August 2012
82 posts
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“”I saw that my participle was dangling
My sentence thereby it was...”
– from http://goo.gl/33SOI
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Daily Featured Comment
In response to “Sometimes I forget how to spell a word so I change the whole sentence to avoid writing it.”
I’ve done this before. I think almost everyone has unless an English teacher is watching closely and “pushing buttons” like they are supposed to do.
— Melva R., via the Grammarly.com Facebook Page
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Overcoming Procrastination: Doing and Progressing...
Last Thursday, we began discussing the root causes of procrastination. You can read more about it, here. I listed what I considered the primary causes of procrastination. They are:
overwhelm
confusion
boredom
lack of motivation
distraction
To recap briefly, I encouraged those trying to overcome procrastination or tendencies to procrastinate to do four things; the most important of which...
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Daily Featured Comment
In regard to a post in Back-to-school writing and texting:
When I was in school I didn’t text much…now that my little brother-in-law is in high school he said the teaches allow the kids to text during class and use their phones to find answers. What happened to the world?
— Samantha S., via the Grammarly.com Facebook Page
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WriteWorld: Word of the Day: Truncate →
writeworld:
truncate \TRUHNG-keyt, verb:
1. To shorten by cutting off a part; cut short: Truncate detailed explanations. 2. Mathematics, Computers. To shorten (a number) by dropping a digit or digits: The numbers 1.4142 and 1.4987 can both be truncated to 1.4.
adjective: 1. Truncated. 2. Biology….
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Daily Featured Comment
Personally, I think both [text speak and standard English] are equally important in today’s way of life. Perhaps, we, the English teachers should provide both examples to explain. Just like how we tell our students what are formal and informal words. Technically, these words cannot be considered as informal since they’re not in the dictionary except urban dictionary, I guess but I must...
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Back-to-School Writing Basics for Students—and...
It’s time to go back to school. For many of us, students and non-students, summer is the ideal time to forget the formalities of school or work for a while. While I definitely encourage you to indulge in the last bit of summer vacation over Labor Day (US) weekend, I wouldn’t do readers justice to ignore the truth—vacation is ending and that what-I-did-over-the-summer essay is coming....
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Daily Featured Comment
On our “I vs. Me” Facebook post:
I always tell my students to pretend the other person isn’t in the sentence. I wouldn’t say, “She took a picture of I.” So, why would I say, “She took a picture of Corinne and I.” … Linking verbs make this more complicated (e.g. “It is I”).
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“A run-on sentence walks into a bar it is thirsty.”
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Overcoming Procrastination: Planning and...
Are you procrastinating? Is there an essay or a blog post you just can’t seem to get done? We could suggest:
“Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today.”
Though, it won’t likely help. Why not? Professionals, students, educators, writers, and so on have all heard this advice, and we all feel compelled to follow it, but—let’s be frank— as with...
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Is the New Obama 'Forward.' Slogan Grammatically...
At the beginning of the month TIME Magazine ran a story, ”Grammar Geeks Throw a Fit Over Obama’s ‘Forward.’ Slogan.” The article covers a recent debate over the correctness of the period in the Obama campaign slogan. According to the article, several expert grammarians as well as political and economic leaders have been going back and forth about how effective the slogan is. Some say...
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Daily Featured Comment
… there is no such thing as a “dangling preposition.” In any case, “know about” is a phrasal verb, and “about” is an adverbial particle. In many sentences that contain a phrasal verb, the preposition (or particle) comes at the end of the clause, as in “What are you talking about?” While we’re at it, the idea that you should not end a...
“the.”
– my essay (due tomorrow) Hmmm.
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The Internet Doesn't Have to Kill but Can Instead...
Almost anyone who cares about language and knows about or uses the Internet has been guilty at one time or another of demonizing the world wide web for its effects on the English language. “The Internet makes it easy for people, including professional writers, to publish writing publicly without editing.” “The Internet encourages casual writing and doesn’t reinforce proper writing skills.”...
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Meet the Dictionary's New Words →
amandaonwriting:
From Merriam-Webster’s Peter Sokolowski, here’s the full list of words
(we added a few notations about why certain words were added, via the m-w.com press release):
aha moment n (1939) : a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension [Oprah Winfrey’s signature phrase]
brain cramp n (1982) : an instance of temporary mental confusion...
