ESL Blogs

1. Use a Short, Catchy Title 

A good blog title is the first thing you need to capture a reader's interest. Your blog title does not need to be a complete sentence. It does need to be spelled and formatted properly. Use a capital letter for the first letter in every important word in your title. If you aren't sure which words to capitalize, use a capital letter to start each word in your title. Do NOT type ALL IN CAPS in your blog or title (unless it's one word like NOT). This is like yelling in English.

2.  Use Paragraphs

I have said this before, and I will say this again, use paragraphs in your blog posts. I almost always read to the end of a blog post if it is written in nice, neat paragraphs, don't you? Don't make your paragraphs too long. Readers will skip over your writing if you write too much. Try to focus on one topic in each paragraph. 

3. Read Out Loud Before Publishing

When you finish your post, save it as a draft. Hours or even a day later, read your post out loud to yourself. You will be much more likely to catch your errors and typos if you read your post out loud. 

4. Check Spelling and Punctuation

Use a dictionary to check your spelling before you publish. Check your punctuation and spacing, too. Never place a space before a comma or period/full stop. Place one space after your punctuation. You may think I'm being picky, but good formatting makes a huge difference to your reader. I would rather read a low-level post with proper punctuation and spacing than an advanced-level post that is poorly formatted.

5. Make a Few Tweaks

Your first draft does not have to be your final draft. Do you have some new ideas that are better than your original ones? Make a few minor changes (tweaks) to the content as you correct any grammatical or spelling errors. Cut anything that is not important.

6. Invite Interaction 

A blog is meant to be a communicative form of writing. Invite your readers to respond to your writing. Why not end with a question or challenge? Use the tag #corrections as an invitation to teachers and advanced learners to offer English tips. If you edit your blog based on a grammatical correction, you can use a different colour font to show where you've made changes. This will help your readers learn too.

7. Respond to Comments 

When someone takes the time to leave a comment, acknowledge them by writing a reply. If a bunch of readers leave a similar comment or you get too many comments, it's okay to leave a group reply. Can you keep the conversation going for days, weeks, or even months? 

This post belongs to our June Writing Challenge: Bloggers Unite. Thanks to all who have participated so far. Please help us meet our goal! Start by blogging about something blog related!