Thursday, November 24, 2011

What Does Bff Mean?

  • Bff is an initialism of the phrase best friends forever.
  • Bff has evolved into a noun that refers to a close friend.

Being someone’s bff does not mean you’re part of a club with only two members. It does, however, mean that you have a very close friend.

The Meaning of Bff

Bff is an initialism of the phrase best friend(s) forever, and it’s a term of endearment used for selected close friends.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Two-minute Grammar: The Bare-bones Basics of Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives are descriptive words that modify (describe) nouns (persons, places, things, or ideas). They often tell you how many, which, and what kind. For example:

“He baked a delicious, beautiful cake.” (What kind of cake is it? It is delicious and beautiful.) “Nine members of our group signed up for the yoga class.” (How many members signed up? Nine.) “Hand me the broken radio so I can try to fix it.” (Which radio?

Monday, November 21, 2011

How to Write a Catchy Headline in 1 Minute and 7 Seconds

Guest post from Nick Marquet

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If you are a writer, your goal is probably for your work to be consumed by an interested audience who will rave about it to their friends. Yet, if you write the most insightful, thought-provoking, earth-shattering blog post or newspaper article — and no one reads it – it’s not very likely that your writing will resonate with a wide audience.

Friday, November 18, 2011

8 Steps to Stop a Grammar Troll

You write a great article, and someone comments to point out every typo. You express your opinion in a comment, and someone critiques your writing style. These self-appointed grammar overseers are grammar trolls. What do you do when a grammar troll tests your patience? An angry response often makes the situation worse. If you want them to leave you alone, you will need to shut them down once and for all!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses—What’s the Difference?

A restrictive clause modifies the noun that precedes it in an essential way. Restrictive clauses limit or identify such nouns and cannot be removed from a sentence without changing the sentence’s meaning. A nonrestrictive clause, on the other hand, describes a noun in a nonessential way.

The terminology in this area of grammar can be confusing, so let’s get that out of the way. Because restrictive clauses provide key, identifying information, they are often referred to as essential clauses, and nonrestrictive clauses are also called nonessential clauses for the opposite reason.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Got a Problem With Passive Voice? These 7 Sentences Will Help

By Akmal Akbarov

Do you have a problem with the passive voice? Do you know the difference between the passive and active voices?

Well, you don’t have to worry any longer because I have created this article just for you.

If you scroll down, you will see that I have taken one sentence and showed you how to write it in both the active and passive voices.

In the active voice your sentences usually follow this formula:

Monday, November 14, 2011

5 Inspiring Authors to Read During Black History Month

February was officially recognized as Black History Month by the US government in 1976 as part of the US bicentennial, although its beginnings date to the establishment of Negro History Week in 1926. It’s a month to remember important events and people in African-American history. We’ve selected five inspiring authors to read during Black History Month as a remembrance of the great contributions of African-Americans who achieved literary acclaim.