ESL Discrimination: Real or Ridiculous?
Non-native writers face discrimination online. Much of this negativity come for failing to write English “properly” – at least according to prospective clients. Looking been around various forums and...
View ArticleEveryone Get Their Red Pen – This Is a Big One!
It’s easy to get frustrated with the complexities of the English language, especially when it becomes clear that many native speakers still struggle with certain words and phrases. How is a non-native...
View ArticlePronouns, Antecedents and Other Quirks
Here’s one you don’t think about all the time – do your pronouns match your antecedents? Consider the following sentence I used today in class: The squirrel attacked him, and he was frightened. Yes,...
View ArticleMessage to Non-Native Writers: Market Yourself, Not Your Country
I just spent more than thirty minutes looking for an example to use in this post. The original plan was to take a comment or sales thread from a popular internet forum and point out some areas where...
View ArticleLolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, got some adverbs here. Come on down to Lolly’s, get the adverbs here! I’ll admit I’ve used it in the classroom more than a few times...
View ArticleSlang and Other Nonsense in the English Language
There was a request in the comments of a previous post about understanding and using more idioms in the English language. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to dig into some of the slang and...
View ArticleYay! It’s Yeah and Yea!
This is driving me crazy. I just got an email with the subject, “Yeah a Birthday Baby is Born”. I’m not sure the sender (who is not known for her grammatical prowess) meant to sound as sarcastic as the...
View ArticleMessy Subjects and Verbs
This morning, as I worked with my kids at school, I realized just how often subjects and verbs get complicated and mismatched. This happens most frequently when you have more than one noun in the...
View ArticleFrom Struggling Writer to Solid Writer and Beyond
As an English teacher, I have a strategy that usually works for struggling and reluctant writers. If they claim to not be able to write something, I ask them to tell me the story or response to address...
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