How To Write For Blogs – Some Basics

When you’re writing for blogs, it involves more than just getting some words down. You have concerns over keyword seeding, search engine optimisation, retweetability and many other things. But all of these concerns are irrelevant if you don’t take care to ensure that the most important readers of your blog – your actual human visitors – can understand and enjoy your posts.

You’re a writer. You’re writing stuff on your blog, on your Facebook, in your Tweets, on your squeeze pages and in emails all the time.

Sometimes, though, it just doesn’t ‘sound right’. You read stuff written by someone else that sounds so much better, and you just think ‘wow’. Other times you may be reading a blog post and wondering why it doesn’t seem to make sense. If you are a native English speaker you have a strong sense of what ‘sounds’ right, but that’s not necessarily the same thing as being able to ‘write right’. If you are NOT an native English speaker, then problems with how to create readable, engaging copy in English can be even worse.

Happily, the application of a few simple rules of style will help eliminate the discomfort of ‘bad English’ that may be technically (grammatically) correct but still not pleasant to read.

• Avoid redundancy and conditionals

Some verbs are just wimps. Like ‘be’ and ‘is’. They add nothing except to confirm that something exists. So cut them out where possible.

Also weed out the weak and wimpy ‘qualifiers’ like can, may, could. Unless you have to cover your back legally, make the point, don’t beat around the bush with conditionals.

There are some simple omissions which can transform your sentence from mundane to punchy.

Simple omissions transform your sentence from mundane to punchy.

• Start simple & work up
  

Put the simplest part of the sentence first, and work up to the more complex. This has multiple benefits. You start your reader off with something easy, you don’t confuse them and you lead them towards the more complex gradually. Plus, your sentence doesn’t just seem to tail off mid-stream, so it just reads better.

He was an utter imbecile, loud and tedious.

He was loud, tedious, and an utter imbecile.

• Clause segregation

Keep your clauses separate! A common mistake involves confusing your reader by not separating different parts of your sentence, and instead muddling them together. Think about how each part of the sentence relates to the parts next to it. Watch your punctuation too.

The table was sold to that lady with the Queen Anne legs.

The table with the Queen Anne legs was sold to that lady.

• Cut out unnecessary verbs

Often it’s not only possible to avoid using two verbs where one will do, it’s highly beneficial. Redundancy irritates readers and makes them wonder whether they are missing the point.

The car was running and operating well

The car was running well

• Vary the length of your sentences

If all your sentences. Are the same length. It can make you. Sound like a robot.

Natural speech is wave form, with some sentences longer than others. Try to use this natural ‘voice’ in your writing. It reads more comfortably and your reader won’t be distracted by a strange perception that she is reading something that might have been written by a Dalek.

• The Energizer Bunny Effect. AKA verbal diarrhea

The problem with writing long and complicated points in a single sentence is that sometimes your reader gets so confused by all the different clauses and information that by the time he gets to the end of it not only is his brain screaming for oxygen but he has forgotten what the start of the sentence actually said.

Rule of thumb, if you can’t read a sentence out loud without needing to draw breath then the sentence is too long. Break up your point into shorter, more easily digested bites, and pay attention to punctuation, it’s what allows the reader’s brain to take a breath.

Writing long and complicated points in a single sentence can cause problems. Sometimes your reader gets confused by all the different clauses and information you give. By the time he gets to the end of the sentence,  his brain screaming for oxygen, he has forgotten what you said at the beginning.

• Keep it Simple

There is no justification for using six words where one will do.

In view of the fact that

Because or Since

• Stating the Bleeding Obvious

Be careful of phrases which only introduce redundancy to your writing. For example:

1. anticipate in advance - when else could you anticipate something?
   
2. completely finished – as opposed to partially finished, ie not finished?
   
3. vital essentials – aren’t all essentials vital?
   

You can have the same problem with synonyms. Redundancy irritates readers and leads to confusion. For example:

• actions and behaviour
• thoughts and ideas
• opinions and points of view

Employing these suggestions can improve the readability of your posts and prevent your reader from losing patience, wandering off and missing your important points. There are thousands of millions of web pages on the internet, make sure yours is one of those that use the English language to communicate, and not to confuse.

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