Daily-Grammar Resources

Want to improve your grammar and vocabulary, or just stay on top of vocab changes? (Such as email vs. e-mail. Really.)

RSS Feeds:
Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/PodcastsRss.ashx?PodCast=grammar) . I wouldn't take all the advice to heart, but it is great to look at and read the comments.
Word of the day (http://www.merriam-webster.com/word/index.xml). Learn words with examples and roots explained.
World Wide Words (http://www.worldwidewords.org/rss/newsletter.xml). Awesome.

Newsletters:
A Word A Day. Subscribe to the newsletter. The words for this week were especially fun, accompanied by images. 
I also subscribe to the Grammar Girl newsletter, but there isn't much more in there than in the RSS feed.

Other services:
Copyediting.com. Most of the content is only for the paid service, however they do have articles anyone can access. I look at the Tip of the Week, posted every Tuesday on the main page. (Used to be an RSS feed, sadly not anymore.)
Vocabulary.com.  This will keep track of your progress as you learn words. The main problem I have with it is that it asks you to pick a related definition of a word you don't know, and none of the choices are familiar either. Maybe that helps you learn faster, but when you begin you'll just be getting answers wrong a lot. It's fun that it tracks your progress, though.
Idiomeanings, a dictionary for idioms.
Urban Dictionary and Urban Slang for slang and other expressions that may stump you.
Use Dictionary.com when you come across a word you don't know. (I keep a dictionary by my bed.)
Everyone should read the Elements of Style.
Grammar Bytes, Grammar Guide, and there are many more resources out there to keep you learning!

Peace out.

Some Grammar Stuff

Please don't put a comma in front of 'is'.
For example:

"What this picture shows, is the princess in her tower." Bleh.
"What this picture shows is the princess in her tower." Much better.

"More influential than the weather, is the idea of driving two hours with her." Just don't.
"More influential than the weather is the idea of driving two hours with her." Ok.

I couldn't tell you the exact reason why this should be, but when I come across an official explanation somewhere I'll be sure to let you know.

For me, I expect the 'is' to follow directly, and if there is a comma, that sends the signal that something else is going to come first, i.e. "What this pictures shows, in the right corner, is the princess in her tower."

Ok. That's all.

Life is like Wikipedia

Well. Life's activities start like a Wikipedia article. The article is kind of long but you think 'well, it's not that bad, I can handle this'. Then you hit the first link. What is that? I want to know. I must know. I must at least see what it is. 

So you  open that article in a new tab, save it to Instapaper, whatever, and get on with the original article. But pretty soon there are some more links and you open those too.

Eventually you must go check out those other links you've opened, and from there you find more cool or important-sounding stuff you absolutely have to look at.

It continues. Pretty soon you have a lotta stuff backed up and are reading multiple articles at once.

Life is like Wikipedia.