Improving Your Writing Style
Often times when I read posts from armature blogs (I am no super-pro), I see issues that consistently plague otherwise fantastic content. Largely, I credit that to the fact that anyone can post their thoughts online and thus can become a little sloppy when writing to what is, broadly, a much young demographic. In that vain, I thought I could help some of you out there by providing with some tips to improve how you conduct yourself on the internet.
Structure is key
I feel that this is one of the areas that can let great content down. All writing should include a short introduction, body content and a brief conclusion. This is expected by your readership and search engine robots. Having a short introduction, will tell your users if your article is what they’re looking for. Likewise, a conclusion is needed to provide your readers with a vibe of what they should have gained/achieved from the article or what your general opinion is on the given topic.
Use post breaks sensibly
When posting on a blog that has many articles, breaks are vital. They are used to define the introduction of an article in relation to the single page view. The result of a such break is a “read more” link where the break was placed that they can click on to view the post in its entirety on its own page. This is important as it prevents the reader becoming overwhelmed and the prospect of seeing all kinds of stuff they weren’t looking for and stops the server performing all kinds of performance-intensive queries to get data that the person may never need.
NEVER use emoticons!
If you want to look like a 5 year old, go ahead and use emoticons. They degrade your writing more than you can ever believe.
I hope some of these tips help you to perfect your writing style on your tech blog. As always, if you have any tips of your own, please feel free to offer them in the comments.
Your Responses
Chime In and Give Your Thoughts
Comment Posting Guidance
For the benefit of every non-spambot visiting, following a recent site restructuring I have some rules with regard to etiquette for comment posters. As well as making a better experience for all, they help to distinguish real people for automatic evil machine spam. Due to this, any comment that fails to follow any one of them will be considered spam and removed as soon as possible.
With thanks, Tom
- Coherent English must be used.
- This form has multiple fields for a reason. Only enter a real name or nickname in the first box i.e. "Boats For Sale" wouldn't make it. Similarly, the "Website" input is a pre-determined place to post one link so there is no need to have them in the body area. This is a common technique used by spammers and marketers and, as such is not allowed.
- Your comment must be directly related to the post to which it is a response. The idea of a post commenting system is to further the conversation that began in the given article. For instance "great post" is not a comment. My contact form can be used for suggestions or general communications.
- Responses to other comments must be civilised.
- No sexual reference or content is allowed.
- Duplicate comments are a no-no.
Comment Posting Guidance
For the benefit of every non-spambot visiting, following a recent site restructuring I have some rules with regard to etiquette for comment posters. As well as making a better experience for all, they help to distinguish real people for automatic evil machine spam. Due to this, any comment that fails to follow any one of them will be considered spam and removed as soon as possible.
With thanks, Tom
- Coherent English must be used.
- This form has multiple fields for a reason. Only enter a real name or nickname in the first box i.e. "Boats For Sale" wouldn't make it. Similarly, the "Website" input is a pre-determined place to post one link so there is no need to have them in the body area. This is a common technique used by spammers and marketers and, as such is not allowed.
- Your comment must be directly related to the post to which it is a response. The idea of a post commenting system is to further the conversation that began in the given article. For instance "great post" is not a comment. My contact form can be used for suggestions or general communications.
- Responses to other comments must be civilised.
- No sexual reference or content is allowed.
- Duplicate comments are a no-no.
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Thanks for the Writing Tips, I just started a writing class and am searching for useful information. I never did care for emoticons. They are for lazy writers. I'm working on my 2nd paper in school, and planning a trip for my paper. Any excuse for a trip is a good one no. I'm taking in the Minnesota River bottoms trail in Bloomington, MN and staying away from the Mall. If I can.
Writing style cam be very personal and so emoticons can be used in many occasions. It's not so bad to use them if you know when and why and where to use.
You spelt amatuer wrong.
This is such a superior post. I look forward to viewing more of your writing. Mind if I place links to here from my site:
I really like your topics and your approach to good behavior and good communication on the Internet. Just wanted to point out that in the sentence that begins, "In that vain, I thought I could help some of you out there by providing [you] with some tips ..." the correct word instead of "vain" is "vein." Vain is an adjective, not a noun, and just doesn't make sense in this context.
Excellent article, Tom, with some very useful tips. Thank you! If I might bring one item up that may be perhaps a "given," but one which I didn't see addressed, that would be the issue of proper spelling and grammar. Often people use a spell-checker to find the obvious misspellings, but many times, these misspelled words become entirely different, properly spelled words, and thus the spell-check program doesn't pick up on them. Without meaning to nit-pick (and trust me, I'm not- your video blogs and articles are much too useful for me to gain anything by tearing them apart!), your use of the word, "armature" instead of the correct, "amateur," is one such example. To avoid these kinds of things cropping up, and they do often happen, I find it helpful to develop a really strong ability to proofread. Reading and re-reading what we are about to post online never hurts! And now if I may nit-pick just a little concerning your comment, "If you want to look like a 5 year old, go ahead and use emoticons." I find that this one sentence alone changes the entire tone of your article at this point. Up to now, you've written in a very good technical way, and now the tone has changed to one of a less technical nature. Why not just say something like, "Though emoticons are at home on personal blogs and the occasional informal correspondence, they have no place in technical articles."? You'll get your point across while keeping the same technical tone and you won't be picking on the poor 5-year olds that know better. ;-) (pun intended). Keep up the great work Tom! You're an asset to the Internet. Take care, David Miller
This post is just really telling you about me hello tom my name is kevin i have watched quite a few of your videos and i would just like to say that i think that you are fantastic you type with one hand i struggle to type with two hands hehe. I am from newcastle and i am thinking about putting a few videos on youtube i am not smart like you i am in low sets because of my behaviour i go to on of the top five schools in britian i suffer from anger problems this is very yard for me as i cant keep my cool i haved tried a lot of things but as i have saw the great videos you do i would be very greatfull if would do a one for me telling me how i can keep my cool. Thanks Kevin Ps i would love to join your comunity cheers.
good article, positive experience! keep it up, tom!!
Do you try use Linux yet? Good blog and continue to post videos in youtube man, see ya!
Good to see you have a site back online after your last one went down. Welcome back Tom!