5 Writing Styles to Avoid
Finding your blogging voice is something many people stress too much over, producing phony results that never really catch on. As a rule, your own train of thought is your voice on the internet, but changing that in an attempt to be unique or funny can be detrimental. Here are five writing styles you should avoid when blogging, but this isn’t to say any of them haven’t been done and can’t work.
- Third Person - Talking about yourself, or your persona, in the third person really reduces the chances of visitors turning into readers. It’s just so cliché that it will be hard for readers to take you seriously and not dismiss you.
- Over Compared - Every single thing you write about does not need a comparison. Doing this creates much more reading than necessary and gives users the feeling of leaving, seeing a swarm of words headed their way.
- The Exaggerator - Unless your site’s title is “Fishing Stories” don’t put too much exaggeration into stats or anything. None at all would be preferred, but keep it to a minimum. Exaggeration creates the illusion (or affirms) that the writer has a big ego. Round up if you must, but readers like exact things.
- The Razor’s Edge - Being all mean, all negative, all critical, all the time wears eventually on readers and isn’t a good long term solution. This stands true especially in news where readers expect an objective view and are hit with miscalculated opinions.
- Unknowing/Uninformed - It can be impossible to hide from this at all times, but keeping your ignorance in check is important to not put off any readers. Being careful with generalizations and doing a little research go a long way in preventing coming across as uninformed or ignorant.
As mentioned earlier, you already have your own voice in terms of blogging. That voice grows over time, as you hone your craft and your post count goes up. The more you write, the better you get. Look back at your first post and reflect on how bad you once were. It’s humbling: here’s my first post from January 
Leave a comment
Ukrainian
August 26th, 2007 at 2:31 PM
Thanks for this article, I’ll keep it in mind doing next post on my blog
Thomas Sinfield
September 16th, 2007 at 9:38 PM
I find the best writing styles when I read blogs, are the people who are just themselves. Nothing is worse then trying to be or write like someone other than yourself.
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