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Proofread!

Posted By Darren Rowse 26th of November 2006 Reader Questions, Writing Content 0 Comments

Reader-Quick-TipsSteve from Adventure Money submitted the following reader ‘quick tip’:

Readers form opinions about your blog based on the quality of your content. However, even if your content is great, if your readers have to stop in mid-paragraph to perform some sort of mental gymnastics to determine the meaning of a poorly written sentence, they’re not going to get the most out of your work. We may not all be professional writers, but everyone can make sure their work is free from spelling errors. While you should strive for perfect grammar, at the very least your work should be free of glaring grammatical errors. People will definitely question your authority if you can’t communicate effectively.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Funny. I was just thinking the same thing earlier today while reading an article online. Oh, and normally I wouldn’t post a reply just because of a small error, but isn’t this sentence missing an “a”:
    “… to determine the meaning of [a] poorly written sentence…”

  2. nice pick up ‘j’ – I’m sure Steve did that as a test :-) (fixed)

  3. nice catch J :d

    it’s not always easy to write 100% correct article especially when it comes to a non-english oriented blogger

    but writing more often will strengthen your skills and a language course won’t hurt though ;)

  4. Grammatical errors and words spelled incorrectly definitely bother me! Sometimes you can read something though and not see the mistakes until later. You ask yourself how in the world you missed such an obvious error. And there are those bloggers that make you wonder what in the world they’re saying and who hired them.

  5. window says: 11/26/2006 at 1:39 pm

    Ok, Ok, the dude doesn’t have to yell it in somebody’s face. Just because Steve’s blog sucks, doesn’t give him a right to take out his frustrations on others.

    He should take advice from this blog rather than criticizing it. Most websites on making money are crappy, so be glad for god’s sake that this exception exists.

    Perhaps Steve might like to visit one of those one-page, scroll-down, order my amazing system, type of sites. At least they don’t have typos.

  6. Darren I just noticed that your feed count has diminished marginally today.I remember your blog having about 7000+ feed readers just couple of days ago.

  7. Good tip. As a non-english native speaker it´s important for me to go through my articles and at least make sure no letters are missing or that the sentences are comprehensible. I guess it will become a lot easier a few more months down the road when I get more accustomed to writing in english.

  8. If English is a second language, errors can be acceptable because the effort is there. Not so much, though, with those who should know better and simply don’t care. Too many writers are sloppy about their art; well, I can’t explain or understand that. How would that same sloppy writer feel if the mechanic forgot to tighten the lug nuts after rotating the tires?

  9. It seems that a lot of focus is placed on post frequency and that seems to attribute to a lot of typos or what I like to call…’miss key punches‘.

  10. It seems that a lot of focus is placed on post frequency and that seems to attribute to a lot of typos or what I like to call…’miss key punches‘.

  11. great tip!
    I’m glad I have a ‘post as draft’ option in my performancing plugin at http://performancing.com so I can proof my text before publishing. With your timely reminder, I’ll be more vigilant.

    I also kick myself when I mistype a web url. thanks.

  12. If at all possible, get someone else to proofread your work.

    By the time I finish a post I’m weary (I tend to post feature articles rather than short ones) and ready to hit ‘publish’.

    Also, your brain is very bad at proofreading your own work, because it is very good at working out what a sentence means and screening out errors. I’ve missed my own errors after reading something three or four times before.

    But certainly, take a while to browse your posts in ‘preview’ mode, if you have one. It helps quite a bit.

  13. […] Proofread! […]

  14. Just another Gypsy says: 11/29/2006 at 1:08 am

    Excellent suggestion, Darren.

    I know that you often make the mistake of using “it’s” (contraction for “it is”) when you actually mean “its” (possessive), as you did here, when you wrote “Every year Google sends it’s higher end AdSense publishers….”

    Let’s hear it for better proofreading! :-)

  15. […] In a recent blog entry by Darren Rowse for problogger.net, he featured an interesting hint submitted by Steve.  The blog suggests that writers should all aim for perfection while any infraction in grammar and language use may affect the readability of the entire article.  When writing for blogs or articles published on web, people only expect the best from the authors — all for the simple argument that if they can’t write ideas clearly, why else would they bother to visit the site.  Remember, there are millions of other sources available. Friends Economy Facts Local Dating London Dating Home Improvement Online Education Archives […]

  16. Something a lot of people do is run their post through spell check without truly proofreading. Many times what happens is the words pass the spell check, but if they had actually proofread the post, they would see it actually had mistakes when given the context.

  17. […] Spell Check – Don’t tell me you forgot this one! Take the time to tend to the details like spell and grammar check – it will save you future embarrassment. […]

  18. One of the best ways to catch your own typos and mistakes is to read the posting out loud. Your ear will catch it before your mind does.

  19. Something a lot of people do is run their post through spell check without truly proofreading. Many times what happens is the words pass the spell check, but if they had actually proofread the post, they would see it actually had mistakes when given the context.

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