A Literary History of Word Processing

The conditions of production of a text can affect that text, and changes in the technology of writing have changed the styles in which things are written. The actual book under discussion here isn't due out till 2013, but there's food for thought in the article.

A Literary History of Word Processing
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/books/a-literary-history-of-word-processing.html?_r=1

New 'comments' system

I was starting to get a bit of spam on the comments for the PLB, and no-one was using the comments system for actual discussion, so I'm trying out another feedback system: 'reactions'.

To use this, you just tick a box by the response you feel fits best.  Initially the choices are 'funny', 'cool', 'interesting' and 'useful'.  You can choose more than one. :)  Let me know in person or on the Facebook page if you have any other suggestions.

I just rediscovered this in my iBooks collection. Other ebook readers which can handle the standard .epub format should be able to read it too, though it's got some snazzy features that might not work. 

The material in this short, free, electronic book from the Open University bridges our work on grammar and introduces some of the issues we'll be learning next term at AS; good revision material therefore for A2s, too. 

Check out this collection on iTunes U:

English grammar in context - for iBooks The Open University English 13 Ratings View in iTunes

Crystal's Encyclopaedias

Whilst I'm on books, here's the Crystal encyclopaedia of the English language. There's also the encyclopaedia of Language, which covers a wider range of languages, and includes child language acquisition; that one's in its third edition and has extra chapters on Internet language too.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language David Crystal £30.00 £21.92

Making Sense of Grammar

The companion piece to Rediscover Grammar, this fatter book has the advantage of exploring how the grammar matters, giving examples of usage and contexts and dealing with some pragmatic issues about grammatical usage. So, useful for your A Level studies in giving you ideas about what grammatical frameworks are applicable where.

Making Sense of Grammar Prof David Crystal £18.99 £18.04

Rediscover Grammar

The book I've been waving at students this week. Pricier than I remember - but that makes it a great Christmas present, right? It's educational, mum. 

This one is the more concise, just giving clear explanations of the full range of English grammar - far more than I could deliver in class. This'll last you through the second year and into university.

Rediscover Grammar Prof David Crystal £18.50 £16.74

Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric

This marvellous page hyperlinks a range of classical rhetorical terms and explanations,with examples of each. The links on the left are most useful - organising and classifying the approaches to speechifying in a range of well-crossreferenced ways.
An exploration of rhetoric isn't only useful as a way into thinking about discourse structures, sentence structures and semantic tricks – though the terms aren't ones we need to know at A Level – but also a way to think about structuring your own writing and presentations.
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/default.htm

First 10 Pages

This one's of most use if you've got an interest in Literature - this blog seeks to read and analyse the first 10 pages of a range of books, and comment on the language and approach used to open the novel.  Cool stuff.

 

http://first10pages.com/

English as a Global Language

Whilst we're at it, here's a nifty page covering the range of Englishes across the world and commenting on the appropriacy of English to serve as a world lingua franca. 

The History of English - English as a Global Language
http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/issues_global.html

How New Words Are Created

A natty little page of word formation techniques for your revision pleasure. Looks like an interesting site of language change in general, too. 

How New Words Are Created
http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/issues_new.html