Save time with a style-guide

Every member of the Landscape Juice Network has a blog that they can use to write about their experiences of working in the garden. Already Cat Fereday has been busy keeping people up to date with her experiences of being the 'long-suffering wife' to a professional gardener. So if you want to use the blog to write up about your own adventures here are a few simple tips, call it a style-guide, to help you write faster and ensure readers come back for more. To give you a quick idea of the style-guide I use, it’s not written down it’s just in my head, here are some of the rules I stick to: * Keep sentences short and snappy, don’t use exclamation marks or capitals mid-sentence unless it’s an abbreviation and understand how apostrophes work. * Stick to the same way of writing dates, I use February 10, 2008 and for the time I use 'am' and 'pm', but if you are more comfortable with the 24 hour clock use this instead. * When you write a number if it is between zero and ten spell it out (just like I’ve done) and anything above, for example 17, use the actual number. * Don't format sentences with too much bold, italic or underline it can confuse readers. * Link off words in sentences instead of pasting the full address into a page, for example, Landscape Juice Network and not https://landscapejuice.ning.com/ One of the benefits you get from sticking to a style guide is more time, as you are not wondering how something should be written. And your website visitors will absorb the rules you are keeping ensuring they are clear on what you are saying, meaning there is a good chance they will return to your site in the near future to read more.

Picking up a point that Philip made, I read lots of the blogs on here and sometimes comment if:

a. have something to say which is relevant, entertaining (hopefully) or useful. I am aware that if you ALWAYS comment on a blog you are in danger of being a pest, pain or appearing really sad!

b. have time. Usually find that I am called away before being able to comment, and rarely go back to the blog unless it stimulates something to say.

Cat is a fantastic blogger, she never fails to engage the reader. My eleven year old son, Henry, read her blog last evening about PMS, (as he was worried that I was in a chat room). Heard him chuckling to himself and he commented to me that 'It's great she calls her husband Fereday', something with which I agree and perhaps the whole point and success of her stories?

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Comments

Richard Loader June 23, 2008 at 8:59am

That's helpful stuff Craig but what's the secret to writing as entertainingly as Cat? - or is it, as I fear more art than science and consequently hard to emulate?
PRO

Craig McGinty June 23, 2008 at 11:02am

Hi Richard,

Must admit that Cat's style is going to be tough to emulate, I hope that people find their own 'voice' but therein lies the challenge ;-)

All the best, Craig
PRO

Phil Voice June 23, 2008 at 1:06pm

It is very much a cliche but I would encourage anyone who writes to this platform or their own blog to just be yourself.

Funny enough (and I hope that Cat will not mind me saying this) but Cat expressed here concern that nobody was reading here blogs and contemplated giving up

My advice was to continue because in my experience, no comments didn't mean that the posts were not being enjoyed but the reader was actually trying not to interrupt.

One of the things I try to concentrate on is the personalisation. Try and imagine that you are sitting and chatting with a good friend over a cup of tea and try to imagine that feeling of friendly relaxation before telling your story.

Thanks to Craig for adding this post which adds great value to the site.
Kerrie John-The garden design Co June 23, 2008 at 4:57pm

Picking up a point that Philip made, I read lots of the blogs on here and sometimes comment if:

a. have something to say which is relevant, entertaining (hopefully) or useful. I am aware that if you ALWAYS comment on a blog you are in danger of being a pest, pain or appearing really sad!

b. have time. Usually find that I am called away before being able to comment, and rarely go back to the blog unless it stimulates something to say.

Cat is a fantastic blogger, she never fails to engage the reader. My eleven year old son, Henry, read her blog last evening about PMS, (as he was worried that I was in a chat room). Heard him chuckling to himself and he commented to me that 'It's great she calls her husband Fereday', something with which I agree and perhaps the whole point and success of her stories?
Cat Fereday June 23, 2008 at 10:42pm

I am really grateful for all the lovely feedback that you have all given me. It's a fantastic encouragement. And I can't express how grateful I am.

Craig - you remind me of various favourites in my old English dept!!! Can I add a tip - use i.e., when you mean "in other words" and e.g., when you mean "for example". When I see these used incorrectly, I go SpAre! My other nightmare is "try and...", when "try to..." is more appropriate. Right, I'm getting onto my soapbox, here... I'll go now....
PRO

Craig McGinty June 24, 2008 at 8:42am

The comments section on a blog post can very often become the most interesting part of a piece!

And again if people have their name alongside their message it vastly improves the quality of the comments and so benefits all users of the site.

I'm looking forward to reading more posts and comments across the network ;-)
vhowe June 27, 2008 at 8:38pm

Really am a novice at this 'Blog' lark. Can create a hyperlink because there's a symbol to point me in the right direction. Your tips are great and very helpful and this might be a really dumb question but when you talk about 'link off ' words in sentences where do you start with this? I do see it a lot in Blogs but don't know how to achieve it.
PRO

Craig McGinty June 27, 2008 at 8:51pm

Hi vhowe
You are very close to linking off words in your posts by the sounds of it.

How you do it is to write your descriptive words, in the example above I used Landscape Juice Network, double-click and highlight these words (just as you do in your word processor software).

Then click on the little chain link symbol as you are doing and type, or paste in, the full website address you want to link through to, press OK and it will look like this:

Landscape Juice Network

You need to provide the full website address, including the http:// otherwise it will go a bit wobbly, see how you go and any problems just shout.

Craig
vhowe June 28, 2008 at 2:32pm

Hi Craig,
Thanks for the info. Lets try it out. We at Howes Landscaping and Design are trying to provide landscaping to encourage wildlife. Think its not foolproof enough!!!!
vhowe June 28, 2008 at 2:34pm

way hey. It is foolproof - things did look a bit gobbly gook to begin with. Thanks again

V