Upping Your Writing Game: A #CMWorld Twitter Chat with Penny Gralewski

Articles, social media posts, video and podcast scripts. There’s always room for improvement. In this week’s #CMWorld Twitter chat, we tackled a topic content marketers constantly think about: Becoming a better writer. Our community joined special guest Penny Gralewski to trade favorite tips.

A big turnoff for readers is grammatical errors. What are some tips for proofreading content?

A3: Good content marketers always proofread – and have a review process. Feedback is important. I try to be a “teach to fish” editor – explaining why a phrase or sentence could be rewritten. Without the why, people make the same mistakes over and over again. 🎣 #CMWorld

— Penny Gralewski (@virtualpenny) September 15, 2020

A3: Also, I rely on ruthless friends & coworkers. Editors with candor are the best. They like you, so they tell you the truth. 🤗 #CMWorld

— Penny Gralewski (@virtualpenny) September 15, 2020

A3. I’ve heard people say changing the font can help spotlight errors. Others swear by reading the text backwards (provided you can still make sense of it). #cmworld

— Dana Lemaster (@DanaLemaster) September 15, 2020

A3: That’s why I use @Grammarly. #CMWorld

— Tim Hayden (@TheTimHayden) September 15, 2020

A3. Whatever you do, don’t skip this step! Always proofread! #CMWorld

— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) September 15, 2020

Is there a sentence structure writers should follow? What do content marketers need to keep in mind? Word count? Content length?

A4: When a sentence is 9 to 14 words, readers can understand 90% of the information. When the sentence is 43 words, readers understand only 10% of the information. This research from the American Press Institute is about📰, but applies well to #contentmarketing. #CMWorld

— Penny Gralewski (@virtualpenny) September 15, 2020

A4: I think not following a rigid structure works the best! When you are writing content that needs to be engaging, write like you’re speaking to them.

But I’d definitely follow writing shorter ones to not confuse them. #CMWorld

— Archita Sharma (@mearchita) September 15, 2020

A4: A lot of folks love @HemingwayApp, but I think structure and style are entirely dependent on industry and medium.

A technical white paper shouldn’t read the same as a B2C social media update. #CMWorld

— Jess | #blacklivesmatter (@SheSpeaksSocial) September 15, 2020

A4: Again, this is platform-specific. Twitter has different sentence structure requirements than LinkedIn than a novel.

Write for your audience wherever they are consuming your content. #CMWorld

— andrew (@apdonovan1990) September 15, 2020

A4. Content marketers need to focus on value. Word length is important but if you’re writing something that’s valuable at 1000 words, it’d much much better than writing a fluffy piece of 2000 words. #CMWorld

— Masooma | Content Writer (@inkandcopy) September 15, 2020

This chat was fast and furious. There’s no way we could have fit all the tweets from this chat here. If you’d like to see more tips from Penny and our community, check out our Twitter Moment.

What writing tips do you swear by?

Looking for more writing tips that work? Attend Penny’s session at this year’s Content Marketing World! There’s still time to register. Use code SM100 for $100 off at checkout.