For Team Members at Automated Proofreading Company, Email Presents a Major Challenge*

San Francisco, Calif. — Most consumer Internet startups focus on gaining funding, accessing top talent, or providing Google-esque perks, but a Bay Area automated proofreading company is navigating a different set of issues.

“I am terrified to send emails,” said a team member at Grammarly.com. “Because I work with a company dedicated to improving written communication, all of my email is subject to intense scrutiny. Even my friends have started to point out the tiniest mistakes in my writing.”

Nationally, employees at writing-related companies have expressed similar fears in publishing articles without reviewing them at least five times, or updating their social media profiles. The problem is largely the handiwork of grammar geeks and word nerds with 24×7 Internet access and a penchant for trolling.

“Before I press ‘send,’ I find myself reading and re-reading my outgoing mail at least five times,” said another Grammarly team member. “Last month, I nearly forgot to include a comma before ‘and’ when listing three items in a series – after that, I communicated exclusively by telephone for a week.”

But some experts do not see a problem.

“How can human beings go on living if they know that someone is wrong on the Internet?” asked a representative from Reddit.com. “By detecting minor grammar errors and publicly shaming those responsible, grammar geeks and word nerds are creating transparency around the issue of written communication.”

Grammarly provides team members with email exposure therapy and daily counseling sessions, but the stress is taking a toll.

“Last year, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we asked our Facebook fans which teacher had the biggest impact on their love of reading or writing,” said a member of Grammarly’s social media team. “Rather than answer the question, some fans started a scathing dialogue about whether ‘impact’ is an acceptable verb. Dictionaries went flying.”

In a written statement, one of Grammarly’s senior executives said, “With respect to written communication, the bar is high. That’s [literally] all I am comfortable saying right now.”

Employees at automated proofreading companies are not the only ones under scrutiny. Teachers are increasingly blamed for their part in perpetuating poor writing education. Legal constraints prevent grammar geeks and word nerds from infiltrating the classroom, but writing activists have circumvented this with standardized testing and other initiatives.

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* This is a satirical blog post that we’ve written to mimic a typical newspaper article. It is meant to brighten your day, and not to offend. No Grammarly team members were harmed in the writing of this piece; and (for the most part) we are not really afraid to send emails. #FunnyFriday @TheOnion needs us!

#GrammarlyChat

If you missed our March #GrammarlyChat, get caught up with our Storify summary: https://storify.com/Grammarly/grammarlychat-blogging-and-self-publishing.

If you missed our February #GrammarlyChat, get caught up with our Storify summary: https://storify.com/Grammarly/grammarlychat-writing-for-work-and-job-searching.

If you missed our January #GrammarlyChat about books and reading, get caught up with our Storify summary: https://storify.com/Grammarly/grammarly-chat-books-and-reading

If you missed our December #GrammarlyChat, get caught up with our Storify summary: https://storify.com/Grammarly/grammarlychat-editing.

Please email socialmedia@grammarly.com with any questions or ask us on Twitter @Grammarly. We look forward to chatting with you!

Labeled or Labelled—Which Is Correct?

• Labeled and labelled are both correct spellings.
• Labeled is the preferred spelling in American English.
• Labelled is the preferred spelling in British English.

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How should you spell the past tense of the verb label? After adding the -ed ending, should you double the L? Speakers of American English might answer differently than speakers of British English.

Labeled vs. Labelled

Labeled and labelled are both correct spellings, and they mean the same thing. How you spell the word depends on your audience. If you are writing for American readers, labeled is the preferred spelling. In other places, such as Great Britain and Canada, labelled is a more common spelling than labeled.

Even though the jar was labeled as flour, the children knew it was where their mom hid the candy.

The school labeled the lockers with numbers.

What the janitor labelled bug spray contained a powerful poison.

No one likes to be labelled as a cheater.

Examples

Labeled in North American Publications

As you shop your favorite grocery store, do you lean toward foods that are labeled “natural”?

Michigan State University Extension

“As a concerned citizen and a veteran I am profoundly upset that your administration has labeled the American Flag a ‘disruptive symbol,” Velis wrote.

Mass Live

Labelled in British Publications

A schoolboy has been suspended after a light-hearted video of him rapping was labelled a ‘hate crime’ by teachers.

Daily Mail UK

In February, the Sun, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, published a story which labelledPrince William “work-shy Wills”, and accused him of “shirking” his royal duties and his job as an air ambulance pilot.

Financial Times

When reading, keep in mind that labeled and labelled are both correct. If you are the writer, choose the most familiar form for your readers. If you have questions about other British vs. American English spellings, you might do some research before deciding which word is right for you. Do you know the difference between realise and realize or check and cheque?

Five Tools Dyslexic People Can Use To Improve Their Writing

By Nelson Lauver, Author of Most Un-Likely To Succeed

I’m nervous and thinking about turning around and getting back in my car. Just ring the doorbell, I tell myself. I find the courage, and my blind date answers the door with one hand while holding back Lola, an exuberant 80-pound rescued pit bull mix, with the other. I can’t believe my eyes! Jane could be a model. She’s stunning, with a movie-star smile. I soon learn that she is also good-natured and witty, and she can cook!

Jane has it on good authority that I’m not a serial killer, or she wouldn’t have invited me to her home for dinner in the first place. It’s been an hour or so, and I’m starting to relax. I think the wine is helping.

Perhaps it’s premature but I’m smitten. However, if we’re to have a future, I need to know if she was paying attention in English class, because I wasn’t. Can she spell? How is she at putting a sentence together? Can she collaborate? I need to know because I’m a professional writer with dyslexia, and I depend heavily on those I trust to proofread. As luck would have it, Jane had paid attention in school, and that being the case, I ask her to marry me. Not that first night, of course, but some time later.

My wife is my biggest cheerleader. We don’t often think of people when we think of compensatory strategies to deal with dyslexia, but my wife is responsible for my writing career reaching a higher level.

I have Alexa, too. While voice-activated Alexa (A.K.A. Echo) from Amazon can’t help me with syntax or comma placement, she does just fine as a substitute spelling coach when Jane isn’t home.

Another compensation tool I use is the spell/grammar check function in Microsoft Word. It works about 50 percent of the time. The other 50 percent of the time it flashes an error message with the phone number for Hooked on Phonics.

I much prefer video and audio to heavy reading. However, I do find an ebook much easier to decode than standard print; don’t know why. Also, larger text and double-spaced lines make reading easier.

Voice-to-text software doesn’t work well for me, while other dyslexics swear by it. So, by all means, try it!

I have many writer friends who fluidly produce prose worthy of admiration. For that reason, and no other, I hate their guts—in a nice way of course. I, on the other hand, hunt and peck the keyboard. The slow pace gives me lots of time to think about what I’m saying. I think it makes my writing more conversational.

Nonwriter friends praise me, telling me that they could never manipulate words into pictures or vice versa. To that, I suggest an introduction to my editor.

Like most dyslexics, I think in pictures and feel dyslexia gives me an advantage over other writers. But the fact remains that I can’t spell, have weak punctuation skills, and chicken scratch penmanship that is no better than that of your average second grader or family doctor.

The world will forgive you if you can’t ride a bike, play the violin, or kick a soccer ball, but society won’t forgive you if you can’t spell, read, or write well. For this reason, many bright and talented dyslexics are sent to the back of the line. It’s not fair, but it’s a fact of life. Even with modern technology, it’s difficult to find strategies for improving one’s writing.

I’m always on the lookout for any promise of help in my fight for better wordsmithing. Several months ago I stumbled across Grammarly, an automated, online proofreader and grammar/spelling checker.

Grammarly goes far beyond the standard spell-checkers that we’ve all come to know and loathe. It’s like having a friendly coach sitting next to you as you write. And while I am not going to replace my human editor, it’s clear that the job description has changed. My editor no longer needs to spend so much time with a red pen marking heavy corrections. We now have much more time for discussing characters and storylines, and that makes for a better reader experience!

In my twenty-one years as a writer, I have found Grammarly to be the single most valuable tool for making me a better writer. I recognized its benefits instantly. A dyslexic writer no longer needs to seek out an attractive grammar cop and go to the expense of an engagement ring. Although, I’ll never regret ringing that doorbell.

Looking for more tools? These will help.

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Nelson Lauver is the host of the American Storyteller Radio Journal and author of the award winning memoir Most Un-Likely To Succeed. He is also a keynote speaker, humorist, syndicated broadcaster, strategist, entrepreneur, voice-over artist, co-founder of the Jane and Nelson Lauver Foundation, and director of ProblemTank, a neurodiverse thinktank.

Got a Problem With Passive Voice? These 7 Sentences Will Help

By Akmal Akbarov

Do you have a problem with the passive voice? Do you know the difference between the passive and active voices?

Well, you don’t have to worry any longer because I have created this article just for you.

If you scroll down, you will see that I have taken one sentence and showed you how to write it in both the active and passive voices.

In the active voice your sentences usually follow this formula:

Subject + verb + object

For example: I clean my room every day. –> I (subject) + clean (verb) + my room (object) everyday.

To rewrite the sentence in the passive voice, you must make the object of this sentence the subject of the new sentence. The verb in a passive voice sentence is made up of an inflected form of to be and a past participle.

For example: My room is cleaned every day. –> My room (subject) + is (verb to be) + cleaned (past participle) every day.

Now let’s see how other tenses in English work in the passive voice. �� 1. Present Simple Active Voice I clean my room every day. I = subject clean = verb my room = object

1. Present Simple Passive Voice My room is cleaned every day. My room = subject is = verb to be (present tense) cleaned = verb past participle

2. Past Simple Active Voice I cleaned my room yesterday. I = subject cleaned = verb (past tense) my room = object

2. Past Simple Passive Voice My room was cleaned yesterday. My room = subject was = verb to be (past tense) cleaned = past participle

3. Present Perfect Active Voice I have cleaned my room this morning. I = subject have cleaned = verb (present perfect tense) my room = object

3. Present Perfect Passive Voice My room has been cleaned this morning My room = subject has been = verb to be (present perfect tense) cleaned = past participle

4. Present Continuous Active Voice I am cleaning my room now. I = subject am cleaning = verb (present continuous tense) my room = object

4. Present Continuous Passive Voice My room is being cleaned now. My room = subject is being = verb to be (present continuous tense) cleaned = past participle

5. Past Continuous Active Voice I was cleaning my room yesterday. I = subject was cleaning = verb (past continuous tense) my room = object

5. Past Continuous Passive Voice My room was being cleaned yesterday. My room = subject was being = verb to be (past continuous tense) cleaned = past participle

6. Future Simple Active Voice I will clean my room tomorrow. I = subject will clean = verb (future simple tense) my room = object

6. Future Simple Passive Voice My room will be cleaned tomorrow. My room = subject will be = verb to be (future simple tense) cleaned = past participle

7. Future (Going to) Active Voice I am going to clean my room this weekend. I = subject am going = verb to clean = infinitive my room = object

7. Future + Going to Passive Voice My room is going to be cleaned this weekend. My room = subject is going = verb to be = verb to be (infinitive) cleaned = past participle

​If you still have questions, please don’t forget to comment!

Hi, my name is Akmal. I’m an English language enthusiast, blogger, writer, and entrepreneur. In addition to being the founder of EnglishClubPro.com, I’m also a teacher of English with more than ten years of experience. I love helping aspiring English learners to master their English. Post adapted from original post.

What Is Your Email Patronus? Quiz

It’s practically magic how much work can be accomplished by email, especially for us mere muggles! If emails were sent by owl, our skies would be darkened day after day. Fortunately for our view and keeping the streets clean, you just need internet access. Everyone has a different approach to managing their email mischief. Take our fun quiz to find out what kind of email patronus you have.

Did we get it right? Tell us what kind of patronus you conjure when you’re working your email magic!

How to Use “Alike” and “Same” Correctly

A well-known idiom says that great minds think alike. It’s what we say when two people think of the same great idea at the same time. History is full of examples that reaffirm the claim that great minds think alike, with discoveries and inventions like the jet engine and the theory of evolution being made at roughly the same time by different people. However, this idiom is interesting to us for an entirely different reason. When you say that all great minds think alike, you are using “alike” correctly. Being an adverb, “alike” is used to modify the verb that precedes it, in this case “think.” A common misuse of “alike” is when we use it as an adjective, as in this sentence:

The two scientists had alike ideas about the Big Bang.

In that sentence, we were trying to modify the noun “ideas.” By using “alike” instead of an adjective, we effectively modified the verb in the sentence—“had.” If we were to rewrite the sentence correctly, we would have to say:

The two scientists had similar ideas about the Big Bang.

Or maybe,

The two scientists had the same ideas about the Big Bang.

So now that we know that “alike” is an adverb and that it should be used to modify verbs. Just as it’s common to incorrectly use “alike” when we should be using the adjective “same,” it’s also common to make a mistake the other way around and use “same” as an adverb when we should be using “alike”:

All great minds think the same.

Because “same” is an adjective and not an adverb, in this sentence it could only modify “all great minds.” But since we want to point out that their thinking is similar, not the minds themselves, we say that they think alike. But we could add a noun for the adjective “same” to modify and make the sentence work:

All great minds think the same thing.

This sentence might not be true, but it’s grammatically correct, with “same” being used as an adjective which modifies the noun “thing.”