Learn something new, or refresh your memory - This weekly section in our Blog is devoted to improving your writing skills and vocabulary.

Word of the Day

ACUMEN (a-cu-men)
Today’s word is ”acumen“. This is a noun which means good insight or judgment.
For example, you can say, “Mark possesses a keen acumen in business meetings; he always sees a solution to a problem before anyone else.”

Common Grammatical Errors
Further/farther
Further and farther are often used interchangeably, although they actually have slightly different meanings. Both words refer to distance, but the distinction is in the type of distance. Further refers to mental distance, while farther refers to physical distance. Take a look at the differences as illustrated in the sentences below:

Example 1 (further-correct usage): The student read further in the textbook. (Note that the distance traveled is only mental.)

Example 2 (farther-correct usage): I have to drive farther to work than to school. (In this sentence, we are referring to an actual distance that is measurable in miles, kilometers, etc., so the word farther is used.)

Word Choice
Bring/take
Bring and take are very easily confused as their
meanings are similar. To prevent confusing these two words, remember
that bring means to carry something towards yourself, while
take means to carry something away from yourself.

Example 1 (bring–correct usage): Bring
the supplies to my house so we can work on the project.

Note that in the sentence above, the direction of the action is
towards the speaker.

Example 2 (take-correct usage): Take
the supplies to your house so we can work on the project.

In Example 2, take, rather than bring, is used because the direction of the action is away from the speaker. - Grammarerrors.com

Knowing when to use affect or effect in a sentence can be a challenge. These words are examples of homonyms. Homonyms are words that similar, but have very different meanings. Other examples of homonyms are two/to/too, accept/except, and there/their/they're.

Affect
In order to understand the correct situation in which to use the word affect or effect, the first thing one must do is have a clear understanding of what each word means. According to yourDictionary.com, the word Affect means:
1.     To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar.
2.     To act on the emotions of; touch or move.
3.     To attack or infect, as a disease: Rheumatic fever can affect the heart.

Effect
The word effect has a different meaning. Here is the meaning according to yourDictionary.com:
1.     Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result.
2.     The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence: The drug had an immediate effect on the pain. The government's action had no effect on the trade imbalance.
3.     Advantage; avail: used her words to great effect in influencing the jury.
4.     The condition of being in full force or execution: a new regulation that goes into effect tomorrow.