Tips and Resources

Where to Find Help for Your Grammar Sins

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 6 Comments

Do you have a grammar sin? One you find repeatedly in your writing? I do. I’ll confess. When I began my writing journey more than a year ago, I discovered a horrible truth.

I was a comma whore. I placed commas the way I spoke not according to accepted grammar rules. Even with a graduate degree in hand, I had  forgotten, over the years,  how to write a well-structured sentence. How humiliating! 

Once I realized the error of my ways, courtesy of my writer’s group, I took off  to the bookstore. It was time for a refresher course.  Strunk & White’s, The Elements of Style, was my first purchase. It is the number one grammar book recommended for writers everywhere. If you don’t have copy, pick one up.

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 In addition to Strunk & White,  I also found a number of software programs available online and easy to download. Bear in mind, while not perfect, they are excellent resources.  

The programs won’t do everything for you. They won’t complete your unfinished manuscript, but they will teach you a lot about grammar and editing.

Want to tighten your writing skills? Improve your grammar? Come on, confession is good for the writing soul….

Unburden yourself. Confess your grammar sins, then check out these wonderful editing tools.

Here, you’ll find some of my favorites, acquired along the way in my effort to shed my own grammar sin. I’m a work in progress.

AutoCrit  

  1. About: Is an easy online download book editor can manage from 400-100,000 words, depending on the membership you choose. 
  2. What it Does: The program analyzes your writing sample for the following: overused words, sentence variation, cliches & redundancies, repeated words & phrases, pacing, dialog, initial pronouns, readability and homonyms. 
  3. Cost/Membership: ranges from free which is word limited to fee based ($47-117/year).

My favorite of all the programs, I chose to pay the fee and have found that the benefits, for me, outweigh the cost.

Writer’s Diet Test       Is your writing flabby or lean?

  1. About: Designed by Helen Sword, this program evaluates writing samples of   100-1000 words.
  2. What it Does: each category: verbs, nouns, adjectives/ adverbs, prepositions, and waste words (is, that, this, there) is scored  from lean to heart attack zone 
  3. Cost/Membership:  A great, free tool!
  1.  About: Is a copy editor that helps refine your writing. A copy and paste Beta program, it is word limited.
  2. What it Does: Identifies common mistakes, such as adverbs, passive voice, weak words, ‘said’ replacements, ending with prepositions and often-misplaced words. 
  3. Cost/Membership: Free for the using. 

EditMinion is another good tool for identifying those pesky adverbs.

Grammarly  

  1. About: An automated proofreader and grammar coach. Windows compatible, it can be downloaded as an office add-in to your WordPerfect and used as an additional grammar tool. Grammarly is not fully compatible for Mac users; although Mac users can utilize the program by copying and pasting.
  2. What it Does: Checks writing samples for grammar, punctuation, writing style, and even plagiarism.  
  3. Cost/Membership:  $39.95  every 3 months.

Last but not least…

  1. About: A fantastic and fun site on teaching grammar to anyone.
  2. What it Does: Offers lessons, courses, free PDF books and ongoing emails on grammar from beginning to advanced. 
  3. Cost/Membership: Some books do have a fee, others are free for download. Please refer to the site. Sign up to receive bimonthly grammar quiz emails and challenge yourself. If you have children, keep this site bookmarked!

So, Do you have a hidden grammar sin? Do you want help? Check these software programs out and let me know what you think. Did they help you? Did the quality of your writing improve? Send me a well-written sentence and let me know how you’re doing.

Emotional Nuance

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 1 Comment

One of the most difficult things for me, as a new writer, is to put feelings and emotions down on paper.  I started paying attention to other author’s and the way they described emotions. I started out believing emotions were easy to write, they aren’t. Many nuance’s of expression bring emotion to life and make it real. I was missing that subtle difference in shade of meaning, expression or sound.

Most of the time our emotions are reactions. Flares of intense moments. Some are more subtle than others, but how often do you stop to think about what you’re doing, how you’re moving,  the tone in your voice, the look in your eye, the strength in your touch, or your stance? We don’t. We simply do what we do in the moment.

Try writing a scene without thinking about  all of those things, and you’ll have a boring, stilted, emotional scene. I know, because I’ve written quite a few along the way. However, there are resources for us newbies, and I’ve found a great one! The book shelf muse. This is a wonderful blog offering a slew of  resources for writers on character traits,  emotional thesaurus, and others. Check them out. Their hard copy book and ebook will be coming out May 14th.

So, the next time you sit down to write and you can’t get the emotion right, well…. I hope you’ll take a closer look. Break it down. As for me, I have a big Easter weekend with my family planned. So, I’ve been busy, cleaning, cooking, and right now I’m drumming my fingers on the table as I run through my to-do-list, focusing on our family event (anticipation).

Happy Easter  to every one! Happy Emotional Writing!

The Susan G and Planned Parent Puppet Show

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

Melodrama –  defined as a sensational, dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting  events meant to appeal to emotions.

I  watched with interest and then sadness this week the saga of the Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood puppet show. And the puppets? Hate to say it, but the public, more specifically, women. Now, I realize the blood pressure of some of you have just sky rocketed off the page,  but hear me out, please.

These two organizations are very different with very different missions. On the one hand you have Susan G. Komen Foundation. A not for profit foundation, founded in 1982 by the sister of Nancy Goodman Brinker. Nancy died at the young age of 36 from breast cancer. She and her sister believed had they found the cancer earlier, she would still be alive. The foundation was born out of  a promise she made to her sister. The philosophy simple, teach women how to do self breast exams, and encourage early screening to prevent breast cancer.

Today, it is the largest and most widely known breast cancer organization in the United States. It  raises over $35 million a year from 60 plus marketing partnerships, and sponsors the world’s largest fundraising event, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The organization invests more than $2 billion in breast cancer education, research, advocacy, health care services and social support. It awards more  than $180 million in grants for breast cancer research.

With more than 100,000 volunteers, you would be hard pressed to go anywhere and not see a pink ribbon tacked on something or someone in support of this great, inspiring organization. I believe her sister would be proud. What a legacy! On the other hand is the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It has a long history, starting back as far as 1916. I won’t go back quite that far. Its mission is different, and important. I’m not here to argue for or against anything, simply stating facts.

It is the largest family planning service provider in  the United States with a federation of 85 independent affiliates operating more than 820 health centers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They serve five million patients a year, 26% are under the age of 19 and 75% at or below poverty level income.

In 2009 they provided contraceptives services; emergency contraception; screening for breast; cervical and testicular cancer related services; pregnancy testing, pregnancy options counseling; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; comprehensive sex education; menopause treatments; vasectomies, tubal ligations, and abortions. In addition, its doctors and nurses annually conduct 1 million screenings for cervical cancer and 830,000 breast exams.

Planned Parenthood’s funding is different. It doesn’t have pink ribbons or foot races to raise funds. No, It’s received federal funding since 1970 when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act amending the Public Health Service Act. Title X of that law provides funding for family planning services, including contraception and family planning information.

A third of its money comes from  government grants and contracts, approximately $360 million, in 2009. Additional funds, about one quarter of its revenue, come from a very large and active, 700,000 membership base and private donors. Including Bill Gates, the Buffet Foundation and The Turner Foundation to name a few.

The intersection of these two, very different organizations came about because of money and boobs, but make no mistake about it Planned Parenthood is not about boobs. That isn’t their mission. Their mission is family planning and pro-choice. That is where their fight is, has always been, and continues to be, especially this election year. Breast exams is an ends to a means – money, more funds, and more grant money to keep their mission going. Why do I say this? Simple.

I worked in a clinic as an RN and anytime you do an evaluation, an exam to give a woman contraceptives, you are going to do a breast exam, and if you don’t I would question your practice. Period. In their own literature, Planned Parenthood states they provide breast exams. Mamograms are referred out, as they should be. That’s  always been their practice. So you have to ask – why the uproar?

If Planned Parenthood is not changing what they have always done in how they examine a patient, why did they try to crucify Susan G. Komen? I’ll tell you.

Spin-They wanted to create an unfavorable impression to present to the public. Poor women would not get breast exams and therefore breast cancer wouldn’t be detected early!  And since Planned Parenthood was the only place most of these poor women could go…..

No one stopped to consider these facts:The philosophy of the Komen foundation  is about women taking responsibility for their own self breast exams, and  given the resources Susan G. Komen Foundation has put in the hands of nearly everyone.

Free clinics, volunteers and a zillion other resources, women only have to ask, teach me. Instead, Planned Parenthood and their surrogates created emotional furor and fear, manipulating a public unfairly and unscrupulously forcing Susan G. Komen to cave in to their demands. Give us what we want or else. 

They were willing to let the Komen Foundation who works tirelessly to save millions of lives from breast cancer, lose any amount of funding in order for them to regain a grant for family planning and abortion. After all it’s a hot topic this election year. In addition,  “sympathy” donations started pouring in to Planned Parenthood. At least two donations of $250,000 each, one from Mayor Bloomberg himself, and six other donors have contributed $400,000 in just two days.

Don’t tell me it was ever about breast exams. I’m not that easily manipulated. Those who participated in this farce tarnished a promise, a memory, and a mission. For all the Susan G. Komen Foundation has done for so many of us and our loved ones, we should be ashamed. We should have stood arm in arm with them against this bully. This week the bully came for Susan G. Komen. Next week, who will it be?