One of my favorite phrases is “Q.E.D.” It means:
which was to be shown or demonstrated (used esp. in mathematical proofs).
1810–20; < L quod erat dēmōnstrandum
QED. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/QED (accessed: November 16, 2009).
Seen in a laundry room (of an apartment complex):
We have received several reports of items (laundry baskets, clothes, ect………………….) being taken from the laundry room that does not belong to them. If it doesn’t belong to you, don’t take it!!
**If anyone is seen taking any item(s) that do not belong to them please report it to the office immediately.
Any grammatical mistakes in the quote? Stylistic issues? Punctuation problems? Errors of logic? What do you think?
This is the kind of thing you have to know and correct for the SAT and ACT.
In an “ADDRESS TO THE VIENNA PRESS CLUB, NOVEMBER 21, 1897, DELIVERED IN GERMAN [Here in literal translation],” an address entitled “DIE SCHRECKEN DER DEUTSCHEN SPRACHE [THE HORRORS OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE],” Mark Twain said:
It has me deeply touched, my gentlemen, here so hospitably received to be. From colleagues out of my own profession, in this from my own home so far distant land. My heart is full of gratitude, but my poverty of German words forces me to greater economy of expression. Excuse you, my gentlemen, that I read off, what I you say will. [But he didn't read].
The German language speak I not good, but have numerous connoisseurs me assured that I her write like an angel. Maybe—maybe—I know not. Have till now no acquaintance with the angels had. That comes later—when it the dear God please—it has no hurry.
Since long, my gentlemen, have I the passionate longing nursed a speech on German to hold, but one has me not permitted. Men, who no feeling for the art had, laid me ever hindrance in the way and made naught my desire—sometimes by excuses, often by force. Always said these men to me: “Keep you still, your Highness! Silence! For God’s sake seek another way and means yourself obnoxious to make.”
… I am indeed the truest friend of the German language—and not only now, but from long since—yes, before twenty years already. And never have I the desire had the noble language to hurt; to the contrary, only wished she to improve—I would her only reform. It is the dream of my life been. … I would only some changes effect. I would only the language method—the luxurious, elaborate construction compress, the eternal parenthesis suppress, do away with, annihilate; the introduction of more than thirteen subjects in one sentence forbid; the verb so far to the front pull that one it without a telescope discover can. With one word, my gentlemen, I would your beloved language simplify so that, my gentlemen, when you her for prayer need, One her yonder-up understands.
HT: Paul B and Hannes H
Call this “How Not to Write For the SAT”…
Here is the history of the letter h:
the pronunciation “aitch” was in O.Fr. (ache), and is from a presumed L.L. *accha (cf. It. effe, elle, emme), with the central sound approximating the value of the letter when it passed from Roman to Germanic, where it at first represented a strong, distinctly aspirated -kh- sound close to that in Scottish loch. In earlier L. the letter was called ha. In Romance languages, the sound became silent in L.L. and was omitted in O.Fr. and It., but it was restored in M.E. spelling in words borrowed from O.Fr., and often later in pronunciation, too. Thus Mod.Eng. has words ultimately from L. with missing -h- (e.g. able, from L. habile); with a silent -h- (e.g. heir, hour); with a formerly silent -h- now vocalized (e.g. humble, honor); and even a few with an excrescent -h- fitted in confusion to words that never had one (e.g. hostage, hermit). Relics of the formerly unvoiced -h- persist in pedantic insistence on an historical (object) and in obs. mine host. The use in digraphs (e.g. -sh-, -th-) goes back to the ancient Gk. alphabet, which used it in -ph-, -th-, -kh- until -H- took on the value of a long “e” and the digraphs acquired their own characters. The letter passed into Roman use before this evolution, and thus retained there more of its original Sem. value.
ha. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ha (accessed: October 01, 2009).
Etymology is fascinating. And it helps in reading, and on the SAT and ACT. It makes you familiar with roots, suffixes, and prefixes, and gives you stories to help remember the meanings of words. Stories satisfy the mind’s need for integration.
In “Glorifying Indifference to Literature” (Core Knowledge Blog, August 30, 2009), Diana Senechal writes:
The New York Times story on the “reading workshop” method glorifies indifference toward literature.
…
This so-called movement is led by people who don’t love literature enough to defend it, and who don’t care about history enough to find out that their revolution is nothing revolutionary. It glorifies a certain indifference.
The movement writes off the literature itself. It writes off the teachers who teach it well and inspire their students to love it. It writes off the possibility that literature will affect students’ entire lives and stay in their minds, in ways that teen novels cannot do. Proponents say, “Look, the kids are reading; this is working!” They do not stop to think that reading 20 pages a day is not the same as grappling with literature. The chicken coop is not a palace. (Oops–no one teaches Dostoevsky anymore.)
I taught Sophocles’ Antigone (among many other works of literature) to my eighth grade ESL students. We had heated debates in class. Students wrote thoughtful essays. I thought, “How much more they will understand when they read it in high school!” Then I realized they probably wouldn’t read it in high school. They would probably never have it assigned to them again.
Amen.
Mr. Robert Pondiscio says in “New York Times Discovers Reader’s Workshop” (Core Knowledge Blog, August 29, 2009 ):
Update: “Progressive schools let kids pick their own books in the 1920s and 1930s. Now it is supposed to be a major innovation. Ha!” tweets Diane Ravitch, who is quoted in the piece. The paper “applauds the death of any version of a common culture.” Just desserts of the NY Times,” she adds. “By encouraging the death of reading, they doom the NY Times.”
“Progressive schools.” That’s John Dewey’s baby…
On the Internet is some 1930 newsreel footage (2 min 58 sec) of how Annie Sullivan taught Helen Keller to speak. Amazing… HT: Dr. D. H.
And “Helen Keller: In Her Story (clip)” is good. It has the comment — very pregnant with meaning and implications — “her hand is her chief link to the outer world.”
In “What Should Colleges Teach?” (New York Times by way of EducationNews.org, August 25, 2009), Stanley Fish writes:
A few years ago, when I was grading papers for a graduate literature course, I became alarmed at the inability of my students to write a clean English sentence. They could manage for about six words and then, almost invariably, the syntax (and everything else) fell apart. I became even more alarmed when I remembered that these same students were instructors in the college’s composition program. What, I wondered, could possibly be going on in their courses?
I decided to find out, and asked to see the lesson plans of the 104 sections. I read them and found that only four emphasized training in the craft of writing. Although the other 100 sections fulfilled the composition requirement, instruction in composition was not their focus. Instead, the students spent much of their time discussing novels, movies, TV shows and essays on a variety of hot-button issues — racism, sexism, immigration, globalization. …
As I learned more about the world of composition studies I came to the conclusion that unless writing courses focus exclusively on writing they are a sham, and I advised administrators to insist that all courses listed as courses in composition teach grammar and rhetoric and nothing else. This advice was contemptuously dismissed by the composition establishment, and I was accused of being a reactionary who knew nothing about current trends in research.
Copyright 1997 – 2009 EducationNews.org
From something I read:
After all this time, [University So-And-So], surprisingly was able to produce at least ONE courageous man who has the obesity to remind the confused and numb headed [citizens] the long forgotten [structure and theory of government]. Please, somebody stop the co-dependent and the irresponsible masses from rendering MY rights, selling my sole to the Satan and empowering this government.
Obesity? Rendered? Sole? Know how the language you are writing in works, know the meaning of the words you use, or else you will say something that is ludicrous!
Laughable or hilarious because of obvious absurdity or incongruity.
“ludicrous.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 07 Aug. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ludicrous>.
2. Ludicrous Word Origin & History
1619, “pertaining to play or sport,” from L. ludicrus, from ludicrum “source of amusement, joke,” from ludere “to play,” which, with L. ludus “a game, play,” may be from Etruscan, or from a PIE base *leid- “to play.” Sense of “ridiculous” is attested from 1782.
“ludicrous.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 07 Aug. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ludicrous>.
An ad inside a Panera said:
Romeo and Juliet.
Bread and Salt.
Olives and Sourdough.
How horrible of an ad is that??
The Online Writing Lab of Roane State Community College some descriptions of various types of essay, with examples. I have looked at some of this, but not all.
You can read some discussion of essay types and some examples of essays here:
Classic essays (good stuff here!!)
But if you want some real help on writing for the SAT and ACT, give me a call!
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