Preoccupations

Etymology: the archaeology of language

The OED (Oxford English Dictionary) publishes a regular newsletter. The latest edition has an article by John Simpson, its Chief Editor, exploring ten words with stories to tell.

Is 'none' singular?

'A good rule of thumb is to treat most indefinite pronouns as singular and try to remember the few exceptions.'

'Fewer' and 'less'

"Use fewer to describe countable things. Use less to describe uncountable quantities, collective amounts, and degree. These terms are not interchangeable.">Nearly everyone gets this wrong nowadays: 'fewer' is used for countables and 'less' for uncountables.

'Which', 'that' and 'who' are not interchangeable

A guide to using 'that', 'which' (and 'who').

Take the Who/Whom Challenge

Shakespeare made a mistake when he wrote, 'Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drowned' (The Tempest). ... Should we say 'Guess who?' or 'Guess whom?'?

Is it 'affect', or 'effect'?

Every parent is familiar with the "terrible twos", that unpleasant phase in childhood development marked by frequent tantrums and ongoing battles for independence. The grammatical "terrible twos", those words that have related meanings but are not interchangeable, wreak similar havoc on writers. If you do any kind of critical or formal writing, you need to know the difference.

Remove holiday work

1) Read Silas Marner by George Eliot. There is no need to buy a copy as Blackwell's will have copies here in time for next term. So, a Library or parental copy is fine.

2) Read at least one other good book of your own choice -- and be ready to talk about this next term (for an assessed oral assignment). Keeping some brief notes on it is, therefore, an important thing to do.

3) Early next term you will write a creative piece of work for your Coursework folder. This holiday, keep a brief diary of your days leading up to, including and immediately after Christmas: focus on your hopes and expectations for Christmas, the realities (eg, family arguments; visits from relatives who spend their time telling you how you have grown and give you presents of embarrassingly coloured socks; forgetting to buy a present for your little sister; etc, etc) and the aftermath (so often the days after Christmas seem like an anti-climax). There's no need to keep an extensive or lengthy diary, but you must return with a record of your feelings and experiences. From this, early next term, we are going to write a creative piece about the Friday.