There are many ingredients to a successful blog, and effective writing is one of them. No matter what you write about, your point cannot be taken if you fail to communicate with your readers. If you are looking to improve the quality of your blog’s content, take heed of the following tips.
1. Strive for Perfect Spelling
You usually can’t blog without a computer, and since computers have spell checking software you have no excuse. I suggest using Mozilla Firefox — the browser spell checks form fields as you type, and highlights spelling errors with a red underline. Right click on the word in question, and Firefox will offer several suggestions for the correct spelling.
2. Avoid Grammatical Pitfalls
Proper grammar gives your writing a sense of clarity, so at the very least you should learn to avoid the most common errors. Here are a few examples:
- Apostrophes are for contractions and the possessive form, but never pluralization.
- Correct: “I’ve seen that movie.”
- Correct: “This is Tom’s site.”
- Incorrect: “Look at those car’s.”
- There is an exception when implying ownership. All of the following are of the possessive form, but lack apostrophes: yours, his, hers, ours, its, theirs, and whose (Wikipedia, Possessive Apostrophe).
- The dangling participle confuses the reader, whether or not he or she is conscious of the error. Learn to make your subjects and verbs agree.
- Don’t use “of” in place of “have”.
- Incorrect: “I could of caught the ball.”
- Correct: “I could have caught the ball.”
For more information on common mistakes, consult these fine articles:
- Common Grammar Errors in English
- Dodge the Grammar Traps
- Wikipedia: Common grammatical errors
- Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb.
3. Don’t let the English language confuse you
Apparently English as a second language is quite difficult, due in part to the many words that sound exactly the same but have separate, distinct meanings. Don’t let the language get the best of you. Learn the difference between the following words by studying the correct examples I have provided.
- your / you’re
- “Where is your baseball bat?”
- “You’re going to be late for the game.”
- their / there / they’re
- “Their team is undefeated.”
- “The field is over there.”
- “They’re going to cream us.”
- its / it’s
- “The ball was hit so hard, it lost its stiches.”
- “Do you think it’s going to rain on our game?”
- here / hear
- “How did we get here?”
- “I hear thunder in the distance.”
4. Brevity is the soul of wit
You can say a lot in very few words, if only you choose wisely. Don’t be tempted to over explain your point, lest you become redundant.
5. Don’t write aimlessly
Medium and feature length blog posts should be constructed in a logical manner that guides the reader though the post from start to finish. You have two choices when it comes to the structure of your writing: do it in the style of an essay, or in the inverted pyramid style of journalism.
Tutorials, opinion pieces, and other such articles are well suited for essay style. Your article should have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Your introduction should begin with a thesis statement that identifies the purpose of your blog post. Follow your thesis statement with a few more sentences outlining the main topics you will discuss in the body of your post.
The body of your post is made up of the paragraph(s) that support your thesis statement and build towards your conclusion.
Finally, your conclusion paragraph should echo your thesis statement, sum up your argument, and state your conclusion.
For more information on this style, read “The Five-Paragraph Essay” by the Capital Community College Foundation Guide to Grammar and Writing.
Not into essay writing? An alternative to that style is one used by journalists: the inverted pyramid. Have you ever noticed that you can read an entire newspaper by scanning the first paragraph of every story? This is because journalists present their conclusion first, then gradually reveal more information as the story progresses. For more information on the journalistic approach, check out “Basic News Writing” from Bill Parks of Ohlone College.
What’s the point of all this?
Attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation, combined with a structured approach to composition will make you an effective communicator. Effective communicators are perceived as being intelligent (even when they aren’t). Likewise, intelligence is useless if you cannot communicate. By presenting your thoughts effectively, you will establish authority for yourself. And in the blogging world, authority is everything.
