I wanted to talk about The Blogger’s Voice because I think it’s one of the most confusing elements for a new blogger – but in some ways the easiest to overcome. Essentially your blogging voice is your own voice. Voices are as different as people are different, and in the same way that we recognise within a few seconds the voice of a friend on the phone, or a singer in a band, our voices are unique.
I’ve listed three ways to determine the voice we adopt as a blogger.
- what it sounds like - choice of voice
- what it looks like - beyond design
- what it feels like - why do people blog?
But the overarching principle is that it is your voice, and unless you choose to change your voice or sound like someone else on purpose, just write the way you would speak and you’ll be getting it right. I’ll explain this further later in the post.
The Expert adopts the “sage on the stage” style well-known to education students – where the blogger is speaking about something they know a lot about and sharing that knowledge. Political blogs are often approached in this way, and read a bit like a newspaper column. They usually adopt a position, left or right for example, and present their opinion pretty clearly.
The Filter Blogger is the voice often used in celebrity gossip blogs – the blogger chooses or curates the news of the day from multiple sources then presents it to their readers, often adding their own opinion on the scandal or event. Expect to see many links, images, videos and possibly not a lot of original content.
The Freelancer is the most common blogger on the web. Either paid or unpaid, they have a particular interest area and they want to write about it. They are usually either very sure about their opinions, or writing an online journal about their own experiences – so it’s always quite personal. Most create a narrative, like a very short story for each post, or across many posts, to maintain interest over time. Some of these bloggers become quite famous and highly influential; some are crackpots, but they all adopt a particular voice to suit their position – funny, serious, cynical, supportive, emotional, excited, bitter, calming...
Whatever voice you adopt remember the three main principles – show your personality, talk about your passions, and remain honest. Keeping these in mind will stop you from becoming boring or bored, and ensure your readers will stay engaged.
Beyond design I’ve called this section Beyond design because it’s easy to get caught up in colours and fonts but they really have little do with maintaining the voice of the blog. The way it’s laid out should match your voice, so these are general principles to follow. Firstly, come up with a headline or blog post title that piques interest. Why? In our case we are in groups so have to read certain blogs but generally you are trying to be heard in a cacophony of bloggers so a fun, cheeky, or confronting title will make sure you get noticed. The title should be like shorthand for what the post is about. “Today’s thoughts” as a blog title just won’t cut it. |
Same thing with images, videos, links, social media – these all break up the text and contribute to the voice. Make sure they work! And definitely make sure images are properly attributed; using a Creative Commons Search makes this easy as the licenses are listed with each image. There are a few ways to format it but you'll see the style I use on images in this post: title is linked to the image, creator and source are listed, license is linked to the license. There’s a very good document on the unit Blackboard site about this too.
The quote above from an Atlantic Monthly blogger suggests a useful simile with extreme sports, another might be stream-of-consciousness writing, or a public diary, or a stand-up comedy routine, if that’s your thing. Read it out when it’s finished, if you like, that’s a good way to check if it sounds sincere. As long as it’s sincere, it will feel good.
Keep it simple, use lots of white space and relevant media, be personal, passionate and honest, and don’t worry too much about it being formally written - we aren’t required to use references so as long as you stay on-topic it can be chatty and informal. You must credit other people's ideas or images, of course. You may not be passionate about the topics in weeks to come – but try to find some angle on it you’re passionate about and the writing will come so much easier because it will be sincere. Will you be the Expert, the Filter, or the Freelancer? It’s your voice, and your choice. I can’t wait to read what you come up with.
Some blogging links
But the very first, essential resource is Creative Commons Search!
Research on the blogging voice
http://www.copyblogger.com/how-to-be-interesting/
http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/29/20-types-of-blog-posts-battling-bloggers-block/
http://www.theblogmaven.com/blogging-voice/
http://goinswriter.com/writing-voice/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/05/22/finding-your-blog%E2%80%99s-unique-voice/
http://epreneur.tv/find-your-voice/
https://github.com/mailchimp/content-style-guide/blob/master/02-voice-and-tone.html.md
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/developing-blogging-voice/
Blog portals
http://the-toast.net/ - women/books/feminism
http://domain.nationalforum.com.au/ - Australian politics
http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/education/other/blogspodstweets.html#edblog - Australian educators
https://www.examtime.com/blog/best-education-blogs-watch-in-2015/ - US educators
http://librariesinteract.info/australian-library-blogs/ - Australian librarians
http://dailytekk.com/2015/01/01/the-100-best-most-interesting-blogs-and-websites-of-2015/?reading=continue - best global blogs
http://www.writerscentre.com.au/community/best-australian-blogs-comp/winners-2014/ - best Australian blogs