A grammar checker giveaway is the perfect gift for every writer

You all know that I write a lot.  Well, not as much on this blog as I want to, but I still write A LOT. Recently a company named Grammarly made a wonderful infographic talking about writers.  You may have seen it on Huffington Post.  I have written about their company before in another post and I will admit that I still love their stuff.

If you are not sure who this company is, check out their website link above.  I really like their grammar checker and have used it in the past when a paragraph just didn’t look quite right.  Of course, the best part is that there is a free service.  Once you try it and you really like it you can choose to upgrade to a premium account for $11.66/month.  So why aren’t you over there checking your work right now?

OK, back to the image at hand.  This graphic talks about why having strong writing skills can make you better at your job.  Let’s face it, genealogists do a ton of writing.  We write for clients, we write for lectures, we write articles for publication or for family and sometimes we write for ourselves.  Recently I realized that I am spending 6-8 hours, 5-6 days a week, sitting at my computer writing.  So yeah, with all that time on a keyboard I can see how we might be better than other professions who don’t write (like we do) all the time.

Now Gramarly does admit that the study can’t determine why those who write well tend to make more or appear to be more successful in their field.  However, I tend to agree with them that the skills a writer develops, like attention to details, probably help a lot to move them up the ladder.  My dream is to one day have an office with a door and no, putting a door in the dining room does not count.

Make sure you check out this infographic as well as the Gramarly website.  It’s a pretty neat site I am sure you will get a lot out of it!

Speaking of which.  If you do check it out, and fall in love with it leave me a comment below before February 21st and one of  you will receive a free account.  How about them apples?!

*This was a sponsored post by Grammarly. I did not receive any payment for this review, I was simply asked to review thier infographic.

New family relationship chart by Crestleaf

How many of you get confused when you are trying to figure out just how are you related to a new cousin you found?  Sometimes my head hurts just trying to figure out all the removes and how many go where.  To be honest, I keep a chart handy for just this type of calculation!

Recently I was shown this great blog post by Crestleaf.  If you have never heard of Crestleaf let me tell you a little about them.  They have a simple philosophy that is expressed in this mission statement “Crestleaf was built to enable people all over the world to capture, preserve and share their family story with living relatives and future generations.”  The website has free public records for you to search, the ability to create a private family tree, as well as the ability to share and preserve the stories of your family.  Sounds interesting huh?

However, it is a cousin chart that brought me there, so let me tell you about this great chart.  Crestleaf updated one that was originally created by Alice J. Ramsay in 1987.  We have all seen versions of this out on the internet, but I like the way Crestleaf color coded and added figures to it.  Of course the “You Are Here” tag was plain cute. 

Needless to say if you are looking for a high quality graphic display of kinship then make sure you check it out!