Spell-checkers eh? Gotta love ‘em, gotta hate ‘em.

Whatever you write, they improve the presentation of your copy. Even if you’re the world’s best speller, they can help you spot those invisible typos.

But spell-checkers also have a habit or garbling up your text and creating errors of their own. Take this example from a web page I was reading this morning - a fun article on real-life spy gadgets.

The post, ‘Top 10 Barely-Legal Gadgets for the Modern Spy’, includes information on a computer surveillance gismo (or is that gizmo? My spell-checker doesn’t seem to know). The blog post says:

When it has been recording a good deal of time you can take it out and plug it into your own computer enter the password and Viola!

Viola? What’s a member of the violin family go to do with a computer surveillance device? How’s it going to help?

Ah…. voilà! ‘There it is.’ But ‘voilà’ is French, so the spell-checker won’t like it.

This kind of mistake is stunningly easy to make and we all do it. But it’s a good reminder of the need to take care with spell-checkers. They’re useful, but they need human supervision.

(Note for purists: ‘voilà’ should of course have an accent on the ‘a’, which I’ve attempted to reproduce in the post. I don’t often publish French on the web, so I’m not sure how it will appear on different systems and browsers. Heck, my mac can’t seem to agree with the rest of the computer world on the difference between an apostrophe and a question mark, so French accents are dangerous territory as far as I’m concerned. If it’s been garbled on your browser, blame the gremlins.)

Experienced professional writers won’t need to read this post. All the advice here will be second nature to them.

However, if you’re new to publishing your writing, these simple tips could help you look less like an amateur and more like a pro.

Especially number one. And five. And six. But seven is the most important.

1. Never use exclamation marks
Don’t use them. Just never use them. Using an exclamation mark makes you look like an amateur (unless you can get away with doing it ‘ironically,’ which is mighty tricky). Using more than one exclamation mark at time makes you look like a complete and utter idiot. Don’t do it!!!!

2. Don’t publish or send straight away
Always try to review or edit what you’ve written at a different time, when you are in a different mood. How does it sound now?

3. Break out of formal structure
At school and college people learn to structure essays with introductions and conclusions. There’s nothing wrong with this but there are lots of other ways to structure a piece of writing (including the inverted triangle used in journalism). However, even if you do stick to the introduction-argument-conclusion structure, you don’t have to be so lame as to highlight it in your subheads. Honestly, I have received articles for inclusion in a business magazine where the author had included ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusion’ as sub-headlines. What’s wrong with that? It’s boring and unimaginative, that’s what.

4. Use short words
Don’t try to sound clever by using long words for the sake of it. It actually has the opposite effect.

5. Edit
Cut out as much as possible, eliminating redundant words. Always edit your work as thoroughly as time allows.

6. Be clear
Remember that it is your job, as the writer, to communicate effectively. If the reader doesn’t get it, it’s your fault.

7. Say something interesting
Presenting a balanced point of view is all well and good - but it gets dull after a while. Be passionate about your subject. Be audacious. Project your personality.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider helping me promote it through whatever social media you use (Digg, StumbleUpon etc). Or link to it from your own blog. Or make a comment. Or tell people about it, in person or by email. Thanks for your help.

Grammar fascists are a bore it’s true. But bad grammar makes you look foolish. That’s fine if you’re 17, but if you’re writing and publishing a blog, e-book or anything else for that matter, basic good grammar will create a much better impression.

One of the most common mistakes I see on the web is the use of ‘your’ when the writer means ‘you’re’. It’s a real howler. But I’ve seen it from people who write really well, clearly, with virtually no other grammar faults. They’re clearly well educated and smart people but they seem to have a blind spot here.

There’s obviously some confusion out there, but the difference between the two is really quite simple to grasp.

‘Your’ is possessive: my apple, your apple, their apple, our apple.

You’re is the shortened form of ‘you are’: I am blogging, you are blogging, they are blogging, we are blogging.

This becomes: I’m blogging, you’re blogging, they’re blogging, we’re blogging.