April 30, 2008 at 10:19 am · Filed under goof ups, resources
People learn by imitating what they see. That’s how children learn to speak; it’s also how most people learn to write and otherwise express themselves. You might call this “education by contagion”. While it is a workable system, it does have some drawbacks.
One of these drawbacks is when instead of ‘catching’ a good habit, you begin imitating something which is actually wrong. Another person sees you, and does the same. Soon, an incorrect meme spreads and brings down the level of clarity. Contagion becomes a plague.
Some common plague words:
And/or: Outside of the legal world, most of the time this construction is used, it is neither necessary nor logical. Try using one word or the other.
Irregardless: No one word will get you in trouble with the boss faster than this one.
Of: Don’t write would of, should of, could of when you mean would have, should have, could have.
Many similar linguistic pitfalls are covered under Plague Words and Phrases. It makes for a good checklist.
April 29, 2008 at 10:54 am · Filed under announcements
We just went live with our first press release. Here it is:
Gramlee Unveils Online Grammar Editing and Proofreading Service
Gramlee uses professional editors to check grammar, sentence construction, brevity and overall readability to ensure writing is technically sound and professional.
April 29, 2008, Portland, Oregon, – Gramlee, a new online text editing and proofreading service, announces the public release of their editing services. The service allows users to submit their writing online to Gramlee’s team of professional editors. Editors review the text and send revisions back to users by email. The entire process usually takes less than three hours for short pieces of text. A 24-hour turnaround is guaranteed for all text under 3000 words. Larger bodies of text are treated as custom projects.
Gramlee’s editors rigorously check writing for grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure, brevity and overall readability. Their editors also reword and rephrase the text to make it more powerful, professional and presentable.
“Gramlee helps people of all abilities to proudly distribute their writing,” said Rushang Shah, President of Gramlee. “We edit everything from short emails, business documents, technical documents, college papers and theses, resumes, cover letters, marketing collateral, web pages and blogs. We want to make professional text editing affordable and easy to do.”
Springwise.com, a leading website that features innovative entrepreneurial ideas, calls Gramlee a successful “while-you-wait editing service.” They go on to say, “Gramlee does for writing what online translation and concierge services have done for other common tasks that benefit from a professional’s touch.”
Users can buy Gramlee packages based on the number of words they need reviewed. Any unused words from the package remain in the user’s account balance for future use. New users can try their first 100 words for free at www.gramlee.com. Packages currently start at $4.95 for 250 words, or two cents per word. Free bonus words are applicable for purchases of larger packages.
About Gramlee
Gramlee is an affordable online text editing and proofreading service for everyone. Gramlee’s team of professional editors rigorously edit for grammar, spelling, sentence construction, brevity, overall readability and professionalism. The company’s passion is to help people produce technically sound and professionally written communications that they can be proud to distribute. For more information about the company and its services, please visit www.gramlee.com.
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March 7, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under suggestions
Not sure when to use “affect” and when to use “effect” in a sentence?
Example: The boy’s allergies were affected by the wind.
Example: The noise from the neighbor’s stereo had a big effect on Billy’s mood.
Here’s a good blog post about this topic.
February 6, 2008 at 3:30 pm · Filed under suggestions
There seems to be great confusion about how to show possessive nouns that end with the letter “s.” The confusion is only increased when you find different grammar guides taking differing stances.
Which is correct?
Charles’s book…
Charles’ book…
In reality, both are. Consistency is the name of the game though. Make sure you stick with the same pattern throughout your writing.
You can find more excruciating details about this rule on this blog.
January 28, 2008 at 11:10 am · Filed under suggestions
Many of us are frequent offenders of this crime. We fill sentences with long and redundant words. We do this to make it sound like we know what we’re talking about (when we really don’t) or to fill the page with words. Or, we somehow feel that using long wordy sentences will make us sound more professional.
Stop writing long sentences just for the sake of being long! The best writers will agree that the shorter and more direct the sentence is, the better. The purpose of sentences is to get a thought across to the reader. If you have more than one thought in a sentence, chances are that you need two sentences (or a comma if the two thoughts are related).
Here’s a good blog post about this topic.
January 24, 2008 at 11:36 pm · Filed under goof ups
The media has covered the writers strike in great detail (read as “gone overboard”). However, many well known media outlets continue to misspell the phrase.
Using an apostrophe in “writer’s strike” implies that the strike belongs to writers (which it technically does). However, the term “writers” in “writers strike” is used as an adjective to describe the type of strike that is taking place, viz. a strike for writers. Technically speaking, an adjective cannot be possessive. Therefore…
…no apostrophe is required. Instead, it should be “writers strike” just as a strike held for teachers is a “teachers strike.”
More details to convince you that this is true can be found here.
