Words and verbal fatigue. Are you beginning to sound like everyone else?
July 18, 2011
I love words and I marvel how all of a sudden people can easily begin to sound like everyone else. Believe it or not, there is actually someone who keeps track of words and phrases that are over used. Though maybe “you could care less,” the scholars in question keep track of linguistic mangling and overused buzzwords in a database called the Oxford University Corpus. The voluminous record keeps track of books, magazines, broadcast, online media and other sources, watching for new overused, tiresome phrases and retiring those that fade from use (or misuse). Here are a few of my favorites and yes, I too probably over use these words and phrases.
The great hierarchy of verbal fatigue includes:
1 – At the end of the day
2 – Fairly unique
3 – I personally
4 – At this moment in time
5 – With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 – It’s a nightmare
8 – Shouldn’t of
9 – 24/7
10 – It’s not rocket science
Digitally interactive books versus a child’s imagination.
July 8, 2011
My thoughts on digital books continue to evolve with new information and data on their effects on the way children read. If I was ‘Tsarina’ today…. I would like to keep children reading books they hold in their hands. A child’s brain develops most dramatically during the first five years and shapes how their brain […]
Celebrate July 4th with a book that makes the holiday come to life.
June 30, 2011
The, 4th of July celebrates the United States adopting the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776. What do Richard Henry Lee, George Clymer, John Witherspoon, Caesar Rodney and 52 other men have to do with the 4th of July? They were 4 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. These people put their […]
Books to entertain— not to teach anything.
June 25, 2011
Looking for a summer home-run read? Look to the books of Beverly Cleary —95 years old— and the author of over 42 books, many of which turn(ed) countless kids into the readers they are today. I can’t imagine somebody not finding a book by Beverly Cleary they don’t fall in love with. And we know, that […]
Get off the literary stair master and stop counting the number of books you or your children are reading.
June 17, 2011
Upon returning from a fact finding trip to the US which included a visit to a NYC charter school, the UK Education Secretary announced that every student from upper-elementary through the high school grades should read fifty books a year. Read 50 books a year and become a reader —really? Here is one more episode […]
