Ten Common Blog Writing Mistakes

BLOG WRITING MISTAKES COMMON TEN COMMA SPLICE RUN-ONS A sentence with more than one subject-verb set with no words or punctuation between them A run-on that joins 2 or more complete sentences with a comma FRAGMENTS Incomplete sentences missing either a subject or a verb "I didn't know what job I wanted, I was too confused to decide." "I'm not sure how he will manage though it's not an easy life out in the colonies." Spilt into 2 separate sentences "I didn't know what job I wanted. I was too confused to decide." "I need to find a new friend. Because the one I have now is mean." Separate sentences using periods "I'm not sure how he will manage though. It's not an easy life out in the colonies." Combine the fragment with the sentence before or aft "I need to find a new friend because the one I have now is mean." Add a comma and a conjunction such as "and," "but," "or," "so," or "yet" "I'm not sure how he will manage, and it's not an easy life out in the colonies." Adding in a coordinating conjunction or a connecting word "I didn't know what job I wanted and I was too confused to decide." Joining 2 phrases with a semi-colon "I didn't know what job I wanted; I was too confused to decide. Place a semicolon between the sentences Add or delete words "I need to find a new friend. The one I have now is mean." “I'm not sure how he will manage though; it's not an easy life out in the colonies." Change a sentence into a clause that begins with "because" "I'm not sure how he will manage though because it's not an easy life out in the colonies." EASILY CONFUSED WORDS There refers to location "The books are over there on the table." Their refers to possession "Mark and Eric washed their cars in the driveway." E. They're means they are "They're going swimming today.". Its is the possessive form of "it" "The book has a tiger on its cover." USE THE SAME TENSES It's means "it is" "It's sunny out today." NARRATIVES = Past tense STORY, MOVIE or BOOK = Present tense Your is the possessive form of "you" "That's your cat." "Thousands of people would see the art exhibit by the time it closes." You're means you are "You're going straight to school today!" 4 Do not use commas between cumulative adjectives that modifies a noun "Three, large, grey shapes moved towards us." "Three large grey shapes moved towards us." 5 кеаме COMMAS ORGANIZATION RULE I Use commas before "and", "but" and "or" "Nearly everyone had arrived, but the guest of honor was late," RULE 4 Use commas to set off phrases without changing its meaning "The helicopter, with its spotlight, circled above." Create an outline before you begin writing Write the topic of the paragraph in the margins Check for transitions, topic sentences, firm and clear thesis, introduction and conclusion RULE 5 Use a comma to set off transitional phrases "As a matter of fact, American football dates back to the Middle Ages." Listing Clustering mapping Webbing Flowcharting • organized Outlining Glossing Notecards Ways to keep your work RULE 2 Use a comma after an introductory phrase "Near a smal1 stream, the park rangers discovered the abandoned shack. In 1988, the shack had been abandoned." RULE 3 Use commas between 2 or more coordinate adjectives "Robert is a handsome, brave, and generous 6 NOUNS & PRONOUNS 67ENTENCES INFLATED man. Avoid using singular nouns with plural pronouns Don't say: Say: "in the event of" "in regards to" "I am of the opinion that" "if" "about" "I think" "Each student has their own opinion." "The students each have their own opinions." Use active voice and active verbs Scale down wordy phrases "Each student has his or her own opinion." Avoid passive voice Eliminate "to be" Reduce "there are/is" 10 8 APOSTROPHES USING SPELLING & GRAMMAR CHECK Automatically changes the spelling Offer several words that may mean differently mark sentences wrong that may be correct Give correct options that are illogical Used to replace deleted numbers or letters “the '60s", "can't" or "you're" Used to make nouns possessive "the dog's collar" (singular) "the five cats' home" (plural) DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEECH & WRITING Specaking is informal and writing is more formal "I gotta work 'til eight," "I have to work until eight." "something like that" or "like" COMMON GRAMMAR ERRORS "This year has brought a big personal development for my wife and I" "ME" VS "" Ifyou say that without the mentlon of"your wife", you would say “me" "This year has brought a big personal development for my wife and me" “I could care less" "I couldn't care less" "Less" refers to quantity "Fewer" refers to a number "Facebook has fewer than 5,000 employees" "Facebook-has lessthan 5,000 employeesL "Regardless“ "rregardless“ Punctuation marks belong inside "Quotation Marks!" "I feel nauseated" "We had more than 50 percent growth" "Heel nauseous" "We had over 50 percent growth" BLOGGING FACTS 92% of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs In 2013, it was projected that 128 million people in the US were blog readers 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog On average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages REFERENCES http://www.nmu.edu/writingcenter/node/64 GrammarCheck http://www.blogher.com/women-and-social-media-2012 http://www.mymarketingdept.com/b2b-small-business-blogging/ http://www.adminesolutions.com/blog/interesting-facts-about-blogs/t.Uu-Oq9KSXBk http://socialmediatoday.com/ginidietrich/1738311/grammar-police-twelve-mistakes-nearly-everyone-makes www.grammarcheck.net http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31550/20-Fresh-Stats-About-the-State-of-Inbound-Marketing-in-2012.aspx