BloggerWanted.com

Misused words and grammatically wrong sentences leave others wondering about our intelligence and whether we care enough about the projects we are doing for others.

Wonder, wander
Wonder and wander sound the same, yet are written differently and have completely different meanings. Wonder, means to speculate; while wander means meandering or straying off.

Of and Off
Of and off are silly mistakes often made carelessly, and having very different meanings, as is two, too and to; and their, there and they’re, and our and are. Such mistakes are often made due to being in a hurry, and spell check will not catch such a mistake.

Fare and fair, or hair and hare
Some people don’t seem to know the difference between fare and fair, or hair and hare. Fare can be the cost of travel, such as “The fare for the bus is $1.00.”; or food, such as “The dinner fare will include spaghetti.” Fair means reasonable, acceptable, or it can be an event such as the State Fair. Hair is what covers our head, or is found on many animals, but a hare is an animal similar in like to a rabbit, but larger.

A or An ?
The letter “a” cannot be used in front of a word beginning with a vowel, such as “a apple or a orange.” An apple or an orange is the proper way.

Expressing numbers digits or words
In using numbers in a sentence, one through ten should always be spelled out, while it is proper either way to write or spell out a larger number.

Another mistake that will leave one thinking you are a dunce is the proper form of some plural words. Mouses, oxes, leafs, and sheeps are incorrect. The proper plural words for each are mice, oxen, leaves, and sheep.

Double negatives
Double negatives in a sentence is common, yet so erroneous. Two examples are: “I didn’t do nothing wrong.” and “She don’t never say yes.” In Spanish and other Latin and romance languages, double negatives are proper in a sentence, but not in English.

Poor Grammar
There is no excuse for poor grammar, such as using “aint, got none, and don’t got.” Using such grammar will leave one to wonder if you were raised in the back woods among derelicts.

Gangster Grammar
The new “gangster” language leaves many a teacher and parent cringing upon hearing a child utter such half words, incomplete sentences and other misspelled, and mispronounced words. “Gangsta, homey and wasup” is just an example of such crude language.

Ending a sentence in a preposition
Another grammatical error that leaves many cringing, is ending a sentence in a preposition. “That is taken care of.” and “He is well thought of.” doesn’t sound as bad, and perhaps there is no better way to redirect them. However, “Where is the hat at?” and “Where did you put it at?” can be properly worded into “Where is the hat?” and Where did you put it?”.

Our first impressions upon people are the ones that usually stick. By using poor grammar in our oral as well as written sentences, we leave ourselves open to criticism; drastically cut the chances for a better job or advancement in our career; and practically diminish our social skills all together, leaving us to converse with only ourselves or the few that can barely utter a sentence.

Becoming a better writer is not as hard as you imagine. In fact, there are several simple tips and pointers that, if followed, would significantly help almost everyone interested in improving their writing skills. Here’s a brief guide on how to get started.

Big Words Don’t Mean Big Minds

It’s a known fact that most writers have rich, extensive vocabularies. Unfortunately, many new writers often believe that what they write is not superior if it’s not wordy and filled with lengthy sentences - a wholly incorrect assumption. Readers love simplicity; when words flow smoothly and convey the right meaning. Not long, drawn-out sentences, that are stuffed with complex words and convoluted sentences. Write what you mean, not what you think you should be writing.

Get To Your Point Quickly

This is especially true for business writing. You have to learn to be clear, persuasive and focused on your point. Don’t try to impress your readers with highly technical lingo or hard-to-follow language. People want to understand the concept as quickly as they can. Be concise in your writing and try to work with the least number of sentences as possible. It will reach readers faster and they’ll be able to absorb it better too.

Limit One Thought Per Paragraph

If you’re trying to write a fixed amount of words, make sure that your thoughts are conveyed in neat paragraphs throughout the content. Create some unique content by working a single thought or idea into a single paragraph. Don’t clutter your paragraph with a lot of information all at once.

Be Organized

A well-organized and neat article catches the eye and draws more readers in than an article where the paragraphs are all enmeshed or sloppily put together. Distinguish each paragraph with neat indentations and clear eye-catching topics and/or sub-topic. Make your article easy to navigate through, by organizing it well.

Eliminate Excess Words

Using complex words is one thing, but using too many words is a whole different issue. If a fifteen word sentence can be written in ten words, then rewrite it. Stick to active voice over passive voice. “Sheryl threw out the bottle” is easier to grasp than “The bottle was thrown out by Sheryl.” Trim your sentences to get the most meaning from the fewest words.

First Sentences Are Crucial

The opening line of your work should always be the most arresting. Readers should take a look at that first sentence and immediately want to read more. Spend as much time as you need to make that first sentence perfect. Step back and think – if it were you reading the first line of that piece of writing, would you think it was worth a complete read?

These few basic tips are a surefire way to get you on the right track in your efforts to become a better writer. With daily practice and dedication, you’ll find yourself improving in a very short while.

Blogs can be a great source of enjoyment, both for the writers and the readers. However, if you’re a blog writer and seem to have been hitting a wall lately when trying to think up brand new ideas on writing, here’s a look at a few types of blogs that you can start up.

Tips and Tutorial Blog

Do you have a lot of information on how to go about a particular task either online or off? Do you think that sharing this information and enlightening readers of your blog would be a worthy deed? Then, go right ahead.

Start a blog entry or set of entries completely focused on teaching on tutoring your readers on how to get started on a particular undertaking. For example, if you’re a veteran in the blogging field, why not start a blogger’s tutorial, teaching readers how to create their own blogs and make them more exciting? Or if you have a clever money making technique, why not share it with your readers?

Review Blog

Have you recently bought a hot, new gadget? Or tried working with a new operating system? Have you downloaded demo versions of a new software? If you have, and you have a whole lot of opinions on them, here’s an idea for a new blog.

Start a set of blog postings dedicated to reviewing new products, technology or software. Your readers will find it fascinating, especially since quite a few of them would probably want to try those same products out themselves, and would appreciate someone they trust and relate to, reviewing the products publicly.

Survey Blogs

Surveys are almost always amusing and interesting. People show a lot of interest in surveys; not only do they get to participate, but they also get to observe the general opinions of regular people, on specific topics of interest.

Start an entire set of blog postings for clever, fun surveys or for deeper, more meaningful surveys. It’s sure to get a lot of your readers’ active participation and keep them coming back for more.

Humorous Blogs

Humorous writing is always a pleasure to read. If, thus far, all you’ve been used to writing is serious and ordinary, try mixing it up a little. Get your sense of humor going, and see if you can remember a funny or amusing incident that happened to you. Write it out and tweak it a bit; use your creativity to make it witty and sharp. You never know, you may find that this style of writing is the best kind for you.

Diary Blogs

Most blogs are, to some extent, some form of a diary entry. For example, talking about yourself, something that happened to you that day or in the past week. Represents good blog style. To get the whole inspiration of a diary blog going, pick a special event or occurrence that you would love to keep a track of like, being asked out on a date by someone you’re really attracted to. Start a blog posting specifically for tracing what happens from the time you start dating him/her, and record it in your blog just like you would in your diary.

It could turn out to be a mini romance novel right there in your blog and it will keep readers hooked for a long while!

There are numerous types of blogs out there that you can try. These are just a few of them. Remember, whichever one you decide to try, keep your writing crisp and light for the best results.

Every writer knows that to really grab your readers' attention, your work should be stimulating, sharp, crisp and succinct. However, writing for the web is a completely different story. Of course, your work should remain just as absorbing and concise as possible but writing for web readers brings many more factors into the equation.

Web readers obviously do not go through content by flipping pages; they scroll through the web pages, scanning for important words, images or keywords. They enter search queries to find keywords within the web content that they're specifically looking for. They like usability, instant access and simplicity.

Keeping this in mind, let's look at a few tips on how to write unique content for the web to draw in the maximum number of readers:

Identify What Words Your Users Search For

Observe your website statistics to see what keywords your users are typing. Searching is one of the main tools web readers use to navigate through web content. Web users enter certain keywords in a search engine's field which allows them access to hundreds of pages containing those words. They are then free to scroll through their options and pick the websites which are most relevant to them. Once inside the website, users also search for sentences within the content in order to find the information they want.

Therefore, it is extremely handy to try to speculate on the keywords that users would possibly be searching for, and to try to incorporate these words into your web content to ensure maximum visits to your page.

Using high-level vocabulary and new, fresh phrases may not be such a good idea, since users usually do not try to search for such words. Instead, use older, well-known words and precise, brief sentences to guarantee that your webpage pops up when a user keys in a search. This technique is also known as SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
Tip: If your competitors use a free web based statistics service like we do, find it and observe what keywords they use.

Do Not Clutter Your Page with Needless Substance

Most web readers access web pages for specific information; not many of them spend hours online reading whole content, word for word. Instead, they mostly scan the text for the information they require, and then they exit the page.

Filling your web pages with images, graphics and endless paragraphs of text only helps in delaying the downloading of your page and increasing the waiting time for your readers. Readers do not want to wait minutes for a web page to load.

Try to keep the page as appealing as possible, but with minimal graphics, neat and factual paragraphs and just a handful of important, relevant images so that the sheer size of your page is not a reason for users to leave.

Follow Standard Guidelines for Good Writing

Although it's been warned against many times before, some writers still have the tendency to lean toward showy, wordy writing in an effort to impress.

Unless it's a literary figure specifically browsing the web for superior samples of writing, chances are your web page will be ignored by most if the paragraphs appear lengthy and verbose. Users like neat packets of information, where each paragraph conveys one main idea, where simple sentences are used and where the text is divided into topics and sub-topics that make sense. In other words, organization is key to a great webpage, and simple and informal writing is best appreciated.

Hyperlinks to other related sites are also a great addition to your webpage as they build credibility of your web content.

Following these very important points in web writing can get you started on compiling a user-friendly, useful website that would guarantee maximum visits.

Six Techniques to Get More from the Web than Google Will Tell You

Blog consultant Chris Garrett , provides some tips on the 5 Items Your Blog Sidebar Must Have

Over at Blog Buster, Amanda Fazani has tools, templates and popular blog aimed at bloggers.

Have you seen Blogger Play ? Blogger Play is a real-time slideshow of photos Blogger users have recently uploaded to their blogs. It's a great snapshot of what people are thinking and posting about, right now!

Over at Performancing, Ahmed Bilal has 21 Ways to Build a Better Blogger

If you had 2-hours a day to devote to no-cost, off-blog (even off-line) marketing for your blog, what would you do? Find out how some A-list bloggers answered that question: Top bloggers reveal how to build traffic off-blog without spending a dime

Added ! Top 10 Free E-books For Bloggers

This is a list of people who like Blogger Wanted and proved it giving us a link in a nice contextual setting :). Just like our blogger resource post, this list will keep growing, so keep coming back if your expect to see your link here.

Calissa Leigh found us useful
Her advice to new bloggers is:
1. Blog Every Day - When Possible
2. Include Helpful Topics
3. Blog Others And Link

Thank you Calissa