Quality of content, including grammar, spelling and punctuation

Discussion in 'Blogging' started by joannacake, Apr 17, 2010.

  1. #1
    Does the writing quality in posts on blogs matter?

    As a professional writer, I'm extremely anal about punctuation, grammar and spelling and I reject some of the content I am given by Caffeinated Content - even for my autoblogs - if it doesn't meet my standards.

    Am I being too pernickety? Does that sort of thing really matter to the reader? I don't want to be wasting time lovingly producing quality posts if it doesn't actually make any difference in terms of traffic.

    Hell, I even proof read this post twice to check for typos :)
     
    joannacake, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  2. lelkoun

    lelkoun Active Member

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    #2
    I am pernickety as you because I love my language (Czech). I do not like fools who do not know how to write correctly in their native language. I do not read their blog posts. It is a waste of time.

    On the other hand, I know a blogger who is still making grammar mistakes but he is a professional domainer and his posts are very useful for BFU like me.
     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2010
    lelkoun, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  3. joannacake

    joannacake Peon

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    #3
    Hey lelkoun, Im still very much a newbie and I have no idea what a professional domainer is... or a BFU :)
     
    joannacake, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  4. MixedBag

    MixedBag Active Member

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    #4
    Personally, I hate reading blog posts with bad grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm not perfect when it comes to grammar but, I always read my posts through to make sure they make sense and there's no spelling mistakes, then I get my partner to proof read them for me. I write on my own sites and I follow that rule. I also write for someone else, where I'm more concerned about my grammar yet, he has another poster who, when I read his posts, it makes me mad. I've even seem some posts on Engadget and thought they have a new writer, quite possibly this guy as it's the same kind of spelling/grammar mistakes. Likewise, when buying articles I'm just as picky. If they don't make sense, I don't want to know.

    All in all, while reading blogs, like I said, I hate it and it could put me off going back to the site if I can't understand what I'm reading and have to correct the grammar in my head to know what the hell the story is about.
     
    MixedBag, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  5. lelkoun

    lelkoun Active Member

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    #5
    Domainer is a guy who buys and sells domains. This way to make money is not easy.
    BFU = Bloody Fucking User = newbie
     
    lelkoun, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  6. joannacake

    joannacake Peon

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    #6
    @ Mixedbag

    I understand and empathise with your frustration. This lackadaisical attitude to proper English also seems to extend to the Powerpoint Presentations used at a lot of the big seminars that I've attended. I sit there getting agitated about the rogue apostrophes and typos, but no one else seems to bat an eyelid :mad:

    Mind you, there are even mistakes over apostrophes in the WP spellchecker recently, so I can't blame them too much for not running it over their work.
     
    joannacake, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  7. joannacake

    joannacake Peon

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    #7
    @lelkoun

    LMAO, I'm a BFU! Well, you learn something new every day :p
     
    joannacake, Apr 17, 2010 IP
  8. scheng1

    scheng1 Peon

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    #8
    I think you can earn more if you sell the content through Constant-Content. Leave the ramblings to your blogs. Most readers scan the blog posts instead of reading it. So dont waste your time posting high-quality posts in your blog. I bet many major magazines and newspaper will buy your articles from Constant-Content instead.
     
    scheng1, Apr 19, 2010 IP
  9. China_girl

    China_girl Well-Known Member

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    #9
    I look at my blog as my own personally produced magazine. I ask myself would I buy another copy if the articles didn't make sense, had no logical flow, and were poorly written? No I wouldn't.

    Everyone is different. I think you may be able to get away with more on a personal blog that is more like a diary than anything else but still, as a writer, I look for quality writing and interesting perspectives that do more than skim the surface of a subject.

    I like to think that the writer did put the effort into the post and took the time to truly ruminate about the subject matter before posting the final version.

    One other thing that keeps me coming back to a blog is personality..the author's personality that shows through in everything they write. That can be the deciding factor for me..if I find the author interesting I'll keep reading and overlook most everything in order to learn more about their opinions and lives.
     
    China_girl, Apr 19, 2010 IP