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READINGS IN LANGUAGE
This section features links to interesting, instructive, or thought-provoking readings about the English language and related disciplines. The selections could be anywhere from light and humorous to serious and scholarly, and they range widely from the reading, writing, listening, and speaking disciplines to the teaching and learning of English.
Three American writers share their thoughts about writing
Three American writers recently shared their thoughts about the writing craft in three separate essays that came out in The New York Times.
Just a few simple rules. In “How to Write,” an essay published in the July 26, 2012 issue, novelist Colson Whitehead says that writing can be reduced to just a few simple rules—11 to be exact. They are (1) “Show and Tell,” (2) “Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you,” (3) “Write what you know,” (4) “Never use three words when one will do,” (5) “Keep a dream diary,” (6) “What isn’t said is as important as what is said,” (7) “Writer’s block is a tool — use it,” (8) “Is secret,” (9) “Have adventures,” (10) “Revise, revise, revise,” and (11) “There are no rules.”
Read Colson Whitehead’s “How to Write” now!
A mix of innocence and chutzpah. In “How to Write Great,” an essay published in the July 27, 2012 issue, writer Roger Rosenblatt decides to talk about not just brilliant or clever or exquisite writing but about great writing—the kind of writing by the likes of Miguel Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson, Jonathan Swift, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and E. L. Doctorow. He explains what makes their writing great: “The writers we admire most are propelled by a mixture of innocence and chutzpah — the nerve to write big coupled with a childlike need to cultivate the virtues they have always believed in. They may surprise themselves by the insistence of their own higher motives and values. They may also believe that as readers, we will surprise ourselves for the same reasons.”
Read Roger Rosenblatt’s “How to Write Great” now!
In “How to Write How-To,” an essay published in the July 27, 2012 issue, self-help books writer Augusten Burroughs says that to be able to pass along the knowledge of how to succeed in anything, you must first know how to fail—and fail a great deal, if possible. “This is essential because it’s far more common (and easier) to make mistakes than to enjoy success,” Burroughs explains. “I happen to be an unparalleled authority on the subject of failure, both through scholarship and experience — though I recommend the latter, as I believe gaining failure ‘in the field’ is superior to passively acquiring failure from books.”
Read Augusten Burroughs’s “How to Write How-To” now!
OTHER INTERESTING READINGS:
Linguists are not language anarchists. In “English As She Is Spoke,” an article in the July 23, 2012 issue of HuffingtonPost.com, communications consultant and independent scholar Rosina Lippi Green dismisses the scornful accusation hurled by language prescriptivists that academic linguists like her are “language anarchists who reject the very idea of rules.” She says that, in fact, linguists clearly recognize that all human language is structured and rule governed: “What linguists and anthropologists object to are pronouncements about good and bad language which are founded in aesthetics, fashion, or prejudice, but served up as objective truths with a side order of superiority.”
Read Rosina Lippi Green’s “English As She Is Spoke” in HuffingtonPost.com now!
Lexicon with an enduring appeal. In “The words English owes to India,” an article in the July 11, 2012 edition of BBC News Magazine, writer and radio producer Mukti Jain Campion reviews a dictionary mysteriously titled only as Hobson-Jobson, which is actually a 1,000-page lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Despite being described by Indian poet Daljit Nagra as “a madly unruly and idiosyncratic work,” the dictionary has been of such enduring appeal that it has never been out of print since its publication in the 1870s. Among the common English words whose origins Hobson-Jobson had traced from India are “atoll,” “avatar,” “dinghy,” “loot,” “khaki,” “nirvanah,” and—not be overlooked—“yoga.”
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