Food for Thought - June 2003
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Webgrammar's Food for Thought - ISSN: 1530-034X
Editor and Publisher: Judy Vorfeld
mailto:judyvorfeld@webgrammar.com URL: http://www.webgrammar.com
June 2003
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CONTENTS
Note from Judy
Windows Keystroke & Tips - Refresh/Reload URL
Special - STUMPERS-L Mailing List
Did you Know - Pluralizing Uncapitalized Letters
Recommendations
Education
Grammar
Health
References
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NOTE FROM JUDY
My client and colleague, Norman Lieberman, recently published a
book, "UnderstandingDad." It's filled with over 100 pages of
questions for people to use when interviewing one's father, and
Lieberman has a nice style. He wrote the book, which in a sense is a workbook, after he'd interviewed his terminally ill father.
He suggests that this technique is excellent for documenting family history, for a better understanding of Dad, and for getting ever closer to him. He recently launched a website to talk about this and to sell his book: http://www.understandingdad.com. He welcomes comments and interaction on his website.
Happy Father's Day!
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WINDOWS KEYSTROKES & TIPS - Refresh/Reload a URL: F5
Important if you have (or often visit) a website with changing
text. Refresh clears your cache.
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-- SPECIAL --
A Library of Congress Reference Specialist recently sent the
STUMPERS-L Mailing List (http://domin.dom.edu/depts/gslis/stumpers/)
members the following information, and because you think globally, I thought you'd find it helpful:
I would like to point out a nifty source by which anyone can find an authoritative spelling and pronunciation of foreign place and personal names, as well as foreign common nouns. Sometimes people know the name of a language or country or person in the news but they want "some authoritative spelling or pronunciation" so that they can tell their employer or teacher the source.
Think "Voice of America" and make a URL: www.voa.gov. On the home page, go to the lower left and click on "pronunciation guide."
1. MAIN provides a search box for typing in any word to get its
pronunciation, i.e. "abkhazia."
2. SHORT LIST gives a long list of commonly requested names and words with their pronunciation.
3. METHODOLOGY tells where VOA got the pronunciations and cites all its sources--great for finding basic books on language usage.
4 LANGUAGES tells how to pronounce words in various languages; a rough guide, but just fine for those who are speaking English and don't want to mangle the occasional foreign word.
5. EMBASSIES gives a list of countries and the locations of
their embassies in Washington.
6. DICTIONARY is a page of links to sites that provide foreign
dictionaries and other materials on foreign languages.
7. CONTACTS is a wonderful invention by which those who disagree with VOA's recommended pronunciation of a word may say so. A telephone number is also provided that reaches (so they say) someone who has all the relevant printed sources within arm's reach, and if you do not find the word you need in their list they will look it up for you. (Our tax dollars at work!)
8. HELP is not for the helpless. It sets forth the pronunciation
scheme used in this whole guide so that the phonetically-written pronunciations will actually make sense, in case, for instance, one wonders whether "ay" means the vowel in "HAY" or the vowel in "HIGH."' (Some people would really wonder about that.)
The beauty is that it is easy to remember: Voice of America =
www.voa.gov. Then click on "pronunciation guide" and leave the patron to enjoy it.
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DID YOU KNOW - Pluralizing Uncapitalized Letters
Question: When saying the three r's or three x's or z's, how do
you write it formally (e.g., "We will focus on the three e's:
exposure, enrichment, and experiment.")?
The Gregg Reference Manual, Ninth Edition (2001) says (623): "For the sake of clarity, uncapitalized letters and uncapitalized abbreviations are pluralized by adding an apostrophe plus s."
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RECOMMENDATIONS
EDUCATION
BULL RUN
Teacher Cyberguide. This supplemental unit to Bull Run was developed as part of the Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) Project. Full of teaching ideas.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/bull/bulltg.html
CHEVRON CARS LEARN SECTION
For children, parents and educators alike. The site offers over
1,000 educational articles that have been categorized into subjects. Questions have been written to coincide with these articles and games are offered to excite children (and adults) about learning. In the Know-It-All section, you can print certificates of achievement for your progress. The Answering Machine game awards a prize to the top scorer every month.
http://www.chevroncars.com/wocc/lrn/
E-THEMES
Browse through a listing of more than 400 eThemes resources. View eThemes listed alphabetically or by grade level. Powerful search function.
http://emints.more.net/ethemes/search.html
F.R.E.E.
Federal Resources for Excellence in Education. K-12 teaching and learning resources funded by the US government, including Web sites and brochures.
http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html
GATEWAY TO EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
A project of the U.S. Department of Education, and located at the Information Institute of Syracuse at Syracuse University. Search or browse thousands of high quality educational material. Lesson plans, activities, and projects from GEM Consortium members.
http://www.thegateway.org
GRAMMAR
COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH: PROFESSOR PAUL BRIANS' SITE
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html
DAILY GRAMMAR
A great way to check grammar knowledge. Use the archives or sign up twice a year for daily e-mail lessons. Quizzes take four minutes.
http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html
MRS. BLUEZETTE'S GRAMMAR CORNER
"A PBS mind in an MTV world." Delightful, highly educational articles by a wonderful English language wizard (umm...wizette).
http://www.newsblues.com/grammar.htm
PROFESSOR CHARLES DARLING'S GRAMMAR SITE
Outstanding to use as a quick reference for your grammar questions.
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
HEALTH
DISABILITY RESOURCES
http://www.allabilities.com/
Disability Resources
THE EXERCISE AND PHYSICAL FITNESS PAGE
Department of Kinesiology and Health, Georgia State University http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwfit/strength.html
REFERENCE-GENERAL
ONE ACROSS
For lovers of crossword puzzles
http://www.oneacross.com/
GUIDESTAR
National database of U.S. charitable organizations, gathers and
distributes data on more than 850,000 IRS-recognized nonprofits
http://www.guidestar.org/
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Judy's sites and ezines:
Judy Vorfeld's Small Business ezine, Communication Expressway, designed to help people improve office, technology, presentation,and writing skills.
http://www.ossweb.com/ezine.html
Webgrammar - for students, educators, editors, writers, librarians, researchers, lovers of the English language, and Web developers.
http://www.webgrammar.com
Webgrammar's Food for Thought: Library of Congress, Washington DC - ISSN: 1530-034X - Reprinting of written materials is not permitted without the prior consent of the author or owner.
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YOUR OWN DICTIONARY! Webgrammar offers all visitors the chance to win a Webster's dictionary, monthly. Sign up! http://tinyurl.com/n5z.
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http://www.webgrammar.com/foodforthought.html
Contact Judy at mailto:judyvorfeld@webgrammar.com
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