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Time to tweak – update, update, update your site

Karen    Populating your site     editing, grammar, punctuation

Yes, tweak, not tweet!

So I promised the next post would be about editing your shitty first draft.

My secret to doing this is simple – read it outloud.

Once again, an old radio trick – which makes particular sense for radio copy, since it is written to be read out loud, but it applies to written text that will never be read out loud too.

When you have put that first draft down on paper, read it out to yourself and you will quickly see where the problems lie. I have yet to come across someone who can’t tell when something is grammatically incorrect as they read it out loud.

The key is that you insert the suitable grammatical tools, ie punctuation, in the places where you naturally stop for breath.

So if you pause, usually that’s the place for a comma. If you stop, and take a full breath – that is usually the place for a full stop. Trust me – this does work.

Don’t worry about any more fancy forms of punctuation at this point – if you can write something that flows as you read it aloud, then you are about 95% ahead of many who aim to put their thoughts on paper or a screen.

One tip though, make sure you are actually reading what you have written, not what you think you have written. If you are a visual type, it can be too easy to simply read out what you think the words are.

Then of course, you might like to run your words through the spell checker.

If you are not confident that spell check will pick up everything, get someone you trust to have a read before you publish your content. Getting two people to check it is even better.

Any questions? I would love to receive your thoughts or comments – just leave them down below.

The next post is about making a real connection through your written content.

Till then, happy creating

Karen

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4 Comments to “Time to tweak – update, update, update your site”

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  Mary Jane 03/08/2009 at 10:53 am

  A fine idea. Reading it back to yourself is a good way to catch what
  doesn’t work when writing..
  I am glad I can post photos and images on my blogs because I don’t always know what
  to write about. And lately I have been finding some interesting websites.
  So I post them for anyone who comes by in case someone else finds the fun in them.
  This is something that fills the void of not knowing what to write about.
  You are offering a sevice.
  Maybe I should make a blog that offers something useful.
  For me I think my blog is a way to keep myself motivated to make art
  and document my progress.
  Rather selfish and self serving I suppose. A journal of ‘my stuff’.
  I have discovered that taking part in group project online
  like Virtual Sketch Date and Illustration Friday is a great way to
  get like minded artists to my blog as long as I go to their blogs and comment.
  One can even get a counter to track visitors which is amazing.
  I tried it once but I cancelled it because it was a test run and
  I didn’t want to pay for it. And there was a glitch because of my posted videos.
  But I had a lot of hits going on which I would never have known about.
  The polite thing to do.
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  proseotalk 03/08/2009 at 3:40 pm

  thanks for your comment MJ. I think it is absolutely ok to be communicating with other artists through your blog – and the mutual visiting of blogs and commenting is really what it is all about. Building relationships online and sharing thoughts and support. It’s all good. And sharing your beautiful art is definitely a service!
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  Rarthaubark 18/09/2009 at 2:43 pm

  nice
• 

  proseotalk 18/09/2009 at 2:52 pm

  Thanks