Editing your blog entries

Posted by scoop on June 30th, 2010 in Blog basics, Business Blogging, Tips, Writing |

Editing blog entries could be quite a chore but you have to do it anyway. Instantly publishing all your thoughts might lead to confusion if you are not careful. Your blog entries do not have to be absolutely perfect but you have to be clear. People might think you mean one thing but you mean another. (All over the world we even have different ways of using certain words and that causes enough confusion, don’t you think?) Here are some things you should watch out for:

• Misspelled words. When drafting your blog entries, make sure that you have your spellchecker on. If not, do a spell check right after you write your draft. Sometimes you might be typing too quickly and you end up with misspelled words.
• Run-on sentences. Imagine this: you have a very long sentence and the clauses are only separated by punctuation marks. Sometimes it would even look like one entire paragraph. When you have such a sentence, it might be better to re-write it. If you think that the length of your sentence is still reasonable, try reading it aloud. It would help you see if there is a need for pauses and stops.
• Dangling modifiers. An example in The Essential Writer’s Companion:
  

  On returning home, the door slammed shut.

  That looks funny, doesn’t it? The door slammed shut on returning home? The problem with dangling modifiers is that they do not have subjects of their own.

When you blog, you communicate with others. (It’s not just about monetizing your blog, folks! It’s about sharing your views!) If people do not understand you because of these little things you forget to check, it might be difficult for you to come across as credible. You don’t really have to be a word geek to communicate clearly. You just have to be careful.