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Essay on Good Writing - Spelling

I know most of you think you're good writers. This may well be true, but your websites do not reflect it. There is nothing people hate more than having to wade through poorly spelled, poorly written websites. As I am a grammar/spelling nazi (yes, I use that word deliberately to denote "VERY aka UBER STRICT"), I will be showing you how to make your writing better. If you use this outside of your websites, that would please me (and probably your teachers, professors, fans, etc.) as well.

Now, the first thing I will work on is spelling. There are quite a few tools that make your work a whole lot easier, if you knew where they were, and how to use them properly. The first is...you guessed it, the Internet aka the World Wide Web. There are so many online dictionaries, such as the ones from Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, and the Cambridge University Press online dictionary. Many online dictionaries also come with thesaurus applications as well, so there is no excuse for repeating the same things, over and over ad nauseam. If these ones don't have what you're looking for, all you need to do is use Google or any other online search engine.

Many word processing tools such as MS Word, Corel's Wordperfect, or Appleworks (for Mac users) also have built-in spell checkers. They are either found in the Tools menu, Options, or directly under 'Spell Check' in the tool bar. All one needs to do is play around a bit with whatever you use to edit your sites and I'm sure you'll find it in no time. They are there for a reason, and that is to check that your work is as accurately spelled as possible. Basically, there is very little reason NOT to use them, as they are so easy not only to find, but to use.

The other pet-peeve I have with regards to spelling is the tendency of many younger webmasters/mistresses to either write how they speak (for example: Liek, OMG, he is so cute, and I just HAD to make a cool site about him!!!eleventyone11!) or using 1337-speak. I can tell you right now, you may think it looks totally cool, but it does not. It makes you look like what you are, an amateur wannabe. If you're going to use known misspellings, for whatever reason, perhaps you might want to consider putting in a clause about it on your site, in order to avoid people ripping you apart over it.

Some people consider blogs an exception to this rule, but I don't. You could argue that perhaps personal blogs, where one is trying to express one's individuality, could be an outlet for such things, but I would think that's a very outside exception. If you are NOT writing a personal blog, for example, if you were blogging about politics or health care or things like that, then I feel that everyone would expect you to follow the normal rules of spelling and grammar.

If you want people to take you seriously as a proper web designer/master/mistress, then learn to apply proper rules of spelling, grammar and etiquette, which applies just as much (if not more) to the WWW as it does to regular life. This will allow your site to remain as relevant in several years' time as the day you wrote it without having to completely redesign/redevelop it each time.