Aug15
Some people are good at writing. Others are good at criticizing bad writing. I’m the latter. 
Bad writings raise my hair in anguish and annoyance. So… about some of those bad blogs I read.
- Get to your point quickly. Don’t say, “Some relevant tips on writing good blogs include…” Just give the tip! Don’t talk about it.
- Sentences longer than 2 lines. Run-on sentences are favorites of academics and nincompoops alike. I need variety! Make sure 1 in every 3 sentences are only 4 words long and none of the sentences are longer than two lines. I hit my head against a philosophy book or two, but I don’t wanna work that hard on your blog.
- Check your grammar and spelling for unintentional mistakes. It’s deceptively simple and important… Save yourself a “doh!” and an “oops” moments of embarrassment. Most people online these days blog with pretty low standards, but your readers may not always have your low standards. Watch for your subject-verb agreement and your usage of “they’re” and “their,” etc. Believe me, your educated readers do mind these details no matter how brilliant your expressions are otherwise.
- Don’t use passive voice. For example, don’t write,
“However, it is always recommended that generated site maps should be checked for accuracy.”Who is recommending? The writer, you are! So don’t hide behind those damn wordy lines.Instead, write:“However, generated site maps must be checked for accuracy.” OR “Check the generated site maps for accuracy.”
- Refer to your readers as “you” instead of describing them in third person, as “one must…” etc. Otherwise you sound like a pedantic preacher at best.
- Don’t give a list of disclaimers and qualifiers. Like, “There can be a host of external reasons that influence the success of web sites but if we are to focus on technicalities then a few things that come to mind are…”
- For more personality, erase the blah words like “sometimes”, “might”, “thus”, “probably”, “perhaps”, “if you like”, “usually”, “should”, “that”, etc. Those are academic words that have no place in a blog. They allow you to hide your personality in the academic world, where it’s important for you to appear “fair and correct. In the real world, they make you sound so damn boring and painful to read. It’s more important for you to have flair and be politically incorrect!
P.S. Ultimately, the reader should not have to work so hard. Especially to read a blog on the Internet with all its other distractions.
P.P.S. I love the sentence, “Avoid using unimaginative internal links like CLICK HERE or MORE.” It’s useful, direct, and has power.
