INTRODUCTION
But I'm Not a Writer
If you have a website, you are a publisher. If you are on
social media, you are in marketing. And that means we are all
writers.
Yeah, but who cares about writing anymore? In a time-
challenged world dominated by short and snappy, by click-
bait headlines and Twitter streams and Instagram feeds and
gifs and video and Snapchat and YOLO and LOL and #tbt
. . . does the idea of focusing on writing seem pedantic or
ordinary?
And maybe a little useless, considering that an article
(or so-called listicle) titled "13 Potatoes That Look Like
Channing Tatum" on Buzz- Feed garners 2,000 tweets and
14,000 shares on Facebook?
Actually, writing matters more now, not less. In an
online world, our online words are our emissaries; they tell
the world who we are, as user experience expert Beth Dunn
puts it.
Our writing can make us look smart or it can make us
look stupid. It can make us seem fun, or warm, or competent,
or trustworthy. But it can also make us seem humdrum or
discombobulated or flat-out boring.
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