The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Blogging Is Re-Blogging

Posted on | February 11, 2010 | 20 Comments

Smitty has already mentioned Little Miss Attila’s blogging guidelines, from which I noticed this:

After you’ve posted something, editing should be limited to fixing typos, smoothing out the grammar, and modifying an egregious word choice. Be careful in doing this: once someone quotes your entry somewhere, you’re going to look like an idiot if you’ve edited the passage or the sentence they quote. The most conservative, safe way to edit—and one that you’ll want to use if you find an actual inaccuracy—is to leave the incorrect text there, but crossed out, while adding the new, correct text.

There is an old adage among English teachers: “Writing is re-writing.” Having learned my craft in the Old School newspaper environment, I’m a bit at odds with the blogger concept that the first draft — the version of the post as it existed when you initially hit the “publish” button — must be preserved inviolate.

My habit is to publish, read over it on the page and then correct typos, etc. I’m thankful for commenters who point out errors, but I seldom acknowledge either the error or its correction in the text of the post, simply because it detracts from the reading experience. The comment pointing out the error remains as acknowledgement of the correction.

Here’s the thing: The political blogosphere arose during the post-9/11 era, in an environment when everyone was arguing over war, peace and the future of Civilization As We Know It. In the midst of constant high-stakes controversy, there was a special contempt for the idiot who published erroneous misinformation and then, when called out by another blogger, corrected the error without acknowledging that he’d screwed up. Such an idiot was amending the record for the purpose of misleading others, falsely presenting himself as possessed of perfection in punditry.

Most blog corrections are not such a big deal, especially if — as is the case for most newbies — your new post isn’t going to be seen by many people in the first hour or two of its publication. Also, if the error you make is minor (i.e., misspelling a name), there’s no need to call attention to the correction. On the other hand, if you write:

Andrew Sullivan is a vicious Jew-hater.

And then correct that to read:

Andrew Sullivan is a demented poofter.

You probably need to acknowledge the correction. However, to see Leon Wieseltier accused of writing that is “ugly, reckless, and at-times-deranged” by Glenn Greenwald is the kind of thing that inspired my special codicil to the rules of blogging:

There are no rules when arguing with Glenn Greenwald.

That’s something we can all agree on, right?

Category: Andrew Sullivan, Blogging, Little Miss Attila

Comments

20 Responses to “Blogging Is Re-Blogging”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    February 11th, 2010 @ 4:44 pm

    100%

  2. Bob Belvedere
    February 11th, 2010 @ 11:44 am

    100%

  3. DarthRove
    February 11th, 2010 @ 5:14 pm

    So Andi is a vicious demented Jew-hating poofter?

  4. DarthRove
    February 11th, 2010 @ 12:14 pm

    So Andi is a vicious demented Jew-hating poofter?

  5. Red
    February 11th, 2010 @ 5:39 pm

    What Bob said.

  6. Red
    February 11th, 2010 @ 12:39 pm

    What Bob said.

  7. Blogging Etiquette: Corrections and Updates
    February 11th, 2010 @ 1:26 pm

    […] Stacy McCain, a career journalist and more recent convert to blogging, demurs. There is an old adage among English teachers: “Writing is re-writing.” Having learned my craft in the Old School newspaper environment, I’m a bit at odds with the blogger concept that the first draft — the version of the post as it existed when you initially hit the “publish” button – must be preserved inviolate. […]

  8. Blogging Is Re-Blogging « Trainwife1962's Blog
    February 11th, 2010 @ 1:51 pm

    […] via Blogging Is Re-Blogging. […]

  9. FatBaldnSassy
    February 11th, 2010 @ 7:37 pm

    Glen is a demented poofter, too.

  10. FatBaldnSassy
    February 11th, 2010 @ 2:37 pm

    Glen is a demented poofter, too.

  11. LIttle Miss Attila
    February 11th, 2010 @ 10:21 pm

    Depends on what you mean by rewriting: when I’m rewriting a long-form story, I may take out entire paragraphs, which I wouldn’t do to a blog post.

    But just editing?–spelling, grammar, word choice? That’s fine.

    What one does want to do is acknowledge factual errors.

    And of course there are times when one follows tequila rules. Natch. (You know what those are, don’t you?–“When you drink tequila, there are no rules.”)

  12. LIttle Miss Attila
    February 11th, 2010 @ 5:21 pm

    Depends on what you mean by rewriting: when I’m rewriting a long-form story, I may take out entire paragraphs, which I wouldn’t do to a blog post.

    But just editing?–spelling, grammar, word choice? That’s fine.

    What one does want to do is acknowledge factual errors.

    And of course there are times when one follows tequila rules. Natch. (You know what those are, don’t you?–“When you drink tequila, there are no rules.”)

  13. Little Miss Attila
    February 12th, 2010 @ 3:45 am

    I’m only posting to fix that capital “i” problem in my I.D. for this account.

    CORRECTION: The name of my blog is actually “Little Miss Attila,” rather than “LIttle Miss Attila.”

  14. Little Miss Attila
    February 11th, 2010 @ 10:45 pm

    I’m only posting to fix that capital “i” problem in my I.D. for this account.

    CORRECTION: The name of my blog is actually “Little Miss Attila,” rather than “LIttle Miss Attila.”

  15. So, What Does It Look Like When You Get an Instalanche, a Beltwaylanche, a Surberlanche, and a Stacylanche—All in the Same Day? | Little Miss Attila
    February 11th, 2010 @ 10:55 pm

    […] to Glenn, James, Don, Jenn, Stacy, and John. (I can’t find Jenn’s post, and I know John’s is just a roundup, rather […]

  16. uberVU - social comments
    February 12th, 2010 @ 6:23 am

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by StAPress: Sound advice: Blogging Is Re-Blogging http://bit.ly/cq3yg3 (via @rsmccain)…

  17. Georg Felis
    February 12th, 2010 @ 5:09 pm

    Much of this is due to the “writing with your finger on a pail of water” nature of the blogosphere. Newspapers chisel their words on tablets of stone (well, shredded trees) and are immortalized forever in microfilm the the basements of libraries over the world, while that same informative blog post that you looked at yesterday has strangely transformed into a recepie for rhubarb pie today.

    So be polite. Mark your corrections. Even if they are embarassing. After all, even the New York Times does it. Sometimes.

  18. Georg Felis
    February 12th, 2010 @ 12:09 pm

    Much of this is due to the “writing with your finger on a pail of water” nature of the blogosphere. Newspapers chisel their words on tablets of stone (well, shredded trees) and are immortalized forever in microfilm the the basements of libraries over the world, while that same informative blog post that you looked at yesterday has strangely transformed into a recepie for rhubarb pie today.

    So be polite. Mark your corrections. Even if they are embarassing. After all, even the New York Times does it. Sometimes.

  19. Peter
    February 13th, 2010 @ 4:50 am

    Does the no rules for arguing with Greenwald count for all of his sockpuppets?

  20. Peter
    February 12th, 2010 @ 11:50 pm

    Does the no rules for arguing with Greenwald count for all of his sockpuppets?