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  1. Teachers at Work

     Writing the College Admissions Essay
    Mon Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2007
    As every high school senior -- and parent of said senior -- knows all too well, now is crunch time for college applications. In her latest column, teacher Shannon Reed wrote an excellent guide to choosing the right college. Now we want to zero in on the big, hairy challenge to getting into that school: The personal essay. What should you write about? What should you not write about? To get the inside scoop, we called Richard Ries, AP English teacher and College Counseling Office essay advisor at Ben Lipson Hillel Community High School in North Miami Beach, FL. Here's our conversation:

  2. Word Count

     Memorial Day: Is It "Celebrated" or "Observed"?
    Mon May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    On the last Monday in May, Memorial Day is celebrated in the United States. But wait: is celebrated the right word? Would it be more appropriate to say Memorial Day is observed? Wendalyn Nichols, an experienced editor and lexicographer, guides us through this usage quandary.

  3. Word Count

     A Few Words with the Unclutterer
    Tue Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2010

    If I'm feeling "down" or overwhelmed, nothing improves my mood faster than cleaning a desk, a drawer or a closet. Call me deranged, but I adore organizing. Perhaps that's why I was so happy a few years ago to stumble across the marvelous website Unclutterer hosted by Erin Doland. I skim through it every day.

    Now, after interviewing her for this article I am, frankly, gobsmacked.

  4. Behind the Dictionary

     The Government's Out-of-Date Definition of Writing
    Fri Feb 18 00:00:00 EST 2011
    There's a federal law that defines writing. Because the meaning of the words in our laws isn't always clear, the very first of our federal laws, the Dictionary Act--the name for Title 1, Chapter 1, Section 1, of the U.S. Code--defines what some of the words in the rest of the Code mean, both to guide legal interpretation and to eliminate the need to explain those words each time they appear. Writing is one of the words it defines, but the definition needs an upgrade.

  5. Evasive Maneuvers

     Deterritorialized States, Contingent Faculty, and Mommy Juice
    Wed Aug 03 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    I'm not an Apple guy, but this month I am, because the most egregious euphemisms I've come across since last month hail from the land of Steve-Jobs-istan. As covered in Language Log, "as it turns out" is Apple-ese for unfortunately, and "That's not recommended" replaces any comment remotely equivalent to "Duh!"

  6. Word Count

     Writing Lessons, in a New York Minute
    Wed Feb 09 00:00:00 EST 2011

    New York, New York. It's my favorite city in the world, and I recently returned from a visit there accompanied by my husband and son, both first time visitors to the Big Apple. We had a blast.

    We saw three Broadway shows, toured the UN, the Guggenheim, the Met and the MOMA (yes, my son is long-suffering) and walked the magnificent High Line in Chelsea.

  7. Candlepower

     Crisp, Crispy, Krispy, Krispies
    Mon Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2017
    If you're a fan of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I have some bad news for you: The English language is notoriously anti-minimalist. English loves multiples and hangs onto old words while continuously adding new ones. I could dig up many examples, but today I want to talk about just one pair, crisp and crispy, both of which mean essentially the same thing. Except when they don't.

  8. Blog Excerpts

     Are you procrastinating? Or are you just thinking?
    Sat Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2006

    I came across this terrific post on a blog "devoted to all things geek" called Gadgetopia. While this entry's aimed at computer types, if you substitute the word "programming" with "writing," "marketing," "presenting," or any other kind of creative project, I think you'll find it extremely useful. I certainly did. It appeared on 05/14/06. [Editor]

    Here's something I've learned: when faced with a programming project, the worst thing you can do is start coding right away.

  9. Blog Excerpts

     If "Sam & Cat" Can't Get a Word Into the Dictionary, Who Can?
    Wed Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2014
    It's a popularly held idea that dictionary writers have the power to add words to the lexicon when in fact language is changed the by people who use it and the job of the lexigrographer is to take note. Our own Ben Zimmer revisits this distinction in a look at a recent episode of the Nickelodeon teen comedy "Sam & Cat," in which the titular characters take on word-creation head on.

  10. Candlepower

     The Sweets of Easter
    Fri Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    Easter, which this year falls on April 20, is an important religious holiday for millions of Christians. It's also a major candy holiday, now second only to Halloween in the United States. But there's more to Easter candy than sugar and food dye: there's also some fascinating linguistic and brand history.
60 61 62 63 64 Displaying 611-620 of 3460 Results