Gone are the days of lugging around the hardback encyclopedia that’s several inches thick (for those of us who were born before the turn of the century). Now the information is at our fingertips. Now there’s absolutely no excuse to allow spelling and grammar errors into your writing. Dictionary.com, Websters.com, pick your poison. But make sure you’re following the rules of the English language if you’d like your readers to stay tuned.
There’s also no reason to bore your readers. If you have that word on the tip of your brain — that one comprehensive word that says it all in one word instead of several — use a thesaurus to hone your content. The general rule: why say it in 10 words, when you can say it in one?
The Thesaurus can be particularly useful when titling your blog post. Check out an excerpt from Corey Eridon’s post on Hubspot’s blog.
Invest time in finding compelling words for your title — the more interesting your language, the more click-throughs you’ll receive. Consider the title of the blog post we published this morning, for example. Would you rather read “9 Pet Peeves to Avoid in Your Pinterest Marketing,” or “9 Thingsto Avoid in Your Pinterest Marketing”? Pet peeves are a bit more compelling than generic “things” don’t you think? That’s what a thesaurus is good for … helping you identify the best, most compelling words for your blog post title!
Caveat: use the thesaurus to tighten your content, but not to appear intelligent. Unless your target audience is a group of scientists or doctors, you generally want to keep your writing level to that of an eighth to tenth grade level.
