CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
WRITING QUALITY BLOGS
INTERTWINED LOVE Blog Page
Very glad to see a blog with complete thoughts and real grammar.
Bruce’s comments on my newest wordpress blog, www.intertwinedlove.wordpress.com*, came in E-mail communication begun after he commented on a post.
I appreciate this comment. It tells me that my posts, in general, have thoughts that are both well thought out and well written. I tell others that blogs doing these two things will have holding power in the writing world, including the blog world.
Bruce continued, referring to instructions he was given while setting up his blog*:
The guy who helped me get set up was really twisting my arm to “dumb it down” and write stream-of-consciousness style. He even wanted me to intentionally misspell, and pepper my blog with keywords.
This is exactly the opposite advice I offer to others, including the members of the Beanery Writers Group, which I facilitate.
This is not to say that all bloggers need to be “professional” writers. It is to say that what and how you write reflects on who you are.
What Bruce was instructed to do was “bad stuff.”Other “bad stuff” is listed in a wordpress host site blog on ways to be featured in its homepage section, Freshly Pressed, which includes (but isn’t limited to)
- Plagiarism
- Hate speech
- Fear-mongering
- Adult-mature content
- Improperly used images that belong to someone else
- Spam or content that is primarily advertorial ***
From my vantage point, “bad stuff” includes
- Writing that has rambling/unconnected thoughts
- Writing that demonstrates less than elementary writing skills
- Writing that has no point
Blog writers needn’t be professional writers. However, quality blogs contain certain characteristics:
- Good grammar. Unless appropriate, slang and swear words add sensationalism to blogs, not quality
- Appropriate punctuation shows a command of the English language
- Lack of typos. Proofread. Remember, electronic proofreader functions do not catch all mistakes
- Universalism—write in a way that others can relate to the material
- Specific details—if you mention a city, include what state it is in
- Accuracy. Check your details
- A list of sources
Although each of the above points could expand into a full post, practicing them will improve your posts. Fortunately, Bruce did not follow the advice he was given:
I’m not saying I’m a good writer, but I refused. I figured, hey, I may not get the Google attention but at least I’ll have my dignity. Two months later he called back to tell me how well I was doing after he saw how the hits had increased.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
*www.intertwinedlove.wordpress.com — http://intertwinedlove.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/madame-rosalie-bacler-de-la-val-a-character-sketch/
**affordableacadia@gmail.com
***http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/five-ways-to-get-featured-on-freshly-pressed/
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADDITIONAL READING:
www.carolyncholland.wordpress.com
www.beanerywriters.wordpress.com
THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW: Things Writers Should Know
INTEGRITY: A JOURNALISTIC CODE OF ETHICS REVIEW
DOES EXAGGERATING THE TRUTH CREATE GOOD STORIES?
BAD WRITING CONTEST ENTRY
THE WRITING LIFE: There’s a World Out There?
Journalism Rules and Professionalism: I had neither!
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Writing Quality Blogs
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CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
WRITING QUALITY BLOGS
INTERTWINED LOVE Blog Page
Very glad to see a blog with complete thoughts and real grammar.
Bruce’s comments on my newest wordpress blog, www.intertwinedlove.wordpress.com*, came in E-mail communication begun after he commented on a post.
I appreciate this comment. It tells me that my posts, in general, have thoughts that are both well thought out and well written. I tell others that blogs doing these two things will have holding power in the writing world, including the blog world.
Bruce continued, referring to instructions he was given while setting up his blog*:
The guy who helped me get set up was really twisting my arm to “dumb it down” and write stream-of-consciousness style. He even wanted me to intentionally misspell, and pepper my blog with keywords.
This is exactly the opposite advice I offer to others, including the members of the Beanery Writers Group, which I facilitate.
This is not to say that all bloggers need to be “professional” writers. It is to say that what and how you write reflects on who you are.
What Bruce was instructed to do was “bad stuff.”Other “bad stuff” is listed in a wordpress host site blog on ways to be featured in its homepage section, Freshly Pressed, which includes (but isn’t limited to)
From my vantage point, “bad stuff” includes
Blog writers needn’t be professional writers. However, quality blogs contain certain characteristics:
Although each of the above points could expand into a full post, practicing them will improve your posts. Fortunately, Bruce did not follow the advice he was given:
I’m not saying I’m a good writer, but I refused. I figured, hey, I may not get the Google attention but at least I’ll have my dignity. Two months later he called back to tell me how well I was doing after he saw how the hits had increased.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
*www.intertwinedlove.wordpress.com — http://intertwinedlove.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/madame-rosalie-bacler-de-la-val-a-character-sketch/
**affordableacadia@gmail.com
***http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/five-ways-to-get-featured-on-freshly-pressed/
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADDITIONAL READING:
www.carolyncholland.wordpress.com
www.beanerywriters.wordpress.com
THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW: Things Writers Should Know
INTEGRITY: A JOURNALISTIC CODE OF ETHICS REVIEW
DOES EXAGGERATING THE TRUTH CREATE GOOD STORIES?
BAD WRITING CONTEST ENTRY
THE WRITING LIFE: There’s a World Out There?
Journalism Rules and Professionalism: I had neither!
Like this: