Empower your writing
Stop using the dangling participle and misplaced modifiers
Both can seriously change the flow and meaning of your writing. It is important to make sure we qualify the intended words and not just any words in the sentence.
A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective and ends in –ing, such as swimming or cooking or diving. You name it! Any verb can be turned into a participle. A participial phrase is a phrase describing an action, “cooking on the stove”, “swimming in the ocean” and it is used to modify a noun in the sentence. A dangling participle modifies the unintended noun. Examples of dangling participles:
Misinterpreted: Cooking on the stove, Alice decided it was time to turn the vegetables.
It sounds as though Alice herself was being cooked on the stove.
Intended: Alice decided it was time to turn the vegetables that were cooking on the stove.
Misinterpreted: Sunburned and dehydrated, Mom decided it was time for the children to go into the house.
It sounds as though the Mom is sunburned and dehydrated.
Intended: Mom decided it was time for the children, who were sunburned and dehydrated, to go into the house.
A modifier is a word or a phrase that modifies something else in the sentence. Misplaced modifiers are modifiers that modify something else other than what you intended.
Examples of misplaced modifiers:
“I only walked my dog.” which means you did nothing but walk the dog. You did not feed or wash it, etc.
“I walked only my dog.” which means you did not walk anyone else such as your cat or your child, etc.
“I write mostly for other blogs.” which means that you write for other blogs most of the time but you may write for other sources as well.
“I mostly write for other blogs.” which means that your main activity is to write for other blogs. You may do other things too, such as sleep and eat but most of the time, you are writing for other blogs.
This is an excerpt from a book by Farnoosh Brock, available at Amazon.
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Wishing you a wonderful Monday,
Quote of the day: work
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
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Three favourite quotes from The Animal Farm (George Orwell)
Attention: spoiler.
If you have not read The Animal Farm but intend to in the future (or even if you don’t) here are my three favourite quotes from the book.
Quote 1
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
- Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
- No animal shall wear clothes.
- No animal shall sleep in a bed.
- No animal shall drink alcohol.
- No animal shall kill any other animal.
- All animals are equal.
Quote 2
For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Quote 3
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
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Quote of the day
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” – Plato
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4 Movie Quotes to Get You Through Exams
There’s no doubt about it — exams are the pits. Being stuck in the library for hours, bored out of your mind is the absolute worst. Oh, and trying to get motivated to study instead of Facebooking? Forget about it. As much as you want to skip studying and play Call of Dutyinstead, you’ve got to snap out of it and hit the books. If the pressure of crunch time isn’t keeping you focused or getting you excited about philosophy or molecular biology, then check out these seven great movie quotes to get you through exams.
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“Do, or do not. There is no try.” (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back)
The incredibly wise Yoda can teach us all a lesson or two about doing our best to succeed, especially when it comes to exams! Just like Yoda tells Luke Skywalker to either do something right or don’t do it at all, you should either study hard for your exams or not even bother if you’re only going to “try.”
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“Remember, kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart kid, and you’ll never go wrong.” (The Sandlot)
Children of the ’90s know and love The Sandlot dearly. Just the thought of the movie can make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it’s the wise words of Babe Ruth that make it even more awesome. So when you’re stuck in the library studying and wondering if you’ll ever make it in the history textbooks, remember what “The Great Bambino” said about heroes and legends and following your heart, kid.
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“Stupid is as stupid does” (Forrest Gump)
Feeling stupid because you can’t remember the rules of exponents or who won World War I? Well, Forrest Gump would tell you, “Stupid is as stupid does.” This Southern saying means that no matter how stupid you or others think you are, your actions are the only thing that really matters. So, if you don’t study for your exams, but still expect to get all A’s, you might be, well, stupid.
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“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
Take it from wiseguy Ferris Bueller; he knows a thing or two about living life to the fullest. OK, so you might not be able to play hooky or get out of taking your exams, but as soon as you’re done with the grind of finals, get outside, dine at an upscale restaurant, go to a baseball game, jump on a parade float, and just have fun, the Bueller way.
FREE business textbooks
Last week I came across a compelling online business library consisting of (almost) everything I need for the business writing, economics and related studies, including loads of wonderfully written textbooks.
And when I say “wonderfully written”, I mean that an earth, mortal human without previous phd degree could easily understand the essentials, then roll sleeves and get to work.
Over 800 textbooks written by professors
We currently offer over 800 textbooks. The books are in average around 200 pages long, and are being used as both primary and secondary literature.
All our books are written by highly respected professors from some of the best universities in the world and exclusively for bookboon.com.
There we have it, welcome:
Why is it free?
There is an excerpt of BookBoon.com mission and concept:
Bookboon.com publishes free and openly available eBooks for students and business professionals. The Books can be downloaded in PDF without registration. Our mission is that students should be able to go through university without having to pay for textbooks.
If you had a look, please share your experience in the comments below. Do you find it useful the way I did (I already finished two of the books on communication).
Have a magnificent Wednesday,
Quote of the day: change
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” W.Edwards Deming
Quote of the day: others
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
Tricky unique grammar
Just another note about the challenges of the English language. Why “a unique…” rather than “an unique…”?
When a “u” word is pronounced as though it begins with a “y” (yoo nique), it’s treated more like the consonant sound of the y.
So:
- a university;
- an umbrella;
- a usual day;
- an unusual day.
How to…?
Find out at: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon
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Just English 