I recently took part in a discussion of a guy’s blog. He asked for advice, and I took a dislike to his tone in his discussion of his problems. People offered help and he rejected it, so then I pitched in with my “Help!” as below.

Originally Posted by KevinG

I got a lot of comments by email from teachers who run education blogs and every single one of them agreed with me on my article. I am a teacher as well. If you are a good parent then I congratulate you, but if your career doesn’t involve teaching and working with large groups of children then I’m afraid you really aren’t in a position to comment on the “general” population of children. The problem with your blog is easy to see: your writing is highly emotional, your arguments are self proving, you never cite any statistics. You brush off other comments on your articles with assertions claiming others don’t have a position to comment on your articles, yet you fail to provide adequate reason to believe your own point of view.

“I feel” is not a rational argument. Children used to experience this growth? Where? When? How much? What quality of growth did they have? You need to establish all of this before you go onto claim what you believe is true. Otherwise you lose your reader, except those who already agree with you totally. But even then, you owe that reader an explanation of sorts, too.

There are lots of examples of this throughout your blog and I think that this is a core reason people are not returning to your blog. You’re not engaging them, you’re ranting and raving about things that you care about (which is fine, it’s part of a blog, but it doesn’t entitle you to a readership).

You must respect your reader, you must engage your reader, you must inform your reader, you must enlighten your reader, … Otherwise your reader, even those disposed to your political leanings, will simply wander away looking for content that challenges them either on an emotional or an intellectual level.

If you look at Steve’s articles, you will see how different they are to yours. You will see how he attracts readers of many persuasions to his views, not because they believe him, but because he informs them. He respects his readers by engaging their intellects, he enlightens them, on occasion, too.

So, go study your blog heroes, emulate the things they do well, build your writing skills, then write and rewrite and rewrite until the text shines. At that point, your readership will arrive and respect what you have done.

Was I over the top? Mm. I don’t really think so, but what do I know? Follow up to come…