Strike That! Another Bit of Blog Grammar

Have you noticed the latest trend in online writing? The strike through.

Right. Like when you're drafting and realize you have a better way to say what you already wrote. So you strike through a portion of your draft and write a new phrase or sentence.

These drafts used to end up crumbled in so many piles around a garbage can. But lately, the strike through has become a way of writing. Not a way of masking drafting a writer's initial thoughts, but a way of expanding on a thought. The purposeful strike through.

The author wants you to see the sarcastic, humorous, original thought first written. It's a feint. A way of making the reader privy to the author's truest thoughts, so true and deep the author considers striking them from the record.

But no. Because there they are, clearly visible through the strike through. And plainly the author wants the world to read the strike through.

It's quite effective for adding interest. Can come off as humorous, the author's way of illuminating their real thoughts, or showing how they tempered an initial reaction. But not-so-subtly letting the reader know there is more to the story.

I find it a novelty. A mix of typographical element and verbiage. I have not mastered the use of this burgeoning trend yet, but waiting my moment for when I can employ it to greatest effect. Rough drafting may never be the same again!

Do you use the strike through effect often in your own writing? What do you think of this trend? Love it / Hate it? Is it here to stay? Passing through?