Academic Writing… Save Yourself from this Embarrassing Pronoun Error 2 Nov 20196 Jul 2020 Myself is not a formal substitute for I or Me. Reflexive pronouns (also including yourself, himself, herself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves) apply when a subject acts on an object which is—itself! You may shave…
Academic Writing… Lies Your English Teacher Taught You 30 Oct 20196 Jul 2020 Some of you blame your teachers (English or otherwise) for writing advice that is not even true for English or doesn’t apply every time. Please stop believing that these are…
Books… Reading is for Babies 25 Jun 201413 Jun 2015 The American Pediatrics Association says, "Immunize your children against illiteracy." NPR's Audie Cornish interviewed Professor Susan Neuman about new evidence showing that the younger you read to your children, the better. Reading benefits babies,…
Blogging… My International Guests 26 Oct 201124 Oct 2011 "If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little…
College… What’s Your Style? 30 Jul 201115 Apr 2012 This one is for those of you who already write in complete, yet not inexhaustible sentences, and wonder whether you have any style. Of course, you do--just as you have…
Blogging… Most Beautiful Words 5 Jul 20114 Jul 2011 A reposting of a list of 100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language has me wondering what my own favorites would be. For example, bucolic doesn't make my list. Its meaning, in a…
Books… Rhyme Time 2 Jun 20112 Jun 2011 Children's book editors conventionally whine about rhyme. It's so hard to write tight in rhythm and rhyme, they'd rather not brave it. Then they have children of their own, and…
Academic Writing… Bilingual Brain Advantage 4 Apr 20114 Apr 2011 During the decade politicians were banning bilingual education, I was in graduate school studying linguistics, including language acquisition--even bilingual language acquisition--and wishing we could all have bilingual (or trilingual) education.…
Baby Boomers… The Lady with the Pineapple Hair 8 Mar 201112 Mar 2011 As teenagers, we stifled giggles whenever we sat behind the lady with the pineapple hair. I theorized that she hoped its astounding height would be slimming. I also guessed that…
Brain… What We Learn from Watson 23 Feb 201125 Feb 2011 My interest in IBM's Jeopardy-winning Watson was initially syntactical. It has taken decades to teach computers to understand and speak a human language almost as well as your average three-year-old.…
Academic Writing… New Messages on Texting 7 Feb 20118 Feb 2011 Could texting be good for literacy? Some early and brief studies are suggesting that it might not hurt as much as you fear. Students who spell well in general can…
Academic Writing… I Am Woman; Call Me She 27 Jan 201127 Jan 2011 Since Facebook already knows whether you are male or female, and even distinguishes between your "Cousin (male)" and "Cousin (female)," a distinction the English language doesn’t make, then why can't…
