Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Avoid the 7 Blogging Mistakes That Reduce Your Traffic

When you start blogging, you can almost smell success in terms of your marketing strategies. Blogging can be a powerful way to expand your audience, but if you do it wrong it can work the other way. Below are seven blogging mistakes you may not be aware you are committing.

Instability in blog posting

Be direct and make sure your message is clear.

People are intelligent and capable of determining what they believe and what they do not.

Monday, November 16, 2015

How to Take Feedback, Even When It’s Hard

Getting feedback in the workplace can be a difficult experience. We each crave success, aspiring for praise from our leaders and peers that will, in turn, make us feel recognized and valuable at work. In reality, constructive criticism will be doled out more often and will play a more significant role in the dynamics of our relationships with co-workers and in our individual performance.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

It’s Time to End Grammar Trolling

During a recent discussion here at Grammarly HQ, someone on the team asked a very good question: is there actually a difference between correcting someone’s grammar and being a grammar troll?

As a copy editor by trade, I have a strong opinion on this one. Yes! Of course there’s a difference!

A good editor, a caring teacher, or an upstanding grammar lover offers corrections that are helpful, polite, and appropriate.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

7 Tips for a Perfect Elevator Pitch

What is the purpose of an interview? Companies conduct them because they want to know about your experience, education, and character. Different interviewers ask different questions, but their underlying query is the same: Who are you? To answer that question effectively and sell your skills, you can use a special tool called an elevator pitch or elevator speech. You are about to learn what a good and bad elevator speech looks like, and how you can write an outstanding one.

Monday, November 9, 2015

The Skinny on Latin Plurals

If you speak and write English, it’s most common to use an S or ES ending to make a noun plural. However, some words that derive from Latin have retained their Latin plural endings. Let’s talk about some of the most useful of these words. Certain words English has borrowed from Latin retain Latin endings in their plural forms: alga (algae), larva (larvae), and nucleus (nuclei). Two common words—alga and larva—always end in E in the plural form.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Ellen DeGeneres and Hugh Laurie compare British and American slang; how many can you get right?

How many of these do you know? Are you more American or Brit?

Share your results on Facebook and tag @Grammarly!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

“How Well Can You Translate Business Jargon to Plain Language?” Quiz

“Synergistic.”

“Alignment.”

“Piggyback.”

“Engagement.”

“Low-hanging fruit.”

Business jargon seems to be taking over our offices. Aside from being cringe-worthy and borderline cliche, business jargon or “management speak” makes communication vague and unhelpful.

Additionally, this kind of “code language” can be extremely isolating to new people or people from other cultures, where business jargon is not widely used.