Guest post by Robert McCauley
Job seekers receive no shortage of advice from colleagues, peers, friends, and family. Everyone has some nugget of wisdom to help you land the position. Of all the tips you’re likely to receive, this one may be the most valuable: Dot your i’s and cross your t’s.
What does having strong attention to detail have to do with finding a job? Sometimes, everything.
In a recent Grammarly Pop Quiz email, we asked readers how they would correct this sentence: I’m looking forward to purchasing tickets for the 2018 winter Olympics.
A: Capitalize the “W” in winter. B: Make “O” in Olympics lowercase. C: Accept the sentence as is.
44 percent of these readers gave the correct answer, A. Did you choose correctly?
Seasons are only capitalized when they’re used as proper nouns, as in the sentence above: The movie will debut in the spring of 2016.
Fulfill is one of those words with multiple spellings.
Lmao is a phrase that comes into mind when we’re laughing very hard, even though we rarely lose body parts to laughing.
Lmao stands for laughing my ass off. Typically people use it in written conversations to show that they think something is funny. You can think of it as a stronger version of lol, which stands for laughing out loud.
When you need people to get back to you with additional information about something, lmk is one of the phrases you can use to ask for it.
Lmk is short for let me know. People have been using it for at least fifteen years.
The possessive case shows ownership. With the addition of ’s (or sometimes just the apostrophe), a noun can change from a simple person, place, or thing to a person, place, or thing that owns something. There are a few different ways to form the possessive of a noun. We’ll discuss these ways below.
If the noun doesn’t end with an s, add ’s to the end of the noun. See the following examples:
English is already the most common second language (by number of speakers) in the world, and more people begin studying it every day. Fortunately, the availability of learning resources is growing right along with the number of English learners. The publishing industry, web entrepreneurs, respected institutions, and enthusiasts who just want to help are producing a staggering amount of materials aimed at getting people to understand, speak, and write in English.
By Laura Wallis for The Stir by CafeMom
Few things are as monumental in an elementary-school kid’s life than losing a tooth. It’s a rite of passage, and it usually means an exciting thing is about to happen: the Tooth Fairy is going to pay a visit.
Just tucking the tooth under the pillow is usually enough to get a reward in exchange, but putting it in an envelope or folded up inside a sheet of paper means it’s less likely to get lost—and that presents a great opportunity to make some fun memories.
Purposely and purposefully are two English words that are often confused. Because they both have the same root, purpose, are both adverbs, and are only a shade apart in meaning, it is no wonder that they are used incorrectly with such frequency.
Here’s how to use them.
When you use purposely in a sentence, it should be synonymous with intentionally and on purpose.
By Sophorn Chhay
Just because you have room for 160 characters in your texts doesn’t mean you should use them all.
In fact, texting experts seem to agree that an ideal text should be short and sweet, especially in a business environment, where the name of the game is brevity. Essentially, focus on quality, not quantity.
This can sometimes be a challenge for people who enjoy being verbose.
An omelet (or omelette) is a type of egg dish, often served at breakfast or brunch. Neither spelling is wrong, but there are some guidelines for when to use which.
Omelet is the standard spelling in American English. In fact it appears about twice as often as omelette in American publications.
April 14 is National Library Workers’ Day. Given the literary nature of library work, it’s not surprising that some of our favorite authors were also librarians. Here’s a short list of writers who put in time between the stacks.
Lewis Carroll Before he began writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (whose real name was Charles Dodgson) worked as a librarian in England.
By Nelson Lauver, Author of Most Un-Likely To Succeed
I’m nervous and thinking about turning around and getting back in my car. Just ring the doorbell, I tell myself. I find the courage, and my blind date answers the door with one hand while holding back Lola, an exuberant 80-pound rescued pit bull mix, with the other. I can’t believe my eyes! Jane could be a model. She’s stunning, with a movie-star smile.
Not feeling the holiday spirit yet? Hectic days at work and evenings spent shopping may leave you low on holiday cheer, but the feelings of generosity, gratitude, and closeness to your loved ones are what truly make the holidays special. If music, movies, and weather aren’t getting you in the mood of the season, try reading a good book. Sit down with a holiday classic or enjoy a new read to celebrate the holidays, both religious and secular, that come at this time of year.
By Laura Wallis for The Stir by CafeMom
And other things your kids will ask to make you feel old
A friend recently mentioned that her child, upon picking up a landline phone, asked, “Mom, what is that sound?” It was a dial tone. The speed at which technology is advancing means that many once-basic details of everyday life are quickly going the way of the dinosaur.
