and you-oriented. Nonverbally, the site itself and the text layout should be inviting, navigable, and full of "good news surprises" like links and other resources that the visitor finds useful.
If anything, the nonverbal aspects of the site are likely to be more persuasive than anything we actually put in our copy...because when people sense a clash between the verbal message and the nonverbal message, they believe the nonverbal message every time.
Print Editors and the Web Jade Walker recently posted some interesting thoughts in the Online Writing List, and she's kindly allowed me to quote them here: I recently attended a conference for copy editors in Miami and whenever conversation turned to the Web, the editors in attendance often fell into two categories: 1) They hate the Web because they believe its mere existence is going to result in profit/job losses. 2) They fear the Web...
Jade Walker recently posted some interesting thoughts in the Online Writing List, and she's kindly allowed me to quote them here:
I recently attended a conference for copy editors in Miami and whenever conversation turned to the Web, the editors in attendance often fell into two categories: 1) They hate the Web because they believe its mere existence is going to result in profit/job losses.
2) They fear the Web because they don't understand where copy editors fit in.
I have no doubt there are other editorial folks at newspapers and magazines across the country that feel the same way. This is so easy to fix! All it takes is a little time and training. Those of us who've been working in new media for many years need to show the print folks what the Web has to offer, particularly the advantages of publishing news in different formats, reading/writing blogs, using RSS feeds, etc.
I also believe newspapers and magazines should make a concerted effort to update their online portals. So many sites are clunky, hard to navigate or simply replicate the print product via online templates. What can these companies do to fix this problem?
• Look at the competition and see what works and what doesn't.
• Experiment with design but avoid repeating others' mistakes.
• Hire copy editors, or assign current editors, to give blog entries and articles a once-over before posting on the Web.
• Allow comments, albeit moderated ones, on stories.
• Create a forum just to find sources for stories.
• Include e-mail addresses for reporters on each entry/article, or a link to a profile page.
• Provide "e-mail this entry" links as well as permanent links for readers/bloggers who wish to discuss stories and share them with friends/family.
• Offer one-click options to the recommendation sites (digg, technorati, netscape, etc.), or follow USA Today's lead and allow readers to rate the stories themselves based on usefulness or entertainment value.
Jade ended her post with "Any thoughts?" And I echo her question.
I'll add one thought from my own online-writing experience: The editor of The Tyee finds comments a chronic headache. Too many are illiterate, incoherent, abusive, and plain libellous. He requires registration before people can post comments, and this has helped a lot. I find the comments on my own Tyee articles generally pretty civil. But some topics can bring out the barking loonies.
The Future of Social Media Tod Maffin, the tech guru of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has published a short article in The Tyee on The Future of Social Media. He includes to blogs worth exploring.
Tod Maffin, the tech guru of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has published a short article in The Tyee on The Future of Social Media. He includes to blogs worth exploring.
What Do You Need Help With? Looking at the list of categories that are covered here on my Website Development Training blog, what topics would you most like to see more articles about? - Basic Blogging Tips - Basic Computer Tips - Google Techniques - Motivational Articles - Online Business Tips - Online Marketing Tips - Search Engine Articles - Website [...]
Hazards of Online Writing Via the New York Times: E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). Much of the article applies, I suspect, to web text as well. Excerpt (but read the whole article and follow the links): The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first...
Via the New York Times: E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). Much of the article applies, I suspect, to web text as well. Excerpt (but read the whole article and follow the links):
The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first place.
This is becoming more apparent with the emergence of social neuroscience, the study of what happens in the brains of people as they interact. New findings have uncovered a design flaw at the interface where the brain encounters a computer screen: there are no online channels for the multiple signals the brain uses to calibrate emotions.
Face-to-face interaction, by contrast, is information-rich. We interpret what people say to us not only from their tone and facial expressions, but also from their body language and pacing, as well as their synchronization with what we do and say.
Most crucially, the brain’s social circuitry mimics in our neurons what’s happening in the other person’s brain, keeping us on the same wavelength emotionally. This neural dance creates an instant rapport that arises from an enormous number of parallel information processors, all working instantaneously and out of our awareness.
In contrast to a phone call or talking in person, e-mail can be emotionally impoverished when it comes to nonverbal messages that add nuance and valence to our words. The typed words are denuded of the rich emotional context we convey in person or over the phone.
An Online Editing Job in Canada Just picked this up in my morning email: Editor / Curator Closing Date: August 10, 2007 Contract: Two to three days per week Location: Canada (virtual office) rabble.ca, Canada's leading alternative online news and analysis Web site, seeks a dynamic editorial curator to direct day-to-day operations, edit the site's features section and integrate multi-media and social media functions into the website on a daily basis. Responsibilities include assigning, editing and...
Just picked this up in my morning email:
Editor / Curator
Closing Date: August 10, 2007
Contract: Two to three days per week
Location: Canada (virtual office)
rabble.ca, Canada's leading alternative online news and analysis Web site, seeks a dynamic editorial curator to direct day-to-day operations, edit the site's features section and integrate multi-media and social media functions into the website on a daily basis.
Responsibilities include assigning, editing and posting stories, working with other editorial staff, planning
editorial calendar, image research, supervising editorial interns and volunteers, and some writing.
Candidates should have strong organizational skills, extensive editing experience, a demonstrated ability to
meet deadlines, a collaborative approach to teamwork, familiarity with Web editing, a creative approach to
working with limited financial resources, a knowledge of progressive politics and world affairs, combined with experience in progressive activism and a keen interest in the potential of Web 2.0 tools. At least three years experience in journalism or publishing, mainstream or alternative is required.
The editor works in a virtual office environment and can be based anywhere in Canada.
Please send cover letter, resume, references and a short writing sample outlining your vision for rabble.ca (one page max) by August 10th to rabble publisher Kim Elliott, jobs@rabble.ca. In the spirit of the virtual office, only electronic applications will be accepted. The subject line should read: rabble editor application.
Closing date for application: August 10, 2007
Start Date: early September 2007
Competitive remuneration rates
Please note: only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.
rabble.ca is an employment equity employer.
Kim Elliott, Publisher
jobs@rabble.ca
On Blurbs and Summaries Via Poynter Online, a lively and link-rich article by Chip Scanlan: B is for Blurb, S is for Summary. Blurbs can be very effective at drawing readers into the whole story.
Via Poynter Online, a lively and link-rich article by Chip Scanlan: B is for Blurb, S is for Summary. Blurbs can be very effective at drawing readers into the whole story.
Legal Hazards of Writing Online Via today's Globe and Mail, a report on libel chill: Media stardom is pricey. Excerpt: Many bloggers dream of getting mainstream recognition for their work, but unfortunately for some, the attention they're getting comes in the form of a lawsuit instead of media-star status. Earlier this week, Steelback Brewery president Frank D'Angelo filed a $2-million libel suit against Ottawa-based blogger Neate Sager for making what he says are disparaging comments...
Via today's Globe and Mail, a report on libel chill: Media stardom is pricey. Excerpt:
Many bloggers dream of getting mainstream recognition for their work, but unfortunately for some, the attention they're getting comes in the form of a lawsuit instead of media-star status.
Earlier this week, Steelback Brewery president Frank D'Angelo filed a $2-million libel suit against Ottawa-based blogger Neate Sager for making what he says are disparaging comments about him.
In another recent case, Montreal art-gallery owner Chris (Zeke) Hand has found himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit as a result of something he wrote on the blog he maintains for Zeke's Gallery.
Warren Kinsella, a prominent blogger and newspaper columnist, sued another blogger for libel last year, but settled the case after the blogger apologized for his remarks and paid Kinsella's legal costs.
Zeke, also known as Chris Hand, is being sued for libel for comments he posted on his blog in Montreal. ‘Once you start dragging things into court, I do tend to dig my heels in,’ he says.
And p2pnet, a British Columbia-based news site that writes about file-sharing, is still fighting a libel lawsuit launched by Kazaa tycoon Nikki Hemming based on comments that were posted on an article about the company.
Read the whole item.
Can We Still Talk Online? Dave Beers, my editor at The Tyee, has a thoughtful article today about the famous interactivity of websites: Can We Still Talk Online?. It won't be a surprise to webwriters that responses to their work are often ignorant, abusive, and even threatening. Dave uses The Tyee's experience, and that of other online magazines, to invite still more interaction on the subject. Maybe this is a good time to dig out...
Dave Beers, my editor at The Tyee, has a thoughtful article today about the famous interactivity of websites: Can We Still Talk Online?.
It won't be a surprise to webwriters that responses to their work are often ignorant, abusive, and even threatening. Dave uses The Tyee's experience, and that of other online magazines, to invite still more interaction on the subject.
Maybe this is a good time to dig out a piece I did on the subject about ten years ago: "Time for Flame Wars to Flame Out" was first published in the Vancouver weekly Georgia Straight in the summer of 1997.
An email correspondent once described my views on education as a “Socialist brainwashed, Communist-cliche’d, agit-prop spew of black lies, red herrings, straw men, Marxist-Stalinist Totalitarian, 1984, Brave New World, One World Dictatorship, mooching, felonious, treasonous, cowardly, dangerous, insensitive, [and] anti-human.”
After that he got positively hostile.
Some online veterans would shrug this off as just more proof that any idiot can get on the Net, and most already have. But as many can confirm, this kind of verbal abuse is all too common in cyberspace. The Usenet discussion groups in particular are full of sarcasm, insults, degrading language, and outright obscenity. In the mailing lists, where you have to subscribe to get access to discussions on specialized topics, even college teachers and dog lovers can blow their cool.
Why should this be? Are we just awful people? I don’t think so. But I do think the technology of the Internet has encouraged users with a particular mind-set, and they in turn have largely created an online culture that promotes abuse.
Addicted to Jolts
To do anything on a computer, you have to obey some arbitrary rules and go through certain ritual actions: click the mouse, hit return, type a precise string of keystrokes. This favors a certain kind of obsessive, ritualistic personality. The reward, for such a personality, is to go through the keyboard rituals to get a “jolt” —a psychological reward— just as a laboratory rat will push a button to get a food pellet.
The jolt may be the opening of a window on the computer monitor, or seeing your own name in someone else’s message, or reading an angry, hostile message that rejects every value you hold dear. In any case, it’s an emotional payoff for going through the ritual, and it clearly appeals to a lot of people. Like any other such reward, computer jolts can become dangerously addictive.
Most, however, prefer to limit their jolts to eavesdropping on others’ quarrels. These are the lurkers, the passive Internet users who like to watch other people get into punch-ups. When lurkers do begin posting messages, they often start with a plea for mercy; they know what they’re getting into.
More aggressive types don’t care. Once addicted, they soon need ever-stronger jolts. So they just wade in with all guns blazing, and they thrive on flame wars of mutual recrimination and insult. Flamers may look like mortal enemies, but they’re really like junkies who also deal drugs—they provide jolts for each other.
Smile When You Write That, Stranger
Still another problem is “register.” This means adapting your comments to the person and the circumstances. If a kindergarten teacher talks to you the same way she talks to your child, you’ll be resentful. If you talk too familiarly to your boss, you may soon be looking for another job. Using the wrong register is the basis of most sitcoms, but it’s not often funny online. That’s why many of us use emoticons to try to convey the register we’re trying for.
When you’re sitting at your computer, you’re totally private. But the messages you read and receive are totally public. This really complicates the register you should adopt. You feel private, as if you were sharing pillow talk with your spouse, but the whole world is watching. Your intimate message brays out over the world’s greatest public-address system, and soon you’re getting equally intimate messages that thousands of others can also read.
When I first began to study the flame problem in the early 1990s, I consoled myself that selfish, insensitive, addictively aggressive slobs would not last long. Like barbarous pioneers, they would give way to the schoolmarms and genteel pillars of society. The people who would really flourish in this new medium, I told myself, would be those who could see beyond the computer monitor to the real live person at the other end, and write their messages accordingly.
I was wrong. The slobs have poisoned most of the waterholes, creating no-go zones all over cyberspace. Worse yet, when some folks do try to set up a civilized online community, the slobs barge in and track mud on the floor. Uninterested in grown-up discussion and debate, they try to bring everyone down to their level. Giving insults, taking insults—it’s all jolts to them.
For those of us who really do want to bring civilization to the online wilderness, the options are few. Arguing with the slobs only gives them more jolts. Ignoring them sometimes goads them into even worse flames.
Better to set out clear house rules for acceptable behaviour, and then to turf out anyone who behaves badly—just as we would if someone crashed a party and started insulting our guests.
A Small Commercial Spot You may have noticed a new link at the top of the right-hand column. It's a modest effort to promote The Tyee, a very good online journal published here in Vancouver. Full disclosure: I've been writing for The Tyee since 2003, and I take some pride in being a contributor. You may not agree with its point of view on all topics (I certainly don't), but you'll find it offers...
You may have noticed a new link at the top of the right-hand column. It's a modest effort to promote The Tyee, a very good online journal published here in Vancouver.
Full disclosure: I've been writing for The Tyee since 2003, and I take some pride in being a contributor. You may not agree with its point of view on all topics (I certainly don't), but you'll find it offers some of the very best online writing anywhere.
If you can add to its readership by becoming a free weekly subscriber to its newsletter, I'd take it as your vote of support for what I'm doing here.
The Plagiarism Problem A commenter posted an innocuous message a few minutes ago, but when I went to the commenter's URL, it advertised "undetectable and plagiarism-free" essays for sale. I zapped it as comment spam, but it also hit a sore spot. This semester I flunked four students and gave a D to a fifth, all because of plagiarized work. It was the worst outbreak I've seen in years, and after forty years...
A commenter posted an innocuous message a few minutes ago, but when I went to the commenter's URL, it advertised "undetectable and plagiarism-free" essays for sale. I zapped it as comment spam, but it also hit a sore spot.
This semester I flunked four students and gave a D to a fifth, all because of plagiarized work. It was the worst outbreak I've seen in years, and after forty years in the college teaching business I think I'm pretty good at spotting it. Probably not good enough, though: All these cases involved simple cut and paste from websites. All I had to do was type a typical sentence from an essay into Google Advanced Search, and bingo—the source was usually the first hit.
Back in the dim days of typewritten essays and print sources, this was what I called lazy plagiarism: transcribing almost random chunks from easily accessed published sources. Smarter plagiarists went to the trouble of finding more obscure sources. I'm sure their descendants are using sources like my spammer's, or otherwise swiping stuff not easily found on the web.
I've even found a few folks who plagiarized my writing advice, presenting it as their own. Since this material is also available in different, copyrighted form in my book on writing SF and fantasy, my publisher always swings into action with highly intimidating emails that get the material removed very quickly indeed.
In some cases it's flattering to be quoted at length, as long as one's cited as the source, and plagiarism might be seen as the insincerest form of flattery. But it's clearly a major problem for educators, and no doubt for web writers and editors as well. So I'm curious to know if you've run into problems with people swiping your stuff—whether you've written it for your own purposes or for your client/employer. And where do you draw the line between common knowledge and intellectual property?
It should be a fascinating discussion, but I won't be able to take part in it until sometime late in the month: This afternoon my wife and I are off for Ottawa on a family visit. I won't have much computer access until I'm home, which is probably just as well...I hope to make some progress, in longhand, on my long-neglected novel.
Downloadable Material from Writing for the Web 3.0 If you use a PC, the CD that comes with Writing for the Web 3.0 contains the items below. But Mac users can't use the CD; so the links below will give you access to the CD materials in the form of a long Word file and a PowerPoint slide show. Whether or not you own the book, I hope you find them useful. Download W4WCDItems.doc Download webwriting_intro.ppt
If you use a PC, the CD that comes with Writing for the Web 3.0 contains the items below. But Mac users can't use the CD; so the links below will give you access to the CD materials in the form of a long Word file and a PowerPoint slide show. Whether or not you own the book, I hope you find them useful.
Download W4WCDItems.doc
Download webwriting_intro.ppt
