Writing Tips

bysasukhram

483 followers

10 years ago

I was commenting on someone else's blog, and I started to get a little long-winded with tips that I was sharing, so it dawned on me that I should probably do a blog post. :-)

1. When writing anything, remember to write as if you are writing to one person, because you are. Each visitor is a person looking for information, not a group or corporate entity. ONE person.

2. Try to write as if you are writing to an eight year old (unless your site is technical and needs jargon). Pretending to write to someone in that age group helps you to ensure that the language you use is normal, everyday language that is easily understood by all. It also helps to avoid run-on sentences and any kind of weird sentence construction.

3. Read your content ALOUD. Inevitably, you may write what you think is a great blog post - easy to understand, succinct, etc.; when you read it out loud, however, it may sound choppy, or just "off" in some way. Don't publish without reading it aloud, and if you can, read it to someone whose opinion and expertise you trust.

4. Check on spelling and grammar. I am a bit of a grammar Nazi (unless it is 1:34 a.m.), so I tend to be a bit snobbish when it comes to this. Guess what? I am not the only one, and unfortunately, just as some people judge others by how they look, others judge people by how they speak. If you aren't sure about something, look it up or ask someone you trust (and who can spell really well and/or speaks great English). Think of it this way - misspellings and grammar mistakes jolt the reader and often make them question if you know what you are talking about. It isn't rational, but it happens. Don't rely on Word either - Word's grammar is terrible!!! :-) My daughter learned this the hard way with a report she handed in.

5. Once you've gotten your content written, leave it for at least 24 hours. Once you have gotten some time in between you and your content, your perspective will be different, and you will see where you need to tighten things up, give more detail, or whatever needs to be done, to make it a better piece. The caveat to this is that while you want it to be the best you can be, you need to ensure you are not fixated on it being perfect. I am a former newspaper journalist, and as well-written as I thought my pieces where, there were many, many times when I saw them in print and realized that I could have rewritten them and made them better. The advantage we have is that we can always make changes and republish our posts. The newspaper was not that forgiving. ;-) The perfectionist and journalist in me wanted to grab my AP Stylebook to make sure that I was writing #2 properly in terms of the age reference. It is 1:55 a.m., however, so I will not indulge that side. ;-) (I am breaking this rule by publishing this post now, lol!)

6. If you like to talk, and/or talking is easier than writing, think about getting a program like Dragon Naturally Speaking, a transcription software. At the beginning, you will need to train it (and with some accents it may take a little more training than with others), but once it is trained to your speech it makes it very easy to capture what you are saying. Once you have it down in Word you can edit the transcription, and then post it.

I used this software quite a bit as a newspaper reporter - I would read my notes from meetings I attended into the software, then edit it. Doing it this way made it easier for me to write my stories, especially when the meetings were long and I had taken a lot of notes. You can use a microphone to record yourself speaking, but the Dragon Speaking software will actually transcribe your words for you, which takes out that extra step.

7. Try not to use the passive voice. This is another grammar thing, and your English teacher in school probably harped on this. Use "active" verbs - ones showing what YOU did, not what was done to you or something/someone else.

I hope this has been helpful!