Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Case—Please Hear Me Out—Against the Em Dash

According to an article on Slate.com:


According to the Associated Press Stylebook—Slate's bible for all things punctuation- and grammar-related—there are two main prose uses—the abrupt change and the series within a phrase—for the em dash. The guide does not explicitly say that writers can use the dash in lieu of properly crafting sentences, or instead of a comma or a parenthetical or a colon—and yet in practical usage, we do. A lot—or so I have observed lately. America's finest prose—in blogs, magazines, newspapers, or novels—is littered with so many dashes among the dots it's as if the language is signaling distress in Morse code.




What's the matter with an em dash or two, you ask?—or so I like to imagine. What's not to like about a sentence that explores in full all the punctuational options—sometimes a dash, sometimes an ellipsis, sometimes a nice semicolon at just the right moment—in order to seem more complex and syntactically interesting, to reach its full potential? Doesn't a dash—if done right—let the writer maintain an elegant, sinewy flow to her sentences?



Nope—or that's my take, anyway. Now, I'm the first to admit—before you Google and shame me with a thousand examples in the comments—that I'm no saint when it comes to the em dash. I never met a sentence I didn't want to make just a bit longer—and so the dash is my embarrassing best friend. When the New York Times' associate managing editor for standards—Philip B. Corbett, for the record—wrote a blog post scolding Times writers for overusing the dash (as many as five dashes snuck their way into a single 3.5-paragraph story on A1, to his horror), an old friend from my college newspaper emailed it to me. "Reminded me of our battles over long dashes," he wrote—and, to tell the truth, I wasn't on the anti-dash side back then. But as I've read and written more in the ensuing years, my reliance on the dash has come to feel like a pack-a-day cigarette habit—I know it makes me look and sound and feel terrible—and so I'm trying to quit.



The problem with the dash—as you may have noticed!—is that it discourages truly efficient writing. It also—and this might be its worst sin—disrupts the flow of a sentence. Don't you find it annoying—and you can tell me if you do, I won't be hurt—when a writer inserts a thought into the midst of another one that's not yet complete? Strunk and White—who must always be mentioned in articles such as this one—counsel against overusing the dash as well: "Use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate." Who are we, we modern writers, to pass judgment—and with such shocking frequency—on these more simple forms of punctuation—the workmanlike comma, the stalwart colon, the taken-for-granted period? (One colleague—arguing strenuously that certain occasions call for the dash instead of other punctuation, for purposes of tone—told me he thinks of the parenthesis as a whisper, and the dash as a way of calling attention to a phrase. As for what I think of his observation—well, consider how I have chosen to offset it.)



Perhaps, in some way, the recent rise of the dash—and this "trend" is just anecdotal observation; I admit I haven't found a way to crunch the numbers—is a reaction to our attention-deficit-disordered culture, in which we toggle between tabs and ideas and conversations all day. An explanation is not an excuse, though—as Corbett wrote in another sensible harangue against the dash, "Sometimes a procession of such punctuation is a hint that a sentence is overstuffed or needs rethinking." Why not try for clarity in our writing—if not our lives?



It's unclear—even among the printing community—when the em dash came into common usage. Folklore—if you're willing to trust it—holds that it's been around since the days of Gutenberg but didn't catch on until at least the 1700s because the em dash wasn't used in the Bible, and thus was considered an inferior bit of punctuation. The symbol derives its name from its width—approximately equal to an m—and is easily confused with its close cousin the en dash, used more frequently across the pond, but here meant only to offset sports scores and the like. The em dash isn't easily formed on computers—it requires some special keystrokes on both PCs and Macs—and so I will admit that at least some of my bile comes from, as a copy editor, endlessly changing other writers' sloppy em-dash simulacra (the double dash, the single offset dash) to the real thing.



Perhaps the most famous dash-user in history—though she didn't use the em dash conventionally—was Emily Dickinson. According to the essay "Emily Dickinson's Volcanic Punctuation" from a 1993 edition of The Emily Dickinson Journal—a true general-interest read!—"Dickinson's excessive use of dashes has been interpreted variously as the result of great stress and intense emotion, as the indication of a mental breakdown, and as a mere idiosyncratic, female habit." Can there really be—at the risk of sounding like a troglodyte—something feminine about the use of a dash, some sort of lighthearted gossamer quality? Compare Dickinson's stylistic flitting with the brutally short sentences of male writers—Hemingway, for instance—who, arguably, use their clipped style to evoke taciturn masculinity. Henry Fielding apparently rewrote his sister Sarah's work heavily to edit out some of her idiosyncrasies—chief among them, a devotion to the dash. In Gore Vidal's Burr, the title character complains—in a charming internal monologue—"Why am I using so many dashes? Like a schoolgirl. The dash is the sign of a poor style. Jefferson used to hurl them like javelins across the page." So is the rise of the dash related—as everything seems to be these days—to the End of Men? (I kid—calm down.)



More likely, it's the lack of hard-and-fast usage rules—even the AP's guidelines are more suggestions than anything—that makes the dash so popular in our post-sentence-diagramming era. According to Lynne Truss—the closest thing we've got to a celebrity grammarian, thanks to her best-seller Eats, Shoots and Leaves—people use the em dash because "they know you can't use it wrongly—which for a punctuation mark, is an uncommon virtue."



So, fine, the em dash is easy to turn to—any port will do in a storm. But if you want to make your point—directly, with clarity, and memorably—I have some advice you'd do well to consider. Leave the damn em dash alone.


Thursday, May 26, 2011

Shakespeare, Intel Geeks, and a Database of Metaphors

According to Wired.com:

To navigate the shadowy landscape of intelligence, the government is prying open the Pandora’s box of language. First stop on that long and winding road? Metaphors.



Metaphors are everywhere (there are three in the previous paragraph). Problem is, they can differ from culture to culture, and are often hard to identify. While it’s relatively simple for a computer to sort nouns from verbs, the nuances of language are slightly more challenging.



To solve this problem, Iarpa, the mad science unit of the intelligence community (or Darpa for spies), is asking universities and businesses to help them build a giant database of metaphors. The goal is to “exploit the use of metaphors by different cultures to gain insight into their cultural norms.”



In an unlikely shout out to Aristotle, Iarpa acknowledges the ancient roots of these poetic devices. Much more recently, scientists have uncovered those roots in our biology. Turns out, metaphors are more than just figurative flourishes or explanatory shortcuts; they shape our thoughts, beliefs and actions.



Take the conceptual metaphor, “affection is warmth.” People who hold hot cups of coffee are more likely to judge strangers as friendly than those who get iced coffee. Or, “morality is purity”; more people will request antiseptic wipes when they’ve been asked to think about adultery or cheating than when they’ve pondered good deeds.



So, it makes sense that, given the deep-seated nature of these metaphors, the government would want to use them for better understanding, communicating and — who are we kidding? — winning hearts and minds.



The first step is to identify and collect all those metaphors — from English, Farsi, Spanish and Russian — into a huge database. That means analyzing loads of textual data, identifying all the metaphors (“his life took a left turn”; “you must find your own way”), mapping them onto a conceptual metaphor (“life is a journey”) and then … well, after that, it’s not completely clear.



Social science may offer a clue into what we could possibly do with this gigantic metaphor repository, however. Besides improving communication and interactions in a globalized world, metaphors might help us bridge cross-cultural gaps.



For example, the topic of morality. Americans are likely to think of morality in terms of rights, or things we “possess” or can be “deprived of” — “rights as IOUs.” In China, on the other hand, morality is usually conceived of as bounded space or concentric circles, so you can “overstep boundaries” or “hit the mark.” These two metaphors aren’t really compatible, but if we started talking about a moral right as a “right-of-way” (a path to move along without interference), we might have found a metaphor that carries weight in both cultures.



This isn’t the government’s first foray into the nuances of language. Darpa has embarked on a series of studies looking at how storytelling and narrative can help make sense of complex information or understand the human terrain.



Project Metaphor kicks off in November. We can’t afford to lose another minute. “Time is money,” after all.


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Cranky Language Lady: Wednesday Grammar Quiz for Grownups


The Cranky Language Lady: Wednesday Grammar Quiz for Grownups comes from CrankyLanguageLady.com. To find out more about the Cranky Language Lady, view sample pages from her new book, peruse her blog, or visit the website.


Grammar Quiz #27: Spotting Common Errors


The passage below has five problems. Can you find them and fix them?



“How about these one’s here?” asked the clerk, her nose stud flashing fetchingly under the fluorescent lights as she pointed to a selection of socks. All of the sudden, Byron was smitten.


“Um…,” he said, mentally smacking himself in the head for his inability to form a coherent sentence.


His friend Jake came to the rescue. “He needs to think about it. Me and him will be back later.”
“Definately,” Byron managed to say, gazing at the clerk with starry eyes.

View answer.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Tuesday Trivia


  1. Which author played cricket for the MCC and once bowled the legendary W.C. Grace?
  2. Which French writer had a pet swordfish?
  3. How many fireflies does it take to give off enough like to read a book by?
  4. Which English author would work himself up so much when he performed his own works on stage that he sometimes fainted?
  5. How old was Sir Winston Churchill when he wrote his book "The History of the English Speaking Peoples"?





Last Week's Answer






How many of Shakespeare’s living descendants remain today?



William Shakespeare has no living descendants.






Which word was accidentally omitted from a 1631 publication of the Bible, therefore encouraging readers to commit adultery?



In 1631, a printer accidentally omitted the word "Not" from the seventh commandment, encouraging readers to commit adultery.






Which author wrote his most famous work standing up?



Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice In Wonderland" (and most of his other works) standing up at a writing desk.






Which author wrote the story “Rasselas” in under a week to earn enough money to pay for his mother’s funeral?



Samuel Johnson






What anachronism appears in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar?



In Julius Caesar, there is reference to a clock striking despite the fact that chiming clocks were not created until nearly a thousand years after Caesar’s death.






Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Cranky Language Lady: Wednesday Grammar Quiz for Grownups


The Cranky Language Lady: Wednesday Grammar Quiz for Grownups comes from CrankyLanguageLady.com. To find out more about the Cranky Language Lady, view sample pages from her new book, peruse her blog, or visit the website.


Grammar Quiz #27: Spotting and Correcting Wrong Words


Can you spot and correct the two problem words in this entry?


Nathan really wanted his white shirts hung on white hangers, his blue shirts hung on blue hangers, and his green shirts hung on green hangers. He could of told his wife that, but he was afraid she might stop doing his laundry. After all, he remembered how she use to make him breakfast every morning, until he suggested that he really preferred the butter on his toast to go completely to the edges of the bread.



View answer.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tuesday Trivia

  1. How many of Shakespeare’s living descendants remain today?
  2. Which word was accidentally omitted from a 1631 publication of the Bible, therefore encouraging readers to commit adultery?
  3. Which author wrote his most famous work standing up?
  4. Which author wrote the story “Rasselas” in under a week to earn enough money to pay for his mother’s funeral?
  5. What anachronism appears in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar?


Last Week's Answers




Which author drew most of his inspiration from nighttime walks around London in an attempt to cure his terrible insomnia?


Charles Dickens would walk up to 20 miles per night.



Which author was so afraid of being burned alive that he insisted on carrying a piece of rope for an easy escape from any burning building?


Hans Christian Anderson



Which poet had his heel bone stolen from Poet’s Corner by the Dean of Westminster when his grave was disturbed in 1849?


Ben Jonson



Which 18th century English playwright was such a compulsive drinker that he would drink eau-de-cologne in a pinch?


Richard Brinsley Sheridan



What is the shortest play ever written and performed?



Samuel Beckett's play "Breath" lasts for only 35 seconds and consists of breaths and cries.


Monday, May 16, 2011

Last Call Deadline Extension: Delaware Teacher of the Year!


Download an Entry Form Here.



CEO Jason Scott awards Mrs. Kristin Zerbe the Prestwick House 2010 English Teacher of the Year Award at the Delaware Shakespeare Festival.


At Prestwick House, we know firsthand that Delaware has some of the most innovative, exciting, and caring teachers in the country. This year,we would like to recognize the efforts of Delaware’s finest teachers with the second annual Prestwick House Delaware English Teacher of the Year Award — but to accomplish this task, we need your help.



Each English Department chair within the state of Delaware is invited to nominate one 6th - 12th grade English teacher from their faculty who consistently goes above and beyond in his or her dedication to helping students. Nominations will be accepted until May 25th, 2011, and can be e-mailed to keith@prestwickhouse.com.


With your submission, please include a letter of recommendation explaining how the nominated teacher has demonstrated both innovation and effectiveness in the classroom. Keep in mind that candidates should be individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership, a thorough knowledge of their subject matter, and an understanding of the individual needs of their students.



The winning teacher will receive a new Apple iPad fully loaded with Prestwick House digital teaching materials, in addition to a plaque commemorating the achievement and recognition at a performance of The Winter’s Tale by the Delaware Shakespeare Festival.




Finalists will be announced in early June with the winner announced later in the summer at a Delaware Shakespeare Festival performance. All finalists will be featured on the Prestwick House website, blog, and in the Footnotes monthly email newsletter.



For more information on the Prestwick House Delaware English Teacher of the Year Award, please feel free to contact Prestwick House General Manager, Keith Bergstrom by phone at (800)-932-4593 x131 or e-mail keith@prestwickhouse.com.




Download an Entry Form Here.




Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tuesday Trivia

  1. Which author drew most of his inspiration from nighttime walks around London in an attempt to cure his terrible insomnia?
  2. Which author was so afraid of being burned alive that he insisted on carrying a piece of rope for an easy escape from any burning building?
  3. Which poet had his heel bone stolen from Poet’s Corner by the Dean of Westminster when his grave was disturbed in 1849?
  4. Which 18th century English playwright was such a compulsive drinker that he would drink eau-de-cologne in a pinch?
  5. What is the shortest play ever written and performed?


Last Week's Answers

What is the most shoplifted book in the world?

The bible


Which Scottish poet owned a pet ewe called Poor Mallie who had two poems dedicated to her?


Robert Burns



Which author refused to write on anything besides yellow legal paper?


Truman Capote



What is the average life expectancy of modern books?


The life expectancy of a modern book is about 100 years due to the high concentration of sulphuric acid in the wood pulp paper is made from.


How much was John Milton paid for his classic work, “Paradise Lost”?



Just £10.00


Thursday, May 5, 2011

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! In Search of Teacher Appreciation



by Douglas Grudzina


See if you can complete the following common sayings:
  • Those who can do; those who can’t _____ .
  • If you can read this, thank a _____ .

I was just informed yesterday that this week is “Teacher Appreciation Week,” and the announcement got me to reminiscing about “Teacher Appreciation Weeks” of the past.


To be honest, I don’t remember any—not specific ones anyway, not like the Christmas I got my three-speed English racer bicycle or my wedding day or the births of my daughters.



I do remember that, along about Wednesday of the week (if we were aware of the week at all), the school board would “buy us lunch.” All that really meant was that we wouldn’t be charged for whatever the cafeteria was serving that day.


Of course, our Association officers would insist on paying for their own lunches, but I was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
I think I also remember the occasional cookies-and-punch reception hosted by the PTA.


I taught in a 9 – 12 school, so we had some very strong booster organizations but not a terribly vibrant PTA. Still, the Sunshine Hydrox were nice, and red Hawaiian Punch is always a welcome treat.



Sincerely, though, the thought was definitely appreciated, and the person I remember hosting the affairs probably bought the refreshments out of her own pocket.
However, I do not remember:

  • morning PA announcements reminding students, secretarial staff, administration, etc., that it was “Teacher Appreciation Week,” and it might be nice for each one to say one nice thing to one member of the instructional staff in the course of the day;
  • any student, secretary, administrator, etc., stopping by my room to remind me that it was “Teacher Appreciation Week” and saying one nice thing to me that day.

Several states lately have found surprising and creative ways to express their appreciation of teachers. But I don’t want to digress into politics …
When I think about a week like “Teacher Appreciation Week,” I have to remind myself that there are more “- - - Week”s than there are weeks in the year!


The second week of March alone is “National School Breakfast Week” and “Severe Weather Week.”
I wonder what we’re celebrating—and how—during “Severe Weather Week.”


This week “Teacher Appreciation Week” coincides with “National Physical Education and Sports Week.” Do our Phys Ed colleagues feel cheated that their two big commemorations fall on the same week? For all that, however, do we even have an “English Language Arts Education Week”? If so, does anyone know when it is? Maybe they could make one coincide with “National Friends of Libraries Week” (the third week in October) or “Celebrate Freedom Week” (the second week of September).


April 2 is apparently “International Children’s Book Day,” so maybe “ELA Ed Week” could occur then.
Okay, I do want apologize for my apparent cynicism. This is not just a “toss away” week that no one knows anything about. There are tons and tons of “Teacher Appreciation Week” activities and lessons and materials and outlines on the Internet. If you want to make sure TAW gets observed in your classroom, just do a quick Google search. But wouldn’t the teacher’s planning her (his) own classroom’s TAW activities be rather like all the kids inviting themselves over to Mom’s house for Mother’s Day, so she can cook them a big dinner?


To be honest, I rarely felt starved for appreciation during my years in the classroom. Granted, I had those relatively few students (and their parents) who thought (and maybe still do) that I had been born with the express purpose of ruining their (or their child’s) lives, make college entrance impossible, destroy their self-esteem, and condemn them to lives of middle-class drudgery.



But the vast majority of my students (and their parents) knew—and appreciated the fact—that a “C” on a paper was not a condemnation but a challenge to do better; that even if I did pour on the homework the same weekend as the big ski trip, they (or their children) would be hard put to find a career in which they wouldn’t be working long hours or bringing work home—even during a special weekend.


My school had a (short-lived but nice while it lasted) tradition of allowing graduates to choose any high school faculty member they wanted to be the one to present their diploma to them. To be asked—by even one student—was to feel appreciated.
To be invited to a student’s graduation party was to feel appreciated. To have the really shy, quiet kid in the back row of the class who never raised his hand or questioned a grade come up to you to give you a graduation announcement and wallet-sized senior photo was to feel appreciated.


And to have a former student appear out of the blue—in a few cases, some 30 years after their high school graduations—and ask to “friend” you on Facebook is to feel appreciated.
I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.


Just as we treasure those exquisite “teachable moments” when the cosmic forces are all in alignment, and we know we’ve gotten through; we treasure those moments when the human spirit inside of our students touches the human spirit inside of us, and that spirit tells us _you are a part of what I have become, and I thank you for that_.



Sort of an academic _Namaste_.


I will be honest: sometimes I miss my interactions with my students. So … for this “Teacher Appreciation Week,” my wish for all of you out there who are classroom teachers is that, in addition to the school board’s free slice of pizza and the PTA’s cookies and punch, you are able to recall the times you know you made a positive difference and especially the times someone let you know.


Think about the times you know you are appreciated … and smile.



Happy “Teacher Appreciation Week.”



(By the way, Sunday is Mother’s Day. You probably still have time to defrost a turkey or something—but don’t make Mom cook it.)




Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Cranky Language Lady: Wednesday Grammar Quiz for Grownups


The Cranky Language Lady: Wednesday Grammar Quiz for Grownups comes from CrankyLanguageLady.com. To find out more about the Cranky Language Lady, view sample pages from her new book, peruse her blog, or visit the website.


Grammar Quiz #24: Parenthesis: What's the Right Thing to Do


The world of parentheses can be a difficult one to navigate. Can you determine which two of the following sentences handle parentheses correctly? How would you correct the others? \

  1. The graduation speaker was not observant enough to notice the many signs of boredom throughout the audience (yawning, dozing, playing “Angry Birds.”)
  2. The graduation speaker was putting everyone to sleep. (His topic was Paradigms of the Future in a Global Economy).
  3. The graduation speaker (He was Dr. Arlington Keller) was boring everyone to death with his uninspired topic, Stuff I Think.
  4. Zachary slept (as in snored) through the graduation speech.
  5. The audience burst into enthusiastic applause (were they just happy it was over?) when the graduation speaker finally sat down.


View answer.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Tuesday Trivia



  1. What is the most shoplifted book in the world?
  2. Which Scottish poet owned a pet ewe called Poor Mallie who had two poems dedicated to her?
  3. Which author refused to write on anything besides yellow legal paper?
  4. Although many ancient books survive to this day, modern books do not have this sort of longevity. What is the average life expectancy of modern books?
  5. How much was John Milton paid for his classic work, “Paradise Lost”?


Last Week's Answers




Which scientific author who caused quite a stir with the church had originally intended to become a priest?

Charles Darwin



Which author had had a pet scorpion which he used to keep on his desk for inspiration?

Henrik Ibsen



Which country has the largest number of libraries and books in the world?

Russia



Which poet had a pony named Fanny that pulled his wife along in a wheelchair?


Alfred Lord Tennyson



Which British author was expelled from school for being caught smoking?

Jackie Collins



Monday, May 2, 2011

Mansion in New York Believe To Have Inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” Being Demolished

According to Batangas Today:

The 25-room mansion in New York which some scholars believe inspired “The Great Gatsby” is being demolished for a subdivision, several international news sites reported on Monday.

The demolition was said to have started on Saturday. As reported earlier, the mansion will be replaced by five houses each with a $10 million tag price.

It was reported that David Brodsky, who purchased the property for $17.5 million in 2004 with his father, downplayed the house’s significance in literature. “To be honest with you there isn’t anything really special about it. We did a lot of research on its history and there is really no evidence that [Gatsby author F. Scott] Fitzgerald was even ever there,” Brodsky was quoted saying.

F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s relationship to the mansion has become a local lore regardless of his true connection to it, preservationist Alexandra Wolfe said.

The house featured marble, Palladian windows, parquet floors and hand-painted wallpaper.