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Watching Your Grammar in Your Blog Posts

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Grammar

Now I wouldn’t say I’m the worlds best with my grammar and do take the time to check through my posts with a spell checker and a hopefully find that they are grammatically correct or at least to a standard where they can be understood.

But where do you stop, you could possibly go on forever trying to make your blog posts to a standard which is beyond your reader, you don’t really want to be blasting out something to your readers that only a graduate of quantum mechanics would understand nor would you want to write your blog post as a five-year old!

But there does come a time when you need to balance out your posts with simple to understand phrases and correct grammar, OK, if your English isn’t that good then you can easily be forgiven, but to blatantly type posts out with umpteen spelling mistakes can make you look bad when it comes to your blog posts and usually these are the first things that people pick up on, I have also heard that search engines also rate blogs slightly better if the spelling and grammar is correct.

So what is the point of this post and why am I rambling on, well, to put it simply, it’s a bit of advise to those that maybe starting to blog or have blogged for a while and just type up an article and post it without checking it first.

It’s a simple rule of thumb; before you post on your blog, make sure you have checked your spelling and read through your post so that it makes sense to you.

If you are using WordPress then use the spell check option in the post editor, if you don’t have a spell checker then type your article into a word processor and use the spell checker there, some even come with a grammar checker so use that as well, this will certainly help your posts look more professional and help your readers read your posts with ease without trying to decode those terrible spelling mistakes etc.

About

Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds blog an avid blogger/journalist of all sorts of interesting and odd things. She is also a Cinema Film Reviewer, based in Rhyl, where she reviews the latest movies, she has also had several articles in The Daily Post Newspaper as well as other publications.

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{ 35 Responses }

  1. Udegbunam Chukwudi says:
    No matter how much I fuss over my blog posts, a few errors still slip through but I always manage to get them fixed as soon as I detect them though they rarely affect the reader's understanding of the post ;) .-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@Work Online Nigeria´s last blog ..StrictlyOnlineBiz’s Top Blog Posts Of The Week 6 =-.
  2. Latief says:
    As my English not so good, I always using simple word for simple and easy tips. Yes I think I'll improve my English in the Future. Thanks for remind me about the grammar :) .-= Latief@AnotherBlogger´s last blog ..A New Blogger Community : MMO Social Network =-.
  3. Simon says:
    to have your grammar improved is to keep on reading, i am not a native english speaker too, and i do face problem while submitting articles to EZA because of grammatical error, try to read more and always proof read your article/post because publishing it, or have somebody proof read for you. From time to time, i am pretty sure that your skill will improve. Simon
  4. chandan says:
    Thank you for this kind of post Hesham, My English is not so well so sometime I can not make some post that I wish to post, Well I am trying to improve my writing skill. Do you know any good tool that can help me for improve grammatical mistake? .-= chandan´s last blog ..Most favorite blogs of work at home blogger =-.
  5. Tony says:
    I am very hot on grammar and spelling, and firmly believe that if a person can't spell or write correctly, the article often isn't worth reading. I do however make allowances for people whose first language isn't English, but where it is, I expect a certain quality. Having spent the last 15 years in the USA and recently returned home to England, I find that I am torn between which spellings and words to use on some fo my blog posts. If the post is more related to the UK and geared to a UK audience, I will use English words, grammar and spelling, but if it's geared towards an American audience I will usually use American spelling and grammar. This does make it very difficult to spell check my articles, but also leaves me sometimes with a dilemma as to which format to use for each. Does this make me odd/eccentric, or does anyone else suffer with this language issue? .-= Tony´s last blog ..Winter Hits The UK Hard =-.
  6. Kissie says:
    This post is after my own heart, you had me at hello. FYI, I think you meant "advice" and not advise and "may be" not maybe. I could be wrong but that's what caught my attention as I read the post. Yummy, delicious. It's what I like. I'm not perfect and my site will confirm this because I have a terrible habit of writing the way I speak. My family and friends get on me all of the time because they say when I read their emails or whatever the transcript is, I only look for mistakes. That's far from the truth, they somehow stick out unless I make them. ;-) When I'm caught, my people make sure I know I goofed. I love this and am going to share it. Once folk see it's from me, they'll swear I was the author. I hope you let me come back to visit. 8-) .-= Kissie´s last blog ..Wet Chicken =-.
    • Blazing Minds says:
      You're the first person to notice the deliberate errors I placed in the post ;) .-= Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Why I Decided to do a Photo A Day =-.
      • Kissie says:
        I wasn't sure and was kinda teasing. It was a good piece, I'm going to read the photo article now. .-= Kissie´s last blog ..Wet Chicken =-.
  7. lawmacs says:
    I guest you are right we all need to check our spelling and grammer i have a very good checker that is my seven year little girl always complaining that i left off a full stop, .-= lawmacs´s last blog ..Website Promotion Tips Part 2 =-.
  8. Holly Jahangiri says:
    If you use Word, you can check readability stats along with your spelling and grammar checking. I believe the option is off by default; you may need to go into Word's Proofing options (at least under Word 2007) to turn it on. I'd aim for a 5th through 8th grade reading level, overall, for maximum accessibility. Even if someone has a graduate degree, they don't always want to work that hard at reading a blog. .-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..7 Blogging Goals for 2010 =-.
  9. Ms. Freeman says:
    I try my darndest not to have an typos, but some do get through in error. I think we all make mistakes and as a community we can overlook them and maybe contact the author via email and let them know. No harm, no foul :) .-= Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..Ode to Akismet =-.
    • Kissie says:
      True. Good point. .-= Kissie´s last blog ..Wet Chicken =-.
  10. Blazing Minds says:
    Thanks to everyone who has left comments so far, it means a lot when fellow bloggers leave constructive comments, I'm off to check out your blogs now ;) .-= Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Blazing Minds Interviews Tyson Chaney from Life 2000 =-.
  11. jan geronimo says:
    Shabby writing shows the blogger doesn't care about his readers, especially if the post is riddled with errors. Polish the post. Straighten out the misspelled words. Take your time. The world will not end if you delay hitting the publish button anyway. :)
  12. Karl Foxley says:
    I always check my articles cold. By this I mean that I write the article and then leave it for a bit before coming back and reading it again. I'll often find things that can be worded a bit better that passed the grammar and punctuation test. I recommend that people check for spelling and grammar but don't let the fear of minor errors hold them back from posting, as Andrew said, if people are going to pick you up for the wrong placement of an apostrophe then the problem is for them to own rather than your article. Karl @ FMS SEO .-= Karl Foxley´s last blog ..My Number 1 Tip For Achieving Your Blogging Goals =-.
  13. Jan Husdal says:
    I run an academic blog, and spelling and grammar are imperative to the reputability of my blog. I always check and re-check my blog posts when writing, but still, it often so happens that i have to edit older posts for obvious errors my spell checker probably did catch but my eye did not. While I agree that not all bloggers need to write perfectly, your blog is what the (Internet) world judges you by, whether you like it or not.
  14. Andrew says:
    When it comes to making sure your blog post is grammatically correct, for me, there are 2 extremes. One when there are spelling mistakes and basic grammar errors. Spelling mistakes and some incorrect grammar does turn me off. If I see several in one post, my mind tends to concentrate on the grammar rather than what is actually being said within the post. Two - going overboard when it comes to apostrophes, commas, and hyphens. I've had people tell me when I've use the apostrophe in the wrong place or I should have used a 'proper noun' rather than a noun. For me that's overkill and the person needs to get a life. I must admit, my wife checks all my blog posts and emails before I send or post. I find it difficult to re-read my own work. Hope this comment is grammatically correct – my wife is not around to check! LOL Good post. Thanks. Andrew .-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..What is the most common 4-letter word used by Bloggers? =-.
  15. Dana says:
    I always use word processor to check the spelling but it is not perfect -- not perfect but helpful. .-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..Adding Social Networking Links to Blog =-.
  16. Deepika says:
    Very nice info friend... We have to see that our article is without grammar and spelling mistake. So before publishing i will check it out twice.. One more thing, Its not necessary that all bloggers should be expert in writing. Just write simple words and don't giveup your hope.... Learn from mistakes and correct that.. Try to present good content which is understandable to everyone... .-= Deepika´s last blog ..How To Setup Feedburner For Your Blog =-.
  17. Jim Hardin says:
    Yes checking spelling is important. I try to make sure my spelling is correct. Sure if you have a spelling mistake hey it happens, but if there is a lot it looks like you are not really taking the time to review the post before you post it. I do read through my posts before I post them. Maybe too much. Everytime I read them I think I should change this and that which can be good and bad. I think the thing to remember is that it might not be perfect and thats ok but you do want to make it readable.