from wordsmith.org
putsch (pooch) noun A secretly plotted, sudden attempt to overthrow a government.
[From Swiss German Putsch (thrust, blow).]
An infamous example was the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Hitler and his cohorts stormed a beer hall in Munich where a meeting of the Bavariangovernment was taking place. The putsch failed and they were sentenced to prison. This attempt gave Hitler national attention and he decidedto gain power by legal means. It was during this imprisonment that he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
"Another mini-coup, 2003's shopping mall putsch aimed by young officers at Arroyo was yet another reminder of the restive military."
-- Where Has the Hope Gone? The Standard (Hong Kong); Feb 18, 2006.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Collective Nouns: I Give Up
From "Lincoln's language and its legacy" by Adam Gopnik, in this week's New Yorker:
"In the past twenty-five years, and particularly since the publication of Garry Wills’s “Lincoln at Gettysburg” (1992), language and its uses has become a central Lincoln subject."
Huh?
Since this is in The New Yorker, I'm assuming it must be grammatically correct.
Perhaps the single predicate nominative (a central Lincoln subject) somehow turns "language and its uses" into a single subject. (I just made that up.)
But it sure looks like a mistake to me.
Here's one from the News Sentinel sports section a year ago: "Most of UT's 2005 signees will not get a full summer of extra work as the vast majority is scheduled to enroll in July as UT's second summer sesson begins."
Surely this sentence is referring to the majority of signees as individuals, which would therefore warrant a plural noun.
After earlier GTOTD's about collective nouns, an assistant headmaster at a prestigious school wrote back: "This issue is perhaps the toughest I face. Appreciate your help, but I still don't get it from these examples, and I've never really gotten it. I've seen a million examples of, 'The orchestra is late for the concert,' vs. 'The orchestra are packing up their instruments,' but I've never had a really satisfactory answer."
"In the past twenty-five years, and particularly since the publication of Garry Wills’s “Lincoln at Gettysburg” (1992), language and its uses has become a central Lincoln subject."
Huh?
Since this is in The New Yorker, I'm assuming it must be grammatically correct.
Perhaps the single predicate nominative (a central Lincoln subject) somehow turns "language and its uses" into a single subject. (I just made that up.)
But it sure looks like a mistake to me.
Here's one from the News Sentinel sports section a year ago: "Most of UT's 2005 signees will not get a full summer of extra work as the vast majority is scheduled to enroll in July as UT's second summer sesson begins."
Surely this sentence is referring to the majority of signees as individuals, which would therefore warrant a plural noun.
After earlier GTOTD's about collective nouns, an assistant headmaster at a prestigious school wrote back: "This issue is perhaps the toughest I face. Appreciate your help, but I still don't get it from these examples, and I've never really gotten it. I've seen a million examples of, 'The orchestra is late for the concert,' vs. 'The orchestra are packing up their instruments,' but I've never had a really satisfactory answer."
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Parallelism : Use parallel structure to express matching ideas
Wrong: "The most important things in soccer are dribbling, passing and to know how to shoot."
The principle of parallelism in writing is simply that parts of a sentence performing the same logical function (i.e., doing the same work) must be of like construction.
So the sentence above should read: "The most important things in soccer are dribbling, passing and shooting." That way all the elements are gerunds, rather than one of them being an infinitive phrase.
This is in section 26 of Harbrace, Parallelism, which includes
26 Use parallel structure as an aid to coherence, and
26a For parallel structure, balance a word with a word, a phrase with a phrase, a clause with a clause, a sentence with a sentence.
There are several other excellent editing rules in this section, along with many useful exercises. Learning this principle is an easy way to pick up a few points in the writing/grammar section of the PSAT or new SAT , as in the following SAT Question of the Day:
As a Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall
A
was known for his quest to end racial discrimination,
B
his opposition to the death penalty, and
C
he supported free speech and civil liberties.
D
No error
E
The principle of parallelism in writing is simply that parts of a sentence performing the same logical function (i.e., doing the same work) must be of like construction.
So the sentence above should read: "The most important things in soccer are dribbling, passing and shooting." That way all the elements are gerunds, rather than one of them being an infinitive phrase.
This is in section 26 of Harbrace, Parallelism, which includes
26 Use parallel structure as an aid to coherence, and
26a For parallel structure, balance a word with a word, a phrase with a phrase, a clause with a clause, a sentence with a sentence.
There are several other excellent editing rules in this section, along with many useful exercises. Learning this principle is an easy way to pick up a few points in the writing/grammar section of the PSAT or new SAT , as in the following SAT Question of the Day:
As a Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall
A
was known for his quest to end racial discrimination,
B
his opposition to the death penalty, and
C
he supported free speech and civil liberties.
D
No error
E
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Ramada -- from the Spanish for "branch"
from wordsmith.org
ramada (ruh-MAH-duh) noun An open shelter roofed with branches.
[From Spanish, from rama (branch), from Vulgar Latin rama, from Latin ramus (branch). The word "ramify" branches out from the same root "ramus".]
An anagram of today's word is "armada" (a fleet of warships), another term we've taken from Spanish.
"We are issued orange White House press passes and herded under a ramada near the flight line."
-- Rhonda Bodfield; Reporter-in-waiting Just Waits, And Waits; The Arizona Daily Star; Feb 27, 1999.
ramada (ruh-MAH-duh) noun An open shelter roofed with branches.
[From Spanish, from rama (branch), from Vulgar Latin rama, from Latin ramus (branch). The word "ramify" branches out from the same root "ramus".]
An anagram of today's word is "armada" (a fleet of warships), another term we've taken from Spanish.
"We are issued orange White House press passes and herded under a ramada near the flight line."
-- Rhonda Bodfield; Reporter-in-waiting Just Waits, And Waits; The Arizona Daily Star; Feb 27, 1999.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
How to structure the SAT essay
SAT test days are coming up, and the essay section presents an opportunity to excel for those who are prepared. This is one of three in a series of GTOTD's about the essay.
A while ago my high school alumni bulletin ran a story about its month-long SAT-prep program, directed by math teacher Linda DeBord.
In preparation for the SAT essay section, students compose two to five essays under test conditions, which Mrs. DeBord then assesses and scores.
"Learning to outline and write an essay under pressure was invaluable," said one student. "The corrected essays were also helpful, as we learned from our mistakes."
(This is the same preparation done by West High teachers like Shannon Jackson, who so effectively help their students earn nice AP scores and -- as Isabel Clark attested in the August 2006 Cityview magazine -- do well in college, where almost all the tests are timed essays.)
I asked Mrs. DeBord for some tips, and she kindly replied.
Of course a student should briefly outline the essay before writing. "In the brief 25 minutes, the up-front planning is critical," says Mrs. DeBord, "but the students need to keep a careful eye on the time. I suggest that in the opening paragraph, after they state their thesis, they should mention two examples they will use. The examples should be clear in their relationship in supporting the thesis. The conclusion should restate, in an interesting way (if possible), the thesis and then re-tie in the examples."
So, the structure of the essay goes pretty much --
I. State thesis
II. Preview two supporting examples
III. Elaborate thesis
IV. Flesh out examples
V. Conclusion
a) restate thesis (interesting way)
b) re-tie in the examples
A while ago my high school alumni bulletin ran a story about its month-long SAT-prep program, directed by math teacher Linda DeBord.
In preparation for the SAT essay section, students compose two to five essays under test conditions, which Mrs. DeBord then assesses and scores.
"Learning to outline and write an essay under pressure was invaluable," said one student. "The corrected essays were also helpful, as we learned from our mistakes."
(This is the same preparation done by West High teachers like Shannon Jackson, who so effectively help their students earn nice AP scores and -- as Isabel Clark attested in the August 2006 Cityview magazine -- do well in college, where almost all the tests are timed essays.)
I asked Mrs. DeBord for some tips, and she kindly replied.
Of course a student should briefly outline the essay before writing. "In the brief 25 minutes, the up-front planning is critical," says Mrs. DeBord, "but the students need to keep a careful eye on the time. I suggest that in the opening paragraph, after they state their thesis, they should mention two examples they will use. The examples should be clear in their relationship in supporting the thesis. The conclusion should restate, in an interesting way (if possible), the thesis and then re-tie in the examples."
So, the structure of the essay goes pretty much --
I. State thesis
II. Preview two supporting examples
III. Elaborate thesis
IV. Flesh out examples
V. Conclusion
a) restate thesis (interesting way)
b) re-tie in the examples
Rolling boxcars on the SAT essay
The essay section of the SAT essay is scored by two readers, each of whom grades on a scale from 1 to 6. So you're aiming for two sixes -- boxcars in dice-throwing terminology.
In the story linked here, Tamar Lewin of The New York Times shows that you don't need to be perfect, or even have perfect spelling, to get a 6.
One kid got a 6 even though he quoted from the musical Cats, which might earn an automatic 1 from some graders. Another did such a good job discussing Elie Wiesel's Night that the graders forgave his misspelling of "hindrance."
West High School English teacher Shannon Jackson, who grades AP essays, says that, indeed, graders are supposed to think of the esays as drafts, because of course that's what they are. So you truly can get a perfect 6 without being perfect.
WHAT PRACTICE MADE? Misspellings are no “hinderance” to a perfect score on the SAT essay. Scorers looked for “clear and consistent mastery” in areas like critical thinking. They found it, apparently, in these essays, whose opening words are shown. Students were asked, “Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present?”
In the story linked here, Tamar Lewin of The New York Times shows that you don't need to be perfect, or even have perfect spelling, to get a 6.
One kid got a 6 even though he quoted from the musical Cats, which might earn an automatic 1 from some graders. Another did such a good job discussing Elie Wiesel's Night that the graders forgave his misspelling of "hindrance."
West High School English teacher Shannon Jackson, who grades AP essays, says that, indeed, graders are supposed to think of the esays as drafts, because of course that's what they are. So you truly can get a perfect 6 without being perfect.
WHAT PRACTICE MADE? Misspellings are no “hinderance” to a perfect score on the SAT essay. Scorers looked for “clear and consistent mastery” in areas like critical thinking. They found it, apparently, in these essays, whose opening words are shown. Students were asked, “Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present?”
Friday, May 18, 2007
Outlining in a hurry on the SAT essay
This is the first of several Grammar Tips of the Day about the SAT essay. Many high school juniors are taking both the SAT and the ACT in the next several weeks.
Our Knox County English teachers do an excellent job of teaching our kids how to do outlines.
This skill has always been a key to success on essay tests, but this is especially highlighted by the essay section of the SAT. In just 25 minutes, kids have to plan their time, think through their arguments and put them on paper. Many test-takers interviewed on TV said they didn't finish in the allotted time.
Harbrace Section 33e: Choose an appropriate method or combination of methods for arranging ideas offers some good tips on listing ideas, outlining and writing essays.
The trick with the new SAT is in doing all this swiftly and effectively. (And, of course, as in all things, penmanship counts!) In those opening moments, the essayist must consider the topic and map out a course of action---making a list of ideas to touch on and a conclusion to be heading toward. This is the time to take a deep breath, look at this list, amend as appropriate, and plan those minutes. If there are 5 minutes to go and you're halfway through your outline (this happens) you must make the remaining points quickly and get to that conclusion.
Of course, the best keys to success are a) knowing what you want to say, b) practicing saying them in alloted periods of time, and c) feigning confidence, so the kids all around you panic. :-)
Our Knox County English teachers do an excellent job of teaching our kids how to do outlines.
This skill has always been a key to success on essay tests, but this is especially highlighted by the essay section of the SAT. In just 25 minutes, kids have to plan their time, think through their arguments and put them on paper. Many test-takers interviewed on TV said they didn't finish in the allotted time.
Harbrace Section 33e: Choose an appropriate method or combination of methods for arranging ideas offers some good tips on listing ideas, outlining and writing essays.
The trick with the new SAT is in doing all this swiftly and effectively. (And, of course, as in all things, penmanship counts!) In those opening moments, the essayist must consider the topic and map out a course of action---making a list of ideas to touch on and a conclusion to be heading toward. This is the time to take a deep breath, look at this list, amend as appropriate, and plan those minutes. If there are 5 minutes to go and you're halfway through your outline (this happens) you must make the remaining points quickly and get to that conclusion.
Of course, the best keys to success are a) knowing what you want to say, b) practicing saying them in alloted periods of time, and c) feigning confidence, so the kids all around you panic. :-)
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