Arlene Miller's Blog, page 17

Becoming a Freelance Writer/Hurricane Update and More

Hurricane Update: 

As you may or may not know, I live about 20 miles south of Tampa, FL. Ian was supposed to hit us directly. I do not live in a flood evacuation zone, but no one could talk about anything except the hurricane last weekend, so I had to take my head out of the sand regarding my first Florida hurricane. I made necessary preparations in case of loss of power and water: filling bathtubs and wastebaskets with water,  getting water to drink, having enough flashlights and extra phone chargers, etc. I do not, however, have hurricane shutters for my house. My daughter and son-in-law live three miles down the road, and they do have shutters (although there was a fiasco in the neighborhood with putting them up. They came with the fairly new houses, but people were given the size that belonged to other people in the neighborhood. It got straightened out in time.)

We were very lucky. The hurricane decided to change course a bit and came onto land about 120 miles south of us. Fort Myers, not expecting to be hit hard, was devastated. Tampa, predicted to get 10 or 20 inches of rain, probably didn’t even get five. There was no storm surge in Tampa Bay, and as a matter of fact, the wind sucked the water out of the bay.

However, it was still a major storm even here. And it went on to unexpectedly wreak havoc on Orlando and Kissimmee, inland. Now it is on its way up to the Carolinas, so everyone involved, stay safe. Even 20 miles south of us, houses had major damage. My daughter’s house and my house suffered no damage. Their fence is still up. My tree did not fall into my house, although it lost some small branches. However, both our neighborhoods had many trees down and are kind of a mess. 

But we are grateful.

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I am pleased to present a guest post by Amber Ramsey.

Amber is a career woman. She’s fierce, confident, and has the “can do” attitude we all strive for. Like most of us, she started out in the corporate world, but she found that her fire, spirit, and creativity were better suited to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Amber has been on both sides of the desk, as an employee and the boss, so she has plenty of career advice to share.

 

How to Become a Freelance Writer as a Student or Recent GradImage by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

Freelance writing offers ample flexibility, making it a perfect career for students and those who have to manage their time wisely. As a freelancer, you can choose when and how much work you take on, making it easier to earn more when you have a lighter course load. 

Train Wisely

Many free and low-cost online training programs are available for aspiring freelancers, and social media accounts and YoutTube channels are filled with tips. There’s no need to spend a fortune getting ready to write. If you choose to work as an independent contractor for a content company, they often will include training so you can get paid while you learn. Seek out blogs and tips from other writers for more free information.

It’s also a good idea to polish your grammar, both when starting out and as an ongoing discipline. ( You can always each out to Arlene Miller, The Grammar Diva.)

Create Writing Samples

Along with a resume that lists your skills and experience, you will want to gather or prepare writing samples for potential employers or clients to see. If you don’t have any samples ready, you can write some that relate to topics you are interested in or topics that content writers are frequently hired to write about for blogs. You may also want to familiarize yourself with writing search engine optimization content and show your skills in that area.

Find Jobs

There are a few different ways to enter the freelance market. Job sites like FlexJobs, Fiverr, and UpWork allow you to find content-writing jobs that are already listed or to list yourself as a freelancer for others to seek out. These sites can also connect you with companies looking for part-time writers and have positions with a significant amount of flexibility.

On sites like Fiverr, where clients can hire you directly, it’s essential that you get good reviews. A great way to do this when starting out is by offering your services at a low price so that you attract more clients and garner great reviews quickly. Like everything else on the internet, you want to make sure you hack the algorithm and come up at the top of search results.

Organize Your Time

It can be easy to get overwhelmed when you’re juggling school, work, social activities, and other hobbies. Before you start freelancing, you will want to make sure you have a system in place to stay on top of everything. Try using a task manager like Trello or Evernote to get everything organized. Both of these programs allow you to keep track of due dates and offer other premium features that keep you on track. Eastern Washington University suggests making sure that you assess what a reasonable amount of work to take on is so that you can prevent burnout.

Get Your Paperwork Ready

You will want to create a business entity so that you can properly file your taxes with a tax ID number (EIN). An EIN will be unique to your business and help the IRS track your payroll taxes. It will make filing your federal and state taxes easier as well.

The tips above should have you on your way to starting your new career. Thankfully, with the content job market growing, ample opportunities are available for talented writers. As always, persistence and enthusiasm will help set you apart from the pack.

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IN OTHER NEWS:

Last week I had a lovely Zoom session with Robert Brandwayn, a language coach, musician, and artist from Bogota, Columbia. Our conversation will be on YouTube and his podcast when it is edited. I will provide links at that time. 

I am proud to say that The Best Grammar Workbook Ever     was the #1 book in the Adult and Continuing Education category on Amazon  for several days in September.  Thank you all for your support.

 

 

 

The Gift of Reading – Part 2

Last week you read a guest post from Lorraine Segal about the gift of reading she received in childhood.  Her words made me remember snippets of my childhood that involve books and reading. 

When people read my memoir, they tell me are surprised by how much I remembered. While I may not remember what I ate last night, I do remember things clearly from my youth — but really snippets that are clear as day, not entire sequences of memories. I may remember what I wore to a certain event, but nothing about the event itself.

First of all, I want to say that I am sure my parents — or at least my mother — read to me, but I don’t remember any of those books that were read to me. One of my first memories of books was of  a few books that we had in the house. I am not sure if they were bought for me or they were my mother’s books, since these books first came out in the early 1900s. First, there were a couple of Bobbsey Twins books. I just looked them up on Amazon, and the originals (hardcover of course) had green covers, which is exactly what I remember. I think I read them, but they were not my favorites, and I don’t know if we ever added to that small collection. The other book I remember clearly is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I remember our copy had a glossy cover with a color picture of Rebecca. I couldn’t find the cover I remember on Amazon. I probably read that one, but it doesn’t stand out in my mind. Another book I had as a child, one that I think was bought for me, was Uncle Wiggly and His Friends, which according to Amazon, first came out in 1955, which makes sense. And the cover I remember is the one in this post and on Amazon. 

I was very close with my maternal grandparents, who lived around the corner, and I spent a great deal of time at their house. I remember a fairly small, narrow bookcase that was next to a chair I used to sit on in the corner of the living room. On the top shelf of that bookcase was a collection of classics — it looked as if it perhaps came from the grocery store when they used to give a new book out each week (am I dating myself?). I think among those books were Thackeray’s Vanity Fair,  Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Little Women might have also been there. There were probably fifteen or twenty books on that shelf. I don’t know if I read any of them, but I used to look at them a lot. 

My cousin — who was closer to my mother’ s age — bought me my first two Nancy Drew books, The Hidden Staircase and The Secret of the Old Clock. I loved them and went on to read many, many Nancy Drew books. I tried reading one of them as an adult, and it wasn’t quite the same, but now that I am writing this, the urge hits me again to read a Nancy Drew book! (I just reserved one at the library – the print book, since reading it in e-book form just didn’t seem quite right.)

In fifth grade I had a couple of “boy” friends who introduced me to The Hardy Boys, so I read a couple of those too and liked them.

My best friend through elementary and junior high school  and I got into reading Poe and used to scare each other with our own Poe-like stories. We would say that the birds (probably pigeons) in the air were really bats. I remember The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Gold Bug, The Telltale Heart, etc.

I haven’t read science fiction in decades, but I did read it as a kid. I remember reading Heinlein and Bradbury — and Frank Herbert’s Dune at some point. Maybe I was older when I read that one.

I still like a good mystery — mostly cozy mysteries now– but I was a big fan of Agatha Christie in my youth and read a lot of her books.

Some of my favorite books from my preteen and teenage years were A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Good Earth, and especially Fifteen by Beverly Cleary. 

Poetry? e.e.cummings. I don’t read much poetry, and he is still my favorite.

And I cannot forget the magazines my best friend and I would read. Aside from the fan magazines, we read Teen and Seventeen, where we learned our first things about makeup and fashion. There were two famous models at the time: Colleen Corby, a brunette, and Teri Reno, a blonde. I would pretend to be Corby, and my blonde friend would pretend to be Reno.

In junior high and high school I started writing song lyrics (my ambition at the time was to be a songwriter), and I faithfully read Billboard Magazine. When I thought I might not become a songwriter after all,  I decided I wanted to write for Billboard Magazine; that is really what started my whole writing career — although sadly, I never wrote for Billboard. 

The awful things we had to read in junior high and high school at that time also stick in my memory. Evangeline by Longfellow: “This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks” (yuck). And Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (double yuck).  And David Copperfield wasn’t much better. In my high school in Massachusetts, The Scarlet Letter was banned, so we had to read The House of the Seven Gables. And Moby Dick, which I didn’t like. I do remember being put in a special reading club for more advanced readers, maybe in 10th grade? We read Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge Of San Luis Rey. For some reason, I never forgot that one. And my favorite book? At least from my “youth”? A Separate Peace by John Knowles, although I was a bit older when I read it. 

I like to read now as much as I ever did. Call me a nerd. And thank you for the compliment!

 

 

The Gift of Reading

A Guest Post from Lorraine Segal Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from PixabayAbout Lorraine Segal

After surviving the ’50s and ’60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy, happily teaching, coaching, blogging, and consulting around workplace conflict transformation. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write her memoir, Angels and Earthworms. For more information go to https://BooklingPress.com

From Chapter 1 Welcome to Downey, Future Unlimited

Library Liberation

One of the big gifts I was given in childhood was the gift of reading. Both parents read out loud to my sister and me. My father, Henry, worked in downtown Los Angeles and he would go to the huge children’s department in the main L.A. library, and get the librarians to help him choose books for us. The librarians adored him; it was unusual then for a man to do this for his young daughters. He would bring the books home in his black metal lunch box, and I still remember the excitement and anticipation we felt to see what treasurers he had brought!

I read my first “chapter” book when I was very young, and I have been reading, mostly novels, with memoirs, self-help books, and other non-fiction thrown in, with delight and enthusiasm ever since. I once estimated the number of books I’ve read in my life and I’m sure, conservatively, it is well over 12,000. My Aunt Rose also sent beautifully illustrated hardback children’s books each year for our birthdays, like Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, A Little Princess, Black Beauty. Some of them I still have.

In my challenging childhood, books were my friends, my comfort, my escape, feeding my sense of wonder and offering a window on a bigger world. They were also my key to understanding other people and other cultures. I read an article a few years ago which said that people who read novels tend to be more empathetic because they enter into the lives, perceptions, and feelings of people very different from them. This is certainly true of me and explains why I can easily feel empathy for people who have had a very different life experience from my own. I probably spent time with someone like them inside a book.

I particularly loved historical novels and fantasy and science fiction, appreciating the bigger escape not only from my particular life, but my time, my world, and my American culture.

The public library in Downey was small and limited, but once I was old enough to go, I loved it. I read just about everything in the children’s section by the time I was nine or ten, and moved on to the few shelves of young adult books.

The young adult section had a system of labeling that involved putting small pieces of sticky white tape with red symbols on the spine. There was a rocket ship for science fiction books, two hearts for the teen romances, and a magnifying glass for mysteries. I read everything.

The first science fiction book I read was by Robert Heinlein. It was either Rocket Ship Galileo or Orphans of the Sky. My imagination was captured by these outer space adventures that involved kids. I still have a soft spot for well-written science fiction and fantasy.

Then, by age eleven, I switched to the adult novel section. I would start at the “A”s, and stop when I reached the maximum number of books I could take out. I read trashy novels and classics indiscriminately.

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I can so relate to Lorraine’s reading experiences, although I have no clue how many books I have read in my lifetime! (Do I count the ones I did not finish?). Next week, I will talk about my memories of childhood reading in The Gift of Reading Part 2.

 

 

 

One Word — Or Two?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Some words, usually indefinite pronouns that are compound, are sometimes written as two words instead of one:

everyonesomeoneeverythingsomethingnothinganyoneanythingsometimes (which is an adverb)sometime (adverb) / some time (adjective and noun)anymore (adverb)/any more (adjective and adverb)

When you write them as two words (every one), they become pronouns or nouns preceded by an adjective: every one (Every is an adjective here, modifying one.)

Sometimes (there’s one right there) these words should be written as one word, but in some cases, they should be separated.

Everyone = all the people/every one = each one separately

Here are some examples of correct usage:

Everyone is bringing only one suitcase.Every one of you should pack only one suitcase. Someone is at the door.Some one is generally not used for anything.Everything in your garden is beautiful.Every little thing in your garden is perfect. (Everything is generally used unless there is a word separating.)Something is wrong with the dog.Some creepy thing is under the table. (Something is generally used unless there is a word separating.)Nothing is wrong.No little thing will stop me. (Nothing is generally used unless there is a word separating.)Is anyone there?Any one of you can easily accomplish this. She thinks she can do anything.She complains about any little thing.  (Anything is generally used unless there is a word separating.)Sometimes I just feel like reading all day. Some times are just better than others.Come visit me sometime.I will come spend some time with you.I don’t ski anymore.Is there any more pie?

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I am always looking for guest posts. Please contact me if you have any ideas!

Online Dating and Grammar

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Okay. I have to admit I have done more than my share of online dating. And if I see an it’s instead of its, no capital letters, no periods, or any other grammar or spelling faux pas, I am off to the next profile. But is everyone like me? I would think so. However . . .

One study, by writing platform ProWritingAid, found that men prefer women with poor grammar and are slightly less drawn to well-written profiles. I cannot imagine that, and I think it is sad. Perhaps that is why I have had such bad luck with online dating. This same survey showed that male daters were 10% less likely to initiate a connection with good grammar girls.

But, on the contrary,  female daters between 18 and 34 years old were over 300% times more likely to go for a man who hadn’t made any grammatical mistakes; among all ages, women were 39% more likely to connect with a man who had a good grasp of the English language.

The study found that 63% of women say grammar is important, with 53% of men say the same. But those figures don’t reflect the reality.

Lisa Lepki, head of marketing at ProWritingAid, said: “Our hypothesis was that well-written, grammatically correct profiles would be marginally more attractive to daters,” but the results didn’t show that at all.”

Women did indeed prefer well-written profiles, and men received triple the matches if they used good grammar in their profiles.

But men seemed to prefer profiles that are badly written. Why?

Lepki asked, “Do men feel intimidated by women with good grammar? Or do they think they have a better chance with writers of poorly written profiles?”

Tina Wilson, relationship expert and founder of the app Wingman, believes  there are two possibilities:

 “One is the man is insecure and if he feels the woman has a higher intellect than themselves they would feel superior and more likely to be the dominant partner. This should, of course, be a red flag to any potential partner as if someone is so insecure they don’t want an intellectual equal or superior, they need to grow up before they start dating.”Wilson also thinks that men could also be interpreting more casual grammar as a sign that women aren’t taking themselves too seriously, which might be an attractive trait to them. “Perhaps male daters tend to prefer women who are more relaxed and confident within themselves,” she ventured.  

There are, however, varying degrees of errors: Big, obvious mistakes that stand out like a sore thumb – such as the word defiantly instead of definitely – will likely be noted.

So what is it that makes women prefer good grammar?

 Wilson explained, “Women on the other hand typically pay close attention to detail. According to our own statistics at Wingman, most women who receive a message starting with  ‘hey how r u?’ or any similar shortened words or phrases used in communications or put on a dating profile will firmly land the man in rejection territory.”

The Netherlands Study

A similar study was done in the Netherlands. This study found that spelling mistakes in a dating profile, such as writing teh for the or using iRRegulaR CapS, are perceived as signals of sloppiness or lack of care, which in turn affects the profile holder’s perceived attractiveness. The researchers from Tilburg University had thought that using informal digital communication styles – such as excessive exclamation marks or emoticons – would be seen as kinder. But in fact, those whose grammar was more formal were rated as warmer people.

Command of the written word has been rated highly in other studies of traits that people look for in potential partners. It may seem like a failure of imagination, but language errors can be interpreted as an indicator of poor education or being inattentive, clumsy, or ignorant.

This study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, had limitations. The sample was small —  all mostly “older adults” on one Dutch dating website. It may be that on dating apps serving younger demographics, a good grasp of literacy and convention might be rated less highly.

Linguist Gretchen McCulloch, author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, has explored how written online communication has evolved its own rules, such as using all lowercase to seem relaxed: “If I say everything very formally [with standard capitalisation], then maybe that means I am standing on ceremony, am easily offended, and will be offended if you do, too.”

 To find love online, once you weed out those with bad grammar and spelling, what is most important is what happens.when you meet in person. My date will be the one with a book and a red pen!

Thank you to these two online articles. 

Yahoo News Article by Lauren Clark

The Guardian

 

Go Slow: Flat Adverbs Ahead

THE BEST OF THE GRAMMAR DIVA…..FROM 2016

 

Since I am busy with my daughter’s baby shower this week and weekend (my first grandchild is due in December), here is a post from a few years back. I hope you enjoy it!

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Flat adverbs? Is this yet another grammatical thing we need to know about? Well, yes and no, but it isn’t difficult.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Let’s start at the beginning. Adverbs are the part of speech that “describe” verbs. They usually tell how or when or to what extent. And they can also describe adjectives or other adverbs. And to review, adjectives are the part of speech that usually describe nouns (or pronouns), telling what kind. Here are some examples of adverbs:

He talks quietly. (Quietly is an adverb that tells how he talks.)We will leave soon. (Soon is an adverb that tells when we will leave.)He talks extremely quietly. (Extremely is an adverb describing another adverb – quietly – that tells to what extent.)She is really pretty. (Here, really is an adverb describing the adjective pretty, telling to what extent.)

You have probably noticed that many (probably most) adverbs end in  -ly, especially the ones that tell how or to what extent (as opposed to the ones that tell when, like now, then, soon, and later).

Now, there are also some other words that end in -ly, mainly some adjectives like lovely, lonely, and daily.

So, not all adverbs end in  -ly, and not all words that end in -ly are adverbs.

Now, what does this have to do with flat adverbs, and what are they anyway?

Okay. Many of the adverbs that end in  -ly  are created from the adjective, which has no  -ly:

quiet is an adjective (quiet house), but quietly is an adverb (talk quietly).soft is an adjective (soft blanket), but softly is an adverb (speak softly).quick is an adjective (quick bunny), but quickly is an adverb (run quickly).slow is an adjective (slow turtle), but slowly is an adverb (drive slowly).

You get the idea. 

A flat adverb (finally!) (oh, and final is an adjective, and finally is an adverb) is an adverb without an  -ly at the end.

Soon, now, then, later, too, very . . .  adverbs with no -ly. Easy.

But that is too simple. How about these sentences?

Drive slow because the roads are slippery. (Should it be slowly?)You went fast through those curvy roads.You need to come clean about what really happened.Stay close to me as we walk through the crowd.He hit the ball really hard.

Let’s talk about those flat adverbs:

Drive slow. Well, you could also have said drive slowly, so is drive slow okay?You went fast. Well, there is no fastly. Fast is both an adjective (fast car) and an adverb (drive fast). There is no  -ly form at all of this flat adverb. Come clean. Here is an adverb where the -ly form is used differently than the flat form. The wound healed cleanly is fine, but you wouldn’t say come cleanly. We just don’t use it that way.Stay close. Stay closely doesn’t make sense. However, follow closely does, so the flat adverb and the  -ly form are used differently in this case.Hit hard. That makes sense. But if you say hardly hit, well, that is really the opposite. So, in this case the flat adverb and the -ly form are opposites!

Flat adverbs used to be more common. Now, if we can use the -ly at the end, we tend to. For example

The moon is shining brightly –  instead of shining bright.Drive slowly through the storm  – instead of drive slow through the storm.Run quickly until you get to the other side of the street  – instead of run quick.

So, if you can use the  -ly version, it is probably best.

However, you have seen that in some cases the flat adverb and the -ly version have different uses, which is fine (stay close and follow closely, for example). In other cases, they are complete opposites (hit hard and hardly hit), which is also fine. In those cases, using the flat adverb is perfectly fine.

Rule of thumb: If there is an -ly version of the adverb that has the same meaning as using it “flatly” (is that even a word, or did I just make up a new adverb? She sings flat! Not flatly!), use the -ly version, as it is more common these days. If the flat adverb says it best (bestly?) use a flat adverb.

 

Overworked and Underloved

Image by PublicDomainPictures from PixabayHere is another piece from Lorraine Segal’s memoir, Angels and Earthworms. It is about teaching, so I will add a few thoughts of my own about teaching at the end…About Lorraine Segal

After surviving the ’50s and ’60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy, happily teaching, coaching, blogging, and consulting around workplace conflict transformation. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write her memoir, Angels and Earthworms. For more information go to https://BooklingPress.com

The worst part of being an adjunct (freeway flyer) was the uncertainty, overwork, and constant commuting. It was like running a marathon all the time. I never knew which classes I would actually teach, because the college administrations could cancel them without notice and didn’t pay me anything if they didn’t enroll enough students. I was always taking on more work than I could really manage, hoping that the right number of classes would come through. And I still had to prepare for all the classes even if they were later cancelled.

For example, one semester I was working six days a week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I taught at Laney College in Oakland in the morning, and then went to City College in San Francisco in the afternoon, about an hour and a quarter commute, and then back to Laney at night. Other days, I went to City College and then Contra Costa College, which was in San Pablo, forty minutes north of Oakland.

I never had Spring Break, because different schools had their vacations in different weeks. And I couldn’t afford to take summers off.

One semester, I took on a Saturday class at City College because if another class had canceled I wouldn’t earn enough to live on. It was a brutal schedule. If I thought about how long it would be until my next day off, I couldn’t function. I became very ill at one point from overwork and stress. And I spent as much time commuting as I did teaching.

During the seven years I was an adjunct, I taught at seven different schools, including City College of San Francisco, Golden Gate University, Laney College in Oakland, Contra Costa College in San Pablo, St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Adelante Adult School in Berkeley, and Albany Adult School in Albany, just north of Berkeley. I loved teaching, but being an adjunct was an exhausting way to earn a living.

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And My Two Cents…(Arlene)

Exhausting, overwork, stress, and could’t afford are some of the words and phrases in the above piece. I can’t say I ever taught at more than two schools at once or ran back and forth between schools. But any way you put it, teaching is exhausting and hard work. I began teaching very late in life after other careers, and it was the most difficult, most tiring job I ever had. I taught public junior high for eleven years total, but the last four years I taught “only” sixty percent time because I was burned out and had started writing my grammar books at that point. Could I afford to teach only sixty percent? No, because teaching part time meant I had to pay more for my health insurance, and I paid at least half of my salary to that. And then could I afford to leave teaching after 11 years (which amounted to only 8+ years of service for my pension)? No, but I just couldn’t do it any longer. 

Technology was coming into the picture and being a luddite, I didn’t want to bother with that. I left in 2015, and several years later, the pandemic forced teachers to be prepared to teach both online and onsite.  And now, the government and others who are not knowledgeable about education are making decisions about what can and cannot be taught. No thanks. However, I admire and applaud all teachers.

Teaching isn’t like most other work. When you teach, you must be ON all the time. You cannot go to the break room for coffee, or answer a phone call, or run to the bathroom. You cannot sit and rest (unless you give a test or an in-class essay!!! LOL).

Add to all that, the low wages, the parents from hell (not all of them), the kids with needs that cannot be met by the teacher, and the fact that teachers must also be police, psychiatrists, social workers, sometimes parents, nurses — and now even swat teams!

I remember the time the entire district was called together and told that if there was some type of disaster, our first priority was to the school and community and not to our own children and families. This was never mentioned again. I remember being threatened by a very large, scary stepfather who asked me why I didn’t like his kid. I remember when a parent (a member of the clergy) complained because I was teaching 1984, and there was a prostitute in it. He had not read the book, and the part was so small, the kids didn’t even mention it. I remember the year I had some particularly aggressive girls in the class and one broke the other’s arm. I remember a group of my students deciding I needed a gangsta name, and they called me “Milldog” for the rest of the year. And the time a never-found-out student posted photos of some of us teachers on social media. And I did teach at two different schools one year, alternating days, and one of the classrooms was a portable, which was about 45 degrees until 10 a.m. when the heat finally kicked in. 

Yes, I do remember some very good things too! It is wonderful teaching the kids who want to be there to learn.  And hearing the praise from the parents who respect and appreciate what you are doing. And those parents do usually belong to those kids. 

Good and bad, teaching is hard work!

14 Tips About Plurals and Possessives

Apostrophes and s’s cause lots of problems in writing: plural possessives, possessive pronouns, pluralizing last names etc. Here are some tips:

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from PixabayPlural nouns very rarely have apostrophes. Very, very rarely. The only ones I can think of offhand are the letters a, e, and u because without an apostrophe they make other words ( as, is, us )., and it would confuse the reader. Possessive nouns have apostrophes (these are singular possessives): Susie’s toy, the girl’s book, the dog’s bone Possessive pronouns do not have apostrophes: ours, hers theirs, its ( it’s is a conjunction, and all conjunctions have apostrophes.)Plural possessives are usually the plural word followed by an apostrophe.  The girls’ books are on the bottom shelf; The dogs’ barking is driving me crazy If the plural doesn’t end with an s , the possessive is made by adding ‘s : The children’s toys are all over the house. For singular nouns ending in s and ss , you still add ‘s for the possessive: I looked under all the bus’s seats; My boss’s coffee cup is always full; The princess’s slipper fit her perfectly. The plurals in #5 are buses, bosses, and princesses .The plural possessive of the nouns in #5 are buses’, bosses’, princesses’ . We don’t add another s because of the way we pronounce them. We pronounce the  singular possessives, plurals, and the plural possessives the same way, but we spell them differently (compare #5 and #6): The princess’s slipper fits perfectly. The princesses are in the front float of the parade. The princesses’ dresses are hand-made. When a person’s first name (or last name)  ends in s , we usually add ‘s to make it possessive, but generally we go by the pronunciation: Frederick Douglass’s biography is in the school library. James’s backpack is on the table. Myles’ backpack is on the table could also be Myles’s backpack is on the table. It depends if you want to pronounce it with one or two syllables. ( Myles’ has one syllable; Myles’s has two.)Last names are made plural the same way any other nouns are:  Jefferson = the Jeffersons; Garcia = the Garcias; Jones = the Joneses; Glass= the Glasses. What about last name possessives? That is Mrs. Jefferson’s car. That is the Jeffersons’ house; That is Mrs. Garcia’s car. That is the Garcias’ car. That is Mrs. Jones’s car. That is the Joneses’ house (pronounce with two syllables). That is Mrs. Glass’s car. That is the Glasses’ house.  If you get a house sign, it should probably say The O’Haras , NOT The O’Hara’s .An exception is Jesus , the possessive of which is Jesus’ .Another exception are words that end in es that sounds like ez . These words or names have only an apostrophe in the possessive: Xerses’, Socrates’

 

 

Forget Mom, Dad, Bob, and Sis…

Wow! Mom, Dad, Pop, Bob, Sis, Gig, Lil, Ava, Eve — all these folks have names that are palindromes. A palindrome is a word (or phrase) that is the same spelled forwards or backwards.

Image by crkmaga from Pixabay

So what is a semordnilap? Well, for one thing, it is palindromes spelled backwards. 

A semordnilap is a word (or phrase) that when spelled backwards is a different word (or phrase).  For example, pacer and recap are semordnilaps. 

Here are a few in sentences:

I could tell he was the gateman by his nametag.I don’t think I would want to swap my hands for paws!That must be a regal lager from its high price!I can’t believe I faced the day with decaf instead of espresso.When I am stressed, I need a couple of desserts.

And for those fans of afternoon television, Harpo Studios is owned by Oprah. And that is no coincidence.

One of the top 100 girls’ names of 2020 was Nevaeh. Spell that one backwards.

The term semordnilap first appeared in C.C. Bombaugh’s 1961 book, Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature.

Here are a few more:

I think I repaid you for the diaper box I brought you.How can we live with such evil?The engineers were mad when the dam broke. Right, madam?He didn’t want to deliver his speech for fear of being reviled.

When two “semos” are joined, they will always result in a palindromic phrase: Try some of this edam made in The Netherlands.

A couple of other fun facts:

A calendrome is a palindromic date: 2/15/12 or 2002The longest palindrome in the Oxford English Dictionary is tattarrattat.  It is an interjection coined by James Joyce, and is “a knock on the door.”

Wow! So what is the word for a palindrome that is another palindrome when you turn the letters upside down??????

 

 

Don’t Take This “Laying” Down!

I am at the Florida Authors and Publishers Conference (FAPACon) in Orlando this weekend, so here is a little blast from the past I hope you enjoy. I will be back with more grammar next week!

To lie and to lay are present tense verb forms. Let’s forget about the definition of lie that means not telling the truth. We are talking about the reclining kind here.

Image by J.M. Lee from Pixabay

Grammatically speaking, lie is an intransitive verb, meaning it takes no direct object after it. A direct object is a noun (person, place, thing, or idea) or pronoun (takes the place of a noun, e.g., him, her, me, it, them) that receives the action of the verb. Lay, on the other hand is transitive and does take a direct object. 

What does this mean in “regular” terms? You must lay something or someone down. Now, most people don’t use lie and lay at all for present tense because it sounds odd; instead they use a variation of the present tense (progressive present tense, using the present participle form). Here are some examples of using lay and lie and of using the more common progressive tense (-ing).

I lie on my hammock. (present tense; lie is correct because there is no noun or pronoun directly after lie) I lay my book on the hammock. (present tense; lay is correct because you are laying something: book)I am lying on my hammock while I talk on the phone. (More common present tense using -ing)I am laying my book on the hammock while I get my lunch in the house.  (More common present tense)

Things can also lie, not just people:

A pile of rocks is lying on the side of the road.They are laying a pile of rocks on the side of the road. (Laying a pile: has a direct object)The dog is lying in the sun.The dog is laying his bone in the doghouse. (Laying his bone: has a direct object)

Now, that is easy enough. So let’s go to the past tense. What did I do maybe yesterday? The past tense of lie is lay. Yup. Confusing. The past tense of lay is laid. Not so confusing. 

Yesterday, I lay in my hammock all day.  (Past tense of lie)Yesterday, I laid tile in my bathroom (Past tense of lay because there is a direct object: tile)

Now, let’s go to the past participle. That is the form we use with have, had or will have in front of it. Actually, many people don’t use these tenses at all, especially in speech, where things are often more casual. However, here we go. The past participle of lie is lain, even thought many people have never heard of it. I am not sure I have ever used it. And the past participle of lay is laid, which is a lot easier to remember.

I have lain on this hammock for three hours.She has lain in the sun too long!She will have lain in the sun for three hours by the time we need to leave for dinner.I have never laid tile before.

Okay. I am going to give you a trick you can use. Subsitute the word “place” for your lay or lie. If place works, you use lay or its variations: is laying, was laying, have been laying, had been laying, laid, have laid, had laid, etc. If place doesn’t work, it is the lie verb you need.

I lie down.

I am lying down. (present participle: lying)

Yesterday I lay down.

Every day this week I have lain down.

I had just lain down when the doorbell rang.

Got it? But wait, there is more. And this “more” is never written about for some reason. It is a rule I never thought about before because is doesn’t usually come up — but it does with lie.

What about the past tenses that use -ing (past progressive)? Was I laying down yesterday or was I lying down yesterday? It is simple past tense (although progressive using the -ing) so should it be was laying? But obviously that isn’t right because was laying belongs to lay. Argh!!!!! Well, if you think about it, we always use the present participle for those tenses: I was running, not I was ranning; I was swimming, not I was swamming. And I was lying down, not I was laying down.

Back to the trick I gave you above: I was placing down yesterday. The trick doesn’t work. So with the verb lie, in the tenses that use -ing, it is always still lie.

I am lying down.I was lying down.I have been lying down.I had been lying down.I will have been lying down.

Versus

I am laying my books down.I was laying my books down.I have been laying my books down.I had been laying my books down.I will have been laying my books down.

So that is apparently why most people never use or need the past tense of lie (lay) or the past participle of lie (lain): we usually speak in the past using an -ing tense.