I found out from a friend about a movement to show support for GLBT youths by wearing purple today. There is a facebook group (at least one). There are events organized in Chicago, and other cities. Much of the momentum…
Word Choice: From the Sportspage
Is partake used correctly here? I’ve always seen the connotation as passive – or that one took in or received something. There seems some ambiguity or confusion whether the coach is yelling at the ref and the cornerback Flowers, or…
on Academia
Thanks to SMBC
Scare quotes are Evil
As written earlier I’m seeing too “many” superfluous quotes. Wikipedia calls this Scare Quotes. Avoid this. I don’t like irony conveyed through quotation marks. Use words. And scare quotes don’t work for emphasis. Serious explanation here. Check out the blog dedicated…
Textbook Annotated Bibliography
How to write an annotated bibliography is covered in depth in the Comp 121 textbook. You can also check our social bookmarking site for loads of references online. NOTE: Refer to MLA handbook for how to cite sources – examples…
Does anyone see anything in this?
See also colorblind tests for children. and colorvisiontesting
What I’m Learning from the SRTOL Essays: FA2010
I want students to get away from the idea of correct or incorrect grammar. This thinking indicates a prescriptive rather than descriptive definition of grammar – and runs counter to the goal of the assignment; however, if someone really wants…
Comic on Teaching
Found this on the Shoebox blog (a tiny division of Hallmark). It’s consistently entertaining and occasionally useful.
Word Choice
Sometimes I get papers where it looks like the writer right clicked each word and went thesaurus crazy. Many students want to improve their vocabularies – but the best way to do that is by reading. Most often the initial…
Grammar Matter (?): that vs who
One mechanical or stylistic pet peeves that got violated most in the SP2010 semester is the careless or inconsistent use of that vs. who. These words (along with “which”) introduce a type of relative clause, which is particularly difficult for…