A Brief Contractions Worksheet

A very simple, effective tool for increasing the flow of your paper is the proper use of the contraction. Contractions are formed when one shortens two or more words with an apostrophe. Although the form has been changed, the meaning of the original phrase remains intact. For example, the proper contraction of  "are not" is "aren't." The following example highlights the proper use of this contraction:

Original form: We are not going to the party.
Contraction: We aren't going to the party.

Use of contractions, such as the one highlighted in the above example, will help increase the clarity and flow of your paper. Below is a list of common contractions and their original phrases.

                         

can't	cannot
couldn't	could not
didn't	did not
doesn't	does not
don't	do not
hadn't	had not
hasn't	has not
haven't	have not
he'd	he had, he would
he'll	he will, he shall
he's	he is, he has
I'd	I had, I would
I'll	I will
I've	I have
isn't	is not
let's	let us
she'd	she had, she would
she'll	she will, she shall
we'd	we had, we would
we've	we have
you'd	you had, you would
you've	you have

For writers coming from a foreign language background, proper understanding of contractions and their use is essential for clear writing and communication. Practice using contractions in your everyday speech and writing and before you know it, you will be a contraction magician!

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Formatting Titles of Works in MLA Format

When writing academic papers, it is almost always necessary to reference outside works of art, literature, film and television. With so many different types of outside sources, how is a person supposed to keep track of how to format the works' titles? Have no fear, University Proofreading is here!

When one is formatting the titles of works in MLA format, it is essential to use the correct style and form. Below we shall list the most common types of titles and how to format them.

Books - When writing the title of a book in your paper, the title should be italicized.

Example:  Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is my favorite book.


Short stories - When writing the title of a short story in your paper, place the title in quotation marks.

Example: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is my favorite short story.


Poems - When writing the title of a poem in your paper, place the title in quotation marks.

Example: Robert Frost's poem "Birches" is my favorite poem.


Films and Television - Both the titles of films and television shows are to be italicized.

Example: The Lord Of the Rings is my favorite film and How I Met Your Mother is my favorite television show.

We hope that this introduction to titling works in your papers will prove useful to you. If you have any questions or comments, join the discussion below!

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Cracking the Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Have you ever wondered how archaeologists came to understand  Egyptian hieroglyphics? Did they spend hours poring over the ancient symbols, looking for connections? Did they find a famous codebreaker who could crack the secrets of the hieroglyphics?

In reality, the true story was much more interesting. Despite consistent exploration of Egypt, the meaning of the Egyptian hieroglyphics remained a mystery. In 1799, French soldiers on a military expedition stumbled across a giant stone used as building material for a fort on the Nile Delta. They noticed that the stone was inscribed with writing in three different languages. Two of the inscriptions featured Egyptian symbols and the third was composed of a different set of characters.

Soon, linguists were called in to investigate the stone. Upon inspection, they discovered that the non-Egyptian inscription was composed in Ancient Greek. When they translated the Greek text, they found that it was a decree issued in 196 B.C. by the Greek ruler Ptolemy V.

Observing that the two Egyptian inscriptions shared noticeable similarities, they deduced that the stone featured the same decree, inscribed in three different languages. Upon translation, they discovered the meaning of a large variety of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Known officially as the Rosetta Stone, the inscribed rock formed the foundation for the study of Ancient Egypt and its civilization and history. Today, it rests in London's British Museum, where it consistently remains the most popular attraction.

Do you think archaeologists would have ever cracked the code to understanding the Egyptian hieroglyphics without the Rosetta Stone? Join the discussion below!

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The Amazing English Language

With over one billion speakers, the English language dominates the cultural landscape like no other language has before. In the spirit of the language, we've compiled a list of some amazing facts about the English language below!

• English is the most widely spoken language in the world 
• It contains over 250,000 distinct words
• It is one of six official languages of the United Nations
• Second language speakers outnumber native English speakers 3 to 1
• It is the most popular foreign language taught around the world
• The only word in the English language that ends with the letters "-mt" is "dreamt"
• The longest English word that does not contain a true vowel is "rhythm"
• According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the longest world in the English language is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." It refers to a lung disease caused by ingestion of silica dust
• The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the alphabet

                                                    

Can you think of any other interesting facts about the English language? Join the discussion below!

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Resumé Dos and Don'ts: Part 1

University Proofreading is pleased to begin a blog series listing some very important dos and don'ts for your resumé. We hope the suggestions we present will help you to strengthen your resumé and better your chances of employment success!

 

Because a resumé is such a brief document, even small mistakes can ruin an otherwise solid piece of writing. For each blog post we dedicate to the art of the resumé, we will list five items that should be considered when you are drafting or revising your resumé. We hope the rules and guidelines listed below will help you on your path to career success!

• Your resumé should be only ONE page long. This is standard.
•  Always list jobs in reverse chronological order, with your most recent job listed first.
•  References, while important, should not appear on your resumé. They should appear on a separate, dedicated document.
• Use a conservative font. Try to use something along the lines of Times New Roman. Avoid "flashy" fonts, such as Comic Sans or Gaudy Stout.
• Do not share personal information on your resumé, such as age, race, religion or sexual orientation.

 

If you find you have questions or concerns preparing your resumé, please visit us at our website and see what we can do for you!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter! Happy Writing!

 

 

Writing Mistakes To Avoid : Part 1

In keeping with our ultimate mission of helping others to grow as writers, we will be dedicating one blog post a week to common mistakes we see involving grammar, spelling, meaning, pronunciation and writing.

A large portion of our customers come to us with work related to the academics. Whether it be essays, theses, dissertations, or any other scholarly work, there are a variety of mistakes that we encounter over and over again, across all disciplines. Today's post will cover two of the most common mistakes we see.

1.) I couldn't care less vs. I could care less

In regard to wording, perhaps the most common mistake that can be found is connected to the statement "I could care less." Spoken often by undergraduates, fed-up spouses and misunderstood teenagers, the phrase is used to communicate the idea that the speaker is physically impossible of caring less about something. In essence, the speaker is communicating the exact opposite of what they intend. Instead, simply use "I could not care less."
       

2.) Intents and purposes vs. intensive purposes

The second most common mistake we encounter is a mix-up of an oft-quoted saying. In many papers, we see the phrase "for all intensive purposes." Despite sounding correct, it is actually a garbled form of the correct words: "For all intents and purposes." A phrase such as this, which is most often encountered in verbal and social situations, has slipped past the part of our brain that processes word-by-word meaning, becoming a nearly universal writing mistake.


Are there any other mistakes you encounter in your own studies that you'd like to tell us about? Join the discussion below!

Be sure to check back for more common mistakes to avoid and let us help you grow as a writer!

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Esperanto: A New Translation

Ili kreis novan lingvon. 

Do you know what language the above sentence is written in? After reading this post, you will!

On Earth, there are over 5,000 distinct dialects of languages. With so many different languages spread across so many different places, the issue of communication between groups of people from diverse backgrounds became problematic. The need for a new international language became more and more apparent.

In the late 19th century, an ophthalmologist living in a diverse part of the Russian Empire found that many of its inhabitants could not communicate, as they spoke different languages. This created tension, as the cultures had a tendency to be mistrustful of one another. Wishing to create a sense of harmony, L. L. Zamenhof came up with the idea of creating a new language, free of political and social affiliations.

L. L. Zamenhof spent a decade working on the language, constructing the grammar and translating works from other languages into Esperanto. In 1887, he published the first official grammar guide of Esperanto, Unua Libro (The First Book).

Initially, the first speakers of the language kept in contact with each other through correspondence and journalism composed in Esperanto. Eventually, small groups began to pick up the language, using it for business and travel purposes.

The majority of the language uses root words from the Romance Languages. As many who have come into contact with Spanish will know, the Esperanto word for book, libro, is the same as in Spanish. Other words are a mixture of root words from several languages. The Esperanto word for thunder, tondri, is a mixture of the French, German, and English terms for thunder (tonner, donner, and thunder, respectively).

Currently, there are estimated to be up to 2 million speakers of Esperanto worldwide, with many of them concentrated in Europe and Asia. Do you know any speakers of Esperanto? Would you like to learn how to speak it? Join the discussion below!

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Could you Xerox these papers for me?

When we write papers for the academic and professional fields, we tend to write in a very formal, consistent manner. Because we are trying to get ideas across in a straightforward way, we tend to stick to a very orthodox form of English. Compared to the day-to-day English we use when we speak to each other, it can differ drastically as it tends to lack the use of slang, colloquialisms, and other informalities we use in our speech. The influence of these informalities on the English language can be easily overlooked. New words are added to the dictionary every year. Twenty years ago, telling someone that you were blogging would have made no sense! Today, it is as valid a statement as any other.

A great source of new words comes when trademarked words are genericized. This occurs when a branded word takes on a meaning of its own. One of the most popular and controversial examples of a trademark taking on generic status comes from the Xerox Corporation, a company known for its document services and imaging products. The company is most famous for producing the first stand-alone photocopier, which was a commercial smash, selling thousands of models to offices, schools and businesses. Xerox's product was so successful that the company's name began to be used as a synonym for "photocopier". Instead of being asked to copy papers, workers were instead asked to "xerox" them. The brand name had become so deeply ingrained in daily language that it had become a verb with new meaning.

Another interesting case comes from Johnson and Johnson's Band-Aid brand of medical bandages, wraps and gauze. When we find ourselves injured by scrapes or cuts, we often reach for adhesive bandages, although we rarely refer to them by this title. Instead, we reach for band-aids, another trademarked word that has taken on new meaning—this time as a noun. The term has even evolved to refer to a quick-fix to a situation. For example, replacing a flat tire on a car with a donut wheel is only "a band-aid," because a real solution is eventually needed.

Looking at the current climate of the English language, it would appear the time is ripe for many new additions to our increasingly diverse and modern language. Modern examples are appearing every year. How often do we "Google" something, or "Facebook" someone? A decade from now, a whole new lexicon of branded names will be present in our everyday language—terms which today are merely brand names. Can you think of what things we will be saying or doing in the future that could come from a brand name? Post a comment and join in the discussion!

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The Dash vs The Hyphen

What on earth is the difference between the dash "—" and the hyphen "-"?

Let's begin with the dash. It is important to note that there are two types of dashes. First, we will look at the em dash. Then, we will look at the en dash.

The em dash "—" is used to signify a change in thought, or to highlight a purposeful pause.

Example: The family will be going to Timothy's graduation—if he doesn't fail his physics class. 

Example: Stockholm—the capital city of Sweden—is about a six hour drive from Denmark.

The em dash is also used as a substitute for commas when a particular part of a sentence is important and needs to be stressed.

Example: Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology—the most difficult college courses—have to be completed by sophomore year.

Example: The most important items on my grocery list—sugar, milk and flour—must be bought this week so that I can make the cake.

The en dash "–" is used in place of the word to when referring to a span of time or measure of distance. It also used to form compound words.

Example: John played professionally from the years 1990–2000. 

Example: The London–New York flight is scheduled for eight hours.

Example: Janet attended the monthly Parent–Teacher conference.

The hyphen is used to join two or more words. Hyphens distinguish individual words in a compound verb, adjective or adverb. Hyphens are also use for some numbers.

Example: His store only sold high-quality suits.

Example: The English-based course was given in Berlin. 

Example: Paulette's mother is forty-nine years old.

Never use the hyphen, em dash and en dash interchangeably! They each have their specific purpose. Do you have any good examples of correct (or incorrect) usages of dashes and hyphens? Join the conversation by posting a comment!

If you have any questions, visit us on the web at www.universityproofreading.com

Editing Takes On the 21st Century

From the imagination of the author to the hands of the reader, the process of creating a published work involves a multitude of people all fulfilling diverse but necessary functions. Despite the resources of such a large group of people, sometimes mistakes do make it through to the final process. The increasingly technological world we live in makes these errors more costly than ever.

From its humble beginnings in a train station cafe to its eventual place at the top of contemporary youth fiction, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series spans 3,407 pages over seven books. Featuring over 100 unique characters, a multitude of locales and a bevy of spells, Rowling herself had trouble keeping track of everything. So like any top grossing children's author does, she employed rigorous fact checkers alongside her usual editors. Despite this team approach to covering the full Harry Potter lexicon, many minor inaccuracies and false continuities made it to the publishing stage. Fans began to take to message boards to post every mistake they could. The practice became something of a sport. Eventually, whole websites were dedicated to finding inaccuracies and reporting them.

The case of Harry Potter highlights the effect that the spread of social media and personal communications have had on the visibility of proofreading. Any person with an internet connection can remark upon any number of errors a piece of published writing may have. As such, proper proofreading is more relevant than ever. Glaring errors in one’s writing is the grammatical version of showing up late for an appointment. How would you want your first impression to look?

Be sure to visit us at www.universityproofreading.com and happy writing!

Welcome!

Welcome to the University Proofreading blog!

This is a new addition to our services. Our team is in the process of updating useful information that will help you in your writing endeavors! Our aim to help all English as a second language (ESL) students and native speakers fine-tune their writing skills. 

You'll be able to view our blog feed on our website www.universityproofreading.com. Also be sure to check us out on our official blog to comment and join the conversation! We'll be posting new content every week, ranging from writing tips, grammar resources and interesting facts. We hope to see you soon! 

Sincerely,

University Proofreading