Buzz Mother Earth
ecology
biodegradable
ecosystem
One World
organic
One Straw Revolution
back to the land
gaia
Earth Mother
renewable resource
slow food
green
sustainability
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accuses me of being a stuck-up snob because I use "big words" and encourage other writers to learn and use them. Well, I'm not going to jump up all spraddle-legged about it.Labels: English, fiction, words, writing
Listen to this articleHere at Wordnik, we show you what people actually do with language, not what we'd like them to do. We think it's important to show real information about every word—even the ones that aren't considered standard.They feel that you learn a word better by seeing it in context [even if it is used incorrectly?] and that some information is better than none. [same query]
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Misspellings are, however, the heart of LOLspeak, seen in captions at icanhazcheezburger.com
(home of the LOLcat dynasty and part of a vast empire of silly sites I liek).Labels: English, words, writing
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The 10 most popular adjectives: good, first, new, last, long, great, little, own, other and old. OMG! How colorless, bland and deaf, but stinking, do you want your conversation and writing?Labels: English, words, writing
Listen to this articlean all-out effort, [and] comes from the world of aviation. On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and the fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (what else?) balls.
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It is not uncommon these days to see a sentence like The new rules apply to all the members, especially myself. Wrong! There is no I in the sentence for myself to reflect. The word required is the objective form, me. Most people get I, myself, correct. The problem comes in when trying to express more than one an action in one sentence: The teacher gave the tests back to myself and the others. Try putting the actions into two sentences, and your ear will tell you which form to use: The teacher gave the tests back to me. The teacher gave the tests back to the others.Labels: English, words, writing
Listen to this articleMr Mousebender: And I thought to myself, 'A little fermented curd will do the trick,' so, I curtailed my Walpoling activities, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles.This little scene is the intro to L. Diane Wolfe's 12/18/09 blog post, Spunk On A Stick's Tips: And Now For Something Completely Different!. It often typifies the resultant condition when I verbalize. See? I meant, "When I talk, people don't understand me." Or else they laugh.
Henry Wenslydale: Come again?
Mr Mousebender: I want to buy some cheese!
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Listen to this articleIt's my contention that blogs are a form of writing. (It's my intention to exploit this form of writing for fun and profit, if possible.) What I don't ascribe to is the apparent notion by many other bloggers that spelling and punctuation are unimportant in this format. Admittedly, I know of no other blogger who is as antique as I, however, that's no excuse for not even using a spell checking program or feature on entries. I feel certain it would catch "ever" spelled "evar" and the confabulation of "purpose" and "proposing" into "purposing". Why do these people expect to be taken seriously? How do they expect to find employment? Am I seriously out of touch with the real world? (July 15, 2004)As the flood of blogs gained volume, the quality of writing in them has gradually improved. Even beginners are now cognizant of a necessity to write English more correctly. Twitter may degrade us a bit, forcing compression and tempting us to abbreviate and drop articles (an, a, the), but I feel that the cliché-ridden tide has turned.
Blogging itself has matured into an accepted form of journalism (and advertising, marketing propaganda, disinformation and public relations tools). Last night, participants in a Twitter chat learned that in some Middle East countries, bloggers are more respected sources of information than traditional media. Also, the founder of MideastYouth.com, Esra'a Al Shafei, explained that Western bloggers' opinions influence some ME governments who only care about their images, not necessarily about their citizens' welfare.
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Notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style. Great editing posts to help writers from the NYTimes After Hours blog:Labels: English, reference, words, writing
Listen to this articlefocus on writing in the digital age with author, journalist and games writer Naomi Alderman. This issue has three parts - in part one, Naomi delivers a discursive presentation in which she considers impacts and future scenarios for publishing in the digital age.Part two deals with scenarios for how writers will find an audience and make a living in the digital future, and part three is about Alderman's own works. That name rang a bell and, sure enough, I found a mini-review I'd posted on her Orange Award-winning novel:
Glimpses into very different lives always intrigue me, and none are more different than those of Orthodox Jews. More so, apparently, if the traditional community is set in staid Great Britain, that bastion of blancmange. The spicy religious sect hold secrets within secrets, gradually revealed as the main character, Ronit, visits the place from which she thought she had escaped her heritage. Sad and unsettling.Labels: English, Resource, writing
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The ancient régime, or Ancien régime [F.] the former political and social system, as distinguished from the modern; especially, the political and social system existing in France before the Revolution of 1789.Thanks to the Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy, via Answers.com. And Google, of course. Everything comes from Google.
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Listen to this articleThe strategy often either looses money or posts flat returns...The writer didn't mean that the strategy loosens up money, either. This was a flat out proofreading failure, because the correct word is "loses". However, I see the words confused too often in writing from the youthful and ESLs.
You may lose your loose change through a hole in your pocket.Does this help to remember the difference? See the man walking along, jingling coins in his pocket and the coins dribbling out from the cuff, scattering on the pavement? See me coming along picking them up? To lose coins, your bad luck. Loose coins, my treasure! Listen to this article
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Listen to this article1. don't confuse acronyms with proper names (LASER & Lazar)
2. use a lowercase s to form plurals (LASERs)
3. spell out the word the first time it is used, then enclose the mnemonic in parentheses like this: frequency modulation (FM)
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Listen to this articleLullaby, and good night,
With pink roses bedight,
With lilies o'erspread,
Is my baby's sweet head.
Lay thee down now, and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.
Lay thee down now, and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.
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Listen to this articleAn important kind of metonymy is synecdoche, in which the name of a part is substituted for that of a whole (e.g. hand for worker), or vice versa. Modern literary theory has often used ‘metonymy’ in a wider sense, to designate the process of association by which metonymies are produced and understood: this involves establishing relationships of contiguity between two things, whereas metaphor establishes relationships of similarity between them.Clark, Robert and Todd, Janet eds. The Literary Encycopaedia and Dictionary. London: The Literary Dictionary.
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Listen to this articleNo results found for alot:As Paul Brian of Washington State University surmises, "Perhaps this common spelling error began because there does exist in English a word spelled “allot” which is a verb meaning to apportion or grant."
The grammar section of EnglishPlus.com further explains that "A lot (two words) is an informal phrase meaning 'many.' It can take an adjective, for example, 'a sizable lot.'" Better writers use more descriptive words like greatly, often, or very much. For example:
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Listen to this articleNothing, when they are used moderately and with good judgment.However, that isn't exactly what I meant. There is a difference between moderately and in moderation. I want you to avoid an excess of adverbs. How can I get away with it when the editor slashes up your manuscript if you use adverbs? Because in my judgment, this post does not contain an excess of adverbs, and the word was an appropriate example. It fit the sentence and I did not throw it in on a whim or because I could not express the thought in any other manner.

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Listen to this article....Steichen’s beautifully toned landscapes, sensual nudes and still life’s, and psychological portraits...I thought perhaps "still life" was a special term. Should it be "still lives", I pondered. The apostrophe just didn't look right to me.
*Dictionary: still lifeI even scoured references from the Art Dictionary and Photography Dictionary at Answers, but they neatly skirted the issue by using the term as an adjective preceding words like images and pictures.
n., pl. still lifes.
1. Representation of inanimate objects, such as flowers or fruit, in painting or photography.
2. A painting, picture, or photograph of inanimate objects.
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If I never again hear the following phrases, I won't miss them:on a daily basisI suspect these are clichés in the making, hence the title of this post. What about you? What contemporary overused phrases are driving you up the wall?
life as we know it
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Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? has been a favorite website of mine for a couple of years. I'm sure I've mentioned it, especially as an inexpensive antidepressant. The original was just "LOLcats", the LOL being text-speak for "laughing out loud" and cats--well, pretty self-explanatory. I'm not sure where the "I Can Has Cheezburger?" came from, featuring similar silly cat shots with captions, but apparently the two sites merged to the benefit and amusement of all.Labels: English, silly, words, writing
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Just as I watched the incorrect spelling 'definately' make the rounds of the Web in previous years, the mistake du jour that I see is 'alright', and it is not all right with me. I find it in posts and articles from people who purport to be writers.The one-word spelling alright appeared some 75 years after all right itself had reappeared from a 400-year-long absence. Since the early 20th century some critics have insisted alright is wrong, but it has its defenders and its users. It is less frequent than all right but remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. It is quite common in fictional dialogue, and is used occasionally in other writing ...From Answers.com, the Word Tutor considers the adjective form as Nonstandard usage, as does Word Net. If you like the Wikipedia as a source of information about words, it states, "Even though it often appears in print, the use of "alright" in any context other than slang is generally frowned upon and may be perceived as purposefully breaking convention." Nonstandard is also the verdict of the American Heritage® Dictionary as provided online by Bartleby.
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People who love the English language are familiar with the commonly felt gag reflex when they see signs with violations of apostrophes. We are, as Lynn Truss ably noted in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, charter members of the apostrophe posse. We'd love to carry apostrophe zappers capable of eradicating those erroneous superscript commas on the run. Drive by apostrophicide, as it were.
While style is probably best learned through wide reading, comprehensive analysis and thorough practice, much can be discovered about effective writing through the study of some of the common and traditional devices of style and arrangement. By learning, practicing, altering, and perfecting them, and by testing their effects and nuances for yourself, these devices will help you to express yourself better and also teach you to see the interrelatedness of form and meaning, and the psychology of syntax, metaphor, and diction both in your own writing and in the works of others.Which is the academic equivalent of "how to spark up your works".
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One of the basic editing tasks is to ensure that subjects and verbs match in number . There are three numbers—singular, dual, and plural—that are distinguished in both the noun and the verb, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Let's not worry about the archaic "dual" form here. The greatest problem for writers is the fact that many nouns, which are used for subjects, don't always become plural by the regular method of adding an s or es to the end of the singular form: dog, dogs/church, churches. In fact, most words that end in s, x, ch, or sh form plurals this way.Fishes fill the dish.Other unchanging nouns include:
Fish fill the dish.
A fish fills the dish. (singular)
barracksFind help with forming plurals of all forms of irregular nouns at the University of Victoria's 330 Grammar and Georgia State University's Joanna Crump's grammar pages.
deer
crossroads
offspring
dice (although die can be the singular)
gallows
headquarters
sheep
means
series
species
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Listen to this articleUSAGE NOTE The phrase try and is commonly used as a substitute for try to, as in Could you try and make less noise? A number of grammarians have labeled the construction incorrect. To be sure, the usage is associated with informal style and strikes an inappropriately conversational note in formal writing. Sixty-five percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use in writing of the sentence Why don't you try and see if you can work the problem out between yourselves?via Answers.com
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Before the year 1200, the word silly meant "blessed," and was derived from Old English saelig, meaning "happy." This word went through several incarnations before adopting today's meaning: "stupid or foolish."Listen to this article
For some people, confusion reigns supreme over the use of 'may' and 'might' and about the uses of 'can' and 'could'. Perhaps I should include 'will' and 'would', 'shall' and 'should', but you'll get the picture from the first two pairs.Labels: English, words, writing
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MSN's Encarta is bundled with my MS Word 2003 as the de facto dictionary. The Encarta website contains many useful articles and some funny quizzes. Don't try the President Bush's English Quiz, though. The links I tried went to an empty page. Oh, wait! Maybe that's the joke.It sounds a lot like advice for learning people's names--the relationships and use. Repetition is a powerful learning device. When I was learning a larger vocabulary, I bored people silly using the new polysyllabic terminology (big words) in conversations until they were cemented in my mind. The words, not people.
- choose words you're interested in
- associate a color with each word
- use the words in your imagination
- write pieces using new words
- relate a picture to a word
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This year the bookish people who run the Man Booker prize will celebrate the award's 40th anniversary with a The Best of the Booker award to "honour the best overall novel to have won the prize since it was first awarded on 22 April 1969." The same type of award was given on the organization's 25th anniversary, but this time the public will be able to help choose from a shortlist of six chosen by a panel from the 41 contenders. The regular Booker prize is 50,000 pounds. The winner of the Best Booker only gets a trophy, I guess because the author already got the loot the first time around.If nothing else, this probably makes a good reading list for aspiring novelists.
- 4-1 Yann Martel – The Life of Pi (2002)
- 5-1 Salman Rushdie – Midnight's Children (1981)
- 7-1 Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient (1992)
- 8-1 Ben Okri – The Famished Road (1991); Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things (1997); Ian McEwan – Amsterdam (1998)
- 10-1 J. M. Coetzee – Disgrace (1999); Anne Enright – The Gathering (2007)
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Finding mistakes in your own writing can be an exercise in frustration. Even editors and publishers admit a piece of writing can pass through edits by several different people, "And," as UT Books editor Arthur Salm said, "still errors appear in print." You've probably seen most of the editing methods suggested for finding errors in your copy or manuscript. You may use a word processing program with a built-in spelling and grammar checker, even having numerous options you can adjust. Any combination of methods physical and electronic will catch typographical errors and limited punctuation problems as well as some grammar and syntactical issues.Labels: editing, English, words
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Walking home from school, children pass within ten feet of my open windows. How many times do I hear "Charlie and me got extra homework," or "Her and I hit the food court"? The problem is that American children are obviously not being taught when to use which form of pronouns. Even the adults admit to confusion about "who" and "whom", some advocating that we just do away with the objective version (whom). Here's a little list to clarify what I'm talking about: SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS are I, he, she, they and who; OBJECTIVE PRONOUNS are me, him, her, them, and whom.Hypercorrection is not simply being fussy or a nitpicker or a pedant. The 'hyper' part, from Greek, means 'too much.' It means working so hard to avoid one potential problem that you end up falling into another one.The cure he suggests is to substitute one of the other pronouns and find which form sounds right. Imagine Jeeves announcing a visitor, whom he first asks, "Whom shall I say is calling?" If Jeeves had tried out "her is calling", he'd immediately know (if he memorized the chart) that the right way is to inquire, "Who shall I say is calling?" "Who" is the subject of the sentence. Listen to this article
From abjure, abrogate, abstemious, acumen, antebellum, auspicious to vortex, winnow, wrought, xenophobe, yeoman, and ziggurat. How many of those words do you know? My Google toolbar doesn't recognize "ziggurat", but then it doesn't recognize the word "toolbar" either, so what does it know? You may have heard these words and think that you know what they mean in a context, but would you know how to use them correctly in your writing? For all my personal wordiness, a friend kindly elucidated the actual meaning of noblesse oblige for me recently. Did I ever have it backwards in my mind! The editors of American Heritage dictionaries selected 100 words that they think all high school students (and their parents) should know. See all the words in this release where the ed said:"The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."
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Listen to this articleThe lovely people who provide answers at Answers.com are having a "creative writing" contest in which you have to use all the words below in a piece of 750 words or less:
I thought I'd give it a lick and a promise, seeing as how my ataraxia has abated due to contraband semilunal sapid halva received from a mantic admirer whose serendipity fits the zeitgeist.
Hurry! The deadline is December 21, 2007.Labels: contest, English, words, writing
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