As I just finished saying in my previous post, some blog authors don't know how to write. I believe that how you write is just as important as what you write.

Your level of accuracy in grammar, spelling and punctuation are obviously dictated by the level of professionalism required (or desired) for your blog. Even if you're writing a purely personal blog, some level of accuracy is necessary in order to convey your message and the meaning behind the message. Of course, this doesn't apply as much to posts that primarily include links or videos.

I consider myself an open-minded reader when I read articles on other blogs. It's really hard to turn me off enough that I have to move on after reading only one article. I recently read the index page of a blog and it was so bad that it took every ounce of resolve to continue on. There were more spelling errors there than I would see in a 4th grade classroom. The author could have easily corrected the spelling errors (and a lot of grammar errors as well) by using a simple spell checker. There are spell checker add-ons for the popular browsers and you can even find free spell checkers by doing a Google search. Many spell checkers also check the grammar and punctuation. While it's not perfect, I double check my articles with Microsoft Word (it was bonus software I was given when I bought my laptop).

I don't want to point fingers at anyone, but even one of my favorite blog authors uses "gonna" instead of "going to" and "wanna" instead of "want to". Gonna and wanna are slang words and they don't belong on professional blogs. Any blog that is targeted to a specific "niche" is a professional blog in my own humble opinion.

Some authors write to the readers as if the readers are a third person. I sometimes catch myself doing the same thing. If I'm writing to you, the reader, I should say "you" and not "my readers" or anything that impersonal. I like to pretend that you're sitting across from me as I write.

You may think that some blog authors are writing incorrectly when they're actually writing the right way in their language, or even in their version of English. British English and American English are two completely different versions that can sometimes be confusing to readers that read and speak the opposite version. British "colour" is the same as American "color" and British "whilst" is the same as American "while". I write in American English while quite a few of the blogs I read are written in British English. Maybe I'm just bored, but I like the British English better than the American English.

Now it's your turn to tell me to go get stuffed. Are grammar, spelling and punctuation important to you when you're trying to read an article? Is getting the message more important than how it's presented? Please share your thoughts with me.

Other articles related to writing that you may be interested in, that aren't mentioned above: