Online Writing and Consistency

As online writers struggle to perfect their writing skills for online content, they might want to keep consistency in mind. It's really a matter of keeping things simple so that the reader can keep his or her mind on what you're writing about rather than how you wrote it. Readers who use your material for references in their own writing are more likely to use you as a reference if your work is professional looking.

TheYahoo Style Guide talks about consistency in the form of the way things are written, such as titles. The idea is that if you write a title one way, write it the same way throughout the piece. Anything else is confusing to the reader and stops the flow of the article.

For instance, I once wrote an article and had to refer to a government division called HealthWorks. As much as I felt the urge to put a space between those words, that's not how the division writes it. Since I was following their lead, I had to write it that way through the entire article. Not only is that the correct way to do it to keep the article consistent, but if the reader wants to look up that division, he or she will have a better chance using the correct written format.

It's also important to be consistent with your reader. If you start out actually addressing the reader as "you", then continue to do so. Do not switch between general terms like "Readers" and then back to addressing the audience. Again, this disrupts the flow.

Something that I often have trouble with is pronoun agreement. This simply means that the pronoun should agree with the subject. This takes some concentration for me because I often write the way I talk. Look at the sentence below for an example.

A student of psychology will learn how they can bend people's minds.

Notice that the sentence begins with a singular subject (student), but then a plural pronoun (they) is used to describe the subject. Also you too may talk like this, it doesn't look professional on paper. That little rule right there is probably the one I struggle with the most.

The idea of being a successful online writer is not just about making money. Almost anyone can churn out articles for online content and be published somewhere on the Internet. Successful writers develop as they learn. Their writing goes from raw and personal to well rounded with a smooth flow as you read it.

Reference: The Yahoo Style Guide, Editing 101