Sebbie on the Webbie

When we start blogging, we are advised that blogging should be done regularly and preferably as frequently as possible to be “done right”. Some bloggers take this to heart and start blogging vigorously to keep up with the Joneses, even if they wrote with a language other than their own. This can seriously damage the quality of blogs you write. Therefore, you should pick a publishing schedule, maybe a post or two a week, or as many as you can comfortably write well. The more serious blogger you are, the more time you should take, as long as you are able to write one a week. By serious I mean the type that actually does research for their blogs, unlike me. :p My research is always done for other reasons than blogging… Anyway.

Another thing that can damage our success is to write simple topics using complex language, rather than taking a complex topic using simple language. The worst case scenario is to take a complex topic and “spice it up” with complex language and words. Sometimes bloggers are tempted to use words that sound “sophisticated” forcing their readers to use a dictionary while they’re reading – even if the readers were native speakers. This can also happen to non-English speaking bloggers, who are not sure of the translation, take a dictionary and pick a word they are not familiar with, because it kind of sounds about right. It may be the perfect word, but if native speakers are not using it, it may be more damaging than helpful. The challenge of writing doesn’t come in “sounding sophisticated” but in trying to write so clearly that even a child will understand what you’re saying without sounding like you dumb things down for your stupid readers.

I am not too concerned with some grammatical errors here and there, even if they were foreign type of errors. My proof reader / English teacher husband strongly disagrees though. He’s a native speaker, I’m not. He thinks non-English mistakes distract from the message and make the writer sound a bit stupid. I, on the other hand, kind of like to hear the bloggers native language come through in their blogs, as long as it doesn’t make it incomprehensible and very difficult to read. Some mistakes and culture specific grammar errors here and there don’t bother me – you are free to disagree and I encourage you to do so, should you wish to advice non-native bloggers.

Every blogger could take the time to write in Word first to have the available spelling and grammar check together with readability scores at their usage. (If you don’t have Word, try this link.) Writing in Word is good practice also in the point of view of storing your blog posts on your computer. Who knows, you might compile them into a book one day.