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We all want traffic but did you know that poor grammar can seriously hinder your ability to get traffic?
When people read what you’ve written they start making judgments about you within a few seconds. If your writing is riddled with grammatical errors you will immediately lose credibility with the reader.
Where do I find these mistakes?
I find them all over.
Sometimes it will be when I read a blog post and I am so overwhelmed with the number of mistakes I encounter I have trouble focusing on the message of the blog post.
And I usually don’t finish reading it or come back to visit the blog. And I certainly won’t tell my friends about it.
Other times I get joint venture requests like this,
hi i like yur stuff and i wrote ebook fur you sells, yur peeps reelly like it, what you think.
When I read something as poorly written as that I try to imagine what the e-book will look like. Will it be 27 pages of the same type of writing?
Joint ventures can be a great way to get traffic but you will never get any joint ventures with poor grammar.
Sometimes people will e-mail me with questions and after several minutes of trying to decipher their text I still have no idea what they are really asking. More than once I have replied with, “I’m sorry but I don’t understand what you’re asking. How can I help?”
Guest blogging is another good way to jump start your traffic but no one is going to accept a guest blog post if it is riddled grammatical errors.
Grammar is complicated
I realize that grammar is a complicated subject and not all grammatical errors are created equal; mistakes in grammar can be categorized as lesser sins and greater sins.
Lesser sins of grammar
There are quite a few things that are technically wrong with your grammar but most people won’t really care that much.
Examples of this are: incorrectly using who & whom, ending a sentence with a preposition, and mixing up the words less and few.
These mistakes are quite common on the Internet and in the blogosphere and are usually forgivable.
Greater sins of grammar
On the other hand there are several serious grammatical mistakes that I come across every day.
If you want to improve your grammar than focus on the items below.
Homophones
Homophones are words that sound very similar but have different spellings and meanings.
Common Examples:
- to, two, too
- they’re, their, there
- your, you’re
- it’s, its
It’s critical that you know the difference between these words and use them correctly. Check out a longer list of homophones here.
Lack of capitalization
You need to capitalize the beginning of sentences and proper nouns. (What is a proper noun?)
Also whenever you use the word “I” make sure you capitalize it i.e. I like ice cream NOT i like ice cream.
End questions with a question mark
I find it strange that so many people are ending questions without a question mark. This causes confusion for me. I will be reading what looks like a question and then it ends with a period which makes me go back and read it again to make sure it’s really a question.
Example: You can help me with my website. Your help is appreciated.
I think this guy is asking for help with his website but he also may be simply stating that I have the ability to help them.
This is not instant messaging, texting, or even twitter
To a large extent instant messaging, texting, and Twitter have corrupted our ability to write a complete sentence.
If you’re going to publish content on your blog or website then take the time to think about what you’re going to say and use complete sentences.
And when you write please don’t use unnecessary abbreviations (i.e. OMG, BTW, BFF) like you would when texting.
Beware of voice recognition software
Voice recognition software can be of great benefit to us but it sometimes makes mistakes.
For example I wrote most of this blog post with Dragon Speak and while dictating this particular section I said, “Beware of voice recognition software” and the program typed “You wear a voice recognition software”.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony here.
One of the biggest problems with voice recognition software is that when it makes mistakes they will not be caught by a spellchecker; even though it chose the wrong words it still spells everything correctly.
Get a proofreader
Yah, you already know this. Find a native-speaking friend to proofread your stuff and give you honest feedback.
It doesn’t have to be perfect
Unless you have been writing for a long time you are going to make mistakes and that’s okay. No one will begrudge a mistake or two in a blog post.
It’s when have 15 or 20 mistakes that people start getting annoyed.
I struggle with grammar
In school I excelled in math & science and struggled in English class (especially writing). I know my writing is no where near perfect and I would appreciate any suggestions you have on how to improve.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Nick,
many, many thanks for this post – I am also upset quite often about the grammar used in articles, blog posts and ebooks. I expect a decent knowledge of grammar and spelling of every native speaker.
As English is not my first language but I work and live in the language the whole day, I am probably criticizing more than the average reader. Basics we learned in school are omitted every day and even new word combinations that counter these grammatical principles find their way into the everyday language. Just take the use of 'a' and 'an'. There can't be persons like an SEO (most often found mistake in IM blogs).
>>I struggle with grammar<>Voice Recognition Software<<
I understand why everyone who posts many articles and has a lot of writing to do, likes this type of software. I am also thinking about buying it, but haven't decided yet.
The danger lies in not proofreading the output (like you described in your post) and this is because everyone is under the impression that he has to finish his work fast. Think about:
- writing 10 articles of 500 words in one hour
- creating your product in one day or less
etc.
These concepts lead to a reduction in quality. For my part, I want to have a quality product for my money. Whether it is a $7 special report, a $19.95 ebook or even a higher priced course.
The reputation of the seller is directly linked to the quality of his products.
Thanks for giving me the chance to comment on this. It's really been on my soul for a long time
Tom
Good points.
> writing 10 articles of 500 words in one hour
Yes, I always thought this was a bit ridiculous.
Somehow this paragraph was not copied in – sorry.
>>I struggle with grammar<<
Go to englishgrammarsecrets.com (not affiliated) to find a good repository on English grammar in use. Good, free, course material.
Thanks for the tip. I got some books on grammar I have read through some of them. The trick is to remember all of the different rules when it comes time to write.
Amen, amen.
One of my biggest pet peeves about the internet is the glaring lack of knowledge of its users about the English language. As a former journalist, I take much pride in tyring to get grammar, spelling and word usage right. I guess it's simply a reflection on today's problems in education. Bad grammar seems much more prevalent now than when I was in school half a century ago. Spell checkers help, but the bottom line is this: they are a farce.
While I think some of the problem can be attributed to education I think there's something else to consider. The rising generation doesn't engage in the same kind of writing that people used to do.
We don't write letters to each other; we send short e-mails.
We don't use typewriters anymore which required us to determine before hand exactly what we wanted to say and how we wanted to say it. Typewriters also required us to know how to spell words because they wouldn't fix misspellings for us.
Much of what we learn about grammar comes from what we read. Many of us don't read newspapers or other professional published sources of writing. Instead we read more blog posts, which while informative, sometimes have poor grammar.
>>newspapers or other professional published sources of writing.<>Typewriters<<I>>We don’t write letters to each other<<
I always get cramps in my fingers when writing all the christmas cards. But it is something really personal and we insist on writing them by hand.
Sorry I screwed this up again, but using the > and < caused some text to go missing.
What I meant is:
newspapers: not all papers write gramatically correct content. This applies to print as well as to online versions.
Typewriters: there is not even a real market for them anymore. When I clean out my basement I found a brand new one (used only twice) which we sold on ebay for 1$
Yah typewriters aren't worth much anymore.
I cringe when I see poor grammar in articles and blog posts. I even cringe when I see it in Twitter.
One problem is that English is a second language for more and more people who are working on the internet. I applaud those who struggle to learn a second language and do their very best. I can forgive some grammatical or spelling issues when I'm reading their blogs, articles or comments.
However, I'm not really inclined to promote a product from someone who cannot put together a decent sentence in their query email or sales page. It is possible that the product will be properly proofread, but I'm not going to take a chance to find out unless I can look at a free sample.
Oh, and there is one grammar rule that actually bugs me. Why can't I end a sentence with a preposition? For example, in the paragraph above I wanted to write, "they have a free sample for me to look at." I think this fits into the forgivable category for most people, or maybe there are some words that can function as a preposition sometimes and something else at others (although I wouldn't know what that something else is called 8=)
It seems to me that most people don't care or even notice ending a sentence with a preposition. I know I don't care.
Fully agree with your points here. All the posts are fully informative and having very good themes. Poor Grammar really make the difference, when visitor come on to page and found meaningless info he will never ever visit that blog/site. So its essential that whole content should be related to theme and well spelled.
Same should apply to comments
Omg. I cannot even begin to tell you how bad grammar is my biggest pet peeve of all. I really dislike the fact that people do not know the difference between "there" and "their". If you're going to have a blog, better up the grammar.
Mandy June recently posted..Car Loan Rates for the Second Half of 2010
Thanks Mandy!
Good grammar is a must if you want your visitors to read your content and take some action. I have seen blogs where the idea or the tips given are really good but written in very bad English. So you really run away from there..