Understanding Visual Hierarchy in Web Design

The idea of 'visual hierarchy' is much more useful when writing about graphology than saying 'it's bold so it stands out/catches the eye'. That's true, but looking at the relative 'boldness' of the text section compared to all the other text, and the choice of *how* it's made bold (alone with other aspects of meaning like the emotional value related to a colour choice, for example), gives you much more to say.

Graphology should be linked to other features of language given greater weight by the exam board -- especially discourse structure: the organisation of the text including reading order and evaluation of importance.

https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/understanding-visual-hierarchy-in-web-design--webdesign-84

Developing children's handwriting

It's useful to look at the strategies teachers use, and the terminology they employ, in helping children develop their handwriting skills. This government document gives an example guide.

http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Gateway-to-Writing-Developing-handwriting.pdf

Letter forms and abbreviations - The University of Nottingham

This site collects some useful info about early letterforms and abbreviations, with examples and terminology.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/medievaldocuments/letterformsandabbreviations.aspx

English Spelling and Learning

This article argues that the English spelling system makes it harder for kids to learn. There are comparisons with systems in other countries -- but notably little about non-phonetic, logogram-based systems like Chinese (where symbols for words or concepts need to be learned, quite separate from their pronunciation). It leads towards an interesting revision and simplification of the spelling system on phonemic principles -- which looks like it'd be a disaster practically, but understanding its core ideas is certainly good for your grasp of phonology.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/how-the-english-language-is-holding-kids-back/385291/

Internet language

Not a bad article, here, though it's not watertight -- no mention of creative emoticons of the type used in the headline, for instance -- and could do with a clearer model of language functions: it tantalisingly refers to 'interpersonal' communication, but this is just an empty premodifier, I think -- rather than, accurately, noting that most of the forms mentioned really do focus on managing the tenor of Internet discourse, showing feelings and managing human speech roles in the absence of tone, expression and gesture. 

http://gizmodo.com/is-the-innanet-ruining-teh-english-language-_o-1680686542

A Brief History of the Hashtag, and Other Unusual Punctuation Marks

Doesn't include all the interesting ones, for example the virgule (/), but an interesting collection illustrating transformations in form and naming.

Butterick’s Practical Typography

Outside our linguistic remit. But related, full of sound advice, and everything you'd need to know as a writer.

http://practicaltypography.com/index.html#toc

The Origin of the Pilcrow, aka the Strange Paragraph Symbol

Now you know what it's called.

The Origin of the Pilcrow, aka the Strange Paragraph Symbol
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2013/07/the-origin-of-the-pilcrow-aka-the-strange-paragraph-symbol/

The cyberpragmatics of bounding asterisks

Don't let 'cyberpragmatics' panic you, they're just playing around. Interesting article researching the roots of Internet asterisk use in comic strips. *chuckles*

The cyberpragmatics of bounding asterisks
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466

English Letter Frequency Counts: Mayzner Revisited or ETAOIN SRHLDCU

A good source of core statistics on English language letter, word and sequence frequencies. Shame not to have overall two-, three- and four-word phrase frequencies too.

http://norvig.com/mayzner.html

12 English Letters That Didn’t Make the Alphabet

Stretching the definition of 'letters' slightly at times, but still interesting for A2s.

12 English Letters That Didn't Make the Alphabet
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/156077

11 Weirdly Spelled Words

Phonology and history, in one orthographic package.

11 Weirdly Spelled Words—And How They Got That Way
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/151416

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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/

Proper Spelling? Its Tyme to Let Luce!

An interesting argument from Wired magazine about the state of Standard English in the era of the internet. I'd wait till after your A-Levels if you decide they've got it right.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/st_essay_autocorrect/

How not to represent accents...

The Australian had to apologise rapidly for this basically racist representation of the speech of an Irish airline boss. The respelling is pretty broad even at the start - and when you come across the 'dialect' idioms later on, you realise this isn't your normal (or acceptable) reporting...

http://www.irishecho.com.au/2010/12/01/full-transcript-of-the-insulting-article/5822#.TpcbXjPoqGU.mailto

Chris Herron Design: The Hell Brand Project

Lots of fun with graphology: Chris Herron imagines 'rebranding' Hell. There's some semantic fun with the tag lines he comes up with for the 'new hell' concept too.

http://www.chrisherrondesign.com/hell.html

Video: Typography about language

Wise words by Taylor Mali. 

Typography about language by Ronnie Bruce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kdrsPRZnK8

The 'Grammar' of Comics

Actually, it's more the graphology and style guide of comics, but this is still a very well-observed description of comics' linguistic conventions.

Blambot Comic Fonts and Lettering
http://www.blambot.com/grammar.shtml

Obscenicons

When a cartoon character says "£&@#ing hell!", those have been called 'obscenicons'. They've been evolving for a long time...

More on the early days of obscenicons
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2483

Anatomy and Glossary of Type

This one for A2 students: any search for 'anatomy of type' will uncover assorted versions of this glossary and diagram; this one is a decent intermediate example. If you've absolutely, positively got to talk about graphology, do it like a pro. :)

http://www.precisionintermedia.com/about-typography.html