Any piece of written content is useless and pointless unless it is able to cohesively express itself. While the creative and emotional aspects cannot be undermined, your content can’t become articulate and eloquent unless it follows the basic rules and norms, which essentially lays the foundation of a well written and high-quality content. These basic rules and norms are often referred as writing mechanics.
If you’re a content writer or offers off-page SEO service or provides any kind of writing service then having adequate knowledge of writing mechanics is immensely critical. In this latest blog post, you’ll find lot of worthy and important information about this topic.
What is Writing Mechanics?
Writing mechanics essentially deals with the technical aspects of writing including spelling, punctuation, capitalization and other basic technical elements. Think about it. Can any written content qualify as a high-quality content if it has too many spelling and grammatical errors. No reader will ever engage with such a content that doesn’t even follow the basic writing norms. Any chances of such content striking a chord or engagement with its target readers stands completely nullified. This is why we’d said in the introductory paragraph that writing mechanics lays the basic foundation of a good content.
Important elements of Writing mechanics.
Spelling: Spelling ought to be the first building block of a good content and hence it ranks at top of this list. Spelling refers to the correct and precise arrangement of letters to form a word. Without accurate and correct spelling, your content simply cannot express itself with clarity and cohesiveness.
Example:
- Sentence with misspelling: Rita was cying aftar she fond that her boyfrnd was chaating on her.
- Sentence with correct spelling: Rita was crying after she found that her boyfriend was cheating on her.
As you can clearly make out from the above example the lack of coherence and clarity in the first sentence due to inaccurate spellings.
Therefore, always make sure that you’re using correct spellings throughout your content.
Punctuation: Correct punctuation plays a very important role not only in eradicating grammatical errors but also in clarifying the meaning and structure of the written text. It essentially refers to the use of symbols such as commas, periods, exclamation marks and other types of signs in sentences. These symbols and signs help in separating sentences and clauses as well as indicating the ‘pauses and emphasis wherever required.
Popular Punctuations:
Here is the list of the most popular punctuations and its purpose
- Full stop (.): It is used to end a sentence.
- Comma (,): It is used to separate phrases and independent clauses.
- Semicolon (;): Often used to separate two independent clauses that are closely and contextually related to each other.
- Colon (:) Usuallyused to precede a list of items, indicating that additional and further information is about to follow.
- Question mark (?): Used often at end of the sentence primarily to indicate a direct question.
- Exclamation point: (!): Chiefly used to indicate a strong emotion or emphasis.
- Apostrophe (‘): It is mainly used to indicate possession.
- Quotation mark: Used to enclose direct quotations, titles or phrases/text that carry a subtext.
Grammar: Grammar happens to be one of the most important pillars of any language or any written text. It basically deals with structure and rules about how words are combined to form a cohesive and meaningful sentence.
Many people often use grammar and punctations interchangeably. However, even though both are closely related but both are not same.
Abbreviation: Abbreviation is a shorten form of a word or phrase. It is also known as acronym. It can greatly help in saving time and space. However, you should abbreviation only when it is required.
Examples of popular abbreviations:
- Dr. for doctor.
- Mr. for mister.
- Prof. for professor.
- E.g. for example.
- i.e. for ‘that is.’
Capitalization: It refers to the use of capital words (upper case) in a sentence. As a standard rules, the first letter of a firs word in a sentence is always capitalized. It is also used to make certain words including names of specific people, places or organizations stand out.
Essential Guidelines for improving your Writing Mechanics
Start writing: We all know that the practice makes man perfect and you need to practice writing as much as you can. The more you write, the more grip you will get on the important elements.
Inculcate the habit of reading: Regular reading will help in further reinforcing of correct rules and norms in your writing skillset and habit. Make sure to read couple of paragraphs from a well written material each day.
Leverage online tools: There are scores of online writing tools that can help you in finding out grammatical and spelling errors in your content. These tools can be Immensely useful for improving your writing mechanics and thereby improving the overall quality of your writing.
Here is the list of popular grammar correction & writing improvement tools
Conclusion
It is important to remember that writing mechanics forms the very backbone of a good and effective written communication. Any well-written content – whether it is a novel, short stories, blog posts or emails – rests firmly on the pillar of writing mechanics. It simply cannot be ignored or overlooked if you seriously want your target audience to engage with your content. Your creative idea won’t count for much unless you have good over all the important elements of writing mechanics. Therefore, diligently follow all the tips that we’ve shared so that you keep churning out high-quality content for your target readers.