Marketers now rely on cutting-edge AI paraphrase tools to create original content. Utilising their precious time therefore becomes considerably simpler. 

Today, it can be challenging to pick an appropriate AI tool out of the numerous available online. Despite having the same basic function, these tools are not identical.

Your content needs to be original, regardless of the audience or sector for which you are writing. Google penalises duplicate and copied material, so keep that in mind. If your work isn’t original, it drastically affects its visibility.

Their functionality and design play a role in this. An effective AI paraphrasing tool can provide you with quick results that are of high quality. Again, creating quality content is always valued in the marketing industry nowadays.

Paraphrasing Tools for Effortless Rewriting

All website users and newsletter subscribers seek out useful stuff. However, even a talented writer occasionally has trouble producing high-quality content. The rise in popularity of AI writing aids today is due to this. 

A useful AI writing tool and an AI paraphrase tool are the same. A reliable paraphrase tool plays a crucial role in preventing plagiarism and producing properly prepared textual materials.

Therefore, we have covered the seven best and most effective AI paraphrasing tools in this article.

1. Paraphrasing.io

The most effective paraphrasing tool is paraphrasing.io. It first examines the provided content to determine its context before rewriting it.

The main goal of this paraphrasing tool was to make writing easier. You can rephrase the material at the phrase, sentence, and paragraph levels thanks to it. The diction and syntactic structures are changed, resulting in fully original and error-free content.

Rewriting the information in a way that avoids plagiarism and preserves readability works well. This tool employs cutting-edge AI algorithms to guarantee that the information is paraphrased accurately and quickly.

You can choose from any of the 15 available languages to rewrite the material as necessary.

This paraphrase tool is available to users everywhere without any subscription fees or usage restrictions.

2. GetGenie AI

The most recent and effective paraphrase tool is GetGenie AI. With Genie, you may edit any web material, including sentences, paragraphs, and whole websites. It is now offered as a WordPress plugin.

The tool includes a template for paraphrasing called Content Rewriter. However, all GetGenie templates are intuitive to use and well-organized. 

For a single input, GetGenie can generate several outputs. For the content that is generated, GetGenie provides outstanding SEO services. This material may rank on SERPs and drive new traffic to your website. If you buy the premium package, the templates also include more features.

3. Spin Rewriter

The most capable online paraphrasing tool at users’ disposal was Spin Rewriter.  Spin Writer enables the software to produce text that is on par with that written by a real human. The online tool for paraphrase called Spin Rewriter uses cutting-edge technologies for superior outcomes.

The programme gives the user the freedom to rephrase as many articles as they like. It may simultaneously paraphrase up to 1,000 articles, saving time and effort.

For consumers who are interested in signing up for the yearly plan, the Spin Rewriter tool provides a 5-day free trial. All of the tool’s subscription tiers provide complete access to all of its features. Additionally, it offers a reasonable lifetime subscription plan.

4. QuillBot AI

One of the greatest and most often used paraphrase tools available is Quillbot.

More than 150 million users use Quillbot every day to shorten paragraphs and speed up article creation. Advanced NLP techniques are used by Quillbot AI to paraphrase the content and provide you with an original result.

Anyone may get started using QuillBot with a free account. You have a 125-word paraphrase limit with it, but you can paraphrase as much stuff as you like. This means that you are limited to paraphrasing a few sentences or shorter paragraphs at once.

You can paraphrase an infinite quantity of information each day when using Quillbot Premium. You can reword paragraphs with Quillbot’s free extensions for Microsoft Word and Chrome.

5. Article Rewriter

If you want to paraphrase the text on your site, Article Rewriter Tool is the best online paraphrasing tool. It has the ability to reword full articles as well as single sentences and brief phrases. 

It will enable you to quickly divide up a single blog article into numerous blog posts. You can make the quantity of blog articles available into twice or three times as much material by using the Article Rewriter. This will enable you to produce content for the same or different blogs that is more readable.

In addition to paraphrasing the original text, it also adds some pretty advanced vocabulary. This gives the altered content the appearance of being produced naturally and by a talented writer. It gets rid of the characteristic that most rephrase sentences share: a robotic writing style.

6. Wordtune 

Wordtune is a singularly focused paraphrase tool that excels at what it does. Once more, you may immediately begin using Word Tune for nothing. You can perform up to 20 rewrites each day rather than being restricted to one per world like other tools. Unlimited rewrites are available if you subscribe to a premium plan.

The tool functions a little differently than others because it gives you a variety of options to choose from rather than just replacing the text. 

Outside of the app, you can paraphrase thanks to a Chrome extension. In the commercial version, you can select between informal and formal writing styles and shorten or lengthen the text.

7. Jasper

It is simple to use Jasper’s AI paraphrasing tool. Simply select a template for the kind of content you want to rewrite, and the programme will generate original content for you in a matter of seconds.

Jasper AI rewriter saves you time and produces unique text because it is coupled with a plagiarism detector. The material can be rephrased in more than 25 other languages.

You may write more quickly and the copy is search engine optimised with Surfer SEO integration. Jasper is capable of rewriting text in a variety of formats, such as blogs, emails, social media posts, and more.

Conclusion

In the world of content generation, paraphrasing tools are becoming essential. They speed up the rewriting process while maintaining precision, effectiveness, and high-quality output. You can improve your content creation process and save a lot of time and work by choosing the appropriate paraphrase tool that fits your unique needs. Explore the highlighted paraphrase tools without hesitation and take advantage of what they can do to improve your writing in 2023.

The post Top 7 Paraphrasing Tools for Effortless Rewriting in 2023 appeared first on Linguix Blog.

How did you get into editing? What makes it the best work for you?

I totally fell into editing. I studied research psychology in college, did a Master’s in Teaching and then became a teacher for 10 years. I did some copywriting on the side before I had kids and realised it was a lucrative hustle. Post baby number two, I decided I wanted to be at home more and my copywriting business was going well. An agency I worked with at the time asked if I wanted to do some editing for them and I realised I loved it! I then did a course to brush up on my skills and took on more editing work until I stopped writing copy altogether.

I absolutely love it. The work is challenging, and when you work for a content marketing agency with several clients, it changes all the time. A big part of my draw to the profession is the ability to work remotely, but I also love helping to develop our writers’ skills.

What makes your approach to editing unique?

I’m a big stickler for fact-checking information. Probably bigger than most. This probably comes from my background in research and seeing how information can be manipulated. I’m very fortunate to have found a company that will let me fly that flag and protest against the spread of bad information through my fierce checking!

I’m also fairly resourceful. I’ll work to find a source or an angle that provides more value to the reader, probably more than other editors. This is often left to the writer, but I believe in team work.

How do you connect with your clients?

Understanding their goals is the most important thing. It helps you make even the smallest editorial decisions. We meet with clients and I get involved when there’s something editorial to talk about. Mostly we communicate in drafts, Slack and email. Lately, we’ve been communicating via voice message and video too, which adds another human layer to comms. Our vibe at Grizzle is to be like an extension of the client’s team, and I think that mindset really helps to build up positive relationships with clients.

What in your experience makes the content effective and valuable?

I work for a content marketing agency, and a lot of people go straight to SEO, thinking we chase keywords all day. Which is partly true, but there’s a lot of consideration for the reader in what we do. First, we’re always thinking about search intent (What does the reader what to learn? What jobs do they need to accomplish using this information?). That underpins a lot of the decisions we make when it comes to creating angles and outlines. We look at what competing articles are doing and think about what they’re missing (Have they offered an alternative? Have they talked about what to do if it doesn’t work? Where does the reader go next?). Finally, everything comes down to the outline. The outline phase is super important. It’s where we see the narrative take shape and what the argument looks like.

What qualities should a good content writer and editor have to succeed?

Editing in content marketing is quite different to editing elsewhere (book publishing, academia, etc.). A lot more rules can be broken, but often way too many are broken and need to be reined in.

To be a great writer, you need to have excellent research skills. You need to know how to uncover search intent, you need to know what the reader is looking for around a topic and you need to know how to tactfully deliver that information. Sometimes it will be a more thought-leadership piece, where you need to form a logical argument and support it with well-sourced evidence. Sometimes it will be more explanatory or informative and prescriptive. You’ll need to know how to write using different styles of writing and for different audiences and for different tones of voice. It also helps to have a good grasp of grammar and punctuation (and be able to switch between styles if you write for different clients).

As an editor, you’ll need to know how to recognise the quality in the above, so you can give positive feedback alongside requests for changes. This often means wearing different lenses and training yourself to compartmentalize the process: looking at a piece at different levels (a high-level for content issues, a granular level for punctuation errors).

You seem serious about informational hygiene. What are your rules to maintain a clear digital space as well as head?

I am evangelical about informational hygiene! If I could get on a stage and communicate one thing to writers and editors everywhere, it would be to support your arguments with good sources. Easier said than done, right? This is some of what we train our writers to do: maintain a pool of reputable sources (PEW research, Gartner, McKinsey, etc.), search these sources for your information first and avoid round-up blogs (very low editorial standards and easy to get lost in an original source black hole). When you find a good source, keep it somewhere safe (we use a database).

When I’m editing, I’ll check that what we’ve said is contained in the link. I’ll also check that it’s likely to be true. If a source uses a small sample size or doesn’t seem legit, I’ll question it and try to find a better one.

What trends in editing will prevail in the near future?

I think editing for the online space will gather more of a following. At the moment we content editors have to follow general editing spaces that are heavily geared towards books and periodicals. It’s really very different to these fields and I think there’s enough of us now to form our own community. I’m attempting this now through social media but I can see it being bigger in future!

I also think that inclusivity is here to stay. Watch AP Style and CMOS for their updates on issues like pronouns and neurodiversity.

If you decide to change direction, what would you do in life?

Oooh. Interesting question. Mostly because I’ve already changed direction! I think if I was ever to change again, it would be back into an educating role. I’d likely bring editing with me and teach about writing, though. So not too much of a change.

Can you recommend a Spotify Playlist?

Can I!? I listen to a lot of instrumental music because sometimes lyrics distract me when I need to focus. If I’m doing a light edit or something quite administrative, I can get away with words.

This is what I’ve been listening to lately with lyrics:

• Grunge Forever
• 90s acoustic
• This is Tash Sultana

This is what I’ve been listening to lately without lyrics:

• Instrumental Pop Covers 2022
• Sounds good
• Not quite classical

The post Why fact-checking matters: A Conversation with Jenna St John, B2B&SaaS editor appeared first on Linguix Blog.

What made you fall in love with storytelling?

I’ve always been captivated by movies. The way they can tell a story, how they can take you on an emotional rollercoaster and journey with the characters in just about 2 hours. At first when I was younger, I thought I just liked movies because they were just that… movies. But as I’ve gotten older and started telling stories of my own, I’d say I credit my love for storytelling to those movies I watched growing up. I don’t really have any particular ones in mind (although I always loved the way Disney told their stories, and now I can see why). 

Nowadays when I watch a film, binge a show, or read a book, I love to look at it from a storytelling perspective. How do they introduce the characters? How do they hook the audience? And the last thing would be this: The more I tell stories, the more stories I want to tell. 

Do you think words are the most powerful weapon at our hands?

I would say words really are the most powerful weapon we have. All of us can think back to a time when someone said something that made us feel a certain way. Sad, happy, proud, upset… Whatever it made you feel, it made you feel that way for a reason. And I think that’s a powerful thing.

You can use words to persuade someone, alter their emotional state, change their perspective, or even change their life. Think back to the most famous speeches in history and how powerful an impact they had and still continue to have. The way you connect with others all starts with words and communication. Most things in life start with words and have the ability to create reality, as cheesy as that sounds. And if you ask me, that’s a powerful thing. 

How long did it take you to figure out what you want to do in life?

To be honest, I’m still figuring out what I want to do in life. I don’t think any of us really know what we’re doing. As a kid, you look at adults and think, “Wow, they have everything figured out.” But as you get older, you begin to realize even they are still trying to figure things out. 

But I’ll say this. Over the past few years I’ve begun to get closer to what I want in life. And I found that by exploring, experimenting, and creating things of my own. I never would have found my love for storytelling if I never started telling stories to begin with. And that’s the same for anything. You never know unless you try. 

So if I had to give advice to someone who doesn’t know what to do or what they want in life, I would say to explore and try as many new things as you can. Because eventually you’ll find something that sticks. Eventually you’ll find that thing that sets your soul on fire. The thing you can’t picture your life without. 

What’s the best part of your work for you?

I honestly think the best part of my work is seeing the impact it has on others. Getting positive comments and hearing how much my work resonates or impacts someone, there’s nothing quite like that. I’ll also say that writing online and creating content opened so many doors for me that weren’t previously there. I’ve met so many amazing people and made some great friends all from putting my work out there. 

So the two things I like the best about my work is the ability to connect with others I otherwise wouldn’t and the ability to make a lasting impact on others. 

What do you think is the secret to connection with clients and readers?

The secret that I’ve found is to just be yourself. And yes, I know that sounds super cliché but it’s true. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. I’ve found that the most enjoyable type of writing to write and read is the most conversational. As a writer, all you’re trying to do is have a conversation with one person. So just be yourself and don’t take it too seriously. Pretend you’re having a conversation with an old friend. 

I think another secret to connecting with others is being relatable. Think about it, it’s a lot easier to build trust with someone when you see they’re just like you. Whether they were in your exact situation or come from a similar background. 

Being relatable and being yourself are the two things that will get you farthest when you’re trying to connect with your reader. 

What helped you find your voice in writing and presenting yourself to the world?

Honestly, I think the best way to find your voice is to replicate other writers first. When you’re new and haven’t written too much, it can take a bit of time to find out what works for you. So I know when I was in that position, I studied other writers and kind of picked apart the things I liked about their writing and took note of the things I didn’t like. Do I like their shorter style of sentences? Check. Do I like the way they use huge, complex words? Nope. The more writing you read from others, the more you’ll start to see what elements you would want to include in your own writing. 

And then the other thing may be obvious… but in order to find my voice, I had to write a lot. Most of the time I didn’t publish it, but I just wrote to myself over and over again. Eventually, I started to get a feel for the type of writing I enjoyed. 

So those are the two main things I did to find my own voice. I read a lot of work from other writers and took note of the things I liked and didn’t like, and I wrote a lot.

Office vs Freelance: what’s closer to you?

I would say I’m more of a freelance-style writer. I don’t have much experience in an office. But I’ve been writing freelance and writing for myself for quite some time now. I think I work best when I’m alone and focused on my work, so freelance writing has been able to do that for me. 

Where do you look for inspiration in your work?

The main place I look for inspiration for my work is in the work of others. I can’t tell you how many ideas I’ve jotted down on my phone after seeing something on social media or the internet. We’re fortunate to live in a time when almost anything is accessible and anyone can share their ideas and creativity with the world. So I definitely take advantage of that. 

The other (often overlooked) place I find inspiration is in my own work. Many people think you have to come up with an original idea every time you create something. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve only recently started looking at my own work as inspiration, but it’s been a game-changer. Maybe I said something in a podcast that I want to expand upon in a blog article. Maybe I wrote a paragraph in an email that I want to turn into a video. Once you realize that inspiration is all around you, it becomes a lot easier to start creating. 

Do you have any advice for young freelancers and content creators?

The main advice I have is to just start. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. It may be scary at first or you may think others won’t care about what you have to say. But the truth is, we all have a story to tell. It’s just a matter of realizing your story is worth telling. 

So just start somewhere. Start small and eventually once you gain some confidence, work your way up. The hardest part is the first time you hit “publish.” After that, you realize it wasn’t so bad. So don’t be afraid to share your work and show your creativity. Because it can open more doors of opportunity than you ever thought possible. I know it did for me.

The post How To Find Your Writing Voice: A Talk with Connor Flynn, freelance writer and content creator appeared first on Linguix Blog.

However, it’s clear that your colleagues and clients deserve a timely response. An out-of-office message can be a great help as your coworkers know you’ll get their message and when they can expect to get a response.

Out-of-office messages are automatic email replies, that let people contacting you know you aren’t at work at the moment. People reaching out to you are aware that you’re unavailable, how much time they need to wait until they get a response or whom to contact in your absence. Employees usually leave these messages when going on vacation or sick leave.

Make sure your automatic reply is clear and complete, so it won’t cause misunderstanding or confusion while you’re out. Read on to find out what an effective out-of-office message should look like.

What Should Be Included in Your Out-of-Office Message?

An informative out-of-office message should consist of the following details:

The dates of your time off and when you’re going to return. If you don’t clearly indicate the dates when you’re out, your colleagues and clients might send you hundreds of emails, thus making it annoying and time-consuming for you to get into a normal routine after you get back.

A brief explanation of why you’re absent. You may think that it’s unnecessary. However, if they know you’re taking vacation time or simply sick, they’re less likely to bother you.

Contacts of teammates who can help in your absence. Don’t miss this information. Otherwise, your vacation time might turn into torture. Write their names, emails, phone numbers and job titles, so that people know who to contact for certain tasks.

Providing this information will give receivers two options: to wait for you or continue without you. It usually takes a few lines, so the automatic email reply should be quite short.

What Information Should Be Avoided in Your Out-of-Office Message?

Automatic replies may seem a great opportunity to express yourself or share some personal information. Remember though that you should keep it professional or you risk tainting your reputation in the eyes of coworkers and clients. Avoid the following:

• Providing unnecessary details. Since it’s a message related to your work, it’d be too informal to tell everyone about your exact plans or the name of the disease. It’s totally enough to mention that you’re on vacation or ill.

• Being too silly and funny. Maybe a new client appears while you’re out. Just imagine what his reaction would be after he reads a harmless joke. It can be misunderstood and give the receiver a bad first impression.

• Getting receivers’ hopes up by telling them you’ll respond as soon as you get back. You’ll probably not be able to hit the ground running on the day you return as there will be too much work to catch up on. Therefore, it’s better not to make a promise about the exact time or date when you’re going to respond.

• Promising your colleagues will help right away. Your teammates will apparently be too busy while you’re gone, so you can’t promise in the out-of-office message that receivers get immediate help. Ask your colleagues if you can mention their names in the first place.

• Grammar, spelling mistakes and typos. Anyone from your colleagues (including top managers) to your clients could get your automatic reply. So make sure to proofread it thoroughly or if you’re in a hurry, try Linguix’s AI-powered writing assistant that edits as you type. 

Examples of Clear and Concise Out-of-Office Messages

Use one of the following templates for your automatic reply if you’re running out of time or just looking for examples:

“Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out. I’m away from the office for [reason], but I’ll be back on [date].

If it’s an urgent matter, feel free to contact Sarah Wesley at [email and phone number].

Best Regards,

[Your Name]”

“Hey,

Thanks for your email. I’ll be out of the office from Nov. 5-13. If you need help while I’m away, please reach out to Tom Brown at [email and phone number] for questions regarding sales or Mary Williams at [email and phone number] for questions about marketing.

Best,

[Your Name]”

“Greetings,

I appreciate your message. I am out of the office until [date] with no email access. If you need immediate help before then, you may call me at [phone number].

Sincerely,

[Your Name]”

In conclusion

Out-of-office messages aren’t just a formality, they’re essential to keeping processes in order when employees are absent. They also remind others on what days you’ll be unavailable and lower their expectations. Therefore, keep it succinct, error-free and informative.

The post How to Write an Effective Out-of-Office Message appeared first on Linguix Blog.

The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, states that 20% of your company’s salespeople will generate 80% of your sales revenue. How are they closing that many deals? Let’s look at best practices for writing a compelling sales pitch, so that your prospective customers get attracted by and curious about your offer.

Identify Buyers’ Needs

The first and most essential step is to conduct deep research about your target audience. Find out what chosen companies specialize in and what goals they pursue. Learn the customer’s profile and background in detail as well — who they are, what their preferences are, what factors influence their behaviors (social, cultural and so on). Understand their pain and motivation.

Remember that your pitch should be about your customer, not your company. What values does your product offer? Is it improving efficiency, reducing costs or both? List all product features and identify the benefits each of them provides. A clear introduction of benefits is much more valuable than a simple description of features.

The more you know about your customers, the more likely you are to write a sales pitch that will appeal to your target audience. Understanding your buyer’s needs can help build trust and highlight how your product can relieve their pain.

Make the Pitch Personal

A trivial message sent to all prospects is the worst thing a sales rep can do. Therefore, it’s important to plan how you can personalize your pitch. After you’ve created a base template, you need to change it according to the media you use, clients’ peculiarities, needs, goals, motivation and pain. 

For example, pitches via social media and email would be written in completely different styles.

Catch Clients’ Attention 

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. Therefore, it’s crucial to grab customers’ attention in the very beginning. Your headline shouldn’t sell, but present your product or service in an attractive way so that it seems useful for prospective customers. The goal of the headline is to make them curious and willing to learn more about your offer.

• To write an eye-catching headline, make sure to mention the values your target audience is looking for. 
• 70% of the total digital media time in the US is spent on smartphones, therefore the headline should be short and succinct.
• Best headlines represent engagement on an emotional level, so try to connect to clients’ emotions. 
• It’s crucial to test your headlines over and over again to increase the chances of success. 

Include CTA

It’s hard to believe, but 85% of the interactions between salespeople and prospects end without the salesperson ever asking for the sale. Without clear instructions on what to do next, your sales pitch becomes nearly useless. 

Therefore, determine what your buyers need to do. Do they need to call back or click on a link to open your website? Use precise and actionable phrases with clear instructions.

Remember, your sales pitch should always end with a well-written call to action.

Check Grammar and Spelling

Finally, your pitch is ready, it’s now time to check grammar and spelling. It may seem unnecessary, but a lot of businesspeople pay attention to the way the copy is written — mistakes make your speech look unprofessional. 

If you’re running out of time, you can use Linguix’s grammar and spelling checker. This AI-based writing assistant edits your writing as you type and is great for creating emails and social media messages 

Don’t Forget to Write Follow-up Emails

70% of salespeople stop at one email. Nevertheless, if you send more emails, you’ve got a 25% chance to hear back. Statistics don’t lie, so it’s crucial to write one or more follow-up emails after the sales pitch.

Wrap Up

Let’s outline the tips we’ve discussed in this article: 

• A sales pitch that converts prospects into loyal customers should be personalized and based on target audience needs; 
• A proper headline defines whether clients open your email or not;
• A clear call to action significantly increases chances of the desired conversion;
• A grammatically correct copy looks more professional;
• Follow-up emails aren’t aggressive: 60% of customers say “No” four times before saying “Yes”.

The post 6 Tips to Write a Compelling Sales Pitch appeared first on Linguix Blog.

I’d like to meet my colleagues, Kristen, and James.

You may ask whether the last comma in the example above is necessary. In this case, the Oxford comma clarifies to the reader that colleagues, Kristen, and James are separate entities. It implies that Kristen and James are not the writer’s colleagues. If they are, however, the Oxford comma should be removed:

I’d like to meet my colleagues, Kristen and James.

The Oxford comma is also called the serial (or series) comma and is used to clear up ambiguity like in the sentence above. However, it’s redundant in most lists:

Our pets love bananas, apples and watermelons.

As you can see, the Oxford comma in this example is unnecessary. Should we use it when it’s clearly superfluous? Let’s figure it out.

Do We Always Need the Oxford Comma?

To illustrate why the Oxford comma is important in some cases, let’s consider the following example:

We’re happy to see your friends, Taylor Swift and Jared Leto.

The obvious questions arise: are they seeing the friends and Taylor Swift and Jared Leto as separate entities? Or are Taylor Swift and Jared Leto the friends? It’s ambiguous and there is no clear answer unless the Oxford comma is present:

We’re happy to see your friends, Taylor Swift, and Jared Leto.

The Oxford comma here fully clarifies that they’re happy to see not only Taylor and Jared but also their friends.

However, as mentioned before the Oxford comma isn’t always necessary:

Yesterday I bought a dress, a skirt, and an amazing ring.

There is no ambiguity, so the Oxford comma is redundant. Nevertheless, supporters of the comma insist on its usage even if it’s unnecessary. In fact, it’s a matter of style. 

Use of the Oxford comma Comes Down to Style

Most publications have their own writing guidelines. There are two well-known style guides – the Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style. The AP Stylebook doesn’t require the use of the Oxford comma. In turn, the Chicago Manual of Style uses it. These guides are created not to demonstrate the only way for grammatically correct writing, but to maintain consistency. 

In general, whether to use the Oxford comma or not is up to you if the ambiguity isn’t in place. 

Bottom Line

The use of the Oxford comma is grammatically correct and sometimes can be unnecessary. Therefore, it’s open to interpretation and there is no clear answer.

When it comes to academic writing, make sure you’ve chosen appropriate style guides. Otherwise, follow your gut and keep in mind that being consistent is what matters most.

The post What is the Oxford Comma and When You Need It appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Companies across multiple industries have been striving to boost diversity among their teams for decades. However, many leaders have realized that more can be done in terms of inclusivity. One of the most apparent parts of these efforts is promoting inclusive language in corporate communications, both internal and external. Unfortunately, multiple negative effects may be caused when employees use inappropriate language in their written communications, from linguistic racism to gender bias. 

In response to the rising problem, companies have started to deploy various solutions. As such, CVS Health enforced conscious inclusion workshops, Google began to nudge users to adopt the gender-neutral language, UK Finance, EY, and Microsoft launched an inclusion campaign.

In addition to any educational activity, many companies have introduced style guides, a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents, to eliminate using any gender-related descriptions of notions that have non-gender-related synonyms.  

Linguix Style Guides is a feature used by thousands of businesses worldwide. Today, we publish aggregated and depersonalized statistics that show what topics companies are covering in their style guides.

Disclaimer: no personal data was analyzed or accessed during the research. We’ve analyzed technical information and metadata on style guides rules and their activation only.

Methodology

We have 4156 style guides on the platform that took part in the research. We’ve analyzed the frequency of rules met in style guides. No content created by customers and their employees were analyzed as we do not store this data.

Based on the research, we were able to come up with three categories of the style guide rules enforcing:

• non-discriminatory language,
• correct branded language,
• proper English dialect usage (Mostly enforcing US spelling).

Here is what we’ve found by analyzing this data.

Key takeaways

Non-discriminatory language turned out to be the most popular purpose of corporate style guides (37% of guides covered this topic), while correct brand language enforcement was the #2 priority (21% of style guides solved this task). Also, many style guides administrators require their employees to use the correct English dialect, primarily enforcing US spelling (17%).

Most companies use Linguix to monitor external communications with customers, but some also use it internally to discourage employees from using the unwelcomed words in emails or Slack messages. That might mean avoiding gender-biased wording, prodding employees to think twice before they refer to a diverse group of people as “guys” instead of “team,” or use gendered words like “manpower” instead of “personnel” in their outgoing communications.

Here are some frequently used style rules focusing on gender-neutral language:

• businessman → businessperson, entrepreneur
• guys → team, everybody
• manpower → staffing, workforce, personnel, human resources
• foreman → supervisor
• middleman → contact person, go-between, broker, intermediary
• sister company → company, partner company, associated company
• man on the street → average person, ordinary person
• lady doctor → doctor

What else: brand safety

During the past year, we’ve also launched a bunch of demo projects helping the businesses worldwide to set up Linguix and create style guides for them based on the corporate requirements. Here are some interesting style guide use cases from such demos:

• One client in the IT industry used Linguix Style Guides to deter its employees from using the word “digitalization” to avoid sounding distant and too corporate.
• Also, companies try to remind their employees not to use political and national-related terms. For e.g., during Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict escalation in 2021, some companies added the name of the disputed region to their style guides as a term to avoid.
• One Asian bank enforces its employees to use the People’s Republic of China instead of China and instead of Hong Kong – Hong Kong, China. Another style guide bans writing about Jammu and Kashmir to control geopolitical risks.  

Final thoughts

Our goal here at Linguix is to help our corporate users to communicate in ways that indicate competence and confidence at work. We believe that using Style Guides can help businesses to build healthier connections with their customers, and boost team morale by ensuring everyone within the company is happy with internal communications.

The post How Companies Use Linguix Style Guides: Inclusive Language, Correct Corporate Terms, Brand Safety appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Wrong. Because if your business is somehow connected to sales and marketing (not to mention that it includes any form of communication with others) then grammar, spelling, and punctuation are really important. Or, I should say, poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation can have a very real and detrimental effect on your business. Here’s how:

Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation can dilute your marketing message

You’ve worked hard as a team to identify the right message for your audience. That work may have included focus groups, market research and any other number of steps to get to the point where you know the content that will sell your product or brand.

And then what? You go and produce that content complete with grammar, spelling, punctuation, or even stylistic errors that dilutes the very message that you worked so hard to create. There is a fine line between success and failure in business.

Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation affects the consistency of your brand message

People look for a brand that they can trust. And a brand that they can trust is a brand that sends out a consistent message. Consistency includes many different things, but consistency in the wording used is a key feature. How can poor grammar, spelling, and so on help with any degree of consistency unless we are talking about the consistency to regularly make mistakes?

Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation affects brand credibility

Regularly, poor grammar and typos are cited as being one of the main things that puts people off a brand. Landing on a webpage that includes many mistakes leads to a high bounce rate. People simply don’t trust brands that seemingly do not take the time and effort to produce content that is free from errors. What does it say about your brand?

Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation affects user accessibility

Have you ever considered that not all people who read who you have written will automatically ‘get’ what you mean? There is a number of reasons for this, but an obvious one is that not all people have a fantastic grasp of English. Typos and grammatical mistakes in your content will only make matters worse if that user is literally trying to understand the relevance of every word – whether that word is right or wrong.

And then have you considered that that are millions of people out there are visually impaired and so will rely on assistive devices that will scan and then read aloud your written text. Is your content going to make much sense now? 

Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation can lead to potential customers literally not understanding you. Or even worse sometimes, they may misunderstand you. Either way, it’s not good for your brand, and it’s poor marketing.

How a marketing team can avoid grammar mistakes in their content

There are some easy-to-implement solutions out there, even for team’s who are perhaps working outside of their native language in using English. Proofreading will always help, of course, but what you need is a sophisticated writing assistant. Something powered by AI. Something that not only highlights all manner of mistakes and typos, but will lead to your team actively improving their communication skills. Something like Linguix Business.

As well as being an amazingly sophisticated proofreading and editing tool which can quite literally fix hundreds of thousands of typical mistakes (and categorize them), Linguix Business is a corporate solution that can grow the written content ability of your marketing team.

Set parameters against which all team writing is assesses, ensuring that content is not only free from errors but it consistent in the style and tone that you have set for your brand of for this particular marketing drive. Get a comprehensive array of statistics which assess team member’s writing against these parameters. This can also be useful in hiring too, ensuring that the new member will have the capabilities you are looking for. 

The snippets tool allows you to allocate short-cuts for often-used pieces of text, meaning useful phrases, sentences etc can be entered into any team member’s text and the simple click of a button. There is also a templates library which helps team members write content from scratch. These tools quite literally reduce the time spent writing content, ensuring you make a very real financial saving too. 

You can also set up a corporate dictionary of approved words, phrases and synonyms which will not only further add to the consistency and quality of message produced by the marketing team, but will further educate your team too. We are talking about continuous improvement to boot.

And soon to come will be Linguix Business style guides which are practical reference tools for your team to ensure that they are writing consistently real content.

The post Grammar for Marketers: Why Grammar and Spelling Matters for Your Brand Message and Image appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Some people will tell you that they don’t. That is partly true. However, spelling and grammar absolutely do affect SEO because they are interictally linked to readability and user experience. These are two incredibly important considerations in terms of page rankings.

Why Readability and User Experience Matter for SEO Purposes

Google’s John Mueller has provided a very relevant quote in terms of the impact of spelling and grammar on SEO. He was asked whether these factors influence the Google algorithm. His answer was enlightening.

“Not really….it is more a matter of how it is received from a user point of view. If you are a banking web site and you have terrible English on it, then I assume users will lose trust in your web site.”

And right there Mueller provides everything that you need to know.

It is well-known that search engine algorithms are not smarter and more adaptable than ever. Long gone are those days when simple keyword stuffing would bump your business up the page rankings. Now there is far from one parameter used, but for those search engines it really all boils down to relevance and user experience.

How is relevance and user experience primarily measured? Well, among other metrics, it revolves around the number of clicks and the bounce rate (a poor bounce rate is immediately going to raise a red flag for the likes of Google and Bing). 

One factor that obviously influences a user’s decision to stay on a site or not is the content. That includes the relevance of the content, of course, and the design and layout of that content. But deeply rooted is the bias against typos and incorrect grammatical constructions.

It really all comes down to readability. Is the content easy to read? Does the content speak to me? Poor content – be that one littered with typos and mistakes – is simply not going to maintain the attention of users in a highly competitive space.

More than that, writing littered with mistakes erodes trust. How can you trust a site that cannot even take the time and effort to present its content correctly? And so the user bounces.

But even content that is not, technically, full of mistakes can still be bad from a readability perspective. Long convoluted sentences that don’t provide the information the user really needs, or a text that uses the wrong tone or voice in communicating is simply going to alienate that user. The result? They bounce.

And so, poor user experience results in poor metrics. Poor metrics result in rankings penalties. In short, spelling and grammar affect SEO.

The Solution to Improve Spelling and Grammar for SEO Purposes

So good spelling and grammar does, in fact, make a difference in terms of SEO. But that is no reason to panic.

Even if English is not your native language, or you just feel that your business, for whatever reason, is liable to make a number of typos in terms of written text, be that for SEO purposes or just in communication in general, then there is an easy solution.

Use a tool to help. Let Linguix be that tool.

What exactly does Linguix offer? First of all, it is an AI-powered and intuitive writing assistant, which includes a high-quality spelling and grammar checking tool. That tool covers, but is not limited to, the following kinds of typos and mistakes:

• spelling errors
• incorrect use of grammar
• bad punctuation
• sentences that are too long
• ideas that are poorly communicated
• wrong words
• wrong formality
• wrong feeling to the writing

The tool scans your work and not only highlights related mistakes but then categorizes these so you are not only rectifying them but learning along the way. This is not just a reactive tool, but one that seeks to build your ability in the future.

Linguix offers workable, practical solutions that have been built up by language experts. What is more, you get access to synonyms and definitions of words – tools that continue to build your knowledge and level of skill. You also receive structural alternatives and recommendations related to better style and format correlated to parameters that you set yourself.

Not done there, Linguix provides relevant statistics such as word and sentence count and even suggests an average reading time of your text. Get details about your writing’s average word and sentence length, and then, vitally, a numerical grade based upon the widely used Flesch-Kincaid readability score.

There is that keyword. ‘Readability’. Make your test more readable and trustworthy. See better SEO performance as a result. That’s what a smart tool like Linguix can do.  

The post Why Spelling and Grammar Mistakes Do Affect SEO appeared first on Linguix Blog.

What does that all mean? It means that, for the most part, written English is standardized. Indeed, grammatically, there are very few acceptable differences between written English in different regions and countries. When people speak, of course, it may be a different matter.

Two of the best-known forms of English are British and American English. Indeed, Britain and America are perhaps the two best-known English-speaking countries, although they are far from the only ones. Indeed, countries such as Australian, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, among many others, would also consider themselves to have their own variation of the English language, and that much is true. However, in terms of British or American English, most other countries would tend to follow one or other of those variations.

So how does British and American English differ?

Accent

Of course, there are British and American accents. However, just within Britain there are considered to be anywhere north of 37 different accents and dialects, so saying someone has a ‘British’ accent is a very broad generalization to make. When learning English, then , the objective should be 1) to become familiar with the accent of English you are most likely to deal with and then 2) get as much variety as you can in your learning experience.

Vocabulary

When it comes to vocabulary, there are also many variations just within Britain, or within America. Indeed, you will find variations in vocabulary in any English-speaking country.

But as mentioned previously, much vocabulary changes in colloquial speech, meaning the informal way that people speak to each other. However, in terms of the standard English that you find in a dictionary, for example, there is a distinct difference between the vocabulary of British and American English speakers. Here are just some examples:

This is just a taster of how different British and American vocabulary can be. As a general rule, the subjects of cars and food tend to be the categories with the most differences, but the vocabulary can be different in all manner of circumstances, as the examples above show.

Another thing to note is that, while most British people will know the American word, due to the fact American culture is so well-known (through Hollywood and Pop Music, for instance), not all British words will be recognized in the United States.

Grammar

There are very few grammatical differences between British and American English because English has standardized grammar. That said, there are a couple of recognized variations.

First of all, ‘gotten’ is the past participle of the word ‘get’ in American English, whereas in Britain the word ‘got’ is used. Here is an example:

‘I have got everything we need.’ (British)

‘I have gotten everything we need. (American)

In British English, collective nouns tend to be used with the ‘are’ form of the verb ‘to be’, whereas in American English, ‘is’ is preferred. Here is an example:

‘The team are playing well.’ (British)

‘the team is playing well.’ (American)

In spoken English, American English speakers tend to omit the present perfect tense, whereas British English speakers tend to conform more to the grammatical rule in this respect. Please note that in standardized written English, the present perfect from would be considered correct here.

‘I haven’t seen that movie yet.’ (British)

‘I didn’t see that movie yet.’ (American)

Spelling

Spelling is the other aspect of British and American English comparison that can cause some issues. The first thing to say is that there is no ‘right’ way. Use the version that suits your audience, and always be consistent, so don’t use the British spelling the first time and the American spelling the second.

In general, spelling differs in three specific situations, as follows:

These may not be the only examples of situations in with British and American spelling differs, but they are certainly the most common.

What can I do?

As well as focusing on the differences highlighted here, remember that you can make use of the Linguix writing assistant to avoid making mistakes relating to the differences between British and American English.

Simply choose the language setting you wish for and watch as the AI-powered tool identifies the mistakes. Speak and write the English you want to produce with Linguix. 

The post What Really Is the Difference Between British and American English? appeared first on Linguix Blog.