5 Inspiring Authors to Read During Black History Month

February was officially recognized as Black History Month by the US government in 1976 as part of the US bicentennial, although its beginnings date to the establishment of Negro History Week in 1926. It’s a month to remember important events and people in African-American history. We’ve selected five inspiring authors to read during Black History Month as a remembrance of the great contributions of African-Americans who achieved literary acclaim.

How long did you study grammar in school?

This poll is part of a series that Grammarly is running aimed at better understanding how the public feels about writing, language learning, and grammar.

Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

If you are interested in more, check out last week’s poll.

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.

Job Seekers: What’s Wrong with Your Resume? Probably More than You Think.

#WhatIWrite: Cover Letters and Resumes

More than two thirds of salaried jobs require a significant amount of writing, making written communication a key consideration in hiring. Yet, top organizations still spend more than $3 Billion (with a “B”!) per year on remedial training to improve employees’ writing to baseline standards.

Cover letters and resumes are, not surprisingly, a great way for potential employers to assess candidate’s writing skills.

I Before E Except After C: 9 Helpful Spelling Rules

Learning spelling conventions can help you write with confidence. Which of the following rules are new to you?

S or ies?

To make a noun plural, you usually add S. However, you might have noticed that some words that end in Y deviate from the norm. For example, babies is the plural form of baby. How do you know when to change Y to ies? Look at the letter before the Y to find out.

How Language Represents Color

Every language represents colors with different words. Linguists have found some interesting patterns in how colors are represented in language. Let’s look at some of their most intriguing findings.

Predictable Sets of Colors

All languages distinguish colors. However, some languages represent colors in only two basic groups. Linguists found that all languages that have only two color distinctions base them on black (or dark) and white (or light).