“What Studying Haikus Taught Me about Writing Blog Posts” plus 1 more |  |
| What Studying Haikus Taught Me about Writing Blog Posts Posted: 01 Feb 2013 11:02 AM PST This guest post is by Steve of Do Something Cool. A form of Japanese poetry, haikus have been around for hundreds of years. Blogging has been around for roughly two decades. On the surface, these two different forms of writing don't have anything to do with each other. But surprisingly, understanding haikus has taught me a lot about writing blog posts. The key to a good haiku (and blog post)I once read that haikus are best described as "a one breath poem that discovers connection." That's about as good a description for haikus as you're going to find. A well-written haiku gets the reader to discover a connection to something new and meaningful. And the way you do that is by writing from a unique and interesting perspective no one else has seen. That's also what makes a good blog post. A good blog post gets the reader to discover something in a meaningful way through a unique and interesting perspective. Since I've started to study and understand haikus, I've taken a new approach to writing my blog posts. Just like a Japanese haiku writer in the 1800s would have analyzed and observed every angle to find the one perspective no one had considered before, I try to write posts with a similar twist. My blog posts have now become just as much about discovery as they are in haikus. It's not my goal to churn out blog posts just for the sake of publishing something. I try to offer unique and meaningful posts for both the reader and myself in everything I write. I've been told that a good haiku writer can look at a famous photo thousands of others have seen and written about, but still discover a perspective no one else had previously been able to see. Who wouldn't want that ability for writing blog posts? Often it can seem as if everything has already been written before. I've felt that way at times. After scanning through thousands of blog posts online, you might ask yourself how you could possibly come up with something new. Hasn't everything already been written before? Understanding haikus has taught me to see things differently. There are endless ways to write a blog post simply because there are endless numbers of perspectives and viewpoints to write about. There will never be a point when nothing new can be said about a subject. Think about it this way: people have been writing haikus for hundreds of years. There are hundreds of thousands of them that talk about nature alone. Yet each one can be completely different. I was in a group of students writing haikus once. We were looking down at people crossing a busy street. Each student observed the same scenes and wrote down several haikus each. It was amazing how varied all the writing was. Even those students who wrote about exactly the same things could find new and unique ways to write about it. It comes down to perspective. Writing haikus teaches you to notice details or angles no one else is seeing. A dozen people watching one scene on a street could write in twelve different ways. For the same reason a dozen bloggers could write about one topic in a dozen unique ways. Of course, not all bloggers do that. Many repeat what others are already saying without putting their own spin on things. But you can train yourself to find that unique perspective. Ask yourself:
It helps to think of it this way: writing a haiku is like looking through the lens of a camera. You can zoom the lens in or out as much as you need to, as long as you eventually find details in the photo that make your perspective unique and new. It can be a small, important detail or something much bigger. But it has to be something your camera sees that no other camera has caught before. Blog posts are a lot like that. What you write is the lens and the way you approach the topic is the angle of the camera. Put the two together in an original and interesting way and you have the beginning of a great blog post. If you were to look back over the past two centuries and explore the millions of haikus that have been written, you would find that the number of perspectives and moments they capture are endless. The same is also true for blog posts. And it should be. After all, you're working with a lot more words. Has poetry or literature influenced your blog post writing? Share your unique perspective in the comments. Steve is the writer behind Do Something Cool where he blogs about travel, motivation, personal growth and adventure. He’s always looking for ways to make life more interesting. Get tips on living life to the fullest through his Facebook fan page and Twitter. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger What Studying Haikus Taught Me about Writing Blog Posts     |
| Blog Accessibility Essentials: The Complete Guide Posted: 01 Feb 2013 05:07 AM PST This guest post is by Steff Green of the Disabled Shop Blog. Digital content has opened up a whole new world of possibility for people with print disabilities. Previously, very little printed material was available in a format that blind and low vision people can access, (Braille, audio or large print), and these formats were costly and time-consuming to produce. But now, adaptive software has meant that content available electronically can be accessed by practically anyone. With more resources than ever moving online or to electronic formats such as ebooks, people like me with low vision have access to more content than we could ever imagine. It is estimated that there are around 25 million adults with significant sight loss) in the US today, and more than 285 million people around the world. That’s not including people with other disabilities who use adaptive software to access information, such as learning disabilities or motor impairments. All these people could be reading your blog, so it stands to reason that you want to make sure they’re able to enjoy everything you have to offer. A blog is never going to be perfect for everyone. There are so many conditions and disabilities in the world that it’s impossible to cater to all of them. That’s why many people who have disabilities use adaptive technology to help them access the web—they have to create the optimum conditions for themselves. When creating an accessible website, what you’re trying to do is create a site that’s both easily viewable in its normal state and optimized to perform well when viewed with adaptive software. As a bonus, an accessible website also happens to be extremely user-friendly for your whole readership, as well as being great for SEO. What is adaptive equipment?Adaptive equipment is any type of device that helps an individual perform an activity that they would not otherwise be able to perform due to a physical or mental condition or disability. A blind person cannot access your blog in the normal way, so they must use some kind of adaptive equipment in order to enjoy your content. The most common piece of adaptive software is a screen reader: a program that reads out websites using synthetic speech for people with vision problems. A person can use keyboard commands to navigate through the site (since using a mouse is impractical). Other adaptive software includes: zoom software, such as Zoomtext (I used to use this, but since switching to Mac, all the necessary software is inbuilt), Dragon Naturally Speaking. and a refreshable Braille display. Blind and low-vision users aren’t the only people who need accessible websites. Other users have motor skill issues that make using a mouse difficult, or might have dyslexia and have difficulty understanding text when they read it. Adaptive equipment such as switches and keyboards controlled by the feet, head or other input methods can be used. Making a blog post accessibleSo how do you ensure that your blog is accessible? It may surprise you to learn that creating accessible blog posts is easy, and you’re probably doing a pretty good job already. But understanding why you format blog posts in a certain way will help ensure that you continue to create accessible blog posts. HeadingsHeading levels are an important part of the functionality of adaptive software. The screen reader can navigate through headings, much like skipping through the chapters in a book. This enables the reader to choose the content they want to read. Problems arise when bloggers don’t use the heading tags correctly—usually by bolding a heading instead of using an h1, h2, h3, or h4 tag, or by failing to use headings in a cohesive way. Adaptive software retains the hierarchy of headings, so a user can navigate through post titles (h1) or subtitles within a post (h2) or headings underneath a subtitle (h3-5). But if you don’t use these headings consistently, the reader will become confused. How can you improve?
ImagesYou might wonder how adaptive software deals with images. Screen readers read out the alternative or alt text, and this tells the listener what’s in the image. So to make your images accessible, you need to ensure each and every one has an alternative text description that explains what’s in the image. It doesn’t have to be long and wordy: “infographic displaying social media stats” is fine, as most of the info will be in the text surrounding that image. SEO gurus recommend putting your keywords into the alt text, which is definitely a good idea, but only if they make sense in the context of the image. How can you improve?
LinksHyperlinks within your post (and across your whole blog) should be able to be easily read and understood on their own. This is because screen readers can give the user a list of the hyperlinks on a page. Having ten hyperlinks reading “here” doesn’t help the listener figure out where she wants to go. Meaningful hyperlinks (especially those containing keywords) are also good for SEO, so it’s a good practice to get into. Links should also open in the same window, as opening extra windows can make navigation cumbersome. On WordPress, you can do this easily by setting the Target at “Open in this Window/Frame” in the Link box. And, finally, when designing your blog, make sure links stand out from the text. Use bold, underline, and different fonts or colors to distinguish links from your main text. This helps everyone locate your links with ease. How can you improve?
Tiny links and iconsTiny things are cute: tiny houses, tiny hands and feet, and tiny kittens. But tiny links and icons are just plain difficult. If you have some vision, like me, you may spend several minutes looking for a link or icon on a page, when you’d have found it easily if only it were a little larger. One of the hardest things to find are those little “X”s or “close” links in the corners of those pop-up boxes (which I also loathe, but more on those in the next section). On some sites, these are practically impossible to see. I’ll click away if I can’t get rid of that box without straining my eyes. Tiny links are also difficult for people with poor motor control to locate. Likewise, having lots of tiny links close together, such as social media keys on a navigation panel, means your visitors are often clicking the wrong thing by accident. This is frustrating and often forces readers to look for information elsewhere. How can you improve?
Dynamic elementsPop-up boxes, slide out menus and other dynamic elements may look great, but they are extremely difficult to navigate. If you’re slow on the mouse, the panels can disappear before you’ve clicked on the link you require. And those pop-up “sign up to my newsletter” boxes are extremely frustrating, but I understand why some bloggers are reluctant to get rid of them. How can you improve?
CaptchaOkay, captcha services are one of my pet accessibility peeves. They seem to be getting progressively illegible, with letters layered on top of one another, squashed up like they’ve gone through a sausage machine, or struck through with so many lines and swirls they’re impossible to read. You might say, “Oh, but there’s that audio button beside it. That makes captcha accessible.” Which is a fair comment. Except, have you ever tried to use the audio function? Half the time it doesn’t work, and the rest of the time it’s so garbled it’s impossible to understand. How can you improve?
Other tips for improving blog accessibility
By following these simple rules, you’re creating accessibility best practice on your blog, and ensuring that more people are able to access and enjoy your content. It only takes a few extra minutes to check that your blog posts are accessible, and after a few weeks, accessibility will become second nature. The more you learn about accessibility, the more you come to understand and appreciate how different people access information, and this makes you a better—and more considerate—blogger. Accessibility resources
Steff Green is a legally blind freelance writer, blogger and illustrator. She writes about disability news, adaptive equipment and advocacy for the Disabled Shop Blog. Check out her latest post on Christmas Gift Ideas: Children’s Books about Disability. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Blog Accessibility Essentials: The Complete Guide     |
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