What do people think of your Blog writing style?

As an online educator, one of the most frequent questions I get are how to write a paper in a specific style – usually MLA or APA. Along with that, students frequently ask me why it's important to write differently than we speak. For academic papers, readers expect to "hear" the written voice – the written "accent," really.

While blogging does have more freedom than academic writing, it's not entirely free of reader expectation, either. And if you want to be professional about your blog, there's a few you should know.

If you're like my usual students, you might be wondering why this is important – especially in a blog. It's not like you're getting graded or anything.

Just because you aren't turning this into an authoritarian figure for an arbitrary letter evaluation doesn't mean that you aren't being evaluated by some authority. You are. Your readers are evaluating you with every post and deciding if your blog is one they'll follow regularly.

You want followers, right?

What kind of followers do you want?

Me, I want followers in the writing and education fields. I want followers who may become fans of my writing. I want followers for whom I'm a fan of their writing. I want to build a writing and reading community.

So, my writing better be up to par in their eyes.

That's why I study the blogs I would like to be; the writers who I'd be honored if they followed me as I follow them.

What are these blogs? Besides what you see on my blogroll (if you're on Blogger), I subscribe to Copyblogger (whom I've quoted several times here and elsewhere), Neil Gaiman's journal (Hey, if you don't aim for the best, where are you going to land?), Writer Beware, QueryTracker, Karen Caplan (owner of Frieda's Produce – remember, I'm also a foodie!), Nathan Bransford, and Guide to Literary Agents.

Based on these blogs, here are some style pointers I've adopted.

1. Still cite your sources.

No, it's not APA or MLA, but you hyperlink. It's much easier, actually, and more direct (you go write to the article – or a link to the book on Amazon (or another bookseller). Like in any professional writing, you should always give credit to your sources.

2. Research and Organization

Obviously, if I suggested you should cite your resources, you should have resources. Yes, pick a topic you feel you have some authority on, but how did you obtain that authority? Where did you learn from? No, not all blogs will have outside resources, but if you're tackling a difficult topic – one where there's a lot to learn and especially one where there is a lot of controversy – you should have support from outside your own brain.

3. Redefine "Business Casual"

Just like Fridays at the office (or at least the offices where I've worked), the blog is a balance between professional and comfortable. It's you, but still a little spiffied up. The human personality has many facets, and if you want to be perceived as professional, you should explore yourself and find your own professional facet. It's not disingenuous; it's just another part of you.

4. Discover new Grammar

Believe it or not, people have grammatical expectations for blogs. Sentences and paragraphs are expected to be shorter, making the read quicker. Eschewing excess verbage (per Strunk & White and Twain) is … excessive (as is purposeful redundancy, but I'll get to that later). You may have noticed, particularly with the Facebook and Twitter cultures, that personal pronouns (particularly those that can be easily inferred from verb forms) are almost dropped all together. (Wrote my blog on Friday, waiting for car repairs.) Fragments are also embraced. Especially for emphasis. But a repetition goes a long way if you want to make a point. (Expensive car repairs are… expensive.)

The kind of audience you want to cultivate, however, will affect all of these things. How often will you present a researched blog post? How formal or how casual will you be? Think about the people you want to follow you, and see who they are following. What kind of writing does your preferred audience read?

How do you write?

Following New Year's Resolution of Fitness

Dear Wii Fit Plus ® Developers,

As a writer and the proud owner of a Wii Fit Plus ® system, I commend you on the ingenious game you have created that helps writers all over the world get in shape. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it appeals to our inner competitors. However, in creating the mental challenges, you have sorely neglected to help exercise the language sections of our brains, leaving us unbalanced. Fortunately, I have some ideas to help achieve a more perfect balance in mental and physical fitness.

Currently, the Wii Fit Plus incorporates basic math that players must complete through physical activity. For example, in the “Training Plus” section, a player must hip-check mushrooms to add (or subtract) until a particular number is reached. Also, in the Body Test, a player must shift weight or move based on displayed numerical values for one test, and in another, be able to order numbers. These are excellent exercises, and ones most writers, like myself, need. (Many of us beg spouses or hire accountants for such activities. Matching these tasks with physical activity pairs two things we often must be forced to do, anyway.)

While the math may be more difficult for the language-minded, however, it short changes the already mathematical-minded who can do such problems in their sleep (as easily as a writer can correct a comma splice.) Additionally, it doesn’t offer the same comfort zone to writers, editors, and other word-workers. Having tasks players know and regularly do mixed in with exercises and problems we don’t promotes a true balance of the mind and body. Adding language-based challenges will surely enhance your newest Plus ® edition of Wii Fit. Not only will you appeal to existing fans of the game who want new challenges, but you will bring in even more of the weight-and-balance-challenged demographic who write, edit, or otherwise type and correct words on the computer for a living.

Therefore, here are some new games I offer for your consideration. Using the mushroom hip-check template, ask players to choose the correct punctuation to include in a displayed, unpunctuated sentence. In advanced levels, players can pick out the correct pronoun usage or translate text-speak/chatspeak to the written language. For the Body Test section, in addition to having players choose numbers on their value (while attempting balance while redistributing weight and not getting knocked over by their cats), have them choose words based on parts of speech: nouns, verbs, prepositions, and so on. Using the squat-and-squish template that the game uses for testing value (greater than/less than), have players destroy the misspelled words. Advanced levels of this game can have players destroy verbs that do not agree with nouns, or non-parallel construction in lists.

Since Wii Fit Plus ® is available globally, you will want your translators to hire proper copyeditors to help develop these games in their respective languages, but the value of enhancing the game will make up for any extra cost in development. Blogs and websites across the world offer tips and programs to this demographic constantly, so there is obvious demand. In fact, if you need a consultant for American English, A Novel Friend can open up some calendar space for this project. As a fan of the game, I would be happy to return the favor of achieving balance and fitness in mind and body. Please contact me at your earliest convenience for an estimate.

I look forward to helping make the next edition of Wii Fit Plus ® even better!

Best,

Trish Wooldridge
A Novel Friend Writing & Editing