Grammar and Spelling: They DO Matter!
Posted by Mike | Filed under Blogging
I was looking around the blogosphere and I noticed that there are some bloggers who don’t pay that much attention to their grammar and spelling. I admit, I have published posts with grammatical errors but I’m trying my best to stop committing mistakes…
Anyway, back to the people who don’t pay attention to their grammar and spelling. Most of the bloggers don’t care about their spelling and grammar any more. All they care about is updating frequently, getting more subscribers (which they won’t get because of their lousy grammar and spelling) and to make money.
I can’t understand why they do not want to use a few minutes of their time to proofread their work. I mean, the five minutes that some people usually waste by spamming forums (and saying that they’ve got a new post) can be used to proofread their new article. If a blogger spelled embarrass as “embarass”, I wouldn’t be that interested in reading his blog any more — even if the content is actually good. It just shows that he isn’t committed to keeping a high-quality blog.
It’s also hard for the readers to understand the blogger’s point if the grammar and spelling are incorrect. Don’t give your readers a hard time just because you’re too lazy to proofread and correct your blog posts! Take a look at these sentences:
The apple is red. Its really red.
The apple’s really red what? Are you saying that the apple owns something really red? If you mean that it IS really red, then you should have taken one second to put an apostrophe after the letter ‘t’ in the word “its”. Don’t neglect your grammar because it will really affect your readership base and your reputation as a blogger.
Using five minutes of your time to proofread your work is worth it. A well-written article will attract more readers. More readers will give you more potential advertisers and “ad clickers”. More potential advertisers = more money. Am I right or am I right? 
Sound advice!
You are right, the more people blog around here, the less they pay attention to grammar. Copyblogger recently posted about the best way to proofedit your article. Check it out.
You’re right. I’m always amazed at the number of “pro bloggers” that use bad grammar or have spelling errors in their posts. I understand that for some, English isn’t their first language, but if you’re a pro blogger that frequently brags about how much money you make from your blog, hire someone to proofread your posts before publishing them!
Spelling in blogging is a hot topic - in my opinion - and has been since the dawn of blogging. I think that on professional blogs, or on blogs that are run in order to make money, spelling is obviously extremely important. but I think on personal blogs, it’s not such a big deal.
There are obvious disadvantages of poor spelling on a blog, some of which you’ve gone over here. Bloggers have to remember though: what you write is how people - including potential clients and/or employers - are going to learn about you.
Copyblogger’s article was a great read. Thanks Seo Smarty!
“I understand that for some, English isn’t their first language, but if you’re a pro blogger that frequently brags about how much money you make from your blog, hire someone to proofread your posts before publishing them!”
I couldn’t agree more.
Spelling errors occur because of the invention of the keyboard. :p
Sometimes, typing on a keyboard (or posting online) yields way more grammatical mistakes compared to writing for an English exam because:
1) No one really bothers. Everyone is surrounded by a veil of casualness.
2) People tend to type fast, resulting in missing letters.
Back in the good old days of manual typewriters, correction fluid used to be a very sellable item because people cared enough to make sure that the lettrs and documents they typed out were correct in grammar and spelling. Sad to think that as technology progressed and the typewriter gave way to the computer, making it easier for people to correct mistakes on letters and documents, that we have become less demanding about the exactness of grammar and spelling in our correspondences.
I know most bloggers are all about speed, but if you have five minutes and you want to improve your writing check out Virtual Editor, http://www.veditor.net.
Virtual Editor is an online tool that automatically checks your document against a database of thousands of grammar and style rules. It’s very easy to use and free.
I encourage you and your readers to try it out. You have nothing to lose but typos and grammar mistakes.
I’m guilty of typing too fast and leaving typos in my wake. I do go back though and correct them if I see them later in one of my posts.