Lesson 133 - Parts of the Sentence - Nouns of Address

Nouns or nominatives of address are the persons or things to which you are speaking. They are set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas, may have modifiers, and are not related to the rest of the sentence grammatically. You can remove them and a complete sentence remains. They may be first, last or in the middle of the sentence. Examples: John, where are you going? Where are you going, John? Where, John, are you going?

Because I use diagramming to teach in the classroom and can't on the internet, I will be asking you to find various parts of the sentence for the repetition. The repetition should help you remember the parts of the sentence.

Instructions: Find the verbs, subjects, predicate nominatives, direct objects, and nouns of address in these sentences and tell whether the verb is transitive active (ta), transitive passive (tp), intransitive linking (il), or intransitive complete (ic).

1. General, your men are loyal soldiers and brave fighters.

2. There is no need for alarm, students.

3. Will he give the instructions again, Miss Jones?

4. Men and women, we must meet our goals to be successful.

5. Becky, the guests have already arrived.

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. are = verb (il), men = subject, soldiers/fighters = predicate nominatives, general = noun of address

2. is = verb (ic), need = subject, students = noun of address

3. will give = verb (ta), he = subject, instructions = direct object, Miss Jones = noun of address

4. must meet = verb (ta), we = subject, goals = direct object, Men/women = nouns of address

5. have arrived = verb (ic), guests = subject, Becky = noun of address

Next Lesson

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from Daily Grammar Lessons Blog
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How Gaming Can Up-Level Your Communication at Work

The guild’s next raid will be a daring one: your small company is barely a month away from unveiling its new product. Everyone in your party will need to understand the plan and play their part in this perilous adventure.

Andrea, a level-thirty design mage, is worried there might be hidden traps en route to the treasure. Ben and Eduardo, both seasoned software paladins, are not certain the team can crank out enough rapid-fire damage to finish off the nefarious code lich in time. Elissa, a neophyte copy elf, is too nervous to admit she’s puzzled by the arcane machine in the breakroom that the team relies on for elixirs—er, coffee. I hope the team cleric casts a pizza buff soon, she tells no one. I’m sick of listening to the compliance shaman drone on.

One thing that will help this crew—and yours, too—is communication. No one player can carry the team alone; knowing what the others are working on, why, and how their respective efforts all fit into a shared goal is essential to unlocking high-level achievements.

Luckily, this doesn’t have to be a total chore: hard-won lessons in collaboration from gaming also apply in team situations at work.

Take turns and ask for pointers

Work communications, like many games, are often asynchronous—you send an email and then wait for a reply, you make your move and then watch to see what the next player does, etc.

One way to think about this is like a friendly game of chess with a workmate at the office. Let’s say it’s untimed, so the match might unspool over the course of a week. A few times each day, you walk by the board and see your colleague has slid a note to your side of the table that says “your move.” You study your options and make a decision, then slide the note back across.

The key difference between this game of chess and your ongoing email thread with Randy from engineering is this: you and Randy are working toward the same objective—a successful product launch next month. So instead of trying to outfox him with a crafty discovered check, you can simply ask Randy for input on your next move, e.g., “Hey, what’s the range of outputs for this field we’re adding? I need to draft descriptions ahead of Thursday’s meeting.”

Soliciting pointers from other players can be a boon, since eliminating guesswork improves the team’s efficiency—and also because working and playing alongside people with different skills and experience is a great way to step up your game.

Establish, listen, and expound

This collaborative spirit also applies in games with more players and quicker turns, just as it might in a meeting where you and several colleagues are trying to puzzle through a series of design hurdles.

Consider a cooperative game like Pandemic, where players take on such roles as medic, researcher, and operations expert in a race to halt the spread of disease around the globe. In Pandemic, it’s often helpful to devise a plan by working backward from where you’re trying to end up; each player often knows their next move well before their turn. So the scientist can work to discover a cure for the disease while the medic battles to stem its spread, and so on.

Sometimes it’s helpful to start by establishing what’s known—what challenges your team has to surmount, for instance, along with limitations (deadlines at the office, turn order around the table, etc). Here, it pays not only to be a thoughtful listener but also to show others you’re hearing them. It’s not a point you have to belabor, but building on what’s already been said before adding fresh ideas can be a way to steer the conversation forward, toward a collaborative solution.

It’s also worth remembering that players who aren’t eager talkers often still have worthwhile ideas—so when you can, make sure they have room to open up.

Be direct, keep calm, and minimize chatter

In some games, there is no waiting—everyone is actively playing all the time. Think of a game like Pit, which emulates bidding and trading for commodities in a crowded exchange: this tends to involve a lot of yelling, as well as trying to mentally filter which shouts you need to hear so you know who to transact with next.

That approach might sound fun for a little while, but it quickly gets unwieldy around the office—or while your team is in the midst of a complex assault, like that aforementioned raid.

In such circumstances, as with a heads-down deadline push at work, it’s key to impart lots of information with minimal chatter. For instance, players in games like Destiny use detailed callouts—the shorter, the better—in order to apprise their teammates of foes’ locations on a given map.

Here, as in the office, word economy is essential: be direct. Just as it helps to be succinct and not snippy with your teammates, so too must you find a balance with your colleagues, being assertive but not overbearing. The goal is to aid coordination—to make sure the design mage’s spells afford the team plenty of breathing room as the code paladins hack away.

Honing these techniques can help ensure your team doesn’t end up blindsided and on tilt in the midst of your next project. If this all takes some practice, that’s okay—every day with your team is another chance to grind more experience points!

The post How Gaming Can Up-Level Your Communication at Work appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

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13 Kinds of Grammar Trolls We Love to Hate

How many different rules of grammar and punctuation exist? For every rule, there exists a person eager to publicly expose any rulebreakers. These vigilante defenders of grammatical order are grammar trolls. Here are thirteen types to watch out for.

The Fish Throwers

In the world of writing, a red herring doesn’t refer to a fish. Instead, it’s misleading or distracting information. Fish Throwers are grammar trolls who don’t add anything essential to a conversation. Rather than focusing on the objective of the writing, they distract everyone by criticizing grammar. Who do they think they are? You might ask these trolls, “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”

The Drowning Fish Throwers

Closely related to Fish Throwers are the Drowning Fish Throwers. These trolls begin as regular interlocutors on social media. However, sooner or later they get into a debate and begin to lose the argument. Rather than admit defeat, they try to win points by insulting their opponents’ grammar. Unfortunately, they don’t fool anyone.

The Late Bloomers

The discussion is over. Everyone has had their say. But someone out there thinks that it’s still necessary to comment on a post. Who is it? None other than the Late Bloomer, a troll who wants to point out errors from years past. This troll doesn’t realize that everyone else has moved on to new topics. The good news is, no one really reads late arrivals anyway.

The Breeders

How many tweets does the average person publish each day? Breeder trolls multiply tweets by the hour! In their opinion, it’s their sacred duty to point out each and every spelling error with an asterisk and the correct spelling. Confused words prompt them to question the writer: “Did you mean. . .?” Comma splices practically make steam pour from their ears. These highly educated grammar trolls have too much time on their hands. Wouldn’t it be best if they found a more productive hobby?

The Franks

No, Frank isn’t the real first name of this troll. However, it does describe his personality. To be frank is to be honest and straightforward in your speech. Frank trolls tell it like it is. They aren’t trying to hurt you. Actually, they want to help you by pointing out the obvious. The trouble is, sometimes people don’t like the truth and certainly not when it comes in the form of public censure. Frank, might you start a private chat next time?

The Derps

Maybe this troll isn’t dumb, but his comments are. Enough said!

The Jumpy Jurors

Have you ever been wrongly accused of committing a grammar faux pas? Jumpy Jurors base all their judgments on circumstantial evidence. They don’t read the piece carefully. They don’t research to make sure their understanding is correct before making an accusation. Forget innocent until proven guilty. In their eyes, you’re wrong! Don’t bother trying to present evidence because jumpy jurors never listen to reason. And the only opinion that matters to them is their own.

The Broken Mirror Trolls

Broken Mirror Trolls are so busy looking at your grammar that they forget to examine their own. It’s as if they don’t have a spelling checker installed in their word processing program. How dare they critique anyone else with so many mistakes in their own writing? These trolls need to take a good look in a non-broken mirror!

The Bandwagon Riders

Bandwagon Riders don’t know a lot about grammar. However, they have mastered the difference between possessive pronouns, such as your and their, and contractions, such as you’re and they’re. Empowered with a little knowledge that they learned from other trolls, they vocally and viciously identify typos they find online. These trolls are practically unstoppable because each correction they make feeds their egos.

The Passive-Aggressive Trolls

The Passive Aggressive Trolls would never directly correct you. Oh, no! They simply post comments that are suspiciously similar to yours, only with certain changes to punctuation and syntax. These trolls hate Frank, by the way.

The Stalker Trolls

Stalker Trolls are the creepiest of all the grammar trolls. These trolls didn’t stumble upon an error by accident; they searched all your posts methodically and commented on every one. Why are they targeting you? Is it for attention? Are they jealous? Their motives are highly suspect, so your best course of action is to avoid these bad guys.

The Internet Arsonists

These trolls start trouble for one reason and for one reason only. They find it amusing to start trouble and then read the resulting comments. Usually, they don’t even participate after they have made their scorching attacks. For them, the fun lies in watching you burn in anger or shame.

The Fire Squads

It’s perhaps unfair to accuse members of the troll Fire Squad of being trolls themselves; the phrase “anti-troll” might be more apt. These folks look for fires started by Internet Arsonists and douse the flames by posting quotes from reputable sources to resolve the dispute. These are the people you will want to call if you need someone to protect and defend your writing.

Why learn about grammar trolls? According to The Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” If you really want to take a stand against grammar trolls, use this list to identify their motives. Then, you can decide whether you want to thank your troll, ignore him, or retaliate with a scathing comment of your own.

The post 13 Kinds of Grammar Trolls We Love to Hate appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

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Lesson 132 - Parts of the Sentence - Nouns of Address

Nouns or nominatives of address are the persons or things to which you are speaking. They are set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas, may have modifiers, and are not related to the rest of the sentence grammatically. You can remove them and a complete sentence remains. They may be first, last or in the middle of the sentence. Examples: John, where are you going? Where are you going, John? Where, John, are you going?

Because I use diagramming to teach in the classroom and can't on the internet, I will be asking you to find various parts of the sentence for the repetition. The repetition should help you remember the parts of the sentence.

Instructions: Find the verbs, subjects, predicate nominatives, direct objects, and nouns of address in these sentences and tell whether the verb is transitive active (ta), transitive passive (tp), intransitive linking (il), or intransitive complete (ic).

1. Here, Mary, is a glass of water.

2. My fellowmen, there is no need for worry.

3. What happened to my car, Dad?

4. You, my friends, are so kind!

5. We have no more candy, Jeanne.

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. is = verb (ic), glass = subject, Mary = noun of address

2. is = verb (ic), need = subject, fellowmen = noun of address

3. happened = verb (ic), what = subject, Dad = noun of address

4. are = verb (il), you = subject, friends = noun of address

5. have = verb (ta), we = subject, candy = direct object, Jeanne = noun of address

Next Lesson

For your convenience, all of our lessons are available on our website in our lesson archive at http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html. Our lessons are also available to purchase in an eBook and a Workbook format.
from Daily Grammar Lessons Blog
http://dailygrammarlessons.blogspot.com/2017/02/lesson-132-parts-of-sentence-nouns-of.html

When and How To Use Apostrophes

Apostrophes can be tricky. Sometimes they form possessives. Sometimes they form contractions. Can they ever make something plural?

Apostrophe Use: Contractions And Omissions

A contraction is a shortened form of a word (or group of words) that omits certain letters or sounds. In a contraction, an apostrophe represents missing letters. The most common contractions are made up of verbs, auxiliaries, or modals attached to other words: He would=He’d. I have=I’ve. They are=They’re. You cannot=You can’t.

Some writers use less common contractions when they want to represent a particular style of speech. They might write somethin’ to represent the way people often don’t pronounce the final g of “something” in speech. Occasionally, you might see e’er (instead of ever) in poetry. And, of course, in the American South, you will probably encounter y’all (you all). Decade names are often contracted as well: the ’60s (the 1960s).

Contractions are usually considered to be relatively casual. If you’re writing something very formal, you may want to avoid using them except in cases like o’clock, where the full phrase (of the clock) truly is rare.

Apostrophes and Possessive Nouns

The rules about forming possessives probably cause the most apostrophe confusion. They vary a little bit, depending on what type of noun you are making into a possessive. Here are the rules of thumb:

For most singular nouns, add apostrophe+s:

The dog’s leash The writer’s desk The planet’s atmosphere

For most plural nouns, add only an apostrophe:

The dogs’ leashes (multiple dogs) The writers’ desks (multiple writers) The planets’ atmospheres (multiple planets)

For plural nouns that do not end in s, add apostrophe+s:

The children’s toys The geese’s migration route

Style guides vary in their recommendations of what to do when you have a singular proper noun that ends in s. Some recommend adding only an apostrophe:

Charles Dickens’ novels Kansas’ main airport

Others say to add apostrophe+s:

Charles Dickens’s novels Kansas’s main airport

No matter which style guide you use, add only the apostrophe to plural proper nouns that end in s:

The Harrises’ house The Smiths’ vacation

Use whichever style matches the style guide you use for your writing. If you don’t have a style guide, it’s OK to just pick one of the methods, as long as you don’t switch back and forth within the same document.

Apostrophes and Possessive Pronouns

Personal pronouns, unlike regular nouns, do not use apostrophes to form possessives. Most writers don’t have trouble with the possessive pronouns my, mine, his, her, and our.  It’s your, yours, hers, its, ours, their, and theirs, that tend to cause the confusion. The relative possessive pronoun whose is also frequently the victim of apostrophe abuse. Note that none of these forms uses an apostrophe. In fact, for some of these pronouns, adding an apostrophe forms a contraction instead of a possessive (see the table above).

How to Write Joint Possession

What do you do with the apostrophe when you’re talking about things that belong to more than one person? When one thing belongs to two or more people, make only the final name possessive:

Bob and Jim’s bait shop (Bob and Jim co-own the same bait shop) Ryan, Jessica, and Elinor’s parents (All three share the same parents)

When you’re talking about separate things that belong to different people, make all the names possessive:

Bob’s and Jim’s bait shops (Bob owns one bait shop and Jim owns a different one) Ryan’s, Jessica’s, and Elinor’s parents (Each has a different set of parents)

Using possessive personal pronouns in joint constructions often sounds awkward (You have their and my gratitude). Usually, the best solution is to rephrase the sentence to avoid the joint construction (You have our gratitude or You have their gratitude and mine).

Plurals

Using an unnecessary apostrophe to form the plural of a noun is a very common mistake. Sometimes, it’s called the grocer’s apostrophe because of how frequently it is spotted in grocery store advertisements (3 orange’s for a dollar!). Don’t do it! With very few exceptions, apostrophes do not make nouns plural.

The one notable exception to this rule is the plural form of lowercase letters, which are formed with an apostrophe to prevent misreading:

Don’t forget to dot all your is.

Don’t forget to dot all your i’s.

Apostrophes with Surrounding Punctuation

An apostrophe is part of the word it belongs to, so it should not be separated from the word by periods, commas, question marks, or any other punctuation mark.

Can I ask you somethin’? “’Twas the night before Christmas,” he said.

In the second example, take note of the apostrophe at the beginning of ’Twas. Apostrophes that fall at the very beginning of a contraction are often mistyped as left-hand single quotation marks. Word processors tend to do this by default. Keep this in mind, especially when you are writing about specific decades, such as the ’60s or the ’90s.

When to Check a Style Guide

Sooner or later, you’ll come across a phrase that sounds fine out loud but looks weird on paper because of the apostrophes. Do’s and don’ts? Dos and don’ts? Do’s and don’t’s? For cases like these, it’s best to check a comprehensive style guide, such as the Chicago Manual or the AP Stylebook (it’s do’s and don’ts, according to the AP). A good dictionary may also be able to offer you some guidance. If you can’t find a precedent, it’s probably best to use a different word or phrase; overly creative apostrophe use will inevitably distract your readers.

The post When and How To Use Apostrophes appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

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How One Woman Revolutionized America’s Culinary Landscape with Writing

Words are powerful. They can change minds, start revolutions, and even sell ShamWows. For this reason, writers know they have a huge responsibility — the words they use could potentially change the world.

One woman whose words changed an entire field was food journalist Clementine Paddleford. Her groundbreaking career spanned the 1920s through the 1960s. At the height of her career, 12 million households were reading her column. She was a household name.

When Clementine hit the scene in the 1920s, food writing was pretty dull stuff. It was mostly instructional, focusing on recipes and advice, and was presented like a home ec lesson rather than the seductive, beautifully photographed food blogs we’re used to today.

So what happened between then and now?

It turns out Clementine Paddleford changed everything. She turned the status quo on its head and set out to pioneer a whole new approach to food journalism.

Clementine’s writing was lush and vivid with irresistible descriptions of foods and places. She described the shrimp tails in shrimp cocktail as “tip-tilted over the glass like pink commas” and a familiar root vegetable as “a tiny radish of passionate scarlet, tipped modestly in white.”

As market editor at the New York Herald-Tribune, she would scour the markets each morning, hunting for delectable picks. She wrote:

A tour of smells, our daily tramp through the markets of the town. Catch that savory boiling fat from a kitchen on the Bowery? Cheese, smoked meats, the fish market; and the coffee on Water Street the best of all, heavy, sultry and slightly charred.

In another Herald-Tribune column she described her visit to a Bartlett pear harvest:

A wonderful trip through California’s brown hills, tawny hills, made gold and brown by sun-cured grasses, made lavender and gray by sage and green spotted by cactus. … Past the hop fields, the vineyards, the English walnut orchards, past acres of wasteland where gold had been dredged. … These were the Bartlett pears, the pears now pyramiding our huckster barrows, the very pears you can buy this morning at your corner store for five cents apiece.

Clementine’s words sent her hungry readers clamoring to their corner markets in search of the mouthwatering finds she wrote about.

She began to travel extensively around the U.S., interviewing home cooks and researching regional cuisines. She was known as “the roving food reporter” and traveled so much (800,000 miles during her career) that she became a certified pilot and flew her own Piper Cub plane to make her travels easier.

In 1949 she wrote in This Week Magazine:

I’ve just travelled eight thousand miles from the East Coast to the West, into the South, into big cities, little towns, to see how America eats, what’s cooking for dinner…. I have knocked at kitchen doors, spied into pantries, stayed to eat supper…. I have interviewed food editors in 24 cities…. I have shopped corner groceries, specialty food shops, supermarkets, public markets, push carts.

In recent years home cooking has had a huge resurgence in popularity, but in Clementine’s day she was the only journalist reporting on it. She passionately told the stories of how food is connected to people and to places, and celebrated the traditional recipes and details of everyday life that her contemporaries had written off.

Oh, and she actually had to coin the phrase “regional American cooking” because no such term existed at the time!

Fifty years before the Internet, she was popularizing regional food trends and connecting people to far off places and foods they’d never experienced. Because of her influence, people were changing the ways they thought and communicated about food.

Clementine had unprecedented success as a food journalist. She wrote for a slew of impressive newspapers and magazines, published almost a dozen books, and received numerous awards for her reporting (including from Eleanor Roosevelt).

But as a visionary pioneer navigating what was very much a man’s world, she experienced her own share of adversity. Not everyone took her ideas seriously at first or understood what she was doing.

Clementine frequently had to push back against editors who thought her sentence structures outlandish and her word choices too bold. Like the time she used the word “blood” to reference a freshly squeezed tomato and an unimaginative newspaper changed it to the less offensive (and less exciting) word “juice.” Ask any food blogger — Clementine knew what she was doing!

She also persisted through personal setbacks. When Clementine was thirty-three and already in the midst of her journalism career, her doctors discovered she had laryngeal cancer. They performed a partial laryngectomy; afterward, Clementine breathed through a hole in her throat and had to press a button on her throat in order to speak. This gave her voice a deep and raspy sound, which could definitely be a challenge for a journalist who made her living by interviewing people. But Clementine was undaunted and turned her lemons into lemonade. In regard to her unusual voice, she famously said, “People never forget me.”

Today, for those of us who have grown up in the golden age of Food Network and the Travel Channel with (literally) millions of food blogs at our fingertips, it’s easy not to realize how different the food world used to be.

Because of Clementine’s hard work, we now have a much richer culinary landscape and language. She paved the way for home-cooks-turned-celebrities like Julia Child and Rachael Ray, inspiring food writers and activists like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, and trailblazing food adventurers like Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern.

As it turns out, one person’s voice can truly make all the difference. Clementine didn’t set out to be a revolutionary, but despite the resistance she faced, she stayed true to her vision. Her mother once told her: “Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.”

So the next time you find yourself going against the flow, and the going is getting tough — take courage. Even if you’re afraid to speak out, know that your voice matters and can be a powerful force for change.

Image Credit: University Archives (http://www.lib.k-state.edu/depts/spec/exhibits/paddleford/awards.html), Special Collections, Kansas State University.

The post How One Woman Revolutionized America’s Culinary Landscape with Writing appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

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Lesson 131 - Parts of the Sentence - Nouns of Address

Nouns or nominatives of address are the persons or things to which you are speaking. They are set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas, may have modifiers, and are not related to the rest of the sentence grammatically. You can remove them and a complete sentence remains. They may be first, last or in the middle of the sentence. Examples: John, where are you going? Where are you going, John? Where, John, are you going?

Because I use diagramming to teach in the classroom and can't on the internet, I will be asking you to find various parts of the sentence for the repetition. The repetition should help you remember the parts of the sentence.

Instructions: Find the verbs, subjects, predicate nominatives, direct objects, and nouns of address in these sentences and tell whether the verb is transitive active (ta), transitive passive (tp), intransitive linking (il), or intransitive complete (ic).

1. Sir, may I speak with you for a moment?

2. Jeff, are you leaving tomorrow?

3. Listen carefully to the instructions, boys and girls.

4. Fred, Anna needs your assistance for the afternoon.

5. Please, Mr. President, accept our apologies.

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. may speak = verb (ic), I = subject, sir = noun of address

2. are leaving = verb (ic), you = subject, Jeff = noun of address

3. listen = verb (ic), you (understood) = subject, boys and girls = nouns of address

4. needs = verb (ta), Anna = subject, assistance = direct object, Fred = noun of address

5. accept = verb (ta), you (understood) = subject, apologies = direct object, Mr. President = noun of address

Next Lesson

For your convenience, all of our lessons are available on our website in our lesson archive at http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html. Our lessons are also available to purchase in an eBook and a Workbook format.
from Daily Grammar Lessons Blog
http://dailygrammarlessons.blogspot.com/2017/02/lesson-131-parts-of-sentence-nouns-of.html

Why Grammar Matters in Your Content Marketing

If you’re trying to market your brand or sell a product, a grammatical mistake or typo can hold you back from success. Find out how it can hinder you (with funny pictures for proof), why it matters, and what you can do to ensure clean copy.

What do typos do to your messaging?

A few spelling and grammatical errors won’t necessarily prevent people from buying your product. But a writing mistake, even a forgotten letter, can contradict what you’re trying to prove to your customers.

Sometimes, an error can be downright scandalous.

And, to be fair, it can also be pretty hilarious.

We’re not saying a single typo is going to destroy your business. But if you’re a content marketer, advertiser, brand-specific blogger, social media specialist, or other kind of marketing professional, keeping your content crisp and clean can help you maintain your clients’ trust.

Why care about grammar in marketing?

Typos can decrease potential customers’ trust in you and in your product. If you’re not careful in your writing, clients, competitors, and investors might worry (consciously or subconsciously) that you do sloppy work. After all, if you didn’t bother to check for grammar and spelling errors, how can anyone be sure you’ll deliver on other elements of your company’s promise?

That goes whether you’re writing blog posts, tweets, snaps, Facebook updates, or something as antique as a sign or billboard: you’ll have credibility with customers and critics alike if you keep your copy as pristine as whatever you’re selling. Sure, you’re likely to sound more informal in a tweet than in a blog post, for instance, but even if you’re using colloquial turns of phrase to appeal to social media–minded readers, you can still run spell-check and keep your eye out for errors.

In the end, it doesn’t matter whether a mistake is picked up by a few avid grammar spotters or whether it’s risqué enough to make it into a list of worst offenders; if you can avoid making the error, then avoid it.

Case in point: if a politician’s publicity team can’t spell “America,” chances are, voters won’t want him to run it. That’s the power of careful communications.

Where’s the proof?

With the aim of shedding more light on the importance of clear and correct content marketing, the Grammarly team decided to do a little test. We looked at official posts on several companies’ LinkedIn profiles to see which companies paid most attention to accuracy in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. For added fun, we focused on big brand battles. Here’s one example:

In the worldwide cola competition, Coke beats Pepsi with 0.9 mistakes per 100 words, vs. Pepsi’s 3.6 mistakes per 100 words. Fun fact: Coke also beats Pepsi’s market share by a margin of 42% to 31%.

Is that all because of grammar? Not necessarily. (And to be fair, Pepsi has Coke beat on income because of its wider range of products.) With big-name brands like these, the source of success can’t be boiled down to one issue—even an issue as salient as grammar. But brands project professionalism and gain credibility based on how they communicate, and communicating properly can lead to great gains—especially if you’re not already raking in the billions like both Pepsi and Coke. To learn about the typo count for Facebook vs. Google and Ford vs. GM, check out Grammarly’s full article and infographic about the battle of the brands.

How can you avoid the typo trap?

The million-dollar question: how can you succeed where others have failed? Short of becoming a superhuman grammar guru and spelling savant whose fingers never strike a wrong key, you can do these things:

Be aware of your habits and tics, and avoid them. We know: easier said than done. But if you know you have trouble with who’s vs. whose or affect vs. effect (for example), pay extra attention to those problems with a post-it, digital reminder, or remote control to give you an electric shock when you make that mistake. Er, maybe not that last one. But still, watch out for your tics.

Re-read what you wrote. Seriously. It sounds simple, but if you take a few minutes to go through your draft—without zoning out—you might be surprised at the little things you catch.

Get someone else to give it the once-over. It can be a colleague, friend, partner, cat—well, anyone who can read. Even if you read and re-read your own writing, there’s a reason for the phrase “fresh pair of eyes.” Use a proofreading tool. Grammarly, for example.

Hire a proofreader or an editor. If all else fails, put your money where your typos are.

Paying attention and enlisting others to pay attention for you—no matter whether they’re human or machine—can work wonders. And if you’re extra concerned, or if you aren’t quite sure what your own tics are, take a look at other common ones and internalize those, too.

Which common mistakes should you pay extra attention to?

Some errors are more errant than others. Here are a few of the ones that pop up most frequently in advertising, online content, and other areas where you want to put your best word forward.

Switching letters, dropping letters, or adding letters

These errors are pretty easy to spot for a casual observer. Unfortunately, making the find was a bit harder for the marketers who made these mistakes and forgot to proofread.

In words with just a letter or two off like these ones, you can bet the writer would have found the error if he or she hadn’t been working on autopilot.

Using quotation marks for emphasis

This one is more frequent on store signs than in content marketing, but that’s all the more reason not to fall into the trap in your own writing. In fact, when quotation marks are used and there’s not an actual quotation involved, they express irony or sarcasm. Make this mistake, and you imply the opposite of what’s actually being stated, or you sound like you’re making fun of what you’re saying.

So rather than being real (note the italics for emphasis), “real” ice cream might be made from dairy-free milk, a lot of chemicals, or maybe something you would never want to eat at all.

Same story with this dose of irony:

Putting “don’t” in quotation marks is essentially equivalent to saying “do.” And if fire is involved, that could be “dangerous.”

Making mistakes with commas

You’ve got comma splices, serial commas, commas after and between certain types of clauses, commas with dates, conjunctions, quotations, and more. Get your fill of common comma misconceptions in this list of ways to never use your commas incorrectly. And then, imagine the unusual demographic this sign brings into being because it skips commas.

Using the wrong word

Whether this error stems from not knowing the vocab, getting similar-sounding words mixed up, or writing while your head is wandering off somewhere else, it can lead to some humorous outcomes. It can also be bad news for your company.

Apostrophes

Apostrophes create possessives and contractions (get up to speed on all the apostrophe rules). If you’re writing the plural form of a word, keep apostrophes out of the picture. Otherwise, your signs will look less than professional.

Then there’s the its vs. it’s dilemma: it’s another big problem for marketers and writers. The gist: “it’s” means “it is” or “it has,” and “its” is the possessive form of “it.” Brush up here to avoid imperfections in your content.

It’s true, after all: perfection does have its price. This brand may have paid the price of poor marketing, but you don’t have to if you stay aware of what you’re writing and avoid the pitfalls of poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation usage.

The bottom line: reread what you write, and don’t be afraid to enlist help. Keeping your content clean and error-free will keep you credible and your customers committed. And if you need a little extra help, Grammarly has your back!

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How to Write Right After You’ve Swiped Right

Swipe left. Swipe left.

She likes hiking and outdoor sports; you’re a homebody who’d rather eat nachos and watch Netflix. He’s into kale smoothies and hates chocolate; you . . . well, honestly, what kind of person hates chocolate?

But then someone appears who catches your eye. This person sounds upbeat, likes many of the same things you do, and has some interesting hobbies. Winner!

Swipe right!

You dash off a quick message to say hello and introduce yourself:

Hi their! It looks like we have a lot in commen. Lovd ur profile. Lets talk!

Hours pass. Then days. Your potentially perfect match does not respond. What have you done?

via GIPHY

You are being judged

Okay, time for a harsh reality—if you’re involved in the online dating world, you’re being judged. And, because it’s likely to be your first method of contact, one of the ways your potential matches are judging you is by how well you write. Here are a few ways to avoid blowing it.

Use ur your words!

We know typing on a mobile device can be a pain, but when you’re trying to make a love connection it’s important to avoid shortcuts. Taking the time to spell out words rather than resorting to textspeak shows you’re not dashing off hasty, impulsive responses. If your match has real potential, isn’t he or she worth the time it takes to write out real words?

Proofread!

via GIPHY

Practice safe text—proofread before you hit send. Not only does paying attention to detail show you care, it makes you look smarter and better at life, so people will like you more.

Okay, we’re being a bit snarky there, but we have stats to back this up! Grammarly’s research, in cooperation with eHarmony, revealed that a man with just two spelling errors on his online dating profile is 14 percent less likely to get a match. Ouch! Women may be more likely to evaluate men in terms of things like grammar because, according to OKCupid, they get seventeen times as many messages as men do.

Keep it positive

Even when you don’t mean to be a downer, your language can come across as negative. When writing a potential paramour, take a moment to consider how your message might be perceived. Let’s say you’re chatting with a guy who seems like a perfect match. You ask him to meet you for coffee and conversation. Here are two potential responses he might send:

Sure, that could be fun.

or

Yes, that would be fun.

Odds are, you’ll feel a lot more confident about his enthusiasm if he sends the second response. Even though sure is affirmative, it comes with an implied non-committal shrug, an unspoken meh. And who wants to hear “meh” in response to “Let’s get together”? After all, the famous quote says “Yes, a thousand times yes!” not “Sure, a thousand times sure.”

Could is a similar language beast. It’s ambiguous. Saying, “That could be fun” is like admitting you think meeting for coffee only might end up being a good time. Don’t be a buzzkill! Before you hit send, apply an empathy check to make certain you’re staying positive. Ask yourself “How would I feel if I got this message?” If you sound like you’re not all that interested, or like you’re hedging your bets, a little editing to choose the right words will go a long way.

via GIPHY

Tame your punctuation

We’ve warned you to keep it positive, but that doesn’t mean you have to commit egregious acts of overkill. People who go wild with punctuation can look a little . . . over-the-top. Exclamation points, for example, are for exclamations. (Who knew?) They work just fine when you’re saying an excited “Wow!’ or “Awesome!” or even a disappointed “Damn!” But when you write “I’d love to meet you!!!!!” you’re conveying potentially scary levels of excitement. Only dogs can get away with that level of enthusiasm.

via GIPHY

But don’t be stuffy

Just because you’re proofreading, spelling out complete words, and not overdoing the punctuation doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. In fact, you should have fun. Coming across like a stuffy snob is as bad for your dating prospects as coming across like a slobbery canine. You may be tempted to demonstrate your command of the English language, or even to throw in an erudite semicolon or two, but that doesn’t convey fun so much as “I’m silently judging you.”

via GIPHY

Compare these two introductory texts:

Hello. I was attracted to your profile. You and I appear to have a great deal in common. If you are interested, I would like to exchange correspondence to see whether we might be a match.

vs.

Hi! I came across your profile and noticed that we’re both into polar bear plunges and ice dancing. I thought I was the only one! I’d love to get to know you. Would you like to chat?

Which one would you respond to? Not only does the second version call attention to common ground, it sounds much more conversational.

One quick addendum: Men who properly use the pronoun whom seem to be 31 percent more irresistible to women. We’re not saying it’s a sure thing, guys, but it couldn’t hurt to brush up on your who vs. whom skills.

Communicate to be understood

In the online dating world (and anywhere else, for that matter) your primary writing goal is to be understood. Clear communication means not only paying attention to detail, but aiming for a positive, conversational tone. When you’re communicating online and excited about the prospects of a new match, it can be hard to remember to check yourself before you wreck yourself. But trust us, it’s worth it.

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5 Retro Games that Made Us Better People

You’re having an average morning at the office, when suddenly word ripples out from the corner suite: the boss is going to visit a major potential client this afternoon, and she wants the latest version of the demo ready to show off. A wave of adrenaline sweeps the room—this is all hands on deck.

The copywriter and designers launch into vetting every scrap of text and making sure every element on the screen will be pixel-perfect. Their actions come naturally; there is no fumbling, no time to second-guess. Meanwhile the developers and project manager scramble furiously to make sure every last tweak is going to fit—if something in the code breaks now, there might not be enough time to push through a fix. An exhilarating (if unexpected) test of your team’s abilities is now underway.

A lesser version of yourself might hyperventilate in this situation, but you’re so immersed in the task at hand you hardly have time to reflect on this. If you came up for air now, you might even realize you’re thrilled—it’s as though you’ve been preparing for this kind of challenge your whole life.

In a way, maybe you have been. Do you think all those old games you grew up playing had anything to do with it?

Perhaps you have fond memories of looking over a parent’s shoulder while they played solitaire, instilling an early appreciation for sequencing and spotting patterns. Or maybe anytime you think about strategic ways to keep your project’s options open, it all comes back to those kitchen-table games of poker with your cousins.

Did you surmount your first failure to negotiate a grand bargain after a botched transaction involving Park Place and a get-out-of-jail-free card? Did you learn about admitting you need help from the time you had to wake up that one kid at the slumber party who knew how to wall-jump in Super Metroid?

Maybe you took down enough bosses in Zelda with just a single a heart remaining that you’ll forever know how to keep your cool in dicy situations. Or maybe all those late nights playing Contra at your friend’s house taught you the value of leaving a few power-ups for your teammate to grab.

Whatever your games of choice were back then, we think it all might’ve factored in over the years to help shape the collaborator you’ve since become. Here’s a look at some of the games that taught us a thing or two about teamwork in the days before gamers wore headsets.

1 Chrono Trigger

This Super Nintendo classic centers on a plucky band of six (or seven—we’ll get to that) friends who represent different epochs of human progress, all united around their modest shared goal of averting an apocalypse.

Besides their disparate strengths, the characters all showcase unique styles of communication: The cursed frog (birthname: Glenn) speaks at times like a character from Chaucer, while cavegirl Ayla’s diction is still more . . . primitive. Spikey-haired swordsman Crono hardly speaks at all throughout the game.

But despite their many dissimilarities, the team does its best work together, with three-character ensembles uniting to cast spells that combine their best traits—for instance blending Crono’s lightning magic with the fire of Lucca (the prodigious inventor) and water magic from Marle (the crossbow-toting princess).

Along the way, the time-traveling team has opportunities to help right each other’s wrongs—stopping a horrible accident from befalling Lucca’s mother, for instance, or helping Glenn lay to rest the ghost of a slain knight. In a true testament to the game’s collaborative spirit, you can even forgive and recruit Magus, the shadow wizard who earlier in the game had seemed the middle ages’ main fount of evil.

Chrono Trigger remains a beautiful gamerly encapsulation of the power of working with a team, however wonky or arcane your colleagues and their strengths may seem.

2 Starcraft

The ne plus ultra of real-time strategy, Starcraft is a game where no one unit can single-handedly win a match, but the most skilled players make certain that every humble drone they spawn or probe they assemble counts for something.

As with Chrono Trigger (albeit here on a galactic scale) the single-player campaigns in Starcraft often center on peculiar alliances of disparate forces: the scrappy human space explorers (Terrans, to use the game’s parlance) teaming with the noble but sometimes conceited Protoss aliens, for instance, to halt the advance of the prolific, bug-like Zerg.

Connecting online or via local-area networks (remember LAN parties?) also made for fun hours battling alongside friends. Such endeavors found you delegating some tasks (mine your own minerals and explore the map as you can) while intersecting on shared goals (let’s position some siege tanks and templars over the cliff above the opponent’s expansion). And in the true spirit of teamwork, a team with human medics could even heal an ally’s alien hydralisks!

For anyone whose job involves managing a complex and growing team in an uncertain and rapidly evolving environment, Starcraft might just feel familiar.

3 Rummikub

You might remember this tile-based classic from summer nights with your grandparents; it fits somewhere between gin rummy and Scrabble in the taxonomy of games.

As a pastime where you not only build numeric patterns of your own but also break apart and reassemble combinations played by others, your every incremental step toward victory in Rummikub might also provide the breakthrough someone else needs in order to win. In other words, to inch toward success, you can’t help but nudge others closer to winning, as well—how’s that for built-in collaboration?

As an occasional bonus, trying to combo your way to victory through a dramatic (if not convoluted) series of moves in a crowded late-game board occasionally just fizzles and goes awry. The solution? Other players have to help you puzzle the board back to its original state.

4 The Adventures of Lolo

The NES Lolo series proved unique in an era of games like Mario and Tetris that tend to reward sharp reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

Lolo’s gameplay revolves around recognizing patterns and devising the best sequence for the adorable blue protagonist (the third installment also features his pink counterpart, Lala) to navigate obstacles like rivers and mazes, as well as a slew of quirky enemies. As a result, quick thumbs proved a secondary asset in Lolo, next to patience and a willingness to experiment.

Consequently, a few people could easily sit around the screen, passing the controller and plotting different solutions to each level (as your humble blogger did with his mom and brother in the bygone era of brick-and-mortar video stores).

There are many doors into the thriving world of collaborative puzzle games (consider tabletop gems like Forbidden Island) but for a certain set of people whose work all hinges on planning things in the right order, the sound of a Lolo-esque treasure chest springing open will forever play in their minds as they close in on their final task each day.

5 Magic: The Gathering

As digital games grow ever more popular, paper Magic might just endure (the strategy trading-card game is nearly twenty-five years old now) partly because it can provide something of a respite for people whose careers involve looking at screens all day.

As a recruiter for a tech company in San Francisco, Kevin Ligutom weeds through massive stacks of resumes just to pluck out a small handful of winning candidates. Along the way, he sifts through a variety of metrics and has to know which numbers matter and which ones are just noise. In the end, he has to communicate these results to hiring managers, lawyers, and H.R.

While Kevin is often at the hub of a wheel with many spokes, one thing that helps is his longtime hobby: slinging cards in Legacy, Magic’s highly competitive equivalent of Formula One racing. Experienced Legacy players know hundreds of cards purely by memory, and are comfortable sifting through reams of data about everything from popular tournament-winning decks to lethal new uses for long-out-of-print cards.

In other words, Kevin says, his hobby is a lot like his job: “I need to be able to tell management how long it will take to fill a given role. Part of that is giving them both metrics and my analysis of those numbers based on my experience. Magic got me really comfortable with that kind of thinking.”

Whatever your assignment might be today, we hope you have fun—and maybe even make a game out of it.

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Freelancers–You Can Move Past Burnout. Here’s How.

It might start out resembling a normal workday.

Being a freelance writer is easy, and nothing ever goes wrong, you tell yourself.

You’re there. The requisite coffee is there. The well-worn keyboard sits just below the screen, which pulses steadily with notifications of various tasks, deadlines, and expectations. You’re used to this. Some part of you might even feed on it.

But then, something abnormal happens. Not that it’s unheard of to procrastinate on writing a little bit—even veterans who’ve hammered out dozens of books do it. But you find yourself spending an awful, just embarrassing amount of the day perusing the listings of dogs that are up for adoption at your local shelter. You keep cleaning your desk and finding creative ways to list the stuff you have to do instead of, you know, doing it. Did I remember to eat lunch today? Sigh. Do I deserve to?

Ding! A new assignment just landed in your inbox. The pay is respectable—the kind of day rate you drooled over in college—but you’re just not jazzed. What’s welling up inside you is dread. Please stop making me do stuff, you plead to no one. Oh no. Am I burned out? Maybe.

As a freelancer, your rent and food all hinge on your ability to dispatch assignments in rapid succession, ship invoices, and keep moving. That kind of frenetic pace can wear you down, and yes, sometimes it leaves you feeling burned out. How you might deal with it depends on the severity, as well as how much time you have. We’ll talk first about tactics you can use immediately, and then zoom out for a broader consideration of how you can surmount more lasting burnout.

Short term: Breathe it out

Are you facing a deadline today and worried you’re not going to hit it? Don’t panic. Take a deep, slow breath in through your nose, hold onto it for just a moment, then exhale. You can get through this.

First, if you need to, log out of any social media that might suck away precious time. And while you’re at it, quash any extraneous conversations that have been blowing up your phone. That twenty-person text thread half-full of people you don’t know all negotiating the details of what kind of coleslaw they’ll bring to this weekend’s barbecue? Mute them.

Close any tabs related to ordering cute boots or obscure vinyl. Do not check the news. Take a couple of minutes to stand up, stretch, and get a glass of water. Find some aspirin if you need to.

How much time do you have until your deadline? If you can, divide what you need to do into smaller chunks, and budget time for each chunk. Try to leave a teensy bit of room for yourself at the end—that way you’ll have a moment to stand up again before you give your work a final once-over and hit “send.”

If the beginning doesn’t come easily to you, don’t waste time feeling stuck. Instead, start with what is easy—a middle section, perhaps. This may help you work backward and find your way in. Where possible, try not to overwhelm yourself with minutiae; don’t fiddle. Remember to break down pieces that feel unwieldy into simpler, more manageable components. You can work through them, so long as you remember to breathe.

If some part of you relishes this challenge—feels alive and appreciates the adrenaline and the suspense of pushing a tight deadline—then be conscious of it. But if that feeling is utterly absent, keep reading.

Longer term: Say no sometimes

Like a muscle, your writing ability can be built and developed over time. But also like a muscle, it can sometimes become overexerted and need time to rest and recover. Such periods needn’t feel like slow punishment; they can be chances to take care of and renew yourself.

As a freelancer, you might be used to pouncing on every possible gig that slides across your desk. You might also have several bosses. And your work may rarely stay confined to set hours, as the familiar cycles of feast and famine sometimes find you working long into the evening or on weekends.

But don’t overlook the advantages of freelancing. For instance, say you want to spend half your Tuesday morning at the gym and afterward hit up your favorite diner when it’s not crowded, possibly while reading something terrible you could’ve written better yourself: You can totally do that. And at least once in awhile, for sanity’s sake, you should.

In other words, you can occasionally indulge in the luxury of turning down work.

This is, admittedly, a balancing act. It takes a lot of effort up-front to cultivate a steady freelance hustle, and you might feel hesitant about giving up whatever hard-won momentum you’re enjoying. With this in mind, it’s good to communicate with the people you work for; freelancers don’t have to haggle over yearly vacation days, but the smart ones let their bosses and clients know what to expect and when they’ll be off the grid.

Consider diversifying

So why are you a freelancer? Maybe you detest fluorescent break rooms and office politics. Maybe some aspect of your life demands the kind of flexible scheduling that a salaried job can’t usually provide. Or maybe you’re in the midst of a transition—and enjoying the opportunity to branch out in different places and work on various projects without having to commit to any single role or employer.

If that’s where your heart is, then whatever ennui, malaise or general burnout you’re wrestling may soon pass. In the meantime, we know it’s a cliché, but don’t overlook the time-honored hallmarks of self-care, like routine exercise and eating well—two essentials that are often abandoned in times of high pressure and constant deadlines.

But if the work has truly come to wear on you in a way that “burnout” doesn’t fully encompass, know that no job is worth surrendering your happiness, and that this is something hard-working and exhausted people seek professional counseling for every day. There’s no shame in that.

If, after some reflection, you conclude you can’t keep doing what you’ve been doing, it’s okay. There might be other bosses or clients for whom you’d be happier writing, and other subjects you’d find refreshing to focus on for a while—or at least less draining. Freelancing affords you the freedom to keep exploring.

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5 Ways League of Legends Helps You Communicate Better Under Pressure

You are battling toward the nexus in a 5v5-ranked game late on a Wednesday night. You have to work the next day and know you are not going to get enough sleep. But fear not! Your dedication to League of Legends is helping more than just your online rep. It’s helping you to be a better team player by teaching you these five valuable lessons in communicating under pressure.

1 You’re ready to fill the gaps

If your team gets thrown a lot of projects each day at work, you have to quickly prioritize your tasks and assess how your team’s skills align. When you understand each other’s strengths and abilities, new challenges are easier for your team to tackle. In League of Legends, you get matched with random players in solo queue. You then have a couple of minutes to pull an all-star team together. In real life, as in League of Legends, you often have to work with what you are given. You don’t always get your first pick in a project, nor are all people easy to get along with. So you have to figure out how to help fill the gaps on your team without sacrificing your skills.

2 You know how to align your objectives

Getting ready for a team fight? Attack Baron? Clear enemy jungle? Kill Teemo? In the Summoner’s Rift, you are constantly aligning your team around the most immediate and impactful objectives. If one teammate is missing or not on board, it could cost you the fight or, worse, the game. In a fast-paced work environment, your team needs to work together effectively. Playing League of Legends has taught you to understand what your objective is and to be clear about what it will take to complete it.

3 You understand that flaming gets you nowhere

You are working late on a project that’s due tomorrow. Your colleague realizes he made a mistake that will keep you in the office longer. Option 1: ignite a pillar of flaming anger in your conference room with a snarky “GG noob,” dividing your team and setting yourself up for an even longer night. Option 2: take the mistake into account and refocus your team around the objective. If LoL has taught you anything, it’s that not sweating the small stuff under pressure can make the difference between victory or defeat.

4 You speak your team’s language

If you are trying to get out of the Bronze league, you have to know what it means to build an adc, stack mr, and go backdoor. Knowing the lingo saves time and makes you sound competent. In the office, you might Slack your colleague, “Hey Chad, what’s the ROI on the FB account for tomorrow’s Q1 meeting?” Just as in online gaming, every company has a list of acronyms they use around the office daily. Being able to speak that common language helps everyone get on the same page quickly.

5 You know when to stop beating a dead Warrick

Not all of your projects are going to be a success. You fail, and you learn. However, it’s important to know when to call it. League players understand that if a team has lost their top, mid, and bottom lane on the Rift, defeat is predictable and it’s time to call “gg.” You can beat your head against the wall and drag your team with you, hoping for something to change, or you can take your losses and analyze them so you know what to do differently in the next match.

You might not benefit from putting “Diamond League Player” on your résumé, but you can be confident that League has taught you l33t team communication skills you can apply IRL. So, when you’re on your third cup of coffee and your boss asks you why you’re so tired, tell her that you stayed up late working on effective communication strategies. Or . . . maybe not. Just grab that caffeinated beverage and buckle up for the day!

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6 Fictional Presidents Who Were Great Communicators

Happy Presidents’ Day! On this day when the United States honors their commander in chief, we thought it would be fun to look at the fictional portrayals of this office throughout pop culture history. We’ve found that many presidents from books, television, and film were excellent orators, and some may have surpassed even the most loquacious POTUS of their age. Here are some of our favorites, and we want to hear yours in the comments.

1 President Jed Bartlett

President Bartlett will always have a warm place in the American television universe as a warm, reasoned leader. Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, created the “walk and talk,” which President Bartlett executed beautifully throughout the series. With Sam Seaborn’s help, he also was a powerhouse of an orator, with several powerful addresses to the (fake) American people on the importance of democratic freedoms.

2 President Douglass Dilman

via GIPHY

You can’t argue with James Earl Jones’s powers of speech, and his powerful portrayal of the first (fictional) black president is powerful. The scene in which his character has his first press conference is especially powerful, and shows the understated power of President Dilman’s oration.

3 President Mackenzie Allen

Who doesn’t love a good presidential drama (that’s heavy on the drama)? The first (fictional) female president was also a very direct, occasionally blunt straight shooter.. Geena Davis’s no-nonsense approach to communication should be a model for straight-talkers everywhere.

4 President Thomas J. Whitmore

This speech has become so famous with sci-fi fans that its only near rival is a similar speech from Armageddon, which pales in comparison to President Whitmore’s gravitas. Although the president is not the main focus of Independence Day, he is quite the motivator.

5 President Francis Underwood

via GIPHY

Although Kevin Spacey’s president in House of Cards is undoubtedly diabolical, he’s also great at communicating with an audience. Whether he’s making a speech to accept a presidency he wasn’t elected to or breaking the fourth wall to address his Netflix viewers, President Underwood can command a room.

6 President David Palmer

President Palmer’s voice is one of the most authoritative on this list, and his question, “Is my voice shaking?”, will give you chills. Although 24 skews dramatic, the level of “candor and clarity” Palmer keeps throughout the series is impressive.

Who are your favorite fictional world leaders? Post your favorites in the comments below.

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15 More Sources of Inspiration for Content Creators

Writers of the world, unite! Creators of content are always on the lookout for more, well, content. Sometimes that means research, sometimes that means tips on building a business, and sometimes that just means looking at cool stuff and feeling inspired.

If you’re a fiction writer, content marketer, journalist, designer, or other kind of content creator in search of suggestions specific to the type of writing you do, head on over to Grammarly’s colossal list of tips, techniques, ideas, and sources for all your content creation needs (and maybe more). If you’ve exhausted that list and are already out for more—or on the flip side, if you’re not into job-specific how-tos and would rather explore broader sources of inspiration—this is the list for you. Here, Grammarly has compiled cool sites about writing, reminders to keep reading, and creative sources with a human focus. There are also inspirations to tune into on a daily basis and sites to support you in writing specific genres of fiction. Whether you’re looking for tips on a particular project or just want new sources of motivation (and maybe a giggle or two), there’s something here for you.

Reading, Writing, and Watching

Goodreads If you’re in the writing game, chances are you’ve heard that the most important thing you can do for your writing is reading. Goodreads lets you keep track of books you’ve read, find others like them, and read and write reviews (some bloggers use it as a gateway to lure readers to their own sites). Plus, there’s a blog, news about and interviews with featured authors, and awards for books of the year. Whether you’re looking for something to read, a place to write, or a list of titles that are already taken, Goodreads has mountains of material for you.

Subway Book Review Existing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and online, SBR gives you black-and-white photos of subway riders holding their favorite reads, followed by each photo subject’s words on why the book they’re carrying is important, interesting, or generally worth a read. The creator takes shots of people with real, paper books only: she says of her subjects, “They tell me about their lives and they tell me secrets and they tell me all of these magical things. I don’t think that a tablet or an iPhone can do that in the same way.” The project combines human interest with book recommendations. What could be better?

Wordstuck If you think you’ve got a big vocabulary, you might get stuck on the words on this site. Wordstuck posts obscure words in English and other languages that are bound to level-up your lexicon, or at least provide fun trivia. Whether you have to cope with palinolia (English: obsessive repetition to the point of perfection) around your vocabulary or just want to impress your parea (Greek: group of friends), Wordstuck will have something for you. Plus, it offers great visuals to accompany each word.

The Writers’ Helpers Not sure what to write? The Writers’ Helpers provides daily prompt challenges and monthly contests to go along with each prompt. Some prompts are for fiction, some for nonfiction, and most can be spun however you desire. Whether you want to join the competition or are just looking for a cornucopia of new ideas, these helpers have something for every writer.

Humans of New York Begun as a photography project, expanded to include interviews with photography subjects, and now spun off into two books, Humans of New York aims to “create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants.” With often intimate portraits and quotes or stories about the people pictured, HONY has gained an enormous social media following. HONY’s Facebook and Instagram started the phenomenon, but there are lots of copycat sites, from Humans of Bombay to Humans of Toronto. That’s the power of making strangers seem a little less strange.

Inspirations of the Day

Pun of the day That just about puns it up.

Whether you like to use jokes in your writing or not, sometimes a good (bad) pun can provide the spark that lights your own creativity—or at least gives you a laugh (or an eye roll) to boost your mood and set you on your way.

Earthshots Photo of the Day What’s more inspiring than beautiful photos of nature? Earthshots has got you covered every day of the year. A great writing prompt: pick a photo and describe it—or alternately, describe a scene that happens there. Or if that’s more work than you’re looking for, just look at the pictures. We promise, they’re pretty.

National Geographic Another spot for shots of the day, plus explorations of nature, people, and unfamiliar corners of the Earth that are bound to make you learn something. Nothing like new knowledge to help you think outside the box.

Brainy Quote Whether you’re into seeing a quote of the day or you’re on the lookout for something specific, Brainy Quote has an enormous repository of quotations from famous folks around the world and throughout history. Search authors, browse pictures, and explore topics like love, politics, knowledge, fear, or friendship. Whether you’re looking for something specific or need an inspirational boost, you’re more likely to be overwhelmed by possibilities than come up short.

Word of the day Whether you want to expand your vocabulary, test your knowledge, or practice your craft by incorporating specific words into your writing, it’s worth checking out Dictionary.com’s word of the day (or alternately, the daily word picked by Merriam-Webster, Word Think, or other similar sites). Many also have email newsletters you can subscribe to, so there’s no chance of skimping on your daily word.

Sites for Genre-Specific Writers

SF Site If you write science fiction or just have been bit by the sci-fi bug (sorry: body-invading alien), this is a great place for resources, reviews, news, interviews, and everything intergalactic. If you want more where that came from, the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction lists lots of additional resources for sci-fi readers and writers, while Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is a must-join organization for writing professionals in the genres.

Fantasy Writers You guessed it: this is a site for fantasy writers (and readers) to read and participate in forum discussions, find updates, read other people’s stories (including ones by published authors), and explore resources to help the writing process. There’s also a monthly writing challenge. You have to sign up to see stories others have submitted, but if you want to find a community of fellow fantasy writers, it’s worth your time. To see more fantasy sites, check out this list.

Kidlit If you write for children or young adults, a site that labels itself as being about how to write and publish children’s books will be a good pitstop. The site is regularly updated with general blog posts, and has sections on the ins and outs of publishing, revision suggestions for books targeted to different ages, and general advice.

Writing Romance This list of resources is compiled by Writing World, a site with tips about the career and practice of writing professionally. The section on romance has guides on the basics of romance, characters, and plot, as well as specific posts on topics ranging from how to craft romantic dialogue and emotional scenes to details like humor, suspense, avoiding cliché, and picking the right title. Plenty to fall in love with here.

Writing the Mystery Also put together by Writing World, this list compiles resources for researching and writing mystery and crime novels. If you’re planning to write in this genre, you probably need to brush up on your forensics. Beyond the researching side of writing, there are also tips on the right kind of dialogue to match your plot, creating a crime scene, and giving your killer a motive. With these resources, your mystery stories will be dead-on.

There you have it: ways to keep reading and writing, inspirational tidbits, and genre-specific sources to keep you going. For more sources on careers in writing and creativity in general, check out our list of inspirational online content.

The one problem with all this cool content: with so much out there to pay attention to, you’ll have to make sure you make time to create your own, too.

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