7 Places Grammarly’s Mobile Keyboard Helps You the Most

Smartphone users, rejoice! Grammarly has finally made the long-awaited jump to mobile (both iOS and Android!), helping us improve our communication even when using our smartphones and tablets.

But how can the Grammarly keyboard really help your writing experience?

We’re glad you asked! Here are just a few of the important places Grammarly’s new keyboard can help you show up as your best self when you’re writing on mobile.

1Gmail

If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of your time responding to email. And even if you’re tapping out a quick reply on the train, between meetings, or waiting in the airport, you still want your communication to come across as professional.

Having access to Grammarly on mobile is a huge relief. The new keyboard integrates seamlessly with Gmail’s mobile app and elevates your writing to the same quality standard you’re used to on non-mobile devices.

Now you won’t have to worry about emailing your boss that you’re “running large foe teh meeting.”

2Your Favorite Dating App

If you use a dating or networking app like Bumble or Match, making a great impression is the name of the game—and using bad grammar tends to have negative results.

Research by dating sites Match.com and Zoosk found that the majority of their users (both women and men) consider bad grammar a significant turn off. (Yikes!)

Having Grammarly for mobile frees up your creative energy for crafting witty profiles and creative messages, so you can stop worrying about simple errors and start reeling in those high-quality matches.

3SMS

These days we use our smartphones for writing more often than we use them for phone calls, and texting is by far the most prevalent form of mobile communication.

For years, texting has been plagued with over-zealous autocorrect features that transform our innocuous messages into hilarious and often cringe-worthy results.

So if you’re ready to drastically reduce the number of embarrassing texts you send to your crush, your boss, and your mom, Grammarly’s mobile keyboard is a must-have. It’s your personal editor for clear, effective, mistake-free writing on mobile!

4Instagram

Let’s face it, Instagram is all about the perfect presentation. From the photo to the caption to the hashtags, you’re telling a story or sharing an idealized moment.

So whether you’re captioning the perfect vacation shot or commenting on your friend’s latest quotivational post, the last thing you want is a slew of glaring grammar errors distracting from the message you’re trying to convey.

Grammarly’s mobile keyboard ensures your Instagram game is always on point—at least when it comes to grammar. (Sorry folks. If your feed is mostly grainy photos of your lunch. . . that’s on you).

5Facebook

For many of us, Facebook is that go-to app for “in-between” times, like your morning commute, the five minute break between meetings, your mid-morning bathroom break, or waiting for your friend to show up at dinner.

So much of our posting and commenting happens on mobile, it’s great to finally have Grammarly double-checking your writing, just like it does on your non-mobile browser.

Plus, grammar trolls love to lurk on Facebook, so it’s nice to avoid that unwanted scrutiny whenever you roll out your next Facebook missive on something you truly care about.

6Evernote

Do you use Evernote? This app may be one of the best ways ever invented to keep track of everything in your life, and it automatically syncs between all your devices—desktop, tablet, and mobile.

Having Grammarly for mobile helps you keep your notes in great shape, so you won’t have to waste time editing them later. And with corrected spelling, you’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for when you use the search feature.

Go ahead—dash off a list of project ideas, edit your novel outline, organize your family’s vacation, all on your smartphone, without worrying about rampant errors.

7Twitter

It’s the platform of up-to-the-second social commentary that’s sparked countless cultural phenomena, political coups, and gems like “covfefe.”

Twitter may only allow 140 characters per tweet (or 280 if you’re feeling adventurous), but good grammar should still be a priority if you want to be taken seriously.

And if you need to fudge things a little for brevity’s sake, it’s always better to choose where you’re cutting corners (i.e., substituting “&” for “and”) than to make errors you weren’t aware of.

Are you using Grammarly’s mobile keyboard? You can now download it for your iOS or Android device.

Talk Like a Copy Editor and Learn Something New in the Process

If a publisher offers you a kill fee, don’t panic! They’re not asking you to murder anyone. A kill fee is money paid for a piece of writing if they decide to kill it—i.e., not publish it. If you want to make it in the writing industry (and avoid criminal charges), you need to learn the lingo. Let’s start right now.

Basic Writing Jargon

Have you heard of a policeman’s beat? It’s the area he regularly patrols. For reporters, a beat might refer to a physical location or a topic that they often cover. To illustrate, Jody Reporter might specialize in politics while John Reporter covers health care. When a politician does something notable, the newspaper will automatically assign Jody to cover the story because her beat is politics.

Jody will investigate and submit her copy to the editor. Copy is the content of a news article. Now, that makes it clear what copy editors do! They read the material, point out errors, and suggest improvements to increase clarity, readability, and accuracy.

What happens if new information becomes available after Jody’s article appears in the newspaper? The journal might invite her to write a follow-up. Follow-ups present the news from a different angle, clarify facts, or reveal new developments in the original story.

Copy Editing Abbreviations

In Jody and John’s busy press office, who has time to say a whole phrase when deadlines loom? Try to guess the full terms expressed by these abbreviations: on spec, graf, and ezine.

What if John hasn’t received any requests from publishers recently? He might take the initiative and submit a story on spec—without a contract in place. He’s taking a chance, hoping that the publishers will accept his piece. “Spec” derives from speculation. A writer speculates, based on the type of publication and what it has published in the past, that a certain piece will work well for them. If all goes to plan for John, the publishers will like his work and offer him a fair price.

A graf is a paragraph. Did you guess correctly?

Ezine stands for “electronic magazine.” Ezines may publish exclusively online, or they may also have a print edition.

Writing Expressions You Already Use

Have journalistic phrases snuck into your vocabulary without you realizing it? For example, angles aren’t just for geometry class. An angle is the perspective of a story. To illustrate, Jody might write a news article reporting the statement released by Miami’s mayor about the recent hurricane. John’s angle would cover the situation at the local hospitals as they attempt to treat people hurt during the evacuation of the city. Several reporters might pursue different angles of the same topic.

Another term you may already use in everyday speech is “kicker”. Have you said “Here’s the kicker. . .” as you added a surprising detail to a personal account? In the world of journalism, a kicker is a small headline that accompanies the main headline. Usually, it appears on the left side of the title in a different font to set it apart from the rest of the text.

Important Acronyms

When copy editors talk in acronyms, you can easily get lost. Acronyms are a type of abbreviation formed by the first letters or components of a word, syllable, or phrase. Some common writing acronyms are nib, EOD, COB, and AP style.

Nib stands for “news in brief.” Newspapers use the term when, instead of a full-length article, they publish a short paragraph covering a topic. To see an example, visit the DW website to view “top stories in three minutes.”

EOD is short for “end of day.” Some employers use EOD to refer to the end of the 24-hour day (i.e., midnight). However, most jobs mean the end of the workday. A second acronym, COB (close of business) reflects this idea more accurately than EOD. Therefore, if the publication office closes at 6 pm, Jody would need to deliver her work before that time. (For courtesy’s sake, she may want to turn in work fifty to thirty minutes before closing.) Remote workers usually use the timezone of their employers.

AP Style is a term you are likely to encounter once you get your first writing job. No, it’s not related to the Gangnam Style made famous by the South Korean recording artist PSY. AP stands for Associated Press, which, according to Thought Co., is the world’s oldest news service. The service sets the standard for writing—from how to punctuate to what words to capitalize—for newspapers and digital publications. They publish the rules in the AP Stylebook. If you don’t write according to current AP guidelines, your work will stick out like a sore thumb!

Start your journalism career on the right foot. You’ll sound like a real copy editor if you learn these industry-specific terms.

How to Troll-proof Your Writing

You’ve just read an interesting article online. It covered a subject you’re passionate about, so you dash off a brilliant comment. It begins:

Your right about most of your assessments, but I think you missed the big picture.

You go on to write a carefully-worded paragraph, and you’re certain everyone who reads it will be dazzled by your brilliant insights. And then the first reply to your comment rolls in and it’s simply:

*You’re

You’ve inadvertently tossed out some troll bait, and you’ve captured the attention of a grammar troll. It doesn’t matter whether that mistake was a typo or a momentary lapse; you’ve been publicly corrected in a way that undermines your intelligent response and maybe even implies you’re not as smart as you think you are.

via GIPHY

Is it possible to troll-proof your online writing? Grammar checkers help, of course, but careful proofreading before you hit send is always the best way to sidestep embarrassing gaffes. Here’s how to avoid throwing chum into the murky online waters and keep those bottom-feeding trolls where they belong.

Mind your apostrophes

How can one little punctuation mark cause so much trouble? Apostrophes trip up even the most seasoned writers from time to time. Examine your comments before you post them to make certain you’ve used the correct form of your/you’re or its/it’s.

Also remember that apostrophes show possession; they don’t make words plural. Here’s an apostrophe primer in case you need a refresher.

Don’t post no any double negatives

A subject-predicate construction should have only one negative form in standard English. You’ve probably bristled at statements like “I don’t have nothing better to do.” That’s because the speaker used a double negative, pairing don’t with nothing. The standard usage would be: “I don’t have anything better to do.”

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Many double negatives are obvious, and they sound wrong (or at least colloquial) when we hear them. Although some double negatives are part of our casual vernacular, if you use one while trying to eloquently communicate a point in an online discussion, steel yourself for potential backlash. Ain’t you got no learnin’?

Use “literally” with care

If you comment with “I literally died when he said that!” don’t be surprised if a troll comes calling to let you know that, unless you’re typing from beyond the grave, you meant “figuratively.”

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Beware then/than and loose/lose

Just one little typo can give a grammar troll a raison d’etre. If you write then when you mean than or loose when you mean lose, stand back—Trolly McTrollface can’t be far behind.

Avoid nonstandard English

Yes, irregardless is a word, but you’re unlikely to get away with using it in an online conversation, or even a face-to-face conversation with a grammar pedant. Seventy-four percent of those who responded to a Grammarly survey expressed the opinion that irregardless is an abomination. Don’t expect a grammar troll to forgive the nonstandard usage.

Be careful with homonyms . . .

To, too, and two don’t mean the same thing. Expect any grammar troll lurking in the bushes to pounce on a mistake like “Maybe he ate to many tacos for lunch” by letting you know that you should have written too, instead. There, their, and they’re are similar troll bait when used incorrectly.

. . . and other commonly confused words

There’s a reason many language resources contain lists of commonly confused words—they trip us up on the regular. Be on the alert for similar words with related but distinct meanings, such as lesser/fewer, affect/effect, further/farther, and among/between.

Know whether it’s lay or lie

True story: I was once laughed at for telling my dog to “go lie down.” We’re so accustomed to using the wrong word in this instance that the correct one sounds foreign. But sleeping dogs do indeed lie, not lay.

Lie means to recline and lay means to place. And then there are different verb tenses, and . . . well, it gets a bit complicated. But grammar trolls are likely to know the difference, so here’s a guide to tackling the lay vs. lie challenge.

Don’t feed the trolls

If you do post a mistake, and you attract the attention of a grammar troll, don’t sweat it. Trolls feed on chaos, so the best thing you can do is deprive them of what they crave. Here’s an example of superb troll wrangling:

You: Your right about most of your assessments, but I think you missed the big picture.

Trolly McTrollface: *You’re

You: Whoops! Nice catch.

via GIPHY

Writing the “Great American Novel?” Here Are the Top Three Mistakes You’ll Make

According to an oft-quoted 2002 article from The New York Times, 81 percent of Americans believe they have a book in them – and that they should write it.

In November, 41,940 participants in National Novel Writing Month did just that when they successfully wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. At the same time, because not all novelists-to-be have the time to write a solo-book, the Grammarly team organized a group of authors to collaborate on one novel. Clocking in at a total of 130,927 unedited words, around 300 writers from 27 countries (and 44 U.S. states) participated in the group writing project.

And now, we’re editing.

As part of the editing process, Grammarly ran the text of the group novel through our automated grammar checker to analyze spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. Here are the top three mistakes that our GrammoWriMo writers made, and that you’re probably making in your own writing.

Missing comma

While unnecessary commas can turn straightforward sentences into twisting labyrinths of syntactical confusion, missing a critical comma can change the entire meaning of your sentence. Missing commas often mean the difference between politely requesting that your friends continue to have a good time (“party on, friends”) and actually throwing a soiree on your friends (“party on friends”).

Run-on sentences

Many writers neglect to use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (“and,” “but,” “or,” etc.) – making their sentences long and confusing. However, run-on sentences are often a stylistic choice for novelists. Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner both won The Nobel Prize in Literature, yet they are both known for their long, run-on sentences – as is James Joyce. Contemporary writers like Cormac McCarthy and Tim O’Brien also have literary love affairs with the run-on sentence. Would their writing be so beautiful if they didn’t?

Comma splice

If you try to use a comma to do the work of a semicolon, you’ve created a comma splice. Comma splices may sound vaguely dangerous, but all they are is the misuse of a comma to hold two independent clauses together. Independent clauses are complete thoughts consisting of a subject (at its simplest, a noun) and a predicate (at minimum, a verb). If you want to string two independent clauses together you need either a semicolon or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction.

Now that the holiday season is winding down, you’ll probably have more time to edit that “Great American Novel” you’ve been working on. Pay attention special attention to the comma and run-on sentences!

Are you writing a novel? Tell us about it in the comments below.

7 Fundamental Rules of Poetry

Some people let poetry intimidate them because they get the idea that poetry is all about rhyming, iambic pentameter, and obscure language. While it is true that some of the most beautiful poems are also difficult to understand, poetry in general isn’t that tough. By following some simple guidelines, you can pen verses that are poignant, pure, and easy on the ears.

Employ Imagery

Evoke, don’t emote. You can tell someone “I’m sad” a million times, but the person will have a hard time empathizing if the words don’t have anything to back them up. Imagery, like idioms, takes an abstract idea, such as an emotion, and turns it into something concrete. In the mind and heart of the reader, it goes back to being something abstract. As an exercise, try writing down all the items you can think of that you associate with a certain emotion. You could also take a walk and jot down how the sight of certain things makes you feel. Use those images in your next poem.

Avoid Clichés

Clichés are someone else’s words. Use them, and you steal away your poetry’s true potential. Clichés might be convenient to use, and some are easy to find rhymes for, but the use of clichés will make your readers turn away the moment they stumble upon those trite and tired truisms.

Keep the Reins on Your Rhymes

“No more rhymes now, I mean it!”

“Anybody want a peanut?”

Vizzini from “The Princess Bride” may have been inconceivably mean, but he did have a valid point when he told Fezzik to stop rhyming. That isn’t to say that all rhyming in poetry is bad; it has its time and place, but you should never rhyme simply for the sake of it. Don’t sacrifice the meaning of your poem because you feel obligated to rhyme. The same principles apply to metering. There is something enthralling about a sonnet in perfect iambic pentameter, but only use forms like that if it truly fits what you’re writing about.

Pay Attention to Form

Even poets who write free verse may choose to stick to a certain form. They may try to make all their lines about the same length, or they may vary the length of each line so the poem has a certain shape. You should consider those things, too. Also, think about how you use empty space in a poem. The way you present your work on paper contributes to the poem’s overall message.

Don’t Overdo Anything

Poetic devices like similes, alliteration, repetition, anapest, and onomatopoeia are a great way to add impact to your writing, but overuse can make your poem seem silly. For example, if you want to convey a serious message but start most words in your poem with the letter “b,” that will distract readers from what you want to say.

Bare Yourself

No, poets don’t have to be streakers. However, you should bear in mind that the more honest you are in your poetry, the better. As lovetoknow.com points out, “This is probably the only rule that you should rely on all the time. If you’re not honest with yourself in your poetry, no one else is going to feel anything genuine when they read your work. It can be painfully terrifying to open up and honestly express your feelings on paper, but that’s the name of the game.”

Learn the Rules and Break Them

The above tips are by no means the laws of poetry. Poetry is anarchy. You can do pretty much anything you want with it. However, you should learn as much as you can about it so you can make wise decisions about how to express yourself. For example, you might discover that a sestina was the perfect way to commemorate your anniversary.

Are you a poet? Share some of your favorite methods for penning gorgeous verse.

Cheque vs. Check

• Cheque and check appear in British English, and check appears in American English.
• In British English, cheque refers to a document used to pay from a person’s account. For other contexts, Brits usually use check.

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Have you seen check spelled cheque? You might have wondered whether it was a spelling error or a new word that you don’t know. Let’s look into this word and how it differs from check.

Cheque Meaning

A cheque is a document used by an account holder to pay out funds from her account. In Australia and New Zealand, it refers to your wages. If you are American, you probably call this a check. The cheque spelling comes from France. The French spelling had some use in the United States centuries ago, but now check is standard.

Check vs. Cheque

Did you think cheque was a spelling error? If you are looking at American writing, it might be. However, if you are reading something British, chances are you’ve found an example of their word for a financial document that withdraws money from a banking account. In the US, the same document is better known as a check. Keep the difference in mind if you write for a British audience.

Here are some quotes containing check and cheque:

The youth centre, which has recently been saved from closure by STEPS the Charity, has been presented with a cheque for £1,500 by Weymouth Rotary Club.

Dorset Echo

The man was later told by his bank that someone had used a cloned check — #485 — to withdraw another $1,650 from their account, stated the deputy.

Okeechobee News

In the above quotes, you will notice that cheque and check appear in financial contexts. However, dictionaries list dozens of definitions for check. Outside of the financial world, even the United Kingdom favors the check spelling.

Here are some examples of check used in nonfinancial contexts.

A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour.

Mitch Albom,The Time Keeper

“Your king is in check,” said Woland. “Very well, very well,” responded the cat, and he began studying the chessboard through his opera glasses.

Mikhail Bulgakov,The Master and Margarita