Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Correcting People’s Grammar: Just Don’t Do It

As grammar nerds, we care a lot about correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If you’re a grammar lover, maybe you’ve found yourself fighting the urge to correct a misspelled menu item at a restaurant. Perhaps you’ve even corrected a “who” to a “whom” when your friend used the wrong word in a story.

When it comes to grammar correction and education, where is the line between agitating and helping?

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Basics of Good Proofreading

After you finish writing something, do you read it over? Hopefully yes, but reading is not proofreading. The process of reading for enjoyment or information is significantly different from the process of proofreading. How so? To proofread is to examine a document with the express purpose of finding and correcting errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Let’s compare and contrast reading and proofreading.

Monday, December 29, 2014

6 Notable People Who Experienced Imposter Syndrome

An imposter is a fraud, someone who pretends to be something they aren’t. Often, their motive is to steal or take advantage of others. However, some people who feel like imposters aren’t guilty of any crime. They haven’t intentionally misled anyone.

According to psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes, imposter syndrome affects many high-achieving individuals. You’ll be surprised at how many successful people don’t feel they deserve the praise they receive.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Do you use tools to write better emails?

What do you think about the state of writing in the workplace? Share your thoughts in our weekly poll!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Most Common GrammoWriMo Mistakes

In November, Grammarly worked with ~300 writers from 27 countries (and 44 U.S. states) to write a group novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). We called the project #GrammoWriMo; and, clocking in at a total of 130,927 unedited words, we are proud to say that our draft was among the 41,940 completed! The infographic below shows which mistakes were the most common in our writers’ first drafts.

Monday, December 22, 2014

10 Words Brits Use That Americans No Longer Do

A quick example of the bleeding obvious: people speak differently in the UK and the US. If you’re an American fan of British TV shows—the originals, not the American remakes—you’re probably very aware that once in a while, the characters will utter a word that you won’t hear on the streets of your hometown.

But you may be surprised to know that some of the words we consider distinctly British today were once fairly common in the United States.

Friday, December 19, 2014

10 Habits Today’s Writers Share

Whether you realize it or not, you’re a writer.

It’s hard not to be one in the information age, when writing is essential, if not inescapable. Maybe you’re keeping up with old friends and upcoming assignments. Or perhaps you’re trying to impress a hiring committee or a hot date. We’re constantly dashing off notes and status updates with a regularity that would’ve been the envy of anyone in the era of telegrams and typewriters, let alone the cloistered monks who hand-copied ancient scrolls by candlelight.