Advice and Articles > English as a Second Language (Page 7 of 7)

The Preposition Proposition

Prepositions: ESL writers are endlessly frustrated by these small but significant words, and it’s no wonder—there are more of them in English than in any other language! But don’t give up your writing ambitions just yet; our ESL editing and proofreading experts are here to help.

Parts of Speech: Pronouns

Are pesky pronouns causing you grief in your ESL English writing? Relax—our ESL editing and proofreading experts are here to help explain this troublesome part of speech.

Essay Writing Help

You've created the blueprint for a perfect paper: outlined the framework, devised a great thesis statement and located enough evidence to support your argument. What remains to be done, is to analyze those facts in original and intriguing ways.

How to Improve Essay Writing Skills

If you've been told time and time again that you express great ideas in your essay writing but your writing needs polishing, you aren't alone. The following tips will help improve your writing skills and turn you into a great writer.

Homophones: Do You Mean There, Their, or They're?

If you find yourself making common ESL mistakes, it's OK. English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Being such a blend of original language sources has led to a kaleidoscope of peculiar spellings for English words and the creation of several hundred homophones.

Editing or Proofreading?

It's common for many people, including business professionals and first-time Scribendi.com clients, to be a bit unclear about the differences between editing and proofreading.

Hyphenation: Are You Confused?

Are hyphens causing havoc in your humanities papers? Have dashes destroyed your dissertation? Don't let punctuation puzzle you any longer; we are here to help.

10 Reasons to Hire a Professional Editor

Good writing comes from good editing. A professional editor does more than correct mistakes; they can help you turn lead into gold! The following are 10 reasons to hire a professional editor.

Active and Passive Voice

Are you unsure whether to use the active of passive voice? Our editors explain why using the active voice will make your academic papers stronger.

Making Comparisons

This is the second in a series of articles addressing several common grammatical issues. This article explains phantom or one-sided comparisons, which might be the most prevalent issue of all, particularly in academic papers.

The Wandering Only

In this article, we discuss what we call the wandering or misplaced "only," which, although common and usually understood in everyday casual speech, is often confusing and has no place in formal or academic writing.

What is a Comma?

The comma is the most important punctuation mark for ensuring clarity in a sentence, but it is often incorrectly used. Follow our helpful comma rules to ensure you are using commas correctly.

Using Commas

In our earlier article we learned that commas remove ambiguity and ensure that the reader understands the meaning the author wants to convey. Let's continue looking at some additional grammatical constructions that call for comma usage.

Understanding Punctuation

Words are words and those annoying little punctuation marks can't be that important...can they? Scribendi's editors offer solutions to common punctuation errors.