Rock Your Blog With the Right Writing Style

While every blogger can improve their blog through better writing, "better writing" doesn't mean the same thing for every blogger. There are some common things we can all improve -- our spelling, grammar, and paragraph length for example.

Beyond those basics, "better writing" largely revolves around your chosen writing style. And it's important that you choose your blog's writing style based on your audience rather than just your personal preferences. Let's take a look at a few examples.

Formal Writing Styles

Formal blog posts will often be on the longer side -- I'd say the 500 - 2000 word range. They're more like feature articles than what we think of as traditional blog posts. They're highly structured and carry a formal tone.

Who might use this blog writing style: You might use a formal writing style if you're a blogger sharing a lot of research and commentary (science and medical blogs for example) or if you're writing a highly specialized industry blog for executives or others who are used to a more formal approach.

Journalistic Writing Styles

Journalistic blog posts can vary a great deal in length -- from short news blurbs to long investigative-style features. You'll probably want to follow AP style guidelines (or whatever news writing guidelines are appropriate for your location and audience).

Who might use this blog writing style: You might choose a journalistic approach for your blog if you're adding a blog to a magazine or newspaper's website, you're a journalist managing a personal blog, you're looking to get into journalism and you want to use your blog as an ongoing portfolio piece, or you run a local or niche blog with a heavy emphasis on news.

Conversational Writing Styles

When we think of blogs, we often think of this writing style. That's because blogs are frequently less formal than other types of publications. They involve a back-and-forth conversation between a blogger and readers in the blog's comments. This is a "write the way you talk" blogging style (which is not an excuse for routinely poor spelling and grammar).

Who might use this blog writing style: If you're like most bloggers, you'll probably choose a conversational approach to blogging. It works best in personal blogs, but it's also highly effective in niche blogging because it makes readers feel more connected to you and your content.

Educational Writing Styles

Many blogs have an educational element to them and would perform well with an educational writing style. For example, your posts might be structured tutorials with solely "how to" content.

Who might use this blog writing style: Anyone running a tutorial-based blog could benefit from a structured educational writing style. That would likely involve a combination of background, introductions to projects, and lists of step-by-step instructions. Food bloggers who share recipes frequently are another example.

Entertaining Writing Styles

This is probably the least formal of all of the blogging styles mentioned here. It can vary greatly, from fiction blog posts (like short stories) to celebrity gossip. Like the conversational style, choosing this type of blog writing isn't an excuse for poor spelling and grammar. But the overall tone is likely to be very relaxed.

Who might use this blog writing style: Celebrity, gossip, and entertainment blogs would be obvious choices for this writing style. But so are blogs written for children, character blogs from authors, and satirical blogs.

As you can see, there isn't a single "right" way to blog. You have to choose a blogging style that works for you. But you also have to choose a style that's appropriate for the target readers you want to reach. You don't have to limit yourself to just one of these. You might alternate between posts (like conversational updates combined with weekly tutorials) or you might combine two or more styles in each post you write.

I'd consider this blog a mix -- more on the formal side than most of my blogs, but still conversational in nature. And we'll feature a variety of structured tutorials along the way. What writing style does your blog use? Do you wish you had chosen something different? Do you use a blogging style not mentioned here? Tell me about it in the comments.

Profile image for Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, consultant, and indie author. She runs numerous websites & blogs including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, NakedPR, and Kiss My Biz.

Jenn has 25 years' experience as a professional writer and editor and over 20 years' experience in marketing and PR (working heavily in digital PR, online marketing, social media, SEO, new media, and thought leadership publication). She also has 19 years' professional blogging and web publishing experience (including web development) and around 18 years of experience as an indie author / publisher.

Jenn also writes fiction under multiple pen names and is an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

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9 thoughts on “Rock Your Blog With the Right Writing Style”

  1. I do find I write in different styles for my 3 blogs. My personal one is the conversational, but my health care and my business writing are more educational, although I try to lighten up on the tone. I tend to mix it up, too.

    Funny how you don’t consciously think about it (or al least I don’t)/

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  2. I think I’ve used all of those at different times, mostly conversational with a side of educational on my own blogs. I trained as a journalist and use that style for the news/feature posts for some clients. I very rarely use a formal writing style now.

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    • The only time I use a strict formal style is when I do ghostblogging for corporate-types who are in a B2B market — an exec to exec kind of thing. Even in a more technical niche blog, you can usually be more relaxed than that. It’s far from my favorite style. Like you I’m more into the conversational and educational side of things — mostly the former.

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  3. Nice blog for helping others to make their blog great. Well done Jennifer, your tips will be helpful for others. I’m also a writer and proofreader, so I’m glad to read your blog. The styles which you have mentioned in your blog are much useful for every writer.

    Reply
  4. This is very helpful, thank you! I’ve been away from my blog for nearly two years. I’m wanting to get back to it but I’m wondering if I should start again from scratch. It’s a personal blog but covers quite a lot of subjects in my life from my art world, recovery journey to details about my sons autism. I often wonder, should these be separate blogs? What do you do when you’ve been away so long with so much happening in between? (and should this be in a forum?)

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    • With personal blogs, I don’t think you need to separate each topic into a separate blog. That’s much more important for business-related blogs or niche blogs. I’d stick with the blog you have and just pick things up again unless there’s a reason you no longer want some of that content in the archives. I don’t recommend big “I’m back” announcement posts, but in your case a roundup post could be a good re-introduction. You can summarize updates that have happened while you were away. Or could post updates about each subject area separately and have your first week or two of content. As for anything new that’s happened, just plan posts around those things. It sounds like you’ll be coming back with plenty of blog post ideas! 🙂

      Reply

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