I’ve only just start blogging these past few weeks, but within this time I have been desperately trying to find my own voice and style of writing. There are emotions I wish to convey and certain responses I hope to extract from my readers through my posts. There is a certain feeling I want my reads to have as they read through my posts. And as I sift through other pharmacy related blogs on the web I have come some across very extreme forms of writing. Some bloggers prefer to use vulgar and crude language because they feel it makes their posts appear more “real.” But I have also seen blogs in which the writer refrains from using profanity. They incorporate more sophisticated and witty expression to communicate their emotions. Both of these blogs kept me interested in their postings, but by way of two different voices in their blogs. I could relate to the blog that contained more slag and informal speech simply because I felt like I was having a conversation with the writer. But I found the analytical and refined blogger’s use of idioms and play on words very clever and interesting to read as well.
Ultimately wit outperformed slang. So we should put our hands together for Pharmablogger’s clever use of the English language. The first thing that caught my attention on Pharmablogger was the play on words in the title. “Do you recall..?” Well, I don’t know, do you? Not that it really matter’s because that is not what Pharmablogger meant. She meant “recall,” as in the long disgusting process of taking back from the consumer what was already given to them. More specifically she was speaking about the recall of “Johnson & Johnson / McNeil’s Tylenol products.” Then she jumps right into the article and provides not one but several links to her sources for the post. And soon after she highlights the points of the recall and spices up her post using exclamations like “WOW!” when commenting on the ridiculous amount of money J&J saved by switching bottle suppliers. Last, but not least she closes up her posting with a sarcastic tone by saying how if “[we] [were] J&J stockholders, [we] might want to let [them] know how much [we] appreciate the savings.” But in reality most of us are not J&J stockholders, and could care less they saved by switching suppliers.
Then in another post Pharmablogger completely changes her word choice and style in sentence structure. Rather than using puns and sarcasm the “Not a good week for AZ…” post utilizes a single complex sentence and a block quote. There is no use of similes or metaphors in her complex sentence just an independent clause connected to a dependent clause by way of a comma. Pharmablogger writes: “Astra Zeneca loses patent case against Dr. Reddy’s, and then has to cough up court costs.” Her use of just one sentence to describe the courtcase is what I call simple and refined. And in the dependent clause she added her own voice by using colloquialism to convey the idea that this is probably not the first time AZ lost a court case and needs to pay lawyer dues. The thing I liked most about this specific post was her use of a block quote, in addition to providing concrete evidence to her post she personalized it by titling it “my favorite passage.” It let me, the reader; see her point of view on the court case.
Pharmablogger’s unique writing style combined with her quick remarks makes her blog that much more interesting to read. But that doesn’t go to say blogs that are less refined are of less value. I believe that a balance between the two is where my blog will stand. Use of occasional profanity would be a great tool when emphasizing a certain emotion and if combined with clever statements and observations the blog would appear “real” and sophisticated.
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