10 Grammarly Blog Posts from 2017 That You Need to See

There’s a lot of writing on the Internet, our blog included.

For the past 12 months, we’ve offered writing tips, advice for job- and promotion-seeking members of the workforce, quizzes to test your lust for language, and much, much more.

Out of the hundreds of posts authored on this here blog, we’ve picked out ten of our staff’s favorite posts. They represent the breadth of content you can find on our blog and our in our weekly newsletter. They also show the value of mistake-free writing and the value Grammarly can provide however you’re looking to improve your writing and communication skills.

And now, (drumroll please), let’s take a look at ten posts we hope you didn’t miss. And if you did, it’s OK, we forgive you, but you should check them out now because it’s December and this is a great time to recap the year.

1 Bear With Me or Bare With Me?

Worth your time because … There are so many confusing phrases in our English language. If it’s not whom or who, or even affect vs. effect, we can all stand to know the absolute difference between these common phrases that are constantly confused. Our “Grammar Tips” section also you covered for any grammar deep-dive you feel like taking during the holidays.

Text to remember … “Here’s an easy way to differentiate bear from bare. You learned that bear as a verb means “to endure.” In its noun form, bear refers to a large furry animal. Combining these two definitions into a silly sentence will help you remember that the correct phrase is “bear with me,” not “bare with me.” A patient bear will always bear with you, but an impatient bear just might devour you!”

2 5 Other Ways to Write “I Hope You Are Doing Well” in Your Email

Worth your time because … We all write emails. Lots of them. Raise your hand if you’re guilty of using a throwaway line like “I hope you are doing well” to introduce your email. Yup, my hand is up, too. We don’t have to live this way anymore. Our blog offers valuable thoughts on how to diversify your standard email icebreaker.

Text to remember … “Anyone who gets a lot of email is familiar with the stock “I hope you are doing well.” It’s the business email equivalent of small talk that begins with “How are you?” We all know that etiquette requires us to answer with “I’m fine. How are you?” Although this back-and-forth exchange is a rather meaningless part of face-to-face conversation, it’s become socially mandated. In email, however, “hope you’re well” comes across as extraneous at best and insincere at worst.”

3 10 Things You Should Avoid Saying in a Job Interview

Worth your time because … Landing a job interview is an accomplishment. Be proud! But also, you should know that it’s easy to ruin your candidacy with a flippant comment. Our “Workplace” posts provide quality advice on how to approach all angles of the job-search process, including things to avoid saying at your next job interview.

Text to remember … “Could the things you’re saying during job interviews be costing you offers? Knowing the right things to say requires practice and a little finesse. But accidentally saying the wrong thing is all too easy to do. Interviews are stressful, and it can be challenging to keep a cool head when your palms are sweating and your heart is beating double-time.”

4 11 Tips to Clean Up Your Dirty, Wordy Writing

Worth your time because … Brevity is your friend in writing. Don’t waste time getting to a very very important point with some kind of worthless phrases and words that like seemingly delay your reader from really and truly understanding the point you’re trying to make. Wasteful words can appear in anyone’s document or text. This post aims to rid the world of a few added phrases.

Text to remember … “Weasel words are qualifiers that make you sound unsure of yourself, like you’re trying to create wiggle room. Don’t get us wrong: in some cases, you need these words. But if you want to convey an idea or make an argument, remove words that make your readers think of slimy politicians trying to avoid stating something directly. Maybe it can make a difference. No, really: it makes a difference.”

5 How Game of Thrones Characters Would Approach a Writing Assignment

Worth your time because … You don’t have to be a GoT fan to enjoy lifestyle-inspired writing tips. Well, in this case, you have to know a few things about the famous HBO show to get the gist of what we’re getting at. Even so, making connections between famous authors and significant moments in pop culture happens often on our blog.

Text to remember … “Jon Snow begins his journey as an underappreciated bastard of House Stark and hesitatingly rises to lead the Night’s Watch. Eventually, he is elected Lord of Winterfell. Jon Snow, guided by a sense of duty and loyalty to his team rather than by ambition, seeks counsel and consensus almost to a fault. This tendency to rely on his support network and the wisdom of his council helps him to lead well, however. This is exemplified in both his election as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and Lord of Winterfell, when supporters speak on his behalf. Improve your writing the same way by regularly seeking feedback from respected peers.”

6 How to Improve Writing Skills in 15 Easy Steps

Worth your time because … Many of our readers visit the G blog for grammar tips, career advice, and—what else?—actionable tips on how to become a better writer. This post features fifteen ways to vastly improve your skills every time you put pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard.

Text to remember … “Becoming a better writer takes practice, and you’re already practicing. No, seriously—you write a lot. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you put thoughts into text more often than you realize. At the very least, you write emails—a lot of emails—post on social media, make updates to your résumé and LinkedIn profile, and message your friends. If your job requires it, you also create things like reports, presentations, newsletters . . . it’s a long list.”

7 Why Mistake-free Writing on Your Phone Is So Valuable

Worth your time because … You might be reading this blog on your phone right now. If you’re not, you have surely read something and written something very important on your mobile device at one time or another. So improve your writing on the go with this post. Now you know.

Text to remember … “Remember when phones were used exclusively for making phone calls? (Hard to believe, right?) Now we use our smartphones for all sorts of fun things . . . like sending text messages, answering emails, posting on Facebook, commenting on our favorite cat videos, and even finding true love. While the freedom and flexibility of using a mobile device is awesome—the frustration that comes from typing on a tiny touch screen is not so great.”

8 5 Basic Proofreading Habits for a More Productive 2017

Worth your time because … Re-writing is writing. The same goes for editing or proofreading. However you want to call it, the truth is that behind every great piece of writing is someone with a keen eye for details. Sharpen your skills with these five, dare we say, basic, proofin’ tips.

Text to remember … “If you can, walk away and do something else for a little while. Then come back and read it again. The more time that passes between writing and proofreading, the better you’ll be at spotting mistakes your brain skipped over the first time through.”

9 “Do You Write Like an Introvert?” Quiz

Worth your time because … Grammarly’s quizzes can test your knowledge in a number of capacities. Are your grammar skills legit? Can you interview like a pro? Or in this case, do you write like an introvert or extrovert? There’s only one way to know. Test yourself.

Text to remember … “Have you ever wondered how introverted or extroverted your work style is? This short quiz will help you understand whether your writing personality tends toward introversion or extroversion.”

10 We Studied 750 Top LinkedIn Profiles. Here’s How to Write Yours Better.

Worth your time because … LinkedIn profiles are quite common these days. Knowing how to create a strong presence on LI will do wonders for your networking and job pursuits. We gained a ton of amazing insights from analyzing 750 profiles from Fortune 500 companies.

Text to remember … “Filling out your profile summary matters, but only 42 percent of the entry-level employees we analyzed seemed to bother. Managers and directors both did so a bit more often—closer to half in our study. We suspect people overlook the profile summary because they’re often busy describing their work experience further down their profile—or waiting until they’re actually looking for a new job to make a proper introduction atop their page. In fact, regardless of their experience level, people proved more likely to fill out the work experience section. Especially among managers, 65 percent did so, cranking out a robust 192 words on average for each job they described.”

Did we miss your favorite blog post of the year? Let us know why you loved it in the comments section of this post. Thanks for reading!

How to End an Email: 9 Best and Worst Email Sign-Offs

You’ve worked to make your email clear, and you’ve carefully edited to streamline your writing. The body of your email might well be perfect, but it can all go awry if you use the wrong sign-off. It’s just a word or a short phrase, followed by your signature, and yet finding the right tone to close your email often requires a surprising amount of thought and finesse.

When you’re struggling with how to end an email, it’s best to consider the context. What works for a friend or close colleague won’t work in a strictly professional correspondence with a distant acquaintance or someone you’ve never met before. Here’s a rundown of some of the most common email settings and the tried-and-true sign-offs that work best for each.

Nine Email Sign-offs that Never Fail

Email Closings for Formal Business

1. Regards

Yes, it’s a bit stodgy, but it works in professional emails precisely because there’s nothing unexpected or remarkable about it.

2. Sincerely

Are you writing a cover letter? Sincerely conveys the right tone for formal correspondence. Keep in mind that it’s likely to come off as stuffy in more casual business emails.

3. Best wishes

A good blend of friendliness and formality makes this sign-off a safe bet, but be aware of its greeting-card vibe and use it only when it fits well with the tone of your email.

Email Closings for Friendly Business

4. Cheers

A recent study by the email app Boomerang rated cheers as the most likely sign-off (that isn’t a thank-you) to get an email response. It works well if your email is friendly and conversational but, unless you’re actually British or Australian, it may come off as affected in more formal settings. Cheers, mate!

5. Best

Best conveys best wishes in a cheerful, pithy way. If you get a lot of email, you know that nearly everyone uses this sign-off. That familiarity makes it seamless in the same way that regards is seamless in more formal emails. The downside is that it can be safe and dull, especially if you want your message to be dynamic and attention-getting.

6. As ever

This is a fine choice for people you’ve built an ongoing working relationship with. It reassures your contact that things are as good between you as they’ve ever been.

Email Closings for Gratitude and Requests

7. Thanks in advance

According to the Boomerang study, emails that include thanks in advance have the highest response rate. Maybe it’s because this sign-off expresses gratitude but also sets an expectation—you’re saying that you’ll be grateful when (not if) the person you’re emailing comes through. In more formal circumstances, thanking someone in advance may come across as too demanding, so take care where you use it.

8. Thanks

A simple thanks is also a solid choice when you want to express gratitude. But, just like thanks in advance, it can convey a tone of expectancy. Save it for when you actually mean to imply, “I expect you to do this.”

9. I appreciate your [help, input, feedback, etc.]

There’s never really a wrong time to express appreciation when someone has helped you out.

Nine Email Sign-offs to Avoid

1. Love

I have a friend who once accidentally signed an office email to his entire department with love. He never lived it down. Save this one for family, close friends, and your significant other. The same applies to hugs or XOXO.

2. Thx or Rgrds

You’re not thirteen, and this isn’t a conversation happening in a messaging app. Use your words.

3. Take care

On the surface, take care sounds pleasant, but on closer examination, it seems to imply that the recipient should be wary of potential dangers. Use this only if bears are known to lurk by the Dumpster outside the recipient’s office. (We’re only half kidding!)

4. Looking forward to hearing from you

This one also sounds nice at first, but it’s ultimately passive-aggressive. Your recipient is likely to hear an implied “You’d better write back.”

5. Yours truly

Do you really, truly belong to the recipient? Nope. This sounds insincere and hokey . . . unless you’re writing a letter home to your parents from summer camp.

6. Respectfully / Respectfully yours

This one’s okay if you’re sending a formal missive to the POTUS, but it’s too formal for anything else. In fact, according to Business Insider, respectfully yours is the standard close for addressing government officials and clergy.

7. [Nothing at all]

We live in a world where people frequently email from mobile devices, so excluding a signature certainly isn’t a no-no as an email chain progresses, particularly if your recipient also drops the more formal sign-off. But not signing an initial email or using only the formal signature you’ve created to append to your outgoing emails comes off as impersonal. (Bloomberg disagrees, stating that email has become more like instant messaging than true correspondence these days, but we’re sticking to our convictions.)

8. -[Name] or -[Initial]

While this sort of sign-off may work for very brief, informal emails, it’s too cold and detached for most, particularly when you’re connecting with the recipient for the first time.

9. Have a blessed day

It’s best to keep anything with religious overtones out of your professional correspondence, although this one’s fine if you’re emailing an acquaintance about what you’re bringing to the church potluck.

Bonus Bad Sign-off

Although this sign-off tends to happen more by default when the sender forgets to add an actual signature, we thought it was worth mentioning the ubiquitous . . .

Sent from my iPhone

This may be the most common sign-off of them all. It has merits, of course. It explains away brevity and typos—who’s at their best when typing on a phone? But it also conveys that you don’t care enough to do away with the default email signature that came stock with your device’s email app.

Some people get creative with this signature. A few fun (if not necessarily business appropriate) examples found round the Internet include:

• My parents wouldn’t buy me an iPhone so I have to manually type “Sent from my iPhone” to look cool
• Sent telepathically
• Sent from my laptop, so I have no excuse for typos
• Sent from my smartphone so please forgive any dumb mistakes
• I am responsible for the concept of this message. Unfortunately, autocorrect is responsible for the content
• Sent from my mobile. Fingers big. Keyboard small.
• iPhone. iTypos. iApologize.
• My phone can’t spell for carp

And, for the Stephen King fans among our readers:

• Sent from Jack’s typewriter, Rm 237. No autocorrect. REᗡЯUM

What’s your favorite email sign-off? Do you have a quirky or effective signature you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.

Conditional Verbs

Conditional verbs are used to create conditional sentences, which express hypothetical or unlikely situations. Conditional verbs can be used in the past, present, or future tense, and auxiliary verbs like can/could, will/would, and may/might are important in forming conditionals.

Consider the following conditional sentences, and pay close attention to the conditional verbs in each of them:

If my cousin had been just a little taller, he could have been a basketball player.

If I had enough money, I would travel around the world.

If Alex finishes his essay, he will come over tomorrow.

Grammar Basics: How to Use Singular “They”

You probably learned about “they” and other pronouns in the first grade. “They” is the third-person plural pronoun, used for talking about groups of things or people.

Henry and Lucy want to go to the movies, but they (Henry and Lucy) don’t have enough money.

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they (people in general) will surprise you with their ingenuity.” —George S. Patton

When you’re only talking about one person, though, the only pronoun choices you have are “he” or “she,” even if you don’t know the gender of the person in question. At one time, usage guides advised writers to always use “he,” but in time, people started to think about gender equality. Should the pronoun “he” continue to represent indefinite pronouns and singular nouns in cases of unknown or unspecified gender? In speech and even in some writing, people had already started using “they” as a singular pronoun. In fact, people were using the singular “they” all the way back in the fourteenth century. So why not also accept the singular “they” in formal writing? Some people still balk at the practice, calling it an antecedent-pronoun agreement error. However, the American Dialect Society voted the singular “they” as the 2015 Word of the Year. Bill Walsh, copy editor and author of “The Elephants of Style” calls the move “the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun.” How do you use it?

Use the singular “they” to replace unknown or unspecified gender:

I will have an interview with an executive. (You have never met this person, and you do not know their sex.) Rather than the bulky “he or she,” use “they” to refer to this singular person: They will ask me questions that I hope I can answer!

Formerly, “he” filled this role. Now, you have a gender-neutral option. What will “they” think of next?

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Scrabble Champion?

April 13 is National Scrabble Day! How can a board game become so popular that it actually has its own holiday? Those who have played Scrabble know that it’s an addictive, brain-busting game that delights word nerds and language lovers. There’s even an annual US National Scrabble Championship and World Scrabble Championship!

Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, last year’s winner of the National Scrabble Championship, won $10,000 after beating a five-time champion. What’s the best way to prepare for the championship? He suggests studying anagrams so your mind can unscramble your Scrabble tiles with ease.

An anagram is a word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. If you want to practice for the next Scrabble Championship, test your skills by creating anagrams from the word “Grammarly.” Here are a few to get you started:

Grammarly

alarm gray mama marry

Share your favorite anagrams in the comments!

How much grammar should educators know? Let us know!

What is your opinion of this controversial topic? What role do you think educators play in grammar and writing education?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

If you are interested in more, check out last week’s poll.