Writing, Blogging, Spelling and Punctuation
Posted on September 12, 2011
Whether you write or blog for a living, spelling and punctuation could be defining factors in your success.
You might be a writer that blogs or a blogger that writes for a living, but both of these scenarios require spectacular spelling and perfect punctuation skills.
Why is it so important to perfectly portend and punctuate your penned opinions? As a writer, everything you author reveals your skill to people. Include run-on sentences, leave out a period, write “there” when you should have used “their,” and your skills come into question.
Not only that, but it looks sloppy and implies that you don’t care about the quality of your writing.
In the writing arena, if you want to make top dollar for your skills, you must show you have top-notch writing skills worth paying the big bucks for.
Showcase Your Skills
A blog is one of the best venues to showcase your skills and advertise your expertise. What some writers don’t realize is that their blog is a showcase of their skills. Potential clients visit the blogs of writers applying for work to check out the:
- Quality of the writer’s skill.
- Topics on which the writer blogs.
- Tone and voice of the writer — e.g., Is the writer upbeat or contentious? Does the writer provoke controversy or deep thinking?
- Overall aesthetics of the blog — I believe this is more of a subconscious act — again, speaks to the perception of quality.
- Page rank and other SEO factors.
Writing Strategies
Some strategies I use to promote my blog and writing skills include leaving comments on other blogs, interacting on social websites and creating quality posts for my blog.
I try to comment on other’s blogs as often as possible for a variety of reasons:
- Over time, visits and comments help their page ranking – and they almost always (if not always) reciprocate.
- Allows backlinking to my own blog — if it’s a popular blog, then my blog benefits from it.
- It makes me visible to many who may not know me — they check out (and sometimes subscribe to) my blog, because they see my comment on someone else’s blog.
Interacting on social websites provides me many advantages and benefits:
- Promotes my work and brings in new subscribers to my blog.
- I’ve gained new clients due to interacting on these sites.
- Enables me to develop relationships with others in the same profession (networking) – I support other writers and they support me.
- I’ve developed many, what I believe will be, life-long friendships.
Creating quality posts meets a variety of needs:
- Presents content worth reading and revisiting.
- Showcases my talent – hopefully in a good light!
- Allows me to practice my writing skills.
- Creates a broader portfolio of work.
- I get to write on what I want to write on.
In doing the above, some strategies necessary to promote your writing and ensure your writing skills are always viewed favorably are:
- Write clear, crisp, concise content (3C’s).
- Pay attention to punctuation and spelling, even when leaving a comment on someone else’s blog.
- Write complete sentences.
- Pay attention to the use of homonyms — words that sound the same, but have different meanings — e.g., their, there, they’re and bald, bawled and balled.
- Don’t be negative and critical of the blog on which you comment, but do be factual — it’s okay to challenge information you find on a blog if you’re respectful in doing so.
Become very conscious and careful of your writing skills. It may seem tedious in the beginning, but you’ll get used to it in no time and feel like you’ve always written that way.
What strategies do you use to promote your writing skills?
Writing 4 Effect 
ScottTheWriter
September 12, 2011
Good advice. Now, if we could just have some studies or statistics to back up the impact of good grammar and punctuation, and clear writing, we’d be doing great!
Writing4Effect
September 13, 2011
Hi, Scott. Glad you appreciate this post. Ah, now, therein lies the challenge. Let me know if you run into any and I’ll post it here! 😉
claudiajustsaying
September 12, 2011
Nicely said, this comment is a fragment without the comma, speaks to your point and the reason for my hesitation in publishing a blog. I am a nervous wreck. You have reassured me to take my time, and get it right. Thank you.
Writing4Effect
September 14, 2011
Thank you, Claudia. Don’t fret. It takes time and a big of nail-biting in the beginning, but keep doing it and it’ll be second-nature before you know it — 😉
Penelope J.
September 12, 2011
Sherry, Another excellent and helpful blog post. I couldn’t agree more. I’m tired of reading blog posts full of spelling, punctuation, and something you didn’t mention, grammatical errors. The one that seems to figure most is the misplaced apostrophe, e.g. “it’s” as possessive instead of “its” and second, the apostrophe before the “s” instead of after it when the noun is plural. As I commented on another blog on this subject, careless writing does not show respect for the reader. It also highlights weakness as a serious writer – if spelling, grammar or punctuation is incorrect, what else may be as well?
I have also made several lasting friendships through social media interaction – such as with you – when we find out we have similar interests, experiences, backgrounds, etc. What has been a pleasant surprise is to interact with a community of bloggers with very different interests, work, experiences, background, and geographic location. This has, for me, opened a wider window onto the world than if I had remained in my comfort zone, blogging with other writers and book lovers.
Writing4Effect
September 14, 2011
Hey, Pennie, thank you much. Oooh, yes, grammatical errors. Yep, I think you hit the nail on the head for a really common one. I like the way you posed that, though — showing disrespect to the reader — very well said. Unless the content is really, really intriguing, it’s hard to revisit a blog with lots of poorly punctuated and poorly written content. On the other hand, I always want to subscribe to and revisit interesting blogs with cleanly written content. Darren Rowse at Problogger.net (now owned by Yahoo!) is one of my favorites, because he and his troupe (guest posters) overall produce very well written copy. I think my biggest concern is with blogs that are supposed to be writers that do not know how to write. Thankfully, we have many subscribers here who are conscientious writers. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to read quality and well-written content on blogs from even our foreign subscribers/writers. My hats off to them all!
Erica
September 12, 2011
Excellent post, thanks. Though I don’t have my own blog, I do write posts for another blog quite frequently, so this was very helpful.
Writing4Effect
September 14, 2011
Thank you, Erica. Glad to see you again. Point us to some of your articles and we’ll visit and leave comments — 😉
cspeno
September 13, 2011
Good reminders, Sherry. Thanks for another helpful post. I have a few good resources I can recommend to anyone interested in polishing their writing and use of grammar or punctuation.
You may have some of them as references, but maybe one or more of your readers will find them helpful:
Style,Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph R. Williams
Index to English by Ebbitt & Ebbitt
Health Writer’s Handbook by Barbara Gastel, M.D. (useful for more than medical writing – great suggestions and exercises)
The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need by Susan Thurman
These were all my “bibles” when I was an online writing tutor for Smarthinking.com
I recommended them all to students frequently! And I still use them often.
There are tons of online resources as well, but sometimes it’s nice to have a book to hold in your hand and bookmark things that you refer to often.
Just my two cents (or maybe 25 cents this time!!)
I have another strategy that I use, but will save that for a post on my blog at wordsetcwriting.com Watch for it soon!!
Happy writing everyone!!
Writing4Effect
September 14, 2011
Thank you, Christine, and thanks for the list of resources. I think they will be helpful to us all, coming from a tutor, no less. And, believe me, your input on this blog is waaaay more than $.25 — it’s invaluable! As far as online resources, my favorite is merriamwebster.com. I use it as a dictionary/thesaurus and for spelling. It’s saved my backside many times and it’s easily and quickly accessed. We’ll be watching for that new post …
Samantha Bangayan
October 29, 2011
As a meticulous person, I’ve always paid attention to my spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but I’ve never been more conscious of them until I started editing academic papers! I didn’t realize how complicated they could be — sheesh! =) Not only are there differences between and British spelling, but there are also so man nuances and exceptions with English grammar. No wonder people find it so difficult! =P I just finished editing a paper and I found all the professor’s questions about my edits a beneficial challenge! =)
I’ve also been client hunting a bit lately and I’ve found that my blog makes a huge difference! I imagine that if we can catch a client’s eye with our cover letter, our blogs are our “second” first impression. They can make or break the deal! =P
Writing4Effect
October 29, 2011
I know that about you, Sam. You are one of the most meticulous and thorough writers I know, and that’s why you’ve found the same level of writing jobs in just a few months that it takes some freelance writers years to attain.
I’ve never had to write for a UK company, so I’ve not had to adhere to those standards. I can imagine the challenge. I do have friends in Northern Ireland and the UK, so I’m familiar with the whilst and wee and other nuances relative to that language.
I believe you are right about that “first impression” thing, my friend, and you have a stellar blog that’s well organized and aesthetic to the eye — I’m still working on that one! I did not mention this in this post, but I think the content and visual effect of our cover letter is just as critical in capturing a potential client’s attention — be brief, but to the point; highlight the highlights; make the job experience relative to the job posting; and capture/maintain interest by using a good visual layout — balance the use bullet points and narrative effectively …
… and hope for the best! 😉
Samantha Bangayan
October 29, 2011
Aww! Thank you so much for your kind words about my blog, Sherry! I think yours has a really organized and appealing set-up too!
And I had never thought about the visual effect of my cover letter. Most of mine are sent through email, so I’m always worried about using HTML (e.g., highlighting, using bullets) in case it doesn’t show up properly on the other end. I will, however, be paying much more attention to the overall look and feel of my letter. Great tip, friend! =)
Writing4Effect
November 3, 2011
Good to hear from you, Sam. Good point. I don’t ever use anything fancy in my cover letter. I’m so glad you mentioned this. What I meant regarding the visual effect is to refrain from long paragraphs, use bullets for brevity where appropriate (double-space before and after, distinguishing them from the rest of the content — even in a text-only version, they will stand out) and to keep the cover letter brief. Don’t make your cover letter long or wordy. Make it easy for a potential client to peruse through your cover letter in 20 seconds or less. Also, use key words that allow a potential client’s system to match up with the job opening. Some companies don’t actually read all the cover letters or resumes. Instead, they have an electronic process that captures key words and identifies the resumes that match the job description and requirements. I forgot to mention it in this post, so it looks like I’ll be doing another one on this topic soon! 😉
Samantha Bangayan
November 4, 2011
Ooh! Gotcha! I hadn’t even considered those formatting points! I’m especially lazy about keywords. I’ll have to implement all of these tips during my second round of client hunting this weekend. Really looking forward to the follow-up post! =)