Continued from Part Twenty-Six
New to the Series? Start with Part One
Blogosphere: A series
Part Twenty-Seven: Grammar Royalty and Spelling Knighthood
If your Blog Hosting Service supports a Spelling and Grammar check and you’re not making full use of it… why not?
If you believe your work is beyond reproach, well, congratulations on your high level of confidence, I rather think you are fooling yourself. Even if you know the rules of grammar and spelling inside out, typos happen. Mistakes occur.
A full-time Blogger, someone who Blogs to a daily set of deadlines—no matter if they are self-imposed—is likely to make mistakes as he or she rushes to complete a post. Fortunately, most blogging systems allow you to fix an error as soon as you find it
Image: /thegrammarvandal.wordpress.com
Allowing the Spell Checker to let you know of a bad spelling—and making the fix—is an obvious step in keeping your Blog posts professional. Doing the same with a Grammar checker is a bit trickier. For one thing you may not always agree with the Grammar Nazi, and want to go ahead and say it your way. That’s well and good, but as I used to tell a non-conformist friend, if you understand the rules, breaking them has greater meaning.
The Grammar checker on WordPress has a number of switches. It will check for the standards, Passive Voice, Complex Expressions, and the like, but you can also turn on a check for “biased” language, among other options.
As a Spell Checker will help you improve your spelling if you use it that way and not as a crutch, the Grammar Checker can make you a stronger writer.
You can make a game of it The coolest thing you can see when you click the Spelling/Grammar Check button is “No Errors Found”.
Bottom line, make the check. Even if the post is short and you are a master. It only takes one lazy keystroke, a distraction, or a legitimate error to rob you of the professional look and feel you want.
Make the check.
Continued in Part Twenty-Eight
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This is a great post. I’m all set to go if/when I begin Blog. But I can’t find the Spell and Grammar check I need for living my ‘life’. (Sigh). grin grin. Thank you Richard.
I get a recurring,virtual, rap over the knuckles, because I write UK English and WordPress doesn’t like it one bit. Honour, favourite, the list is endless … but I have chosen to stick to the Pommie spellings.
I love when the “No Errors” light comes on!
It’s like a huge pat on the back from the Universe. : )
Ricky,
How about UhW having a Grammar section? Something like “I have noticed”.
Nancy wrote an article about the use of the possessive apostrophe which was very enlightening.
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