Happily Ever After, or Not: The Influence of Mother Goose

May 1 is Mother Goose Day, established in 1987 by Gloria T. Delamar upon the publication of her book, Mother Goose; From Nursery to Literature.

The day is a time for reflecting on fairy tales, acting them out, making and wearing Mother Goose costumes, or reading fairy tales aloud. It also could be a time to consider how much these stories have influenced modern writing. Of course, this includes works such as Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series, based on L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books, or novels like Brom’s Child Thief, which paints a much darker picture of Peter Pan and the lost boys. There are countless novels based on fairy tales.

Consider, for example, romance novels. In many fairy tales, we meet a prince who is at first a frog—until he receives a kiss. For the heroine, it is rarely love at first sight. The same holds true in romance novels, which often follow a general pattern: the heroine and hero meet and at first don’t like each other, or at least the heroine doesn’t like the hero. She thinks he’s too arrogant or too self-centered—in some way, he’s a frog. Gradually, however, as they spend more time together and learn more about each other, these feelings change. Maybe the hero isn’t as arrogant as it first appeared. In fact, maybe he’s a pretty good guy, somebody worthy of love. And soon the two characters do fall in love, and in fairy-tale fashion, live happily ever after.

Fairy tales have influenced modern writing in many ways. Many of the tales are dark, providing a nearly endless supply of ideas for horror and revenge novels. For example, the wicked stepmother appears as a man in novels like Emma Donoghue’s Room. Undoubtedly, the story was influenced by tales like “Cinderella,” in which the central character was kept prisoner and maltreated. There are echoes of “The Pied Piper” in various revenge novels like Stephen King’s Carrie, in which the main character seeks revenge just as the Pied Piper did when those who hired him refused to pay him for ridding the city of rats.

Most often, the themes of fairy tales are transparent. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” regrets his folly in asking for help when he doesn’t need it. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” shows the folly of pretense. Such themes appear in countless modern novels.

According to Bill Gray, “there are fairy tale elements in some of the great Victorian novels, for example Jane Eyre and Great Expectations, not to mention darker works such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula itself.” Gray goes on to site the influence of fables in Orwell’s Animal Farm and in the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

It’s not difficult to think of many modern novels that rely on fairy tales. In many cases, such themes are also observable in fantasy novels. So-called “Sword and Sorcery” novels certainly fit the category, as do those with magical creatures such as elves and dwarfs.

To celebrate Mother Goose Day, perhaps you and a group of friends can try to think of the fairy tales behind your favorite modern novels. Have fun!

7 Simple and Quick Editing Tips That Will Elevate Your Writing

Guest post by Matt Banner

It doesn’t matter if you’re a New York Times bestselling author or a blogger from Kansas, everyone has to edit their work. The first draft is always a mess of disorganized thoughts and uncertain tangents. Writing begins as chaos and ends with order. It has been this way since the dawn of time.

Saving time while also polishing your work is every writer’s goal. These seven editing tips will help you achieve that goal.

Present Your Best Work with These 7 Editing Tips

When your first draft is finished and it’s time to edit, use these seven strategies to ensure that you hit all of the right literary notes and end up with a perfect final draft.

1 Eliminate Empty Filler Words

Phrases like it takes, here is, and there will be take the focus away from the nouns in your sentence. They basically combine with other filler words like who and when to pad out your sentences.

Look for phrases like these and train yourself to correct them:

• It’s fun to blog – Blogging is fun
• There are many people who blog – Many people blog
• Here are some ideas for you to try: – Some ideas for you to try are:

If you’ve already described the subject, then it’s okay to use words like here, it, and there. For example:

I love to blog. It’s a really great profession!

2 Use Strong Verbs

Look out for words that lessen the impact of what you’re saying. Try to replace these phrases with powerful and concise verbs.

Some examples:

• He went around the world – He traveled around the world
• Give out free items – Offer free items
• Make up a new idea – Create a new idea

3Focus on Powerful Adjectives

When you’re describing something, don’t use words like really or very. Instead, use words that get the point across confidently:

• Really gross – Disgusting
• Really great – Phenomenal
• Very large – Massive
• Very pretty – Gorgeous

Even if you cut out those two words before your adjectives, remember to focus on telling your readers what something is as opposed to what it isn’t. Take a look:

• It’s not that fun – It’s boring
• She’s not ugly – She’s gorgeous
• Blogging isn’t hard – Blogging is easy

For example, take a look at this food blogging article. Descriptive adjectives are imperative for this type of blog.

4Trim Fat from Your Phrases

People read fast these days, in most cases skimming content without reading every word. Make it easier for them by keeping your sentences short and to the point. Look at these sentences and imagine them without the bolded words. See how they read better?

• Every single person should love blogging.
• But the real issue here is people love to talk.
• You’re going to have to remove the extra words.

5Avoid Nominalization

Nominalization is when a sentence has a weak noun where a stronger verb or adjective should be. These tend to include several other words that pad out the sentence.

• Give your blog posts a good proofread. – Proofread your posts.
• Interruptions are the cause of slow work days. – Interruptions cause slow work days.
• He has a high level of intelligence. – He is intelligent.

6 Don’t Overcomplicate Commas

Punctuation in the English language brings a lot of rules with it. Even the poor comma is subjected to countless rules and regulations. Shane Arthur over at Boost Blog Traffic has a great policy on comma usage:

Here’s a tip: Use commas sparingly, but if you leave one out and it makes the reader stop reading, then add another comma!

Read your sentences out loud, and if they sound odd, add a comma to clarify the ideas in place. Otherwise it all runs together, and your reader has to stop to reread the sentence.

7Use Noun Modifiers

When you combine two nouns in a way that the first modifies the second, you’re using a noun modifier. They are useful because they shorten sentences. Try these out:

• Tips on blogging – Blogging Tips
• Great advice on how to boost focus – Great focus-boosting advice
• Information regarding your award – Award information

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to get swept up in the editing process, but it’s important to present your best work every time. Share your own editing tips in the comments below!

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Matt Banner is the author of On Blast Blog, a website that provides easy-to-read information on how to start and grow a blog. You can follow him via twitter @blastyourblog.

Six of the Best Holiday Books for Students

During the holiday season, students and everyday readers alike love to settle down with a good book, getting nice and cozy to escape the rush. Ideally this literary refuge takes place by a warm fireside, while the snow falls outside. While that might not always be possible, there are a few staples of holiday literature which are guaranteed to put readers in the mood for Christmas while providing some literary value.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

There’s no avoiding this classic novella, first published in 1843, in the world of holiday literature. A quintessential piece, A Christmas Carol is often the first story anyone reaches for to represent Christmas. Charles Dickens is often credited with crafting or popularizing the image of the modern Christmas in this tale. What gives A Christmas Carol true value is that it’s not just a story, but a fable. From the repeating structure to the strong moral message, this story is about changing our ways and learning the values of charity and humility, which have been themes of Christmas tales ever since.

Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien

“If you find that not many of the things you asked for have come, and not perhaps quite so many as sometimes, remember that this Christmas all over the world there are a terrible number of poor and starving people.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, best known for this epic fantasy tales like The Lord of the Rings, also produced a fantastic set of short Christmas stories that can warm cold hearts during the holiday season. These stories, in the form of letters, tell tales of various hijinks taking place at the North Pole. In typical Tolkien style, these adventures include fantastic creatures like elves and goblins, along with a charming take on European mythology. While reading about the misadventures of the clumsy Polar Bear, readers will get a taste for Tolkien’s classic literary style and a slice of whimsical Christmas magic.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

“What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?” said Snape softly. “Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.”

The Harry Potter books have a notable Christmas feel, despite only mentioning Christmas briefly in each book. Even Harry’s first Christmas at Hogwarts, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, when Harry is alone at school without his family, is heartwarmingly poignant as he finds unexpected gifts. The Prisoner of Azkaban details Harry’s first trip to Hogsmeade, a village which could come straight from a holiday postcard. From the snow and decorations to the scarves and candy, this and other trips to Hogsmeade highlight the relationships (or lack thereof) that Harry has with his friends and family, as the holiday season does for us all. Along with the moral and adventure themes of the books, these scenes make great light reading for the holidays.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

“DO I DETECT A NOTE OF UNSEASONAL GRUMPINESS? said Death. NO SUGAR PIGGYWIGGY FOR YOU, ALBERT.”

Hogfather is a truly priceless item of holiday literature. This tale starts out as a little theatre of the absurd for comedy’s sake; Death (the iconic, skeletal Death with robes and scythe) must “fill in” for the absent Hogfather (an analogue of Father Christmas) and so hilarity ensues. On one hand, we have excellent comedy as the morbid Death attempts to emulate the jollity of Christmas. On the other hand, Pratchett’s talent for weaving heartfelt truths about the nature of humanity and magic into fantastical situations shines in abundance. This tale has a surprising amount to say about the meaning of Christmas, without ever mentioning it in the usual terms.

The Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot

“A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.”

This seasonal poem is a great example of holiday literature that doesn’t directly follow the usual pattern of Christmas iconography. The forty-three-line poem was written in 1927 and captures the religious air of Eliot’s work after his conversion to Anglo-Catholicism. The poem tells the story of the Magi from the Gospel of Matthew, who traveled to Palestine to meet the baby Jesus. This powerful piece therefore touches little on the modern concept of Christmas but has familiar themes of isolation and stark wonder. Reading this poem is like glimpsing the origin of Christmas, without the typical Victorian aesthetics or Nativity scenes we’re used to.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

“Always winter but never Christmas.”

Some of the best holiday stories are not directly concerned with Christmas, but rather capture the feel of winter and the themes of morality, adventure, and nostalgia. The second tale from The Chronicles of Narnia truly represents Christmas for many readers, and even features a cameo from Father Christmas, who brings magical gifts for the four travelers. This story sees Christmas from the point of view of English folklore. While it is often cited as a Christian tale (and of course all the more festive for it), there are themes which could be called pagan, or perhaps a missing link between the old world and Christianity, such as the way that self-sacrifice is handled as part of the cycle of nature.

Why Do We Need Style Guides?

If you don’t like to follow the rules, style guides are a necessary evil. They give uniformity and structure to writing and are an invaluable resource when writing papers in university; the skill of writing according to a style guide will also help you in your career. They teach you how to avoid plagiarism by correctly citing works that you’ve read and obtained information from.

Style guides outline the standards for writing citations and formatting a document. The rules vary among different style guides; the best one to use depends on which publication, organization, or field you’re writing for. Four of the most commonly used style guides in universities are:

APA Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The standard for educational, social, and behavioral sciences Citations in APA style include the last name of the author and year of publication. APA-style documents almost always have a title page. Sources will be on a “references” page.

Chicago The Chicago Manual of Style: For arts and humanities Citations take the form of footnotes or endnotes. Chicago style doesn’t necessarily require a title page, but it does require a bibliography page.

MLA MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: Used for humanities and literature writing Citations include the author names and exact page numbers. MLA style doesn’t necessarily require a title page. Sources will be on a “works cited” page.

Harvard Used primarily for scientific writings Citations include the last names of authors and years of publication. Sources will be on a bibliography page.

If you find style guides burdensome now, you may take comfort in knowing that the more frequently you reference them, the less likely you’ll need to do so in the future, because the rules may become part of your memory over time. Another option is to use a tool like Citation Machine that will do the work for you, but these tools aren’t flawless, so you may need to cross-check with a style guide anyway. No matter how you do it, what matters most is that you reference your work properly.

Grammar Basics: When to Use I or Me?

Mistakes with objective pronouns often occur when we have to choose between you and me and you and I. Because you is the same in both the subjective and the objective case, people get confused about I and me. The way to check this is to remove the second-person pronoun.

When he’s finished reading the book, he’ll give it to you or I.

If the sentence read “…he’ll give it to I,” we would know that “I” is wrong.

When he’s finished reading the book, he’ll give it to you or me.

To learn more about grammar and to help us celebrate National Grammar Day this March, visit our new resource page.

Do You Know the Correct Answer to Our Pop Quiz Question?

In a recent Grammarly Pop Quiz email, we asked readers how they would correct this sentence: I’m looking forward to purchasing tickets for the 2018 winter Olympics.

A: Capitalize the “W” in winter. B: Make “O” in Olympics lowercase. C: Accept the sentence as is.

44 percent of these readers gave the correct answer, A. Did you choose correctly?

Seasons are only capitalized when they’re used as proper nouns, as in the sentence above: The movie will debut in the spring of 2016. (Spring is not used as a proper noun and doesn’t need to be capitalized.) The Springfield Autumn Harvest Festival is my favorite event of the year. (Autumn is part of a proper noun in this sentence as needs to be capitalized.) This winter, I want to learn how to ski. (Winter is not used as a proper noun and doesn’t need to be capitalized.)

In poetry, the names of the seasons are capitalized when they’re personified. For example: It’s that time of year again, when Winter blankets all creatures with somniferous snow and whispers to them, “Rest, children, rest.”

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Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

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