Are you a lazy writer?

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I love the internet!  Every day I visit different website and blogs I didn’t know existed until that moment, and I tend to have a little look around to see if it’s worth bookmarking or subscribing to.

Last week I came across a blog that, at first sight, was a promising candidate to visit again.  Until I noticed that the whole post (about 1000 words) had been written entirely in lower case, and without a single apostrophe (see Louise’s previous post on this much abused punctuation mark!).  I don’t know whether the writer thought it looked cool that way, but to me it looked rather odd and didn’t make me want to read further.  And it seemed as if the writer was just too lazy to use the ‘shift’ key.

In our workshop ‘How to get more visitors to your website’, we spend some time talking about how writing for the web is different in several ways to writing traditional paper reports and formal letters. 
It’s a lot more conversational and grammatical rules are relaxed, but it certainly isn’t lazy or slapdash.  Here are 4 quick reminders to bear in mind when you’re writing:

• Do check your spelling to minimise mistakes.  I find it useful to get someone else to proof read for me or, if that isn’t possible, read it backwards and you’ll see every word.
• Make sure you use the correct word, for example: here or hear; you’re or your; there, their or they’re, are common sights (or sites!)
• Please don’t use ‘text speak’ if you want your blog post or web copy to be taken seriously by an adult audience (a possible exception being Twitter where every character has to count!)
• If you know that your typing or English skills could be sharper, take extra care to check and definitely ask for proof reading help before publishing.  Learn from feedback and improve your skills at the same time!

Take a look at some of the ‘professional’ bloggers, such as Darren Rowse or Yaro Starak.  Both write very well – or they wouldn’t have so many subscribers!  And their content is remarkably free from typos and spelling mistakes, especially when you consider how much they produce!

Let’s say that you’re not a professional blogger but you’re selling a product or service.  What impression do you think your website or blog visitors will get if they are faced with lazy typing?  It could give them the idea that your business offering is a bit slapdash as well!

Have you seen any examples of lazy typing on websites or blogs?  Please do share by commenting, we’d love to know!

About Louise

Louise Barnes-Johnston has been working in social media marketing since 2007 after realising that it was a powerful marketing tool which would enable her clients to raise the profile of their businesses on the internet, even when working to a limited budget. Her specialism is in researching social media practices; trying out the most effective online tools and then sharing the best of them with her clients.