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Hooked on Phonics Works for Me: How Learning to Spell Can Make You a Better Blogger
August 27, 2007
Blog
15

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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