Friday, December 21, 2012

Are You Checking Your Grammar?

Source: http://pilarcordoba.wordpress.com/grammar/
Writing articles, ads, blog post or whatever takes some knowledge of the use of good grammar or at least it should. Today I received a newsletter from Ezine Articles and I just had to share it with you. The name of the article is "The Twelve Days of Poor Grammar" and was posted by Ezine Articles Managing Editor, Penny.




The Twelve Days of Poor Grammar
On the first day of submission,
my article came back to me
with one spelling error, oh gee!
On the second day of submission,
my article came back to me
with two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the third day of submission,
my article came back to me
with three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the fourth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the fifth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the sixth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the seventh day of submission,
my article came back to me
with seven comma splices,
six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the eighth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with eight double negatives,
seven comma splices,
six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and another spelling error, oh gee!
On the ninth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with nine malfunctioned conjunctions,
eight double negatives,
seven comma splices,
six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the tenth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with ten incomplete sentences,
nine malfunctioned conjunctions,
eight double negatives,
seven comma splices,
six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the eleventh day of submission,
my article came back to me
with eleven split infinitives,
ten incomplete sentences,
nine malfunctioned conjunctions,
eight double negatives,
seven comma splices,
six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
On the twelfth day of submission,
my article came back to me
with twelve dangling modifiers,
eleven split infinitives,
ten incomplete sentences,
nine malfunctioned conjunctions,
eight double negatives,
seven comma splices,
six confusing contractions,
five run-on sentences,
four poorly possessive apostrophes,
three texting texts,
two misused words,
and one spelling error, oh gee!
Some Helpful Resources to Improve Your Grammar Skills:
You can find many more sites for helping you with your grammar.  Just do a search for the word grammar.
Please remember that 'you are' is your're and not 'your'. These words have entirely different meanings. This is a common mistake that I see so many writers making.
Hope you enjoyed this article. Let me know if you did or didn't by leaving a comment below. Thanks
Elaine   
PS This post doesn't imply that I don't need help with my own grammar.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Do You Purchase Gift Cards?

I do believe that about every store, restaurant and company now has a gift card that you can purchase. You see them in grocery stores, drug stores and about every where else you go. If you own a company you can even print your own gift cards.

Have you ever purchased a gift card? Have you ever been given a gift card? Are you being ripped off?


I have purchased gift cards to give as Christmas presents for several years. I have also received gift cards. They are an easy gift and most of the time you can't go wrong by giving someone a gift card, especially if you know that the person frequents that particular establishment or you don't know what to get for that person.

But did you know that companies love it when you do purchase a gift card? Well, of course they do. They make money from your purchase in more ways than you may think.

Here are some interesting stats about just how much money those companies are making:
1. Average amount of unused gift cards by household: $300
2. Value of unredeemed gift cards per year: hang on to your seat for this one, $ 6 billion
3. Average amount left unspent on gift cards: $2.30 (That is each gift card sold folks not just one.)

What if you get a gift card and for whatever reason you don't want or can't use it? Guess what, you can go online and sell it. No you won't get the face value but at least you won't waste all of it. There is even a National Gift Card Exchange Day. It is set as December 26. (I had to laugh at this tidbit of information.) You can go to http://www.giftcardexchangeday.com and check it out.




Actually you don't have to wait until December 26 to get rid of that card you don't want. Check out these sites any time of the year:
1. http://www.plasticjungle.com
2. http://www.giftcardgranny.com
3. http://www.cardpool.com
4. http://www.abcgiftcards.com

For those gift cards that you get you might consider donating them to a charity. I am sure they would be delighted to get them.

Some things to check before purchasing a gift card:
1. Is there a usage fee?
2. Is there an expiration date?
3. Does the value drop each month?
4. Is there a fee for not using?

You may be surprised at what all the gift card company can do to get your money. Be sure to read any information available before your purchase. And, be sure to read the fine print on the back side of the card. 

If you have had a bad experience with gift cards you can voice your complaint by sharing your information: https://stori.es/share/your-prepaid-card-story
On this same site you can also sign a petition to stop the unjust actions of some of the companies selling these cards.

All-in-all, in my opinion, gift cards are still an excellent gift to give.

Elaine



















http://www.uprinting.com/make-gift-cards.html