Monday, May 14, 2012

Sequence of Tenses–Grammar Rules

The rules governing verb tenses are dictated by logic; an action in the future obviously cannot happen before an action in the past. In writing, it’s a matter of looking at your clauses and sentences and determining when each action is happening relative to everything else. The past must come before the present, and the present before the future, etc. Pay particular attention to the verb sequence when you have a dependent clause before an independent clause, or a result clause before the if-clause.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Surprise, Suprise or Surprize —Which Is Correct?

  • Surprise is the correct way to spell the word.
  • Surprize was once an alternative spelling, but it’s very rarely used today.
  • Suprise is not an acceptable way to spell surprise.

Once upon a time, it was possible to choose between two spellings of surprise, but nowadays there’s only one.

How to Spell Surprise

There is only one generally accepted spelling of surprise: two r’s and two s’s in total.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

What Is a Collective Noun?

A collective noun is a word or phrase that refers to a group of people or things as one entity. One common error that arises from using collective nouns is subject-verb disagreement: writers often become confused about whether to treat a collective noun as singular or plural. While collective nouns are mostly treated as singular, there are exceptions.

Collective nouns represent more than one person or thing in a class.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Conquering Email in the Workplace

Conquering Email in the Workplace How the right approach is a key ingredient to your future success.

Whether you are just starting your career or simply settling in at a new environment, the initial adjustment period can be a bit tricky. One important discipline that threatens the spirit of many new hires is deciding how to craft their emails appropriately. And by craft, I am alluding to all factors: the length, tone, style, closing signature and even who to copy.

Friday, May 4, 2012

15 More Sources of Inspiration for Content Creators

Writers of the world, unite! Creators of content are always on the lookout for more, well, content. Sometimes that means research, sometimes that means tips on building a business, and sometimes that just means looking at cool stuff and feeling inspired.

If you’re a fiction writer, content marketer, journalist, designer, or other kind of content creator in search of suggestions specific to the type of writing you do, head on over to Grammarly’s colossal list of tips, techniques, ideas, and sources for all your content creation needs (and maybe more).

Monday, April 30, 2012

Labeled or Labelled—Which Is Correct?

  • Labeled and labelled are both correct spellings.
  • Labeled is the preferred spelling in American English.
  • Labelled is the preferred spelling in British English.

How should you spell the past tense of the verb label? After adding the -ed ending, should you double the L? Speakers of American English might answer differently than speakers of British English.

Labeled vs. Labelled

Labeled and labelled are both correct spellings, and they mean the same thing.

Friday, April 27, 2012

“Where do you do it?” Meme Generators

Do you want to help us spread awareness for writing, GrammoWriMo, and NaNoWriMo? Or maybe you just want to show some of your writer-pride? Either way, we’ve put together a special meme for you to customize with your own #IDoIt caption.

To create your own #IDoIt meme to share on Facebook, Twitter, your blog and other social media channels, follow the instructions below:

1. Choose whether you would like a male image or a female image.