Wednesday, April 29, 2015

How often do you try to improve your writing skills?

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.

Monday, April 27, 2015

NFL Fan Grammar Rankings: How does your team stack up?

Geoff Foster, of The Wall Street Journal’s “The Count” sports column, collaborated with Grammarly, the popular automated proofreader, to put NFL fans to the test. Each official NFL team site was analyzed looking at the top 150 fan comments (10,000+ words) for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

Grammarly ranked all 32 NFL team fan bases from worst to best. Whose smack talk was the most eloquent?

Friday, April 24, 2015

Fantastic Lists and How to Use Them

If you want to get more done, lists are potent tools that can make you a productivity wizard. Our grimoire will reveal the most fantastic lists and teach you how to wield their power.

via GIPHY

Goal Lists

Goal lists are for plotting your long game strategy. What do you want to accomplish in the next six months, year, five years? Odds are, you already have some things in mind. Put them in writing!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

How to Write a Good Pitch

So you have an idea for a story that’s burning a hole in your brain, and you need to find it a home—ideally somewhere that will embrace and enhance your style, share your work with a broad readership, and pay you decently.

In other words, you hope to surmount one of the greatest hurdles that separates the writing world’s dreamers from its doers. No pressure, though.

If writing is your calling, there’s tough work ahead, but it’s doable.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Which punctuation mark would you choose?

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.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Defence vs. Defense—Which Should I Use?

Let’s dispel another spelling mystery. It’s defense against defence, and if you think it’s one of the British English vs. American English things—you might be onto something.

Defence and defense are both correct ways to spell the same word. The difference between them, the fact that one’s spelled with a “c” and the other with an “s”, comes down to the part of the world in which they are used.

Friday, April 17, 2015

3 Ways to Save Time on Social Media

Your alarm rings. You roll over, grab your phone, turn off the alarm, and immediately start scrolling through Instagram. Then you move to Facebook. Then Twitter. Then your work chat and email. Next thing you know, you have to rush through your morning routine and head to work.

Sound familiar?

If you’re wondering how to save time on social media, you’re not alone. Multiple studies have linked high social media use and negative feelings like dissatisfaction, disconnection, and even loneliness.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

6 Fictional Presidents Who Were Great Communicators

Happy Presidents’ Day! On this day when the United States honors their commander in chief, we thought it would be fun to look at the fictional portrayals of this office throughout pop culture history. We’ve found that many presidents from books, television, and film were excellent orators, and some may have surpassed even the most loquacious POTUS of their age. Here are some of our favorites, and we want to hear yours in the comments.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Grammar Basics: What Are Nondefining Clauses?

There are two types of relative clauses—defining and nondefining. To review, relative clauses can contain a subject, verb, and a relative pronoun, though not all are needed. The relative pronouns are who, whose, when, where, which, and that. Relative clauses are sometimes called adjective or adjectival clauses because they describe nouns like adjectives do. Defining clauses give essential information about the main noun.

Friday, April 10, 2015

When to Use a Comma Before “Or”

Should you use a comma before or? The answer depends on how you are using or. Always place a comma before or when it begins an independent clause, but if it begins a dependent clause, don’t. In a series (or list) of three or more items, you can use a comma before or, but this is a preference, not a rule.

People often get muddled about whether to place a comma before conjunctions like and, so, because, and or.

10 Words You Need to Know for the GRE

Whether you’re studying for the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations test) or just want to improve your vocabulary, these are ten words you should learn how to use right now.

Replete: filled or well-supplied with something. Our cupboard is replete with canned soup.

Harbinger: A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something. Some people believe that crows are harbingers of death.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

11 Unique Ways to Say ‘Thank You’ in an Email

It’s not a good look, but it happens: for busy, highly caffeinated workers in a deadline-driven world, it’s perilously easy to send an email that reads as callous and unfeeling.

Your humble blogger included, we’ve all been guilty at times, hurriedly mashing “send” and moving on without acknowledging whatever favor or question we’ve imposed upon a trusted colleague or potentially valuable contact.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Find Your Zen When Coworkers Are Getting on Your Nerves

Today is not going as planned.

A wave of unexpected assignments crashed across your desk this morning, forcing you to skip lunch. You’re feeling grouchy. Then, seeking solace in the breakroom, you discover an overloaded refrigerator shelf has chosen this very moment to collapse. After a terrible crash that surely captured everyone’s attention, you find yourself standing in a pool of broken glass, sorrow, and cold tea.

Friday, April 3, 2015

12 Aquatic Collective Nouns That Will Make Your Heart Squee

You know what to call a group of cows or sheep, but do you know the names for groups of animals in the ocean? Why neglect your friends under the sea? Learn which animals congregate in a cast today!

Army of Herring

Attention! Most fish swim in schools, but herring swim in armies.

Bed of Oysters

Buried in the sand of the ocean floor or on the beach, you can find a bed of oysters.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

What is a Gerund Phrase?

A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any modifiers or objects associated with it. A gerund is a noun made from a verb root plus ing (a present participle). A whole gerund phrase functions in a sentence just like a noun, and can act as a subject, an object, or a predicate nominative.

If you look up the definition of gerund (pronounced JER-und), you will find that it means “an English noun formed from a verb by adding -ing”; that is, a present participle used as a noun.