Search the Site

Your Search:
103 104 105 106 107 Displaying 1041-1050 of 3460 Results

  1. Wordshop

     For the New Year: Five Simple Vocabulary Resolutions for Educators
    Thu Jan 03 00:00:00 EST 2013
    The bad news: SAT reading scores have reached an all-time low, and recently released NAEP scores reveal that American students' vocabulary growth is "flat." The good news: It's no longer 2012. It's 2013, a new year, a time to buy gym memberships and to overhaul your vocabulary instruction. Just do it.

  2. Lesson Plans

     When You Reeeaaallly Want to Say Something
    Thu Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    How can the Visual Thesaurus help students replace trite words of emphasis with "words strong in themselves"?

  3. Blog Excerpts

     Pain in the English
    Sat Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2006
    Billing itself as a "forum for the gray areas of the English language," Pain in the English tackles such conundrums as, "Why is the word 'quarters,' to mean a place of residency, plural? When we say, 'I'll show you to your quarters,' we mean a room. So, why don't we simply say, 'I'll show you to your quarter,' without the 's'?" To find out the answer, click here.

  4. Teachers at Work

     Those Who Do Not Know History Are Doomed to Fail English
    Wed May 28 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    On a test given on The Crucible during my first year of teaching high school English, I asked my juniors to name the time period of the play. Now, I'm sure I mentioned this several times while we read it, and — call me crazy — but I'm also fairly certain Miller specified that his play is set in the 1600's, what with his bonnets and "Goodys" and the fact that the Salem Witch Hunt took place in that century. I assumed that this was enough information to answer the question correctly.

    O, foolish young teacher! Among the responses I received: "The Civil War," "American times," "Long ago," "the Colonial Era," and, my favorite, "the Early Twentieth Century."

  5. Language Lounge

     Privacy Settings
    Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    The US Supreme Court decided last month in the case of Snyder v. Phelps et al, which involved the Westboro Baptist Church and its habit, offensive to nearly all people, of picketing military funerals. The court's decision went in favor of the church and its right to carry on. When we learned that the court had split eight to one, and that the lone dissenter in the case was not one of the court's "liberal" justices but was in fact Justice Samuel Alito, we got all over the text of that decision like a cheap suit.

  6. Language Lounge

     Scale Your Onboarding
    Thu Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2022
    "There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!" So goes the lyric. But English is adaptable for special purposes.

  7. Word Count

     Five Ways to Silence the Devil on Your Shoulder
    Mon Feb 26 00:00:00 EST 2007

    Are you old enough to remember TV cartoons from the 1960s? If so (or if you're a 'toon fan), you may recall a miniature devil, complete with pitchfork, who sat on the shoulder of many a main character. This little devil whispered bad advice and spiteful ideas into the character's ear -- egging him on to do the wrong or rotten thing. Believe it or not, you too have a devil sitting on your shoulder. And he can really mess up your writing.

  8. Candlepower

     "Deep" Thoughts
    Mon Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019
    Do you find 21st-century life shallow and superficial? Take another look: In fact, ours is an era of extraordinary depth — linguistically speaking, anyway. As the 2011 song by Adele put it, we're rolling in the deep.

  9. Word Routes

     Tracking Down "The Missing Link"
    Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    A 47-million-year-old fossil of a newly discovered primate species has been trumpeted in the media as "the missing link" in human evolution. Nicknamed "Ida," the fossil is remarkably well-preserved, but paleontologists have scoffed at the "missing link" claim: it's not even clear if Ida is a close relative of us anthropoids, and in any case, the whole metaphor of "the missing link" only really works in the outdated model of evolution as a linear chain or ladder. But all the hoopla surrounding Ida inspired Nature editor Henry Gee to ask (via Twitter), how long have people been using the expression "the missing link"?

  10. Dog Eared

     Ben Schott Gives German the Sniglet Treatment
    Mon Dec 16 00:00:00 EST 2013
    In 1835, Charles Follen wrote, "The German language is sufficiently copious and productive, to furnish native words for any idea that can be expressed at all." In Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition, Ben Schott proves Follen correct, while establishing himself as the Rich Hall of German with this wonderful collection of Sniglet-like terms.
103 104 105 106 107 Displaying 1041-1050 of 3460 Results