Blog tones

Blog tones are nothing to do with music. For me, blog tone is the tone adopted either consciously or unconsciously by a blog writer. For example, some blogs are written in a staid and academic manner on staid and academic subjects with lots of scholarly name-dropping and obscure links. Others adopt a similar academic tone to cover more popular subjects as if viewing them from a great height. Some adopt an academic tone on controversial subjects, presumably to add weight to their point of view and to tone down the controversy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it grates and feels artificial.

Attention to style is obviously a vitally important aspect of any form of writing. Staid and academic comes across well enough to those who value such a style, but how do you lighten it up with a touch of frivolity? Because we do need that touch of frivolity, that stepping back to laugh or smile at the absurdities we have to deal with every day of our lives. Many styles can be learned quite easily, apart from those highly individual styles, the genuinely witty, erudite or penetrating styles unique to particular writers.

So tone is just as important in blogging, as it is for journalism, novels, text-books and academic papers where there is a house style as guidance which bloggers don't have. We have to invent our own style or try to emulate the style of blogs we enjoy or admire ourselves without it being too noticeable and without too many borrowed phrases slipping under the radar. I’m sure blog readers cluster around tone as well as content.

There is also what I think of as a professional journalist’s tone, which I quite admire. It is an easy, flowing style used to make a particular point, often made very forcibly but in an apparently restrained and rational manner. Cracks in the argument are often invisible at first reading unless one is already familiar with the journalist’s style. Having said that, the content we get from professional journalism can be very poor indeed and as far as one can tell, many do little more than copy and paste press releases. You get to know who they are pretty quickly, often after reading only one piece. A few professionals are very good indeed and it is easy to see how they made a career from their writing.

To me, many blog writers don’t seem to be excessively concerned with the tone of their blog, but seem more interested in expressing themselves as they see fit and to my mind this is what makes them so readable. I’m not sure why, but maybe it’s something to do with artifice. Maybe we are pretty good at spotting it and enjoy reading stuff which is relatively free from it. Maybe we don't quite trust professional polish. Maybe we already see and hear too much of it in daily life.