War is a significant language-changer

This article was useful to me - there are some great ones I never knew were acronyms e.g. fubar. I have heard of Norwich before but never Italy. Learn some examples of different types of words coined in the 2WW for the A2 exam.

Sapir-Whorf related article on "freaks" as an offensive term

This Guardian article on language out of context is interesting. What do you think?

Education or indoctrination?

In the wake of UK academies being investigated for teaching extremist beliefs, the reminder of this recent issue in Texas makes it evident that we must question all our sources of information. You know not to trust Wikipedia but you might place a bit more faith (pardon the pun) in your text book.

A2 Investigations - earlier posts

A2 lovelies!

Please look back at my posts for June this year and last year and July this year for some more ideas about investigations.

Also, you can comment on much earlier posts too - everyone is looking at recent posts, rather than seeing what strikes you as interesting from the whole back-catalogue.

Keep up the good work of independent reading and thinking!

Halla

Another excellent blog (Dan Clayton's)

Apart from mine (and fancier scmanzier than mine with its 'labels' and disguised hyperlinks - like the following), this is a great blog for wider reading.

Violence against men: do we lack a vocabulary/script?

The silence around domestic violence where the perpetrators are women and the victims are men is part of the problem with the roles we still confine the different genders in. She should be taught how to deal with her violent impulses and how to speak with understanding and regret about her actions. Whatever the context.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/11/kelly-brook-punching-two-men-jason-statham-danny-cipriani-male-victims-violence?CMP=fb_gu

Let's eat Grandma! Better use of commas...

This article is an extract from a style guide by David Marsh. You might benefit from knowing the phrase"black economy" before reading one of the examples. And don't worry about restrictive clauses unless you are a grammar whizz, but you should be able to see the difference in his example between finding out about bishops, all of whom have been accused of something... and only about the bishops who have been accused, not about the others - the comma is vital to tell the difference.

Worth reading and struggling with and asking me about if necessary.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/sep/04/mind-your-language-commas

Investigation types Powerpoint

Wonderfulls,

since I can't email this to the class from home, here it is for you (it is also on Moodle under 'coursework'):

Guardian article about a modern prescriptive writing manual (LC)

Pinker is bril and I may lobby to get this in the library.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/03/the-sense-of-style-the-thinking-persons-guide-to-writing-in-the-21st-century-steven-pinker-review

A2 lesson 8/9/14 (media text and grammar issues)

Splendids,

*edit* I will be talking you through your coursework tomorrow and may not have time to get to this! I know we started late too so you can finish this for Friday, if you haven't got a chance tonight. Plus, if you are struggling to find an article, one off my blog or off the Guardian's Language RSS feed (on the sidebar of my blog) might fit the bill...


please send me your blog URLs as a matter of urgency, and I will email you all the list asap, so you can follow one another's blogs - very important as we share ideas throughout the year, especially about coursework. AS soon as I send you the list, please 'add' the blogs to your reading list on the Blogger dashboard.

Think about the key areas that your investigation might cover (Gender, Power, Language Change, CLA or other topics like Language and Occupation, Technology etc.). Find a text about language in one of those areas that you are interested in. It should not be aimed at Language specialists, but could be for any other type of reader, e.g. broadsheet readers, parents, police officers, forum users etc. Its main purpose should be 'to inform'.

This is the kind of text you should write for your media text, so it could provide you with a style model, if it is good enough. You can use as many style models as you like as none of them go into the folder - the work must speak for itself. Print and annotate it to show how information about language can be communicated to non-specialists.

What is the APF/GAP?
What is it about language that the writer is informing the reader of?
What techniques are used?
What register?
What conventions? (Does the text use any unfamiliar words for the target audience and how does the writer get around that? How does it simplify difficult concepts?)
How do the features of the text suit the APF/GAP?

Bring this to next lesson and we will discuss some of the issues raised.

For those working on grammar issues, can I recommend the 'Exercises' on the American site Grammar Bytes (especially for comma splicing) and the Bristol University grammar support.

http://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_41.htm

Conscious or sub-conscious discrimination?

This very short example of prejudice in response to language highlights racism but also that good writers are aware of reader preferences and can make small changes to great effect. By this, I absolutely do not mean you have to bow to prejudice! I just thought that a) it was a good excuse to share this serious discrimination issue with you in a Language blog and b) you all need to work on your reader awareness for your coursework media text, so for you to see how powerful editing can be is important.


http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5753880?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

Welcome to my AS class - creating your blogs

Wonderfulls,

please google how to set up a Blogger blog and follow the instructions. You have the 45 minutes of the first half of the lesson (then it is lunch, and then you come back to the classroom for the second half of the lesson, ready to start at 1.45) to (read everything below before you start):

• create your blog
• post your idiolect description
• email me your blog URL (which will be something like yourblog.blogspot.co.uk) 
• and do some reading of and commenting on my blog

Please follow my blog so it comes up in your reading list and read from it regularly, always leaving comments to prove you were there and make it more interesting (you can work your way back through the whole blog, reading what interests you during your independent study time).

Thanks

Welcome to my new A2 class

Welcome!

Loving your work in the discussion and in the writing tasks I have read so far. Thank you also to Naomi for starting off the comments so well and so quickly. I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts. Not in a psychic way... you know what I mean.

Keep up the reading and commenting all year and don't forget to keep a reading log - you could even post links to all your online finds to your blog so you can revise from them easily and share them. You will probably get more from them by re-reading them later when you are better-informed about what all the key issues are.

Please send me the links to your blogs asap. Thanks,

Halla