Today, millions of online voices will cry out, “May the 4th be with you!” to celebrate Star Wars Day. When it comes to space, two franchises arguably rule the sci-fi universe—Star Wars and Star Trek. One struggles fiercely for independence in a galaxy far, far away while the other explores strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations. We wanted to see what things are unique about the way their fandoms communicate, so we took a broad look at the writing styles and accuracy of their Reddit fan communities by analyzing nearly 2,000 comments.
We found some interesting data. (No, not the android named Data, although he proved to be a popular Star Trek character.) For instance, we discovered that Star Trek fans talk about Star Wars 3.8 times more often than Star Wars fans discuss Star Trek. Is it because Star Wars is the bigger titan of sci-fi pop culture? Our research showed that Star Wars certainly has the larger fan community with 456,728 Reddit members, versus 97,846 members talking about all things Trek.
Have a look at our infographic for more insights and to learn which characters, episodes and series from each franchise were the most popular.
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Methodology
We visited Reddit to gather the top 200 upvoted posts from both the Star Wars and Star Trek subreddits between April 18, 2015, and April 18, 2016. To get a broad range, we selected the top five upvoted comments with 20 words or more from each thread.
Using Grammarly, we identified the errors in the comments, which were then verified and tallied by a team of live proofreaders. For the purposes of this study we counted only black-and-white mistakes, such as misspellings, wrong and missing punctuation, misused or missing words, and subject-verb disagreement. We ignored stylistic variations, such as intentional misspellings, acronyms, common slang, and foreign or invented language.
Would you like some good news about errors? The simplest mistakes to make are the easiest to correct. If you’re having a frustrating job search, it’s probably because you’re making these ten simple job search mistakes.
1Failing to Make a Strong First Impression
Never forget that while you are searching for the perfect job, employers are searching for the ideal employee. If your resume doesn’t stand out, you’ll never get an interview. First, tailor your resume to each job posting by demonstrating you possess the desired qualifications listed in the advertisement. Then, reinforce your strongest points by including a pain letter with your application. With a little TLC, the attention to detail and experience reflected in your resume will serve as a fine introduction.
2Missing Opportunities to Network
Of course, you bring your resume and business cards to job fairs and networking events. But if these are the only times you think about networking, you’re probably missing excellent opportunities. For example, have you ever thought about keeping in touch with previous managers? Even if you don’t ever want to return to your former position, these people may be able to let you know about new developments. Also, if they change companies, they may remember you when they’re building a new team. You can also try to check back occasionally with companies whose interviews or offers you declined. You might try: “I loved your work environment when I came to interview for the administrative position. I declined it because I would flourish in a more creative role. When I saw your opening for a creative director, I knew I should reach out to you.”
3Failing to Recognize the Importance of Writing
If you are applying for a non-academic job, do your writing skills matter? Absolutely, according to MBA.com. Employers consider communication to be the most valuable of the top five skill sets for all recent graduates. (The others are teamwork, technical, leadership, and managerial skills.) If you don’t display writing ability, you won’t be able to compete with your peers. So, write the cover letter, even if it’s optional.
4Spelling and Grammar Mistakes
Speaking of writing, the number of people who fail to proofread would surprise you. Even if you haven’t used any complex or unfamiliar expressions, carefully read over every piece of communication with a potential employer, including email subject lines, document titles, phone numbers, and addresses. Take international spelling differences into consideration if you are applying for employment in a foreign country.
5Bombing an Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a brief summary of who you are and what talents you have. In formal interviews, interviewers may ask you to tell them about yourself. If you practice an effective elevator speech in advance, you’ll avoid the tendency to ramble. Your clearly stated expressions will indicate that you are confident in your abilities. As you may have guessed from the name, not every elevator pitch happens in a formal setting. Be ready to talk about yourself wherever you happen to run into someone influential.
6Too Much Information
Recruiters may not warn you that you’re oversharing, but they hate TMI. Hiring managers want to know an overview of your applicable skills in as short a time as possible. Be succinct. Keep your resume to one page of the most relevant highlights.
7Limiting Yourself to Online Vacancies
You’ll find lots of intriguing openings advertised on online job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder. However, only about 20% of vacancies are ever posted online, according to Payscale. Besides missing many possible opportunities, you also have a huge pool of competition if you limit your focus to online listings. Expand your job hunt to include college career centers, job fairs, and employment agencies. Ask your friends and family to keep their ears open too. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth.
8Surprising Your References
Let your references know that you are job hunting. Otherwise, they may be scrambling to remember your fine points (or even worse, who you are) when they get the call.
9Follow Up All Inquiries
It’s not enough to turn in an application. Contact a specific person in human resources by phone or email after you submit your application materials. Within a few days of your interview, send a follow-up note or email to thank hiring managers for their time.
10Relax
If you stress too much about finding a job, you might arrive at an interview a frazzled mess. Take the time between jobs to travel, catch up with family and friends, and enjoy your hobbies.
Are you guilty of one or more of these common job search mistakes? Why not work on correcting them today? Doing so may be your first step toward finding employment.
This morning you were launching emails with the rapid succession of a fireworks display and smashing deadlines like an elite Whac-a-Mole champion who can see the future. It’s one of those magical days where you managed to titrate your coffee dosage perfectly—you were awake enough to contribute plenty during your team’s morning meeting, but not caffeinated to the point of jitters or psychosis.
Then the two o’clock slump swooped in like a dementor, sucking every hope of productivity from your mind. Now, sitting at your desk, you’re like a desultory teenager in shop class during the last two weeks of school: you’re not working on anything so much as just drilling holes. Would my coworkers notice, you wonder, if I were to slink down to my car, recline the passenger seat, and doze off for twenty minutes?
And anyway, why am I like this every afternoon?
We’re here to help unspool this mystery, and explore a few remedies for your afternoon power outage.
What’s that you’re eating?
Did you skip lunch? Wait, back up—did you skip breakfast? Being hungry at work is a recipe for diminished productivity, general crabbiness, and the faint sense that you should’ve gone to grad school. It’s wise to map out contingencies to avert such crises: pack a lunch (or breakfast) and keep emergency snacks in your work bag or desk drawer.
Alas, simply remembering that you have to eat is not where the struggle ends, but where it begins.
Here’s a quick biology lesson: as energy from food you digest makes its way to your bloodstream, your pancreas releases the hormone insulin, which cues your cells to absorb that energy. This can occur gradually, as in the case of slow-burning fibrous whole grains, or it can happen abruptly, in the form of a sudden spike from an influx of refined sugar.
When the amount of sugar in your blood spikes, what follows is a surge of insulin, and subsequently the metabolic crater of sluggishness and regret in which you now find yourself.
One solution is to avoid crash-prone foods—choosing a handful of nuts or some carrots instead of sugary sweets, for instance.
Another fix might be to forego the giant lunch that always leaves you longing for naptime and instead munch little by little throughout the day. Also, if you feel desperate for a coffee break but don’t want to keep buzzing past bedtime, consider an alternative like green tea, which has less caffeine.
And don’t forget to drink water, either. A little bit of dehydration can go a long way toward jamming up your afternoon efforts, so sip often.
Get moving
As much as your boss might like to pretend otherwise, you’re not an android; you’re a complex and dynamic organism sculpted by millions of years of evolution to live by moving frequently. Sitting for hours on end in perfect obeisance to the glow of your screen is a prescription for soporific indifference.
If you can, go outside—bright light cues wakefulness. Getting some sun during the day can also help you rest better at night. Taking a brisk walk around the block gives your mind a chance to reset, so when you return to your keyboard you may not only feel less inclined to put your face on it, but also unlock a fresh angle to attack whatever you’re working on.
via GIPHY
Even if going for a dedicated stroll isn’t realistic, you should make time to stand up and shake out. For your body, sitting still goes hand in exhausted hand with sleepytime. Take a moment to work on your downward dog, or ask that coworker who’s weirdly into CrossFit if you can borrow one of the resistance bands you know he keeps in his desk, and stretch out your weary shoulders.
Workers in cavernous office complexes are sometimes known to deploy a two-for-one strategy, serving the dual imperatives to hydrate and to get up and walk around a bit more, simply by taking a few extra steps to a water fountain in a different part of the building.
Pump up the jams
Listening to exciting music can also help keep you off the post-lunch nod. The kind of jams that get your feet moving on the dancefloor might take some weight off your eyelids.
If power metal is more your speed though, you might want to take a cue from journalist Jason Leopold and be mindful of your workmates. A tiff over the volume of Leopold’s music at the office once escalated to colorful language and near fisticuffs, costing him a job. Yes, really.
Ultimately, your mid-afternoon slump likely stems from an amalgam of factors. To change it, you’re going to have to tweak a variety of habits: what you eat and when, how often you stand up to get your blood flowing and refill your water bottle—maybe even your playlist.
Such changes may not come easily or happen overnight, but it’s all right to take some time figuring it out. In the end, we believe your work is worth staying awake for.
The informality of email, texting, and tweeting has crept into company communication–embarrassing management and leaving bad impressions with clients. Kyle Wiens, of iFixit and Dozuki, said in a July 2012 post on the Harvard Business Review blog, “I have a ‘zero tolerance approach’ to grammar mistakes that make people look stupid.” He requires job applicants to pass a grammar test before hiring them because writing is his business.
Shouldn’t good grammar be everyone’s business?
According to a follow-up post from Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover, the answer is yes. In the workplace, good grammar is synonymous with attention to detail, critical thinking skills, and intellectual curiosity. Good grammar is the currency of the modern workplace, and employers are going for broke. More than two thirds of salaried jobs require a significant amount of written communication, and top organizations spend upwards of $3 billion per year on training to bring employee writing ability up to a baseline standard.
“Remember the fictional TV lawyer Ed?” asked Grammar Girl. “He lost his job in a Manhattan law firm because of a misplaced comma in a contract. Just in case you think this sort of thing only happens on TV, think again. A utility company in Canada had to pay an extra $2.13 million in 2006 to lease power poles because someone stuck a comma in the wrong spot.”
But what is the actual impact that poor grammar can have on a person’s overall career track?
At Grammarly, we looked at one hundred LinkedIn profiles of native English speakers in the consumer packaged goods industry to determine whether their writing skills could be correlated to their career success.
Here’s what we found:
Professionals with fewer grammar errors achieve higher positions. Those who failed to progress to a director-level position over the first ten years of their career made 2.5 times more grammar mistakes than their director-level colleagues.
Fewer grammar errors correlate with more promotions. Professionals with one to four promotions over their 10-year careers made 45 percent more grammar errors than those with six to nine promotions in the same timeframe.
Fewer grammar errors associate with frequent job changes. Those who remained at the same company for more than 10 years made 20 percent more grammar mistakes than those who held six jobs in the same period.
So what can we take away from all of this?
Like Mr. Wiens, Grammarly won’t hire people who use poor grammar. But, we haven’t chosen to do this based on an anecdote.
We don’t hire people who use poor grammar because our data definitively suggests that a lack of grammatical errors in a person’s resume can say a lot about that person, professionally. It can tell us whether they are skillful, credible, and pay attention to detail – and whether these characteristics will reasonably translate into their day-to-day work.
Think you have what it takes to join the grammarians at Grammarly? Take a look at our open positions here, and contact us today.
A possessive noun is a noun that possesses something—i.e., it has something. In most cases, a possessive noun is formed by adding an apostrophe +s to the noun, or if the noun is plural and already ends in s, only an apostrophe needs to be added. In the following sentence, boy’s is a possessive noun modifying pencil: The boy’s pencil snapped in half. It is clear that the pencil belongs to the boy; the ’s signifies ownership.
The cat’s toy was missing.
The cat possesses the toy, and we denote this by use of an apostrophe + s at the end of cat.
Is this Brandon’s book?
I pulled a feather from the goose’s tail.
When a noun ends in the letter s or an s sound, the same format applies. This is a matter of style, however, and some style guides suggest leaving off the extra s.
I have been invited to the boss’s house for dinner.
The trainer flipped a fish into the walrus’s open mouth.
Plural nouns ending in an s simply take an apostrophe at the end to form a possessive noun. Of course, there are many plural nouns in English that are irregular and do not end in s.
The chickens’ eggs were taken by the farmer early in the morning.
The children’s clothes were brand new.
Sometimes the idea of possession is more abstract. When you talk about long you’ve been doing something, it’s possible to use an apostrophe.
Ten years’ experience in marketing has taught me what works and what doesn’t.
Twenty years’ experience is nothing to sneeze at.
But it usually sounds better to use the word of instead of an apostrophe.
Ten years of experience in marketing has taught me what works and what doesn’t.
Twenty years of experience is nothing to sneeze at.
For more examples on how to use apostrophes to form possessives, read Apostrophe.
The possessive case shows ownership. With the addition of ’s (or sometimes just the apostrophe), a noun can change from a simple person, place, or thing to a person, place, or thing that owns something. There are a few different ways to form the possessive of a noun. We’ll discuss these ways below.
If the noun doesn’t end with an s, add ’s to the end of the noun. See the following examples:
This is Mary and her dog. The dog is Mary’s pet; Mary is not the dog’s pet.
This thick curtain is capable of shutting out the summer sun’s heat and light.
This is the way to the men’s room.
She got a job in the children’s section of the library.
Do we add another s for the possessive form of a name ending with s? Which is correct, Chris’s chair or Chris’ chair? James’s car or James’ car? Actually, both ways are correct. If a proper name ends with an s, you can add just the apostrophe or an apostrophe and an s. See the examples below for an illustration of this type of possessive noun.
You’re sitting in Chis’ chair.
You’re sitting in Chis’s chair.
Have you seen James’ car?
Have you seen James’s car?
Where is Jess’ book bag?
Where is Jess’s book bag?
I’m in Ms. Jones’ class this year.
I’m in Ms. Jones’s class this year.
But when you have a plural noun that ends in s, add just the apostrophe. This is also true when you have a proper noun that’s plural.
This is the boys’ bedroom.
My parents’ house is a lovely old one.
The scissors’ handles just snapped off.
The Jeffersons’ yard is always beautifully landscaped.
Here’s a tip: Should you write student’s or students’?
When you have an ordinary noun like student, you can tell whether the possessive form refers to one student or many students by looking at where the apostrophe is. When you’re talking about one student, add apostrophe + s:
The student’s favorite subject was science.
In the sentence above, we are talking about the favorite subject of one student. When you’re talking about many students, add an apostrophe.
The students’ favorite subject was science.
In the sentence above, we are talking about several students who all share the same favorite subject.
If you have a compound noun (for example, when you’re talking about two people who jointly own one thing), change only the last noun to the possessive. The examples below illustrate this usage of the possessive case.
Mike and Amanda’s new loft apartment is really neat.
Please tell Annie and Mary’s mother that they’ll be late getting home from school.
If the possessor is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, you don’t need to add an apostrophe to show possession. See the examples below for reference:
