Fortunately, by taking regular breaks, you can keep your mind fresh so when you get back to writing, your ideas will flow. Here are some classic games to play for a quick study break.

Spider Solitaire 

Spider Solitaire is a very popular two-deck game. This game was invented in 1947, and it got its name because of the eight piles that need to be sequenced in the game, reflecting eight spider legs. Spider Solitaire is considered one of the most fun and challenging solitaire games because of its potential to make an in-depth analysis. If you want to play this game, you need to remove all the cards from the stockpile, and sequence them in order from Ace to King in all eight piles. You can play with one suit, two suits, or four suites. Try to play spider solitaire.

FreeCell Solitaire

FreeCell Solitaire is different from Spider Solitaire. The game has all 52 card decks faced-up from the beginning of the game. Microsoft released this game in 1995, and it comes with every release of their operating system. This game has four open foundations and four open cells. The top card of each downward fanned pile can be moved within the tableau underneath a card of a different color and a high number. They can also be moved into one of the free cells, helping you move and sequence cards around the tableau. You win the game once you place all the cards in their foundation piles. Try playing FreeCell

Mahjong

Mahjong is an entertaining tile game invented during the Qing dynasty in China and became popular around the world in the early 20th century. The physical board game can be played with 3 or 4 players, and there are 144 tiles with Chinese symbols and characters. There are plenty of variations for this game, but each player begins with 13 tiles in most cases. The computer game is a single-player game and is played differently than the board game. In this version, you get 144 tiles arranged in a four-layer pattern and are faced upwards. Your job here is to match identical tiles that can be seen. Once you match all of the identical tiles on the pattern, you win the game. Test your luck by playing Mahjong.

Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a puzzle video game invented in the 1960s and later made for Windows and other platforms. It has a lot of variations, and each one of them contains hidden mines. Your job here is not to detonate them with help from the surrounding numbers. They are indicators of how many bombs or mines are around. This game is fun and requires you to use your brain because you can’t make mistakes. Once you detonate a mine, you lose, and you will have to start over. 

Conclusion

There are a lot of ways to take a break while studying. Try one of these games. You’ll not only have fun, but when you return to your paper, you’ll be ready to write.

The post Fun classic games to play during a study break appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

With the Internet, information literacy skills help you assess fact from fiction, allowing you to research more effectively and create better arguments for your papers. For example, understanding that Wikipedia should often not be cited because it is a reference resource that anyone can edit, is an important information literacy skill. Recognizing that Quora has answers from non-authoritative sources is another example of a skill good writers should develop. 

With all the information on the Internet, you need critical thinking to find and discern the best sources for your paper. These skills will help you pick up things like bias or if a publisher has a hidden agenda, which can then be used appropriately in your paper. 

Well aware of the importance of information literacy, the team at Solitaired put together an information literacy solitaire game where each card provides pointers on how to develop these skills. We hope you enjoy the game, and learn to be an even better writer!

The post Try This Information Literacy Game and Become a Better Writer appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

You know what else is offered online? Writing resources! Struggling with plot planning, sentence structure, and bibliographies? Here are a few easy-to-use websites for your writing needs.

EasyBib

Bibliography creator and paper checker at your service. EasyBib.com offers a simple way to craft citations. Just input the correct information (author, date, website URL, title, etc.) and the generator will help you automatically create a citation. The free version offers MLA formatting exclusively, but you can opt for the paid service (EasyBib Plus) which allows access to 7,000 citation styles, and also provides unlimited grammar checks and plagiarism scans.

Purdue OWL

Purdue University houses an online writing lab (OWL) for students around the globe. With a wide range of resources available, you’ll surely find what you need. Writing guides, English as a Second Language information, tutoring resources and more are offered at the Purdue OWL website. You can find tips on subject-specific writing, various citation styles, more! It’s all at your fingertips, for free.

Project Gutenberg

Who needs to walk into a library when you have Project Gutenberg? It’s an online library with over 60,000 eBooks that include free Kindle downloads, as well. Many of them are classic literature pieces, expired books, and historical documents. This is really something special. Example: You can find Frankenstein, Moby Dick, The Yellow Wallpaper, and The Importance of Being Earnest on the website for free.

Your College Writing Center

Although school campuses are shut down, many centers are also shifting to providing online services. Some tutors and teachers. Just look up your college’s main page, and head over to your writing service website to see what’s available.

Plot Generator

Need help creating a plot for a short story, or just getting a grasp or your next essay? Plot Generator has a menu for all of your needs: fairy tales, short stories, twist plots, headlines, and hooks. You just click on your preferred option, and up comes a Mad Lib-like webpage. Fill in the blanks for character, animals, forests, heroes, adjectives, etc. You’ll be writing in no time.

Evernote

One great organizational apps out there is Evernote. You can add notes, insert links and pictures, edit documents, set deadlines, and more, all within one app. If you want to write post-it notes, go for it. Add pictures to remember an integral point of your paper. Leave all of your best ideas in the app. Evernote provides one place for everything.

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Resources and features mentioned are subject to change. Please see the official websites for official details.

The post Online Writing Resources That Make Your Life Easier appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

It’s the same way in education, and that’s where the strategy of modeling comes in. Modeling is when a teacher demonstrates a skill or concept, allowing students to learn by observing. It’s also one of the most powerful ways to teach writing. 

Why? Because many students learn best by example, and modeling writing also encourages students to share their work and to be receptive to feedback.  

Read on for suggested activities and tips that will help you make the most out of modeling.  

Looking for more help for your students? Visit EasyBib.com for resources on MLA format, APA format, and plagiarism.

Don’t be Shy: Write in Front of Your Students

When you assign writing or teach a new component of the writing process, write your own sample paragraph or sentences on the projector.  

As you write, verbalize your thought process to show students how to translate ideas into effective writing. It’s especially helpful if you can talk through any difficulties you encounter. This normalizes struggles and shows students how to overcome writer’s block and other issues. 

If you’re worried that students will simply copy your writing sample, choose a topic that’s similar to what your students are writing (but not exactly the same). 

However, even when students write something very similar to what you’ve written, they’re still learning how to write well. Perhaps next time, they’ll branch out and generate some new ideas of their own. 

Write With Students 

You can also write with your students when you assign a writing task. Often, seeing that you’re willing to do the same task you’ve assigned can motivate students. 

It also increases your credibility as a writing instructor. After all, if you’re going to teach effective writing, you should also be able to write effectively. 

For the same reason, it’s a great idea to write even outside of class. If you haven’t done much writing since college, it can be difficult to teach your students to be excellent writers. Continue honing your craft by writing with your students—both inside and outside of class.  

Show Students Your Writing 

You probably know from experience that most students dread sharing their writing with the class. Put them at ease by sharing your own writing first. 

For instance, if you write alongside your students, as suggested above, volunteer to read your work aloud when everyone is finished. You can also share what you write in your spare time or share older papers from your high school or college days.  

This way, you provide students with helpful examples of quality writing, and you encourage them to be more open about sharing their own work. 

Ask Students to Critique Your Writing 

Many students aren’t particularly receptive to feedback on their writing. Instead of viewing your critiques as an opportunity to grow as writers, many students simply view feedback as criticism. 

Sharing your writing can help students get over this fear as well. If you share high school or college papers with your students, also share some of the feedback you received and how you responded to it. If possible, show students a first draft with feedback, followed by a significantly improved final draft. 

Even better, you can allow students to critique your writing. When you read a piece of writing aloud, ask for feedback from your students. You may wish to draw their attention to certain aspects.  

For example, you might ask: 

• This sentence sounds a little awkward…any ideas how I can reword it? 
• I just can’t come up with a good title. Any suggestions? 
• What additional evidence could I add to this paragraph? 
• What’s a good transition I could use here? 

This exercise helps students start thinking like writers, and allowing them to critique your writing makes them more receptive to your critiques of their work. Emphasize that you’re not a perfect writer either and that you want to continue growing. Feedback isn’t criticism; it’s advice that can lead to improvement. 

Final Thoughts 

Model effective writing by writing in front of your students and alongside them. Think aloud about the writing process, discussing your struggles and how you overcome them.  

Share your work with students, even allowing them to provide feedback and constructive criticism.  

Your students will start to view feedback more positively and will develop a willingness to workshop their writing and learn from others. As a result, their writing skills and their confidence will grow.  

Aside from citation help, EasyBib also has free grammar guides and topic guides (on Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Seuss and others) for your students.

The post Teaching Insights: How to Model Effective Writing appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

Even if you give your students a 2-page limit, grading 150 papers can take hours. It’s difficult to give each of your students the specific, helpful feedback you want to provide (at least if you’re hoping to also have a life of your own).

Fortunately, these six strategies can help you grade essays effectively while still saving time for family, friends, and much-needed relaxation.

1. Focus on a particular aspect of the essay

You can use this method in one of two ways:

The first way is to grade the essays based on one particular aspect of the assignment, such as supporting evidence or focus and organization. This makes the grading process much faster while still allowing you to provide thorough feedback on this specific skill. You can focus on different skills each time.

The second way is to read the entire paper and provide an overall grade, but then focus your comments and feedback on one particular skill.

For instance, if you just taught a few lessons on supporting evidence, you could write in-depth comments for ONLY supporting evidence on your students’ papers. For many students, it’s actually easier and more helpful to focus on one skill at a time.

2. Chunk the essay into smaller pieces

When essays are full of misconceptions and errors, grading takes much longer. One way to reduce the time you spend grading is to ensure that the majority of your students submit polished final drafts.

You can accomplish this by chunking the assignment. For example, work closely with your students on writing their thesis statement and introduction. Next, work on gathering evidence and writing body paragraphs. Finally, talk to your students about conclusions.

If you take time in class to help students work on and polish each piece of the essay, grading them will ultimately be much easier. Plus, this process can be very beneficial for student learning.

3. Use peer editing first

Another strategy that results in polished final drafts is having students peer edit prior to submitting the assignment. Provide students with a list of questions, criteria, or a rubric to use in assessing one another’s essays. This guide should match what you will be looking for when you grade the final draft.

After students receive peer feedback, they’ll revise their essays accordingly. By the time you receive their final drafts, they should be much closer to meeting your criteria.

Peer editing also helps students become better writers. Thinking from the perspective of the grader gives them insight into what makes a good paper—and what doesn’t.

Another trait that makes a good paper: citations! At EasyBib.com, the tools can be used to easily create an MLA format works cited page and avoid plagiarism. There are also handy guides on APA citations, Chicago Manual of Style, and more!

4. Create a rubric

Make a rubric that sets out specific criteria and what a proficient essay should look like for each criterion. Asking your students to help you create the rubric is especially effective and will result in more polished papers.

The more you use the rubric, the more you’ll recognize what “proficient” looks like according to your criteria, and the faster you’ll grade.

Plus, a carefully written rubric can save you from needing to write many comments on each paper. Simply circle or highlight what level the student has achieved for each criterion, write a personalized comment or two, and staple it to the student’s paper.

5. Give collective feedback

If you find yourself writing the same comment on paper after paper, providing collective feedback can be an excellent time saver.

You can even jot down a few notes on what each class period seems to struggle with the most, or on common errors that you see by class period. This can usually be accomplished by skimming through a sample of essays from each period.

To make this process even faster, you can skim through an overall sample of essays and write down overall struggles instead; it’s up to you!

Then, stop individually writing any comment that appears on the list. Instead, create a few PowerPoint slides, either for your students as a whole or for each class period, listing and explaining common errors or issues.

In class, hand back the graded essays. Explain that they may not have many comments on the paper, but you’re about to discuss the most common errors you noticed. You can then have students find and correct these errors in their own papers or write a reflection on which of the common errors they noticed and how they plan to avoid them next time.

6. Grade electronically

Some teachers aren’t a fan of grading on the computer, but you might want to give it a try at least once if you haven’t attempted it yet.

Reading typed essays is often faster than attempting to decipher student handwriting, and typing comments is less time-consuming than hand-writing feedback for some graders. You’ll also avoid those pesky hand cramps.

Grading electronically can also make revisions easier to track for both you and the student, and you won’t have students raising their hands to ask, “What does this comment say?” This can often happen as a result of the increasingly sloppy handwriting caused by grading a gigantic stack of papers.

Bonus Tip:

Although it won’t technically make grading faster, you can make the grading process feel faster by offering multiple topics to choose from or allowing students to choose their own topics.

This reduces the monotony of grading 150 very similar essays on the same topic, which can sometimes make two hours feel like an eternity.

Conclusion

There’s no magic solution for saving time without sacrificing effectiveness when it comes to essay grading.

But you can try these six methods to make essay grading much faster, all while continuing to provide useful feedback and helping your students grow into strong, confident writers.

For additional articles on writing, visit our blog or our grammar guides! You’ll find articles on irregular verbs, how to write a research paper, plagiarism, and many other topics.

The post 6 Ways to Save Time Grading Essays appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

So, what is The Purdue OWL?

The Purdue OWL has provided free writing resources to students across the globe for over 25 years, and has become synonymous with expert writing resources, including help with citations. Maintained by the Writing Lab in the university’s College of Liberal Arts, the Purdue OWL is dedicated to helping students become better writers. With an exclusive agreement to integrate Purdue OWL content, Chegg will further build on and improve its writing tools, such as the EasyBib Plus grammar and plagiarism checker, and looks forward to receiving insight from the OWL team when planning product developments.

What does this mean for me?

The aim is to give EasyBib users like you easy access to expert resources and writing tools that continuously improve. To accomplish this, we plan to integrate expert content from the Purdue OWL into the AI-powered EasyBib Plus paper checker.

Upon full integration, papers you upload into the EasyBib Plus paper checker will receive AI-enabled instant feedback on grammar, spelling, as well as be reviewed using Purdue OWL’s rules and standards. This partnership will help EasyBib build world-class tools, whether it be for citing or writing, that you can easily use whenever you need it. It’s a writer’s dream come true!

See additional details about Purdue OWL, Chegg, and the partnership in the official press release.

Find help on MLA format, APA citations, Chicago Manual of Style, and more at EasyBib.com.

The post Great News: Chegg Announces Exclusive Agreement With The Purdue OWL appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

Do you thirst for more grammar knowledge? Our EasyBib Plus grammar guides can help! Read about linking verbs, conjunctions, using a possessive adjective as a pronoun, and many other grammatical points.

⸮ Irony Punctuation

If you’ve ever wished that you could communicate sarcasm in text as well as you do in speech, then check out this obscure class of punctuation that’s been out of usage since the 17th century. The “percontation point” (⸮) is essentially a backwards question mark. It used to appear at the end of sentences to indicate that the preceding sentence should be read as a rhetorical question (that is, a question that does not require an answer or already has an answer implied by the context of asking).

A more specific alternative was proposed by the French poet Alcanter de Brahm in 1899. His “irony mark,” a mark that resembled a backwards question mark, was raised like superscript. Several other writers suggested punctuation marks that varied widely in appearance, but were intended to solve the same need. In theory, the mark would indicate that a sentence was meant to be understood on more than just a literal level.

~ Tilde

The tilde (~) is probably better known as “that squiggly line you use instead of a dash when you’re trying to be fancy signing an email.” In fact, the tilde is actually a useful punctuation mark when used properly. In English, a tilde often goes before a description of quantity or time to indicate an approximation, as in “~20 miles away.” In mathematics, it can also signify “similar to,” as in “x ~ y.”

In other languages, the tilde is used as a means of indicating a change in pronunciation. The most well-known instance of this is the Spanish letter ñ, a letter between “n” and “o” that makes its own specific consonant sound.

* Asterisk

In terms of history, the asterisk (*) has one of the longest runs of all punctuation marks. Over two thousand years ago, Aristarchus of Samothrace used an early asterisk to mark lines of Homeric poetry that were duplicated during the proofreading process. This usage—to denote something that needs editing or other attention—has persisted to this day.

On the flip side of things, asterisks have also grown into another usage: as a means of censoring content deemed inappropriate. The asterisk is used to soften expletives while still maintaining the integrity and understanding of a sentence by replacing letters in a given word with asterisks. In the digital age, this practice has spread to non-expletive words, with software sometimes replacing a letter or two in a word or name with asterisks in order to avoid detection by algorithms or by other users searching for that word or name.

‽ Interrobang

At some point, you’ve probably encountered a sentence (usually in informal writing) where the author needed to express excitement and a question at the same time. The typical option for this expression is to use a question mark followed by an exclamation point, like so: ?! While this makes perfect sense, it turns out there’s a singular punctuation mark that conveys the same meaning: the interrobang (‽).

The symbol is actually incredibly intuitive: its physical appearance is a question mark with the vertical line of an exclamation point going right down the middle before joining with the stem of the question mark. Imagine superimposing an exclamation point on top of a question mark and you get the idea. This one hasn’t been around as long as some of the others on this list—it was first invented by advertising executive Martin K. Speckter in 1962 as a means of making cleaner ad copy. It was popular during that decade, but faded in usage in subsequent years. However, some digital fonts still include the symbol.

When you start work on your next paper, use EasyBib Plus citing tools to build your MLA format works cited list, APA reference list, MLA in-text citations, and Chicago style format bibliography.

The post Mysterious Punctuation You Should Get To Know appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

1. Follow directions

Yes, something that comes with a roadmap! Your assignment might have detailed requirements or just a general outline; either way, make sure to fulfill those requirements! It’s the best way to avoid missing points for easily avoidable things. Your directions won’t be more than 1-2 pages, so it should only take a few minutes to read them all.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions

It’s okay to have questions about the assignment, and instructors are usually happy to clarify. Asking for help doesn’t mean you’re a bad student—knowing when to ask for help is the mark of a confident, successful student, and professors are likely to remember that.

Your instructors aren’t your only source of help when it comes to writing papers. The librarians at your library are a great source to help narrow down your research so that you don’t flounder in a sea of too much potential information. Many have department-specific librarians, so check there for sure. And if the essay itself is giving you trouble, try your campus writing center or writing tutors. While they might not be able to tell you the unspoken quirks of a particular professor’s preferred style, they can help you with structure, strong thesis statements, and more.

3. Prep before you write

You might not think so, but professors can tell when a paper was thrown together without much preparation. It shows up in the depth of research and the focus of the paper in particular. The most important thing to do before you start a paper is to craft a particular question or theory around which to focus your efforts – a pre-thesis, if you will. You can refine it into your actual thesis as you outline.

Creating an outline is also important. It is a blueprint of your essay and will help you stay organized.

4. Vary your sources

It’s tempting, when you find a source that fits your topic perfectly, to just use it throughout the research paper and stop there. Or perhaps you found a particular academic journal that talks about the topic a lot. Even aside from the fact that many assignments will require certain numbers or types of sources, instructors will often prefer to see a variety of research. It demonstrates that you’ve done your due diligence, but also that you’ve considered multiple perspectives on your argument, which always strengthens it.

Pro tip: As you collect your sources, start citing them! Even if you don’t end up using them all, it’ll help ensure that you don’t accidentally forget a source and commit unintentional plagiarism. If you have to do an annotated bibliography in MLA or another style, also add your notes (or annotations) when you cite and while the source information is still fresh in your head.

5. Avoid tangents

It happens to the best of us: you’re writing away, building your arguments… and suddenly you’ve found yourself on a completely unrelated tangent (Example: You started off examining factors that led to the Civil War, then strayed into talking about war movies). Or, perhaps, you need to pad out your paper a bit and are tempted to shoehorn in something tangentially-related. This is a sign of a disorganized essay and can weaken an otherwise strong paper. Stay focused on your topic and make sure that every sentence and fact directly support your thesis.

6. Be honest

True, you’ll probably have to write college papers about research paper topics you don’t like or care much about. Even so, try to be as honest as you can—writing a paper with an argument you thoroughly don’t believe in will often result in weaker arguments and flowery, inauthentic prose. Instead of trying to restate a common or easy idea (that your professors have probably read many times before), see if you can find your own take on it.

7. Cite your sources

It’s such a simple thing, but it’s the fastest way to frustrate a professor: forgetting to cite your sources. Not only is it required to avoid plagiarism and for formatting, but it also shows that you paid attention to detail and lets instructors see how you came to your conclusions. MLA format is a common citation style, as is APA and Chicago Manual of Style. Consult your teacher if you’re unsure of which to use.

8. Proofread!

There are few things as frustrating as a wonderfully-argued paper that contains tons of grammar and spelling errors. Run a paper check—either on your own or using tools like the EasyBib Plus grammar checker—before submitting!

With these tips, you should be well on your way to mastering the art of the college essay – and impressing your instructors along the way!

Good writing starts with knowing the basics. That’s why we created these grammar guides! Learn to identify irregular verbs, build up your mental list of adverbs, see examples of interjections, and more!

The post What Your Instructors Wish You Knew About Papers appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

And yet, you may find yourself thinking, “I’ll just check my notifications for a minute.” The next thing you know, it’s been five hours, and that study guide you swear you were going to make is non-existent. Yikes!

But don’t worry! With these five strategies, you’ll find yourself with enough time to finish that study guide, run your papers through a spell check, AND check Instagram.

Make a Game Plan

When you have a bunch of test dates and essay deadlines to juggle, it’s easy to feel too overwhelmed to start. By making a game plan ahead of time, you eliminate any concerns you might have about what needs to get done. Therefore, you won’t waste time on figuring out what you need to study or do.

One way to make a game plan is to make a master calendar of key dates (i.e. final exams, essay due dates, etc). Once you have those jotted down, take a close look at each date and determine how many days you’ll need to study, research paper topics, write, prepare, etc. After that, determine what you’re specifically going to do each day. Your calendar will look crowded, but by working out all those key details, you can spend each of those days doing work instead of figuring out what you’re doing.

Give yourself an hour to make your game plan. If you front-load this work now, it’ll be easy to be productive moving forward!

Study With Friends

Studying with friends can be a blessing and a curse. It’s fun to hang out, but it can also be distracting. Here’s a way to ensure that studying with friends is a blessing:

Before you all get down to work, have everyone share what they want to get done during your time together. Be specific so that everyone can hold each other accountable. For example, if you have an essay you need to write, you can say, “I will write two pages by the time we’re done” or “I will read the assigned grammar guides in the first hour, and then begin writing an outline in the second hour.”

Once everyone shares their tasks, come up with a reward that you’ll do together only if everyone gets what he or she said done. If one person doesn’t meet his or her personal goal, then you all don’t get ice cream. It’s harsh, but it’ll motivate you to not be that one person.

Visualize!

Before getting down to business, close your eyes and visualize yourself getting all your work done. Imagine what it’ll be like to be done making that study guide by the end of the day. It feels good, doesn’t it?

Visualization is a powerful tool because it allows you to mentally rehearse what it’ll be like to have a certain experience. By visualizing being productive, you’ll want to recreate what you saw in your mind’s eye in real life. Because you’ve already witnessed yourself get everything done, you’ll know it’s doable and thus you’ll stay on task.

Visualize before the start of every study session. See yourself understanding concepts. See yourself getting through every problem. See yourself being productive.

Use the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a great way to manage your time. The technique is simple: determine the task you need to get done, work on it for 25 minutes, and then take a five minute break. Then work on the same (or different) task for another 25 minutes, and then take another five minute break. After two hours, take a longer break (i.e. 20 to 30 minutes).

This technique is helpful because it forces you to rest your brain for at least five minutes in between bursts of productivity. If you work too long on trying to memorize terms or doing practice sets, your brain will burn out. Let yourself take breaks with the Pomodoro Technique!

Plan Your Procrastination

Let’s be honest: you’ll probably procrastinate on studying at some point. That’s okay! What’s awesome about planning your procrastination is that you’re acknowledging that it’ll happen. Though it may seem counterproductive, knowing you’ll procrastinate will actually help with your mindset. Instead of wasting your time feeling guilty, you can give yourself a pat on the back and say, “It was fun to procrastinate; now let’s get back to work!”

There are two ways to plan your procrastination:

1. Productive Procrastination

Make a list of ideas, concepts, or formulas that each take five minutes to review. Write them down on individual notecards. Whenever you get tired by the task at hand and feel the itch to procrastinate, simply pick up a notecard and spend five minutes reviewing it. Once you’re done, you’ll feel ready to get back to work AND you’ve just done a bit of studying. Nice work!

2. Genuine Procrastination

This is similar to Productive Procrastination, but instead of class material, make notecards of songs, YouTube videos, or apps you like. When you feel like procrastinating, pick a notecard, set a timer for five minutes, and go on Snapchat guilt-free.

Both of these types of procrastination are equally valid. As long as you know which one you’re going to be doing ahead of time, your overall productivity will remain constant.

Try out these five strategies and see which ones work best for you! Now go be productive!

For any paper that needs an MLA format works cited page, APA reference page, or citations in general, try EasyBib.com. You’ll find tools and guides for creating an MLA annotated bibliography, generating a Chicago style citation, building in-text citations in MLA, and more!

The post Focus! 5 Ways To Be More Productive appeared first on EasyBib Blog.

To check your papers or SAT sample essays for grammar or spelling errors, try the EasyBib Plus online grammar and spell check.

1. Abjure (verb)

To reject, renounce

Abjure is a word that might pop up in your copy of “The Scarlet Letter” or another classic text, but isn’t much used today. Words like reject, renounce and disavow have taken its place. However, you can decipher from its root words that it must roughly mean “negatively judge”—a helpful memory aid for test day.

2. Calumny (noun)

Attempt to spoil someone else’s reputation by spreading lies

In today’s legalistic world, the word calumny has little place. If calumny occurred in your class, you would just call it gossip. If, however, it happened between politicians or other officials, it would be deemed defamation, libel, or slander. While you might not see calumny on Twitter, it’s highly likely you’ll see it on the SAT.

3. Diaphanous (adjective)

Light, airy, transparent

While this word is still used to some degree in fashion and interior design to describe sheer fabric, it’s largely disappeared from mainstream English. Still, try using it in conversation if the chance ever arises—it’s just so fun to say.

4. Inchoate (adjective)

Unformed or formless, in a beginning stage

This word harkens back to religious texts about creation. It isn’t quite the same as the synonyms for it (beginning, unformed) because those lack the connotation of grandeur the word “inchoate” carries. The kind of word you use for forming galaxies, fledgling governments, and mythological stories, it still packs a punch with the right crowd.

5. Inimical (adjective)

Hostile, enemy-like

Easy to remember because it sounds so similar to “intimate,” this word means just the opposite– cold and defensive. It has a strong negative connotation and implies a certain passive aggressiveness. Inimical might describe your feelings toward the big kid who picked on you in middle school (or maybe toward the SAT itself).

6. Limpid (adjective)

Clear, transparent

Let me be limpid: now a jargon term used almost exclusively in art history and literary review, this word is nearly useless. It means simple, easy to understand, or obvious.

7. Pellucid (adjective)

Easily intelligible, clear

Lucid is another word you’ll want to know for the SAT verbal. It means awake and fully conscious. For example, lucid dreaming means you’re aware in your dreams. Pellucid means about the same thing (and it’s also pretty similar to “limpid”). Who knew you once needed so many words to say things were clear?

For some crystal clear advice on how to create an annotated bibliography MLA, what is a bibliography, and much more, take a look at EasyBib’s additional resources!

8. Pulchritude (noun)

Physical beauty

This is a word, like abjure, that you probably won’t see outside of a classic text. In fact, unless the text is over a hundred years old, you may not see it at all. Shakespeare was fond of using this word to describe men. Because of this, it has a sarcastic tone to it most of the time.

9. Solipsistic (adjective)

Believing that oneself is all that exists

Instead of solipsistic, you can just say selfish. This is narcissism in the extreme. It has its uses in philosophy texts, where it describes certain ideas. For instance, it helps explain certain views that everything we think we experience is just made up in our own heads—an extreme form of solipsism.

10. Zephyr (noun)

A gentle breeze

Those familiar with classic rock will know that a zephyr is a mild wind. In Greek times, it was used to describe a wind that came from warmer climates in winter. It can be an omen of good luck or good times on the way.

As we wish you a warm zephyr to guide you towards a pulchritudinous score on your SAT verbal, remember that EasyBib.com is here for all your writing and citing needs in between tests. Get your citations done in MLA style, APA format, Chicago style format and many more, then get back to your flashcards!

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