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

Blambot Comic Fonts and Lettering

comics typografi

Grammar of word balloons.

Comic book lettering has some grammatical and aesthetic traditions that are quite unique. What follows is a list that every letterer eventually commits to his/her own mental reference file

Zinsser

criticism of 'The Element of Style'

Eloquent rant against Strunk & White.

'The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students' grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.'

HA! On the other hand I would strongly recommend reading a book whose style is intentionally derived from this one: 'The Elements of Programming Style' by Kernighan and Plauger. Yes, *that* B.Kernighan.

win some bar bets

thoughts on graphic design, creativity and beauty

help for writers

some basic concepts about writing. Sometimes these concepts are called grammar, mechanics, or conventions

By Lera Boroditsky

ong time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered

Interesting recent work on Linguistic relativity / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis related ideas in cognitive linguistics

Great for world language classes

Learn Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French, English

online oefeningen ivm met het gebruik van werkwoorden in verschillende talen

Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Like the petrol and car relationship, without solid skills writers cannot move ahead. These skills don’t come overnight, and they require patience and determination. You have to work smart and hard to acquire them. Only with experience, you can enter the realm of effective, always-in-demand writers.

jhkjhljkjlkj,.ml.m,mlm.knm.jnk.j

humorous

Just how poorly constructed was Sarah Palin?s good-bye speech? V.F. editor Wayne Lawson whips it into publishable shape, with a lot of help from his red pencil.

*howling with laughter*

"If you watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago. Just how poorly constructed was the governor’s holiday-weekend address? We asked V.F.’s red-pencil-wielding executive literary editor, Wayne Lawson, together with representatives from the research and copy departments, to whip it into publishable shape. Here is the colorful result."

A site for English instructors and English teachers working with ESL and EFL students.

some good games

Images and worksheets designed to help ESL-ELL students

Copacabana school site. Also contains resources for other subject areas.

These pages contain links to suitable activities to support

This site contains an amazing collection of English-related web resources sorted into the following categories: Stories/Poems/Rhymes, Reading, Writing, Keyboard Skills, & Grammar/Punctuation/Vocabulary.

This site contains an amazing collection of English-related web resources sorted into the following categories: Stories/Poems/Rhymes, Reading, Writing, Keyboard Skills, & Grammar/Puctuation/Vocabulary.

Collection of links to interacitve web activities that can be used with IWB

A few years ago, when I was grading papers for a graduate literature course, I became alarmed at the inability of my students to write a clean English sentence. They could manage for about six words and then, almost invariably, the syntax (and everything else) fell apart. I became even more alarmed when I remembered that these same students were instructors in the college’s composition program. What, I wondered, could possibly be going on in their courses?

similar to a related article suggested by Carter Wiseman

stanley fish

The Lost Symbol, the latest novel by The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, has gone on sale. We pick 20 of the clumsiest phrases from it and from his earlier works. - The critics are certainly harsh. Edinburgh professor of linguistics Geoffrey Pullum says “Brown's writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad.” He picks out some excerpts for special criticism. The female lead in Angels and Demons learns of the death of her scientist father: “Genius, she thought. My father . . . Dad. Dead.” A member of the Vatican Guard in the same book becomes annoyed by something, and we learn that "his eyes went white, like a shark about to attack."

Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences

Famously, comedian Stewart Lee mocked him for using the sentence “The famous man looked at the red cup” in his bestselling The Da Vinci Code.

Free online dictionary, thesaurus, spanish-english and medical dictionaries, audio pronunciations, Word of the Day, word games, and many more high-quality Merriam-Webster language resources.

Free guide for use of commas and other writing tips.

Rules for when to use and not to use commas.

for your inner grammar dork/nerd

A bit liberal with the profanity, but nevertheless an excellent piece by Paddy Donnelly on the infuriating experience of reading misspelled writing. He's right, of course: if you want anyone to take you seriously you had better learn to spell correctly.

no, really.

@ The Oatmeal

What is the hardest language?

n all dem anglophones

Frankly it's amazing that anyone learns any language. Maybe Esperanto wasn't such a bad idea after all.

In search of the world's hardest language

"The English language is derived from two main sources. One is Latin, the florid language of ancient Rome. The other is Anglo-Saxon, the plain languages of England and northern Europe. The words derived from Latin are the enemy—they will strangle and suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free."

good writing models

other entries NSFW or just gross.

simple game with audio. good for gr. 3 or so

Between The Lions. Synonym Sam Lab. (Ruby In Her Own Time Unit) 3.2

Fun game for the little ones! Educational too!

game to identify synonyms of words

interesting

November 14, 2008, 10:00 pm The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days. Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will only get Sarah Palin. I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.

Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will get only Sarah Palin. I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.

a website that you can check your spelling and grammar.

check for plagiarism

controllo dello stile

Pre-Grade Your Paper

Teabonics - a new dialect of the english language... assorted pictures from Tea Party gatherings with spelling/grammar challenges...

Can't stop clicking...

These are signs seen primarily at Tea Party Protests. They all feature "creative" spelling or grammar. This new dialect of the English language shall be known as "Teabonics."

Teabonics!!! RT @remarkk: Teabonics: a Flickr set of misspelled signs seen at Tea Party protests http://bit.ly/cQnrVx

Teabaggers hoisting poorly spelled protest signs.

Grammaropolis is a fresh, fun, and exciting new way to learn about the parts of speech.

Grammar website for kids

Grammaropolis is a fun find that helps students learn the parts of speech. In Grammaropolis, all of the characters are a different part of speech. Students will “meet” Adverb, Linking Verb, Pronoun, Adjective, Preposition, Slang, Noun, Conjunction, Interjection, and Action Verb.

great grammar music video. simple explanations of parts of speech

Animated personified parts of speech with stories, songs, and games to help kids learn about grammar.

This is a great way to teach grammar to students in a way that they will never forget

Some great online activities for practising grammar, punctuation and other language skills.

interactive for use from home or school

Great source for online games

Skills activities for the US 2nd grade.

Interactive compound words resources for 2nd grade language arts, compound words, combine two words, spelling, main idea, grammar, great small actiivities for all subjects

Internet resources to use in classroom instruction, developing project ideas, reinforcing specific subject matter areas both in the class and at home and even for online technology tutorials.

2nd grade Educational Site

Links to interactive games for grammar, phonics and reading.

I care about this alot

The Alot is Better Than You at Everything As a grammatically conscientious person who frequents internet forums and YouTube, I have found it necessary to develop a few coping mechanisms. When someone types out "u" instead of "you," instead of getting mad, I imagine them having only one finger on each hand and then their actions seem reasonable. If I only had one finger on each hand, I'd leave out unnecessary letters too!

I want my own alot.

The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people's grammar. It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I'd normally be left feeling angry and disillusioned with the world. For example, when I read the sentence "I care about this alot," this is what I imagine:

Conjugating verbs can be a challenge for people learning the English language. Conjugation.com aims to help those people learning English. Type a verb into the Conjugation.com engine generates a list of ways that verb can be conjugated. Conjugation.com also provides examples of your chosen verb being used in a sentence. Conjugation.com provides a widget that you can embed into your blog or website for visitors to use. To install the widget click the conjugation.com on your site link, copy the code provided, and paste it into your blog's template. Applications for Education Conjugation.com could be useful for ESL/ELL students as well as native speakers of English who struggle with verb conjugation. If you have students contributing to a group blog, the Conjugation.com widget could be a good asset to add to the group blog. - Free Technology for Teachers

English Verb Conjugation - THE ORIGINAL verb conjugation website. 15000 verbs conjugated in all modes, affirmative, interrogative, negative, in all persons, tenses, voices, and forms. Results automatically displayed for all regular verbs, irregular verbs, and modal verbs.

Play vocabulary building games like Synonym Toastwith Word Girl and her buddy Captain Huggy Face, along with other word games in the Homework Hub and Teacher Online Activities.

Word Games - Synonym Toast, Rhyme Time, Funny Pages, Spelling Wizard.

Word girl website deals with reading skills in a fun way. It works with synonmys, rhyming, word games, and spelling help. This website would help with vocabulary and phonics. It is also a link to a number of great scholastic sites. k-4

A listing of 50 entertaining and educational blogs that deal with writing tips, words of the day, and grammar. A resource for writers of all kinds.

правила русского языка

Очередной ресурс-находка. С правилами у меня ведётся постоянная война с переменным успехом. С Грамотой.Ру я так и не подружился по причине крайне убогого интерфейса, попробуем воспользоваться этим источником в борьбе за чистоту языка.

6.14.2010.

A Arte da Ironia http://bit.ly/98dx8I

"I will repeat the important part for clarity: 'login' is not a verb. It's simply not." - http://loginisnotaverb.com/ (via @wordie)

There's a site explaining that "login" is *not* a word? http://bit.ly/9hbLFx #yougottabekidding (@cole007)

Despite what many people --mostly in the computer field-- think, "login" is not a verb. It's simply not. Whether or not "login" is a word at all may spark a debate in some circles, but assuming it is then it may act as many parts of speech, but not as a verb.

"I will repeat the important part for clarity: 'login' is not a verb. It's simply not." - http://loginisnotaverb.com/ (via @wordie)

There's a site explaining that "login" is *not* a word? http://bit.ly/9hbLFx #yougottabekidding (@cole007)

Even in this example, I personally have no problem with using we.

#!/bin/bash weasels="many|various|very|fairly|several|extremely\ |exceedingly|quite|remarkably|few|surprisingly\ |mostly|largely|huge|tiny|((are|is) a number)\ |excellent|interestingly|significantly\ |substantially|clearly|vast|relatively|completely" wordfile="" # Check for an alternate weasel file if [ -f $HOME/etc/words/weasels ]; then wordfile="$HOME/etc/words/weasels" fi if [ -f $WORDSDIR/weasels ]; then wordfile="$WORDSDIR/weasels" fi if [ -f words/weasels ]; then wordfile="words/weasels" fi if [ ! "$wordfile" = "" ]; then weasels="xyzabc123"; for w in `cat $wordfile`; do weasels="$weasels|$w" done fi if [ "$1" = "" ]; then echo "usage: `basename $0` <file> ..." exit fi egrep -i -n --color "\\b($weasels)\\b" $* exit $?

Kill weasel words, avoid the passive, eliminate duplicates