First Arrow

Roy Jacobsen was kind enough to tag me with the Premio Dardo Award, which “acknowledges the effort of a particular blogger to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values in his or her writing.” The rules require me to pass the award on to 15 other bloggers. I’m usually not one for chain blog posts, but I’m happy to oblige here. Besides being good writers, many bloggers I’ve come to know are also good people. And for a while now, I’ve wanted to write a post or two about some of them. The following blogs are just a few that fit the criteria for the Premio Dardo Award:

• Adams Drafting. I’ve never met Ken Adams, but I’ve come to know him through e-mail and blog posts. He is the pre-eminent expert on contract drafting. In his writing, he reveals himself as a meticulous person.

• Bad Language. Matthew Stibbe is an Englishman and a freelance writer who evidently enjoys his work. He’s figured out how to blog for fun and profit.

• Business Writing. Lynn Gaertner-Johnston teaches lawyers and others how to handle the kinds of writing we do most often: e-mail, letters, interoffice memos. She urges us to write like human beings, and she leads by example.

• Fairyland Castle. Martin Magnusson is an attorney interested in language. He started blogging last October, and is off to a fine start.

• Manage Your Writing. Each Monday, Ken Davis gives us one tip to work on during the week to improve our writing. He comes across as a kind, gentle teacher, more interested in encouraging good habits than red-inking bad ones.

• Party of the First Part, subtitled Adventures in Legalese, is Adam Freedman’s playground. Check out his Hall of Shame, where he skewers bad writing and translates it into something a human being might understand.

• Writing Tools. Roy Peter Clark doesn’t need a plug from the likes of me. He is a successful journalist and author who shares what he knows about making your writing matter. (If you don’t have his book Writing Tools, get it.)

• You Don’t Say! John McIntyre is a copy editor for the Baltimore Sun. He describes himself as a “veteran drudge” who “writes about language, usage, journalism, and arbitrarily chosen subjects.” Lately he’s taken to posting videos of himself telling enjoyably corny jokes. 

My remaining seven awards will be bestowed on my other blog, Minor Wisdom.

Comments

[Matthew Stibbe]

I definitely blog for fun but I have yet to figure ou the 'blogging for profit' piece! :) But thanks for the link. Best wishes, Matthew

[Ray Ward]

Well, Matthew, you do have "Ads by Google." Surely that generates a few pennies, which would be a few pennies more than I've gotten out of my blog.

[Matthew Stibbe]

I think I've made £250 out of advertising and (mainly) Amazon referrals on my blog. That's in three years and after about 50,000 words! However it has won me some interesting work and I enjoy doing it. I would like to increase the numbers of my readers and increase the ad revenue but at best it'll only generate enough to cover the hosting costs etc. If someone has a recipe for making a reasonable amount of money from blogging, I'd love to hear it.

[Lynn]

Ray, I was just catching up on my reading. Thank you for your kind words about my blog.

You have such excellent, varied information! Thank you for your diligence in keeping up your blog over the years.

Best wishes,
Lynn