by kev on August 27, 2007
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Sue came to me depressed. “Why does no one visit my blog,” she asked me.
“Well Sue,” I responded, trying to choose my words carefully. “No one visits your blog because they think you’re dumb. You misspelled ‘blog’ in your page’s title. Also, you misspelled your name.”
Sadly, Sue’s problem is all too common. In today’s fast-paced world, many have replaced proper grammar and spelling with run-on sentences and shorthand. This is fine if you are sending your mom a text message from your cell phone while driving and changing the radio station. It is not fine if you are writing a paper for school, drafting a proposal for your job, or - in Sue’s case - writing a blog.
When I was first introduced to the online world of e-mail and instant messaging, I quickly discovered that the only way for someone to decipher between the intelligent and the insanely stupid was their writing. For example:
Email #1
WHAT ARE U DOING FRIDAY NIGHT I WAS THINKING ABOUT GOING COW TIPPING DO YOU WANNA GO
Email #2
Are you doing anything Friday night? I was thinking about going to tip over some cows. Would you like to go?
Which e-mail’s author do you believe is smarter? Which are you more likely to write to on a consistent basis? Which, on the basis of this one e-mail, are you likely to join for a fun evening of cow tipping?
Obviously, this is exaggerated in order to make a point. No one, I hope, writes posts on their blogs with all capital letters and no punctuation (although, I have heard Rosie O’Donnell does something close to this on her blog). However, the main idea is the same:
In the online world, all people really have to go on is what you present to them in your writing.
If you are hoping to attract blog viewers by writing on a topic in which you are knowledgeable, you have do dress the part (so to speak) of someone who is knowledgeable. If lawyers dress in suits, bloggers dress in proper grammar and spelling.
Does this mean your posts have to be perfect? Of course not. Everyone makes spelling and grammar mistakes from time to time. Try as I might to avoid them, there might be a mistake or two in this post of mine. (Side note: Would it be ironic if a post discussing the need to avoid bad grammar and misspellings in blog posts had a grammar or spelling mistake in it? I better check with Alanis Morissette on this one…)
The point is to be aware and do your best to avoid such mistakes. Reread your posts before publishing. Use spell check. Ask someone to read your post and check it for mistakes.
If you want to sound knowledgeable, you have to dress the part.
The character of Sue, despite what she might claim, is fictitious. Any similarity to a person, living or dead, is coincidental (and sad). Also, a big “thank you” to Darren at problogger.net for including this article in his “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” project.
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Author: kevPosts Written: 258
Bio: Who am I? I am a cipher, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce. Also, my name is Kev and I own this here website.
URLs: my website, all posts by kev
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August 27th, 2007 at 5:42 pm:
Well said. The all caps emails are especially annoying.
By the way I really liked what you said in your interesting and poignant “site note”.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:48 am:
By the way I really liked what you said in your interesting and poignant “site note”.
I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.
(to self: drats!)
August 28th, 2007 at 5:21 pm:
That couldn’t have happened within a better sentence.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:30 am:
Hey Kevin
I’m copying this and sending it to my husband who writes e-mails in all caps. I’ll have to read you more often too….you really make me laugh…hard.
I like that in a person!
Have a great holiday weekend
August 31st, 2007 at 3:51 pm:
Kris: Oh my, I hope your husband won’t be offended. I was taught growing up that you can call a man every dirty name in the book, but the second you make fun of his writing emails in all caps you’ve declared war. Tell him I take it all back. All of it!
Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, do keep stopping by. I miss receiving comments from my old Xanga buddies!
August 31st, 2007 at 7:20 pm:
Did you really type “site note” the first time? Please tell me you did and that it wasn’t on purpose. Oh wow, that would be too funny.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:57 pm:
I admit nothing.
September 2nd, 2007 at 7:40 am:
Oh thank you thank you thank you for this post. It drives me crazy when I see misspelled words and poor grammar (especially words like loose for lose, comming for coming, etc.).
But don’t rely solely on the spellchecker. Our local newspaper does, and invariably they will use the word “formally” in place of “formerly,” and other little mistakes like that. Check with the spelling police if it offers you more than one choice, to be sure you get the right one.
September 2nd, 2007 at 9:26 am:
This is excellent! I have been trying to hint at a few of these things to my friends. I think I will have to point them over here to give them.
I know I don’t spell things correctly all the time, nor is my grammar perfect, but I think there are many people who don’t even try. If people would just take time to re-read what they have written, they could improve their perceived intelligence level.
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm:
Sue: Thanks! That’s a good point on not completely relying on spell check since it will give a thumbs up to properly spelled words that are being used in the wrong context (my favorite examples are there, their and they’re).
DPeach: Thanks! Yes, feel free to send as many of your friends over as you like. It’s fun when you receive comments from new visitors!
Thank you both for the comments.
September 3rd, 2007 at 12:15 am:
[...] was an post about checking your grammar and spelling. These are simple things, but often over looked. I know that I don’t always catch typos and [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 2:12 am:
I am one of those to whom DPeach is refering to. I have been around for 66 years and only have a freshman in college education. However, that was more than 40 years ago. I will be a faithful reader of this site as I am in the process of writing my own blogs about keeping Honey Bees. Thanks for the good input about grammer and punchuations (Sp). I think this is a good site to learn a thing or two.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:49 am:
ekpeach: Thanks for the comment! I’m thankful DPeach told you about it. I very much like the look of your site - it’s very clean and easy on the eyes.
I must warn you about my site, though: It’s not all about blogging tips. It’s primarily a humor site - a CLEAN humor site, but a humor site nonetheless. I write about sports, pop culture, life, Christianity, personal finance…basically my interests and whatever pops into my head.
That said, I would like to believe my site is a good one if you want to see good blogging techniques being practiced. I try to use proper grammar and spelling, nice colors, descriptive and/or catchy titles, etc.
If you still want to bookmark my site and become a regular reader, I’d be happy to have you. But I want you to know what you’re getting into!
February 11th, 2008 at 8:36 pm:
I completely agree. People who don’t bother to type correctly on the Internet need to learn how.