Crystal Clear Proofing

Pronoun Tips

2012-01-31T16:50:00.002-06:00

Pronouns take the place of nouns.

Subject Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Object Pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them

Rule: Use a Subject Pronoun (also called Nominative Case), not only as the subject of a sentence, but after 'to be' verbs when the pronoun renames the subject.

'To be' verbs: is, are, was, were, will be, may be, may have been

Example: He is my friend.
'He' is the subject of the sentence, so use a subject pronoun.

Example: Enrique and she are friends.
'Enrique' and 'she' are the subjects of the sentence.

Example: It is I who called.
I comes after the 'to be' verb 'is' and renames the subject 'it.' Therefore, use the subject pronoun.

Rule: Use an Object Pronoun (also called Objective Case) when the pronoun is the direct object, the indirect object, or the object of the preposition.

Example: Ella met him at the restaurant.
'Him' is the direct object.

Example: Ella will give him his money back.
'Him' is an indirect object because you can mentally put the word 'to' in front of it. 'Money' is the direct object.

Example: Between you and me, this will never work.
'You' and 'me' are the objects of the preposition 'between.'

Rule: Use reflexive pronouns—myself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves, yourself, yourselves—to refer back to another noun or pronoun in the sentence.

Correct Example: I did it myself.

Incorrect Example: Please give it to Roger or myself.
In this sentence, 'myself' does not refer back to another noun or pronoun.

(: IF THE ABOVE GRAPHIC APPEARS JITTERY, YOU'VE HAD TOO MUCH CAFFEINE! :)

Source: Grammarbook

15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Verbs

2011-11-15T18:53:00.006-06:00

These similar-looking words below have dissimilar meanings. Make sure you’re using the correct one in each pair.

1. Amused/bemused: To be amused is to be entertained; to be bemused is to be confused.

2. Appraise/apprise: To appraise is to evaluate; to apprise is to inform.

3. Ascribe/subscribe: To ascribe is to attach an idea to a source; to subscribe is to hold belief in an idea.

4. Attain/obtain: To attain is to reach; to obtain is to acquire.

5. Barter/haggle: To barter is to trade; to haggle is to negotiate.

6. Born/borne: To be born is to be brought forth; to be borne is to be carried along.

7. Borrow/loan: To borrow is to receive something for temporary use; to loan is to provide something on those terms.

8. Careen/career: To careen is to lean over to one side or to sway; to career is to hurry carelessly—not to be confused with the alternate meaning of a chosen pursuit, a profession or occupation. (Additionally, to 'carom' is to ricochet.)

9. Censor/censure: To censor is to ban; to censure is to reprimand.

10. Criticize/critique: To criticize is to judge harshly or in a negative manner; to critique is to evaluate.

11. Denigrate/deprecate: To denigrate is to defame or belittle; to deprecate is to disapprove or de-emphasize (but can also, like denigrate, mean to disparage).

12. Differ/vary: To differ is to disagree or to be distinct from; to vary is to change (although differ can also refer to 'variation').

13. Espouse/expound: To espouse is to support; to expound means to state, explain, or defend (which is also distinct from the phrase “expand on,” which means to provide additional or digressive details).

14. Rebut/refute: To rebut is to argue in response to another argument; to refute is to deny an argument.

15. Wangle/wrangle: To wangle is to obtain by underhanded means; to wrangle is to wrestle.

Source: Daily Writing Tips

The Apostrophe with Numbers, Letters and Abbreviations

2011-11-02T06:44:00.007-05:00

Rule: The plurals for capital letters and numbers used as nouns are not formed with apostrophes.

Example: She consulted with three M.D.s.

BUT

Example: She went to three M.D.s’ offices.
The apostrophe is needed here to show plural possessive.

Example: She learned her ABCs.

Example: the 1990s

NOT

the 1990’s

Example: the ’90s or the mid-’70s

NOT

the ’90’s or the mid-’70’s

Example: She learned her times tables for 6s and 7s.

Exception: Use apostrophes with capital letters and numbers when the meaning would be unclear otherwise.

Example: Please dot your I’s.

You don’t mean Is.

Example: Ted could not distinguish between his 6’s and 0’s.

You don’t mean Os.

Source: Grammarbook

Hyphenating Between Words

2011-08-17T06:40:00.001-05:00

Many of us get confused about when to hyphenate between words. For example, should you write nearly-extinct wolves or nearly extinct wolves?

Nearly answers how close to extinct wolves are/were. Adverbs answer the questions how, where, and when.

Adverbs do not get attached to adjectives with hyphens. Therefore, the adverb nearly, like most "ly" words, does not get hyphenated.

Only compound adjectives—adjectives that act as one idea with other adjectives—get hyphenated in front of nouns.

Example: The crowd threw out the barely edible cake.
The word barely is an adverb answering how edible the cake was.

Example: newly diagnosed disease
The word newly is an adverb answering when.

Example: We live in a two-story building.
The word two does not answer how, when, or where. It is acting as one idea with story to describe the noun building. Therefore, two-story is a compound adjective requiring a hyphen.

Example: The announcer offered a blow-by-blow description of the boxers' punches.
Blow-by-blow is acting as one idea. Therefore, it is a compound adjective.

Example: Our building is two stories.
When the description follows the noun, do not hyphenate.

Source: Grammarbook

Commas Before "and" in a Series

2011-08-03T06:01:00.001-05:00

In American English usage, a comma should precede and with three or more items in a series.

Example: I would like to order a salad, a sandwich, and dessert.

Newspapers and magazines do not generally use this rule, as print space is too valuable to use on what might be considered extraneous punctuation. However, print publications will use the final comma before and if it is needed to avoid confusion.

Example: Her $10 million estate was split among her husband, daughter, son, and nephew.

Omitting the comma after son would have led the reader to believe that the son and nephew had to split one-third of the estate (each receiving one-sixth), rather than understanding that each relative received one-fourth of the estate.

Source: Grammarbook

Parallel Construction

2011-06-29T06:09:00.006-05:00

Sentences and lists are awkward when they contain a series of items with inconsistent grammatical structure. But as your reader scans through a series of items with parallel grammatical structure, the relationships between different items of information become clear. Here’s an example:

Which of the two sentences below is easier to follow?

At the February meeting we will hold a discussion of the new health plan, whether to revise the procedures manual, and then a draft will be developed of the early retirement policy.

At the February meeting, we will discuss the new health plan, decide whether to revise the procedures manual, and draft an early retirement policy.

In the second example, the parallel verb tenses saved space and helped us grasp the ideas immediately. To help your writing flow smoothly and make sense, use the same format for items you present in a series.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Source: Grammarbook

Demonstrative Adjectives

2011-06-15T06:30:00.003-05:00

This/That/These/Those – Demonstrative Adjectives

The demonstrative adjectives—this/that/these/those—tell us where an object is located and how many objects there are.

This/That
This and that are used to point to one object. This points to something nearby while that points to something “over there.”

Examples:
This dog is mine.
This is mine.
That dog is hers.
That is hers.

These/Those
These and those refer to more than one object. These points to things nearby while those points to things “over there.”

Examples:
These babies have been smiling for a while.
These are mine.
Those babies in the nursery have been crying for hours.
Those are yours.

Source: Grammarbook

Happy Mother's Day or Happy Mothers' Day?

2011-05-03T17:09:00.002-05:00

Mother's Day is officially singular; it's the day you are supposed to honor your own mother.

Woodrow Wilson made Mother's Day an American national holiday in 1914, and it's always celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

Source: GrammarGirl

The Impotence of Proofreading

2011-04-13T05:47:00.005-05:00

Here's something a little different for your viewing enjoyment! Even if you've seen this video before, take a break from your busy blogging schedule and treat yourself to a good laugh! Sit back, enjoy, and have a delightfully HAPPY day!

Source: YouTube

You've Got "E-mail" or You've Got "Email"?

2011-03-30T06:24:00.015-05:00

Last week, the editors of the Associated Press Stylebook created a stir by announcing a change in their recommended spelling: "e-mail" is now "email."

The social media website Mashable implied that the change is long overdue, running the story with the headline "AP Stylebook finally changes 'e-mail' to 'email.'"

On the other hand, the New York Times announced that they'll stick with "e-mail." What this shows is that using a hyphen in "e-mail" is a style choice, and Mashable is more permissive than the Associated Press, which is more permissive than the New York Times when it comes to language change.

When the AP Stylebook editors were asked why they made the change, they said most of their writers already turn in articles with the "email" spelling, and copy editors found "e-mail" increasingly difficult to police. They emphasized that they don't consider themselves to be on the leading edge of language change; instead, they "bow to common usage."

This creates yet another "writer/author preference" as to which version to use. Just remember to be consistent!

Source: GrammarGirl

HAPPY Spring...and
Have a HAPPY Day!

Assure, Ensure and Insure

2011-03-23T06:05:00.010-05:00

Assure, ensure, and insure can be confusing. Here are the definitions along with some examples to help clarify the distinctions for you.

Assure: to promise or say with confidence
Example: Let me assure you that I will be at the meeting at noon.

Ensure: to make sure something will/won’t happen
Example: To ensure my family’s safety, I have installed an alarm system.

Insure: to issue an insurance policy
Example: I will insure my home with additional fire and flood policies.

Source: Grammarbook

Happy "Words Matter Week!"

2011-03-09T06:35:00.005-06:00

It's hard to believe it's been an entire year since we last recognized and celebrated Words Matter Week! This is a day of great importance no only to those of us working in the writing, editing or publishing professions, but to everyone. If words didn't matter, we'd all be reading material with misspellings, grammar and punctuation faux paus, poor structure — and I shudder to think what syntax would be like! The importance of words and the proper use of then is important, but without proper syntax, much of what we'd be reading simply wouldn't make sense.

Take an extra moment during this week to be grateful for the references you use in your writing, and (if applicable) the proofreader or editor who knows words, punctuation, grammar, syntax — and how to make your work shine with the clarity of a diamond!

Have a HAPPY day!

Quotations Within Quotations

2011-03-02T07:04:00.002-06:00

Almost all of us have found ourselves confused with double and single quotation marks. When do we use single quotes? Where does the punctuation go with single quotes? With just a few rules and examples, you will feel surer about your decisions.

Rule: Use single quotation marks inside double quotation marks when you have a quotation within a quotation.

Example: Bobbi said, “Delia said, ‘This will never work.’”

Notice that what Delia said was enclosed in single quotes. Notice also that the period was placed inside both the single and the double quotation marks.

The American rule is that periods always go inside all quotation marks.

Example: Bobbi said, “I read the article, ‘A Poor Woman’s Journey.’”

Rule: Question marks and quotation marks, unlike periods, follow logic with their placement. If a quote inside a quote is a question or exclamation, place the question mark or exclamation mark inside the single quotes.

Examples: Bobbi said, “Delia asked, ‘Will this remote control work on my TV?’
”Bobbi said, “Delia shouted, ‘Get your hands off me!’”

Rule: If the question is inside the double quotes, place the question mark between the single and double quotes.

Examples: Bobbi asked, “Did Delia say, ‘This will never work’?”

(Because you will rarely need an exclamation mark within the double quotes and not within the single quotes, there is little sense discussing this.)

Rule: In the above three examples, only one ending punctuation mark was used with the quotation marks. The rule is that the “stronger” mark wins. Question marks and quotation marks are considered stronger than the period. Period!

Source: Grammarbook

Capitalization After Colons

2011-02-16T06:17:00.001-06:00

Have you run across the situation where one sentence ending with a colon is followed by another sentence? Do you capitalize the first word of that second sentence? Why would you use a colon between the two sentences rather than a period or a semicolon?

Rule for colons between sentences: Use a colon instead of a semicolon or a period between two sentences when the second sentence explains or illustrates something in the first sentence.

Capitalization rule with sentences after colons: If only one sentence follows the colon, do not capitalize the first word of the new sentence. If two or more sentences follow the colon, capitalize the first word of each sentence following.

Example: One of my favorite novels is by Kurt Vonnegut: his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, is often funny, yet packs an emotional punch.

Example: Garlic is used generously in Italian dishes: It greatly enhances the flavor of pasta. Garlic also enhances the flavor of lasagna, one of my favorite dishes.

Now, should you capitalize the first word after a colon if it begins a list rather than a new sentence?

Rule for capitalizing with lists after colons: Do not capitalize the first word of a list after a colon.

Example: I like the following Italian dishes: pasta primavera, eggplant Parmesan, and lasagna. (Parmesan is capitalized because it comes from the Italian city of Parma.)

Source: Grammarbook

Capitalization of Job Titles

2011-01-12T06:27:00.002-06:00

With capitalization of job titles, there are rules and then there is the “rule.” The rules are based on some precedent while the “rule” is based on ego. Let’s go over the rules that have precedent first.

Rule: Capitalize job titles immediately preceding the name when used as part of the name.

Example: We asked Chairperson Leong to join us at the meeting.

Rule: Capitalize job titles immediately following the name when the word the does not appear in front of the job title.

Examples: Ms. Leong, Chairperson, will join us at the meeting.
Ms. Leong, Chair, will join us at the meeting.
Mr. Hanson, Editorial Advisor for The Independent Journal, helped draft the article.

Rule: When the appears in front of the job title, do not capitalize.

Examples: Mr. Hanson, the editorial advisor, helped draft the article.
The chairperson, Sarah Leong, will join us at the meeting.
Mr. Cortez was the senior managing director of the Baskin Group.

Rule: Capitalize titles in signature lines.

Examples: Sarah Leong, Chairperson
Craig Hanson, Editorial Advisor

Rule: Do not capitalize titles when used descriptively.

Example: Ms. Leong, who will chair the meeting, is always on time.

“Rule”: The “ego rule” is that you may have to ignore the above rules in real life. If someone in your office (as in your boss) wants his or her title capitalized in all situations, then do so. Generally, the higher in rank someone is in an organization, the more likely his/her title will be capitalized at all times.

Source: Grammarbook

HAPPY New Year!

2010-12-29T07:51:00.001-06:00

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
~Edith Lovejoy Pierce~

HAPPY Holidays!

2010-12-22T06:09:00.001-06:00

Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It's lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It's higher thought and a greater plan. It's glorious dream in the soul of man." 

~Wilfred A. Peterson (The Art of Living)

Teach us to value most eternal things. 
To find the happiness that giving brings... 
To know the peace of misty, distant hills. 
To know the joy that giving self fulfils. 
To realize anew this Christmas Day. 
The things we keep are those we give away.

~Marvin Davis Winsett ("A Christmas Prayer")

Wishing everyone a very healthy, safe and HAPPY holiday!

Spelling Challenge

2010-12-01T06:27:00.003-06:00

It's time for a Spelling Challenge! Grab a cup of java, a sticky note and pen, and write down the correct spelling for the ten words below!

NO PEEKING!

1. amatuer
2. tarrif
3. liason
4. carberator
5. reccommend
6. afficionado
7. athiest
8. comemmorate
9. occurrance
10. viscious

If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star! Good Luck!

ANSWERS:

1. amateur
2. tariff
3. liaison
4. carburetor
5. recommend
6. aficionado
7. atheist
8. commemorate
9. occurrence
10. vicious

Whether or not you got your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts!

Have a HAPPY day!

HAPPY Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T06:27:00.006-06:00

Have a Wonderful Turkey Day!

Hugs,
♥ Crystal ♥

To Google, or to google

2010-11-17T06:57:00.002-06:00

Google executives would rather you didn't use "Google" as a verb since doing so threatens their trademark, but as you know, it's very common to hear people say, "I Googled it," to mean they searched for something on Google.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary lists the verb "google" as lowercase, but notes that it is often capitalized. The Oxford English Dictionary draft entry shows the verb "Google" capitalized, but some of the example sentences have it lowercase. In searching for an older, analogous situation, I discovered that Bryan Garner says "xerox" is usually not capitalized when it's used as a verb, but sometimes it is.

There doesn't seem to be an absolute rule, although companies prefer that you capitalize trademarked terms if you insist on using them as verbs. The best advice I can give you is to pick a style and stick with it. As an editor, I respect the preference of companies and trademarks, and capitalize titles, especially Google!

Source: Grammar Girl

Vocabulary

2010-11-10T07:17:00.002-06:00

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: advertent, and its pronounciation is: \ad-'vr-tnt\.

Advertent is a adjective meaning: giving attention – heedful.

Marcia listened to everything we said with an advertent expression on her face, then proceeded to tell us, point by point, exactly why she disagreed with us.

Rules Do Change

2010-11-03T07:47:00.000-05:00

Spacing After Periods

Originally, typewriters had monospaced fonts, so two spaces after ending punctuation marks such as the period were used to make the text more legible. However, most computer fonts present no difficulty with proportion or legibility, so use just one space after a period, colon, question mark, or exclamation point at the end of a sentence. You will not be struck by lightning, I promise!

Quotation Marks and Punctuation

In Grandma’s day, a period used with quotation marks followed logic: Example: Myrtle said the word “darn”. The period went outside the quote because only the last word was in quotation marks, not the entire sentence. Example: Myrtle said, “I would never say that.” The period went inside the quotation mark because the entire sentence is a quote.

Today, in American English usage, the period always goes inside the quotation mark.

Example: Myrtle said the word “darn.”

This does not follow prior grammatical logic, but...things DO change!

Source: Grammarbook

Thoroughness Challenge

2010-10-27T06:11:00.003-05:00

Now, let's see how thorough you are!

*******************************************************************************
Webmasters and content providers began optimizing sites for search engines in the mid 1990s. Initially, all webmasters needed to do was submit the address of a page, or URL, to the various engines which would send a "spider" to "crawl" that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed. The process involves a search engine spider downloading a page and storing it on the search engine's own server, where a second program, known as an indexer, extracts various information about the page, such as the words it contains and where these are located, as well as any weight for specific words, and all links the page contains, which are then placed into a scheduler for crawling at a later date.

Site owners started to recognize the value of having their sites highly ranked and visible in search engine results, and the phrase "search engine optimization" probably came into use in 1997.

Early versions of search algorithms relied on webmaster-provided information such as the keyword meta tag, or index files in engines. Meta tags provide a guide to each page's content. Using meta data to index pages was found to be less than reliable, however, because the webmaster's choice of keywords in the meta tag could potentially be an inaccurate representation of the site's actual content. Inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data in meta tags could and did cause pages to rank for irrelevant searches. Web content providers also manipulated a number of attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.

By relying so much on factors such as keyword density, which were exclusively within a webmaster's control, early search engines suffered from abuse and ranking manipulation. To provide better results to their users, search engines had to adapt to ensure their results pages showed the most relevant search results, rather than unrelated pages stuffed with numerous keywords by unscrupulous webmasters. Since the success and popularity of a search engine is determined by its ability to produce the most relevant results to any given search, allowing those results to be false would turn users to find other search sources. Search engines responded by developing more complex ranking algorithms, taking into account additional factors that were more difficult for webmasters to manipulate.

Wishing all you Cool Cats a totally Cool and HAPPY day!

Writing Numbers as Words

2010-10-20T07:02:00.001-05:00

Many readers have asked me why people write numbers this way:

Example: We will need 220 (two hundred twenty) chairs.

Isn’t it unnecessary to have both numerals and words for the same number?

Rule of Thumb: There are two reasons for using both: 1. You are more likely to make an error when typing a numeral than when typing a word AND much less likely to spot the error when proofreading. 2. If your document is dense, has a lot of numbers, or contains large numbers, the numerical form helps your readers scan information quickly.

So by typing a combination of a numeral and a word, you are almost guaranteed accuracy and ease of reading.

Rule: Some authorities say that the numbers one through nine or ten should be spelled out and figures used for higher numbers. Other authorities spell out one through one hundred, plus even hundreds, thousands, and so on. The best strategy is to be consistent.

Correct Examples: I want five copies, not ten copies. I want 5 copies, not 10 copies.

Rule: Be consistent within a category. For example, if you choose numerals because one of the numbers you must deal with is greater than ten, you should use numerals for everything in that category. If you use numbers in different categories, use figures for one category and words for the other.

Correct Example: Given the budget constraints, if all 30 history students attend the four plays, then the 7 math students will be able to attend only two plays.
(Students are represented with figures; plays are represented with words.)

Incorrect Example: I asked for five pencils, not 50.

Source: Grammarbook

Obituary — The English Language

2010-10-13T06:50:00.001-05:00

By Gene Weingarten,
Pulitzer-prize-winning author

The English language, which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people worldwide and the dominant lexicon of international discourse, is dead. It succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself.

The end came quietly on Aug. 21 on the letters page of The Washington Post. A reader castigated the newspaper for having written that Sasha Obama was the "youngest" daughter of the president and first lady, rather than their "younger" daughter. In so doing, however, the letter writer called the first couple the "Obama's." This, too, was published, constituting an illiterate proofreading of an illiterate criticism of an illiteracy. Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame.

The language's demise took few by surprise. Signs of its failing health had been evident for some time on the pages of America's daily newspapers, the flexible yet linguistically authoritative forums through which the day-to-day state of the language has traditionally been measured. Beset by the need to cut costs, and influenced by decreased public attention to grammar, punctuation and syntax in an era of unedited blogs and abbreviated instant communication, newspaper publishers have been cutting back on the use of copy editing, sometimes eliminating it entirely.

In the past year alone, as the language lay imperiled, the ironically clueless misspelling "pronounciation" has been seen in the Boston Globe, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Deseret Morning News, Washington Jewish Week and the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, where it appeared in a correction that apologized for a previous mispronunciation.

On Aug. 6, the very first word of an article in the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal was "Alot," which the newspaper employed to estimate the number of Winston-Salemites who would be vacationing that month.

The Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal has written of "spading and neutering." The Miami Herald reported on someone who "eeks out a living" -- alas, not by running an amusement-park haunted house. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star described professional football as a "doggy dog world." The Vallejo (Calif.) Times-Herald and the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune were the two most recent papers, out of dozens, to report on the treatment of "prostrate cancer."

Observers say, however, that no development contributed more dramatically to the death of the language than the sudden and startling ubiquity of the vomitous verbal construction "reach out to" as a synonym for "call on the phone," or "attempt to contact." A jargony phrase bloated with bogus compassion -- once the province only of 12-step programs and sensitivity training seminars -- "reach out to" is now commonplace in newspapers. In the last half-year, the New York Times alone has used it more than 20 times in a number of contextually indefensible ways, including to report that the Blagojevich jury had asked the judge a question.

It was not immediately clear to what degree the English language will be mourned, or if it will be mourned at all. In the United States, English has become increasingly irrelevant, particularly among young adults. Once the most popular major at the nation's leading colleges and universities, it now often trails more pragmatic disciplines, such as economics, politics, government, and, ironically, "communications," which increasingly involves learning to write mobile-device-friendly ads for products like Cheez Doodles.

Many people interviewed for this obituary appeared unmoved by the news, including Anthony Incognito of Crystal City, a typical man in the street.

"Between you and I," he said, "I could care less."

Source: Grammarbook

Virgule

2010-10-06T06:37:00.001-05:00

The virgule (/), is known by many names, including diagonal, solidus, oblique, slant, slash, forward slash, and slash mark. The virgule is used to represent a word that is not written out or to separate or set off certain adjacent elements of text.

A virgule most commonly signifies alternatives. In certain contexts it represents the word or.

Examples:

he/she
his/her
oral/written tests
and/or
alumni/ae

A virgule represents the word per or to when used with units of measure or when used to indicate the terms of a ratio.

Examples:

40,000 tons/year
14 gm/100 cc
9 ft./sec.
a 50/50 split

A virgule replaces the word and in some compound terms.

Examples:

in the May/June issue
1973/74
parent/child problems

A virgule punctuates some abbreviations and in lieu of a period.

Examples:

c/o
w/
w/o
S/Sgt
d/b/a

Source: Grammar Done Right!

Vocabulary

2010-09-29T07:07:00.000-05:00

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: febrile, and its pronunciation is: 'fe-'brīl.

Febrile is an adjective meaning: marked or caused by fever; feverish.

Jeremy suited up for the game despite a high temperature and other febrile symptoms.

Good and Well

2010-09-22T06:55:00.002-05:00

Good and well are often used incorrectly. The key is to remember that good is an adjective and well is an adverb.

Examples:

Old Blue is a good dog. (Good is an adjective describing dog.)
You've trained Old Blue well. (Well is an adverb describing trained.)
This is a good salad. (Good is an adjective describing salad.)
I can't taste the salad well because I have a cold. (Well is an adverb describing taste.)
You did a good job. (Good describes job.)
You did the job well. (Well answers how you did the job).

When referring to health, use well rather than good.

Example: I do not feel well. (You do not feel well today.)

Which is correct?

I'm over my cold and I feel well.
I'm over my cold and I feel good.

Both are correct. It is okay to use well as an adjective when you're talking about health.

Note: You can use good with feel when you are not referring to health.

Example: I feel good about my decision to learn Spanish.

With Linking Verbs and Action Verbs

Use adjectives (good) with linking verbs and adverbs (well) with action verbs.

Examples:

You smell good; that's a nice perfume. (Smell is a linking verb.)
Now that you took your cold medicine, you should be able to smell well. (Smell is an action verb.)
You look good. (Look is a linking verb.)
Look at this picture well. (Look is an action verb.)

Good job!
Job well done!

Sources: Blue Book of Grammar, Painless Grammar

Spelling Challenge

2010-09-15T06:30:00.001-05:00

Are you ready to test your spelling skills? Do you have your sticky note and pen ready? Write the correct spelling for the ten words below, and remember...

NO PEEKING!

1. consciensious
2. useable
3. acquaintence
4. guilotine
5. sacriligeous
6. existance
7. maintainance
8. tendancy
9. hemorage
10. idiosyncrisy

If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star!
Good Luck!

ANSWERS:

1. conscientious
2. usable
3. acquaintance
4. guillotine
5. sacrilegious
6. existence
7. maintenance
8. tendency
9. hemorrhage
10. idiosyncrasy

Whether or not you got your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts!

Have a HAPPY day!

Aloud vs. Out Loud

2010-09-08T05:57:00.002-05:00

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms states that "out loud" started as a colloquialism for "aloud" in 1821. At first "out loud" was frowned on, but it has worked its way into standard English, so "out loud" and "aloud" are synonyms.

If you're being especially careful, you may want to stick with "aloud" in formal writing; but "out loud" is standard and even preferred in some sayings such as "laugh out loud."

If "out loud" hadn't become a rival of "aloud," the text messaging abbreviation could have been one character shorter: "LA" instead of "LOL" but I imagine "LA" wouldn't have caught on. Los Angeles and Louisiana would not have been amused.

Source: Grammar Girl

Vocabulary

2010-08-25T06:05:00.002-05:00

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: noologist, and its pronunciation is: noo la jest.

Noologist is a noun meaning: the study of the human mind.

Who better to write a book about the mind than a noologist.

Janus Words

2010-08-18T06:15:00.001-05:00

Janus words are words with two opposite meanings. Such words are named after the Roman god Janus who has two faces that look in opposite directions.

Examples of Janus words are:

"sanction," which means approved by an authority, and otherwise condemned;
"cleave," which can mean to cling to or to separate;
"screen," which can mean to review or display or to hide or shield from view, and
"trim," which can mean to remove things or add things.

Source: Grammar Girl

Trusting Your Eyes

2010-08-11T06:32:00.004-05:00

Mnay of you hvae sene tihs tpye of pargarpah bfeore. The etnrie piont is taht it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. And I'm nto eevn srue abuot taht! The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit too mcuh porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Since we're able to read the above paragraph, it provides an excellent example of just how easy it is to miss errors. It's important to be consciously aware of what you're doing when going over your work; don't rely solely on your eyes!

Punctuation Used for Emphasis

2010-08-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

Italics, Capitals, and Quotation Marks For Emphasis

Good writers choose commanding words in their sentences and only use italics, capitals, and quotation marks when required by punctuation rules. Don't overuse these forms of punctuation or your writing will lose its force.

Italics for Emphasis

Examples:

Employees must notify the HR office in writing of any absence.

Will I ever finish this chapter?

I only tried to help!

Capitals For Emphasis

Examples:

Manuscripts sent without self-addressed, stamped envelopes WILL BE RETURNED UNREAD.

Scalpers mingled in the noisy crowd yelling, "TICKETS, SIXTY DOLLARS!"

Quotation Marks Used For Emphasis (in a skeptical or sarcastic way):

Example:

Bob's regular Friday night "volunteer work" turned out to be a poker game.

Source: Grammar Done Right!

Thoroughness Challenge

2010-07-28T06:13:00.004-05:00

The Thoroughness Challenge is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed.

Today's Challenge is on the history of naming hurricanes, and contains 13 errors. Good Luck!

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For several hundred years, hurricanes in the West Indies were often named after the particular saint’s day on which the hurricane ocurred. For example "Hurricane San Felipe" struck Puerto Rico on September 13, 1876. Another storm struck Puerto Rico on the same day in 1928, and this storm was named "Hurricane San Felipe the second." Later, lattitude-longitude positions were used. However, experience has shown that using distinctive names in communications is quicker and less subject to error than the cumbersom lattitude- longitude identification methods.

Using womens' names became the practice during World War II, following the use of a women’s name for a storm in the 1941 novel "Storm," by George R. Stewart. In 1951 the United States adopted a confusing plan to name storms by a phonectic alphebet (Able, Baker, Charlie), and in 1953 the nation’s weather services returned to using female names. The practice of using female names exclusively ended in 1978 when names from both genders were used to designate storms in the eastern Pacific. A year later, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Golf of Mexico. The name lists, which have been agreed upon at international meetings of the World Meteorlogical Organzation, have a French, Spanish, Dutch, and English flavor because hurricanes effect other nations and are tracked by the public and weather services of many countries.

The Tropical Prediction Centre in Miami, FL keeps a constent watch on oceanic storm-breading grounds. Once a system with counterclockwise circulation and wind speeds of 39 mph or greater is identfied, the Center gives the storm a name from the list for the current year. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included because of the scarsity of names beginning with those letters. Names associated with storms that have caused signifcant death and/or damage are usually retired from the list.

Now, let's see how thorough you are!
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For several hundred years, hurricanes in the West Indies were often named after the particular saint’s day on which the hurricane occurred. For example "Hurricane San Felipe" struck Puerto Rico on 13 September 1876. Another storm struck Puerto Rico on the same day in 1928, and this storm was named "Hurricane San Felipe the second." Later, latitude-longitude positions were used. However, experience has shown that using distinctive names in communications is quicker and less subject to error than the cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods.

Using women’s names became the practice during World War II, following the use of a woman’s name for a storm in the 1941 novel "Storm," by George R. Stewart. In 1951 the United States adopted a confusing plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie), and in 1953 the nation’s weather services returned to using female names. The practice of using female names exclusively ended in 1978 when names from both genders were used to designate storms in the eastern Pacific. A year later, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The name lists, which have been agreed upon at international meetings of the World Meteorological Organization, have a French, Spanish, Dutch, and English flavor because hurricanes affect other nations and are tracked by the public and weather services of many countries.

The Tropical Prediction Center in Miami, FL keeps a constant watch on oceanic storm-breeding grounds. Once a system with counterclockwise circulation and wind speeds of 39 mph or greater is identified, the Center gives the storm a name from the list for the current year. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included because of the scarcity of names beginning with those letters. Names associated with storms that have caused significant death and/or damage are usually retired from the list.

Source: National Hurricane Center

Objective Pronouns

2010-07-21T06:23:00.003-05:00

Objective pronouns are used as the objects in sentences. You would say, for instance:

Jennifer came to see her last night.
For the twins' birthday, Amy gave them several new toys.

As with compound subjects, problems arise when there are compound objects. People sometimes write or say sentences like this:

The argument arose last night between Carla and she.
Please buy a raffle ticket from Nancy or I.

Each pronoun is used incorrectly in these sentences. The pronouns used as subjects here should all be in the objective case: me, you, him, her, it, us and them. So, the sentences should read:

The argument arose last night between Carla and her.
Please buy a raffle ticket from Nancy or me.

You can use the same trick that you used for the subjective pronoun problem, but substitute the objective form; that is, write or say the sentence with only one object. You'd never say:

The argument arose last night between she.
Please buy a raffle ticket from I.

Since those pronouns sound wrong when they're by themselves, you know that they're the wrong case. Change the pronouns to the ones you'd normally say when there is only one object.

So why were you and it on the lists of both subjective and objective pronouns? Because, unlike other pronouns on the lists (I and me, for example), English uses the same form for those two words.

It was nice to get a surprise in the mail. (It used as a subject.)
I got it in the mail. (It is used as an object.)
You called me a four o'clock? (You is used as a subject.)
I called you back at five o'clock. (You is used as an object.)

Source: The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need

Fun Facts

2010-07-14T05:38:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted 'Fun Facts.' Today felt like a good day for a little break – maybe learn a few FUN FACTS, maybe find something to use in your current or a future WIP – Enjoy!

First pick in the first NFL draft was Jay Berwanger in 1936. He never played - he became a writer.

The year on a bottle of wine refers to when the grapes were picked, not when the wine was bottled.

It's not an old wives' tale! A fruitcake, properly prepared and stored, will last for 25 years.

At its thickest point, the ice in Antarctica is 15,700 feet thick.

At -90º F, your breath will freeze in mid-air - and drop to the ground.

Author Anne Rice's real name is Howard O'Brien. She was named after her father.

Adding up all the times you blink in a day, your eyes are closed for a total of thirty minutes.

Tapeworms can grow to be 75 feet long in humans.

It takes 23 seconds for blood to make a complete circuit of the human body.

Dogs have about 10 vocal cords, cats have over 100.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Washington State has the longest single beach in the United States – Long Beach, WA.

Subjective Pronouns

2010-07-07T07:26:00.003-05:00

Subjective pronouns are used as the subjects of sentences (whom or what you're talking about).

Examples:

I am going to leave for my appointment.
She is late already.
They will never make it on time.

A problem occasionally arises when subjects are compound. You might read, for instance:

His brothers and him are going to the ball game.
Margaret, Elizabeth, and me were at the mall for four hours yesterday.
Me and her see eye-to-eye on lots of things.

These pronouns are used incorrectly. Because the pronouns are used as subjects of the sentence, they should all be in the subjective case: I, you, he, she, it, we, or they. So, the sentences should read:

His brothers and he are going to the ball game.
Margaret, Elizabeth, and I were at the mall for four hours yesterday.
I and she see eye-to-eye on lots of things.
(It's considered polite to put the other person first, so it's better to word this sentence like this: She and I see eye-to-eye on lots of things.)

If you're not sure if you've used the right pronoun, try writing or saying the sentence with only one subject. You'd never say:

Him is going to the ball game.
or
Me was at the mall for four hours yesterday.

Change the pronouns to the ones you'd normally use when there's just one subject (he and I).

Smile and Spread Some HAPPY!

Source: The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need

Spelling Challenge

2010-06-30T05:40:00.001-05:00

It's time for a Spelling Challenge! Grab a cup of java, a sticky note and pen, and write down the correct spelling for the ten words below!

NO PEEKING!

1. afficionado
2. ocassion
3. rememberance
4. inadvertant
5. priviledge
6. carbeurator
7. dumbell
8. liquify
9. misogny
10. desicate

If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star! Good Luck!

ANSWERS:

1. aficionado
2. occasion
3. remembrance
4. inadvertent
5. privilege
6. carburetor
7. dumbbell
8. liquefy
9. misogyny
10. desiccate

Whether or not you got your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts!
Have a HAPPY day!

Conjunctions

2010-06-16T05:37:00.002-05:00

A conjunction joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. I think we all know the most common conjunctions and when to use them; and, but, for, or, yet, and so. But here are two conjunctions that always confuse people.

When should you use or and when should you use nor?

Don't let these guys trick you. Remember this simple rule and you'll never be confused again.

When using the word either, us or. They both start with vowels. When using the word neither, use nor. They both start with "n."

Examples:

We had to decide if we were going to either the movies or to dinner.
My boss had neither the time nor the patience to listen to Bill's complaining.

Beginning a Sentence with a Conjunction

Just as there is widespread belief that you should not end a sentence with a preposition, there is also no historical or grammatical foundation that you should not begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction.

A coordinating conjunction you'll remember is for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. Once again, I could find no substantial evidence that beginning a sentence with a conjunction is an error and is mainly taught to avoid writing fragmented sentences.

If you decide to begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction, keep these points in mind:

– Be sure that a main clause follows the coordinating conjunction.

– Use a coordinating conjunction only when it makes the flow of your ideas more effective.

– Do not use a comma after the coordinating conjunction. Coordinating conjunctions are not considered transitional expressions like in addition and for instance.

– But used as an adversative conjunction can sometimes be unclear at the beginning of a sentence. You'll need to evaluate whether the but in question contradicts the preceding statement and see whether and is really the word you want. If and can be substituted, then but is almost certainly the wrong word.

Examples:

He went to work this morning. But he left his briefcase at home.

Between those sentences is an indirect idea, since the two actions are in no way contradictory. What is implied is something like this:

He went to work, intending to give a presentation, but he left his briefcase behind.

Because and would have made sense in the original statement, but is not the right word.

Correct: He went to work this morning. And he left his briefcase at home.

Of course there are other options for structuring this sentence; however this post being about conjunctions, the example uses only conjunctions.

Source: Grammar Done Right!

Vocabulary

2010-06-09T05:42:00.004-05:00

Good Morning Friends! Oh how exciting it is to be back in the Blogosphere!

I want to thank everyone for your well wishes and also for the birthday wishes. It was a happy day! Of course I had to share that outrageously expensive diamond and amethyst tiara with you!

So after recovery and birthday fun and a lot of other stuff thrown in during my absence, this is a super HAPPY day, to be returning to all of my blogging buddies! I sure have missed you!

Okay, now on to business! I thought I'd start with a light post and give you a Weird Word today. CCP will be posting every Wednesday, alternating the infamous tutorials with the Weird Word and the Spelling and Thoroughness Challenges.

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: mentimutation, and its pronunciation is: mentih-mu-ta-shun.

Mentimutation is a noun meaning: change of mind.

His mentimutation was a result of hours of pondering the facts.

Source: Luciferous Logolepsy

2010-04-08T06:22:00.003-05:00

I miss everyone!

I expected to have returned by now – I'm recovering from surgery and it's taking a bit longer than anticipated.

Please don't forget me!

Thoroughness Challenge

2010-03-16T06:22:00.002-05:00

The Ides of March

The Thoroughness Challenge is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure.

Your Challenge paragraphs today look at the origin of the term, Ides of March, and contain 11 errors. Good Luck!

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The term ides originally referred to the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspiscious day in their calender. The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month). The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assasinated in 44 B.C.E.

The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbude that date with a sense of forboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a fancyful expression must signify something more than merely another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time, sixteen centuries later, audiances attending his play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides.

So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which calender is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a mundain meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin: Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is now, the date on witch bills are do.

Vincenzo Camuccini, Mort de César, 1798

Now, let's see how thorough you are!

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The term ides originally referred to the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspicious day in their calendar. The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month). The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C.E.

The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbued that date with a sense of foreboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a fanciful expression must signify something more than merely another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time, sixteen centuries later, audiences attending his play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides.

So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which calendar is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a mundane meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin: Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is now, the date on which bills are due.

Julius Caesar

Sources: Wikipedia and infoplease

Clauses

2010-03-11T05:11:00.001-06:00

Let's find out more about the fun world of sentences, specifically, clauses. If writing is your passion, then having a solid knowledge of what makes a sentence work and what doesn't will separate your writing from the rest.

Different Types of Clauses

Sentences may contain these different types of clauses:

Phrase

A phrase is a group of words that lacks a subject, a verb, or both. Phrases cannot stand alone; they add information to the sentence.

Examples:

to the store
in a hurry
past the window

Independent Clause

An independent clause is a group of words that consist of a subject and a verb but depends on another clause to complete the thought. A dependent clause begins with a connector (or subordinator): if, when, because, although, since, which, or that – and prevents the sentence from standing alone.

Examples:

because I was late
when they arrived
since we're here

Next week we'll take a look at what joins clauses—conjunctions. See you then!

Source: Grammar Done Right!

Spelling Challenge

2010-03-09T05:46:00.006-06:00

It's time for a Spelling Challenge! So, grab a sticky note and a pen and write down the correct spelling for the words below. Remember …

NO PEEKING!

1. guteral
2. septagenarian
3. tableau
4. fourty
5. cooly
6. preferrable
7. annoint
8. saavy
9. carberator
10. ingenous

If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star!

Good Luck!

ANSWERS:

1. guttural
2. septuagenarian
3. tableau
4. forty
5. coolly
6. preferable
7. anoint
8. savvy
9. carburetor
10. ingenious

How did you do? It's been a while since I slipped in a word spelled correctly – did you catch it?

Whether or not you got the gold star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars, representing a little of the famous CCP HAPPY for your efforts!

Have a HAPPY day!

National Grammar Day

2010-03-04T05:20:00.003-06:00

TODAY IS NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY!

Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It's not only a date, it's an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same! - Grammar Girl

Most of us know clumsy sentences when we hear or read them, but we don’t always know exactly why they are clumsy or possess the skills to fix them. Here's a sentence that needs a little work:

The network that this computer is able to connect to contains information that is privileged and confidential.

The clumsiness is caused by several common writing errors:

Unnecessary dependent clauses
Get rid of that is/which is, that are/which are clauses whenever possible.

Extraneous verb phrases
Delete verb phrases that don’t add meaning: is able to.

Subjects too far away from their verbs
Place subjects closer to their verbs: computer connects, network contains.

Redundancy
Weed out repetitious words: Confidential and privileged mean the same thing in this context.

Finally, tweak the wording so that the sentence flows:

This computer connects to a network containing confidential information.

Check out The Grammar Song! Find it here: The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Sources: Grammarbook.com, Grammar Girl, The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar

Words Matter Week

2010-03-02T05:29:00.004-06:00

March 1–7 is National Words Matter Week, (Words Matter Week) sponsored again this year by the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors. In honor of this week, below are some quotes about words.

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain. – William Shakespeare

Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. – Mark Twain

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. – C.S. Lewis

Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes. – Theodore Dreiser

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. – James Michener

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music the words make. – Truman Capote

It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. – Robert Southey

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment. – Hart Crane

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. – Author Unknown

A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one. – Baltasar Gracián

He that uses many words for the explaining any subject doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink. – John Ray

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. – William Makepeace Thackeray

Homonyms

2010-02-25T05:26:00.010-06:00

Homonyms are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Homonyms can also be words that sound the same when you pronounce them, but have different meanings. I know most of you know these words and their different meanings; it's just kind of fun to see them and realize how many homonyms there are in the English language. Here's a sampling (there are so many more!):

aid – to help or assist
aide – assistant

affect – change
effect – result or consequence

air – atmosphere (the stuff we breathe)
err – to make a mistake

aisle – walkway
I’ll – I will
isle – island

allowed – permitted
aloud – out loud

ant – picnic pest
aunt – relative, as in your mom’s sister

ate – chewed up and swallowed
eight – number after seven

bank – embankment
bank – place where money is kept

bare – uncovered
bear – grizzly animal

berry – fruit from a bush
bury – to put underground

base – bottom part
bass – deep or low

be – to exist
bee – buzzing insect

beach – sandy shore
beech – type of tree

beat – to pound
beet – type of edible plant

berth – tie up
birth – to be born

bite – nibble
byte – 8 bits (computer data)

blew – past of blow
blue – color of ocean

boar – pig
bore – not interesting

borough – area or district
burrow – dig through
burro – small donkey

bough – branch
bow – bend or curtsy

buoy – floater
boy – young man

brake – stop pedal
break – smash

bread – bakery food
bred – form of breed

broach – mention
brooch – pin

brows – eyebrows
browse – look around

buy – purchase
by – beside
bye – short for goodbye

cell – compartment
sell – vend

cent – penny coin
sent – did send

cereal – breakfast food
serial – sequential

Chile – country in South America
chili – bean stew
chilly – frosty

chord – musical tone
cord – rope

cite – quote
site – location
sight – view

complement – enhance; go together
compliment – praise

council – committee
counsel – guidance

creak – squeak
creek – stream of water

crews – gangs
cruise – ride on a boat

dear – darling
deer – woodland animal

dew – morning mist
do – operate
due – payable

die – cease to exist
dye – color

doe – female dear
dough – uncooked bread

dual – double
duel – battle

ewe – female sheep
you – second-person personal pronoun

eye – sight organ
I – me

fair – equal
fare – price

fairy – elf-like creature with wings
ferry – boat

faze – impact
phase – stage

feat – achievement
feet – plural of foot

fir – type of tree
fur – animal hair

flea – small biting insect
flee – run

flew – did fly
flu – illness

flour – powdery, ground up grain
flower – blooming plant

for – on behalf of
fore – front
four – one more than three

forth – onward
fourth – number four

knew – did know
new – not old

gorilla – big ape
guerrilla – warrior

groan – moan
grown – form of grow

hair – head covering
hare – rabbit-like animal

hall – passageway
haul – tow

hay – animal food
hey – interjection to get attention

heal – mend
heel – back of foot

hi – hello
high – up far

hoarse – croaky
horse – riding animal

hole – opening
whole – entire

holey – full of holes
holy – divine
wholly – entirely

hour – sixty minutes
our – belonging to us

knead – massage
need – desire

knight – feudal horseman
night – evening

knot – tied rope
not – negative

know – have knowledge
no – opposite of yes

lead – metal
led – was the leader

lessen – make smaller
lesson – class

loan – lend
lone – solitary

made – did make
maid – servant

mail – postage
male – opposite of female

marry – to wed
merry – very happy

meat – animal protein
meet – encounter

none – not any
nun – woman who takes special vows

oar – boat paddle
or – otherwise
ore – mineral

oh – expression of surprise or awe
owe – be obligated

one – single
won – did win

overdo – do too much
overdue – past due date

pail – bucket
pale – not bright

pain – hurt
pane – window glass

peace – calm
piece – segment

peak – highest point
peek – glance

plain – ordinary
plane – flight machine or flat surface

pole – post
poll – survey

poor – not rich
pour – make flow

pray – implore God
prey – quarry

principal – most important
principle – belief

rain – water from sky
rein – bridle

rap – tap
wrap – drape around

real – factual
reel – roll

right – correct; not left
write – scribble

ring – encircle
wring – squeeze

role – function
roll – rotate

rose – flower
rows – lines

sail – move by wind power
sale – bargain price

scene – landscape
seen – viewed

sea – ocean segment
see – observe with eyes

seam – joining edge
seem – appear

sew – connect with thread
so – as a result
sow – plant

soar – ascend
sore – hurt place

sole – single
soul – essence

some – a few
sum – amount

steal – swipe
steel – alloy

tail – animal’s appendage
tale – story

their – belonging to them
there – at that place
they’re – they are

to – toward
too – also

toe – foot appendage
tow – pull along

vary – differ
very – much

wail – howl
whale – huge swimming mammal

waist – area below ribs
waste – squander

wait – kill time
weight – measurable load

war – battle
wore – did wear

warn – caution
worn – used

way – path
weigh – measure mass

we – us
wee – tiny

weak – not strong
week – period of seven days

weather – climate
whether – if

which – that
witch – sorcerer

your – belonging to you
you’re – you are

Vocabulary

2010-02-23T05:52:00.004-06:00

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's word is: TRUCULENT, and its pronunciation is: truk-yuh-lunt

Truculent is an adjective meaning: feeling or displaying ferocity; deadly or destructive; scathingly harsh; aggressively self-assertive.

The small country is ruled by a truculent dictator who punishes anyone who publicly disagrees with his policies.

Effective Writing

2010-02-18T05:12:00.003-06:00

There are countless grammar rules and writing guidelines; below are eight easy rules to help you write effectively.

Rule 1. Use concrete rather than vague language.

Examples:
Vague: The weather was of an extreme nature on the west coast.
Concrete: California had very cold weather last week.

Rule 2. Use active voice whenever possible. Active voice means the subject is performing the verb.

Examples:
Active: Barry hit the ball.
Passive: The ball was hit.

Notice that the responsible party may not even appear when using passive voice.

Rule 3. Avoid overusing there is, there are, it is, it was, and so on.

Example: There is a case of meningitis that was reported in the newspaper.
Correction: A case of meningitis was reported in the newspaper.
Even Better: The newspaper reported a case of meningitis. (Active voice)

Example: It is important to signal before making a left turn.
Correction: Signaling before making a left turn is important.
OR
Signaling before a left turn is important.
OR
You should signal before making a left turn. (Active voice)

Example: There are some revisions which must be made.
Correction: Some revisions must be made.
Even Better: Please make some revisions. (Active voice)

Rule 4. To avoid confusion, don't use two negatives to make a positive.

Incorrect: He is not unwilling to help.
Correct: He is willing to help.

Rule 5. Use similar grammatical form when offering several ideas. This is called parallel construction.

Correct: You should check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Incorrect: You should check your spelling, grammar and punctuating.

Rule 6. If you start a sentence with an action, place the actor immediately after or you will have created the infamous dangling modifier.

Incorrect: While walking across the street, the bus hit her.
Correct: While walking across the street, she was hit by a bus.
OR
She was hit by a bus while walking across the street.

Rule 7. Place modifiers near the words they modify.

Incorrect: I have some pound cake Mollie packed in my lunch bag.
Correct: In my lunch bag, I have some pound cake that Mollie baked.

Rule 8. A sentence fragment occurs when you have only a phrase or weak clause but are missing a strong clause.

Example of Sentence Fragment: After the show ended.
Example of Sentence: After the show ended, we had coffee.

Source: Blue Book of Grammar

Thoroughness Challenge

2010-02-16T05:56:00.000-06:00

A Brief History of Presidents Day

The Thoroughness Challenge is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed.

Your Challenge today is: A Brief History of Presidents Day, and contains 8 errors. Good Luck!

*******************************************************************************
If you live in the United States than you will know that yesterday was Presidents Day; also known as Washington’s Birthday. Presidents Day is a federal holiday in the US and is celebrated on the third Monday in Febuary.

The federal holiday titled as Washington’s Birthday, was originally implimented by the United States Congress in 1880 for the goverment offices in the District of Columbia, but then expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices.

As it was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was originally celebrated on George Washington’s actual birthday – February 22nd. It was on January 1, 1971 that the day got shifted to the third Monday in Febuary.

That date than fell between February 15th and the 21st, which would never actualy fall on Washington’s Birthday. A draft of the Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 would have had the holiday renamed as Presidents Day, to honor both Washington and Lincoln.

That proposal unfortunately failed in commitee at that time, so the name Washington’s Birthday was kept. The first attempt to create the day as a Presidents Day came in 1951; however, it wasn't until the mid-1980’s that the term Presidents Day began being used.

Now, let's see how thorough you are!

*******************************************************************************
If you live in the United States then you will know that yesterday was Presidents Day; also known as Washington’s Birthday. Presidents Day is a federal holiday in the US and is celebrated on the third Monday in February.

The federal holiday titled as Washington’s Birthday, was originally implemented by the United States Congress in 1880 for the goverment offices in the District of Columbia, but then expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices.

As it was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was originally celebrated on George Washington’s actual birthday – February 22nd. It was on January 1, 1971 that the day got shifted to the third Monday in February.

That date then fell between February 15th and the 21st, which would never actually fall on Washington’s Birthday. A draft of the Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 would have had the holiday renamed as Presidents Day, to honor both Washington and Lincoln.

That proposal unfortunately failed in committee at that time, so the name Washington’s Birthday was kept. The first attempt to create the day as a Presidents Day came in 1951; however, it wasn't until the mid-1980’s that the term Presidents Day began being used.

Fifteen Punctuation Facts You Need To Know

2010-02-11T05:24:00.009-06:00

Who knew there was so much to learn about punctuation marks? To make it as easy as possible, review the following fifteen rules from time to time and you'll be a punctuation pro:

1. A period shows where sentences end, separates the initials of some acronyms, and ends many abbreviations.

2. Don't double-space after a period at the end of a sentence; the word processing program will adjust the space for you.

3. Commas, signaling natural pauses and adding clarity to what you're writing, should be used before conjunctions and before the final or or and in a series.

4. Semicolons (weak periods) separate two thoughts of equal rank; these are thoughts that could be turned into independent sentences.

5. Colons are used to do the following: introduce lists, separate thoughts (when one further explains the other), distinguish hour and minutes, cite chapter and verse, separate title and subtitle, and end formal salutations.

6. Ellipses indicate that words or sentences have been omitted, or a thought has trailed off . . .

7. Apostrophes show possession, not plurals (except for its [possession] and it's [it is]), as well as indicating missing letters when a verb has been contracted.

8. Quotation marks indicate that someone is speaking or that material has been taken from another source.

9. In American English, commas and periods are usually inside the quotation marks; colons and semicolons are outside; and dashes, question marks, and exclamation points are inside or outside depending on usage.

10. Exclamation points follow interjections, and you should use them sparingly. Please!

11. Question marks show that an answer is requested or that the writer is unsure of a specific fact.

12. Hyphens connect words with prefixes, suffixes, or other words.

13. Dashes, which are about the length of the letter m, signify a dramatic break in thought, while shorter dashes, known as en dashes, which are the length of the letter n, are used between a range of dates, times, or numbers.

14. Parentheses enclose figures in a numbered list within a sentence or set off explanatory material (facts that add substance).

15. Brackets indicate editorial comments, corrections, or clarifications – or further set off text within a parenthetical phrase.

Source: The Gremlins of Grammar

Over the Top Award

2010-02-08T08:37:00.003-06:00

I'd like to thank Mason of Thoughts In Progress for presenting me with the Over the Top Award this past Saturday, and Cassandra at Cassandra Jade In the Realm for honoring me with it today! The award stipulates that I answer questions with one-word answers and pass the award on. Mason and Cassandra each had a different set of questions; Mason's list was shorter, so I chose to go with hers! LOL!

Your Hair? - Blonde
Your Favorite Food? - Salad
Your Hobby? - Reading
Your Fear? - Spiders
Your pets? - KITTIES!
Something You Aren't? - Insensitive
Where Did You Grow Up? - California
Your Life? - Blessed
Your Mood? - HAPPY!
Your Favorite Color? - PURPLE!

And...the people I'm passing this award on to are:

Chris - CC Chronicles
Allysa - Random Thoughts of a Tangled Mind
Lorel Clayton - I'm Blogging Drowning Here
Southpaw (Holly) - Scribbles and Splashes
Erin Pagan Spirits

Thanks again to Mason and Cassandra for thinking of me! If you haven't been to any of the blogs of those I've passed the award on to, please check them out, they're Over the Top!

Enjoy your day and go spread some HAPPY!

Spelling Challenge

2010-02-04T06:12:00.001-06:00

It's time for a Spelling Challenge! So, grab a sticky note and a pen and write down the correct spelling for the ten words below!

NO PEEKING!

1. chauvenism
2. presumtuous
3. aquire
4. irrasible
5. seige
6. nausious
7. misoginy
8. inadvertant
9. diarama
10. liquify

If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star! Good Luck!

ANSWERS:

1. chauvinism
2. presumptuous
3. acquire
4. irascible
5. siege
6. nauseous
7. misogyny
8. inadvertent
9. diorama
10. liquefy

Whether or not you got your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts! Have a marvelous day!

Swum

2010-02-02T06:23:00.005-06:00

We all know that "swam" is the past tense of "swim." What about "swum?" It sounds peculiar and you rarely hear or see it used; however, "swum" is a word. It's the past participle of "swim." You use it when writing in certain tenses.

A trick to help you remember when to use "swum" is that past participles always come after a helping verb such as "have" or "had."

I have swum. (present perfect tense)
I had swum. (past perfect tense)
I will have swum. (future perfect tense)

Personally, I would re-word the sentence rather than use "swum." What about you? Does swum work for you?

Source: Grammar Girl Podcast

There are other such words that (in my opinion) just don't sound right. When they come up, I'll do a similar post on them.

******************************************************************************************************************************

Because today's post is a mini lesson, I decided to include the following words of wisdom. I thought Steve's Three Rules of Life merited sharing with everyone.

Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life ...

1. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

2. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

3. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition - they somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Blogger Purrfection Award

2010-01-28T07:54:00.002-06:00

Good Morning Friends!

There have been a lot of awards going around lately; however, my love of cats and the feline in me just had to see a kitty one! Thus I unveil the new CCP "Blogger Purrfection Award."

There are a couple of people I'd especially like to present this to, some because I know they are cat lovers, or in Albert's case, a cat! Then there are others simply because I love spreading HAPPY and you all deserve an award!

Anyone I may have missed who leaves a comment today, please feel free to grab one of these awards for yourself!

Chris - CC Chronicles
Diane - Spunk on a Stick
Mason - Thoughs in Progress
Elizabeth - Mystery Writing is Murder
Albert the Cat - Albert the Cat
Cassandra - Cassandra Jade in the Realm
Alex - Alex J. Cavanaugh
Lorel - I'm Blogging Drowning Here
Elspeth - It's a Mystery
Alyssa - Random Thoughts of a Tangled Mind
Shauna - Read, Write, Review
Karen - karen...following the whispers
Elinor - Mavor Arts
Marvin - The Old Silly's Free Spirit Blog
Michele - Southern City Mysteries
Ingrid - The Conscious Cat

Thanks to all my Purrfect Blogger friends! Please pass this forward to other special people!

Hyphens

2010-01-26T06:29:00.001-06:00

THE HYPHEN: A NEVER-WERE-THERE-SO-FEW-SOLID-RULES PUNCTUATION MARK

You can use a hyphen to split a word at the end of a line, but you can also use a hyphen to join compound words.

The rules about when to hyphenate a compound word are extremely vague. The problem is that compound words go through an evolution from open compound (two separate words), to hyphenated compound, to closed compound (one word with the two parts together)—and sometimes back again—and the changes can seem arbitrary. For example, when the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary was released in 2007, it eliminated sixteen thousand hyphenated words. Some words (leap-frog) advanced to closed compound form (leapfrog), and other words (pot-belly) reverted back to open compound form (pot belly). The best advice is to consult a dictionary when you aren't sure whether to hyphenate a compound.

In very general terms, you use a hyphen to avoid confusion. For example, when two adjectives modify a noun, sometimes the sentences could be read two ways or be initially confusing to a reader, so you can use a hyphen to clarify which words to together:

Paula wanted a short haired dog.
(Could be read to mean that Paula wanted a short dog with hair.)

Paula wanted a short-haired dog.
(More clearly means that Paula wants a dog with short hair.)

A hyphen also eliminates confusion when it is used to clarify pronunciation:

I need to re-press my jeans.
I need to repress those memories.

Often a hyphen is used between two adjectives that come directly before the noun they modify, but not when they come after the noun they modify:

They are in a long-term relationship.
They are in it for the long term.

Despite the vast wiggle room in hyphen land, there are a few solid rules. You can confidently use a hyphen when you are joining a prefix to a word that must be capitalized, joining a letter to a word, and writing out numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.

Anti-American
Un-American
Pre-Mesozoic

X-ray
A-list
T-shirt

Thirty-five
Sixty-four
Ninety-three

It's fine to occasionally make up an adjective using a long string of hyphenated words for effect, but don't overdo it to the point that you become an irritating hyphenate-for-no-reason writer.

Sources: Grammar Girl, CMS

Vocabulary

2010-01-21T06:17:00.002-06:00

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: FISSIPAROUS, and its pronounciation is: fi-sih-pa-rus.

Fissiparous is an adjective meaning: tending to break up into parts, divisive.

The reorganization of management can have a fissiparous effect on the rest of the company.

Source: Workman's Publishing

Dashes

2010-01-19T06:03:00.004-06:00

Last week's post on colons brought up a question from a commenter about colons and dashes. The difference between the two is subtle: they can both serve to introduce a related element after a sentence, but a dash is a stronger and more informal mark than a colon. Think of a colon as part of the sentence that just ambles along. Susan has two favorite colors (and now I'm going to tell you what they are): orange and blue. A colon informs readers that something more is coming.

A dash, on the other hand—well, it's quite a dramatic thing. A dashing young man is certainly not an ordinary young man, and if you're dashing off to the store, you're not just going to the store, you're going in a hurry. A dash interrupts the flow of the sentence and tells the reader to get ready for an important or dramatic statement. If you added a dash to the "Susan" sentence it would conceptually read something like this: Susan has two favorite colors (wait for it; wait for it!)—orange and blue. Wow!

Given that there isn't anything exciting about Susan's favorite colors, a dash may not be the best choice here, but it wouldn't be wrong. It would be a better choice if that sentence were part of a mystery novel where something orange was missing and Susan was implicated as the thief. Then it could be a dramatic announcement that she loves orange, and a dash would make more sense.

A very important rule about dashes is never, never, never use a hyphen in place of a dash. A hyphen is not a junior dash; it has its own completely separate use.

There is no computer key for a dash; you need to insert a dash as a symbol. If for some reason you can't insert the dash symbol, use two hyphens right next to each other: --.

Dashes can also be used like commas or parentheses to set off part of a sentence. When you use dashes to set off a parenthetical element, you're using the strongest method possible to draw attention to it, so be sure it merits the drama.

Different Types of Dashes

There are two different kinds of dashes: em dashes (—) and en dashes (–). An em dash is longer than an en dash.

(The names come from the fact that historically the em dash was as long as the width of a capital typeset letter M, and the en dash was as long as the width of a capital typeset N. Now with computer typesetting, the widths of each may vary from font to font, with the width on an en dash always falling midway between a hyphen and an em dash.)

The em dash is the kind of dash I referred to in this post; it is the kind of dash you use in a sentence. When people say, "Use a dash," they almost always mean the em dash. The en dash is used much less frequently and usually only to indicate a range of inclusive numbers. You would use an en dash to write something like this:

Susan will be on vacation June 2–June 9.
(Susan will be on vacation June 2 to June 9.)

The to and the en dash between the dates indicate that Susan will not be in the office beginning the second of June and will return on the tenth of June (because an en dash indicates that the numbers are inclusive of those two dates).

Whether using an em dash in a sentence or the shorter en dash to indicate an inclusive range, you can use your own judgment about whether to put spaces between the dash and the words around it—it's a style issue, so just be consistent.

Source: Grammar Girl

Thoroughness Challenge

2010-01-14T06:38:00.004-06:00

Thorough Thursday is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed.

Your Challenge today takes a look at how to pronounce "2010," and contains 6 errors. Good Luck!

*******************************************************************************
How do you say the current year? Now that we've reached double digits at the end of "2000," I'm sure you have heard people refer to the year differently. The to main contenders are "twenty-ten" and "two thousand ten." So which is correct?

Before the turn of the century, most people pronounced the years by combining the first too numbers and the last too numbers. So we had "nineteen fifty," nineteen eighty-five," and so on. After the turn of the century, we started commonly pronouncing the years the long way; "two thousand one," "two thousand two," and so on.

Now it seems that some people feel more comfortable continuing the trend--going from "two thousand nine" to "two thousand ten" --while the majority of people are eager to return to the old convention, happily moving on from "two thousand nine" to the snappyer sounding "twenty-ten."

The Associated Press has concluded that "twenty-ten" is the preferred choice. However, with all the decisions made when writing (or speaking), the pronounciation question is a style choice; making either pronounciation correct.

Now, let's see how thorough you are!

*******************************************************************************
How do you say the current year? Now that we've reached double digits at the end of "2000," I'm sure you have heard people refer to the year differently. The two main contenders are "twenty-ten" and "two thousand ten." So which is correct?

Before the turn of the century, most people pronounced the years by combining the first two numbers and the last two numbers. So we had "nineteen fifty," nineteen eighty-five," and so on. After the turn of the century, we started commonly pronouncing the years the long way; "two thousand one," "two thousand two," and so on.

Now it seems that some people feel more comfortable continuing the trend--going from "two thousand nine" to "two thousand ten" --while the majority of people are eager to return to the old convention, happily moving on from "two thousand nine" to the snappier sounding "twenty-ten."

The Associated Press has concluded that "twenty-ten" is the preferred choice. However, with all the decisions made when writing (or speaking), the pronunciation question is a style choice; making either pronunciation correct.

Sources: AP Stylebook, Grammar Girl

Colons

2010-01-12T06:02:00.001-06:00

Colons in Sentences

Colons can be used in a variety of situations, such as in titles, ratios, and writing out the time. But when you are using colons in sentences, the most important thing to remember is that colons are only used after statements that are complete sentences. Never use a colon after a sentence fragment. For example, it's correct to say that Susan has two favorite colors: orange and blue. That's correct because Susan has two favorite colors is a complete sentence by itself.

Notice how the items after the colon expand on or clarify what came before the colon. I referred to Susan's favorite colors before the colon and then specifically named them after the colon. A tip for deciding whether a colon is acceptable is to test whether you can replace it with the word namely. For example, you could say Susan has two favorite colors, namely, orange and blue. Most of the time, if you can replace the colon with namely, then the colon is the right choice. Nevertheless, there are also instances where you can use a colon and namely doesn't work. For example, The play was wildly popular: they sold out the theater.

Going back to the complete sentence point, it would be wrong to say Susan's favorite colors are: orange and blue because Susan's favorite colors are is not a complete sentence by itself. You can often fix that problem by adding the words the following after your sentence fragment. For example, it would be fine to say Susan's favorite colors are the following: orange and blue because you've made what comes before the colon a complete sentence by adding the words the following.

Colons in Lists

Some people get confused about how to use colons when they are introducing lists, but the good news is that the rules are the same whether you are writing lists or sentences: you use a colon when you could use the word namely and after something that could be a complete sentence on its own.

Susan has two favorite colors:
• Orange
• Blue

Colons and Capitalization

Capitalization is optional when using single words or phrases in bulleted form. If each bullet or numbered point is a complete sentence, capitalize the first word and end each sentence with proper ending punctuation. The rule of thumb is to be consistent.

If only one sentence follows the colon, do not capitalize the first word of the new sentence. If two or more sentences follow the colon, capitalize the first word of each sentence following.

Garlic is used in Italian cooking: It greatly enhances the flavor of pasta dishes. It also enhances the flavor of sauces.

Colons and Salutations

Colons are used to follow the salutation of a business letter even when addressing someone by his/her first name. A comma is used after the salutation for personal correspondence.

Colon Choices

Since there are times when both a colon or a semicolon could be used, the difference between them, and which to use, can be confusing. Here's a little summary you may find helpful.

The purpose of a colon is to introduce or define something, and the purpose of a semicolon is to show that two clauses are related. A semicolon is used when you are joining things. When you're joining a main clause with a lone noun, you use a colon. Use a colon instead of a semicolon between two strong clauses when the second clause explains or illustrates the first clause and no coordinating conjunction is being used to connect the clauses. Here's an example of a sentence that needs a colon.

Susan was fixated on something: chocolate.

Here's a clear example of a sentence that needs a semicolon.

Susan was fixated; she couldn't get her mind off chocolate.

The first sentence needs a colon because the second part (chocolate) is the definition of the first part (what Susan is fixated on), and chocolate is a lone noun. The second sentence needs a semicolon because the two parts are strongly related to each other. The second clause gives more of a description of what is going on in the first clause.

Sources: AP Stylebook, Grammar Girl, Blue Book of Grammar

Spelling Challenge

2010-01-07T06:07:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since we've warmed up your brain cells with a CCP Challenge! Grab a sticky note and a pen and write down the correct spelling for the ten words below!

NO PEEKING!

(The little peeking furry is still around!)

1. defendent
2. cooly
3. floatation
4. saavy
5. preferrable
6. camoflauge
7. athiest
8. inadvertant
9. hemmorage
10. deterance

Now for the stars! If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star! Good Luck!

Whether or not you get your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts! It just wouldn't be right not to have purple stars as part of the Spelling Challenge, now would it?

ANSWERS:

1. defendant
2. coolly
3. flotation
4. savvy
5. preferable
6. camouflage
7. atheist
8. inadvertent
9. hemorrhage
10. deterrence

So how did you do? Did I stump any of you with number 3? Both flotation and floatation are acceptable forms of the word, with flotation being preferable, and floatation being a variant of.

Semicolons

2010-01-05T06:01:00.003-06:00

As "Sentence Splicers"

Semicolons separate things. Most commonly, they separate two main clauses that are closely related to each other but could stand on their own as sentences if you wanted them to. Semicolons are sometimes thought of as sentence splicers: they splice sentences together.

It was below zero; Jenny wondered if she would freeze to death.
It was below zero. Jenny wondered if she would freeze to death.

One reason you may choose to use a semicolon instead of a period is if you wanted to add variety to your sentence structure; for example, if you thought you had too many short, choppy sentences in a row, you could add variety by using a semicolon to string together two main clauses into one longer sentence. But, when you use a semicolon, the main clauses should be closely related to each other. You wouldn't write, "It was below zero; Jenny had pizza for dinner," because those two main clauses have nothing to do with each other. In fact, the other reason to use a semicolon instead of a period is to draw attention to the relationship between two clauses.

With Coordinating Conjunctions

An important thing to remember is that (with one exception) you never use semicolons with coordinating conjunctions such as and, or, and but when you're joining when you're joining two main clauses. If you're joining two main clauses with a coordinating conjunction, use a comma: It was below zero, and Jenny wondered if she would freeze to death.

The one exception is when you are writing a list of items and need to separate items within the list.

This week's winners are Stanley in Des Moines, Iowa; Joe in Irvine, California; and Ruth in Seattle, Washington.

Because each item in the list requires a comma to separate the city from the state, you have to use a semicolon to separate the items themselves.

With Conjunctive Adverbs

Finally, you use a semicolon when you use a conjunctive adverb to join two main clauses. Some of the more common conjunctive adverbs include: accordingly, again, also, anyway, besides, certainly, consequently, finally, furthermore, hence, incidentally, indeed, instead, likewise, meanwhile, moreover, namely, nevertheless, next, nonetheless, otherwise, similarly, specifically, still, subsequently, then, therefore, thus.

Conjunctive adverbs typically show some kind of relationship between the two main clauses.

Jenny is on vacation; therefore, Stan has to do extra work on the project.
Stan didn't mind doing the extra work; however, he would like to be thanked.

Sometimes people find it hard to remember to use commas with coordinating conjunctions and semicolons with conjunctive adverbs, so a tip to help you know when to use which, is to remember that commas are smaller than semicolons and go with coordinating conjunctions, which are almost always short two- or three-letter words–small punctuation mark, small words. Semicolons are bigger and they go with conjunctive adverbs, which are almost always longer than three letters–bigger punctuation, bigger words.

Source: Grammar Girl

Best Wishes in 2010!

2009-12-31T06:07:00.001-06:00

A new year is, for many of us, somewhat of a new beginning. A time to reflect, take a look at where we've been, what we've done and accomplished and where we're going. As we face the choices and uncertainties ahead of us, to maintain a healthy mind, body, spirit and life - below are a few insights, inspirations and ways to manage stress.

Take breaks
Step back and observe
Review your purpose
Change your priorities
Leave five minutes earlier
Organize your space
Listen to your intuition
Visualize positive outcomes
Take care of your health
Don't forget, write it down
Simplify!
View problems as opportunities
Let go of "what ifs"
Go with your natural rhythms
Breathe deeply
Say no at times
Follow your passion
Stop the "shoulds"
Nurture good friendships
Respect your limits
Develop flexibility
Slow down and notice
Open your heart
Count your blessings

Will 2010 Be a New Decade?

2009-12-29T05:24:00.003-06:00

Which Years Make Up a Decade?

Believe it or not, it's a contentious question. Most people think of the decade as the years ending '00 through '09 because we usually refer to a decade by those last two numbers--the nineties were 1990 through 1999, for example. The problem is that our calendar didn't start with year zero, and a decade is a 10-year period, so the first decade was years 1 through 10, and counting forward would make this decade 2001 through 2010.

The writers of the Chicago Manual of Style and Garner's Modern American Usage refuse to take a strong stand, but seem to lean toward starting decades with the year '00.

It's possible to make a strong argument that the decade is technically years '01 through '10. However, most people think of a decade as being the 10-year period that starts with the year ending in zero--so that is the best choice because it will convey what you mean to the largest percentage of your readers.

Sources: GG, CMS, GMAU

Christmas Blessings

2009-12-24T04:25:00.002-06:00

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE!

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.
Augusta E. Rundel

Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.
Helen Steiner Rice

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
Washington Irving

Christmas is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.
Agnes M. Pharo

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
Burton Hillis

~ Blessings To You And Yours This Holiday ~

The Spirit of Christmas

2009-12-22T05:29:00.002-06:00

Today being Christmas Eve Eve Eve, I'd like to share a heartwarming story of the true spirit of Christmas. This was written by Laurie Pines and featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

**********************************************************************************************************************
"A Very Belated Thank You"

When my son, Mark, was in the third grade he saved all his allowance for over two months to buy holiday presents for those he loved. He had saved twenty dollars. Third Saturday in December Mark announced that he had made his list and had his money in his pocket.

I drove him to a local drug store, the modern version of what we used to call the "Five and Dime." Mark picked up a hand basket and went off on his own while I waited patiently reading a book at the front of the store. It took Mark over 45 minutes to pick out his presents. The smile on his face as he approached the checkout counter was truly joyful. The clerk rang up his purchases as I politely looked the other way. Mark kept within his budget and reached into his pocket for his money. It was not there. There was a hole in his pocket, but no money. Mark stood in the middle of the store holding his basket, tears rolling down his cheeks. His whole body was shaking with his sobs. Then an amazing thing happened. A customer in the store came up to Mark. She knelt down to his level and took him in her arms and said, "You would do me the greatest favor if you let me replace your money. It would be the most wonderful present you could ever give me. I only ask that one day, you pass it on. One day, when you are grown, I would like you to find someone you can help. When you help this other person, I know you will feel as good about it as I do now." Mark took the money, tried to dry his tears and ran to the checkout counter as fast as he could go. I think we all enjoyed our gifts that year almost as much as Mark enjoyed giving them to us.

I would like to say "thank you" to that incredible woman. I would like to tell her that four years later Mark went house to house collecting blankets and coats for people...and he thought of her. I would like to tell her that every time I give food to a homeless family, I think of her. And I want to promise her that Mark will never forget to keep passing it on.

**********************************************************************************************************************

Vocabulary

2009-12-17T04:06:00.003-06:00

Weird Word gives you an opportunity to grow your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: NEBULAPHOBIA, and its pronounciation is: neb-u-la-fo-be-ah.

Nebulaphobia is noun, meaning: fear of fog.

His business trip to London caused him to be anxious, because he suffered from nebulaphobia.

Ask people if they suffer from nebulaphobia. You're bound to get a few confused looks!

Note: The source for most of the words featured can be found at Luciferous Logolepsy. They are so obscure, I was actually unable to find some of them at a couple of common online dictionary references, such as The Free Dictionary.com.

Prepositions

2009-12-15T04:53:00.003-06:00

Prepositions are those little words that show us the relationship between nouns or noun substitutes. They come in two varieties, simple and complex, and they are always followed by a noun. The result is what's called a prepositional phrase.

- The ogre hid out under the bridge.
- Beneath the lily pad, the frog waited for a princess to kiss him.
- For richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health...

The most common simple prepositions are:

about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, near, of, off, on, since, through, to, toward, under, until, up, upon, with, within, without.

Complex prepositions combine two or three words to act as one preposition: according to, insofar as, instead of, along with. All you have to remember is that they, too, require a subject.

- Many card games are played according to Holye.
- Instead of the typical response, Jeremy chose to answer in Spanish.
- Tonight's performance is cancelled due to illness.

While prepositions aren't one of the major migraines in English, they do present a few issues. For little words, they can be misused in a big way. A few of the most obvious victims are in/at, from/then, among/between, and in/into.

*In or at? Use in with spaces (in the universe, in the bath, in a row, in a field of study). Use at with places (at the resort, at the top of the page, at the back of the room). Therefore,

- Although I sat at the front of the classroom in college, I was still bad in math.

*From or than? This one is easy. It should always be different from. The commonly heard different than is incorrect, (than isn't a preposition, it's a conjunction). Therefore,

- Even more than I thought, rugby is different from baseball.

*Among or between? Usually, among is used when more than two parties or things are involved. Between is preferred when there are only two.

- Smaller prizes were divided among the participants, while the big money was split between the two winners.

However, from its earliest usage, between has been extended to more than two, for instance,

- There were varying positions on the treaty between Timbuktu, Tasmania and Turkey.

In common usage, either among or between is correct. Just listen for the sense of the sentence.

*In or into? In many instances, either one is correct, or the correct choice is obvious. Into implies an action, while in most often describes a condition. For instance,

- Lassie jumped in/into the lake to save Timmy from the alligator.
- While skiing in Switzerland, I fell into/in a snow bank.

Source: The Gremlins of Grammar

Thoroughness Challenge

2009-12-10T03:32:00.004-06:00

Thorough Thursday is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed.

Your Challenge paragraphs concludes our look at the history of blogs and blogging with the creation of Blogger - and beyond. This week you're looking for 9 errors. Good Luck!

*******************************************************************************
BLOGGER and Beyond

In late Janaury of 2001, in the depths of the dot-com crash, a San Francisco startup called Pyra Labs ran out of money. Its staff departed. The co-founder of the company, a young Nebraskan named Evan Williams, decided to make a go of it alone. He scraped together $40,000 in new funding and moved Pyra's servers into his apartment. This permited the company's 100,000 registered customers (and counting) to keep using Pyra's service, Blogger, to publish their online journels, or blogs.

A year later, Blogger had 700,000 subscribers. Whether sharing cookie recipes or commenting on weapons reports from Iraq, those writers were constructing a significent new form of grassroots media. Blogging turned tradtional publishing on its head, allowing anyone with a computer and modem (or even a smartphone) to gain a global voice for free. By 2003, Williams was able to sell his business to Google for a lucritive pile of pre-IPO stock. Three years later he and his partners launched yet another tool for global publishing, the micro-blogging phenomonon, Twitter.

At this point it's hard for some to remember that even in the late '90s most people still regarded web pages as things to read, not places to post and publish. It's an important phenomenen, one that leads not only to YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia but also to the transfomation of corporate and government communications.

*******************************************************************************

Now, let's see how thorough you are!

*******************************************************************************

BLOGGER and Beyond

In late January of 2001, in the depths of the dot-com crash, a San Francisco startup called Pyra Labs ran out of money. Its staff departed. The co-founder of the company, a young Nebraskan named Evan Williams, decided to make a go of it alone. He scraped together $40,000 in new funding and moved Pyra's servers into his apartment. This permitted the company's 100,000 registered customers (and counting) to keep using Pyra's service, Blogger, to publish their online journals, or blogs.

A year later, Blogger had 700,000 subscribers. Whether sharing cookie recipes or commenting on weapons reports from Iraq, those writers were constructing a significant new form of grassroots media. Blogging turned traditional publishing on its head, allowing anyone with a computer and modem (or even a smartphone) to gain a global voice for free. By 2003, Williams was able to sell his business to Google for a lucrative pile of pre-IPO stock. Three years later he and his partners launched yet another tool for global publishing, the micro-blogging phenomenon, Twitter.

At this point it's hard for some to remember that even in the late '90s most people still regarded web pages as things to read, not places to post and publish. It's an important phenomenon, one that leads not only to YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia but also to the transformation of corporate and government communications.

*******************************************************************************

Writing Dates and Times

2009-12-08T03:16:00.006-06:00

Writing dates and times is something that falls under the category I refer to as grammar slang. So many people are unsure of how to write them, it has become a gray area where you'll find dates and times written out in any number of ways. There are grammatical rules, which I've listed below, with examples of proper usage.

Rule: The following examples apply when using dates:

The book will be published on August 9.
The book will be published on the 9th of August.
April Fools' Day is April 1.
The 1st of April is April Fools' Day.

Rule: When expressing decades, they can be spelled out and lowercased.

Example: I have several books from the eighties and nineties.

Rule: Whether you express decades using incomplete or complete numerals, do not use an apostrophe between the year and the s. When using an incomplete numeral, use an apostrophe to replace the first two numbers.

Correct:
During the ’80s, I purchased several books.
During the 1980s, I purchased several books.

Incorrect:
During the ’80’s, I purchased several books.
During the 1980’s, I purchased several books.

Rule: Spell out the time of day in text even with half and quarter hours. With o’clock, the number is always spelled out.

Example: He left at four thirty to meet with his agent.
Example: His meeting with his agent was at five o’clock in the afternoon.

Rule: Use numerals with the time of day when exact times are being emphasized.

Example: She received the message at 9:22 a.m.
Example: The meeting is at 12:30 p.m. sharp.

Rule: Use noon and midnight rather than 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m.

Note: In printed matter, many times you will see A.M. and P.M.

In much the same way that E-mail and e-mail has evolved into email, AM and PM are also widely used, though not officially grammatically correct.

Sources: Grammarbook, Gregg Reference Manual

Happy Monday!

2009-12-07T03:44:00.010-06:00

I'm going to turn everything upside down today! As much as I know you will all miss me terribly (smile), beginning this week I will be posting on Tuesday and Thursday. The posts you've become familiar with will be alternated from week to week.

Every so often there may be an additional post, because I KNOW I'm going to miss *seeing* you all on a daily basis; but those two days you can count on!

I sure have missed everyone!
See you tomorrow!

Spelling Challenge

2009-11-30T05:07:00.003-06:00

Hey! What's the Spelling Challenge doing here on Monday? I decided to test your spelling skills at the beginning of the week rather than at the end! So let's get those brain cells all fired up and see how you do! Get your sticky note and pen, and write down the correct spelling for the ten words below.

NO PEEKING!

(Still loving this little peeking furry!)

1. falascious
2. drunkeness
3. subpeona
4. peurile
5. irrascible
6. deterance
7. viscious
8. afficianado
9. rhythym
10. tarrif

If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star! Good Luck!

Whether or not you get your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts! It just wouldn't be right not to have purple stars as part of the Spelling Challenge, now would it?

ANSWERS:

1. fallacious
2. drunkenness
3. subpoena
4. puerile
5. irascible
6. deterrence
7. vicious
8. aficionado
9. rhythm
10. tariff

Keep a smile on your face, spread some HAPPY, and

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-22T16:24:00.007-06:00

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

There will be no posts this week on CCP. I will be having a rather busy week in preparation of the holiday, and with all details yet to be worked out, things are rather unpredictable at this point.

I'm hoping to be able to take a moment here and there to peek in on things!

~ Treasure the time with family and friends ~
Enjoy and celebrate the festivities of Thanksgiving!

Blessings to you all!
~ Crystal ~

Spelling Challenge

2009-11-20T05:03:00.003-06:00

It's Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge! Also, at the very end of this post is yesterdays Thorough Thursday Challenge, with the misspelled words highlighted in red.

Okay! Write down the correct spelling for today's words, and as usual the answers are listed below.

NO PEEKING!

(I just love this little peeking furry!)

1. temprament
2. boundry
3. seargant
4. acheivement
5. promissary
6. disasterous
7. surreptitous
8. absense
9. superintendant
10. exorbitant

BONUS WORD
sacriligeous

Time to see which if you get to add to that collection of virtual stars!
Spelling all 10 words correctly
gets you get a sparkling GOLD star!

Spell the bonus word correctly,
and you get the prized, very special, much coveted and very beautiful
Crystal Clear Proofing PURPLE star! It's a great star, isn't it?

Spell all 10 AND the bonus word correctly
will get a GOLD AND a PURPLE star!
(I know, the excitement is overwhelming!)

ANSWERS:

1. temperament
2. boundary
3. sergeant
4. achievement
5. promissory
6. disastrous
7. surreptitious
8. absence
9. superintendent
10. exorbitant

BONUS WORD:
sacrilegious

Yup, I did slip one in on you this week. "Exorbitant" was spelled correctly. Did I stump you? At least cause you to wonder about it?

So how many more stars did you get to add to your ever-growing collection this week? In place of having your name in lights, I had to keep with the whole star theme, and offer everyone a fun fireworks star! Tah-Dah!

Now, here is yesterday's Thorough Thursday post in its entirety, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

*******************************************************************************
Original weblogs had to be manually updated through multiple sections of a common website. The creation of the majority of tools that allow authoring and maintenance of articles posted in a reverse chronological order, initiated a much easier publishing process, for a less technical, expansive population. The result was the forming of a direct class for what is known as online publishing, which has given us the blogs we see today. Obtaining blog software like WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal are available through a number of web hosting services. This provides blinding speed and instant reaction to any concern or topic on the "global podium."

Since 2002 blogs have gained notoriety and credibility for their part in breaking, shaping and spinning news stories. It has become a way of throwing important information into the public limelight. It now, for all intent and purposes, drives mainstream media by forcing them to follow their lead. Blogging has become a priceless tool for quality communication and a way for intelligent people to provide intelligent and valuable insight, opinions and information.

In 1999 new software services like Blogger and LiveJournal were launched, making blogs much simpler to create.

Today, more than one blog is created every second and there are currently over 100,000 million blogs worldwide.

*******************************************************************************
Every one of you deserves recognition, and that's why we must continue the tradition of spreading the now famous Crystal Clear Proofing HAPPY! This week you all get to put a smile on your face with this happy DANCING STAR!

Remember to live each moment, count your lucky stars, feel some HAPPY, and then spread it around!

Thoroughness Challenge

2009-11-19T05:52:00.010-06:00

Thoroughly Thursday is a weekly post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors, and your job is to find them. Please do not list the errors you find within the post. The same post is repeated at the end of Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

Note: Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted form or there is more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed. That would not be fair...the purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness, not technicalities.

This week your Challenge paragraphs continue with the history of blogs and blogging as they evolve and begin to immerge as the blogs we're familiar with today. This week you're looking for 11 errors. Good Luck!

*******************************************************************************

Original weblogs had to be manually updated threw multiple sections of a common website. The creation of the majority of tools that allow authoring and maintainance of articals posted in a reverse chronilogical order, initiated a much easier publishing process, for a less technical, expansive population. The result was the forming of a direct class for what is known as online publishing, which has given us the blogs we see today. Obtaining blog software like WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal are availible through a number of web hosting services. This provides blinding speed and instant reaction to any concern or topic on the "global podium."

Since 2002 blogs have gained notoriaty and credability for there part in braking, shaping and spinning news stories. It has become a way of throwing important infomation into the public limelight. It now, for all intents and purposes, drives mainstream media by forcing them to follow there lead. Blogging has become a priceless tool for quality communication and a way for intelligent people to provide intelligent and valuable insight, opinions and information.

In 1999 new software services like Blogger and LiveJournal were launched, making blogs much simpler to create.

Today, more than one blog is created every second and there are currently over 100,000 million blogs worldwide.

*******************************************************************************

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how thorough you are!

Wednesday's Weird Word

2009-11-18T05:28:00.010-06:00

Wednesday's Word is a weekly feature which gives you the opportunity to grow your vocabulary with a not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used word.

Today's word is: SCUNNER, and its pronounciation is: skun-er.

Scunner is noun, meaning a strong dislike; an aversion.

Personally, I have a definite scunner of spiders.

As a matter of fact, I was going to include a picture of a spider in this post, and I couldn't do it! I didn't want to "see" that all day! *shudder*

So, is there anything or anyone that you take a scunner to?

See you back next Wednesday for another new, weird word!

One Word vs. Two Words

2009-11-17T05:35:00.006-06:00

Several words in our language can be spelled as one word or as two, depending on its meaning. Below is a list of a few such words, with sample sentences on how they are used.

Almost - all most
The plane was almost (nearly) three hours late.
We are all most pleased (all very much pleased) with the new schedule.

Already - all ready
The order had already (previously) been shipped.
The order is all ready (all prepared) to be shipped.

Altogether - all together
He is altogether (entirely) too lazy to be a success.
The papers are all together (all in a group) on your desk.

Always - all ways
She has always (at all times) done good work.
We have tried in all ways (by all methods) to keep our employees satisfied.

Anytime - any time
Come see us anytime you are in town, (one word meaning "whenever").
Did you have dealings with him at any time in the past? (Two words after a preposition such as at.)

Anyway - any way
Anyway (in any case), we can't spare him now.
If we can help in any way (by any method), please let us know.

Awhile - a while
One word as an adverb; two words as a noun.

You may have to wait awhile. (Adverb.)
You may have to wait for a while. (Noun; object of for.)

Everyday - every day
You'll soon master the everyday (ordinary or daily) routine of the job.
He has called every day (each day) this week.

Into - in to
He walked into the outer office. (Into implies entry.)
He came in to see me. (In is part of the verb phrase came in; to is part of the infinitive to see.)

Indifferent - in different
She was indifferent (not caring one way or the other) to the offer.
He like our idea, but he wanted it expressed in different (in other) words.

Maybe - may be
Maybe is an adverb; may be is a verb.

If we don't receive a letter from them today, maybe (an adverb meaning perhaps) we should call.
He may be (a verb) out of town next week.

Onto - on to
He lost control of the car and drove onto the sidewalk. (Onto implies movement toward and then over.)
Let's go on to the next problem. (On is an adverb in the verb phrase go on; to is a preposition.)

Someday - some day
Please set up a meeting with them someday next week.
Please set up a meeting with them for some day next week. (Two words when used as the object of a preposition such as for.)

Sometime - some time
The order will be shipped sometime (at some unspecified time) next week.
It took me some time (a period of time) to complete the job.

Whoever - who ever
Whoever (anyone who) is elected secretary should write that letter at once.
Who ever made such a statement? (Ever is an adverb.)

At times you'll find two words spelled as one, and the resulting one word is not a word at all, (a good example is alot). Our language has many such situations, rules, and exceptions to rules. This is why many people feel intimidated and frustrated by grammar.

Source: The Gregg Reference Manual

Fun Facts

2009-11-16T05:08:00.003-06:00

In addition to motivational and inspiring thoughts, I'm a fan of trivia and what some call "useless knowledge." In my humble opinion, no knowledge is useless, but regardless, below is a list of some interesting fun facts. And who knows, these pieces of information might just come in handy with your writing! Anyway, they are fun little tidbits!

- All swans in England are the property of the queen or king.

- Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts.

- In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her cheating adulterous husband but she may only do so with her bare hands.

- Adding a drop of olive oil and lemon juice to an ice cube then running it over your face gives you better results than some expensive skin care products.

- You will weigh less if you weigh yourself when the moon is full.

- Honeybees never sleep.

- Every day is about 55 billionths of a second longer than the day before it.

- Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

- Earthworms have five hearts.

- Fingerprints of koalas are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans.

- If an Amish man has a beard, he is married.

- If a native Hawaiian woman places the flower on her right ear, she is available, (the bigger the flower, the more desperate).

- Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

- Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.

- A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species.

- As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States showed signs of addiction to the internet.

Mmmm...2006 is nearly 4 years ago. I wonder how many people are currently addicted to the internet...or better yet to blogging. After searching for an answer to that, the best I could find was that it is "in the millions."

Spelling Challenge

2009-11-13T05:24:00.003-06:00

It's Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge! Also, at the end of this post are the words that were misspelled in the Thorough Thursday Challenge.

Do you have your sticky note and pen ready? Great! Let's get started! Write down the correct spelling for this week's words, and as usual the answers are listed below.

NO PEEKING!

1. vigilent
2. souvenier
3. occurance
4. noticable
5. alledged
6. definately
7. leutenant
8. noticable
9. existance
10. hiararchy

BONUS WORD
onomatopia

Now lets see if you can add to that collection of virtual stars you have!
As you know, If you spell all 10 words correctly
you get a sparkling GOLD star! (Isn't it pretty?)

If you spell the bonus word correctly
you get the prized, very special, much coveted and very beautiful
Crystal Clear Proofing PURPLE star!

For spelling all the words, including the bonus word correctly
you get a GOLD AND a PURPLE star!
(And you ROCK!)

ANSWERS:

1. vigilant
2. souvenir
3. occurrence
4. noticeable
5. alleged
6. definitely
7. lieutenant
8. noticeable
9. existence
10. hierarchy

BONUS WORD:
onomatopoeia

Because this week's bonus word is not all that common, I'm going to just make your day with its pronounciation and definition! Isn't that exciting? (Just play along with me, I'm having fun here...) LOL!

Onomatopoeia is a noun whose meaning is: The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. It is pronounced: ahn-ah-mat-oh-PE-ah.

So? How'd you do this week? How many of those stunning stars do you get to add to your collection? To those of you who earned stars...

Here is yesterday's Thorough Thursday post in its entirety, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

*******************************************************************************

Blogging has become a whole separate world from the internet. Blogging actually came to the surface back in 1983, when it was referred to as "Usenet." It was considered a primary medium for moderated newsgroups which provided an area for posting discussions on virtually any topic, but was moderated by individuals or small groups. It wasn't until 1994, just a few years after the world wide web was created, that blogs evolved into what is more commonly referred to as an "online diary."

Blogging, while starting out slow, has rapidly gained popularity as a tool for many individuals, organizations and corporations, as a medium to stay in touch with and provide a means of creating an information system. On the individual platform, it is a way for average citizens to have a venue to communicate, reach out and provide feedback on practically any subject humanly conceivable.

The term "blog" was derived from what most knew as "web-logs." The term “weblog” meaning a regularly updated collection of links to other sites and comments, was originally coined by Jorn Barger in 1997, though what is commonly understood as blogging began as early as 1996. In May of 1999, Peter Merholz coined the term "blog" in a posting on his personal blog site, by mischievously breaking down the word weblog to "we blog." The "we" was eventually dropped, resulting in the term we are all familiar with: blog.

In broad terms, a blog is commonly thought of as an online journal, though they can range from intimate personal diaries to more journalistic newsletters. Some blogs focus on a narrow selection of topics of interest to the author, while other blogs cover a much wider range of topics.

*******************************************************************************As always, you all deserve recognition for your efforts! We must continue the tradition of spreading the famous Crystal Clear Proofing HAPPY and award everyone with the SMILEY STAR!

And wishing you all a very

Thoroughness Challenge

2009-11-12T05:00:00.010-06:00

Thoroughly Thursday is a weekly post consisting of a couple of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors, and your job is to find them. Please do not list the errors you find within the post. The same post is repeated at the end of Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

Note: Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or capitalization. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted form or there is more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed. That would not be fair...the purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness, not technicalities.

This week your Challenge takes a look at the history of the blogs and blogging, and contains 9 errors.
Good Luck!

*******************************************************************************
Blogging has become a hole separate world from the internet. Blogging actually surfaced back in 1983, when it was referred to as "Usenet." It was considered a primary medium for moderated newsgroups which provided an area for posting discussions on virtually any topic, but was moderated by individuals or small groups. It wasn't until 1994, just a few years after the world wide web was created, that blogs evolved into what is more commonly referred to as an online diary.

Blogging, while starting out slow, has rapidly gained popularity as a tool for many individuals, organizations and corporations, as a medium to stay in touch with and provide a means of creating an infomation system. On the individual platform, it is a way for average citizens to have a venue to communicate, reach out and provide feedback on practicaly any subject humanly concievable.

The term blog was derived form what most knew as web-logs. The term weblog meaning a regularly updated collection of links to other sites and comments, was originally coined by Jorn Barger in 1997, though what is commonly understood as blogging began as early as 1996. In May of 1999, Peter Merholz coined the term blog in a posting on his personal blog sight, by mischieviously braking down the word weblog to we blog. The we was eventually dropped, resulting in the term we are all familar with: blog.

In broad terms, a blog is commonly thought of as an online journal, though they can range from intimate personal diaries to more journalistic newsletters. Some blogs focus on a narrow selection of topics of interest to the author, while other blogs cover a much wider range of topics.

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Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how thorough you are!

Wednesday's Weird Word

2009-11-11T05:34:00.010-06:00

This a weekly feature where you have the opportunity to grow your vocabulary with a not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used word.

Today's Wednesday's Word is: GALIMATIAS, and its pronounciation is: gal-uh-mey-shee-uhs.

GALIMATIAS is a noun, meaning nonsense, or gibberish; confused, meaningless jargon; confused or unintelligible talk.

After several drinks, it was difficult to have an intelligent conversation with him, as most of what he was saying was galimatias.

Use galimatias in a conversation today! This one you could really have some fun with!

See you back next Wednesday for another new, weird word!

In appreciation to all who have served or are serving our country - THANK YOU and Happy Veterans' Day!

Remember to thank our Veterans today!

Levels of Editing

2009-11-10T05:12:00.009-06:00

Yesterday you were given a general look at proofreading and copyediting. Today I'll offer more detail regarding the differences between the two, and also provide you with a synopsis of the various levels of editing.

There is clearly an overlap in the type of work expected of proofreaders and copyeditors.

Proofreaders don't see things the way other people do. They scrutinize. When something is awry, their warning buzzer goes off, and they pore over every last letter and shred of punctuation to hammer the copy into error-free perfection.

Copyeditors step deeper into the intricacies of voice, language and plot, and they maintain grammatical and tonal consistency. A copyeditor will analyze, process and transform copy into intelligible, easy-to-understand prose.

An interesting fact about the word copy is that as an English word, it's related to "copious." Both are from the same Latin root that means plenty or abundance. Copy is the message that comes across.

LEVELS OF EDITING

Standard proofreading involves making sure writing is free of mechanical errors - in spelling, punctuation, consistency, and some elements of formatting - and is grammatically correct.

Editorial proofreading encompasses all the tasks involved in standard proofreading, plus a few minor tweaks to ensure clarity and correct word choice.

Copyediting involves all proofreading tasks and also improves phrasing and organization to make the writing more effective.

Substantive editing calls for a greater level of rewriting and reorganization and even the suggestion of new approaches and ideas.

With standard proofreading the goal is to ensure clarity through correctness and consistency, and by watching to be sure the discussion generally makes sense. If it doesn't, a query of the client is needed. At this level pointing out a which that should be a that or noting that a word has been used three times in two sentences is about all the writing reconstruction the job description covers.

Editorial proofreading opens more doors for change. It's expected that more be done, but still nothing extreme. At this level, rather than simply offering suggestions, changes - again, nothing major - can and should be changed.

At the level of copyediting, language is shaped a bit more. Sentences are evaluated: Is it wordy? Ambiguous? Repetitious? Appropriate for its audience? Logical? Does the main point stand out? The work is considered as a whole: Are the topics presented in an effective order, or would another order make the information clearer? Copyediting involves questioning the manuscript constantly; however, the level at which this is done depends on whether a client is looking for light, medium or heavy copyediting.

Substantive editing is the most hands-on level of editing. It's also called content editing. It addresses not just how something is said, but what is being said. License is given to simply rewrite portions of text or reorganize the work to present content more effectively.

Ideally, editorial changes are made first, followed by proofreading to catch small items that may have been overlooked along the way. The line between proofreading and copyediting is very often blurred, and in reality, a little - or a lot - of both are done when editing a manuscript.

Copyediting is done early in the process to solve larger problems that could have a big effect later in the process. To copyedit is to check consistency and accuracy. Although part of copyediting may be to proofread to remove common errors, a copyeditor must also maintain the structure and tone of the project.

Proofreading is done to look for typos, misspellings, and other on-the-surface errors. Proofreading is usually done toward the end of the process; the book has already been designed and all the material is present.

Very often both are performed simultaneously, with more emphasis on copyediting initially, and thorough proofreading being performed to "polish" the project - unless of course the editor is asked specifically to find only the errors that fall under the category of standard proofreading.

No matter what level of editing is performed, the message being conveyed by the writer must be crystal clear!

Partial Source: McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers and Proofreaders

A Look Into "Proofreading"

2009-11-09T05:43:00.006-06:00

The following is taken from the first post I wrote when I entered the blogosphere. I'm featuring it today as an introduction of tomorrow's post, where I'll provide a more in-depth look at the subject.

There's More to Proofreading Than Just Reading!

Part of the job of a good proofreader is to not only find the errors, but also having the ability to find the right words to get the writer's message across to the reader in a clear and concise manner.

Proofreading itself involves pretty much the obvious: misspelled words, incorrect punctuation and grammatical errors.

Copyediting is another aspect and is a bit more involved. When editing written material, a copyeditor looks for proper structure and "flow." The last thing a reader wants is to have to "work" at reading. The written words should be as readable as if they were being spoken aloud. Of course this goes without saying that the speaker be well-versed in the proper use of the English language.

So, you have proofreading for spelling, punctuation and grammar; copyediting for structure and proper content. What other element or skill is essential in the process of polishing a manuscript?

Writing. In order to be of value to a client, a "proofreader" should definitely possess excellent writing abilities. If something is written without proper format or composition, how could that possibly be remedied unless your editor has the ability to find the right words and use them in the correct order, so that what you are writing is understandable and reads with ease?

What is most commonly referred to as proofreading obviously involves more than merely finding a misplaced comma or a misspelled word. Please be sure to read tomorrow's post, where I'll provide a more detailed look into the differences between proofreading and copyediting - and the various levels of editing.

Spelling Challenge

2009-11-06T05:19:00.003-06:00

It's Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge! And, at the very end of this post are the words that were misspelled in yesterday's Thorough Thursday challenge.

Do you have your sticky note and pen ready? Great! Let's get started! Write down the correct spelling for this week's words. As usual the answers are listed below.

NO PEEKING!

1. athiest
2. bellweather
3. concensus
4. dumbell
5. exhilerate
6. hierachy
7. innoculate
8. liason
9. occurrance
10. pronounciation

BONUS WORD
perogative

Here is yesterday's Thorough Thursday post in its entirety, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

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Early History

The practice of making extra copies of manuscripts goes back to ancient times; in Rome there were booksellers—Horace mentions the Sosii, who were apparently brothers—and the copying of books by trained slaves reached considerable proportions. With the introduction of printing into Europe in the middle of the 15th century, book publishing sprang into lively existence. The author, the printer, and the publisher of a work were sometimes all the same person, as in the case of members of the Estienne family in France in the 16th cent. The differentiation of printer, publisher, and bookseller appeared early, however, as patrons of literature had books printed for distribution and booksellers had their printing done by others to meet the growing demand.

The Emergence of Publishing Houses

The first important publishing house (1583–1791) was that of the Elzevir family in Holland. The Elzevirs were businessmen rather than scholars, and the business of bookselling grew as literacy increased. Concurrently, printing, publishing, and bookselling spread learning across the West. Religious controversy bred polemics, and arguments printed in broadsides, pamphlets, and books were handed out zealously and bought eagerly by partisans. An interest in knowing the future also increased the amount of literature issued by bookseller-publishers, and almanacs and the like were issued for the wider public.

*******************************************************************************Between the Spelling Challenge and the Thorougness Challenge, you all deserve a little recognition! So let's spread some of that famous Crystal Clear Proofing HAPPY and award everyone for their efforts with the fun, new SMILEY STAR!

And wishing you all a very

Thoroughness Challenge

2009-11-05T05:00:00.029-06:00

Thoroughly Thursday is a weekly post consisting of a couple of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors, and your job is to find them. Please do not list the errors you find within the post. The same post will be repeated at the end of Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

Note: Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted form or there is more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed. That would not be fair...the purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness, not technicalities.

This week's paragraphs feature a little history on the first books published and the coming of age of the modern-day publishing houses. This excerpt is taken from Fun Trivia, and it contains 14 errors. Good Luck!

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Early History

The practice of making extra copies of manuscripts goes back to ancient times; in Rome there were booksellers—Horace mentions the Sosii, who were apparantly brothers—and the copying of books by trained slaves reached considerable preportions. With the introduction of printing into Europe in the middle of the 15th century, book publshing sprang into lively existance. The author, the printer, and the publisher of a work were sometimes all the same person, as in the case of members of the Estienne family in France in the 16th century. The differentation of printer, publisher, and bookseller appeared early, however, as patrons of litrature had books printed for distribution and booksellers had their printing done by others to meet the growing demand.

The Emergance of Publishing Houses

The first importent publishing house (1583–1791) was that of the Elzevir family in Holland. The Elzevirs were businessmen rather than scholars, and the business of bookselling grew as literacy increased. Concurrantly, printing, publishing, and bookselling spred learning across the West. Religious contraversy bred polemics, and arguments printed in broadsides, pamphlets, and books were handed out zelously and bought eagerly by partesans. An interest in knowing the future also increased the amount of literature issued by bookseller-publishers, and almenacs and the like were issued for the wider public.

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Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how thorough you are!

Wednesday's Weird Word

2009-11-04T05:28:00.003-06:00

Wednesday's Word will be a weekly feature wherein I'll introduce a not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used word.

Today's Wednesday's Word is: NAUPATHIA.

NAUPATHIA is a noun, whose meaning is: seasickness.

She made sure she took medication with her on her cruise to help with her naupathia.

Try using naupathia in conversations! Have fun with it! See you back next Wednesday for another new, weird word!

Note: The source for many of the words I'll be featuring can be found at Luciferous Logolepsy. They are so obscure, I was actually unable to find some of them at a couple of common online dictionary references, such as The Free Dictionary.com. This one, however, is listed.

Apostrophe Use With Possessive Nouns

2009-11-03T04:08:00.016-06:00

How to use apostrophes with possessive nouns can, at times, be a little tricky. Here are a few tips on how and when to use the apostrophe when forming the possessive of certain nouns:

SINGULAR NOUNS

To form the possessive of a singular noun not ending in an s sound, add an apostrophe plus s to the noun.

Crystal's blog
California's coastline

To form the possessive of a singular noun that ends in an s sound, be guided by the way you pronounce the word.

a. If a new syllable is formed in the pronunciation of the possessive, add an apostrophe plus s.

The boss's approval
St. Louis's airport

b. If the addition of an extra syllable would make a word ending in an s sound awkward or hard to pronounce, add the apostrophe only.

Los Angeles' freeways
For goodness' sake
New Orleans' restaurants
For convenience' sake

PLURAL NOUNS

For a regular plural noun (one that ends in s), add only an apostrophe to form the plural possessive.

Investors' objectives
The witnesses' contradictions
The United States' policy
Attorneys' fees
The agencies' rules

REMEMBER...
Plural nouns that end in s take only an apostrophe, while singular nouns that end in s take an apostrophe plus s, (unless the apostrophe plus s sounds awkward).

The bosses' office - plural
The boss's office - singular
Los Angeles' freeways - singular, but Los Angeles's freeways sounds awkward.

For an irregular plural noun (one that does not end in s), add an apostrophe plus s to form the plural possessive.

Women's coats
Children's toys

A good way to avoid mistakes in forming the possessive of plural nouns, is to form the plural of the noun first, then apply whichever grammar rule above fits:

Singular Noun------------Plural Noun------------------------Plural Possessive
boy----------------------------boys (regular)----------------------boys'
boss--------------------------bosses (regular)------------------bosses'
child--------------------------children (irregular)----------------children's
mother-in-law--------------mothers-in-law (irregular)-------mothers-in-law's

An additional note...
Now to completely confuse you, some constructions can be tricky. For example, the use of back-to-back possessives. Say, for example, you want to refer to the children belonging to two brothers of your father, (i.e., your cousins). The double possessive would be: My father's brothers' children. You could even have a triple possessive with: My father's brothers' children's books. Ouch. Obviously best to stick with your cousins!

Also, a more common problem is the use of a possessive form when ownership is involved. Take the example above of: mothers-in-law's. Obviously we're referring to a possession of two or more mothers-in-law. Rather than, The mothers-in-law's purses, you could opt for: The purses of the mothers-in-law.

ADDENDUM...
I'm including this excerpt, as you will note is also in the reply to Diane's comment. Whether to add just the apostrophe or the apostrophe plus s to possessive nouns, including names, is very controversial; there seems to be no absolute and clear-cut rule:

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, for nouns ending in s: "the possessive of most singular nouns is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s, and the possessive of plural nouns by adding an apostrophe only...this practice is used in conjuction with the way possessive forms are generally pronounced." It goes on to add that, "...feelings on these matters sometimes run high..." thus ending in numerous exceptions and modifications to the general "rule."

Sources: Gregg Reference Manual, CMS, Grammarmudge

American and British English - Words

2009-11-02T04:59:00.001-06:00

In American and British English, there are some words and phrases with grammatical differences; one form being preferred in American English and another in British English, some words are spelled differently, and then there are some words which, though they mean the same thing, are completely different words. Below I've listed several common words in both American and British English. You may find yourself writing - or reading - a novel set in England, have a scene in a book with a British character or two, or simply find the following interesting, and maybe a little fun!

American vs. British

apartment = flat
argument = row
baby carriage = pram
backpack = rucksack
band-aid = plaster
bathroom = loo or WC (water closet)
can = tin
checking account = current account
cookie = biscuit
corn = maize
cotton candy = candy floss
cupcake = fairy cake
diaper = nappy
elevator = lift
eraser = rubber
flashlight = torch
fries = chips
gas = petrol
guy = bloke, chap
highway = motorway
hood (car) = bonnet
jello = jelly
jelly = jam
kerosene = paraffin
lawyer = solicitor
license plate = number plate
loose change = slummy
lucky = spawny
mail = post
motor home = caravan
movie theater = cinema
muffler = silencer
napkin = serviette
nothing = nought
overpass = flyover
pacifier = dummy
pants = trousers
parking lot = car park
period = full stop
pharmacist = chemist
police officer = bobby
popsicle - ice lolly
potato chips = crisps
rent = hire
sandwich = butty
sidewalk = pavement
soccer = football
soda, pop - fizzy drink
stuffed animal = cuddly toy
sweater = jumper
trash can = bin or dust bin
truck = lorry
trunk (car) = boot
underwear = smalls
vacation = holiday
vest = waistcoat
windshield (car) = windscreen
zip code = postal code

Mmm...I think for lunch I'll make myself a bitty and have a fizzy drink. And as soon as I finish typing this sentence, you'll notice that I've used a full stop.

Spelling Challenge

2009-10-30T05:19:00.005-05:00

Not only is it Friday and time to test your spelling skills, it's the LAST Friday of the month, and the day before Halloween!

This week I'm beginning a new way of challenging your spelling skills. Rather than give you three choices, I'm going to list, as usual, 10 words and a bonus word...what's different is that YOU have to provide the correct spelling. So just grab a little sticky note and a pen, write down the words, spelled correctly, and as usual the answers are listed below.

Also, at the very end of this post are the words that were misspelled in yesterday's Thorough Thursday challenge.

Of course you know...

NO PEEKING!

1. begger
2. changable
3. commitment
4. dominent
5. tempramental
6. tangable
7. prevelant
8. quarantine
9. susseptible
10. vengance

BONUS WORD
conscientous

If you spell all 10 words correctly
you get a GOLD star!

If you spell the bonus word correctly
you get the prized, very special, and much coveted
Crystal Clear Proofing PURPLE star!

For spelling all the words, including the bonus word correctly
you get a GOLD and a PURPLE star!
(Hooray!)
I know! It's exciting, right?!

ANSWERS:

1. beggar
2. changeable
3. commitment
4. dominant
5. temperamental
6. tangible
7. prevalent
8. quarantine
9. susceptible
10. vengeance

BONUS WORD:
conscientious

So, how'd you do? Now I didn't say all the words would be misspelled, only that your challenge was to provide the correct spelling. Numbers 3 and 8 were spelled correctly in the first part of the challenge. Did I "catch" any of you?

CONGRATULATIONS
to those of you who earned stars!

Now, here's yesterday's Thorough Thursday post in its entirety, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

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The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

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My wishes to all of you for a fantastic, fun, safe weekend - and

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I'd like to add a note here at the end of this post to genuinely thank Karen for having honored me by passing on the Kreativ Blogger award to me today! If you haven't done so already, visit her blog! Karen is a wonderful lady whose posts are interesting and heartfelt! I'm so happy we found each other! Thank you Karen!

Thoroughness Challenge

2009-10-29T05:29:00.003-05:00

Thoroughly Thursday is a weekly post where I type a couple of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors, and your job is to find them. The same post is repeated at the end of Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

This is on the honor system! No spending all day, printing it out, looking up words...you have to complete the challenge here.
Also, please keep the errors you find to yourself, rather than list them here within the post...we don't want to "help" anyone else inadvertently!

Last week your your Thoroughly Thursday paragraphs were about the origins of Halloween and its coming the America. The following is part two, again an exerpt from History.com on some of the traditions of Halloween and why we have them. This week's Challenge contains 7 errors. Good Luck!

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The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivties, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pasteries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distrbution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, witch was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightning time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constent worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to apease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

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Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how you did!

Wednesday's Weird Word

2009-10-28T05:30:00.002-05:00

Wednesday's Word will be a weekly feature wherein I'll introduce a not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used word.

Today's Wednesday's Word is: SPRINGAL.

Springal is a noun meaning: a strong, young boy; an active, springy young man.

The farmer decided to hire a springal from the nearby village to help harvest his crops.

Try using SPRINGAL in conversations and see the response you get! Have fun with it! See you back next Wednesday for another new, weird word!

Note: The source for many of the words I'll be featuring can be found at Luciferous Logolepsy. They are so obscure, I was actually unable to find some of them at a couple of common online dictionary references, such as The Free Dictionary.com.

Inspriring Thoughts

2009-10-27T06:08:00.004-05:00

Hello Friends,

Well, I'm having an (I hope!) minor - surgical procedure tomorrow, and NOW I'm literally "down and out" with one heck of - something! Yesterday I was deathly afraid I had H1N1 - but thankfully it appears I just have a really nasty bug. So, I'm out of commission for a couple of days. It literally is all I can do to sit here and type this (sigh).

I have posts prepared for the remainder of the week, so please visit! I'll be checking in when I can! I apologize that I won't be able to visit your sites for a couple of days, but I'm hoping to be back in full swing by Thursday. See everyone then!

In the meantime, you know how much I love motivational and inspiring thoughts! So, today I'm posting a few for you to ponder. Enjoy!

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.- Albert Schweitzer

Working at a job you hate is unlikely to bring you either happiness or success. Do what you love. Whether wealth follows or not, you will be happy. And, you are far more likely to also gain financial reward if you are working at something that inspires and excites you.

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.

The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.- Mark Twain

If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.- Mary Pickford

There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.