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Word Count
Back to (the) School(s): Definitive Rules for the Definite Article
Thu Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013
It's September and students of all ages are heading back to school. But why is it back to school and not back to the school or back to schools? Certainly if I were to write about one specific school, I would write the school. If I were talking about schools as a category, I can say schools.
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Word Count
Five Reasons to Learn More About Writing
Wed Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013
I am 56 years old. I have an honors degree in political science. I've written professionally for 33 years and was a senior editor at a metropolitan daily for six of them. And I just signed up for some more continuing education. Yes, more lessons!
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Teachers at Work
The Problem with Punctuation
Tue Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2013
I have to admit that two of the biggest areas in which I struggle as a teacher are instructing grammar and punctuation. Long ago, I didn't seem so frustrated, but like cursive handwriting, grammar and punctuation have become lost in the shuffle.
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Dog Eared
Throwing Light on Shady Characters
Mon Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Some punctuation marks hog the spotlight, like the versatile, omnipresent comma and the flirty, oft-abused semicolon. Question marks and exclamation marks — the good cop, bad cop of punctuation — are forever in your face. The period subtly but emphatically makes its presence known, while parentheses are off gossiping and tittering like teenage girls. These are the usual suspects most people think of when it comes to punctuation.
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Word Routes
Of Pinpricks and Slam-Dunks: The Rhetoric of the Syrian Conflict
Fri Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2013
The situation in Syria has revived a number of well-worn foreign-policy phrases, from "boots on the ground" to "slam-dunks" and "smoking guns." As the American response to the conflict has involved far more in the way of words than deeds, it's worth taking a closer look at the words used by officials and commentators, no matter how hackneyed.
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Word Count
Meanings Bent and Borrowed
Thu Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Jan Schreiber, a noted poet, critic, and translator, encourages aspiring writers to make their own metaphors: "The ability to shift, smoothly and almost unnoticed, between two related meanings of a word is one of the remarkable features of human communication."
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Teachers at Work
Teaching Adjectives to Language Learners: A Sticky Situation
Wed Sep 11 00:00:00 EDT 2013
As a teacher of English as a foreign language, I've developed a bit of an aversion to adjectives. Show me too many and I break out into a prolonged, painful and unpleasant rash. Or should that be painful, prolonged and unpleasant? Or...?
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Blog Excerpts
On Slate, Lexicon Valley Launches a New Language Blog
Tue Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013
For language lovers, Slate's Lexicon Valley podcast has been required listening for the past year and a half. Now Lexicon Valley has announced that in addition to the podcast, it is also launching a language blog on Slate. The blog cross-publishes posts from contributors to Language Log, including our own Ben Zimmer.
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Blog Excerpts
New Seattle Radio Show Looks at Strange Language
Fri Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2013
KUOW, Seattle's NPR affiliate, kicked off a new midday show this week called The Record. The show is featuring a regular series on the origins of peculiar words and phrases called "Strange Language," and they're getting the straight dope from our own Ben Zimmer.
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Wordshop
Academic Vocabulary and the New Wave of Testing
Thu Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013
When you hear the words academic vocabulary, you might think of words that live only in academic journals — awkward words such as insomuch, heretofore, or conversely. These words would never roll off your tongue and you would never expect to encounter them on prime time television or on the magazine rack as you wait in line at the supermarket.
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