“She even disgraces the name of Linton.” –Heathcliff, on his simpering wife Isabella, in Wuthering Heights. #burn

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Could We Just Lose the Adverb (Already)?

I can’t really get myself that worked up over prescriptive grammar issues, but I do enjoy reading the arguments. The adverb is an incoherent lexical category, a catchall. How are “there,” “yesterday,” “quite,” “assiduously,” and “indeed” all members of the same family? As we learn in school — in a definition that dates from Dionysius…

Zagg Rugged iPad Air2 keyboard case — USB mini socket came right out with the plug. Grr!

I have not had much luck with Zagg keyboard cases before (I think this will the fifth time I’ve asked for a replacement, across three different products), but Zagg itself has followed through every time. Similar:The Drowsy Chaperone @setonhilluniversityPersonalThe daughter introduced me to this wonderful Martin Freeman comedy. Kind of like School of…Personal#Blender3D practice: #Steampunk control…

Narrow Parsers

Creating n00b-friendly interactive fiction by deliberately reducing the number of available verbs? Intersting… Though I rather liked the results when I experimented with diegetic (in-game) hints delivered by an NPC who gets more and more specific to help the player accomplish some orientation tasks. Parser IF is fundamentally driven by player action, by game verbs, in…

Unmarked assignments in my queue: 0

This app, which sports a little red notification bubble showing the number of unmarked assignments on my to-do list, controls much of my life during the school year. This app doesn’t show the number of committee meetings I have to attend, the minutes from committee meetings I have to post, the assigned tasks I have…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu Logo

Clickbait writers hate this English professor’s time-saving trick!

Defeat clickbaiters with this one weird trick! You won’t believe how punctuation can save you time. Will you regret clicking that headline phrased as a question? (You can safely avoid clicking any headline phrased as a question, promises an emotional reaction, or hedges a claim with “may” or “could be”. You won’t miss anything important if you don’t click that bait.)

Waiting for the sound of bagpipes. #setonhillgrad 2016

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Here's a close look at the scepter leading the procession. #SetonHillGrad 2016 starts in a few minutes.

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Lining up for Honors Convocation 2016. #setonhill

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The last submissions of this o’er ripe term, Ungraded, mock me though this app. And thus, Procrastination midwifes this blank verse.

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Monument Valley: Minimal story, but an engaging world and a satisfying ending.

I was in no rush to finish the beautiful mind-puzzler game Monument Valley. Minimal story, but an engaging world and a satisfying ending. Similar:Male Microsoft Leaders Ignored Women Who Really Hated ClippyI hated Clippy, not because it looked li…BusinessSights, Sounds, and Smells of Elizabethan TheaterSomewhere during my education I picked u…AcademiaIn February, 2001, I was…