How to Navigate Political Talk at Work

You’re at your desk, writing an email and minding your own business, when you overhear your officemates chatting nearby. They’re casually discussing climate change, a topic you’re passionate about. You could weigh in and drop some serious knowledge on them, but if you do, you’re likely to be engaged in a debate. Should you resist the urge or jump into the fray? It’s a tricky question.

Stop Making Contraction Mistakes Now. Here’s How.

 

Contractions. Everyone has messed up a contraction at one time or another. Sometimes these errors happen because a writer misunderstands the purpose of contractions, but most of the time they’re simply typos. Whatever the reason for your mistakes, we’ve got you covered.

If you don’t quite know the rules for contractions, you can brush up with our handbook.

If typos are your problem, try our free browser extension for help catching those keyboard slips (plus many other  types of writing errors).

Which Grammar Rules Are Dying?

We all make mistakes. Sometimes, we even embrace them.

Such is the case with language. The words you’re reading right now are the product of centuries of slang, corruption, amalgamation, and lazy habits. The writers of today gently nudge future evolutions of English by choosing which mistakes will be acceptable tomorrow. (For instance, where you use verbs like “stung” and “stunk,” experts believe future writers may instead opt for “stinged” and “stinked.”)

Here’s the Real History of Mother’s Day

Did moms come up with Mother’s Day as an easy way to get pancakes in bed? Did activists fight for its adoption as a way to get folks to focus on peace? Or did card companies invent it as a way to make a few (billion) bucks?

If you answered all of the above, you’re right. Well, at least partially. Peace activists did play a role in early versions of Mother’s Day, and makers of cards and candy (not to mention florists) do get to rake in the rewards the second week of May every year.

Each and Every–What’s the difference?

Each vs. every is a common grammar issue, even for proficient writers, because let’s face it—they’re very similar words. Although both words refer to something that is singular, each refers to an individual object or person, while the term every refers to a group of objects or people lumped together as one. For example, consider the following sentences:

Every artist is sensitive.

Here’s How to Get out of Meetings with Grace

I once worked remotely for a company that had a regular content editor meeting every Friday. That meeting was the bane of my working existence. We’d all gather on a conference call line starting at 10 a.m. We’d arrive with good intentions, but inevitably no one had an agenda and we’d walk away (sometimes hours later) without having reached any actionable conclusions. The only thing anyone would act on would be to take a few minutes at the start of next week’s meeting to bemoan the lack of things we accomplished with the previous one.

It’s vs. Its: How Should You Use Them?

When you’re in a hurry, you might write “it’s” when you really mean “its,” or the other way around. You need to be aware of this mistake and know when to use which.

It’s is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” Its is a possessive determiner we use to say that something belongs to or refers to something.

It’s and its are among the most commonly confused words. They are pronounced the same, there’s a very small difference in how they’re written, and it’s also easy to mistake the contraction in it’s for a possessive.