20 obsolete English words that should make a comeback Photo: Katherine Hodgson If we all start using them, these words can be resurrected. DURING MY UNDERGRADUATE studies as a Linguistics major, one of the things that struck me most is the amazing fluidity of language. New words are created; older words go out of style. Words can change meaning over time, vowel sounds shift, consonants are lost or added and one word becomes another. The following words have sadly disappeared from modern English, but it’s easy to see how they could be incorporated into everyday conversation. Words are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series: Weird and Wonderful Words and Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. 1. Verb trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in its various forms. 2. 3. Verb trans. – “To scrape together; to gather together from various sources” – I’m sure this wasn’t the original meaning of the word, but when I read the definition I immediately thought of copy-pasting. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
3 Strategies to Improve Student Writing Instantly Editor's Note: A version of this post first appeared on Techie Teacher and Character Coach. "But Miss Parrish, I can't think of anything to write!" Haven't we all heard similar lines in our classrooms? We see hesitant writers sit with a pencil in their hands and a paper on their desks, almost as if they have been handicapped by the task we asked them to do. How is it that some students have so much to say when talking out loud, but when a pencil is put into their hand they suddenly hesitate, struggle and have nothing to say? The answer is to simply have them produce "writing" without technically "writing" at all. Strategies That Work 1. Have your student stand up while you sit in his or her seat. 2. Identify a way that your students can audio record themselves "speaking" their essay rather than "writing" it. 3. Identify an app or tool that will transcribe speaking into text. Communication Before Craft How have you helped students write without putting pen to paper (or pixel to page)?
How Can I Earn Some Pocket Money Online? Dear Lifehacker,I usually spend a decent amount of hours sitting in front of my PC when I have time off, doing pointless, non-productive things. Then it hit me: I could be using this time to earn a little extra spending money. Got any suggestions? [jump] Thanks,Bored and Looking to Make a Few More Bucks Dear Bored,Many of us have more free time than we have money, so why not turn that extra, wasted time into cash? For Occasional Cash Boosts: Easy Online Tasks Everyone Can Do We’ve previously mentioned several types of simple online tasks you can do—and the services that pay you to do them—to earn some pocket money. For most of these tasks, you have to wait for the right opportunity to arise and fit specific criteria. Mobile Gigs and Online Rewards Programs You can also earn some beer money with your mobile phone by doing simple gigs while you’re out and about. Microjobs The “microjobs” marketplace—for short, one-off tasks—is booming now. Freelance from Home What are your marketable skills?
How to Check Consistency of Spelling and Hyphenation for Free | Intelligent Editing Since spelling and grammar checkers don't test consistency, documents can seem to be error-free and yet still contain lots of mistakes. Consistency mistakes are notoriously difficult for authors to spot, but they jump out at readers and cast doubt on the author's ability. What is a Consistency Mistake? Consistency mistakes come in many forms. This article looks at only spelling and hyphenation consistency. The word 'colour' shouldn't usually appear in the same document as 'color' 'organization' shouldn't be with 'organisation' 'e-mail' shouldn't be with 'email' 'door-to-door' shouldn't be with 'door to door' the prefix 'anti' shouldn't appear with a hyphen in one place but without a hyphen in another numbers and fractions shouldn't be spelled with hyphens in one place but without them in others. There are exceptions. A Shockingly Frequent Mistake Most people think they write consistently. The number of spelling and hyphenation errors per document by document size (Enlarge image)
12 Useful Websites to Improve Your Writing by Johnny Webber 1. Words-to-Use.com – A different kind of thesaurus. 2. OneLook.com – One quick dictionary search tool. 3. 4. 5. 750words.com – Write three new pages every day. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Make Money in Your Spare Time Doing Simple Online Tasks Audiobooks from Audible How to Email Busy People (and Not Be Annoying) If you want to get in touch with influential people (aka: BUSY people), you need to know how to email them. Despite the buzz around social media, far more people use email to communicate than any other online medium1, and business today still gets done over email, not through tweets. Today, I’m going to show you the elements of the PERFECT outreach email, and how you email busy people the right way in order to make things happen. You’ll also get exact scripts and email screenshots to journalists that landed me big features (worth 200,000+ hits). Why This is Important to Know Knowing how to write outreach emails might seem like a “no-brainer” or maybe even an unnecessary skill to have, but I can assure you the opposite, on both accounts. If you’re serious about networking and building your platform/personal brand, you MUST know how to email important people, and important people are busy people. 1 Study by Ipsos, 85% of internet users use email, vs. 62% who use social networking 1.) 2.) 3.)
TeacherKit The Interview Question That's Always Asked (and How to Nail It) "Do you have any questions for us?" As someone who regularly conducts interviews, I find it staggering how many interviewees are not prepared for the one question that you can be absolutely certain will be asked. In some ways, it is the most important question of the entire interview. The interviewer will look at the questions that you ask as representative of your top priorities. If you just respond with, "No, I have already heard what I need to know," it makes you seem disinterested and complacent. Even worse, if you ask the wrong questions, you could immediately invalidate the rest of the interview. With these responses, he unknowingly communicated that his top priorities were to avoid coming into the office as much as possible, and that he really wasn't interested in helping our team succeed, but instead wanted to use us as a stepping stone to find something else more interesting. The Right Way Questions You Can Ask What projects can I contribute to right away? Photo by bpsusf