Wednesday, August 31, 2011

5 Grammatically Questionable Tattoos

Ever make an embarrassing grammatical mistake that other people judged you for? Of course you have; we’ve all made grammatical errors at some point. Now, imagine being stuck with one of those mistakes for the rest of your life. Believe it or not, people get misspelled or grammatically incorrect tattoos more often than you could imagine. How hard is it to do a quick Google search before permanently writing your biggest mistake ever? (Pretty difficult, apparently.)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Confusing Sentences That Actually Make Sense

Let’s face it: Sometimes the English language can be downright bizarre. The plural of ox is oxen while the plural of box is boxes, ‘rough’ rhymes with ‘gruff’ even though the two words only have two letters in common, and there are actually more than nine hundred exceptions to the infamous “i before e except after c” rule.

If you’re still not convinced that the English language is full of oddities and conundrums, take a look at these five wacky sentences that are actually grammatically correct.

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Editing Process: How to Get Started

by Georganna Hancock, M.S. editor at A Writer’s Edge, and special guest in this week’s #GrammarlyChat

When we speak of “editing” a manuscript, people generally have in mind copy or line editing. That concerns a variety of elements frequently labeled “grammar,” but in fact includes punctuation, capitalization, syntax and style matters.

Large publishers offer several other types of editing but independent editors also provide them on a freelance basis.

Friday, August 26, 2011

3 Apps to Save You Time on Work Chat

Do you often find yourself scrambling to get everything done? The good news is that taking a few short seconds to install an app can save you hours. If you use Slack to communicate at work, learn how to make this collaboration tool work most effectively.

Apps for Slack

Reacji Channeler

Imagine that you want to send the same message to various people on a regular basis. In the past, you might have tediously copied the message from one channel to another.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

5 Funniest Grammar/Spelling Mistakes in Kids’ Letters

It’s always adorable when children attempt to write letters or caption illustrations, but can’t quite get the wording right. What’s even more adorable is when children write something they didn’t intend to write at all. Whether the culprit is bad handwriting or simply not sounding out a word correctly, ensure that you are encouraging your child to write by being supportive of all attempts.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

3 Works to Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

In President Obama’s final State of the Union address, he included a call on Americans to use their “voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love,” as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called them. Dr. King’s legacy lives on not only in Obama’s speech but also in the minds and hearts of Americans as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday of January each year. The following three books are touching reminders of the life of this exceptional activist, humanitarian, and civil rights leader.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Does grammar affect your product choices?

This poll is part of a series that Grammarly is running aimed at better understanding how the public feels about writing, language learning, and grammar.

Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

If you are interested in more, check out last week’s poll.

How to Use “Alike” and “Same” Correctly

A well-known idiom says that great minds think alike. It’s what we say when two people think of the same great idea at the same time. History is full of examples that reaffirm the claim that great minds think alike, with discoveries and inventions like the jet engine and the theory of evolution being made at roughly the same time by different people. However, this idiom is interesting to us for an entirely different reason.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Alright or All Right—Which Is Correct?

People are often surprised to learn that alright is not an accepted spelling of all right. Although the one-word spelling of alright is seen in informal writing, teachers and editors will always consider it incorrect. To use the expression with impunity, it is best to spell it as two words: all right.

It’s possible that you stared at your paper in wonder the first time your English teacher marked alright as an incorrect spelling.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Should You Take Notes By Hand or Electronically?

At a professional conference in 2014, Clive Thompson, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, presented “The Pencil and the Keyboard: How The Way You Write Changes the Way You Think.” In this session, he claimed that handwriting was better than typing in certain situations and vice versa. One attendee, Eric Peters, decided to explore the issue further in the article “Keyboard vs.

Friday, August 12, 2011

15 Words English Borrowed From Chinese

When people are learning a language, often they learn the names of delicious foods. English has adopted the names of many Chinese dishes. However, you may be surprised to realize that many other everyday words and phrases are also borrowed from various dialects of Chinese.

Foods

Bok choy is an Asian green that can be cooked or eaten raw. In Chinese, the expression derives from words meaning “white vegetable” because of the white stalks.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Grammarly: An ESL Writer’s Best Friend

Guest post by Erik Bowitz

Grammarly is widely known in the United States as an extremely useful tool for writers looking to quickly and easily write error-free prose. However, there is an even larger, and much less talked about group of writers who are equally enthusiastic about the opportunities Grammarly’s automated proofreader provides: English as a Second Language (ESL) writers.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Job Seekers: What’s Wrong with Your Resume? Probably More than You Think.

#WhatIWrite: Cover Letters and Resumes

More than two thirds of salaried jobs require a significant amount of writing, making written communication a key consideration in hiring. Yet, top organizations still spend more than $3 Billion (with a “B”!) per year on remedial training to improve employees’ writing to baseline standards.

Cover letters and resumes are, not surprisingly, a great way for potential employers to assess candidate’s writing skills.