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The SITS Girls

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Writing Fundamentals: 4 Things To Do Before Publishing

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Today we are focusing on writing fundamentals. Looking at basic tips to ensure you are able to not only keep your audience engaged, but also maintain your credibility.

Four writing fundamentals to think about before you hit publish on your next blog post. Make readers notice your great content, not your glaring mistakes.

Writing Fundamentals

When it comes to blogging, most typical writing rules are tossed out the window.

We say skillz instead of skills, we incorporate slang or emojis into our posts, and we include far more exclamation points (!!!) than necessary.

What you want to avoid is distracting your readers with too many technical errors because, instead of redding your post, people wil end up relly ujst starring at you’re mestakes.

But there are some writing fundamentals that never go out of style.

4 Things To Do Before Publishing A Blog Post

Get creative and break some writing rules. But make sure you do these four things before you publish your post!

1. Proofread

No one is critically analyzing your blog posts. The reason you should proofread is because the power of your point is diffused when a reader is forced to trip through your words.

Read and re-read and re-read your post again. Try reading your blog post out loud — this will make you slow down and really pay attention to the words. Make whatever changes you need to make to be sure it is, in fact, readable.

2. Spell-check

It’s so easy. Just do it.

3. Make Paragraphs Your Friend

Blog posts are like pizza – better in slices. No one should shove an entire combination pizza into their mouth at once. Eat your pizza in bits and pieces and, sometimes, with a fork.

The same can be said for your blog. Reading, especially longer posts, is more manageable when done in bits and pieces. I take one look at a long block of text, and have to encourage myself to stay focused and get through it.

You can write the most funny, interesting, tastiest post, but without breaks, it’s just not appetizing.

Remember that people on the Internet move quickly through material. A block of text that would be fine in a book feels intimidating on a computer or phone screen. The faster you get your point across, the better you will be able to grab your readers’ attention and keep it.

4. Embrace Good Grammar

Your vs. you’re, its vs. it’s, there vs. their. Do any of these look familiar? Learn the differences!

Ensure your readers stay focused on what you have to say, rather than mentally correcting your grammar and sentence structure.

How about you? In your opinion, what’s a fundamental writing tip that bloggers simply cannot ignore?

It's one thing to get people to your blog. It's another hurdle to get them to stay around and read your posts. Use these tips to optimize blog posts for busy readers.

About Tiffany

Lover of college football, sushi and historical fiction. Mom to a teen and a toddler. I am a real life summer camp director and President of Influencer Management at Sway Group.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. Cabby says

    Hello,

    It’s nice to know that I’m not alone. I started blogging earlier this year. My grammar is horrible! I often have to have my 9th grade daughter once over my post. I hope that as I write more I’ll remember English 101, LOL!

  5. Alethea says

    My issue is missing words at times. I am reading and speaking as I type and sometimes I forget to type a word. Then there are those occasions I have read and re-read only to catch errors after I have published my article.

    Great article and tips.

    Blessings~
    Alethea

  6. Anna says

    The funny thing is, I even cringe when I receive a text message with bad spelling and/or grammar. Does that make me a judgemental person?

    I have picked up some pretty bad habits when writing so now I am trying to fix those! Hopefully my posts won’t be too awful!

  7. Marie says

    Great tips! I don’t think I have ever used slang before while writing. I’m going to need to try it out! I agree about the long paragraphs. I just got a link through Twitter about a topic that interests me but there were almost no paragraphs. My brain can’t handle that.

  10. ElizOF says

    I’m constantly proofreading my posts as typos and errors do show up… We all make mistakes and unless they are consistently glaring errors, I infer what was intended and move on with enjoying what’s in front of me…
    Even the most successful authors have editors and go through many re-writes, so we can afford to be forgiving… I am anyway.
    Best,
    Elizabeth

  11. Adriana B says

    Thank you for the tips. I visit stamping blogs for ideas and have found that I rarely bother to read the post when there are long posts. I just look at the pics and only skim the writing if I need additional info.

  12. Amy says

    I am fairly new to blogging, but I do know that when I stumble across a blog that is a bunch of long paragraphs, my eyes glaze over and I start counting the specks on the ceiling. There is nothing, I can’t stand more than really long paragraphs. However, I could read a really long blog with many little paragraphs and pictures.

    Great tips.

  13. Carri says

    Bad grammar is my pet peeve! I can’t tell you how many times I see there/their/they’re and to/too/two misused. It drives me crazy!

  14. Rebecca Coult says

    Yep — great points all. Spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes irk me. I’m pretty forgiving of errors (since I do know my own limitations!!!), but recurring things like not capitalizing the word “i”…ever…are very distracting. I think you also lose credibility if your posts are full of “oopsies”.

    One thing I try to do — if I know that I’m going to be writing a short novel as a post — is try to break up the text with pictures or graphics. It just gives the eye a break, I think.

  15. Linda at Bar Mitzvahzilla says

    Great writing tips here. My biggest problem lately seems tied to perfectionism: if I can’t write something perfect and funny I just can’t seem to write at all. A blog that updates once a week isn’t quite on top of things.

    One of my pet peeves: really long posts. Also, though I support others in their writing endeavors, I’m not a great fan of people trying out their fiction on the blogs.

  16. Shelley says

    Great tips! I also have trouble getting through huge blocks of text or pieces filled with poor spelling & grammatical errors. I do sometimes find myself wanting to publish so quickly that I miss my own errors, as well. Thanks for the reminders.

  18. stephanie says

    Personally, I think spelling is HUGE. The minute I find a misspelled word, I’m focused on it. And I’m not free of guilt on this one either. I’ve cringed when I gone back and double checked my post only after it posted. And it really is easy to just hit the “spell check” function. 🙂

  19. Aruna says

    I think the paragraph one is the most important. If I get to a site with only a big block of text I usually just leave it.

    It usually takes me 4-5 hours to write a blog post because I edit and re-edit. I try to keep to 500 words or less but it usually ends up around 600 words.

    I like the short posts.

  21. melanie says

    What happens to me is that after I publish a post I always catch a couple more grammatical errors I missed while proofreading. I think I need a proofreader.

    • Angela says

      Gosh tell me about it! That happens to me all the time. As a matter-of-fact, I’m thinking about something that I saw just this morning that I need to correct, but had forgotten about it until reading this post. So off I go …. 🙂