Spelling, grammar and foreign students
October 5th, 2009
from Times Higher Education.

from Times Higher Education.

Who is he? Here’s what he made:




Here’s a fascinating and well-researched article from The New Yorker.

From the University of Alberta:
This will prolly comes as a bit of a shock to UR system, but findings from a group of University of Alberta researchers show that the language commonly used in instant messaging has no effect on your child’s spelling abilities. If anything, says study author Connie Varnhagen, using language variations commonly used in instant messaging and texting is actually a good sign.

A great poem by Heather McHugh, from The New Yorker.
Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.’
from Daily Mail:

I am a Greene fan, and I’ve seen both film versions and had wanted to read account of a a careless and naive American in Vietnam in the late 1950s as seen by a jaded British reporter. It is a great book, beautifully crafted and unsentimental, and the politics are right on and immensely relevant today. A strong recommendation for all.
I had high hopes from this collection of transcripts from Cooke’s long-running BBC radio program, and the early years were quite interesting and fun to read. He seemed to be able to perceive American culture accurately and without prejudice in the 40s and 50s. Over time, however, Cooke’s liberal conservatism became old-man conservatism, and the post-1980 essays seem to be out of touch and self-aggrandizing. I didn’t actually finish these — I skimmed the 90s and 00s looking for obituary reminiscences, which are interesting at least.