Month: January 2014

  • Stuck in amid hell with you | Mind your language

    The word ‘amid’ is scarcely used at all in spoken or written English. Why, then, is it so popular with journalists? “Hi, Brian! Where’s Sophie?” “Sophie and I have split up amid rumours of an affair.” “Why are you talking like that?” “This conversation comes amid revelations that I’ve landed a job as a subeditor.” […]

  • Danglers Ahead

    Danglers in their various forms are one of our most common grammatical lapses. Participle phrases, “like” comparisons, appositives and other modifying constructions generally must be adjacent to the noun or pronoun they refer to. Otherwise, they dangle — and leave a clumsy or confusing sentence. After Deadline http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/danglers-ahead/

  • Why student fieldtrips make an impact

    Why student fieldtrips make an impact

    Ayona Datta offers six reasons why the impact of teaching fieldtrips goes beyond students and deserves to be counted Impact in recent years has become the most dreaded and controversial concept that has taken over both the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – how university funding and the fate of academic careers is measured – as […]

  • Popular orange vegetables and silly synonyms

    They, or their ‘bland green vegetable’ counterparts were out in force over the past 12 months Try your hand at our interactive quiz here Henry Porter got me thinking. The acclaimed author and journalist’s recent paean to the lost art of creativity bemoaned the apparent slump in inspirational behaviour among the UK workforce. Citing ONS […]

  • The Pov quiz of the year

    Complete the fiendish question-based test Jamie Fahey Media: Mind your language | theguardian.com http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/quiz/2014/jan/06/pov-quiz-of-the-year

  • New issue of the Linguistics and Education Bulletin

    New issue of the Linguistics and Education Bulletin via Tumblr http://jesusromerotrillo.tumblr.com/post/72092424301