12 Awesome Language Resources for the Word Nerd I’m an unabashed word nerd. I majored in English and have been a high school English teacher for almost 30 years. I run an online program helping homeschoolers develop writing skills, and I manage this wordy blog and a wordy Facebook page. I have become, over the years, something of an expert on grammar and usage, but it’s not due to any particular cleverness on my part. Creative Writing 101 RJ Great article. Morning is definitely the time where I am most creative. I think it’s because my mind is the freshest and the least cluttered at this time of day. Doug Rosbury When I write, it is with an emphasis on the sharing of wisdom arising from my life experience. Wether one could reasonably term such writing as being creative or not I don’t necessarily concern myself with. The creative aspect which I believe is part of a writing nevertheless may be found in how I address people with careful consideration regarding how I may come across to them.
theconversation If you struggle to understand the teenagers and young people around you when they call their schoolfriend a durkboi and try to cadge some peas, you are not alone. The idea that they are communicating in a different language from their parents has been the subject of excited chatter on parenting websites and among some researchers. A defining characteristic of youth slang is thought to be its faddishness – the fact that terms have a rapid turnover, quickly coming in and out of fashion and then disappearing before parents and teachers have time to decode them. The reality is more complicated: novelty is all-important but for each generation the expressions they encounter will be new to them. So although each age group and almost every local clique do invent their own words, there is a common core of slang that persists for years: such as cool, wicked, solid and sick for good, and chilling for relaxing. A wealth of words for the same thing
Story Starters Gripping Story starters are essential. They grab the reader’s attention. Make them want to read more and keep them reading. Placeholder names in English and other languages If you follow politics, you will have noticed that politicians often invoke the cliché of the ‘man in the street’. You may have heard them referring to the average Joe, Joe Bloggs, John Public, Joe Sixpack, etc. when talking to an audience, addressing everyone and no one, rather than someone in particular. The English language has several of those placeholder names and, more often than not, they denote a male person – implying that the average person is a man, the everyman. There’s also the famous John Doe – the name for an unidentified person that you would come across in a legal context. Here, a female equivalent actually exists: Jane Doe. If you want to talk about ordinary people in general, you may also call them Tom, Dick, and Harry in English, although the Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable notes that this Victorian term is particularly attributed to people unworthy of notice.
Creative Writing These OWL resources will help you with the basics of creative writing. This section includes resources on writing poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Fiction Writing Basics This resource discusses some terms and techniques that are useful to the beginning and intermediate fiction writer, and to instructors who are teaching fiction at these levels. 10 Best Grammar Resources for Teachers - Grammarly Blog Every day is a grammar day for teachers, but the whole world is invited to celebrate morphology and syntax on the fourth of March—National Grammar Day. Everyone loves a party, but how can you motivate students to embrace good grammar the other 364 days of the year? These ten grammar resources might be just what you need. 1 Visual Aids If students visualize how grammar works, they will be able to understand sentence structure. For example, an infographic on Copyblogger.com explains what a dangling participle is.
7 ways writing by hand can save your brain It's time to put pen to paper. Our tech-dependent society has put keyboards at the tips of our fingers at all times, from our smartphones to our laptops. But when was the last time you wrote by hand? Science shows that handwriting can benefit our minds in a number of ways. Welcome to the English for Uni Website! Welcome to the English for Uni website! This free website is for teachers and learners of English as an additional language, from intermediate levels upwards (i.e. approximately IELTS 6 and above). The site aims to make difficult grammar and academic writing concepts easier to understand. Please use this site as often as you like. 8th Grade Test From 1912 Shows How Far American Education Has Been Dumbed Down; Can You Take It? By Kristan T. Harris A Kentucky 8th grade exam from 1912 was donated to the Bullitt County history museum. The questions feature the fundamental foundation of education that we seem to have lost due to the dumbing down of the American education system.