Finding the best style to blog with is a tough task, and many just can’t get it down. Christ Scott from BlogTap shares some useful tips for improving your style of writing.
No one likes proofreading. Especially if it’s your own work that you are proofreading. Unfortunately, most individuals who make money from blogging don’t have the resources to hire a copy editor nor would it be cost-effective, in many blogging-for-profit ventures, to hire one. That’s why you must develop eagle-eyed copy editing skills to minimize unclear phrasing, incorrect sentence structures and grammatical goof-ups
But what standard should bloggers consult for highly subjective word styling decisions that don’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer?
Where are the standards?
Bloggers suffer from a lack of objective style standards. The print media use standards like The Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Styles and The Oxford Guide to Style — but where do bloggers go to find out whether the abbreviation to denote the first twelve hours of a day should be a.m, AM or A.M.? How does the average blogger determine whether website should be spelled with one word or two?
Of course there is a very easy and simple solution to all of this: bloggers don’t have to use standards. They can just pick and choose styles based on wishes and whims. That’s the incredible beauty of blogging, there aren’t any real standards to follow.
Here are a few reasons why you should NOT practice the above “standards of writing:”
- What you might think of as acceptable (i.e. spelling Internet with a lowercase I), readers may not.
- You might get away with using your own intuition for styles for one post but it will be very difficult to stay consistent across your entire blog because you have no absolute standard.
- No objective standard for styles will give your blog a less professional look. Especially if your blog has a very large audience.
A very simple trick to keep your style choices consistent
At this point, you are probably expecting me to give you the link to buy a book titled something like The Blogger’s Guide to Style. Unfortunately, there is no such book. That is why you are going to have to use a method that you will probably consider to be a bit unorthodox to remain consistent with styles across your blog.
The unorthodox method is as follows
- Type a word or words you are having trouble with into Google.
- Examine the first 5-10 search results and see how that word is used.
- If you find that the majority of the results use the word in a particular style (i.e. the “I” in Internet being capitalized), chances are you can use it as well.
But wait! I know what you are thinking: how do you know the consensus of the first 10 search results is the correct style? It’s hard to explain exactly how this card trick always works, but below are several compelling reasons why you should be safe.
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Google ranks sites for keywords based on reputation. Despite all of the millions of SEO experts out there that try to work the system — the system still works. If it didn’t work, people would not be using it and Google would not be investing millions of dollars per year into it.
The fact of the matter is that Google searches work especially well for short-tail, broad keywords (which is what you will typically be entering in if you are looking for the correct style for a word) and the sites that are ranked first will often be the most reputable. In the world-wide web, Google is the rule and measure of all things, including style.
- When you are looking for the correct style of a word, for any medium, you are looking for a consensus. The individuals who wrote the Associated Press Stylebook for newspaper writing did not pick and choose what they thought were the best styles (based upon their own fancies) and put them into a style book. They found a consensus by surveying what the top, most reputable newspapers did. You are essentially doing the same thing when typing a word into a search engine. You are looking for a consensus.
- The odds of one site making a poor choice of style for a particular text and then many other sites all making the same error, and getting high rankings, is very small.
Although this method might seem unconventional, using it actually makes perfect logical sense. Bloggers need a way of identifying correct styles for their copy. But more importantly, bloggers need to maintain copy style consistency that will reduce occurrences of sub-conscious grimaces felt by readers every time they come across the same word styled differently.
Copy style may not seem like a big deal. But there are commercial reasons why newspapers and magazines use objective standards for their word styles. The publication that uses consistent and objective styles reaps the subliminal benefits of a well-conformed and unified body of work which pleases the human cognition. The same rules applies to blog content — especially the blog content that is consumed by a large group of readers.
What’s Your Style?
I talked a lot about keeping a consistent blogging style here, and I’m interested in hearing some things you try to achieve with your posts. Do you like to engage your readers a lot by asking them a lot of questions, or do you like to make them laugh with some humor? Whatever your style is, I’d love to hear about and discuss with you in the discussion below.
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?That is a great idea. Sometimes I am confused as to whether a word is capitalized or not, like TV or tv. It makes sense that the top of Google would have the best answer, that is why it is at the top of Google.
I never really thought about trying to be consistent with my style through posts, but when you write for months or years, your style must change up a bit.
.-= Patrick Toerner´s last blog ..10 More Wordpress Plugins I Can’t Live Without =-.
Editing is something I struggle with – espcially when it comes to my own writing because I know what it’s supposed to say, so sometimes I miss the little errors. Thanks for these tips.
.-= Shannon O | Confessions of a Loving Wife´s last blog ..Loving Marriage: How remarrying saved my marriage =-.
Chris those are great ideas. And every blogger need to keep his style! Thanks
.-= John Davis´s last blog ..Medjugorje resources =-.
Here are another couple of options. You could buy a copy of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style (as low as $2.99 on Amazon) or the New York Times Manual of Style ($9.99).
Or, try these two online resources:
Online Writing Lab at Perdue: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/
GrammarBook.com http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
.-= Jodi Kaplan´s last blog ..How to Put Your Email Marketing on Automatic Pilot =-.
Or you could just type everything questionable into Google
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.-= Chris | top blogging sites´s last undefined ..Response cached until Sat 3 @ 16:05 GMT (Refreshes in 23.97 Hours) =-.
Here are some more options.
You could buy a copy of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style (as low as $2.99 on Amazon) or the New York Times Manual of Style ($9.99).
Or, try these two online resources:
Online Writing Lab at Perdue: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/
GrammarBook.com http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
.-= Jodi Kaplan´s last blog ..How to Put Your Email Marketing on Automatic Pilot =-.
bloggers don’t have to use standards WHOOO HOOOO! Never thought about using Google to check style. My luck I would get sucked into other websites and 5 hours later I’d be like, oh crap, I haven’t finished my blog yet.
I cannot agree more. I’d much rather have fun in creating my own style and personality than follow so called standards. And who get’s to choose them anyway?
So wOo! hOo!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review =-.
You’re exactly right, we bloggers set our own standards! For most, the fact that we share our own style and personality is the reason we blog and why we’re able to gain readers.
.-= Jasmine Henry from System Fail News´s last blog ..Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why =-.
Hi Chris! I like to keep my readers engaged by asking questions, using humor, and I also like to draw interesting analogies from personal experience.
So are you planning on writing this new style guide? I’d be willing to help.
.-= Kiesha @ We Blog Better´s last blog ..The Julia/Julie Blog Project – An example of what better blogging can do for you =-.
Hmm… I was wondering about something simillar a few days ago. It was more of grammatical worry rather than ‘style’ worry. And I am really bad with spells (spellings) too.
You stirred up a lot and helped me to get some new ideas. Thanks a lot for that, I really appreciate it.
Cherio!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review =-.
One of the best ways to edit your blog (or any writing) is to read it out loud. You ear will usually catch awkward cadence. If your writing sounds choppy or staccato, keep rewriting until it flows. Read bullet points out loud. If they sound disjointed, they probably lack parallel construction (e.g., they should all start with the same part of speech: verbs, nouns, prepositions, etc.). Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. That’s the difference between an amateur and a professional writer.
Amen to that. I re-write a blog post at least 3 times before it is done and I re-read each paragraph after I’m finished with one.
.-= Chris | blog tags´s last undefined ..Response cached until Sat 3 @ 16:07 GMT (Refreshes in 23.98 Hours) =-.
Wel i do both by asking questions and making em laugh!
hey gr8 site lots of learning can be done..congratulations for your site..
It might not work for all blogs in all niches but I always find that the way that we should copy edit is to imagine that we are the readers and then read through the things that we have written. If we would enjoy the post as a reader then go ahead, press post but if not it definitely helps to go back and make it more accessible. Being all stuck-up and such won’t win you any readers.Unless that’s the reason readers come to site in the 1st place in which case keep going!
.-= Jasmine Henry from System Fail News´s last blog ..Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why =-.
As for things like capitalization, using Firefox with the nifty red wavy line takes care of that.
As for style, I write as I speak, and all them standard people would probably kill themselves after a few of my posts…who’s gonna tell me different? (see what I mean).
I ask questions, use humor and sarcasm, whatever fits at the time.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Comments and Blog Comment Contests – Lets Chat about Paying for Comments =-.
You write the way you speak which is why I love your posts so much!
.-= Jasmine Henry from System Fail News´s last blog ..Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why =-.
i like that tricks
sometimes if i’m not mood i usually rewrite an artikel
i try it until it pass copyscape
.-= Imonli´s last blog ..Better Uploading Photos for your blog =-.
Hey folks — this just in.
Yahoo has released a new style book for blogging, newsletters, email and other forms of online writing. The style book even has SEO copywriting tips. Check it out:
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5511892/yahoo-launches-style-guide-of-future
.-= Chris @ random topic´s last blog ..By: alex =-.
Gonna bookmark this, with thanks man
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Thanks for the tips. I especially like the suggestion of entering your content into Google to see the most common way a word is being used when you’re unsure how to use it yourself.
I find myself doing this already for things as simple as spell check.
Thanks for giving such wonderful tips. I usually face some problems in editing my blog now it can be easier for me.
I really want to know about this information which share. I hope it will help me a for making any custom blog.
You specified such a nice method how to create and do modification with custom blog.
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