Wednesday 26 February 2003

What Is a Protagonist?

  • Protagonist comes from a Greek word for the principal actor in a drama.
  • In modern literature, the protagonist drives the story forward by pursuing a goal.
  • The protagonist of a story is sometimes called the main character.
  • The protagonist of a story is opposed by an antagonist.

If you have ever taken a writing or literature class, you probably heard someone refer to a protagonist.

Tuesday 18 February 2003

International English: Going beyond U.K. and U.S. English

Guest post by Rosevita Warda

“The status of English as an international language is long established and, for the foreseeable future, unlikely to be greatly challenged. However, I believe that to make it genuinely international, then one step in that direction could be to consider the influence of non-native speakers in a different light.

“Generally, their non-occurrent uses are labeled errors and they are encouraged to change to conform to the standard English model, even though many native speakers don’t.

Sunday 16 February 2003

5 Ways League of Legends Helps You Communicate Better Under Pressure

You are battling toward the nexus in a 5v5-ranked game late on a Wednesday night. You have to work the next day and know you are not going to get enough sleep. But fear not! Your dedication to League of Legends is helping more than just your online rep. It’s helping you to be a better team player by teaching you these five valuable lessons in communicating under pressure.

Wednesday 5 February 2003

Train your brain with these 4 spelling tips and tricks

Amateur Something or someone that is amateur is non-professional. If you remember that amateur ends in a fancy French suffix (-eur), you’ll be able to spell this word correctly in both professional and non-professional situations.

Conscientious Conscientious means thorough, careful, or vigilant. If you have a strong conscience, you will be conscientious. You can remember the conscience by breaking it into “con” and “science.” Then the similarities between conscience and conscientious will help you remember the spelling for the latter.

Monday 3 February 2003

Stop saying St. Patty’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! While you’re drinking green beer and counting shamrock leaves, you might end up debating a popular St. Patrick’s Day question: is it St. Patty’s Day or St. Paddy’s Day?

It’s easy to think that Patrick ought to be shortened to “Patty.” The name contains a T rather than a D, after all. However, “Paddy” comes from the Irish name Padraig, which is the reason St.

Monday 27 January 2003

How to Quote a Quote?

  • In American English, use double quotation marks for quotations and single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.
  • In British English, use single quotation marks for quotations and double quotation marks for quotations within quotations.

The rules for using quotation marks can seem complicated, but once you understand the basic principles, it’s not so bad.

Tuesday 21 January 2003

Is the Cover Letter Dead?

The cover letter was once a valuable tool for all job seekers hoping to get by the HR gatekeeper. However, the rise of innovative tech, social media, millennials, and good old-fashioned networking is killing the cover letter.

The only thing missing from the decline of the cover letter is a time of death. In fact, chances are your cover letter won’t even be read, according to Fortune.

Tuesday 14 January 2003

5 Reasons to Have Someone Else Proof Your Resume

Guest Post from Brie Weiler Reynolds

It’s tempting, especially for those in writing professions, to assume you can proofread your own resume just as well as anyone else. After all, you know your work history, the message you’re trying to convey to employers, and how you want to convey yourself, right? There are, however, some very good reasons to have someone else proof your resume.

Monday 13 January 2003

7 Star Wars Leadership Lessons

May the Fourth be with you!

Today may be a day dedicated to puns, fandom, and a galaxy far, far away, but it probably doesn’t mean you’ve suddenly learned a Jedi mind trick to keep your manager from asking for that project, presentation, or report. If you’re like me, you’re trapped at work, wishing you could be cosplaying The Force Awakens with your family or baking an R2-D2 cake.

Sunday 29 December 2002

7 Books Every Student Should Read Before Entering the Workforce

Unless you’re really lucky, you’ll have some time between taking your last step out of your college and your first step into a new job. You can spend that time trying to have as much fun as you can, basically prolonging the college experience as long as possible. You can spend that time trying to figure things out, yourself included. You can travel, paint, or volunteer.

Wednesday 25 December 2002

7 Ghoulish Grammar Gaffes That Will Give You Chills

If you’re too old to be frightened by scary costumes, and you’ve watched so many horror movies that nothing can give you the chills anymore, you might think you’re preparing for a thrill-free Halloween. But we beg to differ. Creepier than the most realistic Halloween costumes, darker than the most terrifying horror movies, there are grammar mistakes—ghoulish and gnarly and gloomy and many other adjectives starting with the letter g.

Monday 16 December 2002

Practice or Practise–Which Spelling Is Right?

Practice with a C or practise with an S—which spelling is correct? In American English, practice is always right. In British English, whether practice or practise is the correct choice depends on its role in the sentence. How can you know which form to use?

In American English, practice may function as a noun or a verb. Regardless of its role in the sentence, the correct spelling is always practice with a C.

Wednesday 11 December 2002

Commas with Interrupters

Interrupters are little thoughts in the middle of a thought, added to show emotion, tone or emphasis. When we use an interrupter in the middle of a sentence, it should be emphasized with commas. This is because without the use of commas, the flow of the sentence may be awkward for the reader.

Interrupters are easily identified by saying the sentence out loud; you’ll naturally pause where the commas should be.

Monday 9 December 2002

WriteWorld: Writing Tips: Proofreading

I’m currently finishing up a university degree in journalism, and I’ve been doing journalistic work for newspapers and radio alike for some years now. It’s a line of work wherein proofreading is essential. People are paying to read a piece you’ve written, which means you simply…

Read more: WriteWorld: Writing Tips: Proofreading

Monday 2 December 2002

Conquering Email in the Workplace

Conquering Email in the Workplace How the right approach is a key ingredient to your future success.

Whether you are just starting your career or simply settling in at a new environment, the initial adjustment period can be a bit tricky. One important discipline that threatens the spirit of many new hires is deciding how to craft their emails appropriately. And by craft, I am alluding to all factors: the length, tone, style, closing signature and even who to copy.

Monday 25 November 2002

Future Perfect

The future perfect is a verb tense used for actions that will be completed before some other point in the future.

The parade will have ended by the time Chester gets out of bed. At eight o’clock I will have left.

Key words: Verb, past participle, tense, preposition

The future perfect tense is for talking about an action that will be completed between now and some point in the future.

Wednesday 20 November 2002

8 Embarrassing (Yet Common) Malapropisms

You may or may not have heard of these funny little things: malapropisms. A malapropism is the misuse of a word that creates a ridiculous sentence, usually as a result of confusing similar-sounding words. This can create embarrassing situations for people, especially during public speeches. To get a better idea of how malapropisms work, check out some of the examples below.

Thursday 14 November 2002

Into or In To—How Do I Use Them?

A common error is to confuse into, spelled as one word, with the two words in to. When deciding which is right for your sentence, remember that into is a preposition that shows what something is within or inside. As separate words, in and to sometimes simply wind up next to each other.

A preposition is a word that shows a relationship, usually in terms of space or time, between words in a clause or phrase.

Friday 8 November 2002

Is formal writing too formal?

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.

50 Awesome Holiday Words to Know This December

The holidays are upon us, and these winter celebrations with their many traditions each have a rich and varied vocabulary. ...