Wednesday 31 December 2014

9 Ways to Discuss Frequent Career Changes in a Job Interview

Your recent work history is a bit flighty.

No position in the last few years has lasted longer than a year or so.

There are already so many ways to mess up in an interview.

You have great skills and dedication; how do you communicate it to a hiring team when your resume screams something else?

Here are our best tips for handling frequent career changes during the hiring process.

Thursday 25 December 2014

The 10 Commandments of Grammar Lovers

Grammar gets a bad rap even without the help of the vigilantes who use it to take the moral high ground. So when a few haters decide to reduce learners, those who make grammatical mistakes, and even old-school grammar pedants to lifeless sea scum, it doesn’t do grammar any favors. It only means true and noble grammarians need to work harder to destigmatize the institution.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Than Vs. Then–What’s the Difference?

Two acquaintances who share many of the same features may be difficult to distinguish from one another. How can you tell them apart? One way is to get to know them better. Even identical twins have unique characteristics in their physical appearance and personality. A lot of people make errors with the nearly identical than/then pair, but you don’t have to be one of them.

Monday 15 December 2014

Main Verbs: Definition and Examples

The main verb is also called the lexical verb or the principal verb. This term refers to the important verb in the sentence, the one that typically shows the action or state of being of the subject. Main verbs can stand alone, or they can be used with a helping verb, also called an auxiliary verb.

Helping verbs do just what they sound like they do—they help! Different helping verbs help or support the main verb in different ways.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

9 Skills You Need to Master Before You Become a Manager

There’s no doubt that being a manager has its perks — increased prestige, recognition from upper management, and a higher paycheck among them. But as with anything worth aspiring to, it’s not all fun and games. As a manager, there are plenty of times you’ll find yourself in tough spots. Maybe you need to let someone know they’re no longer a good fit for their role or smooth things over with an upset client.

Wednesday 3 December 2014

5 Smart Ways to Answer ‘Why Should We Hire You?’

Every employer has an ideal candidate in mind at the start of the hiring process. The “Why should we hire you?” question affords you the perfect opportunity to prove you are that candidate.

We all hate having to answer this question, but when you consider it from an employer’s perspective you can see why every interviewer asks it. You wouldn’t buy a new car without first doing your homework to ensure you’re getting the best value for your money.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Hanged vs. Hung—Learn the Difference

Even the most hardened grammarians don’t condone capital punishment for grammar offenses, but we do tend to get hung up about hanged. Hanged can only refer to someone’s death by hanging. If you are wondering, “Is it hanged or hung?” establish whether a deadly action has taken place.

It’s one of the few times when grammar becomes a matter of life and death.

The Past Tense of Hang

Hung is the past tense of to hang when it means “to suspend or be suspended.”

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Persons vs. People vs. Peoples—What’s the Difference?

Most of the time, people is the correct word to choose as a plural for person. Persons is archaic, and it is safe to avoid using it, except in legal writing, which has its own traditional language. Peoples is only necessary when you refer to distinct ethnic groups (for example, within the same region).

“People” vs. “Persons” as Plurals

Person and people both derive from Latin, but from different words.

Monday 17 November 2014

13 Mistakes to Avoid at Your Next Networking Event

How good are your networking skills, really? Are you gaining awesome connections at every event, or do you leave with a handful of cards for contacts that never pan out?

As you may have guessed, there’s more to the networking hustle than showing up at an event and hitting the bar. Networking has its own skillset, and you could be ruining your chances at making connections (and securing your next job) without even knowing it.

Friday 7 November 2014

19 Llamas Who Get How You Feel After Vacation

You just got back from vacation, and it’s your first day back at work. You’re numb. Everything seems pointless. People say “Happy Monday!” and all you can think is:

If anyone knows how you feel, it’s a pack of llamas. (Or alpacas. We’re using both, because they’re both certified to help you get over post-vacation blues.) Llamas and their alpaca friends have experienced the ups and downs of vacation and its aftermath, and they can truly understand the struggle of getting back to the routine.

Thursday 30 October 2014

15 Words Invented by Shakespeare

Guest post from Mignon Fogarty

The 452nd anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth is coming. He is not only known as a timeless playwright, but also as a prolific inventor of words. Although modern researchers have found that some words originally attributed to him, such as puke, have earlier sources, there are still many that hold up today as Shakespeare’s creations according to the Oxford English Dictionary:

Thursday 23 October 2014

14 Career Development Books That Will Help You Reach Your Goals

Do you need a hand? These fourteen career development books will show you how you can move your job goals in the right direction.

The Classics

People who get stuff done share at least seven common traits. In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, you’ll learn what the seven practices are and how you can acquire them.

Though ruling a nation might not be your career goal, you can glean a lot of wisdom from The Emperor’s Handbook, a translation of Meditations written by Marcus Aurelius, which includes some “unique features for contemporary readers.”

Wednesday 22 October 2014

16 Original Pun-inspired Costumes to Wear This Halloween

To anyone who’s been following us on social media, it should come as no surprise that Grammarly loves puns—especially clever ones that we’ve never seen before. With Halloween just around the corner, we thought we would pull together some of the most creative ideas to spark your imagination.

1Drawn and Quartered

It’s a good thing puns aren’t considered treason! Follow this helpful tutorial to cover yourself in Pop Art makeup, then draw or hot-glue quarters to an old T-shirt.

Friday 17 October 2014

20 Professional Writers to Follow on Instagram

Maybe you’re in it for writing advice. Or maybe you want to know what your favorite writers do in their actual lives. Maybe you just need a distraction and want to look at cats, food, or cartoons, but also want feel a little intellectual while you’re at it.

Don’t fret. Everyone looks at social media for “inspiration,” whether they realize it or not.

Whatever your motivation may be, we’ve gathered twenty of the best Instagram accounts operated by professional writers (or about or related to professional writing).

Friday 10 October 2014

#Yodify your Grammar

With the arrival of the anniversary of the initial release of the first Star Wars movie, we at Grammarly started to reflect on what makes the films so great. Being language lovers and word nerds at heart, we are particularly fascinated and charmed by the grammar of the great Jedi master, Yoda. To celebrate our love of Star Wars, we dissected a few classic Yoda-style quotes in order to better understand the patterns that #yodify the English language.

Friday 3 October 2014

Commas in Complex Sentences

Complex sentences are sentences that have two clauses. There can be two independent clauses (each having a subject and predicate), or an independent clause and dependent clause (missing a subject or predicate). Whether a comma is used between them depends on the types and positions of the clauses.

An independent clause is a clause that can stand on its own as a sentence.

Monday 29 September 2014

Empathy vs. Sympathy

  • Empathy is a term we use for the ability to understand other people’s feelings as if we were having them ourselves.
  • Empathy can also mean projecting our own feeling onto a work of art or another object.
  • Sympathy refers to the ability to take part in someone else’s feelings, mostly by feeling sorrowful about their misfortune.
  • Sympathy can also be used in relation to opinions and taste, like when you say that you have sympathy for a political cause.

Friday 19 September 2014

From Pens to Speech: How Writing Tools Have Evolved

As technology improves, it’s faster and easier than ever to get words from brain to screen. We’ve progressed from dipping utensils in ink to using speech recognition software to dictate an entire Slate article. Here’s the evolution of writing tools at a glance.

Pens

Writers initially used reed or bamboo pens, feather quills, ink brushes, or dip pens, all of which were dipped into ink and then placed on papyrus or paper.

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Democratic Primary Candidates Grammar Power Rankings

When we’re online putting our thoughts and ideas into writing, grammar can mean the difference between getting our point across and having it misconstrued. If there’s one place where clear communication is a must, it’s the world of politics.

Ready or not, presidential debate season has begun. Armed with our grammar algorithms and research team, we headed to each 2016 presidential candidate’s official Facebook page to take a lighthearted look at how well their supporters write.

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. ...