This is a topic on which I have often debated with other bloggers. I strongly feel that good writing is one of the prerequisites of good blogging. Some might say that I am a grammar-Nazi. But I think that in the anonymous world of the Internet, good writing will always be used as a criterion by your readers to judge your authenticity and credibility.
Look at it this way; if you were the New York Times, you would already have some credibility. But if you were someone.com, how do I know that I can trust you? How do I know that what you’re saying is right? How do I know that you are not a crazed idiot who writes arbitrarily? This is where, writing, which clearly is the result of great effort, and learning, will have a distinct edge in convincing the reader that they are reading something authentic.
But that begs the question: What is good writing? Does good writing mean possessing impeccable grammar? Does good writing mean writing that is highly engaging? Does good writing mean writing about matters that people did not know of, but wanted to know about? What about the use of jargon? Is using technical terminology or other forms of jargon a symbol of good writing? Or should we try to make our writing as simple as possible? These are not very easy questions to answer.
As a blogger, there is a tendency to vomit out large volumes of content. I can see why that might be enticing. After all, there seems to be a direct correlation between the number of readers, viewers, visitors, page views, clicks on ads, etc. that you get and the number of pages and posts that you write. This prevents bloggers from spending a whole lot of time on proofreading/editing their content. Some go so far as to not even bother using a spell checker or grammar checker.
What do you think? As a blogger, would you go about focusing a lot of your energy, and as a consequence your time and money, on well written blog posts? Or are you of the opinion that as long as people can read and understand what you’re saying, your job of communication through a blog post has been completed.
Let us take this one step further: What does Google think? Does Google think higher of content which is written in better English? Or does Google not care? Of course we cannot be so naive to assume that Google cannot figure out the quality of language in a given document. After all, even as a far back as 20 years ago, when I first started using Microsoft Word, it could give me the readability statistics that would evaluate the quality of my writing. And then, we are talking about Google, the almighty Google, which can algorithmically determine the quality of any given page. Thus far, I have not seen any clear evidence that Google gives a lot of emphasis, or for that matter any emphasis, to the quality of writing in a document in deciding how it would rank it. But come to think of it, if two documents are identical in all other respects, and one of them is better written in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, wouldn’t that be a criteria that Google could/should use in deciding how to rank a page? I certainly think so.
In fact I would go so far as to say that sometimes I get upset when I read very poorly written blog posts. If nothing else I would really like it if Google, in its advanced settings, gives me an option to choose the quality of language in the given post. Just like it allows me to filter-out adult content, I wish it would allow me to filter-out content that is not well written. Of course, you may think otherwise. Regardless of whether you agree with me, or disagree, make sure to leave a comment. I will visit this page from time to time, to respond.
Until next time…
Ajeet Khurana is the author of two textbooks published by Tata McGraw-Hill. He has designed and authored the financial literacy program of the National Stock Exchange. He was the guide/editor of one of the online publications of the New York Times. Today he has set up a new blog where he, along with other writers, write about writing. Aptly named, Essay Tips is a new blog that you must certainly look out for.
Amit,
Nice detailed blog post. It was quite informative, learning-oriented and yet inconclusive in some parts of the discussion. Probably, you wanted readers to take on the debate from there on.
One such aspect was whether writing should be communication-oriented or languaged in a sophisticated manner. Well, good grammar is always a positive take away for any article. It would, anyways, be pointless, if the post is not communicative or informative.
In a nutshell, good informative/skill-based writing is the basic need of the blogging, without which not even sophisticated use of language could be of any delight. But, a combination of both is a recipe of sure-shot success, of course subject to other requisites of blogging being adhered to.
I can compare it with the fortune of a batsman in the game of cricket. The more the number of varied shots in his kitty, it will provide him enhanced flexibility to deal with each delivery based on its merit.
Thus, better writing skills coupled with accurate use of grammar will be like ”sone pe suhaga.” 🙂
Recently on FB someone posted that one space after a period was correct. I’ve always used two… it’s been a fun debate but then I saw your post and thought I’d add the question, one or two spaces after a period?
michelle
I am new to blogging and this post give me a great thought before writing blog content.
And I always follow you Amit Sir…
Thanks for this Useful post….
Amit nice tips to new blogger its really help it me..writing skills also be important…
@Viral: I agree that “combination of both is a recipe of sure-shot success.” If you have the luxury of deplaying a combination, go for it.
@Michelle Harrison: both are right. It is important to distinguish between rules of grammar and matters of style. One/two spaces after a period is a matter of style. In print, two spaces is a common practice. On the Internet, one space is more commonly accepted.
@City Suchna: Glad you liked the post.
@Suraj: It is necessary to not just enjoy the post, but also learn from it. Good Luck.
As the author of this blog post, I am happy to respond or comment to any issue related its topic.
“I strongly feel that good writing is one of the prerequisites of good blogging”
I agree with that…but what about us who cant write good english but we want to blog in english…what can we do…do you say we should not write…
If someone is not fluent in English, then you can say that in the blog, but still work at things like not using sms shortcuts. Also you can ask someone to look at it. I think that would be true for anyone not fluent in a language.
its good you say that as I was upset by your comment “But I’m turned off by bad writing, when clearly the writer hasn’t bothered” – this is not true always
Does anybody know of companys that read work but are not to much money?
I think of my blog writing as essays actually — not just information. I’m inviting readers into my mind and my life. Maybe there are different kinds of blogs. But I’m turned off by bad writing, when clearly the writer hasn’t bothered.. “The medium is (still-mine) the message” Marshall McLuhan.
Mr. Ajeet Khurana,
What I think is the overall quality is also important in blogging. Using of shortcut words like U for “You” and lot others can also hard English Grammar.
Good writing mean writing about matters that people did not know of, but wanted to know about. so we will get more visitors
thankyou amit this is nice, can u help me how to write fluently on my blog this is my blog http://www.die4money.blogspot.com plz help me out amit.
Great writing Ajeet. Summed up a few important things for a blogger on how helpful it is to write it out well. It is important to write something meaningful, as it not just helps in having a great ranking in search engines but you are not writing it for the search engines but for the end traffic that comes and reads the content. Many bloggers write things that are optimized to rank well, but they don’t care on how readable and understandable it is. By doing this, although they are getting a good visitor from Google, but they would be failing to convert the visitor into a subscriber.
Good article.
What i think matters the most is that you’re able to convey your message properly to your audience and that is not possible unless you have a good command over the language you are using.
I almost agree with what u r trying to say…but ther’s one thing u missing here…what abt those countries…whose first language is something other than english? do u think ther’s any need for them to feel and get less priority from google, just because they are not good at it…who cares…for instance, If I search on Gandhi, I don’t want someone from US or UK or any other country for that matter to come on first page, outranking an well informed Indian author, just because they are having a better english…
Hi All,
Thanks for all the great comments that my post is generating. The great thing about the blogosphere is that it is a great leveler. So, take my responses as my opinion, not as my word of saying that this is the only right way to see things.
@Lucia: Your comments and those by others allude to the fact that bad writing may not just be a result of callousness, but also of a lack of ability. I agree. What my article is encouraging all of us to do is to work on the language aspect of their blogging too. If one has really poor English, then even a spellchecker and grammar checker can make a substantial improvement.
@Michelle @Web Host: I agre wt reco of X sms lang 🙂
@iPage Review: These writers think that they can fool Google all the time. But Google is smart and it catches up. Those of us who have been around since Day 1 🙂 know that it is best to serve your readers.
@ananthnag: If one is going to work on one’s language, and strive for continual improvement, I think we will not run into that problem.
@ bibin, @Nouman: Thanks 🙂
I think content is content. Many peoples misspell and type it on google. Some times it may help to get visitors but if you are selling something, you may lose customers.
That is right: A short-term gain of traffic might be offset by a long term loss in loyalty.
Thankyou for comment.
I use spellcheck but grammer check confused me. I will learn more but I also look for cheap proof reading until then.
Let us know how that turns out Lucia. In my experience, buying proof reading for 100 words is more expensive than getting 100 words written. I know that sounds strange, but that has been my experience. 🙂
but I want it to be my work – I only want grammer checking
I am try tweakmyenglish.com – will tell you how it works
I totally agree Lucia. I was not recommending outsourcing your writing. Just remarking that strangely enough, editing content often costs more than creating original content. The link that you provided charges $1 per 100 words. Approx the same as textbroker charges to create 100 words.
Great post.As for i say content quality is very important in Blogging. I agree with you that when two identical blogs are to be ranked by Google the one in terms of vocabulary is highlighted.This actually gives a proof of blog writer’s identity ,on the other hand.The ideas need to reach the readers in a right way.
My point exactly 🙂
I agree with you completely sir! The value of content rises exponentially when it is of rich quality. I find no reason to write with poor grammar. A learned audience will definitely appreciate quality and that is one way to make a mark on your readers mind!
When consumerist culture is rampaging through our lives, brand recall is of great importance and quality content is the easiest way to make your audience remember you.
Not just do I agree with you rahul, apparently, even Google Panda does 🙂
Initially, original content would be most important part in the blog post. And, it would be more useful tips to all the newbie blogger like me. Thanks a lot for given your post on here:)
Sir, it is a very nice post and infomative
I m new in blogging so i want to ask u just 1 thing thats is which are you using to show twitter, google+etc onyour righthandside and on right side corner of yoyr blog
waitning for your reply
Nice tips.. Thanks for Sharing…. So helpful