Cursive writing: Lost art or useless skill?
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| When asked for their John Hancock, future generations might print it in block letters or scrawl some scribbles across the page. But odds are, they won't sign their name in cursive. They might not even be able to read it. Cursive, with its graceful loops and perfectly joined letters, seems soon to join the typewriter, VCR player and flip-phone as relics of a past age. Keyboarding skills, not cursive, were included in the Common Core, a set of national academic standards adopted last year by more than 40 states, including Florida. |
Israel Calls for Continuing Aid for Palestinians (barf)
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Israel is urging the international community to continue aid to the Palestinians just as U.S. lawmakers are contemplating an aid cutoff if the Palestinians press for statehood at the United Nations. An Israeli government website on Thursday carried a report saying the Palestinian Authority already faced economic and fiscal woes, in part due to a decline in donor aid. "Israel calls for ongoing international support for the PA budget and development projects that will contribute to the growth of a vibrant private sector, which will provide the PA an expanded base for generating internal revenue,"... |
DeMint to Obama: Deliver in writing
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| (CNN) - Republican Sen. Jim DeMint said Sunday he wants a jobs plan in writing from President Barack Obama, not just another speech. "I am so tired of his speeches, it's going to be hard for me to watch," DeMint said on CNN's "State of the Union." A written proposal from the president would enable Congress to decipher the cost and the American people and businesses to weigh the plan, said the South Carolina Republican who is a favorite of tea party conservatives. "Without sending something in writing, the president makes all of these grand gestures, and then it doesn't... |
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2011 Results
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2011 Results |
Illinois erases state's last writing exam
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| chicagotribune.com Illinois erases state's last writing exam 11th-graders will no longer take the test — saving state $2.4 million By Tara Malone, Tribune reporter July 6, 2011 Illinois high school juniors no longer will be tested on writing skills during the state's standardized tests every spring, eliminating the last Illinois writing exam and shaving about $2.4 million amid budgetary shortfalls. While students might welcome being spared the sweating over topic sentences and persuasive verbs, many educators worry the essential skill could get short shrift in Illinois classrooms as a result. |
Feds must stop writing gibberish under new law
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Feds must stop writing gibberish under new lawBy CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press Updated: May 19, 2011 2:34 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government is rolling out a new official language of sorts: plain English. That's right: Pursuant to regulations promulgated thereunder and commencing in accordance with a statute signed herein by President Barack Obama, the government shall be precluded from writing the pompous gibberish heretofore evidenced, to the extent practicable. That sentence contains 11 new language no-nos. Obama signed the Plain Writing Act last fall after decades of effort by a cadre of passionate grammarians in the civil... |
Some Sage Advice for the Conservative Blogger
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| So you finally decided to take the big step, to wade into the debates of the day, and lend your ever-so-wise voice to the great political public square. You’ve decided to become a political blogger. Now what? And what can you learn and expect as you step forth to ideological battle and proclaim the truth as you know it? I have blogged from a conservative point of view for many years, both as an individual as well as in a group blog format, and in that time I like to think that I’ve learned a few things about blogging along... |
Th Art of Language
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| The ability to speak, to use verbal representations of our thoughts, is one of the most striking differences between humans and animals. True, animals communicate with each other but there is no reason to suppose they are sharing anything more than an expression of feelings. It is not language in the sense humans use language, their thoughts. Since we also use language to to explain our thoughts, to ourselves and others, we should also be concerned with the clarity and skill with which we use language. With that in mind I would direct your attention to what two writers said... |
Deconstructing Composition
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Colleges and universities pride themselves on producing erudite citizens. Nevertheless, by nearly available benchmark, they are failing in this regard, although they don’t seem to realize it. “While M. B. A. students’ quantitative skills are prized by employers, their writing and presentation skills have been a perennial complaint,” Diana Middleton wrote in The Wall Street Journal on March 3, 2011. “Employers and writing coaches say business-school graduates tend to ramble, use pretentious vocabulary or pen too-casual emails.” “Meanwhile, the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, says average essay scores on the GMAT fell to 4.4... |
Death by Deconstructionism
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| The talking heads continue to yap about the source of the savagery driving Jared Lee Loughner. Many on the left have tried, and failed, to pin the blame for the Tucson massacre on the Tea Parties or, just as ridiculous, on Sarah Palin. Meanwhile, the 900-pound gorilla in the interrogation room remains unquestioned and unchallenged. Its name is "deconstructionism." Deconstructionism is historical relativism on crack cocaine. The "theory" is being freely and openly distributed to almost every college student in America. Courses in most of the humanities typically include the works of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. In fact, it... |
U.S. citizen believed to be writing for al Qaeda website, source says
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| (CNN) -- A senior U.S. law enforcement official has told CNN that U.S. intelligence believes the principal author of the new online al Qaeda magazine is an American citizen who left for Yemen in October 2009. The magazine -- called "Inspire" -- appeared last week. Running to nearly 70 pages online, it included articles on bomb-making and encrypting electronic messages, as well as an interview with fugitive Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al Awlaki. |
Success, But Not in the Gulf
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| When you’ve been writing weekly for 16 years, occasionally the question comes up: what on God’s green Earth am I going to talk about now? I was going to write about the Jones Act. That Act requires that ships operating in American waters be American-owned with American crews. Not stated in the law is its real purpose. The maritime unions have a headlock on American shipboard workers. So, the Jones Act requires, in reality, that all ships operating in American waters generate dues for the unions which translate into funds to elect Democrats. Skimmer ships are sitting idle in foreign... |
Author writing about Palin moves next door to her
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Sarah Palin has taken to her Facebook page to complain about her new neighbor—a writer penning a book about her. Author Joe McGinniss has taken up residence in a house next to Palin's lakeside home in Wasilla. McGinniss previously wrote a critical expose on Palin and her natural gas pipeline plan for the Conde Nast publication Portfolio last year, and is planning a book about the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate. It's tentatively titled, "Sarah Palin's Year of Living Dangerously" and could be on the shelves in the fall of 2011. |
Not-So-Silent Cal Wrote With Eloquence (contrasts with Obama)
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Recently, the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, gushed that "if you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar." He skipped right over Calvin Coolidge. |
Cursive Writing Is Fading Skill, But So What? [Oh, Really?]
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Cursive Writing Is Fading Skill, But So What? Fewer school emphasize ‘penmanship’ as computer use increases A student practices both printing and cursive handwriting skills at a classroom at the Mountaineer Montessori School in Charleston, W.Va. . Bob Bird / AP [Pic in URL] CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Charleston resident Kelli Davis was in for a surprise when her daughter brought home some routine paperwork at the start of school this fall. Davis signed the form and then handed it to her daughter for the eighth-grader's signature. "I just assumed she knew how to do it, but I have a piece... |
As cursive fades as a skill in school, parents fret, but experts are slow to worry
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston resident Kelli Davis was in for a surprise when her daughter brought home some routine paperwork at the start of school this fall. Davis signed the form and then handed it to her daughter for the eighth-grader's signature. "I just assumed she knew how to do it, but I have a piece of paper with her signature on it and it looks like a little kid's signature," Davis said. Her daughter was apologetic, but explained that she hadn't been required to make the graceful loops and joined letters of cursive writing in years. That prompted a... |
Roaring sea tale takes worst writing honors
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| SAN JOSE, Calif. - A shambling sentence about sea fellows who bellow took top honors in an annual contest celebrating bad writing. David McKenzie, a 55-year-old Washington man, won grand prize in San Jose State University's 27th Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this: "Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it... |
Carvings From Cherokee Script's Dawn
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| The illiterate Cherokee known as Sequoyah watched in awe as white settlers made marks on paper, convinced that these "talking leaves" were the source of white power and success. This inspired the consuming ambition of his life: to create a Cherokee written language. Born around 1770 near present-day Knoxville, Tenn., he was given the name George Gist (or Guess) by his father, an English fur trader, and his mother, a daughter of a prominent Cherokee family. But it was as Sequoyah that around 1809 he started devising a writing system for the spoken Cherokee language. Ten years later, despite the... |
Vanity -- What is the best editing/proofreading software?
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| I have been working as an independent professional rewriter and editor for many years and have recently began upgrading my resources and skills to handle science and medical technical papers, etc. I have heard some good things about Stylewriter, but I have also heard it takes a long time to get used to and the settings are difficult to manage. I have also seen online advertisements for a product called White Smoke, that seems much easier to use, but I have no idea of how capable it actually is. I know Free Republic has a great number of writers and... |
Decoding antiquity: Eight scripts that still can't be read
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
WRITING is one of the greatest inventions in human history. Perhaps the greatest, since it made history possible. Without writing, there could be no accumulation of knowledge, no historical record, no science - and of course no books, newspapers or internet.The first true writing we know of is Sumerian cuneiform - consisting mainly of wedge-shaped impressions on clay tablets - which was used more than 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Soon afterwards writing appeared in Egypt, and much later in Europe, China and Central America. Civilisations have invented hundreds of different writing systems. Some, such as the one you are...
Writing fiction with Dragon Naturally Speaking software?
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| I've written several books using Dragon NaturallySpeaking software and have pitched to my agent a book on how to write a novel using the software. It'd be useful to hear how others have fared. Any experiences with the software that would contradict my very good experience? |
A Novel of America -- Writing an Epic "live" on the Internet
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| I collaborated with the late James A. Michener on his South African novel, The Covenant and later went on to write my own epic on Brazil. My plan for A Novel of America is to follow the same plan Jim Michener and I used in crafting our books, with a key difference of letting these multilayered tasks unfold on the Web. Much of my work is presented blog-style: current entries reflect a search for ideas big and small that will inspire and shape my story of America. As I go along, I share "Working Notes," "Research Links," "Images" and "Maps"... |
Write Like Toni Morrison
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Remember the Universal Translator? Peter Wood, in like manner, provides a useful guide to translating regular English prose into the style of Nobel-prizewinning author Toni Morrison, probably the most frequently assigned writer on US college campuses. The basic rules: Misuse common phrases Embrace inconsistency Omit words to create more forceful expression Mix up parts of speech Chop in self-conscious micro-sentences He provides some wonderful examples. For instance, this office memo: Just to remind you, I will be out of the office Tuesday to meet with our supplier, Acme Explosives. Please finish your work on the 2Q budget and let the... |
Something other than the election
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| Here's something that's not related to the election and the economy. Think of it as a little quiz, if you will. I came across the following article written by an immigrant while surfing the web. For those of you so inclined, answer the following question: 1. How long do you think this person has been in the States? 2. How old do you think this person is? 3. What, in your opinion, is the greatest thing about American culture? ------------------------------------------------------ Because you’re an American 　　 A couple of months ago I went to the Chinese Embassy in New York. The... |
Nobel literature chief: US writing too 'insular' (too isolated, 'ignorant' to compete with Europe)
Thursday 24th of May 2012 07:34:43 PM
Posted by admin / Under Writing System
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The man who announces the Nobel Prize in literature says the United States is too "insular" and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Horace Engdahl said Tuesday that "Europe still is the center of the literary world." |
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