Vagueness, Titles and an Inability to get to the Point.

Please take this post in the manner it was written - with a generous pinch of sugar and probably a substantial spoonful of sugar too.

Have you noticed the recent trend for titles of blog posts. There seem to be a plethora of posts written with this three subject pattern: "Blah blah, Blah blah and Blah-bla-blah Blah"

On my reader at the moment there's three such articles I'm yet to read:

• Pragmatism, dead metaphors and the myth of the echo chamber
• Performativity, fetishism and the aristocracy of everyone
• Dirty 30, Good Company & Good Nosh

At least 3 or 4 more have passed me by on Tweetdeck today.

And then to my shock I notice one on my own blog:

• Harvesting, cooking and eating

And I suppose that's kind of what blogging is. It's exploring ideas, linking them, reflecting on what you do using the written word to do so. So there's probably a natural inability to get to the point (and if you've ever read many of my posts you'll definitely agree). That's because bloggers are explorers, not journalists. We connect things, we don't define them.

But I still think there's a call on me as an educator to use words precisely. While I jokingly reflect on blog titles, I rail against the inaccurate use of words in pairs. You hear them all the time in schools - 'leadership and management'; 'monitoring and evaluation'. I always check myself when I hear myself say such things because I know that when I do I'm being vague.

Why use two words when you could use one?

Maybe sometimes we're just filling up the space.

Oh dear, is this what I've just done. Being 'meta' or navel-gazing. It's the same difference.