Can you teach an old dog new tricks?



I have been admonished by some of my readers that my blog posts are too long. Nobody, I am told, has the time to read long perorations. I need to make my posts shorter and snappier. It started with my friend Indrani who works for the British Council in Calcutta telling me and I quote “ your blog posts are now becoming more like book chapters”. Subsequently Yachana Prakash ,who was my student at SMIMS Gangtok, now doing her post graduation in Ophthalmology in Coimbatore told me: “umm...yes i do feel your posts are long sometimes, I haven’t been able to read some fully because of the length.you do write well and i never felt like telling you the same because you pack in a lot of info in all those paragraphs
and it is of a lot of value to a sincere reader but yes, take this opportunity and try to make it more reader friendly. You know we are all lesser mortals here and we want to hear god in our own language!!!”
Subsequently Nipon who studies in the final year at the North Bengal Medical College and whose blog Niponwave made me take up blogging in the first place told me: “well your blog posts are a tad long will admit that, but then they reflect the scholarly bend of your mind. I like reading them but the problem lies elsewhere. Readability. You need to use more paragraphs. But more importantly, the look and feel of ur blog is also to be blamed. The color of the background and that of the text kind of blend in and the text is not very readable.”

As you can see I have already taken Nipon’s advice. I will also carefully consider the other suggestions that I have received, but I do not think that I can transform myself to a snappy blogger. My posts will tend to be longer than the average blog post. However I am happy that there has been a discussion and here is hoping that we will have more trenchant criticism in the future.

Comments

y-axis! said…
ok at the outset, its slightly better off as yachana instead of yachna.m sure you'll agree.

as for the blog page, it is good so far as a change is concerned but the older one was better. but you know what! dont bother at all. no matter what the length, what the format we look forward to having your post up on the page. it should never change your style, you are no old dog only a slightly better one!
March 27, 2010 at 12:19 AM
akdcts said…
sorry, i have made the correction
March 29, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Nipon said…
Wow! I welcome the change. The new design looks fresh and invigorating. The length of your posts only reflect how well thought out and well presented they are. Keep them coming!

Cheers!!
May 21, 2010 at 1:41 PM
custom written essay said…
Great blog, usually I find commonplace notes on this matter but yours are definitely new and helpful.
September 26, 2011 at 4:02 AM
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