In some ways, everyone is a writer. Have you thought about how much writing you do in one day? Don’t overlook these seven daily writing tasks!
According to Lifewire.com, people around the world send more than two billion emails per day. That’s 2.4 million emails every second! The format of some emails closely resembles that of physical letters. For example, business emails contain the salutation, body, and closing that you would find in a business letter.
Around 400 people gathered on Sunday, November 6, at a Kuala Lumpur coffee shop called The Bee. Inside, there was barely enough room to stand, but that didn’t stop people from having fun and enjoying what they’d all come to witness—Malaysia’s very first pun competition. Adequately titled Pun Competition Malaysia, the event was a massive success, and by the end of it, Malaysia had its first winner of “The Punniest Ever” title, a guy called Zim Ahmadi.
Guest post from Scott Yates
As founder of a blogging service for business operators too busy to write their own posts, I pay a lot of attention to “good” writing.
We have a wide variety of clients, and our challenges involve the mastery of industry jargon, including acronyms and abbreviations.
So, if a client asks for a piece on search engine optimization or customer resource management — acronymically SEO and CRM — should the blogger just jump in and use the abbreviation, or should we genuflect at the altar of convention and have each abbreviation undergo the initiation of being spelled out at least once?
Happy Friday! Once again it’s time for our weekly roundup of stories about writing, books, and authors. Have something you’d like to see us cover here? Let us know in the comment section!
1 Tips for Aspiring Writers in 12 Infographics (Ebook Friendly)
2 Writing Tips from a Supreme Court Justice (Time)
3 J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Trivia Tweets (Salon)
Is there a difference between dreamed and dreamt? You might be surprised to find conflicting reports. Some people say that there is no difference. Others say that the two words have different meanings. What’s the real deal?
Dreamt and dreamed are both past tense forms of dream. Dreamt is more common in Britain, while dreamed is more common in other English-speaking countries, including the U.S.
Being someone’s bff does not mean you’re part of a club with only two members. It does, however, mean that you have a very close friend.
Bff is an initialism of the phrase best friend(s) forever, and it’s a term of endearment used for selected close friends.
By Sophorn Chhay
Just because you have room for 160 characters in your texts doesn’t mean you should use them all.
In fact, texting experts seem to agree that an ideal text should be short and sweet, especially in a business environment, where the name of the game is brevity. Essentially, focus on quality, not quantity.
This can sometimes be a challenge for people who enjoy being verbose.
Guest post from Scott Yates
Abbreviations and acronyms have embedded themselves in English as somewhat of an auxiliary language. If you thought Latin was a dead language, it isn’t. It lives somewhat zombie-like in some very common abbreviations like, e.g., i.e., etc.
(Notice how the “etc.” in that last sentence did double-duty there? No extra charge for that. 😉
(Same goes for the double-duty parenthesis at the end of the last parenthetical winky-face.)
By David at EssaysCoach.com
Within your college application, your personal statement is your one opportunity for the admissions officer to “meet you”, to visualize the person behind the numbers. While no essay can save an unqualified application, an outstanding essay can push an otherwise mediocre application into the “yes” pile.
However, writing a good application essay is hard.
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Are you curious how all the celebrities did? Learn more about our #GrammarDay MVPs in our recent study.
So, you want to know what your English grammar level is? You’ve come to the right place. This post will cover the answers and additional learning resources for “Grammar Skills Test—Starter.” The Starter test covers Question formation, verb tense, prepositions, subject-verb agreement, and word order.
Correct answers are highlighted. Links go to additional learning resources to help you continue improving.
Have you seen check spelled cheque? You might have wondered whether it was a spelling error or a new word that you don’t know. Let’s look into this word and how it differs from check.
The possessive case shows ownership. With the addition of ’s (or sometimes just the apostrophe), a noun can change from a simple person, place, or thing to a person, place, or thing that owns something. There are a few different ways to form the possessive of a noun. We’ll discuss these ways below.
If the noun doesn’t end with an s, add ’s to the end of the noun. See the following examples:
How should you spell the past tense of the verb label? After adding the -ed ending, should you double the L? Speakers of American English might answer differently than speakers of British English.
“Vampires! Zombies! Werewolves!” “Where?!” “Behind you!”
Thank goodness for prepositions. Imagine not knowing where the danger lay!
Prepositions tell us where or when something is in relation to something else. When monsters are sneaking up on you, it is good to have these special words to tell us where those monsters are. Are they behind us or in front of us; are they near or far; will they be arriving in three seconds or at midnight?
We are “devolving” into lackadaisical proofreaders.
Even senior management and professionals with advanced degrees and experience no longer show the stamina or desire to ensure that their written words convey exactly what they are meant to–and our carelessness is coming to a head.
This is compounded by the fact that, more than ever, human beings are being judged on word choice.
Grammar is cool now (it’s still cool, right?) so it’s okay to wave your red pen in the air like you just don’t care. Take the quiz below and find out just how much of a word nerd you really are. Give yourself a point for each statement you agree with.
Guest Post from Leslie Anglesey, Professor at California State University, Sacramento
Writing an application essay is no easy task, but reading it should be. College admission boards consider a number of things when reviewing an application. While most students understand the importance of extra-curricular activities and GPAs, the admission essay often gets overlooked.
By Laura Wallis for The Stir by CafeMom
And other things your kids will ask to make you feel old
A friend recently mentioned that her child, upon picking up a landline phone, asked, “Mom, what is that sound?” It was a dial tone. The speed at which technology is advancing means that many once-basic details of everyday life are quickly going the way of the dinosaur.
