May 15 2008
A Quick Fix for Improving Your Grammar
I just read a plea from someone who writes for a Web site asking for help with grammar. It’s interesting that so many bloggers and Web site owners are feeling the pressure to use proper English when they write their posts or Web content.
And well they should. Grammar and usage errors reflect negatively on a writer’s image and credibility. Like everyone else who writes anything that will be read by others, bloggers and Web site owners shoot themselves in their collective feet if they write poorly. Then can have the best information in the world, but if they present it in a way that screams “uneducated lout,” people will question the value and integrity of the information itself.
So where do you go for help with grammar? There are tons of books out there in printed and online formats. But they tend to be chloroform in print and you have to read through endless pages of rules to find the ones you actually don’t know.
Another problem you face is that you often don’t know that you don’t know certain rules. For example, I spent years as a full-time freelance writer putting hyphens in phrases like “the book was well-written” when I shouldn’t have used them, and not putting hyphens in phrases like “a well written book” when I should have used them. (If you’re confused, you can read a full explanation of this issue by clicking here.
In my years as a professional writer, I’ve noted the English rules and issues that people are most likely to get wrong when they write. I’ve addressed these in what I hope is an easy-to-digest, straightforward way in the “Writing Rules” category of posts on this blog site. It took me years to cull these out and make sense of them. I hope they can be of use to you as you work to improve your writing.
PS. I compiled the 50 most commonly abused rules and issues into an e-book (click here). I’ve found that if people learn these, they will eliminate almost all the mistakes writers commonly make. And they won’t have to pore through hundreds of pages and thousands of rules to zero in on them.
