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Grammarly Is A Must-Have Tool For Any College Student

Coming into my freshman year of college, I was confident that I could handle anything. I was the top of my high school class and a skilled writer who contributed to the school newspaper and even wrote for a few local publications on the side. I knew I could communicate my ideas effectively and clearly (my personal essay was pretty excellent if I do say so myself).

However, once I began my collegiate-level coursework, everything changed. I wrote more than ever—papers, emails, applications to clubs—the list went on and on. More importantly, my work was held to a higher standard than I was used to. Between ceaseless coursework and lofty expectations, my confidence as a writer began to diminish.

There were several moments during my freshman year, where I was utterly embarrassed about my writing quality. For example, in my journalism class, I received a C+ for a paper about the countercultural movement of the 1960s. My professor told me that my content was insightful but challenging to understand, given various grammatical and syntactic errors.

I told myself to be more careful next time and use this as a learning experience. However, three days later, I realized that an email I sent to another professor had several glaring spelling errors due to my hastiness. These writing mistakes weren't a one-time occurrence.

It was slightly embarrassing admitting that I couldn't handle my workload right out of the gate, but I also knew that I could do something about it. There were plenty of writing workshops and helpful tutoring sessions with professors. Still, the one tool I found to be the most useful (yes, more valuable than my professors) was Grammarly. My academic advisor initially recommended I download Grammarly, a free AI-powered writing assistant. Grammarly is designed to make you the best writer possible. It's perfect for college students looking to polish their writing, and is so much more than an advanced spell-checker. As you type, it offers suggestions to make your writing correct, clear, and concise.

If you download the Grammarly browser extension, you can directly access writing suggestions in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Gmail, and other popular platforms. It's been incredibly helpful when completing group assignments on a shared document or sending a lengthy email to a professor.

Since I found the free version of Grammarly so helpful, I decided to upgrade to Premium for the following year. I was blown away by the advanced suggestions Premium offers. It's like having a dictionary, a thesaurus, the Purdue Writing Guide, and so much more, all in one place. One of my favorite features is selecting the domain of my writing, such as academic or email, in the goals panel. This allows me to get tailored suggestions based on the type of writing I'm doing.

Another great feature is the plagiarism checker. I'm always doing a ton of research for various assignments and often forget to paraphrase my notes (especially if it's been a while since I first wrote them down). Grammarly's plagiarism checker ensures that every piece of work you submit is 100% original. Given my university's academic integrity policy, this is a must-have. Suppose you're still unsure about your writing after using all of these features. In that case, you can even hire a human proofreader from Grammarly to help you out!

Since downloading Grammarly, I've become far more confident in my writing ability. Funny enough, I even started writing for my university's newspaper. My vocabulary is more refined than ever, and my sentences are clear and concise. I'm even considering an English minor! Trust me, as a college student, Grammarly (free or Premium) is one of the best investments you can make. Download Grammarly today to elevate your writing forever.

Start writing like a pro today: Click this link now to try Grammarly for free!

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Let Handy Give You A Helping Hand

New moms and college students live shockingly similar lives. Zero free time, no sense of privacy, familiar with the midnight hour, and impossible roommates. The difference is that sometimes the impossible roommate is Kerry, the art history major who doesn't ever clean the drain, and sometimes it's the little light of your life who's up, screaming and colicky at 2 AM.

At two completely different points in your life, you could be living the same lifestyle. If you are stressed AF, it's OK to ask for help. When you're feeling overwhelmed, you could use a little help from Handy. It's a website that connects you to professional cleaning pros who can come to your home (or dorm) as early as tomorrow to clean your floors, the microwave, or do whatever needs to be done so you can get a little bit more time for you. Cleaning pros booked through Handy can be scheduled to come back on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis, so you have one less thing to worry about.

Now it's time to play everyone's favorite game: new mom or college student?

There are mystery stains on all your clothes.

You've gotten used to "the stain you hope is nacho cheese and not pee." If you throw a party every other weekend or have a baby that throws up more than you did in your first trimester, you're going to regret going with the soft, cream carpet. Next time, go with dark and patterned.

Ramen's a staple in your diet.

You know exactly how long to microwave your ramen to steaming, but not boiling hot, for immediate slurping. Maybe it's ten times better than your university's cafeteria food, or it tastes pretty phenomenal when the closest you last had to a meal was some Cheerios you found under the kitchen table. One thing's for sure: there's only two times in your life instant ramen can taste this delicious.

The pile of dishes in your sink is defying gravity.

Wow, your dish pile might reach the moon before the astronauts do. How has that not toppled yet? Once you put away the dishes in the dishwasher, then you can start on the sink dishes. Eventually. Maybe once you hand in this thesis paper. Or after you listen to Baby Einstein for the seventeenth time until he finally falls asleep. Eventually!

You wore yoga pants every day this week.

They're not just for yoga. Maybe you've got nothing clean, maybe they're the only thing in arm's reach for running to 7 am lectures or PTA meetings, but you probably have nothing clean. There are no binkies or wifi in the laundry room! You shouldn't have to spend so much time in there. Yoga pants, it is.

If playing new mom or college student is hitting a little too close to home, Handy's here to save you. With top-of-the-line pros and booking available as early as next-day, you can find a pro you love to come every week, month, whatever fits your needs. If you have to focus on other things, like your 3.5 GPA or 3.5 kids, use Handy to get some help with the rest.

The folks at Handy are extending a Limited Time Offer to our readers. For a limited time follow this link to get a special offer on a cleaning plan!


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Oscars 2018 Preview: Best Picture

Get Caught Up on This Year's Nominees

Call Me by Your Name Movie Clip - Dance Party (2017) | Movieclips Indie
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Yesterday the Academy revealed their nominees for the 2018 Oscars. In case you're not caught up, here's Popdust's previews of the Best Picture candidates:


The Phantom Thread

It's been a decade since the Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Greenwood dream team got together to make a film, and while The Phantom Thread may not be quite as seismic as There Will Be Blood, it's made with just as much quality and finesse. Methodical, detailed, and imbued with significance in every smallest moment of run time, it's also the film that pushed Day-Lewis to retire from acting, which makes The Phantom Thread worth watching on two fronts. For a more in-depth look, check out my review.


Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

For my money, Martin McDonagh is one of Europe's most talented dramatists alive today. Three Billboards plays like a stage show—small scale, modest production value, dialogue-driven, etc—and possesses the qualities of McDonagh's best works: icky moral dilemmas, harsh characters, every variation on sh*t, piss and c*nt. Perhaps no other film this year is as tightly written.


The Shape of Water

Not since Beauty and the Beast itself has a film concerning bestiality (or whatever the monster version of that term would be) garnered so much critical acclaim as The Shape of Water. Like much of Guillermo del Toro's work, Water is beautifully colored and shot, but lacks depth in its writing. In spite of an emotional climax that amounts to the sort of "he loves me for who I really am" sentiment most common to teenage dramas and rom-coms, The Shape of Water has been reeling in praise and Critics' Choice Awards. Plus, the monster character looks a lot like an Oscar statue up close, so that bodes well.


Lady Bird

In tone and style, Greta Gerwig may be the closest equivalent to Woody Allen for the millennial generation. The character of Lady Bird, played by Saiorse Ronan, feels like a culmination of all the other pseudo-Gerwig protagonists of past films—Mistress America and Maggie's Plan come to mind—and the story a culmination of that character. It's also really funny.


Get Out

I remember listening to the October 29, 2013 episode of Pete Holmes' podcast, when Jordan Peele, his featured guest, mentioned a script he was working out: a sort of comedy-horror film called 'Get Out'. He played it off as being early-stage and, frankly, I wasn't too interested in a movie with such a bland title from the Key & Peele guy. Evidently, I did a misread. Get Out isn't perfect—the acting is fine, it's (intentionally) corny, and it plays the Easter eggs meta-game with little regard for subtlety (He drives a Lincoln? Just hammer it into my skull why don't you?). But its concept is, basically, perfect—unique, hilarious, social commentary turned on its head—which is particularly refreshing in our age of sequels, revivals and rehashes. There's also never been a movie more suited to its cultural moment.


Dunkirk

Dunkirk is another pique Christopher Nolan picture—heavy, shot in expensive film, meant for only the largest of IMAX theaters. Its subject—the battles at Dunkirk during the Second World War—is so significant in 20th century history that it's surprising how few films have gone there before. Most importantly, in addition to all the other young British actors you can think of, it non-ironically features Harry Styles in a dramatic role.


The Post

If every Hollywood movie ever made had a group baby together, it might look something like The Post. The product of three of the industry's most accomplished and least objectionable figures—Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg—with a current events tie-in and leftist political appeal, The Post may just be the most normal movie ever made, for better and for worse.


Darkest Hour

Faced with the fate of his nation—whether to fight or surrender to the seemingly unstoppable Nazi Blitzkreig—Winston Churchill steps out of his private car on the way to Parliament, and takes the Tube for the first time in his life. Of course, no single bit of this sequence occurred in real life, but even as you're sitting knowing that, the pure emotion of the scene compels you to just let it happen. Such is the tension of Darkest Hour: it's Hollywood-ization without remorse, though the product itself is a terribly compelling drama.


Call Me By Your Name

Starring the point guard of this author's middle school Safe Haven basketball team, Call Me By Your Name is beautifully deep and uncomplicated. Much more compelling than what the film is actually about—a teen summer romance, queerness, coming-of-age—is how it handles the minute-to-minute interactions and shifts in its characters. For more, read my review here.


For continuing Oscars coverage, stay tuned for Popdust's predictions and review of the show.

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