After I read nocoolnamejim's Ten Commandments on blogging, I felt inspired to throw my hat into the ring by serving a platter full of what you should and should not do when writing up something. (Particularly, blog entries)
This post contains many of his ideas, as well as quite a few of my own. It states my viewpoints, beliefs, and pet peeves, as well as Jim's. Maybe everyone born in an English speaking state will eventually learn to read and write like they should; or most likely they'll all be ignorant until they reach adulthood. *sighs*
I now list some pet peeves of mine, and some important aspects that can increase your readership and/or excite your readers, in life, and in you blog.
Do not assume anyone cares about you personally. (Other than your mother who has to do that anyway)
This is a serious annoyance and mistake I see all the time, which I must admit is true with myself often, as well. Do you think anyone on the planet cares that you've gotten through level 20, that you've gotten an A+ on a test, or that your school midterms are beginning in one month, two weeks, and five days? Most could answer that no one really does care.
The fact of that matter is, writing about yourself and your personal life is just plain boring to any reader other than a close relative or good friend. On the flip side, however, never writing about anything personal can give people the idea that you're not a person, but rather, an ugly, green alien from the Andromeda Galaxy. Be sure to show some human-like entries once in a while, but overuse will result in bored readers and loss of readership.
Grammar and Spelling count, and people judge you on it.
Believe it or not, people actually care about spelling and grammar. Having your writing look like your cat walked across it doesn't exactly impress anyone, nor does it make it fun to read, or easy to read for that matter. Though the occasional improper punctuation, or spelling calculator as "calculater" for instance, shouldn't and probably won't be held against you, but no one wants to read an entry full of misspellings and grammatical errors.
Don't ******* overuse emoticons! :D:):P
Honestly, you'd think people wouldn't need a telling to when it comes to this, but then I come across a stray blog post that has enough smileys in it to fill up an entire line by themselves. Using a smiley after every sentence is unnecessary, unneeded, and unwanted. They show less professionalism and are overused.
I'm not saying that usage of emoticons is now forbidden. On the contrary, they show some life in you and can liven up an entry if used properly at the right time. Plus any good piece of writing should need absolutely no, if any, smileys to express your emotions.
Have some sort of personality expressed, not just boring old opinions.
You can write all you want about what you think about something, but that isn't going to make anyone want to read a thing you wrote. Not showing that you aren't as boring as book on cockroaches is just not something you need to be doing. Having elements that show you're a human in your writing shows readers you aren't an ugly green alien from Andromeda.
If you want to keep your readership up and/or keep your current readers happy, you must of course express personality. You could be the funny guy, the grouchy guy, the weird guy, or the indifferent guy. Whatever you wish to be, it is best to be true to your real personality, as it is easy to spot fakers, and sticking with that personality helps tremendously.
There you have it, some good guidelines to stick to when writing anything in the world, especially a blog post. I hope this ends up helping many individuals and also hope people will enjoy this entry. Feel free to use the guidelines I stated, but you don't have to. They're just my thoughts and suggestions.
End transmission…
-Grant "dghul" Sanders.
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