Sunday, November 18, 2007

Second Language Blogging - Precautions and Solutions

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Over the years, blogging has taken a great leap from being an online diary, to being an electronic book that covers learning, amusement, and revenue. It fosters the possibility of reaching thousands of readers all over the world within the writer's field of interest. Therefore, it is no wonder that most blogs use English as their medium to reach more audience across the globe. Given this circumstance, it is expected that one might come across a multiple of poorly written blogs; poorly written meaning poor grammar, misspelled words, weak form, and the likes.

Having English as a second language, and blogging using it, leaves tell-tale signs. There are many who have mastered English as much as their first language, but there are also some, who commit the mentioned errors, without, or even with the help of online and offline grammar and spell check gadgets. Luckily, most blog platforms have built in spell checks that allow you to type in directly into the blog, but still have the benefit of a spell checker. To double check, many initially create their blog posts in word, before transferring it into their blogs.

Even with all these precautions, errors are still inevitable. The key here is, be ready and willing to edit. When mistakes are seen by your audiences, or by yourself, correct them right away. After all, there is a reason why the edit function was added into blogs, so do not be too preoccupied with perfection. Excessive attention to details may interfere with the relay of the message. Remember that so long as the entry holds strong content, and the errors are not very distracting, readers are very forgiving.


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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Define obsessions

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I am admittedly, a right-brained spelling impaired blogger, and matched with my chicken-like typing, Microsoft spelling auto-correct is a blessing. This is not new to most people. If not spelling, there are other concerns to bug the mind such as grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, parallelism, and slang, just to mention just a few. One must always be mindful of these aspects, but at certain points, I have a tendency to be obsessive about them, and find myself getting more than just the usual distractions. This is not to imply that I have impeccable writing, I do not. And as much as I enjoy blogging, one of my objectives for it is practice and improvement. With this in mind, there is that drive to improve, and of course, avoid embarrassment.

What I forget, is that even if spelling, punctuation, and such, might actually interfere with blogging, from the readers viewpoint, it might also affect one’s ability to blog. So, as much as importance is placed on these points, readers are tolerant with minor errors, so long as the entry holds strong content.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Blogging Options

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It has been a flat line for quite some time right after the bloggers summit. I was not able to say my thanks and hi’s to everyone I met during the event. I was only able to get some snippets of the entire thing, both the summit and the party. Well, the part I was able to listen to was the discussion where fellow bloggers were able to question the “veterans”.

During the discussion, there were a lot of very audible gasps when it came to the estimated earnings. For a non-pro blogger like me, it was quite odd to comprehend the amount they were earning from mere internet presence. The mentioned some sites I’m familiar of, and a lot of websites I have not even heard of before. I must admit, I do not even remember those sites at all. The encouragement given, not only in connection to revenue, but for self-accomplishment as well, was enough for me to start scrounging for information to perk up this little blog of mine. An interesting option I found was pay per post. Quite an interesting alternative. I’ve come across this site from other blogs, but I’ve really only given it enough attention today. I’ve read some positive comments, and it’s about time I actually try something other than ads.