Just Because You Enjoy Writing Does Not Mean That You're Good At It.

So this may seen like an extremely, over-the-top cocky title for a hub, but I am not necessarily claiming to be the best writer on hubpages. My point is that as a writer, if you are not trying to improve your writing skills, then you really have no business writing for public purposes. No reader wants to be subjected to constant misspellings and idiotic grammatical errors. And I don't know about you, but when I am reading I tend to get extremely annoyed with an overabundance of run-on and fragmented sentences.

It seems that lately more and more people have decided to write blogs and content pages on the Internet. Unfortunately, I would estimate that only a good 55% of these writers actually provide readers with decent content...free of irritating misspellings and careless, fragmented sentences. You've seen it...I've seen it. The never-ending, painful string of useless and boring content...always sprinkled with "your" instead of the correct "you're" (for sentences that include the use of you are ). If you are reading this hub, and you know that you are prone to these tiny mistakes within your writing, please read on to discover some simple ways of idiot-proofing your hubs or blogs.

And remember, if you can't figure out the writing thing, there's always room at Taco Bell.

Let me give yu some eggzamples of misspellings...exackly. Some are flat-out stupid, but most misspellings can be chalked up to carelessness. I have two words for you - spell-checker. Or is that one word? Either way, hubpages offers the Toggle Spellchecker. That's right. It's located right above the text box, in the middle of the editing toolbar. The icon has a check mark and a little ABC, so use it!

Another quick way to spell-check your work is to copy and paste your hub's text into Microsoft Word and use the spell-checker located in the program. Usually Word's spell-checker is dead- on with its corrections; however, you do have to be careful that it doesn't auto-correct a word. Sometimes it will change words into something that it thinks they should be, but not necessarily what you originally intended the word to be. So do you want to be triple-sure that everything is spelled correctly and to your desire? Review your hub's text before publishing it...and then review it again! It's called editing; give it a shot sometime. The overall improvement of your hubs could rely on a little spell-checking.

I am not sure if every reader is this way, but I will admit to you that if I begin reading a hub and I see two or more misspellings in the first couple of paragraphs...I don't read it! The content of the hub could be extraordinarily interesting, but I will never know because the misspellings annoy me so badly! Don't let this hub be your hub...don't deter potential readers with lazy misspellings.

Another great way to spell-check your hubs is to ask a person who is knowledgeable in English and writing to edit your hubs before you publish them. I actually have a co-worker who corrected some of my misspellings just recently, and I was more than thankful to him for doing so. By correcting some of the misspellings in my hub, he unknowingly turned himself into my future editor!

What is grammar? Why is it important to have a decent sense of grammar? Well, according to Wikipedia (which we all know is the most reliable source on the Internet), grammar is defined as the set of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. In layman's terms, using proper grammar techniques means that your sentences are structured well. If you were a whiz in English class throughout high school and college, you may have an educated ability to structure your sentences properly; however, many of us still need refresher courses in the area of grammar.

Probably the easiest way to review your unpublished hubs is to run the text through an online grammar-checker. I have posted a few websites in the links below this hub; however, in my personal experience, I have found that www.paperrater.com is the most efficient, free grammar tool on the Internet, today (it also features a plagiarism detection tool and even a word choice checker!). Another way to check your grammar, as previously mentioned, employ your own personal editor to give you the lowdown! Obviously you will want to choose someone who really has a well-rounded grasp of the English language and writing skills.

Punctuation can be categorized right along with grammar. No, I am not talking about being on time, people. The Freedictionary.com defines punctuation as the use of standard marks and signs in writing and printing to separate words into sentences, clauses, and phrases, in order to clarify meaning. Basically, I am talking about using periods, commas, and semi-colons in the appropriate manner. For instance:

My dog was stranded outside in the rain today however, he did have the shelter of his doghouse available.

Do you notice that a certain punctuation mark is missing from this sentence? Well, the semi-colon is missing. The sentence above should be written like this:

My dog was stranded outside in the rain today; however, he did have the shelter of his doghouse available.

It took me years to learn where to correctly place the semi-colon when using words like "however" or "moreover" in a sentence. This seems like a simple punctuation skill; however, it takes some getting used to, friends! To brush up on some basic punctuation rules, you can visit http://www2.gsu.edu/~accerl/punctuation/PU.html. This lesson covers the important and correct use of commas, as well as the use of semi-colons, apostrophes, and quotation marks. More punctuation lessons are sprinkled all over the Internet; moreover, every writer should brush up on his/her punctuation knowledge.

Simple sentences can be turned into very interesting sentences with just the exchange of words. A very speedy way of researching a worthier word is to go to www.thesaurus.com and simply type in the word that you would like to exchange. As an example:

Just then, Billy dropped his change onto the ground and ran to the store.

In this sentence, there are a few words that we could replace to make the sentence really pop at the reader. I went to my online thesaurus and searched for substitute words for dropped, change, and ran. Synonyms of the word dropped included: dumped, ducked, loosened, abandoned, descended, and released. Synonyms of the word change included: chicken money, pin money, coins, pocket money, and silver. Synonyms of the word ran included: departed, escaped, scrambled, barrelled, skedaddled, spurted, skipped, and scampered. As you can plainly see, there are more suitable and intriguing words to be used in place of simple, boring ones.

Using the replacement words from the thesaurus, my revised sentence will go something like this:

Just then, Billy dumped his pocket money onto the ground and barrelled to the store.

How much more intriguing is this sentence, when compared to its original form? The sentence seems to literally pop out at the reader and grab interest in a way that the original did not. It took me less than five minutes to pinpoint a more appealing vocabulary for the example sentence. Use these free online tools to aid in your writing; I promise you will not regret it.

At last we approach the subject of topics. How do you choose an interesting and useful topic? My first tip is to pick a topic that is of interest to you. Other hubpage elite members preach this advice, so why not take their advice? I really get aggravated when I see hubbers whose topics seem to be so widely spread, that they may not even be taking pride in their writing. Some people are on hubpages simply to make some extra dough, and I believe that these writers can be pointed with ease. You know what I'm talking about...those hubbers that have a widespread amount of hubs involving boring merchandise (such as certain brands of remote controls) and then spanning to vintage clothing (however, their knowledge of vintage clothing is totally lacking of any substance).

The hubs that I truly enjoy reading are the hubs that are written by hubbers who truly enjoyed writing them. A few of my favorite hubbers have a variety of topics that they choose to write about; however, overall their hubs follow a pattern of some sort. Why is there a pattern? Because they choose topics that are relative to their hobbies and interests. If you do not find passion in what you are writing about, I truly believe that what you are writing will not be nearly as interesting to the reader. Creativity and excellence only comes from a true sense of passion.

Once you have chosen an appropriate topic, you are set to go. Well, not exactly. A little bit of research should be performed before you dive right into the drafting phase of your hub. Search hubpages for other hubs on your topic. This will assist you in creating a Title to your hub that will fit your content but be different from the other hubs previously published on the topic. The last thing you want to do is write a hub with the exact same title as the previous hub. Your potential for hub views may decrease simply because there is another hub with the same title that may have more content or may be posted before your hub. Doing even more research by googling your topic can be just as effective for the amount of views of your hub. Search for the very best terms to include in your title and in your hub's opening sentences.

The key to writing success is to do your homework. Yes, I know that no one really loves doing homework, but to improve a skill you must practice. Practice your spelling, grammar and punctuation. Practice using more fitting vocabulary, and by all means, you must do your research!