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  1. Blog Excerpts

     Cantankerous Commentary
    Thu Oct 23 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Bill Brohaugh is the author of Everything You Know About English Is Wrong, and he has an enjoyable blog of the same name. He calls it "cantankerous commentary on what we speak and why we speak it."

  2. Behind the Dictionary

     Mastering the Ins and Outs of American Slang
    Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Our old friend Orin Hargraves, who contributes our monthly Language Lounge feature, has a new book out called Slang Rules!: A Practical Guide for English Learners. We recently caught up with Orin to hear about how his book, a companion to Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary, illuminates the richness of American slang for a global audience of language learners.

  3. Dog Eared

     English Lingua-History
    Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    The "backstory" of the English language is endlessly fascinating. Here are some of our favorite tellings of the tale.

    The Adventure of English

    Inventing English

    The Story of English

    The Secret History of the English Language

  4. Word Routes

     Is Dr. Johnson Rolling in His Grave?
    Tue Oct 21 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Last week, American lexiphiles celebrated the 250th birthday of Noah Webster — or his semiquincentennial, if you want to be sesquipedalian about it. On the other side of the pond, British word lovers recently had their own Dictionary Day, on the 299th birthday of Samuel Johnson. (Mark your calendars now for the big Johnsonian blow-out of September 18, 2009, sure to be a rollicking tercentennial!)

  5. Blog Du Jour

     KidLit Blogs
    Tue Oct 21 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    Here are some wonderful blogs about getting kids interested in literature.

    The Well-Read Child

    ShelfTalker

    Scrub-a-Dub Tub

    Kid Lit Kit

  6. Teachers at Work

     It Might Make Time Fly in Your Classroom: "Tuck Everlasting"
    Mon Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    There's a little sticker reading "Sci-fi/Fantasy" on the cover of my library copy of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. Well. I guess this novel, about the inadvertently-immortal family the Tucks, and their run-in with the mortal human world, is a fantasy, but only in the same way Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables are fantasies. For my beloved little Tuck creates and populates a world — in this case, a small town in the 1880s called "Treegap" — just as surely as those classics do, without aliens, space travel or weird people in trench coats lurking around. I hate to see this gem of a novel get brushed off to a genre audience, for it has much to teach classrooms of young adults.

  7. Word Routes

     Mailbag Friday: "Phoning It In"
    Fri Oct 17 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    It's time once again for Mailbag Friday! Marc T. of New York, NY writes: "John McCain recently said that he put his campaign on hold to work on the Senate bailout package because 'it's not my style to simply phone it in.' Why do we talk about doing something in a lackluster or perfunctory way as phoning it in? Who originally did the phoning in, anyway?"

    The history of American slang is often illuminating, and this is no exception: tracing the origins of this expression tells an intriguing story about the intersection of the technological and the theatrical.

  8. Behind the Dictionary

     Noah Webster at 250: A Visionary or a Crackpot?
    Thu Oct 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    On the occasion of Noah Webster's 250th birthday, Dennis Baron assesses the legacy of the groundbreaking American lexicographer. Baron is professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois and writes regularly on linguistic issues at The Web of Language.

  9. Blog Excerpts

     Happy Webster Day!
    Thu Oct 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    On Noah Webster's 250th birthday, Joshua Kendall explains how he "united America with his words." Kendall and others are taking part in celebrations at Yale University, Webster's alma mater.

  10. Word Count

     Why Fiction is Better than Truth
    Wed Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    You're 13 years old. It's a warm autumn Saturday and you're stuck at home, sprawled across the living-room couch, while all your friends are busy. "Mom," you say — dragging out the word to three syllables. "I'm bored. I have nothing to do."

    "Go read a book," she says tartly. And you roll your eyes. Mothers just don't get it.
255 256 257 258 259 Displaying 2561-2570 of 3488 Results