Punctuation, Spelling and Grammar - Quality Control for Bloggers

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61 Responses to “Punctuation, Spelling and Grammar - Quality Control for Bloggers”

• Sunil Pathak

  September 6th, 2008 12:55 am

  Hi Darren

  I use to do lot of grammatical errors in my early blogging day (that is 2 month back i am only 3 month old as blogger :) )

  but as i spend more time reading mature bloggers like you and many other out their, i realized what i was is wrong and i need to change it before it too late.

  since then i started using Microsoft word as my default text editor. now i check twice my post on Microsoft word for spelling and grammatical mistakes. before that tempting *Publish* Button

• "Motivate Thyself"

  September 6th, 2008 12:55 am

  I think the hard part for a lot bloggers is that by the time you get to the end of a post, especially an in depth one, your brain is tired and you just want to be done and publish it. I’ve recently started finishing posts and then taking a break and THEN rereading it for errors. Not only do I find and fix errors more efficiently, but I have a better chance of fixing any flow issues in the post. A fresh brain is always your best editor. :-)

• Chetan

  September 6th, 2008 12:59 am

  Daily Writing Tips blog is a cool one by Daniel and am already subscribed to it. Gives lot of great information on writing stuff in the proper way.

  Btw great list posted there Darren.

• Martin Neumann

  September 6th, 2008 1:01 am

  Good to see more blog posts about grammar - not that I’m a grammar police :-) but, my pet peeve … your and you’re.

  I also found “The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation” the best of the lot.

• James Kolacz

  September 6th, 2008 1:04 am

  My biggest issue is rushing through posts. It all sounds great in my head but then when I read it back I’m faced with the harsh reality that it needs ALOT of work.

• Robert

  September 6th, 2008 1:05 am

  I think Having Quality posts are Crucial. I can immediately notice the difference between a good quality post on my own blog as opposed to a not so good quality post.

  The visitors in numbers speak for themselves.

  Oh, spelling and Grammar is also important. :)

• Pamir | Reiki Help Blog

  September 6th, 2008 1:06 am

  Glad you addressed this. There’s a big difference between an obvious command of language with a handful of typos, and little command of the language amply displayed throughout the writing. I think otherwise quality writing trumps a few typos, although a fine-toothed comb is still best. But lousy language skills ought to automatically disqualify you from DIgg, Stumble and others. Unfortunately there’s way too much buddy-sharing and linking and badly written content is promoted undeservedly.

• Laurie/Halo Secretarial

  September 6th, 2008 1:12 am

  I think it is a wonderful idea for most of us to take at least a 10 minute break between writing and proofreading. It’s so easy to read what you *think* you see, instead of what you actually typed! If you are blogging for your business and you’re pressed for time you definitely should get someone to proofread your posts for you - it would be terrible to turn off potential clients with poor quality work.

• Slobodan

  September 6th, 2008 1:25 am

  Darren, I cannot believe you are suggesting this “Have someone else look your posts over (I know of at least two bloggers who do this for one another - they have logins to each other’s blogs and edit the post that the other one writes on a daily basis).”

  Who will have time for that?

  Anyway I agree with the first comment - until you finish writing you are tired and you just want to be done and publish it.
  Recently I have blogged about useful tool I found (http://www.web2whizzing.com/spell-checker/). You just paste text and it correct spellings for you. The tool is free to use.

• alex

  September 6th, 2008 1:51 am

  My blog also suffers from absense of correct punctuation and structured sentences and paragraphs as english is not my mother tongue.
  It truly is embarasing when you notice a mis-spelling on a published post.

• David Porter

  September 6th, 2008 2:03 am

  Darren,

  This is a wonderful tip for my Boomer in the Pew Blog.

  I have been looking for a writer’s grammar text, but these writing blogs will work wonderfully.

• Bruno Auger

  September 6th, 2008 2:32 am

  Great blog post. I sometimes think I spell checked my posts but relized that I forgot after It posted which really sucks

• Daniel Scocco

  September 6th, 2008 3:04 am

  Very interesting series Darren, and thanks for the mention of Daily Writing Tips.

• Dani Greer

  September 6th, 2008 3:05 am

  Be sure to follow GrammarGirl at Twitter. Her book, based on her podcasts, is really good. “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” by Mignon Fogarty. She even has chapters about blogging and tweeting. Love it!

  Dani
  http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com (a new group blog for the editing-minded)

• Laura Christianson

  September 6th, 2008 3:13 am

  Darren,

  At HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, we run a weekly “Putrid Prose” column in which we gently poke fun at real-life grammar, usage, and punctuation mistakes and offer tips for how to fix common errors. As professional writers/authors, we have a pretty good handle (most of the time) on grammar/usage/punctuation. I’m a former high school English teacher, and I actually enjoy helping people fix their writing problems (I know; it’s a strange hobby, but I can’t help myself).

  Laura Christianson

• L-Jay

  September 6th, 2008 3:20 am

  Thanks for the links - I really need them.

  I’m learning hard-core Norwegian at the moment - (Norwegian just looks like english spelt badly) - but I’m in so deep that now I’m forgetting how to spell English! lol.

• writer dad

  September 6th, 2008 3:43 am

  I write, proof-read three times, THEN hit publish.

• John Roach

  September 6th, 2008 3:49 am

  There’s always prowritingtips.com. :-)

  Even I, though, have my wife read my posts before I submit. I’m a firm believer that you should never edit or proofread your own writing, if at all possible.

• Sayz Lim

  September 6th, 2008 3:59 am

  I like this post, save me a lot of trouble to correct my grammar mistake.. Way to go Darren…

• Graham

  September 6th, 2008 4:02 am

  On the list of books to buy I would strongly recommend “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. This little book handles the elementary rules that we should have learned a long time ago as well as addressing topics such as clarity and phrase strength. It continues to change the way I write.

  Thanks for posting on what I consider an important topic that can easily be overlooked.

• sovknight

  September 6th, 2008 4:12 am

  Pet peeves:

  1. There are no such words as “alot” or “allot”. A LOT is two words, and always has been.

  2. They’re is a contraction of “they are.” Their is possessive, as in “their beer is now my beer.” There indicates a place, or a direction. “They’re going over THERE to get their beer.

  3. There is a difference between “to” and “too.”

• On Stage Lighting

  September 6th, 2008 4:29 am

  It’s funny that on the same day as this great piece of advice, there is an article over at Copyblogger on how to write a post in 20 minutes (not written by BC, btw).

  Although the article admits that this time doesn’t account for the sketching out of ideas, it fails to mention time spent proofreading and checking links.

  Anyone who can write a post in 20 minutes is either not proofreading it or not writing anything worth reading IMO.

• moneymanager

  September 6th, 2008 5:29 am

  knowledge and end result.
  while i do have sufficient English knowledge,
  (not a serious blogger just as yet),
  but when i see my posted comments, i feel like tearing at my hairs, seeing what i have written, some one will think i am an idiot.
  i think its got a to do a lot with as to which stage of your blogging path you are, as new bees like me tend to make more mistake,
  may be out of excitement, as also laziness at times.
  but your post is worth keeping in mind

• Shaun Connell

  September 6th, 2008 5:29 am

  I really loved Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It was a fantastic and fun read, which kind of surprised me. I was expecting it to be dreary and a bit dry. Far from it!

• Blogging MillionaIre

  September 6th, 2008 5:44 am

  You say take your time writing posts and then Copyblogger is telling people how to write a 20 minute post. Interesting….

• Debby Phillips

  September 6th, 2008 5:47 am

  If I come across a blog that has a lot of spelling errors I am less likely to return. I won’t take the information seriously if there are mistakes all through the post.

• JD at I Do Things

  September 6th, 2008 6:27 am

  It’s interesting that Shaun Connell mentioned the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The phrase “eats, shoots and leaves” is intended to demonstrate the importance of the serial comma, which is sadly missing from the header image: “Punctuation, Spelling and Grammar.”

• Dani Greer

  September 6th, 2008 7:13 am

  Dare I say it? I sometimes edit after I publish. Sometimes, I catch an error days later… yep, I still edit. The purists don’t like that attitude, but I figure the blogging platforms have post-edit capability for a reason.

  Dani
  http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

• Rob

  September 6th, 2008 7:36 am

  I worked many summers as an editor/proofreader at a university press. No matter how many times and how carefully we read something, errors end up in print in books - when it’s too late (except eventually in errata editions, of course). There’s nothing that makes invisible errors appear than when they are are published! Grrr! The same is true with blogging, unfortunately.

  Rob
  Editing is a rewording experience.

• Lusy

  September 6th, 2008 8:15 am

  It’s definitely better to save it as a draft and come back to proofread before finally posting it. Thanks for the links to the blogs to subscribe to.

• Viki Nygaard

  September 6th, 2008 8:56 am

  I’m a big believer in fresh eyes. I like to leave my post overnight and then reread it in the morning. So far, there’s never been a time that I haven’t changed or corrected something.

• Jess

  September 6th, 2008 9:32 am

  I’m studying journalism and I stiil can’t work out when to use which or that…and is it which or that that has to be followed by a comma????

  A really good article is by George Orwell - I can’t remember what it’s called exactly, but it’s something like “the english language”

  It’s great - …He presents these pieces of writing by professors that don’t make sense at all…He says the key to good writing is to not be pretentious. Take out unneccessary words. Don’t use dying metaphors or cliches.
  Worth a read if you can get hold of it

• Dani Greer

  September 6th, 2008 10:00 am

  “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell here:

  http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

• Bamboo Forest

  September 6th, 2008 10:14 am

  I hate when I find an error and only fix it after so many have already read it.

  I want to give the impression that I’m a skillful writer, always. And my mistakes certainly do not add to this desire.

  This is a great post. Thanks for sharing the resources!

• Rebecca

  September 6th, 2008 12:50 pm

  This is a great post and advice I need to follow.
  I definitely need the fresh eyes!
  Sometimes when I proofread quickly I see what I think I should have written rather than what I really did write!

• Jamie Simmerman

  September 6th, 2008 1:08 pm

  You know, I was just thinking about this today, only I wasn’t brave enough to call it laziness. :)

• Hamdani

  September 6th, 2008 1:40 pm

  I recently make a big mistake for my poll. I didn’t test the link and application work or not. Because of that blunder no body bother to look at the poll.

• abdul

  September 6th, 2008 2:11 pm

  Hey darren I use to do lot of grammatical errors with blogging. But later i found many text editors which can remove my errors .. like word,text pad etc..
  Well i am very happy with my blogging:)

• Sarah Tan

  September 6th, 2008 3:48 pm

  I was once criticised heavily for bad grammar and language, and I thought that a personal blog should not be penalised for it. It was nevertheless a good wakeup call for me, because after that, I would revise my work and check the spelling and grammar. I do that for a living as well.

  I find a lot of errors when I read ebooks and other posts, and sometimes they do hinder understanding. While I am not asking for people to write accurately all the time, they should take the time out to find out their common errors.

  One example is the wrong use of ‘its’. ‘Its’ is similar to ‘his’ or ‘her’ in usage, but many write ‘it’s’ instead. The one with an apostrophe is short for ‘it is’.

• Dainis Graveris

  September 6th, 2008 4:21 pm

  I agree with You guys, because I am not native English talking - I just installed great spell check plugin for firefox - and it works just amazing. That spell check shows up writing this comment, before posting it in wordpress. For me more challenging is to just write good content. I use Windows Live Writer when writing my blog posts.

  Thanks for the article!

• shy blogger

  September 6th, 2008 5:37 pm

  I know I’m not good in grammar, tense, etc..
  But it is important to improve our language..

• My Basket

  September 6th, 2008 6:42 pm

  I enjoyed reading your blog, and I agree with everything you say…

• Shafar

  September 6th, 2008 8:27 pm

  Hi Darren, I used to make mistakes in the earlier days of my blogging. Blogging helped me a lot to improve the language and wtiting skills.
  Thanks for the resources

• Pamir | Reiki Help Blog

  September 6th, 2008 9:48 pm

  Spell checkers are no replacement for proofreading & editing. A spell checker is not going to catch “there” where you meant “their,” because “there” is spelled correctly but is wrong grammatically.

  Spell checkers are useful at an initial layer of proofreading. After that grammar, style, sentence structure, strong vocabulary and so much more come into play.

• Nappy Rash

  September 6th, 2008 10:09 pm

  Is it just me or has spelling and grammar been on the decline in recent years? It actually gives (the situation) competitive advantage to those who take the time to write good English and we should encourage everyone to learn from the good ‘wordsmiths’ as Darren is, here.

• Jess Sanders

  September 6th, 2008 11:48 pm

  Darren, couldn’t agree with you more! Aside from unimaginative content, poor grammar and spelling is the quickest turnoff for me as a reader. I will walk away from a blog and never look back.

  I try to be super-careful with my own blog’s grammar, but it could always use extra attention.

  I think it’s important to point out that you don’t have to be rigid with your LANGUAGE to have good grammar. Know your readership - use LOL or WTF or whatever if that’s their language (even if it’s not in the dictionary), talking the talk of a culture or readership is extremely important to connect genuinely. But make sure your GRAMMAR is top-notch, or it will be so distracting that your message may be lost.

• Sire

  September 6th, 2008 11:50 pm

  I still find grammatical errors that I also have to embarrassingly fix and I admit that it really has to do with the time factor. I am always in a rush to publish because I have so many other things to do.

  But I do try. What I do find annoying though is people who leave comments that do not take the time to use any grammatical niceties at all. What is really strange is that upon visiting their blogs I find that their posts are done in exactly the same fashion, and then they wonder why they do not have any readers.

• sean

  September 7th, 2008 1:57 am

  Funny you mentioned Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. It is a great book.

  Sadly, I think that the people who care about punctuation aren’t the ones that need help.

• JQK

  September 7th, 2008 2:24 am

  Darren…very important article and links to wonderful resources that we can all benefit from.

  None of us can ever be perfect, yet we should never stop striving.

  I frequently revisit old articles I have written, and have never once came away satisfied that it is the best I could have done. I always find butchered grammar to repair or an ambiguous sentence or phrase to remold. It’s frustrating, humbling, and educational too!

  Thanks,

  JQK

• Bombchell - in Atlanta

  September 7th, 2008 3:07 am

  I wouldn’t advice the blogger spelling test, took it for fun, but at the end u are not presented with the correct answers. and the link to the answers page from the beginning of the test doesn’t work.

• Carla

  September 7th, 2008 3:36 am

  “Have someone else look your posts over (I know of at least two bloggers who do this for one another - they have logins to each other’s blogs and edit the post that the other one writes on a daily basis).”

  I think that is a great idea. Like another blogger wrote above, sometimes you are just too tired to notice *everything* even after going over it several times. It would also be good to come back to it later (hours, or a day) and reread it before publishing it. Sometimes I post late at night only to come back the next day and see something I didnt notice before because I was worn out.

• Claudia

  September 7th, 2008 7:31 pm

  Wrestling with these issues will help you become a better writer. It’s all about allowing your writing to evolve into its fullness. Like fruit ripening on a tree. Good grammar needn’t get in the way of your authentic voice. When your intention is to communicate with clarity and grace, attention to grammar shows respect for the language, the writer, and the reader.

  I manage an information and Web design team at a university. We build multiple reviews into the process, both Web and print. Accuracy is mission critical.

  When I blog, I write in a more informal voice, and get loose with the structure, but never the grammar, unless it’s a deliberate colloquialism.

  Dynamite resources, Darren, I would add the Microsoft Web Writing Style Guide for those who lean more toward technical writing. Chicago Manual of Style is my overall favorite, now that the latest edition include electronic media citations.

• Will

  September 7th, 2008 10:35 pm

  I’d defintely reccommend buying Eats, Shoots & Leaves. A nice quick read and it’s in perfect english.

  Darren I think you can be excused from the odd spelling mistake - I don’t think i’ve ever seen a blogger produce so much interesting content on a daily basis - a few mistakes are bound to get through ;)

• Corey Freeman

  September 7th, 2008 11:28 pm

  I personally think that grammar is a [huge] part of being a good blogger. A lot of bloggers I know think it’s not necessary to run good content. “Grammars?” they say, “Good contents will forgived the grammer errors!”

  That’s a little exaggerated, but mostly I find people ignore verbs agreeing with the subject. I don’t understand why verbs and subjects can’t get along!

• Carla

  September 8th, 2008 4:19 am

  Wow!

  Reading the comments here is making me scared to write and publish another blog post! I know I don’t have the best grammar skills in the world, and I rarely notice other people’s bad writing skills (I notice content over grammar unless its really bad) so I had no idea that its such a hot topic in the world of blogging.

• Successful Web Women

  September 8th, 2008 11:05 pm

  Especially for a non-native English speaker these resources are very helpful.
  Thank you so much
  Yani

• moneymanager

  September 9th, 2008 2:58 pm

  while i fully agree with the idea of this post by darren,
  one must have sound knowledge of the language and grammar,
  and if not then all efforts must be made to perfect it,
  as one cant depend solely on the text editors as they only correct spelling mistakes and not the grammar,
  having said that, i would also like to add that it next to impossible not to make mistakes even for a great guy like darren as he himself admits as also for big and bright news papers(finding errors in news papers, at one point of time, used to be my hobby, some sadistic pleasure i guess), but we must also keep in mind that a mere mistake should not distract us from the content of the post, would a small mistake detract you from reading darrrens post, i am dead sure NO would be the answer, we shold have the same forgiving attitude for people whos first language is not english(i happen to be one of them), as also to the newbees who are so exited to share things with us that they at times forget the basics(wasnt every one a newbee at some point of time in the blogging journey).continuing the discusson i would like to mention a nice article by skellie in her skelliewag blog
  http://www.skelliewag.org/why-great-writing-doesnt-matter-online-246.htm

• egbsystems

  September 9th, 2008 3:41 pm

  You are absolutely right we need to concentrate on spelling and grammatical errors that we make while posting a comment.
  The Section how to achieve this was very useful

• Carla

  September 10th, 2008 2:59 am

  Moneymanager is right. Unless we hire an editor, (not always possible for us small time bloggers) we WILL make a mistake at some point no matter how hard we try not to. :)

• charles

  September 10th, 2008 7:27 pm

  One reader of mine. Checked one of my errors but i am happy he found it. I usually update my articles everyday to check for errors and add more details.

• arun

  September 10th, 2008 7:33 pm

  Greate article! However as a blogger my instincts are to post the blog when I deem finished, and its only later that I realise the quality lapses. On one hand this does not matter much if I am looking for SEO and SERPS rankings, but if we wish to establish a reputation as a quality blogger / article writer and drive traffic, which all of us must do, we need to be wary of the aspects mentioned in your article.

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