Blogging Style

Blogs represent a new medium, and as such we haven't yet sorted out what style should be adopted. As you may have noticed, I use a fairly formal register, with full sentences (mostly), standard spelling, few typos (I hope), and no texting abbreviations (such as '4' instead of for and 'u' for you) or emoticons (such as :D for a wide smile). Partly that is because I am too old-fashioned to deal with such new-fangled things; or perhaps it is because I think my topic is awfully important and so it deserves a serious register.

In contrast, many of my fellow bloggers in Brunei and elsewhere adopt a much more casual style. For example, the Bruneian blogger who styles herself as 'Hiro' and whose blog is entitled Random Curiosity includes the following text in her entry for 28 January 2009:

Ok.Finally our pics are up thank you Leong I'll borrow some of ur pics dear! More coming i tomorrow from boss, have to wait lagi. hahaha.anyways..

This short paragraph has a number of features that make it distinct from my own style of writing:

• inclusion of a Malay word: lagi ("more", "again")
• abbreviations: pics, ur
• run-on sentences: Finally our pics are up thank you Leong I'll borrow some of ur pics dear!
  
• typos: coming i tomorrow
• representation of laughter: hahaha

All these features are, of course, designed to represent a chatty, colloquial form of communication. In linguistics, we emphasise that the style of language adopted on any one occasion depends a number of factors, including who you are talking to, what you are talking about, and where you are. In this case, Hiro has chosen to adopt an informal style that is entirely appropriate for casual communication with her friends. In fact, one of the expectations of this kind of discourse is that it should be immediate, just like conversational speech, which is why typos are rarely corrected and a few spelling errors are accepted and even expected.

I think it is splendid to see that blogging has enabled such a diversity of styles, and it continues to stimulate creativity among its participants. After all, that is what language should be all about: creativity, originality, and fun. I started off by saying that blogging has not yet determined what style ought to be adopted; but in reality, it seems to be encouraging a wide range of different styles. This suggests it is emerging as a really powerful medium.

Keep on blogging!