20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes. I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward.
If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. But experience has also taught me that readers, for better or worse, will approach your work with a jaundiced eye and an itch to judge. While your grammar shouldn’t be a reflection of your creative powers or writing abilities, let’s face it — it usually is. Who and Whom This one opens a big can of worms. Which and That Lay and Lie Moot Nor. Prettiest Words: A Work in Progress.
50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills. Advertisement Today, too many websites are still inaccessible.
In our new book Inclusive Design Patterns, we explore how to craft flexible front-end design patterns and make future-proof and accessible interfaces without extra effort. Hardcover, 312 pages. Get the book now! Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Of course, effective writing requires a good command of the language in which you write or want to write.
Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link We collected over 50 useful and practical tools and resources that will help you to improve your writing skills. 1. Use English Punctuation Correctly6 A quick and useful crash course in English punctuation. HyperGrammar7 An extensive electronic grammar course at the University of Ottawa’s Writing Centre.
Grammar Girl8 Mignon Fogarty’s quick and dirty tips for better writing. English Style Guide – Economist16 This guide is based on the style book which is given to all journalists at The Economist. 2. Dr. 3. How to Write Great Articles Using This 7-Point Checklist. Every serious writer wants to write well and know that they are somehow making an impact on their readers.
A writer may be trying to convey an emotion, provide information, describe how to do something, persuade a buyer, or any number of other endeavors. The writer is hoping to move the reader in some way. It may be an emotional movement, as in invoking feelings of joy, humor, anger, or injustice; an intellectual movement, as in having educated them on how to do something better or more efficiently; or a movement to act, as in purchasing a product, and so on. There are several ways to go about reaching an audience, and the best writers always keep in mind the article’s impact on the audience. Good writers communicate with their audience. So, before you release your copy to a client, magazine editor, or the Internet, ask yourself the following questions – it will help you to write content that appeals to readers and keeps them coming back, looking for more of your work. 1. 2. 3. 4. BlaBlaMeter - Bullshit detection tool.
100 Exquisite Adjectives. By Mark Nichol Adjectives — descriptive words that modify nouns — often come under fire for their cluttering quality, but often it’s quality, not quantity, that is the issue.
Plenty of tired adjectives are available to spoil a good sentence, but when you find just the right word for the job, enrichment ensues. Practice precision when you select words. Here’s a list of adjectives: Subscribe to Receive our Articles and Exercises via Email You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! 21 Responses to “100 Exquisite Adjectives” Rebecca Fantastic list!