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.
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.
1Trust in something
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.
2Love what you do
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.
3Remember that revolution isn’t easy
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.
4Persevere
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.
5Turn losses into wins
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
6Understand that saying no is as important as saying yes
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.
7Learn to tell your story
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.
8Be aware that small steps are important, too
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.
9Don’t let success make you lazy
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.
10Pay attention to the simple things
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.
11Cultivate crazy dreams
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.”
12Take stock and make changes
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.
13Don’t let others run your show
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.
14Be bold
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.
15Spend your time wisely
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.
16Keep a sense of wonder
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.
Challenge Your Friends to a Game
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?
Create a Work of Art
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.
Hit the Snooze Button
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.
Make It Pretty
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.
Move It, Move It
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.
Sneak a Peek
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.
Blog in or Blog out
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.
Send Greetings
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.
1. My Apologies
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.
My apologies, but your order will not arrive until Monday.
2. Pardon/Pardon Me/I Beg Your Pardon
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.
Pardon me; I didn’t mean to offend you.
3. Excuse Me
Excuse me is used to politely interrupt a conversation. You might also say it if you commit a social no-no.
Excuse me; I didn’t realize that wearing shoes indoors was impolite in this country.
4. Mea Culpa
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.
The witness wrote a statement of mea culpa after he was caught lying in court.
5. Oops/Whoops
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.
Whoops, I broke your coffee mug.
6. My Bad
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.
I lost the book you lent me. My bad! I will buy you a replacement.
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?
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 Timewas 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?
In a legal context, gist is the grounds of a legal action.
Jist is a common misspelling of gist.
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.
Definition of Gist
When we say we want to get the gist of something, we’re talking about its essence or main point:
We got the gist of his argument in the first two minutes, but then we had to listen while he droned on for another half hour.
You can spare me the details and just give me the gist of the conversation.
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.”
Gist or Jist: Which is Correct?
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.
Examples
These results were partially linked to sensation seeking, but more fully explained by Fuzzy Trace Theory — the notion that people process information in both a verbatim (quantitative) and gist (qualitative) fashion.
Science Daily
He advised his fans to read “good books” and keep the gist of wisdom of the book they read.
