BLOGGING WITH BETTER ENGLISH

After blogging for some time, I have noticed that the usage of the British English has been manipulated into many different forms such as the Amglish (American English), Manglish (Malaysian English), Singlish (Singapore English) or even Inglish (Indonesian English). I would not say it is wrong to use such languages or dialects while blogging, as long as the messages sent across can be easily understood by the readers or certain terms are well defined. The best written article is in short and simple English.

Since Malaysia is a multi-racial country, the 3 main languages that its bloggers use are English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia. Majority of the blogs in this blogosphere uses English as the main language, thus I noticed that a lot of our local bloggers have problems in writing as well as in expressing themselves using the correct English. I found a few good online dictionaries but the below 3 links are the easiest to use for beginners and advance users. I hope that these dictionaries can help you to blog better. You can bookmark these as your favourites in your internet browsers.

- Merriam-Webster Online English Dictionary

- English-Chinese-English Online Dictionary

- English-Bahasa Malaysia-English Online Dictionary

Let’s start with the proper way of understanding English better with these 8 basic terms.

NOUN – a name of a person, thing, place, animal, etc
E.g. John, toy, Malaysia, cat

PRONOUN – a word that is use in place of a noun
E.g. I, we you, they, he, she, it, etc

ADJECTIVE – a word that is use in describing a noun
E.g. blue, smart, old, bad, tall, angry, etc

VERB – a word that expresses actions or a state of being
E.g. go, play, sing, come, is, am, are, is, was, were, etc

ADVERB – a word that answers to questions beginning with how, what, when and modifies verbs, adjectives and other adverbs
E.g. quickly, cleverly, fairly, early, etc

PREPOSITION – a word placed before a noun or pronoun to show its relation to another word
E.g. to, from, in, for, under, over, etc

CONJUNCTION – a word that connects other word, sentences or clauses
E.g. and, or, but, through, thus, etc

INTERJECTION – a word or phrase used in exclamation
E.g. Oh! Good! Hey!

Now that you have understood the 8 basic terms, let’s look at some of the things to avoid while writing a blog.

DO NOT WRITE DIRECTLY INTO THE POSTING AREA
You will have a hard time rewriting your blog if you have post it and got a server/program error. So make a backup by writing your blog in MSO WORD first. Run a spell/grammar to proofread your articles to avoid unnecessary spelling and grammatical errors. Now you can copy and paste your article into the blog post

DO NOT SIMPLY USE SINGULAR OR PLURALS
E.g. My mothers is going to the market. It makes people think that you have two mothers. Even if it is true, the verb should be written as “are”.

DO NOT MISUSE THE COMMAS, SEMICOLON AND EXCLAMATION
E.g. Avoid overusing commas, that are not necessary, and do not overuse exclamation marks!!! Do you get it??? Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is supposed to be; and never where it is not.

DO NOT LEAVE A SENTENCE HANGING IN THE AIR
E.g. This sentence no verb. This is not a complete sentence but merely a subordinate clause.

DO NOT START A SENTENCE WITH A CONJUNCTION
E.g. And I think he has lost his way coming here. But I guessed he should have called us to tell us where he is now.

DO NOT MISPLACE THE APOSTROPHE
Apply the apostrophe at “it's” proper place and omit it when “its” not needed. The right usage should be: Apply the apostrophe at “its” proper place and omit it when “it’s” not needed.

DO NOT USE LONG WORD WITH MANY SYLLABLES
E.g. How could I understand you when you use sesquipedalian words?
Definition:
sesquipedalian: having many syllables

DO NOT USE THE HYPHENS WRONGLY
Make sure you hyphenate a word properly.
E.g. relocation and not re-location, preparation and not pre-paration, pre-perforated and not preperforated, pre-gather and not pregather.

DO NOT BEAT AROUND THE BUSH
Articles should be simplified as readers do not like to read too many words. Use the K.I.S.S. concept, i.e. Keep It Short and Simple.
E.g. It has come to our considered attention that in a large majority of cases, far too many people use a great deal more words than is absolutely necessary when engaged in the practice of writing sentences.

DO NOT LEAVE THE READER GUESSING
Make sure you have the flow while writing. Set paragraphs for each point you have. Be systematic about how you want to present your points. Continuity of thought, logical development and smooth transitions are important. Never leave the reader guessing over what you have in your mind.

DO NOT REPEAT ON THE SAME TOPIC
Readers get bored after reading your article if you were to say the same thing all over again. Do not say more than once. It's redundant and repetitious.

DO NOT USE CONTRADICTIONS AND DOUBLE NEGATIVES
E.g.
1. In a formal writing, don't use contractions. “Don’t” should be replaced with “Do not”.

2. There can never be no man working for such a stingy boss. Negative plus negative becomes positive. It should read as: There can never be anyone working for such a stingy boss.

DO NOT USE BOMBASTIC OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Do not use languages/dialects that majority of the readers will not understand. Even if you do, please state clearly what it means.
E.g.
1. Avoid colloquial stuff or trendy locutions that sound flaky and confusing.
Definitions:
colloquial: informal conversation; slang
locution: a particular form of expression

2. The de facto use of foreign phrases vis-a-vis the English in your written tete-a-tetes makes the sentence rather confusing and harder to understand.
Definitions:
de facto: actual,
vis-à-vis: in relation to
tete-a-tetes: conversations