Blogging Tips

Regardless of why you start blogging, you need to understand that good writing is one of the most important elements not only in blogging but in any other kind of written communication as well. It doesn’t really matter why you are writing and whether you’ve got a pen in hand and a piece of paper or are clicking out a message on a BlackBerry or other device, you need to say what you mean and mean what you say.

Fair enough, you might be thinking, but what if you’re not sure about the rules? What if you’ve loved to read and write and have been doing both for years, but don’t really understand why some words sound better than others in certain circumstances and some phrases work best paired together?

You need some guidelines and while there have been many different writers that swear there are really only a few of these guidelines that you need to follow, almost all agree that getting The Elements of Style By Strunk and White is a great reference book that everyone that is serious about writing should have.

The book dates all the way back to the First World War when an English professor, one William Struck Jr., wrote a book called the Elements of Style which had actually been printed on campus by the author himself.  It was seen then , and is still seen today, as one of the best manuals for those wishing to understand those few rules that the English language commands in a simple and precise form. It is, as E.B. White who used that early version called it, a “ forty three page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy and brevity in the use of English.”

The book teaches you to write so that others can read what you’ve written using the right building blocks. There’s nothing in the book about you being spelled U , or boys being correct as boyz. The point here is that if you want to write in English in the way that it is supposed to be read, you need to make sure that you have a common foundation.

There are people who keep on saying that proper English is a lost way of communication but that’s no the truth at all. Those among us that learn to write well also think well, and that means that we can express ourselves in a more clear and logical manner. Now that’s not to say that there isn’t a place for the kind of phonetics that are easy and quick to use in the chat rooms or on the iphone screen, but these abbreviations and short cuts have no place in either business or literary English.

It’s important whether you’re writing a personal blog on your inner thoughts or a series of articles for a company that you start the process off with some understanding of good English. That way you’ll be sure to express yourself more clearly to those who read your work.