This guest blog was written by Denise Du Vernay

Denise is the co-author of The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield. She has been teaching various college literature and communication courses for over 10 years. She is on Twitter @Simpsonology.

We all know that proofreading is important for business, but I advocate for careful writing and proofreading in all areas of communication, not just in business. Spelling, word usage, and punctuation errors can make the writer look sloppy, careless, and lazy, but in addition to the errors reflecting poorly on the writer, errors can also cause misunderstandings.

Example One: I was communicating with someone (let’s just call him “Jeff”) recently over a social networking site. We were discussing movies. For weeks, I had believed that Jeff was gay because in the “about me” section of his profile, he talked about spending time with his fiancé. Since Jeff lives in a place where same-sex marriage is legal and the activities he described were outdoorsy and stereotypical “guy” things, I thought he was engaged to a man. And why did I think that? Well, because he told me so with the use of the word “fiancé,” the word for a betrothed who is male. (“Fiancée” is the word for a betrothed who is female). One spelling error, just one missing little letter e, made me misunderstand a pretty important personal detail. He was irritated when I referred to his partner as “he,” and I had to politely explain why I thought he was gay.

Example Two: A couple weeks ago, I was emailing with a friend from high school. He was telling me about his oldest daughter. I knew he had three kids but their names are all gender neutral, so I was relieved that he gave me the clue of having an “oldest” daughter, which let me know that they were all girls. Later, when I referred to the middle child, “Taylor,” as a girl, he corrected me, saying that Taylor is a boy. He was quite snarky about it, so I got a little lippy back. I told him his usage error was the reason I was mistaken because the word “oldest” is the superlative form for three or more. Since he has two daughters, he can only have a younger and an older. Now he refers to his “oldest child” or his “younger daughter.” He no longer makes that mistake. (Luckily, he knows I teach English and isn’t bugged by me correcting him).

As an English teacher and lover of language, I am bothered when I hear excuses for bad grammar, for laziness, for lack of respect for English. One of my siblings, as a matter of fact, thinks that as long as the message is sent, it don’t matter if the words ya use ain’t correct.

I disagree.

First of all, poor grammar and usage errors lead to confusion and mistakes, like the examples above. What if I had never used the pronoun “he” with Jeff, thus never had the chance to be corrected, and I sent a wedding gift to Jeff and his fiancée, a gift intended for two men? Or if he and his partner had broken up, I’d introduced him to a single gay man I know? What if I’d sent a Hello Kitty birthday card to Taylor? There would have been embarrassment all around.

Here’s a fun example from the news: Last fall, two people in Spokane County, Washington had their $30 parking tickets overturned for parking in a lot that required a permit. They successfully argued that they were simply following the message on a sign: “No Parking Permit Required.” There was no comma, semicolon, period or even dash between “No Parking” and “Permit Required.” In addition, according to an article in the Spokesman-Review, the words were the same size and font, not separated by any space. Thus, the sign not only implies, but actually says, that one doesn’t need a permit to park there. This mistake cost the city the price of the parking ticket, the costs of administrators’ time, and the price of correcting offending signs.

Secondly, we are a community of people with diverse tastes, backgrounds, and hairstyles, but we are a community bonded by language. Communities all have rules for the safety of their members. We are all expected to follow our community rules while shopping, driving, or crossing the street. What happens when those rules are disobeyed? The breaker of the rule may be ticketed, flipped the bird, and in extreme cases, killed. (I know that sounds dramatic, but road rage violence happens. Plus, I was once almost run over by an SUV in a crosswalk. When I saw that the vehicle wasn’t stopping for me, I leapt backwards onto the curb, falling ungracefully on my bum, and the driver was immediately pulled over by a police officer and hopefully ticketed handsomely for not giving me, the pedestrian, the right of way which is law in our great land). Like society, rules exist in English to prevent chaos in communication. Think of the community as the keepers of the language: the members of the community should respect it, for our sake and for its own sake. This doesn’t mean I disapprove of slang or colloquialisms—in fact, the more colorful, the better—but it hurts my ears when I hear blatant disrespect of English, such as someone saying “I seen that movie!” or “Can you borrow me a dollar?” or even “I need to lay down.” For everything that English has done for us, the least we can do in return is learn some verb conjugations and the difference between “lend” and “borrow.”

Thirdly, lazy or disrespectful speech is unfair to children. English is tricky enough with all its odd spellings and irregular verbs; the least we can do for the children around us is be good examples so they have a better chance of picking it up right the first time. When I was a teenager, a teacher pointed out to me that I was confused about “lie” and “lay,” and while I was a bit embarrassed at that moment, it was beyond worth it. Today I am terribly grateful to her, and have even told her recently, because it saved me much continued embarrassment.

 

The fourth argument (out of the dozens floating around in my brain) to care about grammar and word usage is because people who don’t care sound like idiots. And people who sound like idiots aren’t taken seriously and often aren’t offered jobs. I’ve stopped dating people in the past because I couldn’t handle their bad grammar. And yes, I agree that it may have been superficial of me, and I may have missed out on the best relationship/lay/friendship/home-baked bread of my life, but I just could not imagine spending any amount of time with a man who was so unobservant that he didn’t notice that everyone else in his life said “I would have gone to the concert, but I had to work,” but he continued instead to say “I would have went…”

Below is a list I’ve compiled of some commonly misused words. I recommend you treat it as a quiz—jot down the definitions (or use each word in a sentence) and then look up each word to make sure you’ve been using them correctly. There is an advanced section of words that sound the same but are spelled differently (under the heading “Spelling Only”). Don’t skip any—chances are, if you are misusing a word (assuming that you and I don’t know each other personally) no one has told you. (I’m a good friend– I’m also not afraid to tell you this: You have a piece of cilantro between your teeth.) And by the way, “alot” is not a word.

Often confused:

insure / ensure
less / fewer
imply / infer
tenant / tenet
moot / mute
sex / gender

Spelling only:

fiancée / fiancé
they’re / there / their
heroin / heroine
its/it’s
affect / effect

Bonus tip: “hangout” is a noun; “hang out” is a verb.

Okay, so you’ve given yourself the quiz. How did you do? My bet is that you’ve been using “less” for any noun; am I right? Don’t feel bad; I hear newscasters do it all time. And have you been using the word “gender” when you mean “sex”? You’re not alone. But now you know: babies are a “sex,” not a “gender.”

What are some of your grammar pet peeves or questions? Shoot me an email at du@simpsonology.com and maybe I’ll write about your issue in a future entry.

Note from the editor: Much as it is a skill to be successful in college, (it is important for you to have the drive to succeed, be motivated, and work your butt off…) it is also a skill to fail out of college.  This post discusses some techniques that you can use to fail out of college your first semester, if you have any other techniques that are useful in failing out of college please leave your comment at the bottom of this post

 

DISCLAIMER: Neither the author of this post nor We Compare Books condone failing out of college, this post is merely intended to be a guide as to what not to do

 

After being in elementary, middle, and high school for 12 years, you pick up some habits that can be difficult to undo. While good habits can undoubtedly benefit your college years, many students carry on their bad learning habits into their freshman year of college. After all, when you’ve been studying and doing homework for more than a decade, you inevitably pick up on ways to do the least amount of work possible in school. However, this can lead to an academic disaster, as college is no place for slacker behavior and a bare-minimum mindset, unless you want to demonstrate to others how one can fail college in the first semester.

Play hooky instead of going to class

In high school, you may have felt that attendance was voluntary. If you did not feel like waking up at 8:00 a.m. for class, you may have just played sick and spent the entire day lounging around in bed. The temptation to skip class when you had a car was even more difficult to avoid, as avoiding class and going to the mall only required you to drive right past the school parking lot. If you were a chronic class-skipper, you may find yourself falling back into those old habits once you are in college.

However, class attendance is a must for college students because it is incredibly difficult to catch up in coursework and lectures. Most college classes are at least an hour long, during which all students learn a great deal about the class topic as well as upcoming assignments. Missing one class could mean hours of make-up work later. To make matters worse, the more classes you skip, the more work you will find yourself needing to make up on your own time, as professors will not stop their lessons just for you to get back up to speed.

Daydream during class

You may have relied on your best friend’s notes after each class to study, but don’t count on encountering the same generosity when you are in college. Studying for class is stressful, and your classmates may not be as willing to share their notes if they see that you spend the entire lecture looking through Facebook.

Instead, learn to take good notes of your own and make sure that you are well-rested and well-fed before each class so that you will be less susceptible to distractions. Pay close attention to what your professor is saying and actively take notes to keep yourself engaged and interested. If necessary, move to the front of the classroom so that you have the added pressure of being close to your professor to prevent you from slacking off. You will thank yourself in the future for not only having a good study guide with your notes, but also for learning during class instead of just after it.

Procrastinate on assignments; do homework last minute, write essays day before the deadline

Procrastination is a bad habit that nearly all students fall into at least once during their studies. It is also one of the most detrimental ones to good grades. Putting things off until the last minute may have worked when you were in high school, but college professors (and their teaching assistants) are much tougher. An hastily written essay filled with long, flowery sentences that say nothing will not appease your English professor, and mathematical work that does not show how you got to your final answer will not make your calculus professor happy.

College work takes time to complete, and none of it is designed to fit within a single night’s worth of studying. In fact, you should count on spending at least two hours studying outside of class for every hour you are in class if you want to succeed in college. Do not even try to do all of your reading and assignments in a single all-night session chances are you simply will not be able to produce anything of quality in such a short amount of time. To prevent letting procrastination ruin your GPA, be sure to manage your time wisely to allow yourself plenty of time to get your work done.

There are numerous nasty habits that can carry over from your high school days into college, and these can ruin your first semester. Don’t let that happen and make sure that you buckle down and work hard from the beginning of your new college career.

 

This guest post was written by Alvina Lopez

Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.

o one will argue that prices are getting outrageously out of hand. And there is no one who understands this as well as those who are trying to purchase textbooks for college classes, such as Biology. The on campus stores can typically charge over inflated prices for textbooks that are required for offered classes. There are many, but one of the most difficult and challenging problems for students is trying to budget and appropriate money properly. There are so many things that have to be taken care of and books are definitely at the very top of the list of things that must be purchased. It is just common knowledge that college expenses are getting higher, including the purchase of textbooks and other required supplies.

However, it is possible to purchase cheap Biology textbooks online.  For those who choose to buy textbooks online they are available at greatly reduced prices in comparison to prices offered through other resources. Not only will the student or parents find that they can save lots of money by buying textbooks on line, they can also save tons of time. And that’s a win – win situation!

Finding textbooks online can help ease the student’s mind as well as their budget for college expenses. Supplies for classes can be among the highest things to obtain other than the tuition itself. Thankfully there is a wide variety of cheap textbooks available and Biology is one of them. Listed below are two popular Biology texts that are commonly required for classes, Campbell’s Biology text and Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts.

 

Many tip lists out there will advise you on how to budget your money during college, when you are more than likely still dependent on your parents’ monthly allowance. Budgeting is a difficult art to learn, and there will inevitably be times during your undergraduate career when the parental coffers run dry and your folks are unwilling to provide you more before the next month. This is when you are left up to your own devices. Now you can either wait it out and live on cereal till the first of the month, or you can put your entrepreneurial skills to task by making a nice mound of cash yourself for these desperate times, so you’ll never be short on spending money again. Between procrastinating with that term paper and watching entire seasons of your favorite TV show, you can certainly mete out some time that’ll help you help yourself. Here are a few ways to make extra cash quick when the going gets tough.

1. Tutor other students.

There’s no better way to learn a set of concepts well than by teaching others. Whatever subject is your strongest, offer fellow students some tutoring sessions for a small fee. This way, you’ll still be engaging in academic activity, sharpening your own communication skills as you do so. Tutoring can range from helping students with homework sets to editing English papers. Send out a Facebook invite to advertise yourself, or post a notice on your dorm’s announcements board.

2. Participate in studies.

Giving yourself up as a guinea pig for scientific studies is a great way to earn extra cash fast. Especially if your institution is a research university, it’s very likely that different research departments will require volunteers, who can earn up $50 dollars or more for an hour or two of questionnaire-answering and game-playing. I once earned $100 for an hour of getting my brain scanned in an MRI machine while playing a video game.

3. Look for work on campus

Working on-campus is so much easier than working off, simply because your potential employer is used to working with students and understands that you have a hectic, uneven schedule. One of the best on-campus jobs I had was working at the university library. It was easy, didn’t take up too much of my time, and I could study and work simultaneously.

4. Sell your unnecessary belongings.

Whether it’s books from last semester, or a piece of furniture you don’t really use, take stock of your personal items and access which ones you can do without. Then, using Craigslist, Ebay, or Facebook Marketplace, get rid of all these items at relatively low prices. It’s a great way to clear your cluttered dorm room while getting some quick and easy cash.

These are just a few ways to make some money while in college. No matter how budget-conscious you are, you’ll more than likely overspend, especially during freshman year, when you’re living on your own for the first time. By making some extra money every now and then, you’ll skip that embarrassing phone call to your parents telling them how you’ve wasted their money mid-way through the month.

This guest post was written by Hajera Blagg

Hajera Blagg is a recent college graduate and freelance writer based in Houston, TX. She often contributes content to OnlineUniversities.

Money-savvy college students know to bypass the trip to the overpriced university bookstore if they want to save money on textbooks. They can almost always save money by shopping around for a better deal online, particularly by hunting for the lowest prices using sites like wecomparebooks.com. However, there’s another good way to save money on textbooks seeing what’s available at your university library.

Whether or not your plan to borrow textbooks from the library will work depends on how large your class size is and how many copies of your class textbook are available at the library. Before you choose this route, you will need to evaluate your likelihood of being able to check out your textbook as often as you will need to for the class you’ve enrolled in. You seldom will be able to check out all the textbooks you’ll need for all of your classes, so you should combine this tactic with buying or renting used textbooks online for maximum savings without sacrificing your access to the textbook.

Most university libraries allow students to check out a book for two weeks and allow a maximum of one renewal for a total of four weeks you can have the book. After this point, the book is overdue and you’ll have to pay fines if you keep the textbook any longer. Back when I was in college and decided to try checking out a textbook instead of buying it, I simply returned the book, waited for it to be re-shelved (it’s easy to tell online), and then checked it out and renewed it for another four weeks of access to the book.

I talked to one of the librarians ahead of time about doing this, and she said it was fine as long as no other student had placed a reservation on that particular book. The tactic worked for me because I was in my junior year of college and my class sizes were beginning to become progressively smaller as I transitioned from my basics into my major courses. That meant it was less likely that another student in my class would be doing the same thing as me.

I did run into some snags while doing this. When I returned the textbook the second time around, I went back to borrow the book again and it had already been checked out by someone else. My only recourse was to reserve the book for myself when it came back in, and ask someone in my class if I could borrow their textbook on the nights I needed it (luckily, I always found classmates willing to share). Eventually, however, the textbook I’d been borrowing from the library came back in, and I was able to check it out and finish out my semester using it. Grace periods also helped me extend the length of time I could hang on to the textbook I was borrowing.

While borrowing a textbook from the library is a risky endeavor and can limit your access to the book when you need it, it’s certainly a viable way for students who are tight on money to use a textbook for absolutely free.

This guest post was written by Katheryn Rivas

Katheryn Rivas regularly writes for online universities.  Questions and comments can be sent to: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.