You probably learned about “they” and other pronouns in the first grade. “They” is the third-person plural pronoun, used for talking about groups of things or people.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Grammar Basics: How to Use Singular “They”
Thursday, January 30, 2014
12 Essential Books to Read on LitMas
Merry LitMas!
Joy to the world, the bookish holiday has arrived! How will you celebrate?
We will be cracking the spines of a few of our favorite reads from this year (which, incidentally, make great last-minute gifts for that other holiday that rhymes with LitMas). We may curl up with a book and some tea, stretch out with cocoa and a sweater, or bring a book to a favorite literary haunt.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
How to Stop Procrastinating and Take Control of Your Life
Are you procrastinating? Is there an essay or a blog post you just can’t seem to get done? We could suggest:
Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today.
Though, it won’t likely help.
Why not? Professionals, students, educators, writers, and so on have all heard this advice, and we all feel compelled to follow it, but—let’s be frank—it’s not easy to just “stop procrastinating.” We don’t procrastinate for the sake of procrastination or laziness.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Watch Your Words in the Job Search!
The Grammarly team collected 500 active job postings, including marketing and engineering jobs, from the top 100 most profitable companies in the United States. We then assessed how each company used language in these listings to express hiring priorities.
- Hiring companies do not want someone who views a “job” as “work”
- “Experience” is more highly valued by hiring companies than “skills”
- Job seekers should use their cover letter and resume to talk about instances of teamwork vs.
Friday, January 24, 2014
How Tina Fey Gets Things Done
via GIPHY
On the heels of our breakdown of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s writing habits, we’re serving up more writing wisdom from none other than the fabulous Tina Fey! The award-winning comedian-screenwriter-actress-producer-author has spent the past twenty years blazing trails as one of the great comic geniuses of our time.
And just in case you’ve been hiking the Amazon or watching only C-SPAN for the past twenty years, here’s a quick recap of her career . . .
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Eight Christmas Grammar Mistakes That Will Make You Think
How many times have you seen “Happy Holidays from the Jones’s” or “Mary Christmas” in a Christmas card?
When you’re working through a stack of Christmas cards, it can be difficult to cross your t’s and dot your i’s, let alone remember a series of seemingly random holiday-related grammar rules. So, in the spirit of holiday giving, we’re giving you eight Christmas grammar tips for LitMas.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Entitled vs. Titled
You can say that a book is entitled “so and so,” but to say that it’s titled might be a more elegant and middle-of-the-road solution.
It doesn’t take a large leap of imagination to see how this blog might be read by someone who is working on his or her first book. To those of you who are working on novels, we wish the best of luck, offer some advice, and present you with a conundrum—will you title your book, or will you entitle it?