Common Mistakes Made by Internet Article Writers

In the old days prior to the Internet, an article would have to meet a certain level of quality in order to be published. Unfortunately, today, someone could post an article online that is of very poor quality and still have it be seen by a great number of people online. Since that is the case, I have seen a number of mistakes that have become common in online articles. I can list a few of them here so that some of you new internet article writers out there could avoid making them.

One mistake that is often made that I am even still guilty of at times, is not proofreading carefully enough. Sometimes we rush to post an article and we don't stop to really give the article a good look over prior to posting. I don't know how many times I didn't notice a mistake until after I posted the article online. Then I have to edit it and post it again. So carefully proofread before you post.

There are a few common grammar mistakes that I see quite often. Someone will say more then instead of the correct more than. Remember, 6 is more than 5. It's one thing to see someone do that in a Facebook or social networking post but it is another thing entirely when someone who writes articles does that. As an article writer, you are expected to have better writing abilities than the average person posting something on a social networking site.

Another problem I see is a poorly written or incoherent sentence. One that uses certain words out of context because the writer really doesn't know the true definition of the word he or she is using. When in doubt, look it up. Often, when you look it up on a grammar website, you will see it used in its proper context within a sentence, as an example.

If you have any doubts as to whether or not you are using proper grammar, find another way of saying it. Say it in a way where you will know for certain that your grammar is correct. I do that all of the time when I have doubts.

There are a number of words I will see that some writers get confused with one another. There, they're and their is one example. Sure they may sound the same but they each have their own meaning. They're going to give you a problem there if you don't know their true meaning.

Then there is two, too and to. Two and two make four but three and one do too. But don't let me tell you what to do.

Sometimes some writers will have overly long paragraphs. The general rule regarding them is to separate each paragraph by specific points or subjects. After a point is made, move on to the next paragraph. I have seen some writers have paragraphs as long as half a page. That's a bit much.

Capitalization in titles is another thing many people struggle with. Whenever you have any doubts, you could look up the rules for capitalization of titles on the Internet. Hey, every now and then I get confused myself and I look it up real quick. Just a quick internet search will give me the answer I need.

You may have noticed how I started a new paragraph each time I changed to a different point. That's how paragraphs should work. Once you sum up the idea, you move on to the next paragraph instead of having one long paragraph that seems to go on forever.

Repeating an idea or point over and over again creates a certain level of monotony within an article. Some article writers will do that just to fill space and make an article longer. They might think that if they word it slightly different a few paragraphs down, nobody will notice that they are repeating themselves. It's sort of a way of cheating. It's a way of making an article longer than it would otherwise be.

If you are writing an article in a program that has spellcheck, you will still have to proofread. Certain mistakes will not be caught with spellcheck. You may accidentally use the word to when you should have used too. You might have just not hit the key hard enough when you went to type the second O. Since to is a legitimate word, spellcheck will not catch it. So don't rely solely upon spellcheck to catch all of your mistakes. Proofread, proofread, proofread.

You may even want to have a friend look over some of your work. Sometimes someone else might catch a mistake we will overlook. A friend might also offer some other tips and ideas as well. When you first start writing articles, it's not a bad idea to ask the opinion of someone you know. Just try not to let your feelings get hurt too much if their criticisms appear to be overly critical.

There are some really cheap books on grammar that you could purchase. I bought one on Amazon a while ago myself and I still reference it every now and then. There are plenty of free resources online as well that you could reference. You really don't even have to have a book anymore on the subject of grammar. You could run a search online to get the answers to most questions you might have.

I've covered some of the most common mistakes in this article but obviously there are countless more that could be made by someone new in the online article writing field. There is money to be made. no doubt. But the people who are making the money writing online articles are the ones that can write a coherent sentence and know the basic rules of grammar. If you want to make money doing it yourself, then you will need to know those things as well.