The 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day today are from our
Ecology & Social Justice category.
This particular category took shape thanks to
@ffantastica, which just goes to show you that it pays to speak up around here.
Drop in on these fine weblogs and leave them some comments to let them know you were there:
Le Carnet d'Ysengrimus
Facing Autism in New Brunswick
Knitnut.net
The Mindful Merchant
My Green Conscience
Do you know of another Canadian weblog that fits into the Ecology & Social Justice category?
Nominate it for a 2010 Canadian Weblog Award!
Labels: categories, Ecology and Social Justice
The 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day today are from our
crafting category.
This category ranges from inspiring crafting how-tos to hilarious crafting disasters. Being somewhat of a crafter myself, I love seeing what people are making and the materials they use to make them. I've let my crafty side slide over the last few months, and it's motivating to take a look at what these bloggers are up to.
Pop on over to check them out and say hello in the comments:
Craftastrophe
The Crafty Life
Imagination in Parenting
{scissor variations}
Swatchless
Yarn Harlot
If you know of another Canadian craft blogger,
nominate them for a 2010 Canadian Weblog Award. Make them famous!
Labels: categories, Crafting
Berendina Dykema authors The Art of Baking, which has been nominated in the Art & Photography, Best New Weblog, and Food & Drink categories of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.
Why blogging?
Well, it all started when I began to visit a couple of blogs on baking. I was inspired by their photographs, writing, recipes, and most of all their hard work of sharing to the world what they love. Then I began to think to myself, I should share my passion for baking through a blog. I received a lot of encouragement and helpful advice from friends and family.
I then set off on my adventure by deciding which blogging creator I would like to choose. There were so many creator websites that I almost wanted to give up; however, I settled with Google because it seemed the simplest blog creator for a newbie to the world of blogging. Then the developing began and "The Art of Baking" was born in January of 2010.
To answer the question directly to why I'm blogging is because I love to share my creativity with others and inspire people to share as well. I love to get people excited and passionate about food, whether it is cooking or baking. The blogging world is ultimately a place to really express yourself and have fun along the way. I continue to firmly believe this and have really had a lot of fun in the process.
What got you into baking? How long have you been doing it?
I have been into baking since I was a child helping my mother bake cookies and cupcakes. It was always fun to decorate and bring my own creativity to a delicious treat. I would say that baking became a passion of mine during high school. I took several cooking courses in my senior year. They were always my favorite classes to attend, and I always learned something new. Those were the first years where I brought my passion for baking home and challenged myself with new recipes. I am now twenty years old, and my passion to bake has evolved into sharing my creativity through my blog.
Do you have a favorite baking moment?
I think all the baking I do has its favorite moments. If I had to choose, I would have to say creating and sharing the birthday cakes I have baked for family and friends. Those were the most fun in terms of creativity. It also brings a smile to my face when people feel happy, impressed, and surprised by the cakes I have made for them.
Your weblog only dates back to January this year, so it is relatively new. Has sharing your passion for baking online changed anything for you, such as what you decide to bake or how often?
Yes, ever since I launched "The Art of Baking", my passion for baking has continuously changed in very positive ways. The blogging world has given me a new-found confidence in myself that I had never felt till I shared my creativity with people. It has definitely pushed me to bake more than I ever did before and to try out new recipes that are more challenging. It continues to help improve my writing and photography skills. The saying "practice makes perfect" is certainly true.
Have you considered writing a cookbook at some point?
I have actually never thought about writing a cookbook till now, and I would actually be pretty interested in writing one sometime in my life. To share my passion for baking to those who may not be avid blog readers would be a fun journey to embark on.
If you were to give some advice to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?
I would tell them to stick with a topic they are extremely passionate about and express themselves in a way that feels right to them. If you choose something that you just like rather than a passion, then you will most likely lose interest pretty quickly. Also, I would tell them to have a lot of fun with it and don't be intimidated by other blogs. Just go with what you know and everything will fall into place.
What weblogs are your must-reads?
I have tons of blogs/websites I love to read, but for the ones I can think of at the top of my head would be:
Martha Stewart is one because it has many creative cooking, baking and craft ideas.
Food Network Canada, because I always trust the recipes to turn out how they are described in the recipe and the photographs.
Jenn's Baking Chamber because it's the first blog that actually influenced and inspired me to start my own blog on baking.
Joy of Baking, because it was the first baking website I started to use for recipes and they all turn out wonderfully.
Living Food Junkie is my sister's blog that began a little after mine and is inspired from sharing healthy living food recipes. She does a lot of un-baking as well.
Easy Cake Ideas has wonderfully impressive cakes, frostings, and fondants that can be done so easily.
The Random Adventures of the Rambling Artist, because it's my good friend's impressive artistic abilities shared with the world.
Berendina Dykema is a young adult living on Vancouver Island. She is new to the blogging world, starting
The Art of Baking in January of 2010. Her great passions in life are food, baking, art, photography, and writing. She believes that baking is a great way to express your own creativity along with sharing the joy with others.
Labels: Art and Photography, Best New Weblog, Food and Drink, interviews
The 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day today are from our
Comics category.
Due to its specificity, the Comics category is still quite small, but don't let size fool you. It packs a punch. This is my go-to list of weblogs when I want to be entertained.
Check out these gems and leave comments to let the authors know you came by:
The Crafty Life
Dinosaur Comics
Everyday People
Fresh and Tasty
Hark! A Vagrant
A Softer World
Weregeek
The Writing Womb
Do you know of another Canadian web comic?
Nominate it in the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards and let the rest of us know!
Labels: categories, Comics
The Canadian Weblog Awards are juried awards in which the finalists and winners are chosen using a specific set of
ten criteria. The seventh instalment of our ten-part
Criteria Series is about
currency.
What is currency? Currency relates to both the timeliness of a weblog's content and the regularity with which the content is updated.
The currency of a weblog is important, because if its content is based on old news, or if its latest content is growing stale with no new updates, a weblog's ability to generate interest from both its present audience and its new readers will diminish.
How Keep Your Weblog Current
1. If you write a weblog based on news — whether it be entertainment, sports, or the latest in politics — write about stories that are happening now rather than several days ago.
If the news is older than the last couple of days, it has likely been fairly fully covered elsewhere. Unless you have a truly fresh perspective, it is probably time to move on.
2. Update your weblog at least once a week, if not more.
Interest in your weblog wanes in direct proportion to the age of your latest content. If you want an audience that will keep coming back, create content regularly that will keep them coming back.
See? It's easy to keep your weblog current. Write about timely affairs if you write about current affairs, update regularly, and — BAM — you've got currency.
Are there any other things to take into account with weblog currency I might have missed out on?
Labels: Criteria Series, how to
The 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day today are from our
Business & Career category.
Best & Career is a category open to weblogs about... wait for it... things related to business and careers! Business & Career is a dry category title, but don't let that fool you. There are gems here that you probably shouldn't miss.
Check out these weblogs and leave them comments to let them know you dropped in:
Canadian Freelance Writing Jobs
Danny Brown
International Association of Women in Business Online
IttyBiz
Reactorr
Red Clover Literary Studio
Squawkfox
Studio Rose Flash's Blog
White Hot Truth
Do you know of more Canadian weblogs with an eye to business and career?
Nominate them in the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards and share them with the rest of us!
Labels: Business and Career, categories
The Canadian Weblog Awards, unlike most weblog awards out there, are not decided by popular vote. The Canadian Weblog Awards finalists and winners will instead be chosen by a select jury using a specific set of
ten criteria. If you have been following along with our ten-part
Criteria Series, the first five criteria have already been discussed, which brings us to our sixth instalment in the series, Intelligibility and Clarity.
It seems an obvious point that a weblog, if it is at all interested in its audience, should have content that is understandable to the reader. It also seems an obvious point that following the rules of spelling and grammar is a pretty good idea. Surprisingly, though, this is not so obvious to everyone who has access to the internet if the sheer number of weblogs that ignore the basic rules of style are any indication.
Making the effort to create coherent content shows a certain respect for both your material and the audience that you invite to read it. People believe what you show them, and if you show them haphazard material rife with mistakes and lacking in any clear message, that is the lens they will view
you through, too.
Whether you are writing for present or future employers, family and friends, or your own personal internet following, the care you extend to creating intelligible and clear writing speaks volumes about you, your abilities, and your investment in your website. What does your content say about you?
7 Tips for Writing Clear and Intelligible Weblog Content
1. Make your opinions and ideas clear.
Make sure that your opinion or idea is stated clearly and succinctly within a 1- to 3-sentence block so that it is not left up to the reader to tease out what your opinion or idea might be. If it's important enough to write about and publish to the internet, it's important enough to be stated outright.
Being unsuccinct makes it appear as though you are unclear about and lack conviction in your own ideas. Displaying a clarity of purpose lends credibility to your writing and provides an anchor to engage your readers.
2. Use plain and concise language.
There is a tendency with writers on the internet to go on and on, and I am going to be frank here: most long entries, even if they are well-written, become boring drone-fests. Once you pass 500 or 1000 words, your readers will start dropping off in droves.
Entries are best kept short and sweet, but how do you cut down on extraneous content?
Cut out half your words. You do not need to wax rhapsodic about most things. Rather than cement your point, dramatic language can make a reader question the actual validity of your viewpoint. Teh dramaz can be boring if your flowery language forces your writing into hitting one note and one note only. Leave some space for your readers to breathe!
One way to simplify your language is to cut out the majority of your adjectives and adverbs. Overuse of adjectives and adverbs is a sign that you are being lazy with your nouns and verbs.
One of the things about reading that is so fantastic is how an an author's words can fire up your imagination as you create the world within their writing in your mind. Over-description cancels that kind of reader engagement by taking away the reader's role in the interplay between them and your writing.
3. Stay on topic.
Remove anything that does not usefully relate to your topic. If you find yourself rambling on in some kind of Shakespearean aside, that material may be better served by publishing it as its own entry. Do not allow less related ideas to detract from the main point.
4. Add depth to your entries.
Add some meat to the matter. Re-read your post and ask yourself if you are just skimming along the surface. Do you have something more to say that will add depth to your piece?
If you have written a piece exhorting your readers to support a local animal shelter, don't leave out your personal story about the dog that saved you from drowning when you were a child. Adding meatier material to your entries will not only add depth to your posts but will also deepen your readers' understanding of what you are saying.
5. Make your weblog entries easy to scan.
Split your material up into shorter paragraphs, and use lists when possible. Shorter paragraphs and lists are easier for the eyes to scan on a computer screen.
If you give the reader frequent paragraph breaks, their eyes can more easily track from one paragraph to the next, which also makes it easier to digest your content. It is not hard for a reader to lose their way when muddling through an endless block of text, and that can turn into them giving up and clicking away before they've even finished your article.
6. Test your entry with the five Ws and the optional H.
Remember that your audience does not have access to your experiences or the origins of your ideas. Because you are likely already familiar with your topic, it can be easy to assume that the audience knows more than they actually do. It is best to assume that your readers need to be brought up to speed.
One way to make sure that you are being clear about your topic is to employ the old reporter's tool — the five Ws and the optional H (who, what, when, where, why, and how) — to test your piece. If your weblog entry offers up the answers easily without making you have to hunt them down in the middle of long paragraphs, you are probably on the right track.
7. Edit, edit, edit, and then edit some more.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to read and re-read your content to check for coherency, clarity, spelling, and grammar. Because you generally already know what you are trying to get across and might rush through the writing process, it is easy to leave out words accidentally, stumble along with clumsy grammar, neglect to spell check, or even leave out the underpinnings of the point of your entry.
Make it a habit to slow down and take the time to do at least some of the following:
Put your article aside for at least half an hour before editing it for content and errors. You will have a clearer perspective once some time has passed.Check your piece for spelling and grammar errors. Even minor errors can be barriers to reader engagement. Also, and very importantly, basic errors in spelling and grammar immediately signal to the reader that you did not pay due care and attention to your entry, which can call into question how much you care about a topic and how much your viewpoint and research can be trusted.Copy and paste the text of your entry into a different application and re-read it there. Strange but true, taking your entry from your weblog platform to Word or to Google Docs or what have you sheds new light on what you've written. I've often thought I was through editing a piece until I re-read it in a new application only to find out that I was only half done.If you are not sure whether your ideas have been made clear and all your errors have been caught, have another person read your piece before publishing it. A second set of eyes can offer a fresh perspective.
7 Tips for Writing Clear and Intelligible Weblog Entries, In Brief
1. Make your opinions and ideas clear.
2. Use plain and concise language.
3. Stay on topic.
4. Add depth to your entries.
5. Make your weblog entries easy to scan.
6. Test your entry with the five Ws and the optional H.
7. Edit, edit, edit, and then edit some more.
If you respect your content and understand that your content is the lens through which people view and come to know you on the internet, then you know how much clarity and intelligibility matter. Clarity and intelligibility in your weblog content will allow you to share your ideas and opinions much more effectively with a broader audience, and they will help you to maintain and grow a larger readership. The work you put into crafting good content will make all the difference to you, your website, your readers, and your present and future employers.
What are your thoughts about intelligibility and clarity in weblog content? Do you have any more tips for increasing these important aspects of good weblog writing?
Labels: Criteria Series, how to
Braden Rosner authors Songs & Cigarettes, which has been nominated in the Best Written, People's Choice, and Pop Culture & Entertainment categories of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.
Why blogging?
I've had some pretty rad run-ins that I absolutely couldn't write if my life depended on it; it's the real-life stuff that makes for the strangest content. I use the blog as a means of expelling the fear-and-loathing times of a twenty-something with like-minded types. It's a hell of a scary time in anyone's life to be knee-deep in this great unknowing. A lot of why I do
Songs & Cigarettes is to find some order amidst this day-to-day chaos. I'm having a good time doing it, too.
Your weblog ranges from personal stories about your life to music to your thoughts about hipsters, hockey, and old movies. What kinds of topics did you choose to share when you began your weblog in 2007, and what do you choose now? How has that changed?
It originally started as a means of just writing for the sake of writing. I was working for an energy company at the time and needed an outlet to distract me when I wasn't working. So, I guess, in that sense, I just kind of fell into it.
I never really had any set theme in mind when I started S&Cs. Hell, it still doesn't have any real structure three years later. I like to think of the blog operating on a "parts without a whole" system — it keeps things interesting. Otherwise, I get a lot of questions about the Charlie Chaplin references, too. I always liked the idea of this clumsy, rambling, none-too-bright character. He's a cultural theorist, a social living social commentary, and, most notably, an idiot and tramp. I guess, to some degree anyways, I use this figure on the blog because I find it kind of reflective.
How has blogging affected you creatively? Has it helped or hindered you?
I learned very early that getting a lil' too personal can play out harshly against you.
Duh.
After a few less than stellar conversations with former flames in my early, stupid blogging days, it's been nothing but sterling since. I actually got a lot of freelance gigs as a result of the blog. I was writing for a mag out of New York, Death + Taxes, doing some column-work for Woman.ca (no idea how I managed to get that one), and a couple others that came as a direct result of the blog, which, you know, is kind of kooky.
Creatively, I think I've come a long way. I'm fortunate enough to be surrounded by some of the most brilliant, creative, maniacal, villainous, and fantastic minds I've ever known, so I sort of take things from them and use it for my own shamelessly self-promotive means.
What inspires you?
Sights and sounds. It's a tried and true answer, right? I mean I've been blogging from a few different locations over the past three years, and it's been my only real formula that I write what I see and hear. People, places, music — I get this sensory overload type-thing after a day wandering the city; like there's too much to say about everything that I came across throughout a given day.
What are your must-reads?
Becoming part of a blogging community has been a real eye-opener in terms of what amazing talent is out there and how easy it is to connect with them. I treat my blogroll as a shrine to some writers, artists, and photographers I've been fortunate enough to come across through one avenue or another. I mean,
The Way The Future Blogs,
LoveBryan,
Destroyers & Creators,
WeAreTheDigitalKids,
singlebetty. Lately I've been into a lot more Toronto-based blogs like
One Thing I Did Today,
Not a Model, and of course, the mecca,
BlogTO.
How public are you about your weblog? Is it something that you freely tell friends, family, and co-workers about, or do you prefer to keep it on the down low?
As mentioned, I'm generally pretty shameless. My Dad reads it and is generally confused by most of it, but I'm pretty open about it. I wouldn't go so far as to say I attach my URL to a handshake or anything, but it's pretty easily accessible if you happen to know me, or, you know, if you're one of those Facebook stalker-types — which is totally cool. I'm probably doing the same to them right now, anyways.
There's something about speaking honestly, from experience and misadventure alike, that is attractive to people. I try to write similar to the content I find interesting. At the end of the day, I'm good with letting readers take a look around.
If you were to impart knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?
Don't read my blog.
Kidding, or not — whatever. I'd say keep writing, keep reading, and make sure you reach out to those blogs you enjoy reading. Find your comfort level, the style you're cool with, and whatever you do, keep on it. It's an act of defeat having to apologize to readers for a lack of updates. Figure out a schedule as you're starting out and please, god, stick to it.
Otherwise, give it hell.
Braden Rosner has worked a string of dead-end jobs from background esthetic specialist (or "extra" as they say in the movie biz), bartender for a catering service, golf course attendant, and so on and so forth. Over the past year he's operated as a freelance writer and photographer, writing columns for Woman.ca, music-focused articles for Bring Back the Boombox, Death + Taxes, and other outlets from New York, Los Angeles, and in his current lodgings in Toronto, Ontario. Throughout all of this, Braden has maintained a blog detailing his every trial and error in work, play, and passion —
Songs & Cigarettes.
From the eyes of a twenty-something facing the menacing weight of adulthood, Braden is searching for the silver lining — he just hasn't figured out what the hell that means just yet.
Labels: Best Written, interviews, People's Choice, Pop Culture and Entertainment
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