GrammarPhile Blog

Have you ever been tasked with writing something that was so mundane you caught yourself drifting off to sleep while writing? Looming deadlines or not, boring topics can be difficult to write about and can be very tedious. Truly, how interesting can you really make a white paper on things like office supplies or manufacturing equipment?

Well, with the right mindset, you can make any topic interesting. That’s right—any topic. The real trick when writing about a seemingly boring topic is to look at the topic as an opportunity to let your mind wander, do some digging, and uncover something unique about something that is typically mundane.

Not every writer can aspire to be like Shakespeare — side-stepping grammar rules and conventions in clever ways, misspelling words that end up in the literature canon, and sometimes even making up rules as they go along. Nor should they.

Marketers, journalists, novelists, and business writers alike put their writing careers on the line when they make egregious grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, with their credibility and professional standing often being called into question. But mistakes happen, especially grammatical ones. And although writers try to avoid mistakes at all costs, especially in marketing copy and business writing, some of these mistakes fall through the cracks and are printed for the whole world to see. Some of these mistakes are funny, some of them roll off the tongue and incorporate themselves into everyday vernacular, and some of them are downright offensive.

With the advent of new communication technologies and platforms, business writing in the 21st century has drastically changed. Regardless of your industry or occupation, there are certain things you’ll need to know as 2018 begins, if you want your business writing to remain effective.

Data Will Drive Your Business Writing

In 2018, every organization’s reliance on data will increase significantly, especially when it comes to business communications and reporting. According to The Economist, the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. And how each business decides to write about the hundreds of terabytes of data it encounters can make or break its success.

What we know as Christmas today is one of the most popular holidays celebrated around the world, when millions of people participate in festivities and traditions. Whether you call it Christmas or something else, the popular winter holiday is a byproduct of secular and religious traditions that have evolved over the past several hundred years. It’s a time for family and friends to come together, decorate their homes, exchange gifts, feast, be merry, and extend their generosity to their neighbors and greater communities. Here are some notable holiday stories from around the world and their origins. You’ll notice that all their origins lie in an explanation for gift-giving.

Tis the season to relax, enjoy the company of your friends and loved ones, and seek inspiration for the new year. And what better way to gain inspiration for the new year than through the immortal words of famous authors? Match the quotes below to their authors, and then tell us which one inspires you the most in the comments below.

Feel free to share your favorite quote in the comments as well, if you don’t see it here. Cheers to a new year filled with productivity and amazing writing!

Identifying and understanding prefixes and suffixes of a word on their own may not be that difficult, but knowing where to put hyphens when you’re trying to write a uniquely arranged word or compound word isn’t always easy. Luckily, there are some general rules of thumb and tips to remember that everyone can follow to ensure that others at least understand what you’re trying to communicate. But first, let’s quickly recap what prefixes and suffixes are, and how they function.

Prefixes

Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word to create a new word with a different meaning. Prefixes don’t always have hyphens when they’re used, but they do change the grammatical function of a word in a sentence.

Gerunds and infinitives are often confused in writing and in everyday speech, even though they seem very different at first glance. Here’s what you need to know, so you can avoid mistakes in your writing.

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that functions as an adjective or an adverb to describe a word or make its meaning more precise; it describes or modifies other words or parts of a sentence. Before you take the quiz below, here’s a quick refresher about the types of modifiers, and some common mistakes writers make when using them.

Proofreading professionals take pride in their occupation and work diligently to ensure readers don’t encounter typos or any other inaccuracies in a piece of writing. Being responsible for a published typo has the potential to keep a proofreader up at night, cringing with anguish and regret. But every now and then, even proofreaders (the holders of the red pen, the original grammar nerds, and the deciders of the fate of the written world!) deserve a break too.

Whether you proofread marketing material, academic material, legal research, or something else for a living, the tips and tricks listed below are designed to make your proofreading life easier. Once implemented, they’ll help you become even more efficient than you already are.

It’s not uncommon to see “i.e.” used where “e.g.” should be used, and vice versa. In fact, it’s one of the most common mistakes writers make. Why? How could such simple abbreviations perplex even the most experienced of writers at times? It could have something to do with the fact that both abbreviations are derived from Latin words.

Continue reading to learn more about these sometimes-puzzling abbreviations.