GrammarPhile Blog

If you consider yourself a writer or have ever published or shared anything online that you’ve written and are truly proud of, you’ve probably asked yourself whether you should copyright it or not. And you’ve probably wondered how to do that and asked yourself whether copyrighting your written work is still important in the Internet age.  

A recent state law in Indiana was passed a few weeks ago to allow cursive handwriting to be taught in schools. Although not a mandatory subject, the law codified cursive handwriting as an “optional” subject.

Many educators and professionals think that reading and writing in cursive no longer has real merit or relevance. In an age of ever-changing technology with smartphones, tablets, and laptops, why would we need to learn and practice cursive handwriting? Even our signatures are electronic-based nowadays, with computerized chips and fingerprints.

Professional proofreaders work hard to carefully examine every detail in your written work. They scan it multiple times to fix typos, grammar errors and spelling mistakes, and to ensure that it’s consistent in style and voice. But sometimes, especially if you have someone editing your writing, you may think that it’s okay to skip hiring a proofreader and save the time and money. If more than one set of eyes has scanned your work, then it should be good to go, right? Well … not exactly. Editors are certainly valuable and can fix and point out certain errors in your writing, but they aren’t trained to do the same things that proofreaders do. (Read Editor or Proofreader: Who Does What? to learn more about that.)

Before becoming convinced that you can forgo hiring a proofreader for your writing, you should consider what you’re writing first and whether it requires the attention and care that a proofreader will assign to it.

Listed below are six types of writing you should always want a proofreader to review.

Using proper grammar to express emotions has fallen to the wayside in a world where individuals have become reliant on using things like emojis (😲 😃), italics, bolded font, and CAPITALIZED WORDS to express their emotions when they write. But that doesn’t mean grammar has suddenly become inept in this arena. On the contrary, there are many ways you can use grammar to express your emotions effectively to connect with your audience.

Mood

It shouldn’t be too surprising that you can use the mood of your verbs to connect emotionally with your audience. The mood of a verb shows a writer’s attitude toward what he or she is writing. There are three moods in the English language.

Without hesitation, most people trust their dictionary as the true authority on language. When there’s a debate about the validity of a word or phrase, or you want to know how it’s spelled, you look it up in the dictionary without questioning it.

Essentially all words are made up in one way or another, but how do they get added to the dictionary? Is there someone who gets the final say in determining whether a word can and should be included in the dictionary? And is there a set process for adding words to the dictionary? The answer to both latter questions is: yes.

Writing web copy can be a very different experience than writing printed copy. Online readers have a much shorter attention span and expect to have their questions answered completely and immediately. You only have a few seconds to get their attention and prove to them that what you’re offering (even if it’s just information) is what they’re seeking, and that it’s what they want or need to read. Otherwise, they’ll quickly move on to the next link they find.

Here are a few things you must do if you want your web copy to get found, read, and shared.  

Does it seem as if sometimes it’s so easy for you to focus on your writing, while at other times even the whir of a fan can distract you?

If you haven’t discovered the best time to write, you’re not alone. It can seem tricky at first. In fact, there’s a science to it, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. But even though there’s a science to it, it’s not rocket science, and finding the best time to write can be simple once you know where to start.

Here’s how you can find the perfect time of day to write, step-by-step.

Writing is a part of your everyday life, even if you don’t consider yourself a writing expert. Most jobs require you to send emails, or fill out reports or memos of some sort. But even if you don’t love writing for work, regularly engaging in creative writing exercises can make it more fun, while you build valuable skills.

Creative writing does a lot more for you than make you more creative. Completing creative writing exercises on a regular basis also reduces stress, enhances critical thinking and comprehension skills, endorses effective communication, and promotes empathy. And having all those skills are extremely important in the business world.

Here are some exercises you can complete to fine-tune your writing skills today.  

Formality in the workplace has waned, but don’t let that affect your sense of professionalism, especially when you’re writing something on a digital device. Once you type something on your computer, there is a permanent record of it. Quickly typed emails can be saved and shared. Even deleted documents and posts can be recovered. So you should be cautious of writing mistakes you’re prone to make, and avoid them before they damage your reputation.

Here’s a list of writing errors that can damage your reputation, and what you can do to avoid making them.

Don’t believe what you’ve heard or seen. The hyphen is not dead. Its use has been declining, but mostly in the realm of joining common nouns. In 2007, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary eliminated hyphens from 16,000 entries. Bumble-bee became bumblebee, science books mention test tube instead of test-tube, and cry-baby joined to form one word.

The first recorded hyphen showed up in the work of Dionysius Thrax, the original grammarian. Back then, it was a tie-like (‿) sign used to join two words that one would otherwise have read separately. Then came letter-spacing in the Middle Ages, and the hyphen came to symbolize a connector between two words that had been incorrectly spliced by a space. We have Johannes Gutenberg to thank for the modern version of the hyphen. When setting his famous Bible, his tools wouldn’t let him include the hyphen below letters, so he moved it up to the middle of the line (Wikipedia).