March 2, 2013

Weekly Finds: March 2, 2013

A Man With Magnifying Glass by digitalart
Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Every week, we’ll be sharing a list of posts, stories, news, or opinions that we've run across the Internet during the past week or two. We won't be discussing them in detail here, but we do encourage you to check them out as they could contain valuable ideas and insights for your IELTS exam.

If you're ready, here we go...

GRAMMAR


On contentious commas and the importance of grammar

Here's another discussion about the serial comma.

Grammar Bites: The comma splice

A comma splice is the use of a comma to join two main clauses (independent clauses) into one compound sentence.

The Scariest Grammar Mistakes In Professional Emails

In honor of the spookiest day of the year, Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover polled more than 2,200 people on the “scariest” writing issue that they typically see in professional emails.

Some correlative conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are those conjunctions that are used in pairs. Examples are: either…or and neither…nor.

Answers to Reader Questions About Hyphens

The author answered a few of the queries about hyphens at his site.

Most Committed Mistakes often Missed by Blog Writers

Grammar and spelling is probably the top of anyone’s list in this department, but ironically, because grammar and spelling are the most common errors--they are also the most commonly searched for error.

Is there something to lose from an unnecessary rule?

The author asks: "Is there no cost to maintaining a strict distinction between words? Or, more generally, is there no cost to maintaining a grammar rule?"

Really?

The author discusses the use of 'really' as an adverb and as an interjection.

Adverbs

Go back to the basics of adverbs with this helpful article.

READING


What’s the point of Extensive Reading?

The author argues: "If we believe that learning is not just about passing exams, our classrooms need not follow this pattern. We can break the traditional roles of ‘teacher’ and ‘student’ following our set tasks and duties quite easily. All we need is a library of graded readers and the enthusiasm and passion to read extensively alongside our class."

The Straight Dope: What does the filler text "lorem ipsum" mean?

Lorem ipsum is the beginning of a pseudo-Latin passage commonly used as placeholder text when a graphic designer dummies up a page layout.

SPEAKING


Body Language and Energy: 3 Steps to More Powerful Speaking

Effective body language is critical to powerful public speaking. Learn these 3 steps to energize your speeches and presentations.

Speak and spell

Learn how to speak and spell English words with British Council's Sam and Pam, the super space spies.

VOCABULARY


15 Idioms for Periods of Time

A body of idiomatic words and expressions vividly denote brief periods of time or otherwise refer to various durations. Here’s a sampling of such terms.

Talking Elephant Learns 5-Word Vocabulary

Annyong! The Korean word for "hello" is part of 22-year-old Asian elephant Koshik's five-word vocabulary.

Language tip of the week: every one or everyone?

Here is some advice about every one and everyone, as well as other pronouns starting with every.

5 Ways To Transform Your Life Just By Changing Your Vocabulary

When the words change, the feelings tend to change too.

Saintly Words

Enrich your vocabulary with these words that relate to saints.

Hip-hop's dead presidents

The author talks about the slang dead president.

WRITING


The Mathematics of Writing

The author argues that one should approach sentence construction from the logical and precise stand point of the mathematician.