How Wikis and Blogs Affect Writing

It’s an interesting topic isn’t it? Because, I’m a writer (I reckon myself as that ^_^) and even without internet as medium, writing has been a particular and growing interest of mine since I was small.  You know, back then, I would have this log book, usually the A4 size, where I keep all my lyrics and fictions which I kept from everyone and I would draw dresses (and smiling as I did) because it belongs to my little world where I let all might thoughts wander.

I can return to my parent’s home and take the books off my shelf, (yes, you read me right, I have loads of them!) and laugh it off. Those days were amazing, the imagination was limitless. As I grow older, writing is no longer an interest but a must: writing for exams, making notes and doing exercises. We don’t write and publish for fun; it takes time. So… when this whole brand new idea of writing comes out, I beamed.  What am I talking about? Blogs! Hundreds of blogs, thousands of blogs, millions of blogs you can create! Well, that’s if you want to make that much of them; two is enough for me to juggle 😉

Does blog in any way affect my writing? We’re talking about many aspects here: messages, audience, medium, writing style, grammar, vocabulary and the writer himself.  But before we discuss this, we should see what wikis are too.

Wikis are websites where information is combined, like an encyclopedia, and anyone can add up to the pages.  Yep, you just need to sign up and you can be one of the editors.  That’s why some call ‘wiki’ as ‘what I know is…’  Well, does that make it less reliable? This is where we need users to become ‘information literates’ (check out http://weblogg-ed.com/2004/07/06/). For me, most of my time spent looking for definition, wikis come in handy- very convenient. Uh-uh, it is fast, which is the literal meaning taken from Hawaiian language; ‘wiki-wiki’=’fast’… But, it actually helps on the fundamental level.  For details, really, we have to rely on official resources.  In fact, you can’t use wikis as references in assignments, can we… You can go google for further information 😉

Right, so we have gone through the basics of wikis and blogs.  Obviously we’re talking about writing style at present time; the modern, hi-tech, multimedia, world-at-your-fingertips era. As I’ve mentioned before, there are a few issues I’d like to elaborate:

With or without blogs and wikis, writing will always stay.  I remember a quote saying if we want to measure the civilization level of a nation, we measure its writing as it indicates the data keeping.  Huge empires such as Rome is successful due to this.  Therefore, there will always be exchange of information and messages, but nowadays, the writings slant on the messages itself and not the literature.  People are more straight-forward and write only about important things.  We were made to be outspoken and open in writing.

Therefore, writing style definitely has gone through an evolution: message-oriented.  What affects writing may be the tools used.  Writing blogs makes casual writing since writers focus more on what the readers want, but the text is editable therefore at some point writers tend to write carelessly.  Wikis on the other hand becomes a helpful source in assisting writers to understand concepts better, also to gain vast range of vocabulary.

In a nutshell, I believe wikis and blogs affect the writing style of a writer.  Grammatically and lexically, well, honestly I’m a bit technology-dependent, but hey, if it improves the writing, why not?  But that’s a whole different story, that’s computer as tools. Drop by at http://toheartsdesire.blogspot.com/

“A good writer writes good blog, but does a blog makes a good writer?”

What do you think?