Why One Should Care

by Joshua Maciel

I got a really interesting e-mail yesterday. I took the liberty of using an e-mail link to make some (what I consider) helpful comments to a fellow editorial writer -- namely involving style and structure, and I got back an e-mail, written very "academically" (read: lots of big words) saying something to the extent of "I didn't care." If it was an "expository essay" for school, then that's one thing, but this is editorials. So what.

I hope my storytelling didn't bother you too much. I usually like to get to the point early, but what the heck. I'm writing this editorial to try to tell you why you *should* care about editorials you write. I mean, granted, you're not getting graded, but there are some very good reasons why you should try to look your best when writing an editorial for RPGamer (or any other site).

First of all, spell-check never killed anyone. Neither did grammar check. Neither did proofreading for that matter (especially e-mail, no fatal paper-cuts). The first two of those items takes little or no time. You pop open your favourite word processor, paste your document, and look at the little squiggly underlines, or run a spell-check. Presto. Netscape mail even has a spell-check in the e-mail composer.

Second of all, you're talking about a site read by tens of thousands of people a day/week/month. This isn't an essay for a professor or for a teacher, this is something that chances are SEVERAL professors, academics, etc. will read. They won't give you a grade, but you're still addressing a very similar audience. And other than all these academics, who apparently don't matter since they aren't grading you, there are thousands of your peers reading.

Also, there is the fact that writing well on someplace well-published could actually give you opportunities you may not have had. Granted anyone impressed by a few well-written editorials on RPGamer isn't going to be able to give you a job as a CEO, but most of you writing probably aren't college grads yet.

If you don't care about any of the things I've mentioned so far, there's one more. How well people present themselves, especially in a small community (such as RPG players), will reflect upon the nature of the entire community as a whole to those outside it. Granted, not many people who aren't that into RPGs are going to come, but those who do could think far less of the community because they read someone's rantings, someone's rantings who didn't care enough to do a good job.

My personal opinion (and most likely not supported by the staff of the site) is that if you aren't willing to spend the time/effort to do a good job, or if you just don't care, then you shouldn't submit. There are a HOST of good reasons to do it. It's not that hard to spellcheck, it's read by more people than any paper you'll probably write, it can improve people's images of you, and your community as a whole. If that's not a good reason, then I don't know what is. And to the guy who sent me that e-mail in response: big words don't make you educated, or a good writer. Newsweek is written around a 9th grade level, maybe even 8th. No 8th grader knows what "expository essays" are.