Comments on: Blog Better Week: Strunk & White’s Elements of Style

By: Tony Brown

Tony Brown — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:13:40 +0000

I don’t know If I said it already but …This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,

A definite great read..Tony Brown

By: Jimmy May

Jimmy May — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:26:19 +0000

Great series indeed, Brent.

I’m thrilled to see that I’m not the only grammar geek in the community.

Now, if only we can raise awareness re: “commas following the penultimate item in a series” or as it is more commonly known, the “serial comma” issue.

For the record, I align with Strunk & White (as well as Fowler) in favor of “red, white, & blue”.

By: Weekly Link Post 108 « Rhonda Tipton’s WebLog

Weekly Link Post 108 « Rhonda Tipton’s WebLog — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:52:41 +0000

[...] Blog Better Week – Series – Brent Ozar gives some great advice on how to make your blog better in this series. Great information! [...]

By: Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:04:31 +0000

Yeah, I just saw that mentioned recently in another blog. They mentioned a plugin to stop it, but I haven’t used it personally. I just delete the self-pings as they come in:

http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seo-blog/index.php/are-self-pings-nuking-your-wordpress-blogs-pagerank/

By: David Stein

David Stein — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:01:09 +0000

Any idea how to keep your WordPress install to stop pinging your own referenced posts back? It makes it look like I’m padding my comments.

By: Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:06:02 +0000

I should add – WordPress handles trackbacks/pingbacks automatically by default, so if any WordPress bloggers are reading this and they don’t know what trackbacks/pingbacks are, don’t worry. It’s the little automated-looking things that pop up in your comments every now and then when someone blogs about you. WordPress does them for you automatically when you blog about other people, too.

By: Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:04:48 +0000

Great question! I do use trackbacks because I find it helpful to follow discussions across the web. If another blogger posts something that mentions me, then I find out about it automatically and I can jump straight to their post to see what they said. Also, my readers can see what other bloggers were saying.

By: Chad Miller

Chad Miller — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:02:40 +0000

Thanks for doing this series on blogging. Your related posts on the subject are very helpful also. One thing I’ve wondered about is the practice of using trackbacks/pingbacks. I’ve never used them.

By: David Stein

David Stein — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:31:31 +0000

I’m already reading “Getting Things Done.” I’ll add this one to my list.

By: Brian Tkatch

Brian Tkatch — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:07:10 +0000

I got the book a while back, and promptly read it. The book is amazing, not in only what it does say. It makes one think; and one who thinks, writes better.

One interesting point is if…, then in a sentence. Does it require a comma?

If there is no comma then it requires “then”.
If there is a comma, “then” is not required.

I asked this question to Purdue University’s writing lab http://slashdot.org/~Chacham/journal/164954 and they responded saying both are required. Well, Strunk & White use a comma but no “then” throught the book.

The book was worth it just for that.