CC1H01N1 – Study Skills for Computing/Multimedia

Week 2 – Tutorial – Blog Writing

Agenda

• What is a Blog?• How to Write An Effective And Compelling Blog• Formatting Guidelines• Tips to improve your blog• Summary

What is a blog?

• It is a part of our social networking community • It is a type of website, usually maintained by an

individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

How to write an effective and compelling blog

• Content • Write about what you know • The idea is establish your organization, yourself and your

personal brand• Choose pints that are current and readers are interested in • Try to make information shared in your blogs as compelling to

visitors as possible

How to write an effective and compelling blog

• Content • Keep it to 500 words or less (this is not a doctorial thesis) • Which implies that the content is keep at a high level and is,

for lack of a better word, “dumbed down” • Keep it fun • Talk to your reader as if they were sitting in the room with you

and you were having a conversation • When appropriate, include links to other references,

related articles, web sites, and media

How to write an effective and compelling blog

• Visuals • Incorporate images that are relevant to the content • This keeps the reader from feeling overwhelmed when they

visit the page • Have information pertaining to the author • A picture • Short biography • Contact information

• Has a series of definable categories that relate to its content

Formatting Guidelines

• Title • Should clearly articulate the topic of the blog • Usually will ask a question, provide a list or give guidance

on how to do something • Examples: • My freshman year • How to increase your effectiveness in studies. • Can I Deduct That?

Formatting Guidelines

• Opening Paragraph• Should be an attention grabber • It shows if the blog is worth reading at all • Should be articulated in less than five sentences.

Formatting Guidelines

• Body • Should follow the format of your title. So if we are talking

about the 5 Most Effective Strategies for studies, list them, give an example of why it is a good strategy and tell your reader how to implement it

• Again, keep it high level

Formatting Guidelines

• Closing paragraph or summary • Summarizes the main points of the blog • Closes in three sentences or less.

Tips to Improve Your Blogs

Things to consider

1. Inspirational Chaos2. Diverse Ideas3. Grammar and all the other stuff4. English

1. Inspirational Chaos

• Just typing more does not mean its ok• Typing away with no end in sight like ‘verbal/written

diarrhoea’• Editing your work shapes things up• Helps thoughts come together

2. Diverse Ideas

• People get lost in their sentences or words• Does it make sense• People may capture your writing differently

3. Grammar and all that other stuff

• Editing as you write never works out• Take time to edit• Make sure you don’t miss one or two words when

editing• Spell check

4. English

• Very important factor in one’s work• Even if you consider yourself fluent in English – edit your

work• Mistakes can be committed by anyone

7 Simple Tips

1. Take a breather after writing

• First mistake is to edit straight away• Hard to pick up errors right away• Can add new ideas next time

2. Divide and Conquer

1. Content editing2. Structure editing3. Grammar editing

3. Less is more

• When it comes to words – less really is more.• Don’t use complicated jargon• Don’t try to use the same sentences in different forms• Stop overusing specific words. For e.g. As, Therefore etc.

4. Don’t trust Spell-check

• Tools don’t understand your writing• Difficult to grasp variations of sentences or word usage

5. Read at random

• Choose a random paragraph and edit• Why? – Stops you from reading in “auto-pilot”• Stops from knowing you from what’s coming next.

6. Don’t overdo it

• Know when you have had enough.• If you find rewriting the same sentence over and over

again – that’s it.

7. Learn from your mistakes

• Always analyse what you have done wrong • Practice to get to your goal writing style

Summary

– Remember• Write about what you know• Keep it simple• Engage your readers by offering relevant and simple

to understand topics

“ Write Drunk; edit sober” – Ernest Hemingway

References

• ORBA (2011) Guidelines for Writing an Effective Blog [online] Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/frankemc/blog-writing-6618356 (Accessed on 28th October 2012)

• Contreras, N. (2012) 7 Editing Tips to Improve your Blog-Writing Skills [Online] Available from: http://socialmediatoday.com/ndcv/862641/7-editing-tips-improve-your-blog-writing-skills (Accessed on 28th October 2012)