And I also agree with the spirit behind point #1. I write for a large variety of different clients, and there is often a huge learning curve when it comes to writing content in a new subject area. As a professional, it’s my job to do the work of learning what I need to know. So I agree–Know what you write!

Speaking of journalism… You wrote a good op-ed zinger to create controversy and feedback! (You win! Here are the replies!) You advertised it nicely by juxtaposing “Honestly” and “to fool” in the same sentence.

You don’t have to be an expert to write about a subject; you have to be a writer. You can research quickly and efficiently to gain a comfortable grasp of your subject. Then write about it. If you are not sure of your facts and assertions, get your piece checked by an expert before publishing.

I’m very loose when it comes to following grammar rules. Sometimes doing it the “proper” way simply doesn’t seem to give the correct feeling to a sentence.

Juliet

When I was more active on Twitter, I sure learned how to speak as efficiently as possible. Abbreviating words for that is one thing, but writing a succint and direct sentence that grabs attention is another. Try to spend a day replying to any work emails like it’s a twitter feed, and you’ll get a lot of action items done!!!

As the world gets “closer” because of the internet, we also have an olbigation to make things easier to digest if we are trying to do international business or working with people who do not have strong English or technical language skills.

Rule of thumb: I always write tech like I’m writing to explain it to my grandmother. Conversation, but to the point, and avoiding too many inside references/slang.

Nice article, though. I enjoy Webworkerdaily.

Love, love, love, using contractions. Mostly because of the 140 character thingy that I resort to several times a day (better known as Twitter).

Thanks for the post!
@Ileane

I agree that writing regularly does help a lot and you get to a point where you can switch your style/s on and off depending on the subject matter.

However, I don’t think a couple of minor typos invalidate Darrell’s point, which is that getting your material out there is often better than sitting on it, endlessly revising.

“Revise, revise, revise” – I would perhaps change this to just “revise”. Excessive revision, as you point out, can certainly detract from the immediacy of the information and lead to ‘analysis paralysis’. But a good one-time-over proofreading can certainly help in catching glaring deficiencies. And I certainly wouldn’t hold the drivel that passes for Twitter up as a reason to pass up a good single-pass revision.

As for “write what you know”, I would have to disagree. Trying to pass for being knowledgeable in an area where you are not is only self-serving, providing the writer a means of sharing their ignorance with others. The real danger here is that you are often doing a disservice to your readers by providing them with bad information. I think this especially holds true in the arena of so-called “consumer advice”. In particular, having been involved in a wide variety of real estate practice for 30 years, it has been appalling to me to see some of the ill considered and downright wrong articles written by “journalists” about this subject. And someone who truly is knowledgeable in the field that you are writing about will see right through you. If you’re not knowledgeable about a certain subject, and still choose to write about it, then at least admit that fact to your audience. Any other approach is just downright deceptive and constitutes outright lying and cheating.