This post was guest blogged by Anonymous.
So, what does your blog tell me about you? Well, we can start with first impressions – how your blog looks. The fact is, however, that physical appearance in websites or in people is, to a large degree, a matter of preference. I’m not a design person. I’m not looking for the showiest site. How you, or your site, look isn’t the crucial factor for me … that’s what cosmetic surgery and web designers are for. What I want to know is who you really are, not what you look like. Sure, that’s what “About Me†is for, but, honestly, all that tells me is who you want me to believe you are. In the final analysis, it’s what you write that tells me the most about who you really are.
You know the old saying, “You are what you eat”? Well, I want to modify that: for my purposes, you are what you WRITE. That’s where I get the most information about who you are. If you don’t write complete sentences, if you have spelling errors, if you don’t use correct punctuation, if you don’t get to the point, I’ll immediately skip to the next blog. Why? Because how you write tells me how intelligent, educated, and self-aware you are. It tells me how sensitive to your audience you are, how attentive to details you are, and how high your professional standards are. These are all traits which are exactly the kind of personal characteristics I’m looking for in a potential business partner and investment.
What does your writing say about who you are? Leaving in grammatical errors and misspelling is just plain sloppy and unprofessional, which I’m guessing is not the image you want to project. Does this mean that if you can’t write well you won’t succeed? Not at all. There are many successful bloggers who aren’t superb writers. We’re not talking Nobel Prize for Blogging here. But if you know that writing isn’t your strong suit, why take a chance that you would be turning off potential partners and investors such as myself? Find a respected friend, family member, or program that can edit your posts before they’re published. You don’t have to be an innately excellent writer; few of us, including myself, are. But find someone or some program that CAN polish the image you project in your writing. If you want to attract something excellent, hold to that standard yourself.
Very true. Everything you do is an expression of who you are. Be honest but pay attention to the details everyone.
Thanks for sharing this. It acted as a great reminder today
Very thoughtful and insightful. A blog represents the written word and, as such, reflects our nature in that important modality. Be careful what you write, as others will draw inferences, either good or bad, from our written expression!
Aw, man. I fail this test miserably. I destroy grammar at every turn with one word sentences. Often.
Interesting thoughts. But posting anonymously? (Yes, I realise that’s part of your point…) Is your blog typo free then?
As an author you can take some liberty in the grammar and sentence structure arena. That doesn’t mean, of course, that you can completely mangle the “king’s” English but a few sentence fragments every once in a while or a sentence ending in a preposition is okay.
Readable, conversational type writing is more engaging and likely to engender response than grammatically correct dry text.
I make smelling mistakes but usually catch them. Thanks for this entry.
I agree on some points, but I must say… Not everyone is blogging in hopes to get some kind of financial blogging from an anonymous guest-blogger on natewhitehill.com lol.
This was a bit refreshing, regardless.
backing* that is
So…. you want to come read my blog?
DISCLAIMER: English is not my native language therefore mistakes may be occur in the following comment.
Damn, this author is acting way too bold for me. I totally get his (her?) “I am an authority“-thing, but there’s too much Donald Trump in the post and I doubt Mr./Mrs. Anonymous fills the equivalent position in the blogosphere.
Plus, I don’t like to feel looked down at when I take my valuable time to read someone’s article. I doubt this was the author’s intention, but that’s how I felt while I was reading it.
A few words regarding the message: So what did you want to say actually? You ARE your blog, right? The only thing you ended up writing about are spelling mistakes and bad grammar. It seems like you started on one thing, then concentrated upon one tiny aspect of it and finished the article without being really done with the subject. Your introduction was too long for the little you had to say at the end. When I read the last sentence, I was like “What, that’s it? So why did he/she take so much time to introduce himself/herself? Just to remind me to proofread my posts?”
And since you want to remain anonymous, why did you even bother to introduce yourself? I don’t care how much money you’ve got in your pocket if your main point is to pay attention to spelling mistakes. In that case, I’d rather taken advice from a teacher or a journalist. Plus, you’re discrediting yourself by saying that you’re not a great writer yourself. So how do you justify to write about this subject IN THAT WAY? Because you’ve got money? Woooo-hoooo, I’m awestruck.
Sorry, but this post sucks – imo. Not because of its message, but because of the way it is written. If I would have wanted writing tips I’d have gone to Daily Writing Tips. And I’m sure they would’ve said it much nicer.
Damn it, my comment is probably longer than your post now.
While the author’s tone may have sounded authoritative, the original intention was to explain that everything, including spelling and grammar, are ultimately a reflection of ourselves. Lots of people who are working towards success through their blogs (like me) aspire to do whatever we can to attract both intelligent and successful individuals.
The fact is that intelligent and successful people consider every detail when selecting whom to interact or network with. Sorry if the article offended you. As you even said, that was definitely not the author’s intention.
It was a good point, but as Celebrienne said above, such an introduction wasn’t required.
I felt the same way after reading the article- unfulfilled.
Maybe the post’s author could step forward and elaborate in a comment or something?
Your point is well taken, at least by me. Poor spelling and grammar are not only personal pet peeves but a part what I blog about (nearly) every day. The reason that proofreading is so important is not just so that you sound intelligent but that you demonstrate attention to detail.
You can write your personal blog in a slapdash manner and your family and friends will still read it. A blog seeking financial backing, however, requires a professional writing style and tone. Even the tawdriest celebrity gossip needs to be comprehensible if you wish to draw a consistent audience. Being unable to write a coherent sentence or spot your own typing errors can destroy your credibility and lose you readers.
I’m turned off every day by poorly written blogs that I come across. Since I can’t actually talk to the person (in most cases), I end up judging them (perhaps unfairly) based solely on their writing. That’s just the way it is unless you do something like providing an audio rendition of each post. But I probably wouldn’t bother to listen if I was already turned off by misspellings and poor grammar. That’s really a shame because I’m sure that some of the people I dismiss would be worth getting to know.
I have no idea who started the rumor that leaving in spelling and grammatical errors was cool, but I agree that it sure looks thoughtless and just plain sloppy. We all do it, but doing back for an edit is a good thing.
My post – my bad, if it offended Nate’s readers. I meant to get their attention, not to discredit anyone. As I read it now, I agree my tone is none too nice.
By the way, no surprise it was a waste of your time, Celebrienne. You’re clearly an excellent writer.
For those of you who would appreciate any tips for improving your writing, here are two useful links (and, no, I am not “dumblittleman”, though it’s a great website):
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2006/10/50-tools-that-can-increase-your-writing.html?2ca35820
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2006/12/40-tips-to-improve-your-grammar-and.html
cbb/anonymous,
I’m not sure if I get your sarcasm here (if you meant to be sarcastic at all), but if you visited my blog and looked how I write, here’s what I’ve got to say about this: I try to write the best I can. I am proof-reading every single post, I check my spelling and I always have an online dictionary open. But since I am not a native English speaker I often find it rather hard to come up with something that sounds good AND naturally. But oh well, I try.
I admit I’ve been way too aggressive in the first comment. I’m a lot cooler today. Maybe I should wait a night before I comment on blogs? But I apologize for saying your post sucks. I meant to say something different, but I was already very tired and my vocabulary wasn’t helping me anymore at that point.
I was just expecting more than 2 sentences about blog design and 10 sentences about spelling mistakes and bad grammar for 5 sentences introduction. The post is sort of unbalanced and lacks the profundity which I was used to find by reading Nate’s blog. Maybe you should enhance it by writing something about what’s most important about a blog: its content. I guess this is the most revealing part about a blogger. Good content = good blogger, bad content = bad blogger!
Good stuff Nate. I feel the same way about spelling and grammatical errors, although I don’t go overboard with it (I don’t think you do either). I wont unsubscribe from a blog that I like reading because of some errors here and there, but if it’s error after error then I’ll probably take your site off of my subscribe list especially if you’re blogging as an expert in some field. I can’t take you seriously as an expert if you’ve got tons of errors in your posts. Spelling bothers me more than anything is spelling errors as it shows laziness because they can’t take a second to use spell check. I’ve probably got spelling and grammatical errors on my site, but I can say that I at least take time after writing to read over the post again and fix errors (at least to the best of my ability as I’m not a spelling/grammer expert).
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Some bloggers felt that the importance of content surpass that of spelling, grammar and sentence structure. However, like Patrick Lee said we “end up judging them (perhaps unfairly) based solely on their writing”. I can come up with an idea of what to write in 2 minutes but the writing process may take anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days. Celebrienne put it across so aptly “I often find it rather hard to come up with something that sounds good AND naturally. But oh well, I try.”. Giving the post an overnight test, checking and rechecking the sentence structures, proof reading for spelling errors took me a while. It is a tiring but necessary process to improve.
Nate, I like what you guest blogger had to offer but I also wish he need not stay anonymous. Even a John Smith is better than Anonymous.
This is a great post with wonderful conversation going.
First of all, I was not at all being sarcastic, Celebrienne. I studied French for 3 long years and right now couldn’t correctly write a single, simple sentence in French if my life depended on it. I have the deepest respect for anyone who writes well in a second language, which, again, no one could dispute you do. My comments were really intended for bloggers who were simply being careless. Like Angie said, there seems to be a belief that it is “cool” to write informally, which is, of course, just fine, unless you’re hoping to attract professional interest.
By the way, I asked Nate to list me as “Anonymous” simply because I am new to the blogosphere and have no website myself. My post was based largely on how surprised I was as I explored links to various blogs that clearly smart, ambitious individuals were so casual about how they presented themselves on their blogs. In a just world content itself would count more than adherence to the King’s English (as another commentator mentioned), but the fact is conforming to proper usage is the standard used by most professionals. Perhaps in a kinder world the tone of one’s writing would count most of all, and I will endeavor to be more attentive to that dimension.
Thanks, Nate, for giving me this opportunity, and for all you readers who responded with such honesty and interest!
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