Saturday, December 7, 2019

My limited understanding beats out your knowledge and expertise any time!

No, readers, this is not a political post!  (But don't get started in that area!)

This is not my real attitude, but experience with an employer's (yes, readers, I now I have an employer!) blog software made think of this experience. You've seen it in choir rehearsals--"My high school choir director taught me to do it this way in 1952, and you'll never convince me to do it any other way! I don't care about unity--all the audience will know that I alone am doing it right!" That, along with "What? You mean the English language hasn't always functioned the way we understand it today?!" both amaze me.

Back to the topic at hand. As a favor (because, believe me, David doesn't write copy for data entry wages!) I helped edit a couple of blog posts written by someone whose native language is not English. My understanding is that he had grabbed information from other sources and glommed it together. Well, after my best efforts, the software gave me red lights for both SEO recognition and readability. SEO-schmay-zee-oh! If someone searches for Persian rugs or Oriental rugs they'll find the blog posts and learn about the business. (Link. Yes, they need my help with their web site, too.) But the readability business really irritated me. You see, I knows something about writing.

I don't know which was more irritating--the fact that this software continually recommended bad style choices, or that the fellow I was helping out simply refused to move forward until both SEO and readability lights were green. I know something about the English language. I have been writing for publication for a little while now. I had very good training in English grammar while I was in school. (Something I'm sure the public schools in North Carolina are far too busy with accountability and running away from shooters to offer nowadays!) I can understand that the software likes simpler sentences that I often use. I can understand that it doesn't like passive voice. (I actually did edit out a lot of passive voice language in the original posts, and the ratings got better.) But using what they call "transitional words" in every other sentence? Let us establish now that I think "therefore" is overused and more often than not used incorrectly. (I also think "forever" is used far too often, and don't get me started on "zero" vs. "no" or "none"!) Someone who is searching for this topic is probably able to read my sentences. Someone who isn't able to read them will likely be paying someone else to do the online research for him.

Why do I have such an emotional response? As they say, if it's hysterical, it's historical. Tell me I'm not smart and I'll hurt you bad. I'm not kidding. I guess it's hard for me to remove myself from these suggestions that I am a bad writer. Surely it resonates with other things in my life, past and present. I'll work on that and I'll keep you posted. Unless the six or eight hours daily of data entry drive me to jump off a building or something.