I’ve been recommending Mark Twain’s treatise “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” for years now. Read it! You’ll learn a lot about writing, and you’ll enjoy a few laughs.

Here are Twain’s points 12-18, with my own comments beneath. He says that these “little rules” require that the author shall:

Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.

When you merely come near to it, your reader might be confused. Worse, your reader might not be confused; he might accept as true what you don’t mean.

If you mean to say “Wednesday at 3:00″ don’t say …

When you write a blog entry it’s like you’re writing newspaper columns for the ‘net.   To be effective new entries must be a regular feature of your online presence.  Blogs are also more effective when they are driven by the personality and explicitly stated opinions of the author(s).

When starting or reinventing your blog, you should take a moment to think about what sort of voice you would like to write in.

Wikipedia identifies five distinct types of columns.

• advice columns
• critic reviews
• editorial opinions
• gossip
• humor

None of the column types should act as a straightjacket, but each is worth examining for inspiration and organizational themes.

Advice Columns

Advice …