Well-chosen words

Why is English spelling such a tangle? It all started when Latin-speaking missionaries arrived in Britain in the 6th century without enough letters in their alphabet. They had 23. (They didn’t have “j”, “u” or “w”.) Yet the Germanic Anglo-Saxon languages had at least 37 phonemes, or distinctive sounds. The Romans didn’t have a letter,…

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

What’s your comma IQ? Mine just so happens to be awesome. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Similar:ThinkGeek :: Star Trek Enterprise PlushSet phasers to “Squeee!” ThinkGee…AestheticsTwitter / Search – "couldn't remove your contacts" – All Tweets Twitter / Search – “couldn’t remove …AmusingDungeons & Dragons & PhilosophyIn one of the most compelling chapters, …ArtIn June, 2002,…

4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence

I’m particularly tickled by the MLA reference. 4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence | The Onion Similar:Stick to facts, but write news your readers will actually want to read. Students who put a lot of effort int…AcademiaBar Association #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 16) Rom Inspires Quark's Employe…Rewatching…

Pheromone – A hormonal substance secreted by an individual.

Really helpful definition from a “Pinkalicous” children’s theater study guide. That’ll clear everything right up for the kiddos, won’t it? Similar:Making a case for a singular ‘they’  I am definitely on team revise…Current_EventsFrisbee is a brand name, but how newsworthy is that?What would you do? Today I wrote 192 …AcademiaWhy is Elon Musk attacking Wikipedia?…

Study shows college students think they’re more special than ever…even those that can’t read or write and barely study

A hype-heavy treatment of a recent study (named vaguely as the “American Freshman Survey,” in the article, but not actually cited or dated… I found a copy of a 2011 report). While students are much more likely to call themselves gifted in writing abilities, objective test scores actually show that their writing abilities are far…

Wikipedia hoax about a war that never happened deleted after 5 years

My first-year writing students generally know they aren’t supposed to use Wikipedia as a source in a research paper, but many can’t quite articulate why. A willingness to trace a citation to its source and evaluate the source, rather than accept the source uncritically, is crucial to intellectual competence in the Information Age. An article…

BBC Four – Shakespeare Uncovered

I’m slated to teach Shakespeare this fall… blogging this for future reference. Six Shakespearean actors and directors go in search of the greatest dramatist who ever lived by revealing the stories behind and the wonders within some of his greatest plays BBC Four – Shakespeare Uncovered. Similar:In January 2000, I was blogging about dancing paperclips,…

Neil Gaiman’s Journal

This is great advice for everybody. I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. So…