Language Basics for Business Bloggers – Part C

“Grammatically speaking, voice refers to whether the subject of a sentence is on the giving or receiving end of the action, explains Anne Stillman in Writer’s Digest Yearbook.

For us freelance blog content writers, “voice” is an enormously important element when it comes to “hooking readers and wowing fans”. This week, my Say It For You blog posts are devoted to a review of fundamental writing tools and techniques based on the Yearbook. In a way, choosing the right “voice” goes far beyond grammar and sentence structure, setting the entire tone for each business blog post.

“The active voice has definite advantages over the passive,” explains Stillman. “It’s more concise, it’s often more informative, and it can make your writing appear more vigorous and confident.”  That doesn’t mean, she adds, that the passive voice is never appropriate.  For example, Stilman says, “The wedding cake had to be carried in by eight strong waiters” is better than saying “Eight strong waiters had to carry in the wedding cake.”  Why?  The focus of the sentence is the cake, not the waiters.

Since one of the very purposes of business blog writing is to showcase the accomplishments of the business owners, as a general rule we bloggers need to focus on “staying active” in our content, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions.

A jewelry store blog might read “Our jewelry is worn proudly by all types of people, from homemakers to business executives,” but it would pack more punch to say, “From homemakers to business executives, people of every type proudly wear ABC
 jewelry.”

This past week in my Say It for You blog, I spent a lot of time discussing the ingredients of good writing. There’s certainly a lot more to effective blogging than just the writing. Bloggers need marketing expertise and at least some degree of technical expertise.  The bottom line, though, is that blogging involves the skillful use of words.

For us blog content writers as well as for our business owner and professional clients, A is an important letter in our lexicon. From apostrophes to active voice, paying attention to our craft pays off!