How to Blog if you Suck at Grammar

You can still blog if you suck at grammar. There are resources to help those of us who dozed through their honors English class.

Trust me, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine becoming any type of writer.

I started this blog on a whim, and it wasn’t to write.

After almost seven years of blogging, I still don’t consider myself a writer.

I mean, I guess some content bloggers could be considered writers but are they?

Some bloggers end up writing books, so they are legit writers. I don’t know.

My point is, if you suck at grammar but yearn to own a blog, there’s no reason to kill your dreams.

Having said all that, you do have to know how to write to some extent.

The rules are different with blogging in that many suggest to type “as you would talk,” but grammar does matter, too.

I use the Yoast plugin to help with SEO, and they make suggestions on readability.

Don’t beat me up here, but I have read articles that suggest that Google considers grammar while ranking.

I have also read articles that say that’s not true.

I happen to have an obsession with my little Yoast button being green, so I aim to please them.

2019 update: I no longer use Yoast because I’m trying to use as few plugins as possible.

I have many problem areas when it comes to grammar. The biggest one being that I have no comma intuition.

Where I think I should have a comma is usually wrong, and where grammarly tells me I should have a comma causes me great confusion.

And then you want to involve semi-colons? I am sorry, did I just completely sleep through that portion in school?

How to Blog if Grammar is a Struggle – 5 Tools to Help

1.) grammarly:

I run each and every blog post through Grammarly (affiliate link) before I hit publish.

I just open grammarly up in another tab, copy and paste my entire blog post into it, and make the necessary changes.

2022 update: I now use Linguix instead of Grammarly. The only reason for this switch is that I got Linguix on a lifetime deal on AppSumo. When I can, I prefer to pay once for a lifetime subscription instead of monthly. AppSumo is a great place to check for deals like this. Grammarly is still an excellent choice, and preferred by many of my blogger friends.

2.) Hire a VA:

My virtual assistant, Ben, is an excellent proofreader.

If you have a VA, ask if proofing your posts is a task they can take on.

3.) Hang Posters:

My hero, The Oatmeal, designed the best grammar posters ever.

If and when I ever redesign my office, I plan to hang all six of them.

4.) Swap with a Buddy:

Sometimes it’s easy to spot others’ mistakes and impossible to find your own.

Ask a blogger buddy to proof your posts and do the same for them.

5.) Improve your Skills:

Learning games are not just for kids.

With phones these days, we can learn while stuck in a waiting room.

There are loads of apps to play grammar games.

My current favorite is The Grading Game.

Your job is to grade papers, and your boss is watching.

It’s easy to lose your “pay,” or even get fired in the game.

There are many apps to help improve your grammar skills.

You could always, you know, go back to school, too, but I’d much rather play word games. 😉

Of course, there is much more to writing good blog posts.

We structure our posts with SEO in mind, try to make sure they flow well, and attempt to be as clear as possible.

I tend to be a tad obsessive about post structure and proofreading.

These tools help me let go a little bit and spend more time creating content.

Let me know if you have any fun word games to suggest or grammar tools for blogging!