Improving your writing
Blogging is all about content, it’s all about writing. Yet it’s one of the things that most bloggers neglect and rarely try to improve. Truth being told, I’m more guilty than anyone else when it comes to taking time out to improve my writing.
A week or so ago there were a few comments left on some of the posts I wrote asking for me to improve my writing. More specifically, I was using the lowercase i instead of I in most of my posts and had not put apostrophes in certain words too.
With regards to the apostrophes, I hadn’t reread several posts I wrote as I simply did not have the time (I was travelling) and because of this, the post quality suffered a little. However, with regards to using the lowercase i, I’ve realised that this is a very bad habit of mine. When I’m writing posts I have to make a conscious effort to put the capital I in the sentence. I find it strange I have this habit because if I was writing something down on paper with a pen I would never use a lowercase i. I think I have contracted some sort of typing laziness disease!
I will be doing my utmost to improve my writing style however I would be grateful if readers had some patience with me, I did major in Mathematics after all!! We’re hardly known for our superior English skills 
How do you improve your writing?
It can be difficult to see what aspect of your own writing needs improved so i recommend a few things.
- First of all, try and make time to proof read all of your posts. It’s amazing how many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors you can find with a quick read of your post.
- Secondly, I suggest asking your readers if there is anything you can do to improve the writing in your posts. Don’t take any criticism to heart, look at the comments objectively and see if it is something you can work on.
- Last but not least, spend some time looking at the writing style of good authors. You can check the articles on online news websites, blogs or even in a magazine. It’s amazing how much your writing can improve just by paying attention to the grammar and structure of good articles.
I also encourage you all to subscribe to Daniel Scocco’s new blog Daily Writing Tips (online since May 2007). It’s a daily blog which concentrates on helping bloggers improve their blog writing and includes topics such as grammar, punctuation and spelling.
If you have any writing tips for your fellow bloggers please leave a message. 
Thanks,
Kevin
Cash Quests | July 8th, 2007 at 10:36 am #
After writing a post, I usually read it again - twice. Then walk away for 10 minutes and then read it again - twice. And then publish it and read it again - twice. It takes forever, but it means that I’m always pretty confident that it’s just the way I want it and error-free. Most of the time…
Daniel Scocco | July 8th, 2007 at 11:02 am #
Kevin, thanks for the mention of DWT, I am flattered.
Apostrophes and lower cases apart, I think you have a pretty nice writing style :smile:.
Keep it up!
DerekBeau | July 8th, 2007 at 12:39 pm #
I usually read my posts a few times after writing them to catch stupid mistakes and reword a few phrases.
I think my biggest weakness when writing for my blog is that my writing can be “top heavy”. I will start out with very detailed information, then wrap it up fairly quickly. I have been trying to combat this by writing rough outlines before actually writing the content.
Jake | July 8th, 2007 at 12:41 pm #
Thank you! I have always had trouble linking to some of your posts because of some simple errors, such as “i” so often. Now I can feel better about linking.
Celebrienne | July 8th, 2007 at 12:45 pm #
Kevin, great you want to improve your writing skills. Thumbs up!
What I like to do when I don’t feel like blogging something new, is to go through older posts and correct all the mistakes I can find there. I always feel so ashamed because of my bad writing when I go back like 3 or 5 months. But that’s why I read DWT. I’m trying to improve
Ram | July 8th, 2007 at 12:48 pm #
Kevin, your English is good. Using Dictionary is a good to improve English. Everything comes by practice. You have to write, write and write. Daily Writing Tips is really a very cool blog. It teaches you all the basics and some good stuff.
And BTW, my English is also not good. I know what can be done to improve English. But the thing is that I don’t implement them.
cmanlong | July 8th, 2007 at 3:23 pm #
I have been trying to improve my writing as well. I know that this is an area where I need a lot of improvement. I have the same problem with the I i issue. I think this is an issue with people that do a ton of typing or something. maybe it is just us lazy ones
I hadn’t actually thought about asking my readers for critique but it seems like a really good way to connect with them and also to improve. I also check out daily writing tips which has been helping lately. well thanks again for the great post. I am really liking your blog.
later all and have a profitable productive blogging day
Dave Starr --- ROI Guy | July 8th, 2007 at 4:39 pm #
I’m impressed that you took the time to think about the issue and comment, Kevin. It seems that many bloggers today will not aknowledge mistakes … we all make them, the difference is what we do about them.
The real reason to avoid the improper capitalization … and some very common errors I’ve seen on “big name” blogs … not knowing how to use their, there and they’re … not understanding the difference between advice and advise … not knowing mute from moot, etc. is not the error itself, ut the fact that these minor errors cause readers to “stumble” … the brain unconscionably stops its flow to puzzle out the the writer really meant to type … and this causes folks to read less. If you blog, it seems obvious you want people to read the words, so it’s well worth taking the time to make them flow smoothly. Few of use will ever attain perfecion, but acknowledging the need to proofread is the first and most important step.
@==> Celebrienne … there’s a hidden benefit in reviewing old posts .. they become updated an “new” again. Darren Rowse and several others have written on the fact that old posts on a blog can be a hidden gold mine.
@==> Ram … your comment made me laugh … isn’t that human nature in a nutshell … like the old boy behind the mule in his field who was aksed why he dind’t by a tractor … “Sonny, I already don’t farm half as good as I know how”
@ ==> Anyone who writes in English as a second language … thanks for sharing … and do not apologize. I notice writersoften breaking their own flow to apologize for their English not being good. Yet their English skills are orders of magnitudes better than most of us could ever produce in the native language. Just write your best, learn and improve and keep writing … in my view there’s no need to apologize for anything you cna do twice as well as I can.
GoddessCarlie | July 8th, 2007 at 9:09 pm #
My biggest writing fault is my spelling. Lucky Firefox comes with an inbuilt spell check!
Ram | July 8th, 2007 at 11:18 pm #
@Dave,
Hehe! No man. I actually use the same words in most of the places. I don’t go for different words. For ex: I say “cool” a hell lot of times. I should try using some other word in the place of COOL.
cooliojones | July 9th, 2007 at 6:13 am #
I do agree with this. I referred your site yesterday because of some information that I found on it. Having your information just right will keep readers coming back by not giving them an excuse not to. Of course, it’s only one component though. In the same vein, commentators should review their comments too!
I’m guilty of a few typos here and there.
Yogesh | July 9th, 2007 at 9:05 pm #
Just use Microsoft Word for writing your posts, I also have the habit of using the lower case I, however this is auto corrected by Microsoft Word.