Reinventing the book with Shakespeare

Ebooks can become rich collections of resources incorporating text-crunching computation. Here's an example using Shakespeare texts. 

Why a 17th-Century Text Is the Perfect Starting Point for Reinventing the Book
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/why-a-17th-century-text-is-the-perfect-starting-point-for-reinventing-the-book/263034/

The Britishisation of American English.

Usually it's the other way round... but this article tracks some UK words and phrases that have entered into American usage. Bonus points for use of Google's Ngrams viewer. 

The Britishisation of American English
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686

4 Punctuation Marks for Appositives

Okay; this is the sort of thing that gives grammarians a bad name. But if you want to be an effective writer, it's the sort of thing you should take an interest in. 

4 Punctuation Marks for Forming Appositive Phrases
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/4-punctuation-marks-for-forming-appositive-phrases/

Thorn and Wynn

When we do language change at A2, we'll come across some letters that used to be in the alphabet but aren't any more. We met one in our discussion of consonants at AS – the 'eth' symbol used for phonemic voiced 'th'. Here are some more, and the comments discussion is informative too. (Unusually for comments discussions...)

The alphabet used to have other letters -- meet two
http://hotword.dictionary.com/letters-alphabet/

Linguistics Podcast from @linguistchris

iTunes has a number of podcasts about a range of subjects. I'm sure you'll be able to find one at least for each of your A Levels. This one is about linguistics, which means it covers much of what we do in English Language, and a few topics of interest which we don't. 

Linguistics Podcast (@linguistchris) @linguistchris Language Courses

35 Fossil Words

Nice list of English words with a deep history. Save 'em up for when we do Language Change in the A2 year.

35 Fossil Words
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/35-fossil-words/

Kerfuffle is the best word ever.

Proved here by science. 

Words
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/09/words

Copywriting clichés

A copywriter writes advertisements and promotional materials. Here are a few of the cheaper tricks they may use.

No, it won't do. Ten signs a copywriter is on autopilot.
http://weallneedwords.com/andanotherthing/how-to/no-it-wont-do-ten-signs-a-copywriter-is-on-autopilot.html

Welcome 2012

Welcome to new English students.

Have a look around here; you'll find useful links on the right, so click through and see what's there. Of special interest for those with a Facebook account is the English@Park Facebook Page - LIKE it immediately and receive updates, useful messages, and a handy way to contact me in off-hours.

You'll also notice a Twitter feed for @parkenglish lower down the page, and the tags for post topics to help you navigate the blog articles. You can use the Search box if you know what you're looking for.

And before you leave, put your EMAIL ADDRESS in the subscribe box at the top! Then you'll get updates hot and fresh to your inbox.

Enjoy your stay!

I, You, He or She?

A very readable account of the choice of point of view in fiction, from the perspective of a writer who does the choosing.

I, You, He or She – Some Thoughts on Point of View
http://www.michaelpryor.com.au/articles/i-you-he-or-she-some-thoughts-on-point-of-view/