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.
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.
Do you know what a dord is? No? Well, don’t try looking it up in the dictionary, unless the dictionary is Webster’s Second New International Dictionary of 1934. This strange little word appeared only in that one edition, and it spent a whole five years there, happily, before being discovered as a fake. You see, “dord” isn’t a real word, even though it appeared in a dictionary. It was the result of someone misreading a note written by Austin M. Paterson, Webster’s chemistry editor at the time. The note said “D or d, cont./density,” and it referred to the uppercase letter D (or lowercase d) being used as an abbreviation for density. “D or d” became “dord,” a word that meant “density,” and the best-known example of a ghost-word—a word that, in fact, isn’t a word at all.
The Oxford Dictionary defines ghost word as “a word recorded in a dictionary or other reference work which is not actually used.” Merriam-Webster says a ghost word is “a word form never in established usage.” The term was coined by Professor Walter William Skeat in 1886, well before dord came into existence. In a yearly address to the London Philological Society, Skeat took the opportunity to call out several erroneous words. These included abacot, the misspelling of “a bycoket” (a type of headwear); kimes, which came about as the misspelling of “knives”; and morse, which was a misspelling of “nurse.”
Ghost words existed even before Skeat pointed the phenomenon out. Phantomnation appeared in the 1864 Webster’s Dictionary. It was described as a rare word meaning “appearance of a phantom, illusion,” and it was attributed to the poet Alexander Pope. Pope did indeed have something to do with it, as his Odyssey contains the verse “all the phantom nations of the dead,” but it was a man named Richard Paul Jodrell who, in his practice of solidifying two-word phrases into one (he also coined the word “islandempress,” among many others), made “phantom nation” into a single word and published it in his 1820 book Philology of the English Language.
The 1755 Johnson’s Dictionary defined the word foupe as “to drive with a sudden impetuosity” and noted that the word was out of use. And it was out of use, because it never really existed—it was a product of misreading the word soupe, written with a long s. And soupe was a rare word indeed—it meant “swoop.” The same dictionary also had an entry for adventine, which was a misprint in a Francis Bacon work—the actual word was “adventive.”
Sometimes, ghost words appear in dictionaries on purpose, even though in that case they are called by another name: nihilartikel. Esquivalence is such a word—it was a false entry in the New Oxford American Dictionary. The word was invented by Christine Lindberg, one of the NOAD editors, who defined it as “the willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities.” The whole thing was part of the dictionary’s strategy for copyright protection. And nihilartikel is a nihilartikel itself—the word originated in a false entry in the German-language Wikipedia. Talk about wordception.
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. But keeping your message under 160 characters can be good practice—and it’s still easier than beating Twitter’s 140-character limit.
For those interested in crafting professional messages that get to the point but are also well written, try these strategies:
1 Figure out a reason. To directly promote a sale or event? Build your database? Ask recipients to join a loyalty club or complete their membership profile? Alert your audience to something new in your company or site? Unlike social media, where it’s OK just to say hi or put up a fun picture, professional texts need to have a purpose. Since people are likely to check out a text within a few minutes of it arriving, it needs to get their attention and justify them taking the time to read it.
2 Identify yourself. Even if someone has given approval to receive texts from you and your business, they may not recognize your phone number or name and could immediately reject it as spam. So in the first few lines, identify yourself, either personally or by your company name. It also can help your recipients decide if they want to keep reading or go on to the next text, based on their past experience with your texts.
3 Make it personal. You may be sending the same note to thousands of subscribers, but you can still make it sound like you’re talking directly to each recipient. Try something like “We have a deal we’re sure you’ll enjoy” or “You need to come check this out.”
4 Extend an invitation. If you want customers to come buy from you, invite them to your store or your site. It could be more meaningful for recipients to read “We have a sale we’re sure you’ll enjoy” rather than a general “We’re having a big sale.”
5 Include a link. The link could send people somewhere on your site or to a special landing page for this particular promotion. But send them somewhere—they can receive more details, and you can get useful info about click-throughs.
6 Vary your voice. You can have a general voice for your “everyone” list of recipients. You also can have different categories in your database—maybe “users who like ___ product,” “members of our loyalty club,” or “super shoppers.” If you send separate notes to these groups, use slightly different language—maybe something more casual or informal.
7 Be enthusiastic but professional. You’re not a fifteen-year-old and your audience probably isn’t either, so there’s no reason to go bonkers with exclamation points!!!!! But you can throw in adjectives like “exciting,” “very cool,” or “amazing” to convey how appealing your message or special offer is.
8 Appeal to your customers’ need to improve their lives. You may already be including this lure in your marketing materials, but do it faster here. “Come and save money!” “Get a haircut and look your best!” “Plan ahead!” “Prepare to fall in love with our new dessert menu.” Various studies show that saving money is a prime reason that people join loyalty clubs —supporting a brand is nice, but what’s nicer is helping the budget.
9 Be direct. Sound confident and convincing in your invitation. Instead of saying, “We think you’ll like this,” try “We know you’ll love it.”
Looking at this list, it might seem like quite a lot of instructions and suggestions to keep in mind when you have only 160 characters to work with. The good news is that you’re allowed to practice—the more you write and the more your database grows, the more opportunities you’ll have to nail these.
Sophorn Chhay is an inbound marketer specializing in attracting targeted visitors and generated sales qualified leads. Through Trumpia’s SMS and marketing automation solution, he helps businesses and organizations communicate effectively with their customers or members. Trumpia is offering a free Mobile Marketing Success Kit, so don’t forget to grab your free copy.
Guest post by Erik Bowitz
Grammarly is widely known in the United States as an extremely useful tool for writers looking to quickly and easily write error-free prose. However, there is an even larger, and much less talked about group of writers who are equally enthusiastic about the opportunities Grammarly’s automated proofreader provides: English as a Second Language (ESL) writers.
ESL writers are hungry for writing assistance.
There has always been a large demand for ESL services, mostly revolving around speaking and listening education, but also including reading and writing. While speaking and listening is more easily practiced in a classroom or on the street, it is very much a group-focused activity that happens over the course of daily life. Perfecting writing skills, on the other hand, is a solitary activity that can be very difficult without the right learning aids.
Enter Englist.tw, an organization I founded to provide creative, technical, and English editing services to the island of Taiwan, my second home for the last five years. Being an American living in Taipei, I find myself constantly helping friends and colleagues with small English-related questions – from simple phrasing to more involved grammar correction. This was the catalyst behind starting a full-service English writing service.
Still, for some of those little questions, a contract-based human English editor really isn’t necessary, and that is why I have been a happy affiliate of Grammarly’s this year.
Without native-English speaking friends, many Taiwanese are at a loss as to how to improve their writing quality without spending large amounts of money for professional editors. Microsoft Office doesn’t cut it, and looking up individual words in a dictionary takes forever. So, when people contact Englist.tw looking help with small editing and proofreading tasks I usually recommend them to Grammarly because I know it is a quicker and more financially prudent option for them.
Grammarly works perfectly for ESL writers because it can accompany them everywhere online, from writing papers, editing and sending emails, and even updating their English Facebook statuses (Taiwan has the highest per capita Facebook usage in the world). Because of it’s cross-platform functionality, Grammarly quickly becomes an ESL writer’s constant companion – or at least from what I’ve observed in Taiwan.
In the end, I’ve found that when I recommend Grammarly’s services, everyone wins. Besides receiving generous affiliate commissions from Grammarly referrals, my company builds its reputation in the Taiwanese market as a thoughtful and solutions-oriented service – thanks largely in part to the effectiveness of Grammarly’s tools and the satisfaction of its ESL users.
About the Author
Erik Bowitz is the founder of Englist.tw, Taiwan’s leading provider of flexible professional writing services. In addition to running Englist.tw Erik enjoys immersing himself in Haruki Murakami novels and cycling.
I want to put a ding in the universe.
—Steve Jobs
You don’t have to be a fan of iEverything to recognize the tremendous impact Apple has had on technology and business. Steve Jobs led the company he co-founded in 1976 with charisma and an insatiable drive to innovate and succeed. When Jobs died in 2011, he left a legacy that will continue to shape our world for generations. Here are sixteen pieces of advice inspired by his words to help you make your own dent in the universe.
You have to trust in something; your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever, because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart.
Jobs believed in going where inspiration led him. Those leaps of faith require us to trust that things will work out as they should. Even when taking risks leads you to unexpected or even undesirable outcomes, knowing you’ll be able to tackle those outcomes inspires the confidence necessary to take chances on big ideas.
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.
When your work is also your passion, it doesn’t feel like work. Jobs believed in the importance of following your bliss.
I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.
Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
The world sees Steve Jobs as a success story, but his successes didn’t come without failures. Want to talk about a blow to the ego? Consider how Jobs must have felt when he was dumped by the company he co-founded. Apple ousted him in 1985, then hired him back in 1997 when the company was struggling financially.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
Jobs often said that being fired ultimately inspired him. While separated from Apple for more than a decade, he bought Pixar (then known as Graphics Group) for $5 million and played a major role in turning it into the multi-billion-dollar studio behind blockbuster movies like Toy Story (the first ever computer-animated feature film) and Finding Nemo.
via GIPHY
I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.
Jobs realized that saying no plays a big role in the creative process. Choosing which paths not to follow is as important as choosing the one to take. He celebrated the role saying no played in the decision-making process.
Anyone who’s ever watched an Apple product unveiling understands that Steve Jobs was a masterful corporate storyteller. Broadcasting your message isn’t enough—tell a story. In business, as well as in life, people are moved by those who don’t just present but rather inform, enlighten, inspire, and entertain.
Things don’t have to change the world to be important.
Jobs said that things didn’t need to change the world in order to be important. He realized that small shifts and minor wins can create a ripple effect and advocated embracing them all. When progress seems slow, celebrating minor victories can help maintain your energy and even build momentum.
I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.
Scoring a win is amazing, but it’s how you react after the win that matters. Jobs didn’t rest on his laurels following a success, but quickly put the gears in motion to figure out what his next innovation would be. Everyone needs to take a moment after completing a major project to take a breath and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. But when that moment’s over, it’s time to put that positive energy back to work.
Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
Anyone who’s ever tried to write a 250-word bio or distill the essence of an article into a two-sentence blurb knows that just because a task seems simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. Practicing the sort of clear-headed, logical thinking required to accomplish small but significant feats can become a hugely beneficial life skill.
Arguably, Steve Jobs’ most famous quote is “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” He believed that the key to accomplishing big things was to nurture big dreams, dreams that might even seem too crazy to be within the realm of possibility. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,” he said, “are the ones who do.”
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Jobs was never satisfied by maintaining the status quo; he wanted to accomplish big things. He learned that life is too precious to waste by spending time doing things that aren’t gratifying.
Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
It’s important to be able to accept and grow from feedback, but Jobs knew that it’s equally important to be able to listen to yourself and, ultimately, be your own decision maker.
Have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Being a leader and innovator means being perceptive enough to tune in to your own intuition and bold enough to venture where it leads.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Facing death and being told to get his affairs in order helped Jobs realize that time is our most valuable commodity. His 2005 Stanford commencement speech echoed those sentiments, reminding us that life is short, and every minute needs a purpose, whether that purpose is to achieve, dream, create, or just relax.
Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
—Steve Jobs’ final words
Although the meaning of his last words remains mysterious, it’s clear that Steve Jobs’ sense of wonder and curiosity was a force that propelled him. Remember to take time to have a look around, be amazed, and say, “Oh, wow!”
You’re not likely to count emailing as one of your top ten favorite pastimes. But you might change your mind after you read this article! Here are eight amazing ways to make your email experience enjoyable.
According to Chess.com, the very first correspondence chess game might date back to a competition between the Byzantine emperor and the caliph of Baghdad in the ninth century. If chess isn’t your thing, you can play almost any game by email. Simply email the starting move to all of the players. All the players adjust their boards (virtual or physical) to reflect your move, and the next player sends notice of his move with by using the “reply all” feature. Just keep adjusting the boards and taking turns until someone wins! Back in the days of correspondence chess by mail, it might have taken weeks or longer to receive a reply. Nowadays, email is a great way to quickly and easily play games with your buddies no matter where they are. Who’s up for a long distance game of Jenga?
Pixelation is a bad thing unless it’s intentional; then, it’s retro chic! Amaze your friends with an abstract design or a simple object. To create a design, you can sketch it on graph paper or in draw it in Photoshop using the slice tool. Next, code the pattern in HTML. For detailed instructions, visit DigitalBlock.com.
Do you like a clean inbox? If so, you may not be completely happy to see flagged emails cluttering up your screen. Wouldn’t it be nice to put the email away until you are ready to deal with it without the danger of forgetting it? A new Chrome extension, Gmail Snooze, makes it possible. As easily as hitting the button on your alarm, you can now schedule emails to reappear in your mailbox at a date and time convenient for you.
Themes are like art for your inbox. Most email programs come preloaded with themes from basic patterns to stunning natural imagery. You can even customize your own theme by uploading your own picture. A side benefit is added security. No matter which computer you use, you will always recognize whether or not you’ve logged in to your account because of your custom theme.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is an animation worth? According to Windows Central, a gif “can express exactly the mood, tone, and expression you are looking to share with someone.” Gifs are basically short looped animations. You can really spice up a message with these types of images. For example, if you are emailing a baby shower invitation, you can include a gif of a dancing baby to make your guests smile. If you use Microsoft Outlook, you can add GIPHY to your email account at the Office Store.
After a conference, you may end up with a handful of business cards and little recollection of which card belongs to whom. Now, you can use the Rapportive app to view information about the person you are emailing. You’ll be able to see their public social network profiles, pictures, and a history of your chats after you’ve made contact. You can also send an invitation to network via LinkedIn without leaving your Gmail account.
If you are passionate about something, subscribe to a blog! Blogs are a simple way to stay current about a topic. The Email on Acid blog, for example, will keep you abreast of new and innovative ways to use your email account to its fullest capabilities. You may also try your hand at writing your own blog. Share travel stories, hobbying tips, or the latest news about your interests.
Ecards are a sweet way to keep in touch, but be careful to choose a reputable company to avoid viruses and spam. The article “Send and Receive E-cards Safely” gives some useful pointers. For instance, some companies allow you collect ecards from their websites rather than clicking on a link in an email message. You could also make your own electronic greeting. Design a colorful greeting card in a software program that allows you to save files in PDF format. Then, send it as an email attachment as a personal surprise to family and friends.
Life hacks help you solve problems or save time in surprisingly novel ways. Now you can even hack your email with fun and practical apps, integrations, and ideas. Now that your imagination has ignited, what will you do to level up your next email?
What do you say when you make a mistake? If you use sorry often, the expression may lose a little of its power. Here are six other words for saying sorry.
My apologies is another word for “I’m sorry.” It’s rather formal, so it’s fine for business contexts. Commonly, people use it to decline an invitation or express regret at not being able to fulfill a request. However, it may be perceived as sarcastic in casual settings, so choose carefully when and with whom to use it.
Pardon is a verb which means to allow as a courtesy. Pardon me asks the offended or wronged person to excuse your mistake. Pardon used alone is a shortened form of “I beg your pardon.” In that instance, pardon is a noun that means forgiveness or tolerance.
Excuse me is used to politely interrupt a conversation. You might also say it if you commit a social no-no.
This Latin phrase derives from a Catholic prayer. Nowadays, people use mea culpa to apologize or take responsibility for wrongdoing. You might see this phrase in newspapers, for example, to apologize for misinformation or to retract a statement made in error.
Oops (or whoops) is used for mild errors or social blunders. If you spill a glass of water, you might use this exclamation of chagrin for your mistake. On the other hand, if you break an invaluable heirloom vase, a stronger apology might be in order.
My bad is a slang expression used to claim responsibility for a deed. If you bump someone on the street, you can say “my bad” to let them know you acknowledge your fault. My bad should only be used in casual speech or among friends.
If you make a mistake, don’t worry. With so many new ways to say you’re sorry, you can apologize for your gaffes and goofs in style! What’s your favorite way to say you’re sorry?
Guest post from Tilia Klebenov Jacobs
“My book is about, um, me. Is that okay?”
This is the question I get most often when I teach novel-writing classes. And I say go for it, because every novelist is a memoirist and every memoirist is a novelist. Even the most earnest nonfiction writer must of necessity apply a little fiction here and there, if only because she probably wasn’t taking notes on that watershed conversation thirty years ago. By contrast, the novelist can create a completely fictional character, but as often as not writes about himself. Far from being a cop-out, this can add richness to one’s prose.
Consider this experiment. Think of three novels you have enjoyed. Now compare the protagonist with the author.
Suzanne Vale, the main character of Postcards From the Edge, is a movie star with substance abuse issues. Big ones. Much like those of the author, Carrie Fisher. When Fisher discovered she was bipolar, she wrote a sequel, The Best Awful There Is, in which we find Vale struggling with bipolar disorder. By this time Vale has a daughter and an ex-husband. Like Fisher.
A.A. Milne, who wrote the Winnie the Pooh stories, is not a stuffed bear; but his son Christopher Robin had a bear named Edward, which he renamed “Winnie-the-Pooh” after a bear in the London Zoo. He also had Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga. The original toys are on display at the New York Public Library. When Christopher Robin was a boy, the Milne family used to vacation at the Five Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest, which served as the inspiration for the illustrations for the books.
Valid reasons exist for making your main character an awful lot like you. The first is believability: You already know how this person walks and talks, and the fact that she is allergic to Belgian endive. This puts you a hundred yards down the track when the starting gun goes off, because it means your main character is already a flesh-and-blood person, not a cardboard cutout.
Furthermore, writing about you helps with job- or avocation-related authenticity. If you are a wedding photographer and so is your book’s hero, you can include all sorts of little details to impress your readers. Of course, you can do that with research, too, and research is a mighty fine thing. But there is no substitute for the depth of knowledge that comes from personal experience.
Finally, starting with yourself is a good way to avoid clichés and plot pitfalls. I remember being in a workshop and critiquing a manuscript whose main character had just done something so catatonically stupid that it wasn’t believable. The leader, a very successful writer and teacher, made this suggestion: If you find you’ve written yourself into a corner, ask yourself, “What would I do?” Then have your character do it. So if you personally would never run back into that zombie-racked mansion that happens to be on fire at the moment, let your character run like hell. It will spare your readers untold eye-roll moments.
I am happy to admit that the protagonist of Wrong Place, Wrong Time looks and acts an awful lot like me. She’s married and has the same number of kids that I do. She’s smart and funny, and she knows how to fight. I can imagine her living next door to me. Or in the same house. My goal was to write a thriller with a familiar, believable heroine at its heart, an ordinary person struggling in an extraordinary situation. Thinking about myself in the story helped a lot.
So you want to write about you? Go for it! Embrace the familiar. You’ll be glad you did.
About the Author
Writer Tilia Klebenov Jacobs has won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction work. Her writing has appeared in The Jewish Magazine and anthologies including Phoenix Rising: Collected Papers on Harry Potter (2008, Narrate Conferences Inc.) and The Chalk Circle (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2012), a collection of intercultural essays. Her latest release, Wrong Place, Wrong Time was designated IndieReader Approved and the book won honorable mention for the 2010 Joanna Catherine Scott Novel Excerpt Prize.
For the past 12 years, Jacobs has lived in near Boston, Mass. with her husband, two children and their two standard poodles. In addition to teaching writing at several state prisons in Massachusetts, she has been a guest blogger for Jungle Red Writers, Femmes Fatales and author Terri Giuliano Long’s website. Tilia is a judge in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition and will be in San Francisco for the awards ceremony March 30.
We can thank poets for transferring love from heart to pen to paper. Romantic poetry resurfaces during engagements, weddings, and Valentine’s Day, when we’re prompted to ponder what love is, how we value it, and how we express it. Is our love best expressed by candy, cards, and flowers? These poets seem to think not. Turn to the experts for inspiration from these five staggering love poems that tap into the heart of true romance; there’s a poem for the lonely hearts this Valentine’s Day, too. Read on to sate your craving for sweetness without the candy.
“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” by e. e. cummings
With this poem, Cummings captures the all-encompassing feeling of being in love. It’s the kind of love that follows you everywhere and exists deep within. This is what true romantics yearn for.
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart) i am never without it(anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)
“It Is Here” by Harold Pinter
This brief but nonetheless staggering love poem by Pinter has the effect of taking the reader’s breath away in the last three lines. We rise in anticipation of what the writer is asking about and delight in the beautifully written moment of a shared breath upon first meeting. Ah, love.
What sound was that? I turn away, into the shaking room. What was that sound that came on in the dark? What is this maze of life it leaves us in? What is this stance we take, to turn away, and then turn back? What did we hear? It was the breath we took when we first met. Listen. It is here.
“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s poem is uber-romantic because of when it was written—it was his last poem before he died and is purportedly about his wife Virginia. Their love was stronger than the power of heaven and hell, which is saying a lot.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in Heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
“Touch” by Thom Gunn
Gunn beautifully illustrates the intimacy of touch in the domestic setting of being in bed with someone (with a cat there, too). The word love isn’t mentioned, but warmth and closeness can be felt from the words. The relatability of this is due, in part, to the anonymity of the subject of the poem. Is it a woman, a man? It doesn’t matter.
Meanwhile and slowly I feel a is it my own warmth surfacing or the ferment of your whole body that in darkness beneath the cover is stealing bit by bit to break down that chill.
“Love After Love” by Derek Walcott
If you’re mending a broken heart this Valentine’s Day, take refuge in Walcott’s poem “Love After Love.” It’s about loving oneself again by turning inward and reflecting.
You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart.”
Concluding our ode to romantic poetry is a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke about what it really means to love:
To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Perhaps this is why these poets dedicated their work to the subject, proving love is worth more than candy, cards, and flowers.
Now that you’re feeling inspired about love, what are your favorite lines of romantic poetry?
If you’ve only heard the word gist aloud, you might not know how to spell it. Both gist and jist might seem like good choices, but one of them is not.
When we say we want to get the gist of something, we’re talking about its essence or main point:
In legal contexts, gist refers to the grounds on which a legal action rests. This meaning is closer to the origin of the word gist. It was borrowed from Anglo-French in the early eighteenth century. The phrase it was commonly used in was cest action gist, which means “this action lies.”
The only correct way of spelling gist is with a g. It’s not uncommon to see it misspelled with a j, but no matter how often jist might pop up, it is not the correct way to spell gist.
A collective noun is a word or phrase that refers to a group of people or things as one entity. One common error that arises from using collective nouns is subject-verb disagreement: writers often become confused about whether to treat a collective noun as singular or plural. While collective nouns are mostly treated as singular, there are exceptions.
Collective nouns represent more than one person or thing in a class. It isn’t possible to have just one lion in a pride, and a single flower does not make a bouquet. Thus, a collective noun always describes a plurality of one kind or another.
This mental image of “multiple” sometimes causes us to choose the wrong verb tense with a collective noun.
From the example above, we can see that the choir, though composed of many people, is a singular unit. One can assume that they will perform the Brahms requiem as one. It is possible that each singer will start the piece and proceed according to his or her own speed, resulting in a cacophony. But that would be unlikely. That is why our choir uses the singular verb is rather than the plural verb are. It is also why the choir takes the pronoun it rather than they.
The past tense affords a wonderful respite from this subject-verb agreement problem. We get this break because in the past tense, first-person and third-person verb forms are the same.
The team is or are? The audience is or are? There are times when we use collective nouns that would normally require a singular verb, but because of the context in which they are used, a plural verb fits better. This happens when members of the group stop acting as a cohesive unit and begin acting as individuals.
In this example, the collective noun “committee” is a group that has a unified purpose today: deciding the fate of John’s proposal.
In this example, the committee are acting as individuals; it is extremely unlikely that they are scratching their heads and glancing at each other in unison, like an odd game of Simon Says. Therefore, the committee now gets the plural verb “are.”
Similar decisions must be made when we write about animals.
The act that is performed as a unit gets a singular verb, while the other gets a plural one.
It is interesting to note that when a decision needs to be made about whether a collective noun is singular or plural and the answer is ambiguous, American English will almost always default to a singular verb, while British English writers will often choose a plural. At the top of the list of contentious collective nouns is family.
Everyone, everybody, no one, and nobody are always singular.
For reasons that can only be explained by tradition, “police,” when used as a collective noun, is always plural in both American and British English.
However illogical it may seem, “police force” is singular—again, traditionally speaking.
Collective nouns for groups of people, fish, and other animals are diverse and numerous, and each term comes with its own fascinating history. Many terms for groups of animals were first recorded in The Book of St. Albans, published in 1486, and their use flourished among hunters. The terms for groups of people are equally interesting. For instance, did you know that according to Merriam-Webster, the term “a panel of experts” evolved from pannelus, a diminutive Latin word for a piece of cloth, and that this term was once used to describe pieces of parchment on which jury lists were written?
Such collective nouns have such individual origins that there is no way to learn them all except to look them up. Three cheers for the internet!
Every language represents colors with different words. Linguists have found some interesting patterns in how colors are represented in language. Let’s look at some of their most intriguing findings.
All languages distinguish colors. However, some languages represent colors in only two basic groups. Linguists found that all languages that have only two color distinctions base them on black (or dark) and white (or light). If a language has a third color family, it is almost always based on red. Languages with four color groups label either yellow or green as the fourth. Next come blue, brown, and so on. Interestingly, how languages identify color doesn’t seem to be random. There’s no language that only recognizes orange and pink, for example. English is a language with one of the largest numbers of basic colors. It has eleven. Can you name them all?
Brent Berlin and Paul Kay are anthropological linguists, which means they study the relationship between language, culture, and biology. Their research suggested that languages don’t lose color distinctions once they are made. For example, if a language has distinguished pink from red, it won’t ever go back to grouping them as the same color. Why is this notable? Well, other words are much more likely to come and go or change meaning over time. Snoutfair is extinct already, and many people think whom is in danger of falling completely out of fashion. Colors, on the other hand, hold remarkably steady. That is, until some recent research shook the hypothesis a bit!
Linguistics professor Claire Bowern and her colleague, Hannah Haynie, studied the evolution of some Australian languages. They found that Australian languages have “lost color terms, as well as gained them.” Perhaps color words aren’t as unchangeable as previously thought! They also found that Australian languages, like many other languages, base language words on the environment. For example, the Yandruwandha word for black is related to a word for ashes.
Would you like to learn more about colors and language? For example, why are there two spellings—gray and grey—for one color? The answer may surprise you!
If a perfect game for competitive wordsmiths exists, Scrabble is it. Not only does the game allow you to flex your vocabulary muscles, it also encourages you to use key strategies to increase your score. When you play these seven underused words, you’ll have a winning chance at an all-time Scrabble high score.
Maximize
One of the easiest ways to score big with Scrabble is to use one or more of the highest-ranked letter tiles. Playing the X tile will earn you an easy eight points, and this seven-letter word gives you an opportunity to maximize your score, or make it as great as possible. Using all seven of the letter tiles on your rack at once, or scoring a “bingo,” grants you 50 bonus points.
Quixotic
This word includes two of the rarest letter tiles, Q and X. Though you’ll have to be quite quixotic, or extremely idealistic, to think you’ll have the chance to play this word, it’s certainly possible. Since rare letter tiles lead to high scores, this word will impress your opponents and increase your numbers at the same time.
Quickly
Playing common words can be a great Scrabble strategy, since they are easy to remember and implement. Look for a high-scoring location on the game board, and watch for one of the rare Q tiles to appear on your rack. Once you visualize your move, seize the opportunity and play this word as quickly, or speedily, as you can.
Whizbang
Adding on to letters that already appear on the Scrabble board is a great way to play longer words. Since this word includes eight letters, instead of the standard seven stored on your rack, you’ll need to set up this play or build on one by an opponent. For a whizbang, or a resounding success, of a game, simply add “whiz” to an already played “bang,” and watch your score jump.
Quizzify
This is a tricky play, but one that pays off in a big way. If you get lucky and draw the only Q and Z tiles in the game, throw in a blank tile to stand in for the second Z in this word. If you’re really strategic, you can even play this word on top of triple word and double letter squares. Don’t worry if your opponents quizzify, or question, you for this move. You’ll be the one celebrating your massive score.
Chutzpah
You may need to have to have real chutzpah, or supreme self-confidence, to play this word, since it’s not in everyone’s vocabulary. Scrabble rules prohibit brand names and words that are always capitalized, but this is a common and acceptable Yiddish term and an official Scrabble word. Play the Z tile on a triple letter square, and you’ll really score big.
Jumbles
Sometimes making a clever move on top of an opponent’s smart play is the best strategy. This is an excellent example of a word that can earn you more points with the simple addition of an S tile. Straighten out the jumbles, or disordered mixes, on your rack by playing a quick one-letter extension, otherwise known as a hook. This has served as the winning word for more than one Scrabble tournament, and it can do wonders for your game, too.
If you want to be a Scrabble champion, it helps to have an extensive vocabulary. But if you don’t have time to read through the dictionary, there are other ways to score. To make big plays, memorize these key words and place them strategically.
April 13 is Scrabble Day. What’s the highest scoring Scrabble word you’ve ever played?
by Georganna Hancock, M.S. editor at A Writer’s Edge, and special guest in this week’s #GrammarlyChat
When we speak of “editing” a manuscript, people generally have in mind copy or line editing. That concerns a variety of elements frequently labeled “grammar,” but in fact includes punctuation, capitalization, syntax and style matters.
Large publishers offer several other types of editing but independent editors also provide them on a freelance basis. At The Bay Area Editors’ Forum, you can learn about the different types of editing and what each entails with definitions of various editorial services.
To get an idea of what some of these editing services cost, consult the Editorial Freelancers Association and its rates. However, charges can vary considerably depending on the job and the editor, location, special needs and the timeline for the work.
A good description of copyediting is Scott Berkun’s “What copyeditors do.” Take time to read through the comments and Berkun’s responses at the end.
If an author decides that professional services are beyond the budget, maybe you can swap editing work with another writer. Getting a different pair of eyes to review your writing is important. When you read what you’ve written, you know what it means. Unfortunately, your meaning may not be evident to others who aren’t privy to the inner workings of your mind.
Any list of writing mistakes is endless. Some, like typos, spelling errors, repeated words, and missing punctuation marks are mechanical. Others can be grammar goofs like mismatched subjects and verbs. Most vexing are the logical issues involving homonyms (disk/disc, you’re/your) and words you may have heard but not seen spelled. Deeper mistakes include point of view (head hopping), timelines, characterization, pacing, internal consistency in story and similar analytic matters.
What to work on first is a personal choice. I suggest you start with the deeper problems (they may require a rewrite), then tackle the common mistakes we all make. Some writers and editors use electronic tools like MS Word’s grammar and spell check or Grammarly’s automated proofreader, which checks for over 250 kinds of grammatical errors. Even Google can help check individual words (although at a terribly slow pace). Professional editors invest in programs that comb an entire manuscript electronically to find errors and make corrections.
Most people would call my final pass through a manuscript (there may be up to five!) “proofreading.” This is when I do the final polishing of the prose, checking little details according to whichever style guide applies to that type of writing. The more well known ones include Chicago, Modern Language Association, New York Times, Associated Press, American Psychological Association and American Medical Association. Find more information on style at the venerable Purdue OWL.
No matter how you go about the editing process, make sure you’re consistent and thorough. No one’s writing is perfect the first time, so edit carefully!
As a #GrammarlyChat bonus, for the rest of this week my Kindle ePub “Editing Your Writing” is reduced to 99 cents. Find it on my Amazon Author Page or directly here.
About the author Georganna Hancock finds joy in helping other writers along the path to success. She’s a prolific tweeter @GLHancock who blogged for years and offers editorial services at A Writer’s Edge. She reviews books for writers at Blogcritics and publishes on Amazon.
