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Master these 7 grammar tips if you want to sound smarter

Master these 7 grammar tips if you want to sound smarterMaster these 7 grammar tips if you want to sound smarterAs the executive editor of Avenue Magazine, a luxury lifestyle publication based in New York City, I see the importance of proper grammar every day. But you dont have to work in publishing to realize the necessity of good writing. Misplaced commas, an incorrect spelling, or a missing hyphen can change the meaning of a sentence.Language rules exist for clarity. A classic example is the sentence Lets eat mom, which reads much differently from Lets eat, mom. In the first, the writer is having her mom for dinner. In the second, she is urging her mom to eat with her.Dont get caught up in an email chain of miscommunication. Read on for seven tips on how to improve your English expertise.Read frequentlyWriting well can become second nature to those who also read well. Pay attention to how authors structure their sentences and how they use commas and sentence length to adjust tone and cadence. Reading can help to increase vocabulary. If you dont know where to begin, ask colleagues for reading suggestions specific to your field, or browse best-selling book lists (heres a great list of business books).Ladders is now on SmartNewsDownload the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.To write well, you must also understand the basics of the English language - how sentences are composed, the different parts of speech, subject/verb agreement, tense, and punctuation. Pick up a copy of Stephen Kings On Writing for a fresh take on writing rules.Memorize homophonesTheres no way around it - many rules in the English language require memorization. Among the most frequently committed grammatical errors are misused homophones, which are rogers that sound the same but have different meanings.Youre/your, there/their/theyre, its/its, and then/than are all commonly confused. An easy tool to help with contractions is t o remember that they are derived from two words. Youre is you are theyre is they are and its is it is. Then is used to indicate time, whereas than is used as a comparison.Learn first-person singular pronounsSentences often call for choosing the correct first-person singular pronoun - either I or me. Remember that I is a subject pronoun, whereas me is an object pronoun. A helpful way to determine word choice is to remove any other subjects.For example, consider the sentence My roommate and I/me went to the store. If you think about the sentence as I went to the store or Me went to the store, its more obvious that I is correct.I is the subject of the verb to be.Learn how to use commasAs a very broad rule of thumb, commas are used to indicate pauses in a sentence. They should not be used in place of a period. For example, We went to the baseball field, it was fun is incorrect.But We went to the baseball field, and it was fun is correct, as commas can be used to separate two independen t clauses when joined by coordinating conjunctions like and, or, or but. Commas are also used to separate three or more phrases in a series, after an introductory clause or phrase, and to set off nonessential clauses or phrases.Beware the dangling modifierA dangling modifier is a word or phrase that doesnt have a clear subject. After reviewing your notes, the conclusion remains elusive contains a dangling modifier. Who is reviewing the notes? The sentence should be rewritten to say, After reviewing your notes, I am unable to come to a conclusion.Stay activeAll sentences are identified as being either active or passive. In an active sentence, the subject performs the action. The girl ate the salad is an active sentence.In a passive sentence, the subject of the sentence is also the subject of the action. The salad was eaten by the girl is a passive sentence. Though both are grammatically correct, passive sentence structures often lead to more errors, including dangling modifiers, misp laced commas, and run-on sentences. Sticking to the active voice will help ensure clarity.Proofread, and read your piece out loudA common cause of poor writing is time, as writers often power through emails and memos, giving a document a cursory glance before sending it to colleagues or clients. Step away from your piece before you submit it, and give it a thorough proofread.Reading your writing in a new form - for example, on paper instead of on a screen in a different font or out loud - can be helpful in finding typos or grammatical errors.Speaking aloud will also help you to catch redundancies - phrases like 3 a.m. in the morning and $2 million dollars are redundant because a.m. indicates morning, and the word dollars is a repetition of the dollar sign.This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

How to Be the Big Recruiter on Campus

How to Be the Big Recruiter on Campus How to Be the Big Recruiter on Campus Adapt These 7 Steps for Maximum Campus Career Fair Victory1. Promote Prior to the EventIf you know you will be attending a career fair in the near future, tell the world Promoting on social media can be the fastest and most effective way to get the word out there. Forty-two percentof companies say that candidate quality has improved thanks to social recruiting. Give the students something to look forward to beforehand, and they will know exactly which booth to beelineto when the floodgates open.2. Be PreparedWhat is the main reason for attending? Is it for the internship program? Is it for one or two entry-level positions? Part-time work? Identifying the purpose of the trip will help focus you when trying to weed out all of the walk-ups. Set your parameters early in order to filter out the number of students that automatically do not qualify.3. Dont OverdressStudents carefully choose what they wear to an in terview. They want to convey how professional and put-together they are while still feeling comfortable enough to be themselves. You should put as much thought into what you wear as well If your everyday attire is nota full formal suit, dont wear that to a career fair. Represent the company culture through your effortless ensemble.With 89 percent ofhiring failures attributed to poor cultural fit, a genuine representation through attire can be telling. Business causal is way less intimidating and far less off-putting than a full formal get-up.4. Polish Your BoothA clean and well-designed booth is a must for employer brand appeal and image. Fifty-six percentof professionals rank talent brand as the most important factor when picking a job. A logo banner and tablecloth are obvious necessities, but what about the giveaways? If you have small trinket collateral, great Neatly present it on your table, but please do not create clutter. Less is more. The main focus should be on the company and you. Dontcongest the area with starbursts, flimsy highlighters, oruseless USB drives.5. Initiate ContactAre you nervous? Doesnt matter. The students are 10 times as nervous as you are. They just came from a300-level course stressing how pivotal internships are to their futures. Many will be too intimidated or shy to initiate contact, so start building arapport through easy questions.Inquire about their major, or ask if you could tell them about your company.6. MobilizeFifty percentof career sites are not optimized for mobile and, only 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies have mobile career sites. If you want these idealistic near-graduates to believe you are the innovative company you just told them you were, yourcareer site better be user-friendly when they log on while waiting for the inter-campus shuttle.7. Follow UpA well-received company at a career fair could have piles of kompetenzprofil candidates. Use this pool to reach out to ones that you have mentally tagged as strong leads. What to do after your software has scrubbed the influx of applicants, leaving you with your discards? Follow up with them too. A recent survey conduced by an CandEs reported that only 9 percent of applicants received emails notifying them they were not being considered for the job. At short, a 10-second message is transparent and proactive. It will not hurt your employer brand image as much as silence will.Career fairs can be exciting, stressful, and fruitful. Your behavior contributes as much to the days success as the quality of the candidate pool does. Following these easy seven tips will guide you on your way to hiring glory at the campus career fair. Dont you miss college?