Grammar, Grammar, Grammar!

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by Catherine L. Tully

I know I have mentioned this great resource before, but only in passing. Grammar Girl is a heavy-duty tool for the writer–new or experienced. Mignon Fogarty is the name behind this character, and her “Quick and Dirty Tips For Better Writing” include goodies such as:

• Affect vs. Effect
• Toward vs. Towards
• All Right vs. Alright
• Lay vs. Lie

These are excellent, bite-sized tips for the writer that can mean the difference between getting a query nod and having the editor hit delete. Let’s face it–in this business, you’ve got to know what you are doing when it comes to grammar and sentence structure.

It doesn’t really matter how you decide to keep up with Grammar Girl. She’s on Twitter and she even has her own podcast on iTunes. A little honesty? It’s the only podcast that I have actually downloaded and listened to on my iPhone.

Naturally, if you prefer a good, old-fashioned book you can go that route as well.

Why am I so excited about this? Well, grammar is huge, and it is usually presented in the most awful, boring format. Grammar Girl gives it to you straight, but in a palatable way, without taking too long to get the point across. I’m a serious fan.

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Grammar Tip: It’s Vs. Its

First of all…if you haven’t yet taken advantage of the free app from Dictionary.com for the iPhone, Blackberry or Android, don’t waste time–get it now. This is a great resource to have with you on the go, and you never know when you will need it. Plus, it’s free.

Next. Grammar.

I’ve seen it one time too many lately, and I thought I would share a great resource for knowing when to use it’s as opposed to its. Once you know the rules, it isn’t hard. (Or should I say it’s not hard?)

As I was writing this post I realized something. It’s so easy to get lazy as a writer. To avoid looking up rules and just go with another choice when trying to put together a sentence. I’m going to start sharing the tidbits I have picked up along the way with Freelance-Zone readers. Consider this the first of many!

We All Do It

It’s tough enough to sell your writing skills without tripping yourself up with bad spelling, clumsy sentences, and atrocious grammar. We all have a blind spot when it comes to our own spelling, and even the old tried-and-true “read it aloud” trick doesn’t always work the way it should.

On every page of a well-established content supplier, you’ll read: “Let’s discuss your content needs formulate a content marketing proposal.”

On another site that wants to sell you writing services:”A technical writing company with a specialty in Internet, telecommunications, and software development topics.”

And most infamously, in a crucial political race on the east coast, an advertisement for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s senatorial campaign misspelled the name of the state. According to LegalNewsline.com, “After a three-person debate Monday night, an attack ad on Republican state Sen. Scott Brown paid for by the state’s Democratic Party spelled it ‘Massachusettes.’ The ad was ‘authorized by Martha Coakley for Senate and approved by Martha Coakley.” … Continue Reading

Creative Writing Tips From Writing Forward

I hadn’t see this site before, but Writing Forward had a nice post on creative writing that I thought I would share with Freelance-Zone readers today. It is advice from several writers, not just one, which is always interesting. While you are there, check out the rest of the site–it’s got some neat stuff on it. Personally, I enjoyed the areas on grammar and better writing. (BTW, this is one of the 2009 Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers too!)

Good Writers Don’t Always Get Paid

by Catherine L. Tully

I know a lot of people who are really good writers, but they aren’t all getting paid good money. I remember one writer that frequented a forum that I visited frequently. She was a better writer than I am, and she was frittering her time away writing for publications that paid five or ten dollars an article. She finally had to give up and return to the corporate world. The sad part is…if she just would have upped her markets a bit, she may have realized that she was underselling herself.

You see, good writers don’t always get paid what they are worth just because they have talent. They also have to have some drive and a willingness to take chances. Part of being a writer is taking risks. By stretching yourself, you will begin to learn your limitations…but more importantly…you will grow. Every time I got a gig at a magazine that was “out of my league” at the time, I had to work harder to make the piece shine. And I improved every time.
… Continue Reading

Great Grammar Resources

It doesn’t get any better than this. If you want to invest some time brushing up on your grammar, check out the resources given on this site: The University Of Chicago Writing Program. The sources are updated several times a year, so bookmark this baby and check back often.

How NOT To Abuse the Apostrophe

A recent comment asking about abuse of the apostrophe left me with the desire to elucidate further. Here you go, folks–no more abusing those apostrophes. You could go blind. Ever wonder why it looks RIGHT to add an apostrophe after a verb or to write “Open Seven Day’s A Week”?

Seeing that one fills me with the urge to go on a tri-state killing spree. The reason it looks “right”? You’re the victim of millions of bad menus, billboards, advertisements and other material. It looks WRONG now, you’ve seen it done badly so many times that right looks wrong. Welcome to Orwell land.

My handy memorization rule for apostrophes: Two basic uses–don’t bother any any others and you’ll never abuse them:

1. Used in a contraction. If you can’t remember how to properly render the apostrophe in a contraction, just spell it out instead. “It is” instead of “it’s” as in “It’s all about the Benjamins.”

2. Used to make a possessive. “Jeremy’s bicycle is a piece of crap.” “The creature’s claws got stuck in Jimmy’s scalp.”

A great mnemonic memory device for proper use of the apostrophe when it comes to “it is” or the possesive of “It” comes by way of Charles Bukowski, who wrote a book of poems called “It Catches My Heart In Its Hands”

Notice the apostrophe is omitted on the possessive of its. If my fuzzy memory serves me right, once upon a time they added an apostrophe AFTER the s, but that’s dropped out of the vernacular.

Grammar & Usage Help

I guess I’m on a tear when it comes to spelling, grammar and usage lately, but we can all use the help, eh? Here is yet another good resource for you. There are a bunch of helpful tips on this site. Have at it–and improve your writing!

5 Ways To Improve Your Writing

I think it is important to always be on the lookout for ways to improve your writing skills. Here are five things you can do that can help you polish your craft:

1. Volunteer. Become a writing tutor somewhere and help others learn how to write well. It will help you brush up on your skills and remind you of the basics.
2. Teach. If you have to break things down for others, it will make you think them through.
3. Take a class. Look at your local community college and see if they have something interesting. Take a poetry class. Try a grammar course. Learn about language.
4. Read a book. What is your weakest area? Find a book on it and get to work. You get as much out of writing as you put into it. Hone your skills.
5. Add to your knowledge. Learn ten new vocabulary words a month. Save magazine articles you enjoyed and study them to figure out what the author did to draw you in.

You can do any of these–or all of them. The more you work at becoming a good writer, the better the chance you have of getting published and making a living doing what you love. Simply put–you can’t know too much!

Invest In Yourself

After looking at Joe’s post on improving your writing, I got to thinking about the fact that as a writer, it is easy to get lazy. Pressing deadlines or the search for more work can easily take priority over polishing and refining your writing skills. I would have to argue that to let this happen is a serious mistake. Investing in yourself is just as important as anything else in this field.

What does “investing in yourself” mean? Tightening your prose. Memorizing new vocabulary. Improving your grammar. Ask yourself–when is the last time that you spent some time doing these things? If you aren’t sure, or you don’t do them on a regular basis; now’s the time to get going. All writers should be aware of what they are a little weak on in terms of writing. Spend a bit of time shoring it up–you’ll be glad you did in the long run!

Confessions of An Editor: New Year, Same Old Pet Peeves

It has been a very long time since I wrote a Confessions post, and since we’re in the first weeks of 2009, I figured it was high time.

As some of our loyal readers may already know, I’ve been an editor for quite some time, starting with my work as News Director at the Naval Media Center in Keflavik, Iceland. Since then I’ve edited everything from radio and TV scripts, press releases, articles, a whole forest of paper and a river of red ink. Today, my work editing Cheap Today.com doesn’t kill any trees, but some things remain the same no matter what you’re editing.

Including one of my all-time pet peeves; sacrificing accuracy for speed. CNN was guilty of this recently when reporting a military plane crash in California. The anchor or his script writers assumed that if it had wings and an engine, it must belong to the Air Force.  It’s an easy mistake to make, but one the CNN crew knows better than to make.

Another example I found recently hit my inbox courtesy of a writing group mailing list I signed up for once upon a time. I confess, I kind of like these mailing list groups…they give me plenty of fodder for posts like this.  … Continue Reading

Paradigm: The Best One-Sentence Advice All Week

I’ve just discovered Paradigm: The Online Writing Assistant. What a great site! It’s chock full of excellent writing help for new and intermediate writers, including the most helpful one-sentence quote I’ve found in decades:

“Focus on the sentence.”

If more writers would obsess over an individual line until it shines, they would find problem areas such as passive voice and subject/object confusion becoming a thing of the past. If your editor constantly gripes at you for putting “will be” lines in your copy or if you wrestle with past and present tense in your writing, check out Paradigm.

Even if you think your prose is dead sexy, have a look at this site and you may just discover some kind of tweak that can make your work even better.

Grammar Help Galore!

I’ve found the most comprehensive site yet for grammar. The Guide To Grammar And Writing has tons of info on this subject and it is presented in a very well-organized fashion. Seriously–you have to see this site–it has so much information on it you could browse for weeks. I’ll be visiting it often.

Kicking the Passive Voice Habit

One of my all-time pet peeves? The kiss of death in a cover letter to an editor? OK, the kiss of death in a cover letter to THIS editor? Passive voice sentence construction. We all do it, and this website has just as many guilty passages as anyone, so I can’t blindly accuse other writers of being dorks without putting on a dunce cap myself. No, TWO dunce caps.

Fortunately, there are plenty of helpful online resources to help you cut the crap in your writing. Some writers begin this conversation by saying “WTF is passive voice?” I pass along this excellent site from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. It’s a great place to get your education, and my favorite part of this site is the list of myths about passive voice. It’s actually permissable to use in certain instances, but most writers (me) who fall into the passive voice trap do so in the most glaring of ways–all addressed with suggestions on alternatives.

GetItWrite Online provides a generous helping of hints and advice with many more examples of flagrant passive voice sentences. I love this site for the free info, but the most recent writing tip is from 2006. Too bad, as I’d love to keep going back there on a regular basis.

Freelance-Zone.com nothing whatsoever to do with English-Zone.com but the handy passive voice chart is pretty cool and I wish I had thought if it first.

You’ll get quite an education on passive voice between these three sites. Please pass them along to the next person who writes an inter-office memo stating “The meeting will be held at two o’clock.”

Grammar Guide 101

Thanks to the University of Oregon for this wonderful site! If you need a little tuning up on grammar and punctuation, go here now and get started. You’ll find online quizzes, worksheets and more information than you can shake a stick at (whatever that means!?). A great resource for writers.