These two words are often used interchangeably and the meanings confused. Yet at the same time you will hear people referring to “ethics and morals.” Question is, do they know the difference or have they just gotten used to saying the phrase?

Ethics refer to a set of principles; the philosophy or theory relating to principles. You will often hear the term “code of ethics,” referring to a set of rules/principles in a workplace. These ethics will describe the company’s approach to matters such as discrimination and work practice. Without wanting to confuse you, it should be noted that principles is itself a synonym for morals, although morals aren’t ethics.

Morals are more like beliefs than principles, based on teachings and often guided by societal or religiously driven standards. Morals generally refer to the way in which people behave in relationships and wider society.  To put the two words in context, one lives according to one’s morals but adheres to one’s ethics while doing so. Morals are the tools by which one lives, whereas ethics constitute the manual that codifies them.

The word moral may be familiar to you in terms of a “lesson”. You will probably have heard the phrase, “The moral of the story…,” or perhaps “The moral majority.” The “moral of the story” is the lesson to be learned from a particular incident that indicates how best to behave to benefit positively. “The moral majority” refers to a moral standard adhered to by the majority of “decent” living human beings. The quality of having qualities consistent with high ethics is referred to as morality. It should be noted though that referring to one’s self as “moral” or “of high morality” is to be self-righteous. It is best left for others to judge your level of morality.

Lastly, we have the variations amoral and immoral. Immoral is to consciously act against societal norms, whereas amoral is to be without morals and to operate with seemingly no sense of morality.

 The definition of irony has been trampled on in the 20^th century, and more often than not people using the word “ironic” actually mean “coincidentally” or “by chance.” So it’s time to clear this up. First we will look at the dictionary definitions and then simplify irony with clear-cut examples. Let’s start by clarifying that it is not ironic that we are discussing irony.

Merriam-Webster defines irony as follows:

1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony

2: a) the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
b) a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony
c) an ironic expression or utterance

3: a) incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result; an event or result marked by such incongruity
b) incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

But that probably doesn’t help you very much, does it? Is it Ironic though that when you most need to understand irony you can’t. It is indeed. So let’s look at a simplified version of irony and then some examples.

There are technically two types of irony, both with parallel meanings; verbal irony and situational irony. Wikipedia describes this as “Ironic statements (verbal irony) often convey a meaning exactly opposite from their literal meaning. In ironic situations (situational irony), actions often have an effect exactly opposite from what is intended.”

Examples of Being Ironic

• When I most needed energy I couldn’t get up
• The name of my friend’s Doberman is tiny
• I laughed at a person getting wet in the rain the other day, and then the next day as I stepped out of my house in a t-shirt, it turned from being sunny to raining in seconds.

Examples of Not Being Ironic

• I went into a store that was called The Store
• I tweeted a tweet about Twitter
• I have a biology test at school tomorrow but I will miss it because I have a doctor’s appointment

What you will notice about the Not Ironic examples is that they are coincidental or humorous, not ironic. We hope this has helped you better understand irony. We also hope you can go forth and help spread the true meaning of irony.

English is a difficult language, that’s for sure, and the one area of English writing that tends to confuse people is using tenses. In this post we are going to explore the past tense through 8 common variations of the past tense.

1. Simple Past

This is the easiest form. A sentence describing an event that happened in the past.

“They liked you.”

“They did not like you.”

“Did they like you?”

2. Past Progressive (otherwise known as Past Continuous)

Past-progressive statements and questions describe something that began in the past and continued to occur for a period of time but then stopped.

“They were agreeing with you.”

“They were not agreeing with you.”

“Were they agreeing with you?”

3. Past Perfect

This tense describes something that happened before a point in the past.

“They had been with you.”

“They had not been with you.”

“Had they been with you?”

4. Past Perfect Progressive (otherwise known as Past Perfect Continuous)

Okay, this is where things start to get a little tricky. This tense describes an event that happened in the past and continued to occur, but in the present is no longer happening.

“They had been happy with you.”

“They had not been happy with you.”

“Had they been happy with you?”

5.  Past Habitual

A sentence written in past-habitual tense describes an event that previously happened continuously.

“They used to like me.”

“They used to like us.”

6. Time-Specific Past Habitual

This is a variation of the past-habitual tense with a specific time frame:

“Before, they would disagree with us.”

“Before, they would not disagree with us.”

“Before, would they disagree with us?”

7. Past Intensive

Past-intensive confirms an event as having occurred

“They did disagree with us.”

“They did not disagree with us.”

8. Future in the Past

A future-in-the-past sentence describes an event that was supposed to happen in the past.

“They were going to go with us.”

“They were not going to go with us.”

“Were they going to go with us?”

Thank you letters have become increasingly rare over the years, and one might argue that this is due to a decline in politeness. However, this rarity means that when you do send a thank you letter, it appears as an extra special gesture. Thank you letters can be sent for both personal and business related affairs, and while an email will suffice, a hand written thank you letter will go a long way in showing the true value of your appreciation.

Business Thank You Letters

The following is a list of business related circumstances when it is deemed appropriate to send a thank you letter:

• After attending an interview
• After receiving a pay rise or a promotion
• After receiving a letter of reference from senior management for a new job
• After attending a corporate dinner
• After attending a trade show or corporate day out
• After receiving a gift from a fellow employee

Obviously the language you use for a business related thank you letter will differ greatly to that which you use for personal thank you letters to the likes of your grandma or best friend. Keep business thank you letters concise, fairly formal but friendly and very polite; humor should be reserved for personal thank you letters.

Things to Remember…

• Business thank you letters should be typed, ideally on letter-headed paper. Handwritten or emailed letters are okay if you know the recipient personally.
• Send the letter promptly, within 48 hours of the event, where possible.
• Be friendly but also professional. It would be very inappropriate to end a business thank you with “love from”.

Personal Thank You Letters

The following is a list of personal related circumstances when it is deemed appropriate to send a thank you letter:

• After receiving a gift (wedding gift, house warming gift)
• After being a guest in someone’s home or residence
• When someone has gone out of his or her way to help you out

Things To Remember…

• Write your letter on paper rather than emailing it over.
• Use good-quality notepaper or a nice greetings card.
• If you do send an email make sure it is personalized and not a mass email sent to a group.
• Incorporate some recent, interesting personal news that will add a personal connection to the letter; don’t just say hello and thank you.
• End the letter with “looking forward to seeing you soon” or something to that effect.
• Start with “Dear” and end “With Love,” “Love From” or “Best Wishes.”

 “He came in in a state of shock.” This writing behavior looks weird and feels weird, yet it is actually perfectly acceptable to repeat words in this fashion. If you read a lot of books you will often see words doubled up by seasoned authors who care not that it may look a bit silly repeating themselves on paper. However, you will notice, if you use MS Word, that the grammar checker highlights such behavior as an error (repeated word). Personally, where possible, I avoid doubling up words in sentences because I think it looks inelegant and unprofessional. So, rather than be lazy, always search for a better way to phrase your sentence. See the examples below for ideas:

“When she came to my house I showed her her message.”

This sentence could easily be rephrased as, “She came over to my house and I showed her the message she had sent earlier.”

“I had had to go to the shops that Tuesday morning.”

This can easily be rephrased as,“I had gone to the shops that Tuesday morning.”

“We will discuss this this coming weekend.”

Replace the first “this” with a pronoun; “We will discuss it this weekend.” Or a noun; “We will discuss the matter at the weekend.”

“What it is is a complete mess.”

This is a poor way to start a sentence, anyway, so rephrase this as, “It is a complete mess…”

“He came in in a state of shock.”

Replace the prepositional phrase with a simple verb, as follows, “He entered in a state of shock”.

On occasion, an immediate repetition of a word, separated by punctuation, is appropriate for emphatic effect, for example, “I am far, far away from home.” So, the rule is, repetition of a word in a sentence that makes grammatical sense isn’t wrong, but there is actually no reason for this to occur if you put the extra effort in and revise your sentences accordingly.

Blogging is becoming a rite of passage from amateur to professional writer. In fact, the phrase “professional writer” is redundant these days. No longer do you need to take the path of news desk runner to junior journalist, or publishing company tea girl to author. Instead you can carve out your own path using mass exposure methods via the web. And the basis of that exposure is formed by the world of blogging, or Pro Blogging as some are now choosing to refer to the industry. So, why should you get off your bottom and start a blog today?

1. Google Loves You

You are a pretty good writer, right? Well, Google is leaning further and further toward rewarding quality content and content that is shared socially around the web. By rewarding I mean better rankings. So, write it well, share it with friends, get them to share it too, and watch your popularity as a writer rise along with the position of your pages in the Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERPs).

2. It Doesn’t Cost You a Bean

Okay, so you need to pay for an Internet connection, but aside from that, you can set up a WordPress.org or Tumblr blog, for example, for free! This is self-publishing in its most effective form. Being a writer without a blog in 2012 is like being a car without wheels, “you ain’t going no where!”

3. You Can Advertise Your Writing Services On Your Blog

Link to your freelance writing site, have a tab offering writing services, sell an eBook, swap guest posts with other bloggers; the world is your oyster! A blog gives you a gateway into the paid world of writing, although it might seem like a bobby pastime, believe me, there are a lot of people making a living out of blogging these days.

4. Showcase Your Work To The World

The web is growing daily, and more and more people are discovering new blogs to read every minute. Be one of those blogs and let the world stumble upon and share your work on a global scale.

When writing on Facebook or Twitter, or exchanging emails or text messages with friends, you might feel compelled to use exclamation marks at every opportunity, and that’s fine, but when it comes to your serious writing endeavors you must not abuse this poor fellow.

The exclamation mark rule: Only use the exclamation mark to express emphasis or surprise. Never use the exclamation mark in formal writing.

So, for example, in a cover letter, when applying for a job, there is no need for “I have extensive experience in writing articles”! Okay, so this could be considered emphasis, but it is entirely unnecessary because the impact has been made adequately and you aren’t telling a story. An exclamation mark would be appropriate, however, in a story, for example, “I jumped out from behind the bush and shouted, ‘where the hell do you think you’re going!”

Not Everything You Write Requires Emphasis

The way we speak and the way we write are, more often than not, two very different beasts. Some people have a tendency to escalate their voice at the end of each sentence, creating a big emphasis on each sentence. Naturally, people have transferred this to the page, and we now see exclamation mark abuse, everywhere. One key skill you need to master is being able to convey emphasis without needing an exclamation mark. Use the exclamation mark sparingly; overuse leads to a loss of impact, and subsequently a loss of purpose. Use verbs and strategic punctuation to put across a point and describe intense situations. Reading more will help you with master this skill and become a better writer.

Re-read your sentence, and if it doesn’t feel like you need an exclamation mark, then you probably don’t. Also remember: if you don’t use one it isn’t wrong, yet if you do use one and it feels odd then it probably isn’t needed.

I feel your pain, and I know how it feels when that annoying grammar checker in MS Word keeps highlighting fragmented sentences. When you break it down it’s an easy one to solve. First let us start by looking at the meaning of the word fragment:

Fragment Definition: an incomplete piece; something detached; a portion of a whole.

…Got it?

Right, so a sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. This cardinal grammar sin is committed usually by misplacing a full stop and allowing a sub clause to become a sentence on its own; a main clause impostor, if you like. By that I mean the following:

“I wanted to go to the shop. Because I was hungry”.

Should read:

“I wanted to go to the shop, because I was hungry”.

In the first example “Because I was hungry: is a fragment. How do I know? Because my grammar checker just told me. No, really. The sentence is separated from the main clause and doesn’t require the full stop. You see, a main clause can be a complete sentence by itself. The main clause can come first or last; if it comes last, you need a comma. For example:

“Because I was hungry, I wanted to go to the shop”.

Often people will tell you that you can’t start a sentence with “because” or “and” because you will always create a fragment. This is false. You just need to put the comma in the correct place. For example:

“And so it was that she decided to leave me, and I forfeited myself to a life of solitude.”

Or…

“Because Moggy wanted to pass the exam so badly, she cheated by looking over Brian’s shoulder in the exam hall.”

But wait. Those sentence fragments could be statements, couldn’t they?

Indeed they could, and you will often see sentence fragments in novels and short stories, but more often than not they sit right at the end of a paragraph, not in the middle breaking up sentences unnecessarily.

Toodle pip!

Often confused, program, or programme, is one of those words capable of making you think twice halfway through a sentence, causing a mad Google search and interrupting the writing of your masterpiece. So let’s jump straight into it and look at the basic rules concerning this word.

• American English, regardless of the circumstance, always uses “program.”
• British English uses the variation “programme” unless writing about computers
• Australian English follows the English line, although officially recommend using “program.”

So why is the UK being awkward? Well, until the turn of the 19^th century, “program” was the dominant spelling. But then, influenced by the French, the English began to use the variation of “programme.” So, when we write British English, we use “program” as follows:

“We are creating a new programme for the television channel”.

“This computer program is so annoying”.

“The programme for the concert will run as scheduled”.

As mentioned previously, if these examples were written for American English, the spelling “program” would be used in all instances.

Program is also a verb. For example, “I will program the computer tomorrow.” Both American and British English use “program” in this instance. However, the spellings of “programmed” and “programming” in American English, are recommended by the Oxford English Dictionary to be spelt “programmed” and “programming.”

NB: It isn’t always strictly a case of distinguishing between American and British English, and you should always check the style guide of the publication/employer you are writing for. If you are unsure, stick to one style and maintain consistency throughout your work.

1. Do Your Research First

If you are writing a piece that requires the inclusion of statistics, facts, truths and or general knowledge, then get the research done before sitting down to write. Holes in your research will have you scratching your head and pondering; not good for speedy writing. I find it is best to do the research in a separate session; that way you will feel refreshed, fully prepared fully optimized for fast writing.

2. Don’t Worry About Your First Draft

If you stop at scrutinize every word as you go, rest assured you will write as slow as a snail. Let your thoughts dance across the page and worry about editing later. Remember: there will always be a second draft, so stop fretting over the first one.

3. Use … To Progress Quickly

This is my secret tool. Whenever I am stuck on a particular word or sentence, yet know what I want to write after that particular point, I simply write “…” and move on, of course with the intention of coming back later. Often the “…” appears suddenly in my mind, at which point I go back and quickly put down what I want to say. Using the “…” strategy helps me to write much faster.

4. Leave Notes As You Go

You will find that ideas spark ideas, however, these new ideas, if followed, may require looking up websites or research in books. In this case, the best thing to do is to leave a note for yourself in the text and keep going. New ideas can drag you off on tangents that will slow your writing down.

5. Turn Off Distractions

If something can distract you then it probably will. Turn off your mobile, or at least put it on silent. Close Twitter, Facebook, and even go offline for a while. Focus in solely on the task of writing. Distractions will not only slow your writing down, but may halt it altogether.