Fiji: New Free Online Resource For Journalists

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has just launched "The NEWS manual," a new free online resource for journalists and journalism students.

In a statement, the Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports Mr Filipe Bole said the manual is written in clear, concise English and the book helped to inform a generation of young and mid-career journalists studying and working across the Pacific.

"The News Manual was originally released in 3 Volumes in 1991 with support from UNESCO and is now entirely available online," Mr Bole said.

He said now its 700 pages have been revised, updated and placed online as 72 fully indexed chapters covering basic skills, advanced reporting and ethics and the law.

"There is a wealth of practical advice on how to perform most journalism tasks, from writing an introduction to investigative reporting," the Education Minister said.

According to Mr Bole The News Manual online now also provides an ever- expanding interactive resource with exercises, topical discussions and a growing list of links to 100 plus professional sites around the world.

"It also including your organization. You might also want to provide a link to it from your own website."

He said because the site itself will continue to be a work-in-progress, UNESCO would appreciate any feedbacksthrough the Contact Us page at http://www.thenewsmanual.net/.

All about Readability Formulas and Why Writers Need Them

We can trace the origin of readability formulas during the late 19th Century in the United States. The schools in the US did not routinely grade students until 1847 when the first graded school opened in Boston with a series of books prepared for each grade. Junior high school science teachers wanted to teach scientific facts and methods in plain English, rather than teaching complicated science vocabulary. As a result, teachers, librarians, and scholars developed primitive readability formulas to determine what seemed readable to their students.

No one had ever entertained the thought of grading adults. The US Military took the first step in grading adults in 1917. Chicago took the clue from the military and started grading civilians in 1937. Earlier studies had revealed that general adult readers in the United States had limited reading ability.

The breakthrough of readability formulas was the publication of The Teacher's Word Book by Edward Thorndike in 1921. In his book, Thorndike researched how often general literature used difficult words. For the first time, a notable scholar suggested a way to measure difficult words through mathematical formulas.

Early researchers studied surface characteristics of written texts to determine the extent readers could comprehend texts. Then they compared the data with certain predetermined standards; one such standard was tabulating the average grade level of students who could correctly answer a certain percentage of questions from the text. The characteristics with the most accurate standards were judged as indices of readability. These characteristics were worked upon and developed into readability formulas.

Thorndike's book was followed by another landmark work by George Kingsley Zipf in 1949. Zipf came up with Human Behavior and The Principle of Least Effort, in which he declared a mathematical relationship between the hard and easy words, called Zipf's Curve.

Many researchers have contributed to developing readability formulas. Rudolf Flesch is one of the better known developers of a readability formula called Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. His formula uses the number of syllables per 100 words and the average number of words per sentence. Flesch said that writers can make their texts easier to read by using shorter words and shorter sentences.

In 1963 George R. Klare published his book, The Measurement of Readability, in which he reviewed the efforts to improve comprehensible language by revising the texts to lower readability scores. He also suggested using readability formulas as an aid to increase effectiveness of writing and speaking. Klare published over 80 papers and studies on readability in professional and scholarly journals. He died in 2006.

Some of the other significant contributors of readability formulas include Edgar Dale, Jeanne Chall, Robert Gunning, Ed Fry, Tom Trabasso, and J. Peter Kinkaid, etc.

Presently, there are over 200 readability formulas with varying degrees of accuracy and success rate. For a list of popular readability formulas and their calculations, visit http://www.readabilityformulas.com/. Many scholars debate about which readability formula is foolproof. All formulas have some significance in improving text readability.

Advantages of Using Readability Formulas

1. By definition, readability formulas measure the grade-level readers must have to read a given text. The results from using readability formulas provide the writer of the text with much needed information to reach his target audience.

2. Readability formulas do not require the (targeted) readers to first go through the text to decide if the text is too hard or too easy to read. By using readability formulas, you can know ahead of time if your readers can understand your material. This saves you time and money.

3. Readability formulas are text-based formulas; many researchers and writers find them easy-to-use.

4. Readability formulas help the text-creators convert the document into plain language if the readability levels are low (which is the case with the reading levels of many American people), or too high (which is normally the case with higher-studies' students, researchers and professionals).

5. Using readability formulas to perfect a document can help readers to increase their retention, comprehension, and speed of reading; this, in turn, smoothens out the work-schedule of your readers.

6. A readable text always attracts a larger reader-base.

Disadvantages of Using Readability Formulas

1. "Readability" is different from "understand-ability." Unfortunately, readability formulas are not much help if you want to know if the target audience will understand the text.

2. Readability formulas also cannot measure the complexity of a word or phrase to pinpoint where you need to correct it.

3. The admirers of literary geniuses largely see readability formulas as an affront to their work. Most great literary works fail to pass the readability tests, but this doesn't mean that those works are inferior in quality. The critics view readability formulas as over-simplification and a critique of creative writing.

4. Due to many readability formulas, there is an increasing chance of getting wide variations in results of a same text.

5. Readability formulas cannot measure everything that contributes to how readable a book is for a student, any more than a reading test can measure a student's reading behavior.

6. Readability formulas can't measure the context, prior knowledge, interest level, difficulty of concepts, or coherence of text.

7. Readability formulas apply mathematics to literature. This idea, itself, is not favored by language scholars and researchers.

Intelligent Computational Model Of The Descriptive Grammar Of The Spanish Language

Researchers from the Validation and Business Applications Group (VAI) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's School of Computing (FIUPM) have developed an intelligent computational model of the descriptive grammar of the Spanish language. This opens up new possibilities for the computational representation of languages and natural language processing applications.

Computational linguistics draws primarily on linguistic theories to build language representation models for computational applications. The linguistic theories are formal (i.e. mathematically expressible) models. It takes from 5 to 10 years to develop a model in any particular language, whereas the coverage of the resulting model 55%. In other words, coverage is very limited and the cost is huge. This is an obstacle to languages, apart from English or more dominant languages, having useful applications.

To overcome this hurdle, the researchers Carolina Gallardo and Jesús Cardeñosa have examined the possibility of using descriptive grammars in place of linguistic theories. Even though they are not formal, descriptive grammars do represent the real language use.

Despite their not very formal "look", descriptive grammars do contain a great deal of linguistic knowledge, these researchers explain. The real strength of these descriptive grammars is that they exist for all languages, they are low cost and they can be used in the absence of linguistic experts.

The School of Computing researchers experimented with the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language's Descriptive Grammar of the Spanish Language (GDLE) and built a computational model that will be applicable to descriptive grammars of other languages. The innovation of this research is that knowledge elicitation methodologies proper to knowledge engineering (a branch of artificial intelligence) were applied to the GDLE, which was used as a source of knowledge.

This model has been tested on a blackboard-based application, which is one of artificial intelligence undisputed designs for somewhat complex distributed applications. It has been tested on numerous cases and the results are promising.

The model will be useful for building natural language processing applications ranging from language analysis to generation and will be applicable to any language where a natural language model with reasonable coverage needs to be developed relatively quickly.

A preview of this work was published in the proceedings of IKE'08 (2008 International Conference on Information and Knowledge Engineering), held at Las Vegas (USA) from 14th to 17th July.

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Adapted from materials provided by Facultad de Informática de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Crafting Effective Thesis Statements by Gary McCarty

In a previous article I wrote about the propensity of those educated in public schools to emerge into the college ranks or the workforce with a "kitchen sink" approach to writing. "Throw everything in there and hope something sticks" might well be the refrain of these people. Now, don't count yourself immune to this inclination. Almost everybody in America graduates into adulthood with this writing approach. I did, and I had to rehabilitate myself and my writing.

How does one go beyond this approach to achieve focused, effective writing?

The answer lies in proper planning and preparation, the first phase of the writing process and the one most routinely overlooked by most people. This first phase comprises brainstorming, researching, organizing and planning.

Think of this process as a funnel. The wide opening at the top of the funnel represents the writer's initial efforts at researching and thinking about the subject matter. There is, in short, a great deal to work with, but when all is said and done, only a small portion of that mass of information is going to be able to sift through the small opening at the bottom of the funnel. This small opening is the point at which the writer must choose what's important and funnel it (pun intended) into a thesis statement.

What is a thesis statement? A thesis statement is a sentence of 25 words or so that comes at the very end of the introductory paragraph and introduces the reader to the writer's thesis and the writer's blueprint to prove that thesis. Let's look at an example.

In my earlier article taken from real-life writing classes, the students were asked to write about controversial television advertising. Student A, whom we shall call Susan, does a ton of research and concludes that all television advertising should be regulated. Reason one is that she doesn't think children should see, for instance, Paris Hilton cavorting about seductively in a bathing suit. Reason two is that some television ads are downright offensive and cheapen American culture. Reason there is that other ads are downright misleading.

Susan, after a few introductory background sentences, might well pen a thesis statement that says: "All television advertising should be regulated because some ads are not suitable for children, some are misleading, and some cheapen and damage the fabric of American culture." Now, agree with Susan or not, the reader absolutely knows where she stands (her thesis) and how she came to that conclusion (her three examples or substantiations).

Generally, three is the magic number, so any thesis should be coupled with three "proofs," or what I called "substantiations" earlier. Three is not set in stone, but it's a good number to aim for. One proof might be too skimpy; five might overwhelm the reader. It really depends on the subject matter and the writer's knowledge and ability.

(For a further explanation and illustration of thesis statements, please visit http://gc.maricopa.edu/English/essay/ .)

In my next article, I'll show how to turn the three proofs in the thesis statement into the body of the writing itself and, along the way, into topic sentences that introduce the substantiating paragraphs that comprise the body.

About the Author:
After a long career in journalism, publishing and public relations, Gary McCarty is semi-retired while teaching and maintaniing his Weblog, Grammar Sucks.

English spelling makes even learning to read exceptionally difficult

The US-based International Reading Association - http://www.reading.org/ - is hosting the 22nd World Congress on Reading in Costa Rica on July 28 to 31. The independent literacy researcher and writer Masha Bell from England will be presenting a short lecture entitled 'Reading Problems Beyond Phonics' at this event.

Several recent studies have established that learning to read and write English is much harder and slower than in other alphabetic languages (Thorstad, 1998; Frith, Wimmer and Landerl, 1998; Paulesu, 2001; Spencer, 2002; Seymour et al, 2003).

Masha Bell has tried to ascertain exactly what is responsible for this. She first identified 3695 common words with spelling difficulties of some kind and listed them in her book 'Understanding English Spelling' (2004) and on her website www.englishspellingproblems.co.uk (2006), such as 'leave, sleeve, believe, even'. Among those, she also isolated 2032 words with the potential to cause reading problems for all learners, from beginners to adults.

Since then she has tried to establish which spellings and words are chiefly responsible for impeding children's reading progress in the early years, at primary or grade school level. At the Costa Rica conference she will present 809 common words in which some letters don't have their usual sound, but which English-speaking children are likely to meet before age 11. For example, the 'ea' in 'great, treat, ready' not sounding as in 'teach, reach' and 'reading'; or the 'ou' in 'country groups should shoulder' not as in 'shout out sound'.

Bell will also explain how the 809 words in which some letters have an irregular sound have the potential to make another 500 words harder to read as well, because they cause cognitive confusion. Letters with variable sounds make all words with them more difficult to decipher, even when they have their more usual sound, because children have to learn, word-by-word, how to pronounce each one.

Bell believes that phonic inconsistency is the main reason why most English-speaking children only learn to read with a great deal of individual help. Fortunately, in most cases this is provided free of charge by parents who introduce their children to books and reading in early infancy, and also help them with learning to read at home once they start school.

But some parents are unable to do so because they work long or unsociable hours, or because they never learnt to read fluently themselves. To their children the inconsistencies of English spelling present far greater challenges, and their teachers need to be more aware of them in order to assist them as effectively and quickly as possible.

In addition to her book 'Understanding English Spelling' and her website www.englishspellingproblems.co.uk, Masha Bell has also written a course book to help struggling readers, 'Learning to Read' (2007). She has also explained English reading and writing difficulties in many articles, the latest being in the current issues of the educational magazines Classroom and Literacy Today.

Write to Remember - Seven Keys to Better Note taking by Kevin Eikenberry

People seem to be as divided on note taking as on any hot-button political issue. One group will give you all the reasons why they don't take notes:
I'd rather focus on listening. I don't know what to write. Note taking never worked for me in school.

While the note taking enthusiasts will counter with:

Taking notes keeps me focused. I can always refer to my notes - I don't have to rely on my memory. Taking notes works for me.

While this article may not make the die-hard non-note takers convert, it will give them some tools to try. And even the most avid note takers will get some new ideas to add to their approach.

Most of us use note taking techniques we learned or developed while in school. At that time our goal was the acquisition of knowledge with the purpose of reciting it back on a test or examination. As adults our purpose for note taking is typically quite different. We are taking notes on:

A group meeting A phone call An interview or other face-to-face meeting A workshop or seminar A book, article, newsletter or podcast

In all of these cases, while we want to acquire knowledge or information, the end goal of our note taking isn't a test, but application of what we've learned. As with most anything in life, when we change the goal we may want to re-examine and change the techniques we use to get there.

Here are seven ways to make your note taking more useful and valuable to you:

Start with the end in mind. Start by understanding why you are taking the notes. Don't take them because you are "supposed to," take them because you know what or how you might use them. Having this picture in your mind will help you take the right notes without being lulled into writing down everything.

Lose the linearity. Most people take notes that are very linear in nature. Not all lectures, conversation or meetings follow a strict 1, 2, 3 or outline pattern. Allow yourself to take notes without a strict linear format. There will be times to write a list, but there will also be occasion for more free more comments and thoughts.

Capture ideas. While you are in the workshop or conversation new ideas will spring up. They may be connected to the situation, or they may not - either way you want to capture the idea while you have it! Give yourself permission to write down your ideas with your notes.

Capture actions. The thing you are discussing or learning about (and therefore taking notes on) may suggest specific action steps you need to take. If you are taking notes in a meeting or face-to-face conversation this might seem obvious. But again, as you are engaged in taking notes you may think of a new action step or task. Make sure you write these down and don't lose them.

Develop shortcuts. You will find that if you use abbreviations, or develop other shorthand that works for you, it will make your note taking easier and faster. Since you won't likely be sharing your notes with anyone, the nature of your shorthand can be very personal. This technique will help you speed up your note taking.

Have a format. Perhaps you will find that developing a common format will make your note taking easier, or even more enjoyable. I divide a note taking page in to two columns. In the right column I take my normal notes. In the left column I draw a light bulb at the top - under it I place the ideas I have during the note taking situation. About half way down the left column I place a check mark inside of a small box. This is my icon for actions. I write the actions I think of or are generated while I am taking notes in this area of each page. I share my format as a example, you are welcome to use it or come up with your own!

Review and summarize. Perhaps the most valuable thing you can do comes after you are done. Take a few minutes to review your notes - adding any words or phrases that will make them clearer. The review process will help you remember and make the notes more useful. Once you have reviewed them, take a couple of minutes to note the most important points again. This summarization will serve as a great way to "lock in" the learning you gained from the situation.

Each of these seven things can help you improve the value of your notes. If you take notes regularly, try one or more of these approaches. And if you aren't a note taker, consider these ideas as a way to try a new approach to note taking - one that might provide you value without the barriers you have encountered in the past.

About the Author
Kevin is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://kevineikenberry.com/ ), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To receive your free special report on Unleashing Your Potential go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

Editing for Perfection - The Personal Statement by Elaine Millward

This article contains a short guide on how to edit your personal statement and create tension and suspense within your writing. For most potential students there are some clear reasons why they wish to embark on university. Writing the personal statement for university submissions is one of the most difficult, daunting tasks for any potential student. This article will offer insight into how you should build up tension and suspense and how to edit your personal statement – which is one area where students tend to overlook.

It is often said that personal statements are often autobiographical. This may well be true, because a wise maxim is "write about what you know." And, if there is one thing we all know more about than anything else it is our own lives. Often students only write about the reasons why they wish to embark on a particular university course and many personal statements lack emotion, suspense, and tension. However, in a work of fact, emotion, is a key ingredient in successful personal statements. And, while students life's may differ considerably from one other, we will each have known the full gamut of emotions. It is important when writing your personal statement that you convey a sense of place to your reader and the way to do that is with the five senses sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. It is all too easy to forget that scenes, which are indelibly etched on your own mind, will not be equally clear in the reader's unless you make them so by your writing.

Tension is one of the second most important elements in writing, closely allied to suspense – the "what happens next" ingredient. The problem for many students is to try to condense the personal statement into 600 words. Obviously, the admission officer knows you only have this limited space, but nonetheless does judge you on the four minutes it takes to read your personal statement, if your personal statement includes tension and suspense - it is sure to be a winner. The secret to a good personal statement is not to give away too much to quickly, keep us guessing, hanging onto every word, thus building up tension and suspense. In order for there to be tension in your personal statement, there must be (or have been) something important at stake. Perhaps this was your family life or what you believe is your future. Perhaps the reason why you chose the course you wish to study. Whatever it is, by not divulging the outcome too soon, you will maintain the reader's interest for that much longer. The following personal statement starts with a powerful suspense filling introduction:

"The prospect of helping people has driven me to fulfil many goals in life and this is truly my dream. Although it is great to have ambitions – I now want to translate my goals into reality. Becoming a nurse is a natural extension of my interest in medicine. Following graduation, I found myself advising investment bankers on the stock exchange, secretly desiring the opportunity of helping others overcome illness and promote health."

In this personal statement introduction the reader is captured by the reason why they chose to become an investment banker. The author of this piece has demonstrated a powerful introduction, the style is simple, straightforward narrative. This personal statement will surely provide a valuable insight as to why she wishes to become a nurse.

In order for there to be tension in your personal statement, it will help to describe a highly charged incident, part of a particularly difficult period in your life. Whatever it was, you will maintain your reader's interest for that much longer. The example below shows perfect tension and suspense build up:

"When the airmail letter arrived bearing an American stamp, I knew immediately, it was from my university with my degree results, and I tore it open as excitedly as if it were a birthday present. With trembling fingers, I took out the sheets of thin blue paper -- and my heart started to pound as I began to read."

Remember that tension, like all techniques, is merely another tool for making your writing more vivid and interesting to read. However, if you do use it, you must make it clear to your readers that the events you are describing have some relation to your study topic. If not, they will be confused, will have to re-read to make sense of it and may end up feeling irritated enough to stop reading.

The words and phases often used to build up tension include: intimidated; heart pounded; ferocity. Thus, tension and suspense is built up so that metaphorically, we hold out breath impelled to read on to find out “what happens next.”

How to edit your personal statement for university submission

When you've finished the actual writing, what do you do? Well, for a start, don't be in a hurry to send off your personal statement before checking it. Few, if any, experienced writers never need to revise their work. Some do as they proceed but most will get their first Personal Statement draft down on paper without worrying too much how it's written, and then, when it's finished, go over it, pruning, polishing and tightening the general content. Therefore, this section is about how to edit the personal statement. It is advisable to check the following:

• That you haven't been over-lavish with adjectives and adverbs. If you find you have, customer some of the former and, where possible, exchange the latter for stronger verbs.

• Threat you haven't used clichés or hackneyed phrases bit have found fresh images always of describing yourself in the best possible light.

• Make sure you haven't constantly used the same word in the same paragraph. This can be very irritating to the admissions officer and it only needs a little more thought to re-word or, very often, it can be omitted without affecting the sense. A thesaurus is useful for finding alternative words.

• Make sure your spelling and grammar and impeccable. If in doubt, consult a dictionary and/ or grammar book or ask someone whose knowledge of English your trust to read this through for you. Alternatively, send your personal statement to Get Into Uni Oxbridge editors http://www.getintouni.com who will edit this for you – to perfection.

• Make sure you haven't used over long, unwieldy sentences or paragraphs. If you have you must break these up.

• That you've started your personal statement with a powerful introduction so this captures your reader's attention – straight away.

• That your structure is easy to follow and that each sentence hooks into the next line.

• That you finish with your future career goals.

A key advantage is to use a professional to edit and improve your personal statement. If, however you are working in isolation and do not have that advantage, be wary of allowing family or friends to read and comment on it. For one thing, an outside will be objective and critical: they may be full of praise or go to the other extreme so far as style, at least, is concerned.

Long before you have reached the point of revision, however, it is important that you personal statement is intended as a selling tool for you to gain entry to your chosen university. If you wish to interest the reader it is important that you are your own critic. You will need to prune and polish, check grammar and spelling, take another look at your style: in fact, you may need to re-write your first few sentences to ensure your personal statement is powerful and will capture your readers attention instantly. A great way to help with this is to read sample personal statements these samples will give you a clear idea of how you may improve your opening.

Get Into Uni offers students personal statement editing and tips on how you can get an edge over the competition when applying for university. The website includes sample personal statements, a free writing guide, and lots of information to aid you in writing the personal statement.

End Note:
Your personal statement is crucial to your application. Planning your personal statement is therefore your fist step to success. Gain competitive advantage and order the best editing service on the web.

Legislation needed for new plain English culture

Plain English crusader Lynda Harris says far too many organisations still produce gobbledygook, and New Zealand needs legislation to help bring about a new plain English culture.

Her consulting company, Write Group Limited, trains organisations in plain English writing and she says her staff encounter shocking examples of unclear and imprecise writing every day. Much of it is in documents containing important information such as those produced by government, banks, insurance companies and legal firms.

"The results are potentially disastrous! People can be hurt when they sign up to loans or insurance policies without understanding the fine print. Sometimes important information is buried in page after page of poorly set out text.

"A lot of people miss out on benefits or entitlements simply because they can't understand the documents explaining them."

Write Group Limited established the WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards in 2006 to highlight the need for plain English and to publicly honour organisations that do try to communicate clearly.

"Each year more businesses and government departments enter, so the Awards are making a difference. There's still a long way to go, however, and change needs to come from the top.

"We need the Government to lead by example and adopt plain English legislation like that just passed in the United States. This would send the clear message that people have a democratic right to honest and transparent dealings."

In April the United States House of Representatives passed the Plain Language in Government Communications Act, which requires all federal documents and tax forms to be written in simple language.

Plain English Power, a committee formed to lobby Parliament for plain English legislation, is publicly drafting a New Zealand version of the American legislation on its website (http://www.plainenglish.org.nz/). Chairperson Rachel McAlpine says, to succeed, the Bill would require cross-party support.

"Our draft Bill will be given to the next parliament. We know that all the main parties have MPs who believe in our cause."

The idea is supported by ACT. The party's Regulatory Responsibility Bill would require new Acts and regulations to be written without "imprecision and complexity", so ordinary citizens can easily understand them and comply with the law.

ACT leader Rodney Hide says making the use of plain English part of the performance reviews of all government chief executives would rapidly improve the readability of government communications.

Meanwhile New Zealanders can nominate government or business documents, either good or bad, for the 2008 WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards. As well as prizes for good writing, 'Brainstrain' awards are given each year to gobbledygook-filled documents or websites that could do the most harm.

Anyone wishing to submit their own or someone else's writing for an award can do so at the Plain English Awards website (http://www.plainenglishawards.org.nz/). Entries close 28 July.

The Awards will be judged by a panel of professional plain English practitioners and advocates. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 11 September hosted by Fair Go presenter Kevin Milne.

New Lakota Dictionary to Transform Language

Lakota Language Consortium has published the New Lakota Dictionary. This highly anticipated reference text is expected to be one of the most important works ever published in the language. It goes on sale Friday, July 18, through the Lakota Language Consortium.

The 1,112-page volume is the most up-to-date and comprehensive dictionary to emerge in the last 75 years and is designed to serve as a foundation for modern Lakota and Dakota in the 21st century. The dictionary is the product of 25 years of linguistic work with over 300 fluent speakers from across all the dialect areas. It represents the Lakota language and its dialects with complete historical and contemporary accuracy from the Sioux reservations of Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, as well as the eastern Yankton and Santee-Sisseton communities.

The launch of the New Lakota Dictionary marks a fresh chapter in the history of language. Because of its reliability and practical features, the dictionary is expected to instill a new confidence in the language. It offers unsurpassed accuracy for all of the 20,000 head-words. Each entry was checked by at least three independent sources and thousands of mistakes were corrected from previous sources. In addition, the new dictionary boasts dozens of user-friendly features, many of which are found only in dictionaries of more commonly spoken languages. As a resource, it is a virtual "Swiss-army knife" of the language - geared for both advanced language users and beginning students. It allows a reader to know exactly how any word is pronounced, spelled, used in context, conjugated, or categorized. All together, the New Lakota Dictionary provides over 40,000 example sentences, usage notes, and collocations, while containing more than 6,000 words that do not appear in any previous dictionary.

The dictionary's focus on functionality and dependability makes it a central component of the language revitalization movement on the different reservations. Lakota Language teachers from four reservations were trained with advance copies of the dictionary. Commenting on their experiences with it, one teacher from Eagle Butte, South Dakota stated, "The dictionary holds much wisdom recorded from our elders. I am anxious to use the dictionary in my classes. There is so much wealth of information in the dictionary to learn about and to teach to the students." Another teacher from Fort Yates, North Dakota declared that, "I believe that this Lakota dictionary is important for revitalization and it strengthens the nation's self-identity and through language our people. Our younger generation will know who they are and where they come from."

Already some tribes are planning to incorporate the dictionary into the official business of the tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, for one, will be outfitting all of its high school students with the dictionary. Moreover, the tribe will also provide training, font software, and dictionaries to all of its departments as part of its strategy to make the language more a part of the everyday operations of the tribe.

The academic and linguistic community is also eager for the new dictionary. William Powers, author of "Sacred Language," notes, "The New Lakota Dictionary is a breakthrough in contemporary Native American language studies - revolutionizes what we understand about the historical development of Lakota and Dakota dialect." In addition, noted linguist Willem de Reuse, remarks that, "this is the Lakota dictionary linguists and educators have been waiting for - a monumental work - by far the best Lakota dictionary available, in terms of ease of use for 21st century learners, as well as in terms of lexicographical coverage and grammatical accuracy."

The volume forms the basis upon which students, teachers, and community members can move forward with certainty in restoring the living language.

The initial public release event is Friday, July 18th at 3:00 PM (MST) in Rapid City, South Dakota at the Prairie Edge Bookstore. It is also available online at http://www.languagepress.com/ or it can be ordered through any national book retailer.

On the Road to Literacy: Learning to Write

Parents wait for that wonderful day when their child learns to read. But reading words is only part of early literacy -- writing is important to literacy, too. And, no matter what your child's age, he or she is learning to write.

My baby can't hold a pencil

"Long before a child can pick up a pencil, the stage is set for the development of writing," says Jane Kostelc, early childhood specialist at Parents as Teachers National Center in St. Louis. "When your baby uses her index finger and thumb to grasp objects it is called the pincer grasp. This skill forms the basis for holding a pencil in a mature writing position."

Being able to control a pencil depends on stability of the shoulder and arm, and strength and dexterity of the hand and fingers. A baby builds her strength by bearing weight on her hands when she is on her tummy and pushes up to raise her head or chest off the surface. So give your baby lots of tummy time to build strong back, shoulders and arms for crawling and writing.

Vision also plays an important role in writing. Children have to use their hands and eyes together to coordinate the movement of the pencil. When babies gaze and focus on their parents' faces or accurately reach for and grasp objects, they are practicing eye-hand coordination.

Toddlers are scribblers

Toddlers are driven by their curiosity to explore with their hands and eyes. Kostelc recommends that you encourage your toddler play with materials of different textures and consistencies, such as shaving cream or play dough, to provide stimulation for fine motor development. Unscrewing lids or turning doorknobs helps your toddler's wrist become strong yet flexible. Drawing with a child helps him associate writing with comfort and enjoyment as he moves into writing in the preschool years.

Preschoolers are writers

Your child will probably show an interest in writing by using it in her pretend play, such as scribbling a "shopping list" while playing store. When they do this, preschoolers demonstrate an understanding that spoken language can be written down and that it must be read in the same way every time. They know that the symbols of writing have meaning and they begin to reproduce those that have the most meaning to them, like their names or M-O-M and D-A-D.

Says Kostelc, "Your child will begin to have more control over writing tools when she starts to use a mature grip, called a tripod grip, to hold them." She recommends encouraging your preschooler's writing by giving her old calendars, notebooks, or address books to write in. Point out letters you see while running errands, especially letters that are in her name. "Sit with her and let her enjoy the process of learning to write without pressure to make the letters right. That will come with time," she adds.

SOURCE: Parents as Teachers

How to Improve the Readability of Your Writing in 60 Seconds

Writing is not really an art. It is a craft – and you can learn a craft. Follow these four techniques to improve the readability of your writing, no matter what type of writing you do.

Writing Tip #1: After you run your spell checking software, go back and re-read your writing. Few people are good spellers, which is why so many of us rely on spell checking software. Unfortunately, spell checkers have their own flaws and sometimes flag silly errors. For example, the words "form" and "from" are both good, legitimate words. But if you wrote a business letter that said, "We took $200 form your checking account to cover the payment," most spell checkers won’t catch that oversight. Yet this simple typo changed the meaning of the sentence. Spell checkers are a convenience; they are neither authoritative nor foolproof, so don’t rely on them. Always read through your writing at least once after you spell check -- and keep a dictionary handy.

Writing Tip #2: Use that famous "KISS" principle for your punctuation. You know the rule, don't you? "Keep It Simple, Stupid." Apply this rule to punctuation. If you don't know how or when to use a semicolon, then avoid semicolons; you'll only display ignorance if you get it wrong. In keeping with that KISS principle, limit your use of commas. Far too many people use far too many commas. Just because a sentence is long does not mean it needs a comma. Well-placed commas make reading easier. Commas thrown in simply to break up words are incorrect and distracting. Another important rule of punctuation is to avoid using exclamation marks, almost always. If your choice of words, sentence structure, and overall prose don't convey the sense of excitement you are seeking, then using an exclamation mark won't do it. If your writing conveys your sense of excitement, an exclamation point is, well, pointless.

Writing Tip #3: Make sure your writing is grammatically correct. You don't need the skills of an English teacher to use correct grammar. You simply need to learn the basics -- verbs and subjects agree in number, for example. That is, "he was" is correct; "they were" is correct. To say "they was" is incorrect. If you are not sure about using grammar, especially if English isn't your "first" language, go to some good reference sites for fundamental English grammar and usage, such as http://www.lousywriter.com/. (If you are writing in another language, the same advice holds true for that language.) Invest in a good, basic grammar book or style manual. Check with any bookstore, online or offline, and you can find one. If you are too lazy to consult a basic grammar book, then use an English grammar checker called WhiteSmoke Software (http://www.whitesmokesoftware.com/) to correct embarrassing writing and grammar errors.

Writing Tip #4: When you finish some writing, put it aside for a couple of hours or days (if possible), then re-read it before you let go of it. Of course, if you're writing or dictating a business letter or other "time-sensitive" document, this may not be possible. If you set your article or story aside for a day, then re-read it, you may notice glaring errors or want to make significant changes. And you thought before you had finished. Many writers and teachers have commented that all true writing is done in the rewriting. Take that advice to heart and you will significantly improve your writing.

These four steps, rechecking your spelling, taking care with punctuation, watching for fundamental grammar errors, and rewriting, will improve your writing. They are proven tools used by every wordsmith.

Merriam-Webster Honors Lyrically Misunderstood Lady Mondegreen

If you have ever misheard a song or poem and come up with your own version of the words, you are already familiar with the concept of the "mondegreen," one of over 100 new words included in the annual update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

Mondegreen-a noun defined as a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung-was first coined by author Sylvia Wright in 1954, when she wrote an article for Atlantic magazine confessing to a childhood misinterpretation of the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Moray." When she first heard the lyric "they had slain the Earl of Moray and had laid him on the green," she felt terribly sorry for the "poor Lady Mondegreen." The tradition has been going strong ever since, from "The ants are my friends," a mangling of "The answer, my friends," by Bob Dylan, to "There's a bathroom on the right," a bungling of "There's a bad moon on the rise," by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

To celebrate the release of this year's new entries, Merriam-Webster OnLine (Merriam-Webster.com) is inviting the general public to submit their own favorite mondegreens -- both original and overheard. Submissions are due now through July 25th, with favorites being revealed and featured online the week beginning July 28th.

2008 also features more than a few words from the growing field of culinary arts, from prosecco (a sparkling Italian wine) and soju (a Korean vodka distilled from rice) to edamame (immature green soybeans) and pescatarian (a vegetarian whose diet includes fish). Current societal trends are reflected in this year's entries, as well. According to John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president and publisher, webinar is "one more example of the significant ongoing trend for electronic technologies to add words to the language." Morse also comments on another, more ominous term: "Norovirus being added is part of an ongoing effort to cover terms from virology that we think the public may need to know about. Not a happy job, but one that lexicographers have to do."

All new dictionary entries are now available online, and the 2008 print update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary, Eleventh Edition will be available in bookstores across the country September 1st, 2008. Both will feature this fresh crop of new words and phrases that have successfully become part of the mainstream English language through prolonged and widespread usage in a variety of publications.

Website: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

When Using Gestures, Rules of Grammar Remain the Same

The mind apparently has a consistent way of ordering an event that defies the order in which subjects, verbs, and objects typically appear in languages, according to research at the University of Chicago.

"Not surprisingly, speakers of different languages describe events using the word orders prescribed by their language. The surprise is that when the same speakers are asked to 'speak' with their hands and not their mouths, they ignore these orders -- they all use exactly the same order when they gesture," said Susan Goldin-Meadow, lead author of a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For the study, the team tested 40 speakers of four different languages: 10 English, 10 Mandarin Chinese, 10 Spanish and 10 Turkish speakers. They showed them simple video sequences of activities and asked them to describe the action first in speech and a second time using only gestures. They also gave another 40 speakers of the same languages transparencies to assemble after watching the video sequences. Some of the videos portrayed real people and others animated toys that represented a variety of sentence types: a girl waves, a duck moves to a wheelbarrow, a woman twists a knob and a girl gives a flower to man.

When asked to describe the scenes in speech, the speakers used the word orders typical of their respective languages. English, Spanish, and Chinese speakers first produced the subject, followed by the verb, and then the object (woman twists knob). Turkish speakers first produced the subject, followed by the object, and then the verb (woman knob twists).

But when asked to describe the same scenes using only their hands, all of the adults, no matter what language they spoke, produced the same order ---- subject, object, verb (woman knob twists). When asked to assemble the transparencies after watching the video sequences (another nonverbal task, but one that is not communicative), people also tended to follow the subject, object, verb ordering found in the gestures produced without speech.

The grammars of modern languages developed over time and are the result of very distant cultural considerations that are difficult for linguists to study.

Newly emerging sign languages, however, offer intriguing corroborating evidence that the subject-object-verb (SOV) order is a fundamental one.

SOV is the order currently emerging in a language created spontaneously without any external influence. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language arose within the last 70 years in an isolated community with a high incidence of profound prelingual deafness. In the space of one generation, the language assumed grammatical structure, including the SOV order.

Moreover, when deaf children invent their own gesture systems, they use OV order. Chinese and American deaf children, whose hearing losses prevent them from acquiring spoken language and whose hearing parents have not exposed them to sign language, use the OV order in the gesture sentences they create.

The research challenges the idea that the language we speak inevitably shapes the way we think when we are not speaking. This study is the first to test the notion with respect to word order.

"Our data suggest that the ordering we use when representing events in a nonverbal format is not highly susceptible to language's influence," Goldin-Meadow and her co-authors write. "Rather, there appears to be a natural order that humans use when asked to represent events nonverbally. Indeed, the influence may well go in the other direction--the ordering seen in our nonverbal tasks may shape language in its emerging stages."

Source: University of Chicago

Essay Types and Modes You'll Need to Write for College

-- TYPES --

You Want Us to Write What? Understanding the Task Assigned

Which academic essay writing types we use depends upon which disciplines (or classes) we write for. Each instructor or professor will assign papers that invite us to reveal in writing what we have learned/what we think about the material for that particular class:

* ANALYTIC - A classic style used in art, science, history, psychology, education, and most other disciplines across the curriculum to explore and investigate an idea, process, person, action, or attitude.

* ARGUMENTATIVE - Used in more advanced English classes, in philosophy, and in courses which include theory.

*COMPARATIVE/CONTRASTIVE - Used in most courses where specific analysis of like and unlike elements, characters, and ideas lend themselves to comparison.

*DEFINITIONAL - Written when we apply a more thorough study to a topic, especially an abstract one.

*DESCRIPTIVE - Used to more intensively, more concretely cover an idea, item, or subject.

*EVALUATIVE - Often confused with analytical, the evaluative essay moves beyond the what and how to the how much...we put a value on the topic here.

*EXPLANATORY - Also called the expository essay (though I tend to see all essays as expository, as exposing a truth about something). With this type we further our own and our readers' understanding of the subject.

*PERSONAL - Also called the response essay, the personal style essay is still well written (readable for an audience other than the writer), but is more informal--containing narrative details that entertain.

*RESEARCH - While most essay types will include references or will quote authorities, the research essay is mostly informational, using the findings--the stats and facts--we made investigating the findings of others.

-- MODES --

Modes and Types and Modes...Oh Crimeny! Avoiding Confusion

We need not panic when called upon to do a specific type of college paper writing. Why? Because we already use the types...on a smaller scale.

That is, we use miniature versions of the essay types when we write paragraphs for the complete essay. A type and a mode are the same thing, then. One is just smaller, while the other is an extension of the smaller.

For example, we write about the forms and functions of gossip for a sociology paper. We open with a definition paragraph that shows how the word "gossip" originated from the word "gospel." Then we continue to discuss how gossip brings people closer--emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.

Go Easy on Yourself: Your Confusion is Understandable

Just as we might call all writing expository, we call one type and one mode an expository type of essay and an expository mode of writing. So is the piece I'm writing explanatory, definitional, comparative? I include explanatory elements. I use definition and example. I slip a comparison in, too.

Here's one way to look at types/modes:

--We write a paragraph or passage in a certain mode. --We can then turn that smaller piece into a whole essay, into one long, extended mode.

Here's another way to look at types/modes:

We buy a box of gourmet chocolates. We lift one from the box: we understand that the thing we hold in our hands is a chocolate. It also has chocolate in it.

Here's one more way to look at types/modes:

You own a Camaro with a Corvette engine. They're both Chevys.

You're Going to What, Now? Confuse Us All Over Again?

No. Now that we have the types/modes separated enough to understand the difference, I'll just remind you of one more thing: we can and usually do overlap the modes. No one piece of academic essay writing exists in one isolated mode alone. It includes many varied sub-styles to make it more engaging, entertaining, and expository.

And it requires a number of major parts--an opener, a main body of text, and a closer. And you know what? These parts are written in the modes.

I'll add more pages on academic essay writing. Much more. So if you haven't had enough, come back again for monthly freebies. But for now, if you want to check out samples you can use as models for modes/types, click here for mode samples written by college students.

One more thing about college paper writing:

Enjoy the process. Find one thing in it you like and are good at.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of http://www.roxannewrites.com/, a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas…of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can’t possibly get any longer...

Free Resume Templates Take Guesswork Out of Job Hunt

Why settle for the handful of overused resume templates offered by a computer's word processing program? A web site with free resume templates lets job applicants stand out from the crowd with easy-to-read, expertly formatted resumes for business and academic use.

Dozens of resume templates are available to download and print at InstantResumeTemplates.com, and they're all free and fully customizable.

Users can choose from a variety of popular resume styles, including basic resumes, academic resumes, business resumes, chronological resumes, professional resumes and more. The templates, which are in Microsoft Word (.DOC) form, are available in letter size as well as A-4 for international use.

"The market is changing, and job-seekers don't have time to waste figuring out how to design or hunt down a resume style," said Kevin Savetz, the site's creator. "Whether users want to stand out from the crowd with a colorful, graphically different resume or adhere to a traditional format, we have what they need at InstantResumeTemplates.com."

After downloading a resume template, users simply "overtype" to retain the font and format. All of the elements can easily be changed in Microsoft Word to suit individual needs.

The resume templates include traditional options (such as the tried-and-true chronological style) as well as informal twists on professional resumes. But there are also cutting-edge resumes with the elements today's employers are looking for. Some templates, which feature the user's academic background as prominently as professional experience, highlight leadership skills, computer literacy and community service. The templates even include question "prompts" for the less-traditional features such as the "profile" and the increasingly popular "personal mission statement."

Website: http://www.instantresumetemplates.com/

Grammar Girl Offers Quick and Dirty Tips for Writers

Suite101.com, the general-interest online magazine with over eight million monthly visitors, features award-winning podcaster and author Mignon Fogarty as the latest Suite101.com Celebrity Writer.

Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, is best known for her weekly podcasts tackling common writing and punctuation challenges. These popular podcasts have reached #2 on iTunes and were the inspiration for her book, Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing, published by Macmillan.

"Grammar Girl is a refreshing champion for language-lovers everywhere. Her trademark humour gives writers and readers the straight goods when it comes to crossing ‘T's and dotting ‘I's," said Suite101's Editor-in-chief, Joy Gugeler. "With a welcome lack of snobbery she explains grammatical principles and provides memorable examples. Every writer needs a quick refresher when language is always evolving."

In a Web-exclusive excerpt on Suite101.com Fogarty tackles the subject of how to use "however" in a sentence and challenges the advice given by esteemed grammarians Strunk and White. She also talks with Suite101's Writing & Publishing Editor Julie Burtinshaw in an exclusive interview about writing techniques and her most preferred punctuation mark: "The interobang. It's a combination of both the exclamation mark and the question mark. It looks like a 'P' with dot at the bottom. It's not universally accepted, but it's my favourite."

Suite101 features Celebrity Writers each month who publish original articles on burning questions in their field and take part in interviews offering candid advice to freelance writers.