There is a reason why your English teacher at school used to stress so much on getting the grammar in an essay or even a sentence right. Grammar mistakes can spoil a reader’s experience in seconds, even if the content is interesting and highly informative. And no matter how careful you are about grammar, there are certain mistakes that tend to occur time and again. So, we have decided to make life simple for you with this post. You will find out about the 8 common grammar errors even the best English language experts make and will be able to avoid confusion and embarrassment in future. Whether you are writing a novel, content for your website, an article or product descriptions for your ecommerce store, here are some top mistakes to avoid. 1. Who or Whom? Even experienced writers end up confusing between ‘who’ and ‘whom’. So, for starters, remember that ‘who’ is used for the subject in a sentence while ‘whom’ is used for an object in a sentence. So, when to use which? To keep things simple, if you can replace the word with any noun or he or she, then use ‘who’. And if you can replace the word with him or her, use ‘whom’. Some examples will make it clearer. Does this sound right to you – The maestro, for who the audience applauded, was an elderly man. So, did the audience applaud ‘him’ or ‘he’? Obviously, they applauded ‘him’. This means, the sentence should include the word ‘whom’ and not ‘who’. The correct sentence should be – The maestro, for whom the audience applauded, was an elderly man. Take another example to see the other side of the coin. Does this sound right to you – David shouted at Jay, whom seemed to be cowering. In this case, ‘whom’ can be substituted with ‘he’ rather than ‘him’. So, the sentence should include the word ‘who’ and not ‘whom’. The correct sentence should be – David shouted at Jay, who seemed to be cowering. 2. Who or That Though this is a common and confusing grammatical error, it is easier to avoid than the confusion between ‘who’ and ‘whom’. All you have to do is remember that ‘who’ is used in case of a person and ‘that’ is applicable for an object or anything inanimate. Example of ‘who’ – Tina is the one who will sing at the event or He is the one who knows how to throw a ball. Example of ‘that’ – That is the book she wants to buy or Here is the pen that left a mark on his shirt. 3. That or Which If I was paid for every time I noticed someone use ‘that’ and ‘which’ interchangeably, I would be very rich by now! However, such a practice is wrong. For starters, though ‘that’ and ‘which’ are both clauses, ‘that’ is restrictive and ‘which’ is not. Now, let’s take a closer look at what it means. Restrictive clause – This refers to a part of a sentence that cannot be removed as it restricts another portion of the same sentence. Non-restrictive clause – It is just opposite of a restrictive clause. The following example will make the concept clear: Sentence 1 – The hospital, which has those famous doctors, is based out of London. Sentence 2 – The hospital that has those famous doctors is based out of London. In the first sentence, the readers know which hospital is being talked about. In other words, if you take out ‘which has those famous doctors’; the sentence’s meaning will not change. This phrase simply offers more information to the readers, but they anyway know that the hospital is based out of London. Also Read: 12 Grammar Tips for Content Writers Who Pursue Perfection However, in the second sentence, if you take out ‘that has those famous doctors’ the readers won’t know which hospital you are talking about. ‘That’ creates a restriction in this case. So, if you don’t know whether to use ‘that’ or ‘which’, first find out if the meaning of the sentence will change if you remove the concerned part of the sentence. 4. Less or Fewer To keep this famous grammatical error at bay, just remember that ‘fewer’ can be used when you are talking about something that can be counted. And when any object seems uncountable, use ‘less’. These examples will make it clear as to when you can use ‘fewer’: There are fewer apples on this table than yesterday. This summer, fewer children will go for camping. In both examples, the nouns (apples and children) are countable and can be assigned numbers. Hence, using ‘fewer’ is correct. Now, look at these examples for ‘less’: A little less anger could have prevented this damage. Arnold takes less sugar in his tea than Mary. Since neither anger nor sugar can be counted, using ‘less’ is correct. 5. Me or I The thing about pronouns is that they can take different forms to indicate the various roles they have in a sentence. For instance, ‘I’ and ‘me’ are the subject and object forms of the pronoun. And many writers often end up using the wrong form. So, how do you know when to use ‘I’ and when to use ‘me’? Consider this example – My husband and me will go to the opera together. It doesn’t sound right, right? That’s because, if you take away ‘husband’ from the sentence, then ‘me will go to the opera’ sounds strange. After all, ‘me’ is the object form of the pronoun and needs to be replaced with a subject form like ‘I’. So, the correct sentence is – My husband and I will go to the opera together. Here’s another example to help you understand where ‘me’ is needed. Consider this example – The football coach helped my brother and I when we couldn’t get the moves right. What’s wrong with it? Well, if you take out ‘my brother’, the
Author: Shankar Sen
12 Tips to Help you Whip up the Perfect Food Blog!
Are your sinful desserts the talk of the whole town? Or maybe your guests gush about the magic you do with veggies? Or maybe your friends are amazed by how easily you can sniff out every ingredient from a dish! Well, if you are planning to start a food blog, all of this will help. But it’s not enough. You should also know how to combine the right language with yummy pictures and smart recipes to get your readers yearning for more. Remember that the reader is miles away from the dish you have put together in your kitchen and cannot actually see or taste it. So, a good food blog should be able to make that experience as real as possible, so that your target audience looks forward to your every post. And in case you run a restaurant or home delivery service, such a blog will drive more visitors to your site and boost conversions as well. So, here are some tips that can help you start an engaging food blog. 1. Decide on a theme first Since food or cooking is a vast field, it will be a wise move to focus on a particular style of cooking or maybe a specific region’s dishes. You can also decide if you want your theme to be desserts, savory dishes, healthy foods, weight-loss foods or something else. While crafting content for a food blog, if you are concentrating only on South Indian cuisine, non-vegetarian preparations or recipes for those suffering from lifestyle diseases, you will quickly emerge as a domain leader. Your target audience will be well-defined as well. 2. Be aware of the latest food trends These days, readers have little time or patience for complicated recipes or a super long video. They also like knowing about the calorie count and nutritional value of different dishes. Sometimes, foodies also look for information on how to prepare a vegetarian or vegan version of a non-vegetarian dish. Or, they look for recipes that have a continental vibe and are quick to prepare for office meals. These days, many households are shifting towards cooking with organic produce too. Many people look for sugar-free desserts, energy shakes and such items. So, stay aware of the cuisines, flavors and dishes that are gaining popularity and the kind of content formats that work. For instance, simple videos that are less than a minute can work wonders. Bulleted list of ingredients and images of every step of cooking are some other great food blog content ideas. You can also include colorful infographics in your blog posts as they are easy to scan and recall. 3. Get the setup basics right If you are wondering about the technical aspect of how to create a food blog, take a look at the top hosting platforms like Bluehost, WordPress, Medium, HostGator, Tumblr, Squarespace Blogger, and Wix. If you are new to blogging, go for a platform that doesn’t require technical or coding knowledge and is easy to set up. It should also be flexible and come with various themes and plugins, so that you can customize your blog just the way you want. Also, consider how you want your blog to develop or grow in future, and if you wish to make money out of it (most bloggers do). Choose the platform accordingly. It should be secure, easy to integrate with a website or online store, and affordable too. Remember that you will need a “tasty” domain name as well, something which is ideally optimized for search engines. This will help you rank high on the search results page. 4. Design a smashing website or get help For a food blog to build brand awareness and bring in traffic, a stunning website can go a long way. If you know how to design and get started with one, great! If you don’t, you can either get help from a friend who is a pro or learn how to do it yourself. The latter option is a little time-consuming, but will boost your knowledge and you can easily tweak your site in the future too. When it comes to website designing, remember that the top hosting platforms offer a variety of paid and free themes you can use for the most attractive look. Or, you can check out famous food blogs that have great designs. To know what theme they are using, just right click on their site and view the source. 5. Make your blog functional with plugins A food blogger can use these latest plugins to make their blog search engine friendly, attract organic traffic and rank high on the search results page. After all, you want as many people as possible to find and love your blog, right? WP Recipe Maker – You can add visual recipe cards to your blog posts with this option, even if you don’t know coding. It lets you add a label for nutritional facts (in the premium version), insert a call to action, templates that you can customize, and add images or videos. This plugin works amazingly on any device. VaultPress – This plugin backs up important data on your site every day, like media files, posts, and dashboard settings. This is also useful in case of cyber attacks. Advantages include unlimited storage facility and scanning of the site for cyber security issues. Yasr – If you want to gain your readers’ trust, use this plugin. It allows readers to click and rate your recipe or post, which can build your brand value over time. The plugin lets you customize the look and size of the stars and help you to appear in Google’s rich snippets too. And this can boost your ranking. SocialSnap – With this plugin, you can embed buttons for social sharing on more than 30 networks and pick from various display options. Readers can share just a photo from your blog post easily, even if they don’t read the entire recipe. Plus, this plugin allows