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Blog Excerpts
On Columbus Day, a Look Back at the "Indian" Misnomer
Mon Oct 08 00:00:00 EDT 2012
As Americans celebrate Columbus Day, it's worth reflecting on the complicated cultural and linguistic legacy that Christopher Columbus left behind. There's a single word that aptly illustrates this legacy and all of its contradictions: Indians, the mistaken name that Columbus gave to the native peoples of the Americas.
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Weekly Worksheet
Get Your Pun On With The Bard
Tue Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2012
The truth is no one really knows when the great bard was born, but Shakespeare's fans celebrate his life and work this week: his observed birthday of April 23rd is also, ironically, the date of his death. Join us in paying homage to Shakespeare this week by using the Visual Thesaurus to get to the heart of some of his more famous puns.
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Lesson Plans
Improving Your Spelling with the VT
Thu Nov 13 00:00:00 EST 2008
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Language Lounge
Of Pit Bulls and Bar Mitzvahs
Tue Sep 02 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Back in the old days (pre-Internet), when life was simpler, dictionaries were thought to carry a certain authority. People consulted them in order to learn or verify the proper and accepted meaning of words, to resolve disagreements, and sometimes to find an authoritative hook on which they could hang arguments. Today, the Internet and other technological developments make those scenarios a little less dependable and straightforward.
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Word Count
The Crossword is Dead, Long Live the Crossword
Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Reports of the demise of the crossword puzzle have been greatly exaggerated, says Visual Thesaurus puzzlemaster Brendan Emmett Quigley. Brendan — whose puzzles appear regularly in the New York Times, Paste, and The Onion, as well as on his own blog — responds to the latest doom and gloom about the future of crosswords with a note of optimism. Far from being a crossword-killer, Brendan argues, the Web is attracting bigger audiences to puzzle-solving than ever before.
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Language Lounge
War and Words
Tue Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2009
The National Museum of Language near Washington, D.C. is putting together an exhibit on the role of the War of 1812 in the development of American English, as we approach that war's bicentennial (or bicentenary, as they still say on the other side). In the Lounge we've been exploring ideas with the museum, and this month we wanted to share some of our findings.
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Word Count
How to Write for 700 Hours on Three AA Batteries
Mon Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2011
I'm embarrassed to admit that my handwriting is so bad and so physically uncomfortable for me that I no longer use a pen. Well, except for dire emergencies or for signing checks from the Bank of Mom (which some might call the same thing!) Instead, I use my Neo Alphasmart.
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Teachers at Work
How Can English Teachers Nurture Young Writers?
Fri Mar 06 00:00:00 EST 2015
Lately, I've been talking about Stephen King while teaching Edgar Allan Poe. When King was in middle school, he wrote a "novel version" of Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum," based on the horror-movie adaptation. When his teacher, Miss Hisler, caught him selling mimeographed copies, she asked him why he was writing such "junk."
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Word Count
Should You Self-Publish?
Mon Oct 26 09:00:00 EDT 2020
Here are the three questions you should ask yourself to find out if self-publishing is right for you.
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Word Count
The Power of General Statements
Mon Jan 23 00:00:00 EST 2012
To be or not to be, that is the question.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Happy families are all alike, unhappy families are unhappy each in their own way.
What do these famous sentences have in common? They are all general statements.
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