The Most Common Grammar Mistakes in Blog Posts (And How to Fix Them)

After editing hundreds of blog posts — my own and others — I have a clear picture of which mistakes come up most often. Here they are, with practical fixes.

I have edited a lot of blog posts over the past few years — my own drafts, other writers' pieces, client content. The same mistakes appear constantly.

1. Its vs it's

"It's" is always a contraction for "it is" or "it has." "Its" is the possessive. If you can replace it with "it is" and the sentence works, use "it's." If not, use "its." No exceptions.

2. Comma splices

Joining two independent clauses with just a comma: "The meeting went well, we landed the client." Either use a full stop, a semicolon, or a coordinating conjunction (and, but, so, yet). The comma alone is not enough.

3. Passive voice overuse

"The report was completed by the team" instead of "the team completed the report." Passive voice is not always wrong — sometimes the object is more important than the subject. But it should be a deliberate choice, not a default.

4. Dangling modifiers

"Running late, the meeting started without me." Who was running late? "Because I was running late, the meeting started without me" is correct. The modifier needs a clear subject to attach to.

5. Who vs whom

If you could replace it with "him," use "whom." If you could replace it with "he," use "who." "Who wrote this?" (He wrote this.) "To whom should I send this?" (Send it to him.)

6. Effect vs affect

Almost always: "affect" is the verb, "effect" is the noun. "The decision affected the outcome." "The effect was significant." There are exceptions but for most blog writing this rule holds reliably.

What this really means in practice

The practical question behind The Most Common Grammar Mistakes in Blog Posts (And How to Fix Them) is not whether Writing Craft sounds impressive in theory. It is whether the advice survives contact with an ordinary draft, a busy inbox, a deadline, or a reader who is not already convinced. That is the standard I use throughout this guide: if a recommendation does not make the next draft clearer, faster, or easier to trust, it does not deserve space on the page.

Good English writing is rarely about sounding grand. It is about making the reader do less work. The strongest sentence usually has one job, one clear subject, and one clean movement from idea to consequence. When a paragraph feels heavy, the problem is often not vocabulary. It is that three different thoughts are trying to share one sentence.

A simple way to apply it today

Start with one small test. Take a real piece of writing connected to this topic, not a perfect sample made for a tutorial. Read it once for meaning, once for structure, and once for friction. On the first pass, ask whether the point is worth making. On the second, ask whether the order helps the reader. On the third, look for the exact sentence where attention drops. That sentence is usually where the improvement begins.

A practical editing habit is to mark the sentence that carries the point of each paragraph. If you cannot find that sentence, the paragraph is probably performing instead of communicating. Once the point is visible, you can cut decoration, move examples closer to the claim, and let the writing breathe.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not optimize the wrong thing. A cleaner sentence is not always a better argument. Improve clarity without sanding away evidence, personality, or useful specificity.
• Do not compare tools or techniques in the abstract. Test them on the kind of writing you actually produce, because a student essay, a client email, a blog post, and a newsletter all punish different weaknesses.
• Do not let speed become the whole goal. Faster writing is valuable only when the final message is still accurate, considerate, and recognizably yours.

My working checklist

• Does the opening tell the reader exactly what problem is being solved?
• Can a busy reader understand the recommendation by scanning the headings?
• Is there at least one concrete example, not only general advice?
• Would I still stand behind this paragraph if a reader made a decision from it?
• Is the final version sharper without becoming colder?

Final verdict

The best version of this advice is deliberately practical: use Writing Craft to reduce uncertainty, not to hide from judgment. The page should leave you with a clearer next action, not just a stronger opinion. If you remember only one thing from this article, remember this: the winning choice is the one that improves the real writing in front of you.