Edit Nation Blog

Punctuation and Grammar Quiz # 4, Questions and Answers. You might notice that I am taking my sentences from websites that advertise the professional nature of their staffs' writing; in other words, if your site offers copyediting services, or if you claim to be a...

Another week, another "professional" website to take a look at. These sentences are from a publisher. Yikes! 1) We often receive Manuscripts that require formatting corrections before we can start the editorial and layout processes. 2) Find reputable ones and study...

Last week, I started off with this gem: “I keep reading about the importance of storytelling and addressing real human emotions, but I am having a hard time incorporating those principals writing about content marketing.  Any advice for me?” And I said: Yeah, learn to...

Hang on to your hats, ladies and gents! Here are some hair raising, spine tingling, big-time punctuation and grammar mistakes, yanked—no, ripped—from the pages of the internet. Make me blush! 1) He relies on more than 16 years of public relations experience to provide...

When I want to evaluate the overall "style" on a website, the best place to start is the "About Us" page, which typically includes biographical information about the principals: CEO, president, CFO, COO, founder, provost, and so on. The "About Us" page is a place to...

From content writers who say they are "professionals" come these wonderful sentences. I have to lead off this this gem: "I keep reading about the importance of storytelling and addressing real human emotions, but I am having a hard time incorporating those principals...

One of the things about being a thought leader is avoiding clichés. Here is a list of words and expressions that you might want to consider not using. Thought leader Align/misalign To take something to “the next level” To go up or down “a notch” To “reach out” To “go...

EditNATION.com Quiz #1 Questions and answers. 1. Evernote wasn't exactly a globally-recognized brand at that point. Rule: never hyphenate an –ly adverb. 2. One awesome way to keep your fan base happy and engaged is to give them gifts. Rule: “Base” is singular, but...

EditNATION.com Weekly Quiz #1 Questions and answers. 1. Evernote wasn't exactly a globally-recognized brand at that point. 2. One awesome way to keep your fan base happy and engaged is to give them gifts. 3. Begin by completing the items under "Your Inbound Marketing...

Punctuation and Grammar Quiz, Week 4. Let’s test your editing chops! What’s wrong with the sentences below? Answers follow next week. 1. A great book can really create a strong platform, but one that is not crafted correctly can actually hurt a speakers creditability...

So, the most commonly made mistake in American English punctuation and grammar is using it's for its and vice versa. It's is not the possessive of it; rather, it's is the contraction of it is or it has. Its is the possessive of it. Okay! And now for the second most...

Week #3 Sentences and Answers. 1) Online Shopping is one of the more popular industries now a day. A couple of things are wrong with this sentence. First, “Online Shopping” is not a proper noun, and so should read “Online shopping,” with a capital “O” only because...

Let's test your editing chops. What's wrong with these sentences? 1) Online Shopping is one of the more popular industries now a day. 2) To remove the underline from all links on your website, you can edit the default anchor style in your CSS stylesheet so that the...

November 24, 2014 Today I want to talk about the first of the “Top 10 Punctuation and Grammar Mistakes” that I see people making all over the place. Hands down, the most common mistake I see is people using it’s for its, and vice versa. The issue is counterintuitive...

1. If you don’t mind getting kicked around now and then and love data-driven hard core info, then you’re going to become a fan of ConversionXL. The problems with this sentence stem from the “data-driven hard core” adjectives. First, one compound...