GrammarPhile Blog

If one of your New Year's resolutions is to improve your writing skills, you won't need to roll out of bed by 5 a.m. to go to your local gym. You can keep this resolution anywhere.

Like any resolution that's worth keeping, improving your writing skills will take some effort. The good news is that it doesn't need to be cumbersome. Learning how to write well takes practice. Learning how to have fun while writing takes practice and a bit of creativity.

All of us made grammar mistakes in 2016, whether we realized and corrected them immediately or still have no idea about them. But for those writers that publish their work in a public forum or those unfortunate souls whose mistakes get passed around on the internet until thousands of people are laughing, these mistakes made for some of the best grammar gaffes this year.

According to Pew Research, 92% of Americans claim to celebrate Christmas. And many of them believe that the story of Christmas is historically accurate, regardless of their religious affiliation. So, whether you prefer to say “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Hanukkah,” “Happy Kwanzaa” or simply “Happy Holidays,” you likely share some of the same traditions as most Americans, as well as 2 billion other people around the world.

So, what are the origins of the Christmas story that we know today, and where did our cultural traditions originate?

As integral as technology is to the writing process, it's important to be aware of its common pitfalls and limitations, regardless of what you're writing. Review the list below for five ways technology can hurt your writing, and solutions for how to avoid these pitfalls.

Let’s see if you’re ready to pick up the Saturday New York Times and conquer every single clue. There were 20% of you who correctly answered all of the questions in last week’s quiz, but Barbara Poole earns bragging rights for being the first to submit her quiz answers and getting them all correct. Very impressive.

Here are the correct responses and explanations, so the next time someone asks you “What’s another word for “sass,” you’ll have the answer.

It’s the most wonderful time of year to cozy up and conquer a crossword puzzle. While combing through the clues, you may often find yourself asking aloud, “What’s another word for … ?”

When sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner this year, you can describe the meal as scrumptious and know none of your older family members can accuse you of making up words.

Since 2000, Oxford English Dictionary has made quarterly amendments to revise, update, and add new entries. This accelerated cadence is surely a sign of how quickly our language is morphing, growing, and if you ask older generations – falling apart!

Most of us think that a story is fictional, something that doesn’t belong within the same realm as business deals and communications. We have multiple emails to send, meetings to attend, events to host, and reports to analyze. There isn’t time for fairytales!

 Whether you asked your boss for more resources in an email or tried to convince your significant other via text message that sushi is the best choice for dinner, at some point, you have written something intended to persuade another party to do something.

After you hit the “send” button, you discovered what we all inevitably discover: persuading someone to do something through writing is a difficult art to master. However, by practicing helpful tips like the three below, it doesn’t have to be.

Ditch These 2 Words from Your Copy

We have the opportunity to edit a variety of documents at ProofreadNOW.com, from technical to medical to legal to financial to marketing and then some.

Two words that consistently show up in the documents we edit are forms of the words “get” and “help.” So, let me get you some help for writing your material!