Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation ARE Important When Writing a Blog Post
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.
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So, my disciple, you're starting your journey on the path I've outlined in my latest article… Bless you, sir
Yes, Papa Hari, your words are inspiring.
While I'm not real anal about insisting blogs must be written in perfect English (heck knows there're probably lots of mistakes in mine), I will click out of a site faster than you can say boo if it's full of these:
- kiddy texting language (howz ur dae? wat did u eat 4 lunch?). There's no character limit. Type in full, damnit.
- no paragraphing (my eyes glaze over when all I see is one huge chunk of text)
- unnecessary use of ellipses…commas and periods are beautiful things…use them…
Wrong spelling or mixing up their homonyms (your and you're, its and it's etc. I've noticed this seems more prevalent among Americans) is annoying but I'm okay with that if the entire blog isn't full of them.
Oh I forgot to say this. Those are my criteria for non-professional stuff. If it's a professional article, there's no excuse for bad English.
The only excuse is when two different phrases mean the exact same thing, but the wrong one is used. Like saying "I have no idea" instead of "I don't know".
I'm with you on the use of texting language. I see "ur" or "da" in a post that should be using the real words, poof! I'm gone.
FIREFOX HAS SPELL CHECK BUILT IN.
Just one more reason to move away from the evil Internet Explorer. If I spell a word wrong when writing a comment or post, it puts a red line under the word. If you right click it suggests corrections and you can add words.
I find it difficult because I use British English in real life. On the web, I try to use American English because that is what firefox has built in. Some days I think I should just add all the British spellings into the dictionary. s vs z is a major issue for me as well as favourite, colour, etc.
I like to speak about myself in the third person from time to time.. and RT – one reason people don't use "you" is because some readers take offense and think you're talking about them specifically – I know, crazy but very true. I often find myself correcting comments I wrote to say "one" or "they" instead of "you" because so many people are unaware of the "general" you! They think you mean THEM PERSONALLY. Oh, the trouble I have been in over that in comments before.
One thing I can't stand is the rolly eyes – Hari committed that sin here recently – it's ok Hari, I forgave you because you probably did not realize.
I will blog about why I hate the rolly eyes one day soon.. 
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
I wasn't sure if it was Firefox or WordPress that was doing my spell checking here. Either way, I've been using it and then following with Word to check my grammar and punctuation.
The "you" thing. It's all about context. There are some situations that require one instead of the other, just as you said. I avoid talking in the third person, but there have been times that to talk in the first person could be construed as offensive. Of course, I've been known to offend on purpose.
I'm glad to have your forgiveness, Master…
I also use British English and when Firefox catches the British spellings, I'll just make sure the underlined words are correctly spelled in BE.
With you all the way on this one.
Spelling and grammar are absolutely essential in a written medium, and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.
Glad you like the 'correct' form of English
I'm OK with Ameriglish, although I have re-trained my spell checkers, but I had to laugh recently when I saw a blogger take another to task for poor spelling because they had used the British versions-the commenter in question was English……
I think the list of commenters on this post will turn out to be a collection of good English blogs to check out.
I was taught British English in school but grew up on American television so my writings probably contain a mixture of both.
I guess then, Lis, that your English is going to be more like Canadian! We seem to use a blend of American and British English in our writing and speech, perhaps due to our proximity to the American border and our strong British influence (the Queen and all).
And, yes, I use gonna and wanna in the first person, but I'm talking to you, my reader. And, thanks for reading!
And I thought I was the only one that burned out some brain cells when I was young.
I think that sometimes it is good if you can correct such one on one you know,probably through e-mail.I will be glad if someone could correct an error or a mistake that could cause me further embrassment.Pls don't hesitate to do that whenever you visit my blogs.I thrive on criticism.
Hi everyone. I think the occassional slip as far as spelling is concerned is allowed. It's amusing to see a blog where the author has written a previous post about being careless with spelling having a few…. spelling mistakes.
We're all human.
Sometimes I'll publish a post after going through it a few times only to go back to it and find a horrendous and obvious spelling mistake staring at me! I think too many spelling errors gives the impression (correct or not) that the author just can't be bothered and doesn't care about his/her blog.
And I wish bloggers would give you the option of editing your comments for a few minutes after you submit them (thanks RT) so you can correct your mistakes. I find it embarrassing leaving comments with spelling mistakes.
That's precisely the reason I spent the time and effort to make the comments editable. I make the same kind of mistakes.
At least you're very concerned with grammar, spelling and punctuation.
And since you made a mistake in reading the title of my discussion, maybe you should be concerned with your eyesight too.
What discussion? Oh wait… I just saw what you're talking about. Yeah, my eyesight's about 20/30 after LASIK, but that doesn't mean I can't misread something.
I will sometimes deliberately use colloquialisms or slang and third person references even in a post on my professional blog. It's a matter of style and (I hope) readability. I try to avoid spelling and punctuation errors… but I don't always succeed. I'll go back and edit a post when I catch one even a day or two after it first went up.
Technical question: For those who subscribe in readers, that doesn't come up as a new post, does it?
Ah, but that's a different story because you're intentionally writing it that way.
Edited posts don't appear as new posts in Google Reader but I don't know about the rest. I heard from one person (and I don't remember who) that it does in his or her reader.
I use Bloglines to subscribe and edited posts appear as new posts by default but we can edit the subscriptions to ignore edited posts so they won't show up again.
While I'm sure I have been an offender, I do agree with you. I often ask myself, what is this person doing. Or, they don't know how to spell. I like your Microsoft Word check as a way to mitigate these errors. It takes very little effort. Excellent advice and very well written RT.
Canadians also spell 'colour' the correct way!
Just kidding. I have debated with myself on whether to use our spelling or American spelling and chose the latter. I don't want to confuse anyone, and there will be less Canadians reading so I will go with the majority.
YES, all of them are just as important as the content to me.
Nothing in the blogosphere (sans the word blogosphere, of course, because I despise it) irritates me more than sloppy writing!
[...] Vortex reminds us that while quality content is absolutely integral to the success of a blog, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are equally important. You've got to proofread. You've got to make use of that spell [...]
If it is just one article, I'm fairly lenient. I know I am prone to not spell check or grammar check when I'm drunk blogging.
If every article is packed with bad spelling and grammar, I leave and don't return. Case in point, Rosie O'Donnell's "blog" with her "poetry."
Are you crazy? Just mentioning Rosie on this blog could get you banned!
Seriously, though, one article wouldn't be a problem. I stopped by a blog where the author looks like he's drunk every day. Even the subtitle of the blog is misspelled.
That's difficult to excuse. You and I both visit a blog whose author is often drunk(er than a skunk) and he still does reasonably well, save the odd spelling mistake.
In my opinion, using wrong spelling for a popular word helps…. I wrote about IBM Satyam Acquisition in one of my posts and though correct spelling was "Acquisition" many people used to search using "Aquisition" as a keyword and keeping couple of words in the article with popular wrong spellings, it helps reaching such audience who might just choose to visit your post directly without bothering spell check suggested by Google…
Just that one shouldn't over do it…
If you want to be taken seriously on the internet, then I would say it is vital that you have the correct grammar and spelling.
I read a lot of blogs and I must say that grammatical errors are, in my opinion, very unprofessional.
Good words RT. Yeah, there's a time and place for everything, and I agree with you that if you are writing for a particular niche and especially if you want to be perceived as a credible authority, you'd naturally need to be somewhat decent with the spelling and grammar!
On the contrary, I've heard of certain marketing gurus purposely using typos just to exhibit some level of "I'm your buddy" feel in their blogs or even sales letters. I wonder if that's been proven (via split testing) to work better?
Ok, i would agree that blogs with grammatical errors may seem a little "unprofessional", but if the blog post is really interesting, i'm quite sure that the average reader couldn't care less how many errors there are. If you really are concerned, you can email the author and point out all the grammatical errors and see what happens…lol.
yeah, actually some authors don't realize their spellings and grammars are "bad" even for conversational blogs, so when you nicely offer to help them correct something important, you may have just made a new friend and/or potential business partner for the future! =)
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Well, becoming a future business partner may be possible, but they also may get mad because of someone correcting them and ban you from the blog. You would be surprised just how many people hate being corrected, even on the internet these days.
Yeah, it's usually a good idea to spell correctly and use proper grammar. However, there are exception and it all depends on what kind of site you're talking about and with some, you can potentially get away with more mistakes than others.
I love how most of the new browsers have the right click spell-check/recommendation feature whenever I have doubts about my spelling…it definitely helps me take note of the correct way to spell that word and allows me to get it right automatically next time.
I do very much agree with the supposition that professional blogs deserve professional language. I happen to also think that a personal blog would be a little lacking without slang and "lolspeak" since they're usually geared toward getting to know someone well, including any idiosyncasies in their language use. Pure and plain is the way for most business blogs to write, though, and you're correct that it's often not the case on many blogs out there.
Well, grammar and spelling may be important, but i don't think it will effect your rankings in any way. And most readers probably expect to see a typo every once in a while anyway. So unless spelling is a vital part of your blog, i wouldn't spend too much time stressing over it.
It seems most people are not careful about the language of blogging. They feel that blogging can be profusely done with a lot of mistakes. I would like to point all users to one or two blog posts that teach you simple mistakes people make: Some English errors to avoid
Mistakes in English that I hate the most
I would love to see your comments.
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