If I’m going to be real with you, I’m not 100% great at grammar. Do I try my best? Yes.
But let me be the first to admit that there are times when I don’t use the correct words as I’m writing. Sometimes I write “in” and need to change it to “into” — simple things, right? Right. Do I google the correct forms of words and make sure that I’m using them the right way? Yes. It’s the little things that get passed me. That’s not an ideal thing for a blogger, not when you want to appeal to your audience and come off as an expert on that subject. You don’t want your grammar to penalize your blog and lose followers. Not good and not a situation you want to deal with because you put in all that hard work, you don’t deserve to lose fans. The things that you write and publish mean something. Whether you’re sending an email, writing a blog post, or writing a review, you do not want to be the person that used ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’.
You don’t want to use that person that is picked up by the person reading your content. To some, you might be judged or side-eyed, and we don’t want that. Listen, the last thing you want is to be viewed as someone that rushed through a piece and doesn’t care about the content they are pushing out. You’re trying to make a good impression so let’s not leave a harsh one that can be easily avoided.
Can I just be frank with you? Improper grammar can cause doubt and uncertainty with your audience. Do you want that? I don’t think you do. I don’t want that for you. I want you to prosper and help people out.
I know that I don’t want people to have uncertainty and doubt with me. I want to be the expert at that moment, and I want my audience to trust me because I trust them to be real with me. We’re a team even though they probably don’t know that. My readers, you are my teammate. So today, I’m bringing you something special.
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Your content matters to your readers
Let’s be real, if your readers aren’t feeling your content, they might not come back. It’s a reality we all have to face. Don’t just throw together a blog post with errors and no thought about what you’re writing, that’s not going to fly with people. You want to put in the effort so that your readers want to read and engage with your post. You want them to be impressed with what you’re putting out so that they will share it with friends and praise about it. Not only is your content valuable to those who are reading it but it can be relatable and help someone out that needs it. There’s no denying that many people turn to articles and the internet for answers. You are the expert that they are going to for answers. Not only are they going to you as the expert but you are putting in the work and thought for this post, you want this to be perfect. You want to share your secrets or relate to your reader, maybe you want to discuss an issue that is important to you that someone else might be dealing with, you need to captivate them.
How do you put together something that matters to your audience? This is something that I’ve noticed needs to stand out. People love when they can relate and there’s an issue that is similar to their own. I wrote a post on Student Loans and many people commented about their own fears and trouble with their student loan debt — they found it helpful to receive tips from someone who talked about their process and struggle. Student loan debt is dreadful and I’m glad that many of us can get together and not feel alone in this. You need to talk about something that is going to engage your audience. Your writing matters, everything that you put the work into matters. Make it interesting, talk about your struggle, be vulnerable, tell a story, etc — you want your audience to see you’re real and you want it to be perfect. Earlier this year, I talked about my Long Distance Relationship and it’s crazy how many people can relate because we all just think people have storyline romances from social media. Just remember, you don’t have to be perfect but that content needs to be almost perfect.
Building Trust with Your Readers
Like I said before, you don’t need to be perfect in life, but you need to be perfect with that post. Whether it’s one of your weekly blog posts or a sponsored post, you need to avoid all errors and build trust with your readers. You want to proofread and edit your content a dozen times. No lie, you will find errors after you finish typing because that seems to be how things work.
How do I proofread and edit my content? One, that’s a good question and two, I used to have a friend look things over for me but I realized how time-consuming that was on her part when she had other things to do and I began to look for alternatives. I’m not perfect and my grammar is good but it’s not great. I forget commas when they’re needed and add commas when they aren’t needed. I don’t struggle with grammar but I’m not perfect and I need the help. That’s when Grammarly popped up — I’ve been using Grammarly for 6+ months and I love it. I trust it to help me with my proofing. I used to type my content in Microsoft Word before I signed up for Grammarly and from there I would send it out, tons of time somewhat wasted because the Microsoft Word spell check is not all that.
At the time of my Grammarly discovery, I was trying to keep things correct and structured on brand pages at my job. Grammarly was to catch any errors that might be sent out on social media channels at my job. There was no way I was going to let errors go out on brand channels, absolutely no way. From there, I began to use it with my blog and cut the editing time in half. So initially, I started out with the Chrome Extension and it’s legitimately an extension of my internet platform which means that it is super easy to access. Not only is it easy to access but as soon as I stop typing, it starts calculating all the errors that are in the copy and helps a girl out.
Trust me when I say, you won’t regret a Grammarly membership.
How Can Grammarly Help You?
Grammarly can help you improve your writing and quickly pick up on your errors. Grammarly works as you work and what more can you ask for? The spelling errors that you are missing aren’t being lost anymore. The comma misplacement is being fixed. You can go to the app which I recently downloaded or you can install the extension to your internet platform. Hey, go for both if that’s what floats your boat.
You know that moment when you think you have this great tweet and you press send only to realize that there’s an error? Grammarly will catch that. No more tweets that are missing a word or say ‘his’ instead of ‘this’ which I’m personally a victim of.
What does Grammarly have to offer? It eliminates grammar mistakes, checks your writing for plagiarism, improves your writing, and helps you with word choice and style. It’s doing A LOT for you.
Not going to lie, I wish I had this option when I was writing all those papers in college because it would have helped me out. This option is helping you out, and it’s easy to use. There’s no need to copy and paste because as you are typing, Grammarly is checking. You don’t have to scroll over to a review table and click ‘Spelling and Grammar,’ no shade to Microsoft Word but Grammarly is more helpful in my book. Then again, Grammarly is overly smart and just another positive thing that technology has brought into my life.
It’s accessible to help you with e-mails, blog post, college papers, posting a comment (Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, etc.), and so much more. Whatever you do, Grammarly is there to help you improve your writing. There’s no more worrying about sending out the wrong tweet or having a sentence that makes absolutely no sense in a paper. Don’t suffer like me if you don’t have to.
You can go the free route and have access to the spellcheck and alerts for other critical issues. Grammarly also offers monthly plans if you want to invest and get access to the severe problems. I can go on and on but you should test Grammarly out for yourself and see what it’s all about. You’ll love it, trust me. Especially if you aren’t a Grammar genius.
Have you looked into Grammarly? What’s your number one grammar issue?
I struggle a lot with that. Specially because english is not my first language. My boyfriend helps me with that. But I’ve been thinking about investing in Grammarly too. It looks like it’s really helpful.
xx, Melissa
https://elephantontheroad.com
I’ve been using Grammarly and LOVE it. I haven’t bought the premium version yet, but have been thinking about going through with it as I’m only using the free version now. The advanced fixes is something I’m definitely interested in.
I love grammarly! Got in free in college and never stopped using it! Great tips!
I am the worst for grammar AND spelling. This might be useful. I do check my posts but I always miss something!
Grammarly is the best! I’ve been procrastinating on adding it to my new device and your article reminded me to take care of that tonight!
Grammar really matters to a lot of people. Poor grammar affects the way people perceive you.
I just heard about this the other day! Grammer is so key, anything that helps is awesome!
It’s so helpful and a key to all my posts. Grammar is so important!
True! Grammar and creating content is really important. Thanks for reminding me!
http://www.clairebearblogs.com
Thanks for reading! It’s definitely been something that I’m working on.
As we aren’t native English, Grammarly has proved us being a good tool during writing! 😀
Isn’t it great? I love this tool so much.
Grammarly! I had not heard of this but I love the hway concept. I wish I would have had something like this in college, too. I use a thresaurus a lot when editing. I find myself getting repetitive with words.
I promise it’s one of the best things out there. It just fixed a word from well to good for me. It’s very helpful for proofing.
I have been using Grammarly for over a year and it has drastically changed my writing!
Laila from Townhouse Palette