Writing on the Web from Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Do You Commit These 2 Blog Writing Errors?

 Uh-oh. When I heard the siren I pulled over immediately. But this cop isn't like most. She's the grammar police, a business communications expert. This is what Barb Sawyers has to say in this week's guest post:

Bloggers, I love your raw energy. After decades of writing for often-stuffy business and government leaders, it's exhilarating to ride your wave.

But, there are two things you do that drive me crazy. So listen grasshopper, as I reveal the two of the most closely guarded secrets of the masters.

I'm not going to make you relearn all those boring grammar rules from school, just two  easy ones that will help readers understand and remember what you've written.

They are:

1. Confusing sound-alike contractions and possessives (e.g. it's; its). By doing this, you not only look bad, but also become more difficult to understand.
2. Unnecessarily long lists. Ask yourself: how many items can I remember if I forget my grocery list?

Reasons to Proofread Your Writing for the Web

I'm researching websites that offer blog writing, and found a specialty writing firm that offers a variety of content for businesses. Here's what their page on blog writing leads with:

No escaping the Blogging Phenomena!

This is were the hype is
The news is
The buzz is
The money is!

And that’s where you ought to be!

I hate being negative, so I won't tell you which site misspelled "were" for "where" in their opening line. But I don't think I'd recommend this company to any business wanting to outsource their blog writing.

On the Web, this kind of error is like having your sales staff greet clients wearing dirty clothes.

Related post:  Misspellings, their our plenty and their impotent

Reading = Good Writing, Good Blogging

What are you reading right now? Chances are, your reading influences your writing. I read a great post today over at Darren Rowse"s ProBlogger site, who along with Karen Andrews of Aussie Mom blog wrote about how reading can improve your blogging.

One tip from this post is to unplug yourself. Get away from your computer. Read a magazine or a book unrelated to your work, but connected to other parts of yourself, other interests you have. This will help you see more of your strengths and can help reunite the scattered parts of yourself.

Right now I have several books open: The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon, The Power of a Positive No, by William Ury, Clear Blogging by Bob Walsh, and Bidding in the 21st Century (about bridge). I also am reading bits and pieces of A User's Guide to the Brain, by John J. Ratey.

Admittedly, these are all work related, except for the bridge book, but they are topics for which I have a great passion. If I were to really "unplug," I really should get away from work-related books and pick up a good novel. This would expand my brain  neural pathways even more, leading to better writing and richer use of vocabulary.

What are you reading this week? Can you suggest any good novels that you think I might enjoy?

Punctuation Marks: A Quick Guide to Perfection

I just ran across this site by Ted Montgomery, with useful pages about punctuation. It's easy to look things up and get good examples of correct usage.

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/punctuation/index.html

Believe it or not, some readers will judge you on your commas and colons. So it doesn't hurt to get them right. I wouldn't lose any sleep over them, but still, when all you've got are your words on a computer screen to build credibility, go for perfection.

10 Most Misused & Misspelled Words in Blogs

I see these spelling mistakes all the time, not only in blogs, but in word docs, PDFs and PowerPoint presentations. No spell checker will pick them up, because they aren't misspellings, simply misuses.

1. Your - You’re
2. Then - Than
3. Its - it’s
4. To - Too - Two
5. Were - Where - We’re
6. There - Their - They’re
7. A - An - And
8. Off - Of
9. Here - Hear
10. Lose - Loose

The list comes via Steve Rubel, via Dave Krug's 901am blog, and originated with Johan Holmberg's blog The Probabalist which had 121 comments to it! Seems people notice these everywhere and they are more annoying than you might think.

Which brings me to the point: if you're blogging about something important to you, don't let these easy errors distract your readers from paying attention. Although some bloggers pride themselves on being spontaneous, that's no excuse for not re-reading a post for errors before you publish. Or after you publish - as all blog posts are easily edited.

What about you? What other errors have you notices on blogs?

Writing for the 8th Grade

While talking with a blog client, the matter of reading levels came up. I can't remember where I found this tip, but there's a way to measure the reading grade level of your writing.

You know how they say to write your articles and blog posts for readers at an 8th grade level? Well, yes, they do say that. In fact, some say that if you're writing for the general public, you should write for a 4th grade level.

Here's how to find out the grade level of your blog writing, according to the "Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level" metric.

11 Rules of Writing

I just discovered this site called Junket Studies Tutorial in New Jersey dedicated to better writing, better grammar, and one of my favorites: better usage of commas! (I refer to my post "Where Have All the Commas Gone.")

You may not understand some of the lingo; it is, after all, in the language of grammatical structures. But go to the site and follow the links, and learn to become a master of these common errors! Here they are:

1. To join two independent clauses, use a comma followed by a conjunction, a semicolon alone, or a semicolon followed by a sentence modifier.

2. Use commas to bracket nonrestrictive phrases, which are not essential to the sentence's meaning.

The Problem with Dashes & Hyphens...

I am going a little nuts here - I mean more than usual. We are editing the interviews of successful bloggers, putting up the finishing touches on our ebook, The Build a Better Blog System.

The problem is that because of the informal nature of writing on a blog, or for online ezines, people now write like they speak - you know what I mean? Instead of commas or semi-colons, everyone uses dashes to interject phrases - just like the way we talk.

But everyone uses them differently! Forget the Chicago Manual of Style! So as we were editing the interviews for the book, we are seeing three common ways of using dashes.

1. People use a double hyphen--like this. Sometimes with a space on both sides -- like this, sometimes with no spaces on either side.

2. People use a hyphen instead of a dash. This is most likely because the dash is not on the keyboard. You have to find it under symbols and who wants to take time to do that?

3. People use an en dash instead of the em dash. An en dash is the shorter version of the em dash. With an en dash there is a space on both sides - with an em dash, there are no spaces-you just put it in.

Apparently there are no dashes in the Typepad wysiwyg editor, so I'm using a simple hypen to illustrate this - and not too well, I might add.

Am I the only one who cares about this? If we are not going to follow the rules of academia as outlined in the manuals, are we inventing new usages because of the lack of a dash on the keyboard?

I feel like the author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Lynn Truss)...my inner stickler is on the loose.

Let's all get together and decide: if we use a hyphen instead of a dash, let's make it just one with spaces on both sides - like this, okay?

Unless you all write in to tell me you'd prefer something else, I'll assume you agree with me...