1) The Unknown Audience
Whether you've been writing for years, or you're just starting out, you must consider your audience. Having an audience in mind gives you a target to shoot for. It brings clarity to your thought process. After all, it's the constraints and limitations, not freedoms, that gives structure for your creativity. Without an audience in mind, it's very hard to stay on track and write a coherent article. Even if "no one" reads your article, you'd still need to consider your intended audience, for your own sake. If you're experimenting with the direction you want to take your blog, why not write one post for one audience and another post for another audience? The important thing is that for each article, you have the audience in mind while you're writing.
2) Not Reading before Posting
After writing an article, read it. Every word. You won't be able to catch all your mistakes, but the vast majority of simple mistakes can be avoided by a good-old-fashioned read through. If you don't trust yourself to catch mistakes in your writing, ask a trusted friend to read the article through once. To avoid over burdening them (after all, they have their own life to live), ask specifically for help with "typos or glaring mistakes." Make sure you limit what you need from them, don't ask them to re-write the article for you. Also, don't give them a "rough draft." Give them what you would have posted, but just before you clicked "publish" decided you wanted a second pair of eyes to review.
3) Over Generalization
When writing an article about a controversial subject like sexuality, politics or religion that has a lot of passionate perspectives, it's important to focus on specifics. For instance, if you say something like "Republicans think..." or "Democrats think..." you'll instantly be plagued with accusations of "that's a straw man" or "I'm a Republican, and I don't think that." The next thing you know, everyone's talking about whether or not YOU are reliable instead of discussing the actual subject matter of the article. The way to avoid this is to simply be specific. Instead of writing "Republicans think..." be specific. How about "John Boehner said..." and then use an actual quote from Boehner. Instead of "Democrats believe..." be specific. Find an actual quote that represents the issue you want to communicate, like "Obama said...". Assuming you've chosen a quote that accurately represents the person's position, this will quickly give you a factual basis for your article, and a foundation to start a much more beneficial discussion about the issue you're bringing up.
2) Not Reading before Posting
After writing an article, read it. Every word. You won't be able to catch all your mistakes, but the vast majority of simple mistakes can be avoided by a good-old-fashioned read through. If you don't trust yourself to catch mistakes in your writing, ask a trusted friend to read the article through once. To avoid over burdening them (after all, they have their own life to live), ask specifically for help with "typos or glaring mistakes." Make sure you limit what you need from them, don't ask them to re-write the article for you. Also, don't give them a "rough draft." Give them what you would have posted, but just before you clicked "publish" decided you wanted a second pair of eyes to review.
3) Over Generalization
When writing an article about a controversial subject like sexuality, politics or religion that has a lot of passionate perspectives, it's important to focus on specifics. For instance, if you say something like "Republicans think..." or "Democrats think..." you'll instantly be plagued with accusations of "that's a straw man" or "I'm a Republican, and I don't think that." The next thing you know, everyone's talking about whether or not YOU are reliable instead of discussing the actual subject matter of the article. The way to avoid this is to simply be specific. Instead of writing "Republicans think..." be specific. How about "John Boehner said..." and then use an actual quote from Boehner. Instead of "Democrats believe..." be specific. Find an actual quote that represents the issue you want to communicate, like "Obama said...". Assuming you've chosen a quote that accurately represents the person's position, this will quickly give you a factual basis for your article, and a foundation to start a much more beneficial discussion about the issue you're bringing up.
