Grammar Archives - Copyblogger

Written by Stefanie Flaxman | October 31, 2017 | 7 Comments

The Slippery Truth about Grammar Checkers

It was a brisk winter evening.

While editing a Copyblogger article written by Brian Clark, the sound of my fingers tapping on my keyboard harmoniously blended with the rain pattering on the window next to my desk, as the light from the full moon illuminated my computer monitor.

Then, as the clock struck midnight, something strange happened. My teeth sharpened, my rational mind diminished, and my hands turned into claws hell-bent on changing multiple instances of “who” in Brian’s post to “whom.”

Like many editors before me, I became a Grammar Werewolf.

The next day, I woke up groggy, with little memory of what happened … until I got a message from Brian via carrier pigeon:

“The whom is grammatically correct, but it’s bad copy.”

My heart sank into my stomach. Of course it’s bad copy.
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Written by Stefanie Flaxman | July 12, 2017 | 41 Comments

Stop Making These 12 Word Choice Errors Once and for All

Bill is at a wine bar on Saturday night, enjoying a glass of Pinot Noir.

After striking up a playful conversation with Lisa (who prefers Syrah), he asks for her telephone number. Lisa agrees to Bill’s request, and he creates a new “contact” in his cell phone.

“No,” Lisa stops Bill. “You’ll have to memorize it. I don’t want you to write it down.”

Bill accepts the challenge and confidently repeats the 10-digit number a few times aloud. Lisa proceeds to talk about her cat Nibbles for an hour and then leaves the bar after she realizes how late in the evening it has become.

By the next day, Bill has forgotten Lisa’s phone number. He remembers how much Nibbles loves playing with yarn because he used to have a cat that loved yarn … and although he wants to send Lisa a text message, her digits weren’t meaningful to him.

The same thing happens when you memorize the definitions of two similar words instead of learning how to use them.
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Written by Sonia Simone | May 22, 2017 | 21 Comments

Pet Peeves from the Copyblogger Editorial Team, and What they Reveal

We’ve written quite a bit lately about identifying core values in your content.

Creating content around a positive value like integrity, fairness, humility, or faith will attract an audience that shares those values — and that fosters a powerful sense of unity.

But our friend negativity bias tells us that the flip side of that will probably be more compelling. In other words, talking about the things that bug you will build an even faster bond with your audience.

For today’s post, I asked our editorial team to let us know their peeves — the things that irritate, bother, and annoy them.

I’m going to try to tease those out and figure out the values behind them — and see what that might say about who we are as a company and a community.

So let’s get peevy.
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Written by Rainmaker.FM | August 31, 2015 | 0 Comments

How to Use a Comma

On this episode of Editor-in-Chief, host Stefanie Flaxman continues her Editorial Standards series with a lesson about correct comma usage.

Commas are often underused or overused. Do you know how to implement the right balance in your writing?

When punctuation marks are used correctly, readers take them for granted — they are merely symbols that seamlessly guide readers through your text.

And there are consequences when punctuation marks are used incorrectly.

Don’t Quit Your Night Job

Editing is evaluating choices you’ve already made to move forward intentionally.

If Person A and Person B both work with equal passion and effort to move their businesses forward, but Person A has gained financial stability from a self-directed, creative career and Person B has not, what does Person B lack?

How to Turn Bland Text into Sparkling Online Content

Let me guess …

You’re smart. You know your stuff. And you have a sparkle in your eyes when you talk about your favorite subject.

But your writing doesn’t sound like you. At all.

No matter how hard you try, you struggle to find the right words.

You swap one word for another — now your sentence sounds lame. You try yet another word. That’s even worse.

You’re not a boring old fogie, so why do dull sentences sneak into your content?

You know your writing should be more conversational. But how?

It may seem difficult to write content that’s engaging and seductive. But it really doesn’t need to be so hard.

Let’s have a look at the three steps that turn boring (yawn) sentences into sparkling content.