Find your voice.

While styles grow and mature over time, there should always be some continuity in your writing. The way you set up your ideas and interact with them as well as the words you choose to use all make up your “voice.”

Write to your audience.

Not only does what you write matter but also how you write matters. You may a write a fabulous technical brief, but if it informal and uses too much slang it will not be given the attention it deserves. This applies to everything, if you write about informal things, be informal. Grammar is important, but it is not more important than keeping the readers interest. Writing to your audience means that you will write about nature and wildlife very differently compared to how you write about mobile broadband providers or furniture stores. You need to be flexible, and adapt your style accordingly.

Don’t go so far as to always write the same way as you speak — there are too many idiosyncrasies in speech for them to translate intelligibly to writing — but don’t worry so much about the little things like having a preposition at the end of the sentence.

Choose a title that is interesting and closely related to the main idea.

Constantly people claim that your first paragraph and your title need to be full of keywords. This is true to an extent, but even more importantly, you need to make it interesting. As more and more readers use RSS readers to keep track of a lot of blogs, this is even more important to stand out when they are scrolling down the list of titles.

Be Coherent!

Many times coherency is assumed to mean writing about only one topic but it isn’t. Coherency within a larger essay or post generally requires one main topic, but inside of each smaller block of text coherency means writing in a logical and aesthetically pleasing manner.

Keep your audience in mind.

This applies to both how you write and what you write. If you usually write about technical issues, don’t suddenly start a series of posts about toilet training cats. In general, people have a certain tolerance about how often a writer can go off-topic. Some websites I read are for the person, but most are for the topic. if a writer goes off topic too many times, or spends too much time posting things that aren’t useful — like a new contest every week — I unsubscribe from the feed without looking back.

Good grammar is a good thing.

You don’t have to write like a grammarian and obsess over each comma and independent clause, but too many mistakes in too small of an area will leave even the most profound prose twisted, convoluted and unreadable. Using good grammar does not make your text boring. For most people the purposeful use of bad grammar isn’t artistic or trendy, so there really isn’t a good reason to not put in the little extra effort to make sure your commas are in the right places.

Write what you know.

Too many times I’ve read posts by people who obviously have no actual idea what they are talking about, they just regurgitate information they found elsewhere or are trying to make money off of the latest hot topics.

Write real content not linkbait.

Linkbait is okay once and a while, but too much of it and your writing style can be corrupted and you will lose all those links you gained. Remember, you are writing for people not search engines. Writing convoluted posts just so you can stuff in a few more keywords is not helping anyone. it may make you a little more money, but it won’t gain you real readers.

For every “linkbait” should be balanced by several real posts about whatever interests you. This will keep your hard-earned voice from being corrupted by the lazy, keyword stuffing style of linkbait writing.

Grow an ego

Talk to any English professor and even they will tell you if you want to hear the most self-centered BS you should go to a gathering of English teachers. These people are some of the best writers in the world. Their control of language is supreme and they can cut to the core of a person without even trying. Why? Because they know their voice, and they allow themselves to trust in it.

Part of being a good writer is being sure of yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are write or wrong as long as you are sure of the words you are writing. I used to advise my students that if they want their essays to sound the best, they should start from the assumption they are right and everyone else is wrong. All they had to do then was to prove it.

Image credit: margolove

The Basics:

1. They join sentences and ideas.
   • I am going on vacation for the summer, and I hope it doesn’t end up like last year.
   • If you are happy person, life seems much better.
   • However, it is best to just do it.
2. They aid reading and offset less important information.
   • Members, welcome! — If this does not have the comma then literally it is a command to the members to welcome.
   • However, no matter what your excuse is, it doesn’t change the fact that you were late.
3. They separate adjectives and list items.
   • I was attacked by a big, angry dog.
   • Tom, Fredrick, Negussie and Andy play football every day.
   • I am going to the grocer, butcher and florist.
4. They format numbers, dates, titles, and places.
   • 39,552,923
   • I was born on August, 22 1967 in Columbus, Ohio.
   • James Pratt, M.D., won the Nobel prize in medicine.

Usage

Below are sentences that one may find in normal writing, and not all of the commas are used correctly. Try to find these errors before reading the explanations.

1. Applications to AFA Charitable Foundation, Inc. must be received by March, 22, 2008.
2. In the 1990′s movie studio’s realized that people will be far more likely to read a movies’ credits, if they add extra things like bloopers at the end.
3. I have been to all the countries of the world except, Nigeria, Singapore, and Taiwan.
4. The students who didn’t do their homework failed the class.
5. I ran two miles on Tuesday, so I could stay home on Thursday.

1. Incorrect:Applications to AFA Charitable Foundation, Inc. must be received by March, 22, 2008.

   The “Inc” falls under the same rules as “M.D.”; thus, it is correct; however, there should be no comma between the word March and the number 22.

   Correct:Applications to AFA Charitable Foundation, Inc. must be received by March 22, 2008.

2. Incorrect: In the 1990′s movie studios realized that people will be far more likely to read a movies’ credits, if they add extra things like bloopers at the end.

   “In the 1990′s” is a parenthetical phrase — it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence it if is moved.

   “if they add extra things like bloopers at the end” is not a parenthetical phrase — if it is removed or moved the sentence makes no sense.

   Correct: In the 1990′s, movie studios realized that people will be far more likely to read a movies’ credits if they add extra things like bloopers at the end.

3. Incorrect:I have been to all the countries of the world except, Nigeria, Singapore, and Taiwan.

   The “except,” is completely wrong because the listed names are extremely important to the sentence.

   The last comma in the list is a stylistic comma called a serial, Oxford or Harvard comma. While not strictly necessary, some people include it while other people believe it is the bane of comma kind.

   Correct:I have been to all the countries of the world except Nigeria, Singapore, and Taiwan.

4. This sentence is either completely wrong or perfectly correct depending on the meaning you want the sentence to have.

   If you want the sentence to suggest that the students who failed to do their homework also failed the class, it is correct; however, if you meant to say that all the students failed the class because they didn’t do their homework, it would have to be rewritten as “The students, who didn’t do their homework, failed the class.”

   This sentence is a very good demonstration of how commas aid reading and clarify information.

5. Correct:I ran two miles on Tuesday, so I could stay home on Thursday.

   This sentence alternatively seems correct and incorrect depending on how you read it. The short answer is it is correct, the longer answer is it looks like it is something that it is not. The comma with a coordinating conjunction (so) is not connecting two separate ideas. We can see this because “I ran two miles on Tuesday. I could stay home on Thursday.”

   However, “so I could stay home on Thursday” is a parenthetical phrase. We know this because “I, so I could stay home on Thursday, ran two miles on Tuesday” makes just as much sense.