We live in a time of word sat\u00adu\u00adra\u00adtion. Writ\u00adten con\u00adtent of all kinds\u2014blogs, sto\u00adries, arti\u00adcles, essays, this<\/i> blog\u2014is freely avail\u00adable for down\u00adload\u00ading, print\u00ading, email\u00ading to friends, or, in the case of some of my for\u00admer stu\u00addents, copy\u00ading and pass\u00ading off as your own work.<\/p>\n
For a long time I was resis\u00adtant to offer\u00ading any of my writ\u00ading for free because begin\u00adning at 21 years old, I was paid for my words. I was a reporter for a week\u00adly news\u00adpa\u00adper, and lat\u00ader a dai\u00adly, and each week I got a pay\u00adcheck.<\/p>\n
It was\u00adn\u2019t a lot of mon\u00adey, but even now, 17 years lat\u00ader, I can remem\u00adber the dis\u00adbe\u00adlief I expe\u00adri\u00adenced when I opened up that first enve\u00adlope and real\u00adized they were actu\u00adal\u00adly pay\u00ading<\/i> me to write. What I did\u00adn\u2019t tell the pub\u00adlish\u00ader was that I prob\u00ada\u00adbly would have done the work for noth\u00ading. (Or maybe for 3 squares and a cot.)<\/p>\n
This morn\u00ading, I stum\u00adbled upon a fair\u00adly famous rant by Amer\u00adi\u00adcan writer Har\u00adlan Elli\u00adson<\/a>. I\u2019d heard about this polemic of Ellison\u2019s before, but until I watched it, I did\u00adn\u2019t real\u00adize how much I agreed with it.<\/p>\n His main point: Writ\u00aders should be paid for their work.<\/strong><\/p>\n What a con\u00adcept. He\u2019s right, of course, and his vocif\u00ader\u00adous defense of this prin\u00adci\u00adple is mak\u00ading me recon\u00adsid\u00ader how much, and what type of, writ\u00ading I offer freely myself. Enjoy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n