Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Thoroughness Challenge



A Brief History of Presidents Day


The Thoroughness Challenge is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed.


Your Challenge today is: A Brief History of Presidents Day, and contains 8 errors. Good Luck!

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If you live in the United States than you will know that yesterday was Presidents Day; also known as Washington’s Birthday. Presidents Day is a federal holiday in the US and is celebrated on the third Monday in Febuary.

The federal holiday titled as Washington’s Birthday, was originally implimented by the United States Congress in 1880 for the goverment offices in the District of Columbia, but then expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices.

As it was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was originally celebrated on George Washington’s actual birthday – February 22nd. It was on January 1, 1971 that the day got shifted to the third Monday in Febuary.

That date than fell between February 15th and the 21st, which would never actualy fall on Washington’s Birthday. A draft of the Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 would have had the holiday renamed as Presidents Day, to honor both Washington and Lincoln.

That proposal unfortunately failed in commitee at that time, so the name Washington’s Birthday was kept. The first attempt to create the day as a Presidents Day came in 1951; however, it wasn't until the mid-1980’s that the term Presidents Day began being used.


Now, let's see how thorough you are!

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If you live in the United States then you will know that yesterday was Presidents Day; also known as Washington’s Birthday. Presidents Day is a federal holiday in the US and is celebrated on the third Monday in February.

The federal holiday titled as Washington’s Birthday, was originally implemented by the United States Congress in 1880 for the goverment offices in the District of Columbia, but then expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices.

As it was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was originally celebrated on George Washington’s actual birthday – February 22nd. It was on January 1, 1971 that the day got shifted to the third Monday in February.

That date then fell between February 15th and the 21st, which would never actually fall on Washington’s Birthday. A draft of the Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 would have had the holiday renamed as Presidents Day, to honor both Washington and Lincoln.

That proposal unfortunately failed in committee at that time, so the name Washington’s Birthday was kept. The first attempt to create the day as a Presidents Day came in 1951; however, it wasn't until the mid-1980’s that the term Presidents Day began being used.


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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Fifteen Punctuation Facts You Need To Know



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Who knew there was so much to learn about punctuation marks? To make it as easy as possible, review the following fifteen rules from time to time and you'll be a punctuation pro:


1. A period shows where sentences end, separates the initials of some acronyms, and ends many abbreviations.

2. Don't double-space after a period at the end of a sentence; the word processing program will adjust the space for you.

3. Commas, signaling natural pauses and adding clarity to what you're writing, should be used before conjunctions and before the final or or and in a series.

4. Semicolons (weak periods) separate two thoughts of equal rank; these are thoughts that could be turned into independent sentences.

5. Colons are used to do the following: introduce lists, separate thoughts (when one further explains the other), distinguish hour and minutes, cite chapter and verse, separate title and subtitle, and end formal salutations.

6. Ellipses indicate that words or sentences have been omitted, or a thought has trailed off . . .

7. Apostrophes show possession, not plurals (except for its [possession] and it's [it is]), as well as indicating missing letters when a verb has been contracted.

8. Quotation marks indicate that someone is speaking or that material has been taken from another source.

9. In American English, commas and periods are usually inside the quotation marks; colons and semicolons are outside; and dashes, question marks, and exclamation points are inside or outside depending on usage.

10. Exclamation points follow interjections, and you should use them sparingly. Please!

11. Question marks show that an answer is requested or that the writer is unsure of a specific fact.

12. Hyphens connect words with prefixes, suffixes, or other words.

13. Dashes, which are about the length of the letter m, signify a dramatic break in thought, while shorter dashes, known as en dashes, which are the length of the letter n, are used between a range of dates, times, or numbers.

14. Parentheses enclose figures in a numbered list within a sentence or set off explanatory material (facts that add substance).

15. Brackets indicate editorial comments, corrections, or clarifications – or further set off text within a parenthetical phrase.

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Source: The Gremlins of Grammar



Monday, February 8, 2010

Over the Top Award

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I'd like to thank Mason of Thoughts In Progress for presenting me with the Over the Top Award this past Saturday, and Cassandra at Cassandra Jade In the Realm for honoring me with it today! The award stipulates that I answer questions with one-word answers and pass the award on. Mason and Cassandra each had a different set of questions; Mason's list was shorter, so I chose to go with hers! LOL!

Your Hair?
- Blonde
Your Favorite Food? - Salad
Your Hobby? - Reading
Your Fear? - Spiders
Your pets? - KITTIES!
Something You Aren't? - Insensitive
Where Did You Grow Up? - California
Your Life? - Blessed
Your Mood? - HAPPY!
Your Favorite Color? - PURPLE!


And...the people I'm passing this award on to are:

Chris - CC Chronicles
Allysa - Random Thoughts of a Tangled Mind
Lorel Clayton - I'm Blogging Drowning Here
Southpaw (Holly) - Scribbles and Splashes
Erin Pagan Spirits

Thanks again to Mason and Cassandra for thinking of me! If you haven't been to any of the blogs of those I've passed the award on to, please check them out, they're Over the Top!

Enjoy your day and go spread some HAPPY!



Thursday, February 4, 2010

Spelling Challenge


Misspellings
It's time for a Spelling Challenge! So, grab a sticky note and a pen and write down the correct spelling for the ten words below!

NO PEEKING!
Peek


1. chauvenism
2. presumtuous
3. aquire
4. irrasible
5. seige
6. nausious
7. misoginy
8. inadvertant
9. diarama
10. liquify


If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star! Good Luck!

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ANSWERS:

1. chauvinism
2. presumptuous
3. acquire
4. irascible
5. siege
6. nauseous
7. misogyny
8. inadvertent
9. diorama
10. liquefy


Whether or not you got your star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars for your efforts! Have a marvelous day!

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Swum


We all know that "swam" is the past tense of "swim." What about "swum?" It sounds peculiar and you rarely hear or see it used; however, "swum" is a word. It's the past participle of "swim." You use it when writing in certain tenses.

A trick to help you remember when to use "swum" is that past participles always come after a helping verb such as "have" or "had."

I have swum. (present perfect tense)
I had swum. (past perfect tense)
I will have swum. (future perfect tense)

Personally, I would re-word the sentence rather than use "swum." What about you? Does swum work for you?

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Source: Grammar Girl Podcast


There are other such words that (in my opinion) just don't sound right. When they come up, I'll do a similar post on them.

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Because today's post is a mini lesson, I decided to include the following words of wisdom. I thought Steve's Three Rules of Life merited sharing with everyone.


Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life ...

1. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

2. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

3. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition - they somehow already know what you truly want to become.




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