I ran across this new offer that may be of use….

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.

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!

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.

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!

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

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?

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.

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.

This was a bit refreshing, regardless.

Readable, conversational type writing is more engaging and likely to engender response than grammatically correct dry text.

Thanks for sharing this. It acted as a great reminder today