owclaw’s blog

Writing to Engage: Prince of Petworth: B+

Full Disclosure: not only to I read Prince of Petworth (PoP), I’m also a member.By which I mean, I live in Petworth. Now, I have never written to the Prince, but I’m willing to bet that our paths have crossed. After all, there are only so many people who go to Domku, (the former) Temperance Hall, and walk around the ‘hood with their camera looking at doors, yard sculptures, and terrible additions to nice row houses.The aim of PoP, aside from selling ads, is to create and sustain a feeling of community. Some sites (mostly blogs, I would imagine) create communities based on shared affinities: communities of faith, for example, or for hobbies, like Manhattan Reefs. But I live in one of the bloggiest cities in the US , so I want to look my neighborhood blog. (Actually, only one of my neighborhood blogs, PetworthNews [tagline: All the News within Walking Distance] would remind m)So what makes good Web writing when you’re trying to Engage?Scanability is still important, since not every post is going to be interesting to every person. PoP is not really Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal mp3 so scannable. Stories run in reverse chronological order, as is the case with most blogs. Headlines proceed from one margin to the other and the text is pretty uniform. Scanning, such as it is, is done with the mouse on the scroll bar. How could this be improved? How about a mini table of contents on either the right or left column? The five most recent posts? Mitigating the need for scannability is the fact that many people come to community sites fairly regularly, so they know what’s new.Credibility is also important, since the author of the posts (or pages if not a blog) needs to be a trusted source, not only for information, but also to mediate the altercations that are nearly certain to arise whenever a diverse group forms a single community.The tone of the blog is informal but respectful, like a townhall meeting where some parents may have brought their children. I would argue that this tone enhances PoP’s credibility; it says hey, I tell it like is (e.g. terrible additions), but in terms that everyone can understand and no one should find objectionable.’Completeness is not nearly as important when you are writing to Engage. In fact, often the most engaging posts are ones that are completely open. Let’s look at PoP. Some of the most commented-upon posts are his Friday Questions. Likewise, many people respond to posts that are little more than a title (often a question) and an image.Concision is still important, though less so, as people who are coming to the site are predisposed to read longer posts, at least if they find them interesting (thus, I would propose a kind of see-saw of concision-scannability. The more of one you have, the less of the other you might need. Then again, concision often enhances to scannability, and scannability often engenders concision.)On PoP, many of the posts are short, but that’s not the same as concise. For example there’s this post about proposed school closings in DC, guest-written by a teacher, all spellings/grammar as in the original:”I am writing today, because i am discouraged by the list of school closings,Bruce Monroe was on that list and is the best school I have seen in dc!Yes the building could use some work, but the programs here are awesome to put it in the leaseThis school just received a relationship with The Rosenbaum foundation for aSingapore Math pilot program Bringing the worlds foremost math expert on board.They are about to with with A.I.R and their math group and the Federal Government to implement this.The staffs morale is hurting and I am so discouraged with this system.Why should we stay in it.Do we care about our kids they will be lost and destroyed at Parkview.Please reconsider thisFrom the heart of a teacher who cares probably too muchenrollment here is up, test scores are up, help us!!!!!!!!!!!we have great leadership and our parrents are comming to me and w
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