History of the OED The Oxford English Dictionary has been the last word on words for over a century. But, as with a respected professor or admired parent, we count on its wisdom and authority without thinking much about how it was acquired. What is the history of the Oxford English Dictionary? Exploring its origins and development will give new insight into this extraordinary, living document. How it began When the members of the Philological Society of London decided, in 1857, that existing English language dictionaries were incomplete and deficient, and called for a complete re-examination of the language from Anglo-Saxon times onward, they knew they were embarking on an ambitious project. The project proceeded slowly after the Society’s first grand statement of purpose. More work than they thought Existing English dictionaries were incomplete and deficient It was estimated that the project would be finished in approximately ten years. The English language never stops evolving One step at a time
HyperGrammar Welcome to HyperGrammar electronic grammar course at the University of Ottawa's Writing Centre. This course covers approximately the same ground as our English department's ENG 1320 Grammar course. The content of HyperGrammar is the result of the collaborative work of the four instructors who were teaching the course in Fall 1993: Heather MacFadyen, David Megginson, Frances Peck, and Dorothy Turner. This package is designed to allow users a great deal of freedom and creativity as they read about grammar. This package is currently under construction! Please read the Copyright and Terms of Use before you begin using HyperGrammar, and note that we provide NO WARRANTY of the accuracy or fitness for use of the information in this package. * This site uses the Oxford dictionary spelling. We do not offer any writing help by e-mail. No permission is required to link to this site. Written by David Megginson (editor)
Resources : Deciphering Medspeak To make informed health decisions, you have probably read a newspaper or magazine article, tuned into a radio or television program, or searched the Internet to find answers to health questions. If so, you have probably encountered "medspeak," the specialized language of health professionals. The Medical Library Association developed "Deciphering Medspeak" to help translate common "medspeak" terms: Medspeak TermsRx Riddles Solved! The brochure also features MLA's "Top Ten" Most Useful Websites. This brochure is also available in Spanish and Plain Language (low literacy) versions Also available are disease-specific versions of the popular "Deciphering Medspeak" brochure. Each brochure features a list of Rx riddles or abbreviations as well as a glossary of medspeak terms and MLA-recommended Websites related to each disease. Diabetes, HIV-AIDS and Stroke Medspeaks are now also available in Plain Language (low literacy) versions!
Online Etymology Dictionary bias (n.) 1520s, from French biais "slant, slope, oblique," also figuratively, "expedient, means" (13c., originally in Old French a past participle adjective, "sideways, askance, against the grain"), of unknown origin, probably from Old Provençal biais, with cognates in Old Catalan and Sardinian; possibly from Vulgar Latin *(e)bigassius, from Greek epikarsios "athwart, crosswise, at an angle," from epi- "upon" + karsios "oblique," from PIE *krs-yo-, from root *(s)ker- (1) "to cut" (see shear (v.)). It became a noun in Old French. "[A] technical term in the game of bowls, whence come all the later uses of the word" [OED]. For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. bias (v.) 1620s, literal and figurative, from bias (n.).
40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation After all these years you finally have the courage and opportunity to write the email announcing that you and you alone have single handedly saved the company from utter disaster. You’re excited, you type it, you spell check it, and you hit send.Everything is great except that your gold star memo has dangling modifiers, double negatives and run-on sentences colliding with each other. Now I am no grammar whiz but I know a good resource when I see it. Purdue University maintains an purdue.edu/" target="_blank">online writing lab and I spent some time digging through it. Learn and enjoy! • A or An? • Adjective or Adverb? • Adjectives with Countable and Uncountable Nouns • Using Articles ( A/An/The ): with 2 exercises and answer keys Nouns • A Little Help with Capitals • Count and NonCount Nouns (with Plurals, Articles, and Quantity Words): with 2 exercises and answer keys • Count and NonCount Nouns (with Articles and Adjectives): with exercise and answer key Prepositions Pronouns • Pronoun Case Commas
BBC World Service | Learning English | Ask about English Pasado Continuo – (Past Continuous) El Pasado Continuo, es un tiempo verbal que describe acciones que estaban siendo realizadas en un momento del pasado al que se hace referencia y que luego continuaron, por ejemplo: Yesterday he was studying English. Ayer él estaba estudiando inglés. John was playing tennis at 10 a.m. El Pasado Continuo se construye con el verbo auxiliar “to be” en su forma pasada y el verbo principal en infinitivo con la terminación ING: Observa que la forma negativa se construye colocando la partícula NOT después del verbo TO BE. También se puede utilizar este tiempo verbal para relatar dos acciones que sucedieron en el pasado y que una de ellas ya se ha completado. When I left, he was studying the lesson. They were singing when I broke the window.
idioms - Meaning of "I'm kind of on a clock here" El Blog para aprender inglés Paragraph Writing Exercises In Process Writing, we have emphasized the fact that it is very hard for the teacher to concentrate on both the grammar and the organization errors on a student paper and still not discourage the student with those red marks all over the paper. Instead, we have suggested that the students should be able to comment on and edit their own paper to a certain extent. The advantages of such an approach would be raising awareness of the student and reducing the workload of the teacher. The exercises we have here are organized in such a way that the students will concentrate on only one thing (e.g. organization, grammar, vocabulary choice, etc.) at a time. For each type of mistake, we first repeat the information presented in detail in Paragraph Development and The Essay, and then provide a writing exercise about it. For each type, the student first sees the original writing. Here are the contents: A. Exercise 1: The original student paper: In weekdays I arrive home at and I have lunch. B. 1. 2.
10 Writing Exercises to Tighten Your Writing By Brittiany Cahoon Writing projects can be like children. You love them dearly, but sometimes they irritate you to the point that you just need a break. Working on something fresh and new can invigorate your mind and give you a new approach to your work. 1. This is probably the most popular writing exercise to get the juices flowing. 2. Think of something you’re passionate about, like a hobby or a love interest, and write everything you know about it. 3. Something I love to do when I’m stuck is read another author’s work, especially an author who writes in the same style or format as my current project. 4. Writers feel their work, and when you can quite describe what you’re feeling on paper, it can be frustrating. 5. Choose one noun, adjective and verb. 6. This is a wonderful exercise if you struggle to write natural dialogue between your characters. 7. A writing prompt is simply a topic around which you start jotting down ideas. 8. 9. 10.