July 2007 Most Popular Articles

July 2007 Most Popular Articles July 2007 Most Popular Articles July 2007 Most Popular Articles By Daniel Scocco Five Frequently Misused Verbs: Go, Come, Write, Give, and Eat. Among the most frequently used words in English, these five verbs are also the most frequently misused. The error occurs when the simple past forms are used to form the present or past perfect Dialogue Dos and Don’ts: In the post Show, Don’t Tell, I mentioned dialogue as one of the ways you can â€Å"show† your reader what’s happening in a scene. Effective dialogue is an essential part of both fiction and creative nonfiction writing. How to Bypass Your Internal Editor: When you edit your first draft, you’ll have all sorts of ideas of what to change. But when you write your first draft, you want to turn off the â€Å"internal editor† in your mind, that super-ego that looks over your shoulder and criticizes everything you do. Editing is different from writing. Most people can’t successfully do both at the same time. And when you do your first draft, you need to focus on writing. Accept the Effect: These words give writers trouble since the two can be both a noun and a verb, although affect is typically verb and effect, noun. Normally, you will use affect to denote influence. The Impotence of Proofreading: Its a fact that a spell checker will not catch all the mistakes on your text. More specifically, it will not catch misspellings that form other valid words. So how do you solve this problem? Proofreading, of coarse! Less/Fewer; Number/Amount: Still Salvageable: The difference between less and fewer, like that between lay and lie, is on the brink of extinction, but enough careful speakers and writers observe the difference to make it worth our attention. Ready, Set, Write!: One of the biggest problems people have with writing is getting started. A blank page (or computer screen) can be intimidating, but prewriting is a great way to overcome that intimidation. Here are some prewriting activities to help get the words flowing out of your brain and onto the page. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the FutureExcited ABOUT, not "for" While vs. Whilst