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Word Count
The Principal Problem
Thu Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2009
Wendalyn Nichols, editor of the Copyediting newsletter, offers useful tips to copy editors and anyone else who prizes clear and orderly writing. Here she looks at the all-too-common confusion of principal and principle.
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Blog Excerpts
Gobbledygook Awards
Thu Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2009
Britain's Plain English Campaign has given out its annual Golden Bull Awards for "the worst examples of written tripe." The winners this year include American Airlines and Coca Cola. You can read the exquisite examples of official gobbledygook here.
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Word Routes
At the Movies: "Airworld," "Unobtainium"
Wed Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2009
The end-of-the-year movie rush is upon us, when the studios roll out their high-prestige projects. I've been thinking about words related to two major movies of the season: Up in the Air (now in theaters), adapted from the novel of the same name by Walter Kirn, and Avatar (coming soon!), the sci-fi extravaganza from James Cameron of Titanic fame.
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Word Count
What a Crooked Spine Can Teach You About Writing
Tue Dec 08 00:00:00 EST 2009
My 15-year-old daughter and I share many traits. We'd both rather eat a really good piece of cheese than a sweet. We share the belief that The Gilmore Girls was one of the funniest, most charming programs ever produced by network TV. And we both have scoliosis.
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Teachers at Work
On the Road To (and With) Iphigenia: Adapting Greek Drama in the Classroom
Mon Dec 07 00:00:00 EST 2009
Shannon Reed, a regular contributor to our Teachers at Work column, teaches at the Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School, where she has discovered that adapting the Euripides play Iphigenia has lit an unexpected spark for her students.
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Evasive Maneuvers
Synergizing Backward Euphemisms
Fri Dec 04 00:00:00 EST 2009
In his latest monthly roundup of under-the-radar euphemisms, Visual Thesaurus contributor Mark Peters gets all pop-cultural, finding inspiration from the likes of 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy.
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Candlepower
Red Pen Diaries: The Solutions Problem
Thu Dec 03 00:00:00 EST 2009
I've got a problem with solutions. Well, it's not solutions, per se, but the word "solutions." Actually, it's not even the word "solutions"; it's the notion that all you have to do is throw that word onto your home page and the world will beat a path to your door.
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Book Nook
Survival of the Fittest
Thu Dec 03 00:00:00 EST 2009
"Survival of the Fittest" is just one example of the many slam-dunk vocabulary activities that Janet Allen offers to teachers of all content areas in Inside Words: Tools for Teaching Academic Vocabulary. Check out how this activity could play out in the science classroom in our lesson plan, "Vocabulary Bursting With Energy."
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Word Routes
Are You Esurient for New Words?
Wed Dec 02 00:00:00 EST 2009
A couple of weeks ago, Merriam-Webster announced their top words of 2009 based on the intensity of lookups to its online dictionary and thesaurus. Now Dictionary.com has their own announcement of the most looked-up words of the past year. Though the main list is full of usual suspects like affect and effect (perennial stumpers even for native English speakers), the "top gainer" is a very unusual word: esurient, meaning 'extremely hungry; desirous; greedy.' What might explain the ravenous interest in this obscure term?
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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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