The Internet has made it easier for people to express themselves in writing, with just about anybody capable of using a word processor being given a chance to churn out articles meant to be read by a large audience (as opposed to the days when articles from novice writers languished in the pages of a dusty journal or a passworded document file). The problem is that people usually end up committing and making a habit out of the more common web writing mistakes, such as

1. Rephrasing other people's articles. Writing for the web offers much more freedom, and while it's frowned upon in print media, the world wide web is much more forgiving of rewritten content, as long as you follow these simple steps:

• Read and digest your source article completely, then write your article from scratch using stock knowledge that you've gained from the article. The common case is that novice writers copy the source article on their docs, rephrase the first paragraph, delete the original paragraph, then move on to the next and so on.

• Rewriting from scratch prevents your article from looking like a blatant rip off. Add the fact that if the original author is a technically proficient writer, chances are he has already written his article using the best choice of words and sentences. No matter what you do, your rephrased article is going to come out as second best.

2. If the source article contains a unique theory or information that the author can claim as his own, do not forget to cite your sources or at least make a passing mention that the info came from someone else. This will prevent people from accusing you of stealing ideas and passing it off as your own (if this is your intention. STOP. Please. Find some other hobby)

3. Use your word processor's grammar and spellchecker. This one should be a given. While software grammar and spellcheckers are by no means accurate, they provide ample guidance and help you spot errors that you may have committed out of haste or lack of proofreading. You don't have to revise every single phrase that has a green or red underline, but do not ignore them. Try to at least verify if they are actual errors.

4. Avoid using clichés and resorting to cut and pasted quotations. If you read something really good from another writer, there is a tendency that you may want to reuse his best lines out of admiration. Doing so will stunt your growth as a writer, and there is a possibility that you may end up ruining your article, if you start using phrases and saying just because it made sense to you. You may not be familiar with the context in which it should be used - think of it as very similar to a person getting a Japanese tattoo that she thought meant love is a slow form of suicide, but actually translates to love is a late form of suicide.

It may sound like a cliché as well, but the phrase 'write what you know' really is good advice for web content writers. But it's only half of what will make you effective as an online wordsmith. Write what you know, but make sure you do a lot of research so that you'll have a lot of "know" to "write about."