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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. Here are a dozen of my favorite resources. I own three fat dictionaries, and on just about every word question, I consult all three. The first Webster’s Dictionary was published in 1928. The last unabridged dictionary published by Merriam-Webster is their rather controversial Third New International Dictionary of the English Language that was published in 1961. In the meantime, they keep revising their abridged but useful Collegiate Dictionary–now in it’s 11th iteration. The American-Heritage Dictionary is noticeably more conservative and prescriptive than the Merriam-Webster. The second edition was published in 1989.

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.

English Grammar: a complete guide Do you have a question about the correct usage of the semicolon or how to place adverbs in a sentence? If so, you've come to the right place. Edufind.com is a complete English grammar guide filled with the rules of English usage. Each grammatical rule is explained in plain English with several examples, and when needed, counter-examples. The grammatical rules covered by this guide are categorized below. Nouns Nouns are people, places, or things, They tell us what we are talking about. Adjectives Adjectives modify, or describe, nouns. Adverbs Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs. Determiners Articles, quantifiers, and other determiners modify nouns. Verbs & Verb Tenses Verbs are action words. Speech When we report what someone says, we can cite the person directly or indirectly. Punctuation Punctuation is not part of oral grammar, but it is essential to master in written English. Relative Clauses We use relative clauses in English to create more complex and more precise sentences.

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 Variations on a theme

Story Starters Gripping Story starters are essential. They grab the reader’s attention. Make them want to read more and keep them reading. Some of us are born with a unique talent and have a natural flair when it comes to connecting words, some of us don’t. Find below a selection of story starters from a variety of different sources. From A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. Recommended Links

Изучайте английский - сайт для изучающих английский язык, студентов, преподавателей вузов и переводчиков Placeholder names in English and other languages | OxfordWords blog 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. Of course, placeholder names also exist in other languages. Italian Swedish German

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. Pattern and Variation in Poetry A brief rundown on the basic concepts of pattern and variation and how they can be used when writing poems. Pattern and Variation: Aural A brief exploration of the various aspects of sound that can be utilized when making a poem. Pattern and Variation: Visual A brief exploration of the various visual aspects that can be utilized when making a poem. Characters and Fiction Writing These resources discuss character creation and development in fiction writing. Poetry Writing The following resource provides the reader with a better understanding of invention and invention strategies for poetry writing.

Learn English with us - Speakspeak 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. 2 Online Courses According to its website, the Grammar Challenger helps students “master fifty of the trickiest . . . grammar, punctuation, and word usage” concepts. 3 Interactive Whiteboard Activities Interactive whiteboards project your computer screen on a dry-erase whiteboard. 4 Games What if students could learn and play at the same time? 5 Lesson Plans If you are looking for an effective way to teach a grammar point, other teachers are happy to share what works for them.

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