Thursday, April 27, 2017

Plural Nouns: Rules and Examples

Most singular nouns are made plural by simply putting an -s at the end. There are many different rules regarding pluralization depending on what letter a noun ends in. Irregular nouns do not follow plural noun rules, so they must be memorized or looked up in the dictionary.

Plural Noun Rules

There are many plural noun rules, and because we use nouns so frequently when writing, it’s important to know all of them!

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

9 Ways to Discuss Frequent Career Changes in a Job Interview

Your recent work history is a bit flighty.

No position in the last few years has lasted longer than a year or so.

There are already so many ways to mess up in an interview.

You have great skills and dedication; how do you communicate it to a hiring team when your resume screams something else?

Here are our best tips for handling frequent career changes during the hiring process.

1Don’t draw extra attention to the frequent changes.

Why Mistake-free Writing on Your Phone Is So Valuable

Remember when phones were used exclusively for making phone calls? (Hard to believe, right?) Now we use our smartphones for all sorts of fun things . . . like sending text messages, answering emails, posting on Facebook, commenting on our favorite cat videos, and even finding true love.

While the freedom and flexibility of using a mobile device is awesome—the frustration that comes from typing on a tiny touch screen is not so great.

Friday, April 21, 2017

How to Write Holiday Greetings and Avoid Common Mistakes

Maybe you don’t love holly or snowmen. Or winter jingles. Or trying to manage the list of gifts you’ll need to buy, wrap, and present to your loved ones. Heck, maybe every year you get stuck holding down the office for weeks on end while half the staff is away. Still, you want to power through this—to scream “come at me December, I can take you on!”

Nothing says “I am undaunted by the demands of the winter holidays and am not merely soldiering through—I am here to dominate” like a greeting card.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Parallelism

Parallel sentence elements in grammar are just like parallel lines in geometry: they face the same direction and never meet.

More precisely, in grammar, it’s less about meeting and more about balance. Parallelism in grammar is defined as two or more phrases or clauses in a sentence that have the same grammatical structure.

The Why

A sentence with parallel construction makes your writing effective, classy, and certain to impress anyone who reads your stuff.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Ultimate Guide to Analyzing a Company’s Glassdoor Page

If you’ve heard of Glassdoor, odds are that you know you can find company ratings on our site. But while this is an important part of your job hunt research, the truth is that Glassdoor offers so much more than that (including job listings — more on that later!). So if you’re only looking at a company’s rating in order to assess what it’s like to work there, you’re missing out. But with so much information available, what exactly should you focus on?

Monday, April 17, 2017

Mixed Constructions

A mixed construction is a sentence with incompatible elements that begins with one type of structure and shifts to another type of structure. In these sentences, the speaker sets out to say one thing and abruptly switches to something else, resulting in confusion.

A sentence that is logical has a subject and a predicate. When a subject is introduced in a sentence, an expectation is set up about the grammatical direction the sentence is going in, and when that expectation is not met, the sentence does not sound right.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

How to Write a Good LinkedIn Summary: Powerful Tips and Examples

Imagine you were trying to get a job fifty years ago. You would find a job listing in a newspaper, set up an in-person interview, and walk in with your resume to introduce yourself to the company.

Today, LinkedIn has taken the place of the newspaper, your resume, and even that first meeting. Your presence on LinkedIn matters. In fact, 87 percent of recruiters will vet your candidacy by visiting your LinkedIn profile, according to data from Jobvite.

Semicolon

What Is a Semicolon?

Semicolons (;) are as basic as a period stacked on top of a comma. Does that mean you can use it like either one? Don’t get your hopes up. But don’t let this punctuation mark get you down, either. After all, that sly emoticon winky eye can’t be all bad. 😉

How to Use a Semicolon Correctly

The most common use of the semicolon is to join two independent clauses without using a conjunction like and.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Happy New Year, New Year’s, or New Years? How to Wish Someone Well in 2018

The last thing you want to worry about when ringing in the new year is where to put the apostrophe. Get the nitty-gritty on New Year, New Year’s, and New Years so you can make a toast at midnight and get your punctuation right while you’re at it.

When is it “New Year’s”?

Use the apostrophe-S in “New Year’s” when you’re talking about December 31 or January 1 resolutions you’re making, or other things that “belong” to the New Year.

Friday, April 7, 2017

7 Productivity Apps That Will Make Your Life More Efficient

Ever reach the end of the day and wonder where all your time went?

I keep reading articles where the author points out that all of us—from millionaires to humble knowledge workers—have the same twenty-four hours in the day.

Sure, this is meant to be inspiring (you too can achieve your dreams!), but when it’s already noon and I’ve barely started my to-do list . . . it just feels depressing.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Simile and Metaphor—What’s the Difference?

While both similes and metaphors are used to make comparisons, the difference between similes and metaphors comes down to a word. Similes use the words like or as to compare things—“Life is like a box of chocolates.” In contrast, metaphors directly state a comparison—“Love is a battlefield.”


Here are some examples of similes and metaphors:

Life is like a box of chocolates. (Simile) My life is an open book.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Exclamation Mark

The exclamation mark, also called an exclamation point, is a punctuation mark that goes at the end of certain sentences. It’s less common than the period or question mark, but it’s very easy to use. Some might say it’s too easy to use.

What Is an Exclamation Mark For?

Periods go at the end of declarative sentences, question marks go at the end of interrogative sentences, and exclamation marks go at the end of exclamatory sentences.

Monday, April 3, 2017

10 Expert Résumé Tips You Need to Land the Interview

Submitting your application and waiting for a response from employers can be an excruciating process. Especially when you’re not hearing back and wondering if something’s amiss with your résumé. These ten expert tips will help you freshen up your résumé so you can land the interview.

1 Modernize Your Résumé

It’s 2017, and we’re in a job seeker’s market. Employers are competing for top candidates.