The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is recognized as the best book on writing. Stephen King raves about it in his On Writing as a book for anyone who wants to write for a living. This certainly includes bloggers.
Great tips on blog writing
These are the elements of style of blog post writing that I have picked up from reading the book. I believe that they will improve the writing and the success of blog posts of any blogger.
Note how the majority of tips are on simplifying your writing and making it easy to read and understand.
- Work from a suitable design. Work from a suitable design when composing a blog post. The more clearly the blogger perceives the shape of his writing, the easier it is for the reader and the better are the chances of success.
- Use paragraphs. Readers are reluctant to tackle large blocks of text. Break blocks of text into paragraphs. Deal with each topic of a blog post in a paragraph by itself to aid the reader. Do not write single sentences as a paragraph as too many short paragraphs in succession can be distracting. Give each speech or each quote a paragraph of its own.
- Revise and rewrite. You cannot produce what you are after on the first try. Revising is part of writing. Do not be afraid to experiment with what you have written. Writing a blog post on a computer makes it easy for a blogger to edit the text, move it to a more appropriate spot in the article or delete it.
- Omit needless words. Vigorous blog writing is concise, a sentence should contain no unnecessary words, and a paragraph should contain no unnecessary sentences. Every word is important, every word should tell.
- Use definite, specific, concrete language. The best way to arouse and hold the attention of the blog reader is to be very specific, definite and concrete in your blog post writing.
- Write in a way that comes naturally. Write in a way that comes easily and naturally to you. Use words and phrases that come readily to hand.
- Be clear. As blog post writing is communication, clarity is a virtue. Make your writing simple to read and understand. Write short sentences, include a lot of white space. Make it all clear, easy to scan and easy to understand.
- Use orthodox spelling. Forget “nite”, “thru” and “pleez”. Forget simplified spelling, forget Internet slang. It distracts the reader and makes your blog posts hard to read and understand. Use the standard words.
- Avoid fancy words. To use the language well, you should cherish its classic form. Do not be tempted by a fancy word when there is a plain word to use. Same with foreign language expressions. As long as you have an English word for it, use it.
- Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity. Write things out. Do not use initials of abbreviations unless you are certain it will be understood by your readers. There are readers that encounter the name for the first time, make it easy for them to see the words. Start your blog articles by writing names in full and shorten them later in the article.
The Elements of Style has some great tips for bloggers, it contains rules of grammar and is a great helping hand to people who express themselves in writing.
Following these blog writing tips will certainly make your life easier, make the life of your readers easier and will contribute towards your blog articles becoming a bigger success.
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{ 27 comments }
Very informative and user friendly, however it doesn’t help memy blog is more art/comedy based so I have to use a different set of rules. Definitely worth a read though, will help me if I make a new blog in the future.
A lot of the advice is universal for writing blog posts or even e-mails. Where I currently work, e-mail is sent way too often and some managers write so much in big blocks that I know no one reads. No one reads most of the e-mails, let alone long blocky text filed ones.
And I totally agree with writing in a way that comes natural. Be creative and be yourself. I want blogging and photography to be my life and I want to be paid to exist as me. The last thing I want to do is start to pretend to be someone I am not again. Kill it! but, no pleez – I’ll remember that!
Yeah, people should get into the shoes of their target group before creating something. Try to think from the point of view of your target group. Then you might understand that the average person doesn’t read much, has too much on his mind etc to concentrate on big blocks of text.
That book would be great for anyone who writes, whether it’s a blog, reports for a job, whitepapers, or anything else. Too often even in the workplace I see people use obscure language, bad grammar, and stupid office jargon when simple, clear language would be better. I’m re-Tweeting this one!
hehehe true! I don’t mind writing in jargon but it is mostly in instant messaging and similar. For blog posts I really do prefer the classic words.
I value post structuring a lot – making message and perspective clear while serving it’s original purpose of giving additional value/information to readers.
I think structuring is very important in terms of branding and making your blog friendly and familiar to your visitors. Being consistent in your blog post structure is something that your reader will appreciate and it will differentiate your writing.
Hey Marko,
thanks for the tips. Ordered a copy from Amazon.
I agree on everything said in the post. especially, the language
and the paragraphs.
I hate readin huge blocks of text and so does everyone else (from what I’ve seen).
Igor
Marko:
Yuppers, this is the primer for how to write. It need not just apply to blog posts either. Writers should take note!
George
The approach to writing a great blog post should be no different than if someone was trying to write an article for a newspaper. You have to write great content that can really attract someones attention.
I think the elements were applied in the blog post itself, brief, concise and direct to the point. Amazing tips! Thanks for sharing Marco. The book is indeed invaluable.
For revising and rewriting stuff, I think these two are truly indispensable. When you write it’s an imperative to publish an errorless almost perfect piece. People will just make fun of you if you will write carelessly; you won’t sound professional and even someone worth trusting. In order to avoid such disaster, it’s a must to subject your work to revision, editing and rewriting. Effort and time are of worth when you practice these tasks.
How about the use of analogy in writing? Do you consider it as a good option?
I think it fits with the “write what fits naturally” part. As long as it feels good to you, and you think it helps make a point and also differentiates you and makes your writing your own, then why not. Do whatever is needed. You make the rules and the more of your own unique rules you have, the more unique your blog will become.
Thanks for that Marko, I’ve gone and put that book on my ever expanding wishlist.
I see far too many people trying to come off as “smart” on their blogs instead of just using regular language that’s easy for people to relate to. I don’t think it’s doing them much good, unless the blog is particularly aimed at smart people.
Sean
My teacher referred me this book, he said if you wanna become a writer then read this book. Nice to see it here too.
I’ve never heard about this book before but your post made me interested and just a few seconds ago I decided to add it to my “will buy”-list. Thank you.
Yes you are absolutely right in this topic,short cuts can reduce the bounce rate.I am really agree with you about standard words.
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for several years – a relic of a creative writing class I did a while back. Time to dust it down and think more about how it applies to blogging. Thanks for reminding me that something I’ve learned in one “compartment” of my life can be applied in others.
Definitely. Everyone always says the old and boring “think out of the box” but it is true. You can get inspired non-traditional way, you can learn from other and not exactly related things, you do not have to learn it all from other blogs. As long as you are always thinking with the blogging mindset no matter what you do. It will help you and make your blog and your writing more unique.
Awesome tips. I’m going to be e-mailing some of these to my copyediting and proofreading clients.
Sounds good Laura. Thanks for sharing my blog posts.
Good Post. You stated some fine points that any writer can use, not just for blogging.
The last time I read a post like this, I was devastated to find it full of awful advice, telling people to leave out commas, capitalise the first character of every word, etc.
Thankfully, your article contains some genuine, useful advice.
Great-looking blog too.
Thanks for the kind words Brian! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for telling people to get Strunk and White! It makes me crazy when people think they can abandon writing conventions just because they are blogging. It is certainly ok to break the rules for effect, but you have to know when you are doing it or you just sound dumb.
Love it,
Debbie Ferm
very resourceful marko. Gosh!! I got addicted to your blog postings
. Thank you for such a valuable post. This will definitely help budding bloggers like me. Thanks again,
rgds
VJ
This is all well and good, but I think good writers know when to adapt their message and language to their audience. The problem with Strunk and White is that it is extremely prescriptive, making people think that there is only one “correct” way of writing—which is incorrect. Certainly there are some basic rules to follow that make one’s writing comprehensible to the general population, but the rules set out in Strunk and White have been stifling creativity for decades and making communications majors into writing snobs who have no idea what it means to actually communicate.
People, it’s okay to end a sentence with a preposition. It’s okay to “split the infinitive.” And it’s okay to *gasp* begin a sentence with “and.” Telling people to “be clear”—and calling that writing advice—only serves to worsen the problem.
This same style is what I advocate for press releases. Also rather than AP Style I call it OL for Online Style. Another difference is using numbers rather than writing them out. Instead of “Nine Ways to Save on your Cable Bill”, use the easier to skim “9 Ways to Save on your Cable Bill.”
-Janet
@onlineprbook