These are some of the basic things I’ve learned to double check when at work or writing something in general – blog or not blog. I still can’t get some things right sometimes but it helps to keep these things in mind.
1. Spell check
Sometimes in the heat of passion (not that kind of passion), we forget to chck our gramar and speling. It looks more professional and legitimate if it’s clean. Just make sure you tick the English UK version and not the American version (all my Aussie workplaces are very particular about this).
2. Edit
“When you edit, edit brutally.” My teacher used to say this and it does apply to news writing, not necessarily blog writing. We are storytellers and not news writers. Having said that, it helps to edit for that double “to” and missing “and”.
3. Grammar
That’s quite clear isn’t it? I must admit, I have ‘tense’ problems every now and then. When in doubt, Google.
4. Credit
This is self-explanatory – credit where credit is due whether it is links, photos, ideas etc.
5. Numbers
I learned this on my first day of subbing in Australia and it’s never left me. Number 1-9 is written in words and 10 up is written in numerals. Not really sure why but it seems to be the standard in magazines and online media here.
6. Be professional
When writing something that needs to be professional, sound professional. Know the difference between what needs to be more serious and what can be casual.
7. To swear or not to swear
Your blog is your space and if swearing is part of your tone, then swearing is part of your blog. But when guest posting for other blogs or sites, it is better not to swear.
8. It’s and its
Niggling things like this pop up a lot. It is just the nature of writing fast and writing passionately. Some of the other ones that get mixed up — ‘there’ and ‘their’.
9. Punctuations
I don’t like using punctuations excessively. For me, punctuations need to have a purpose. Know what … is really for or if the sentence is enhanced if you added three dots to it. Till this day I still get confused with the uses of colon and semi colons.
10. Quotations
Based on experience, “ ” is used when quoting someone. And ‘ ’ is when quoting something within a quote. For instance, “I didn’t really know what he meant when he said ‘I don’t want to’ but I nodded anyway.”
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