If you've been writing for any length of time, chances are you've developed your own personal way of writing - your style, if you will.  Different people have different approaches to writing content.  To the trained eye, an author can sometimes be fingerprinted simply by the stylistic attributes of their writing.

Depending on the type of content you're generating, some styles of writing are better suited than others.  For example, a personal message to someone you know on first name basis would sound pretty strange if written in a technical or professional manner.  Right?  On the same token, a press release might not go over well if it's written using Internet jargon, slang, or from a personal perspective.

Combining styles is a great way to set the tone for your content.  You don't have write from the same perspective every single day for every single article.  While the variations in writing style are as diverse as the people who create content, I think there are three basic stylistic approaches to writing content:

The Journalistic Approach

This style of writing is very easy to find:  just look at most newspapers.  Individual journalists have their own writing styles.  But you can notice several common elements to journalistic writing:  short, precise sentences… small paragraphs… professional references… and a specific set of grammatical and punctual guidelines.  Journalists generally follow the AP Style of writing and there's not always a lot of room for personal touches.  It all depends on the publication and it's specific guidelines.

Newspapers aren't the only places to find a journalistic approach to writing, though.  In fact, many of the articles written at The Internet Marketing Monitor are written more or less in this style.  You'll notice that one thing binds all of these posts together, though.  They all deal with announcements or straight news coverage.  You won't find opinion or commentary in those kinds of posts.

It's these "reporting style" articles that are best suited with a journalistic style.  Many journalists approach content using the "inverted pyramid" view of coverage:  present the information from most important to least important.  Not only does the journalistic approach help you present the information you want to share in a straightforward and precise way, but it also helps you keep your opinion from sneaking in.  While it's possible to subtly insert bias into a straight news story, the transition often looks awkward and, thus, is self-discouraged by the style itself.  Find out more about AP Style.

The Personal Approach

A lot of blog writers produce content using a personal style.  There's not really any steadfast rules or guidelines that go along with personal writing because… well… each style is personal.  But a personal writing style is usually easy to identify by the way the content reads.  If it sounds more like the author is talking directly to you, as if you were carrying on a conversation, that's a personal style.  A lot of the Internet Marketing Monitor is written with a personal flair.

Each author's personal style is a reflection of that person.  You can usually tell a lot about a person if you pay close attention to their personal writing.  A good writer can convey a lot in a personal message:  tone, attitude, beliefs, etc.  Go read something written in this style by someone you know personally.  Can you hear them saying the words when you read it?  Can you follow along as if they were conversing with you? 

Opinions and commentary are best suited for this style of writing.  It's much easier to integrate personal beliefs and opinions into writing written from the conversational standpoint than with journalistic or technical writing.  And it's very easy to report on information with the personal style as well.  Like I said a couple of paragraphs up, the transition to personal from journalistic is often awkward.  But you don't have to worry about that with a personally written bit of content.  Simply report the information as if you were telling a friend… and then throw your opinion in.

The Technical Approach

Technical writing is the kind you'd expect to see in scholarly works, product descriptions, and stereo instructions.  Like journalistic writing, technical writing generally follows a set of guidelines.  There are several approaches to technical writing so the publication, author, or content producer generally uses the one they are most familiar with or prefer.  Some people call technical writing "formal writing".  The two terms are interchangeable.

If you've written papers for college or a professional publication you've probably used the technical approach.  If you've ever written content specifically for a group of professionals, your boss, or someone else in the business world you've probably used the technical approach.

As the name implies, technical writing is best suited for academia, business, and other "formal" situations.  If you're writing a business proposal, use technical writing.  If you're publishing the findings of a study, use technical writing.  If you're writing content for references materials or sources that others might cite as professional resources,  use technical writing.

Combining The Approaches

My personal belief is that a good writer can utilize all three approaches.  The style of your writing should reflect the subject matter, the audience, and the publication.  The audience is most likely expecting a certain approach depending on what they're reading and where it's being published.  And while there's no hard-and-fast rules that say you must write a certain way for certain types of information, using an unexpected writing approach can throw your readers off.

If you're writing a personal blog, the majority of your content will be personal.  If you're writing a corporate blog, you might find yourself writing journalistic content and technical content… but with a hint of the personal touch.  If the content you're generating is completely under your control, the decision of how to write is in your hands.  If someone else has some say in your content, they may want you to write a certain way.

Writing is like apple pie.  There's a lot of variation from recipe to recipe.  No two people bake the same apple pie.  But there are a few general staples that every good apple pie maker will follow.

Your goal should be using those staples to make your own personal pie… err… content.