Since I came to Wealthy Affiliate, there has been a lot of discussion around the subject of correct English, grammar, spelling and punctuation in our websites.
Although Kyle says to 'just write' and get the content on to your pages without worrying about whether or not it is correct - I don't agree (with the greatest of respect for Kyle!) and there are many other Wealthy Affiliates who don't agree with him either.
To be 100% honest - there are many mistakes in Kyle's tutorials that drive me crazy! (But I still love the guy! He's amazing and so is Carson)
But that's just me - I'm a little (well, a lot really!) paranoid about correct English and always have been. I consider it to be important for several reasons and I am going to go over them briefly in the next lesson and in more depth as we move on.
English is an extremely difficult language - the grammar and syntax are weird and the spelling makes no sense at all. As for the rules for verbs - it would be simpler to say there are none! So don't despair if you find correct English hard - you have lots of company...
It would be impossible to cover the entire English language in one small tutorial such as this, but I am going to try to address some of the reasons WHY it is important to do your best. I will also point out some of the worst mistakes that I regularly see.
So - stay with me! You are going to learn something and hopefully, you will take more care with your writing in your next blog post or website page.
For sure - just 'write'...get your thoughts down quickly, write from the heart....BUT - you must edit your work. For spelling, grammar and punctuation errors and for the following attributes:
Credibility. Clarity. Courtesy. Competition. Customers
I call them the 5 'C's' of Good Copywriting...
P.S. There is a deliberate mistake on page 9. Find it and PM me - don't write it in the comments section. Any other errors - please let me know in the comments.
And then: "...are made of finest yak felt...", shouldn't that be: "...are made of THE finest yak felt..."? WIthout the capitalisation, of course?
At point 2, a space between 'to' and 'join' is missing.
I think I have my commas reasonably under control, even though I'm handicapped by my native language (Dutch) using a slightly different set of rules for their usage. But when the Oxford comma comes into play I get hopelessly lost. The colons and semicolons tend to drive me bonkers at times. If I can just remember what you wrote about them here, I might improve!
Reply
In the yak felt case, either would be correct. (One of the madnesses of English) I can say 'made of the finest yak felt' or 'made of finest yak felt'. The article is not compulsory here.
I'll check the spacing - it is so annoying when that happens!
You're great! I think I'll employ you as my personal editor!
Cheers
Ellie
But I thank you and will fix it pronto!
Yes - the hyphen between non and native is correct. I was going to add the correct use of hyphens but wondered if it was too long already. They are also a rather tricky subject and one that I see misused, unused and abused quite often.
You don't need to use 'alright' - it's just 'right' as in
Is that right? (or correct)
You've done amazingly well for a non-native speaker.
Thank you
Ellie
I've really enjoyed this - just shows how easy it is to let mistakes slip past - and I was trying really hard, too!
Thanks heaps
Ellie
(I cover the subject of slang and colloquial English in the next segment!)
I really like this training, because I need it.
Since my mother tongue is not the English language, it is hard to get some content well written.
Do you have maybe an idea how I can improve the quality of my content with a tool or something?
I use the free plug-in of Grammarly.com right now, but it's expensive to buy it.
Thanks,
Grtz,
Bert
I haven't used Grammarly myself, because being fairly proficient in English, I tend to trust my own judgement, or if I'm a bit puzzled, I simply type my specific problem into Google and check whatever website pops up. Some are better than others.
There are some 'spin-writing' tools available, but it is not recommended as google tends to pick up 'spun' content fairly quickly.
You can use Fivver and Elance to have your articles/content written, but what I found was that most of the people who offer to do writing are not native English speakers and the ones who are, charge a fair bit.
There are various translation tools available, but I am not altogether sure that they are very accurate. Some translations tend to come out pretty weird!
All I can really honestly recommend is that you get a good English writer to check your work for you. I have done so for a few people here, but it is time-consuming and I have to charge something or I would spend a lot of time and never get my own work done! You can send me a PM if you want to talk to me further about this option.
It's a good idea to ask for editing feedback here - specifically request that people check on your spelling, grammar etc.
I'd be glad to know if anyone knows of a good tool, but I really think it's just a case of learning, practising, checking, editing and asking for help to check your work.
I'm sorry not to be more helpful
Thank you for coming by. I appreciate it!
Cheers
Ellie
Cheers
Ellie
