In Any case steps you have shown in the article before publication are exactly what i do. And i can say that they work pretty well.

Great Tips!

One tool that I find invaluable is an IE (forgive me father…) plugin called IESpell (http://www.iespell.com/download.php) which makes spell checking for WordPress folks that don’t have Aspell or Pspell installed on their servers.

Anyway, I’ve never liked the whole “rough draft first, then go back and edit it later” approach. I’m sure it’s best for many people, but my personal method is to obsessively re-read, proofread, and re-write as I go. I can’t help it. If it’s a really long or complicated essay, I’ll write a basic outline first.

I agree that we unconsciously self-edit when we speak,
but few conversations are permanently recorded.

The written word, once published (print or online) is there for a very long time. Even if it was written spontaneously, it can be accessed far into the future, and will reflect on the writer.

I find spelling and grammar errors distracting, and regardless of the quality of the content, they degrade the writers’ message.

Composing in a word processing program with automatic spell-checker (used along with common sense to avoid the errors that spell-checkers make LOL) is a logical step every writer should take, to make their missive clear and befitting their intention.

…you don’t normally do that in a real-life conversation.

Actually we do – on a subconscious level. When we carry on a real-time conversation with someone, our mind is editing our responses for us — in essence, it’s reading and proof reading our responses before we speak.

The process occurs so quickly and effortlessly that we don’t realize it’s even happening.

Pay close attention when you’re holding a conversation with someone and you may be able to catch a glimpse of the process — for instance, when we pause or are constantly saying ‘um’, ‘er’, ‘uh’, we are trying to find the right words for the situation.

The mind is going through a laundry list of possibilities and it’s attempting to select the the right response for the situation (doesn’t necessarily mean it will be though).

Granted, what is spoken cannot be unspoken, but even after words have been uttered, people can and do retract their statements… that’s why I tacked on the bit about leaving a note stating what you change and when.

I think that blogs with a little spelling mistakes or grammar shifts from the norm .. make the blogs appear more personable, than some off-the-shelf newspaperish and dictionaryish stylings..

I’m inclined to agree with you, to a degree. I’ve been known to outright abuse my literary license to the dismay of just about every English teacher I’ve ever had.

I’m not saying everything has to be perfect, but there should at very least be a certain level of quality — even for casual conversational style blogs.

I’ve seen it accomplished on quite a few blogs, and no, they don’t seem ‘newspaperish’ or ‘dictionaryish’.

One such example off the top of my head is Michele Agnew – her blog is casual and light hearted, however, the writing is excellent (this is just my personal opinion of course). It’s not without error, but many of them are not blatant.

It’s a matter of choosing a suitable style for your particular blog’s topic and target audience, but also maintaining a certain level of quality.

Nice blog – jumped from Problogger.net day 16 and going to subscribe in bloglines, and look around while I’m here… ~wave.

@Frank – I used to do that as well until I realized 90% of the time I ended up changing my title! For in depth articles, I’ll actually write an outline and fill in the content accordingly, but having a bit of scrap paper handy in case the mind strays is an excellent idea

@Kurt – writing the entry in another editor is a great suggestion. I use Open Office and MS Word and they are both great for catching formatting problems or otherwise with visual cues – thank you for the reminder.