Nicer prose, or more page views?

Search engines are responsible for a trend which is unfortunate from a literary standpoint, but probably unavoidable - the salting of prose with "keywords." Theoretically, the more times a keyword appears on a page, the more likely that page is to come up on a search for that keyword. In the past, writers went to great lengths to avoid repeating the same word too much, sometimes resorting to stilted synonyms exhumed from a thesaurus. Nowadays, many Web writers do the opposite, repeating a product name or some other keyword as often as possible, and seemingly avoiding pronouns like the plague. If you must resort to this keyword-centric commercialization of our craft of words (in which artistry is key), the key is not to go overboard with your use of keywords, and not to use any word or keyword more times than the keyword really merits being used.

Do us all a favor.

In the old days, when printers' devils ran around with jars of paste, an article generally ran the gauntlet of a couple of editors and a proofreader before being cast in lead. It was assumed that a writer's work would have to be massaged and tweaked to eliminate errors and make it conform to the magazine's house style. In today's rush-rush world, however, Select All, Copy and Paste may be about all the editing an article gets. Judging by the number of atrocious errors in spelling, grammar and style that are found even in respected and well-funded publications, editors and proofreaders are in short supply. A writer who submits work that is error-free and in the proper style stands out like a pearl of great price.

If you take the time to learn and apply the style of the publication you're writing for, and proofread your work carefully, your chances of repeat assignments will increase greatly. Every publication worth its salt has a set of style guidelines, which pass judgment on the many gray areas of English grammar, punctuation and spelling. Some publications use dashes - some prefer the more traditional colon or semi-colon. Some capitalize Web, and some even capitalize Net when it refers to "the" Internet. The more closely you can conform to the house style, the less work your editor will have.

Using a spell-checker is only the first step in proofreading your writing. A spell-checker cannot catch words that are used improperly, or improper punctuation. If your knowledge of the fine points is spotty, invest in a style guide (or visit one of the online ones). Please don't subject the Web-surfing public to any more wars among "their" "there" and "they're." And the difference between "its" and "it's" is not that complicated, folks. Learn it and use it!

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