3 english articles

8/13/2019 3 English Articles

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Is Texting Killing the English Language?People have always spoken differently from how they write, and texting is actually talking

with your fingers

ByJohn McWhorterApril 2, 2!"##$ %omments

Texting has long been bemoaned as the downfall of the written word, penmanship for illiterates,

as one critic called it.To which the proper response is LOL. Texting properly isnt writing at all

its actually more ain to spoen language. !nd its a spoen language that is getting richer and

more complex by the year.

"irst, some historical perspecti#e. $riting was only in#ented %,%&& years ago, whereas language

probably traces bac at least '&,&&& years. Thus taling came first( writing is )ust an artifice that

came along later. !s such, the first writing was based on the way people tal, with short sentences

thin of the Old Testament. *owe#er, while tal is largely subconscious and rapid, writing is

deliberate and slow. O#er time, writers too ad#antage of this and started crafting tapeworm

sentences such as this one, from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire+ The whole

engagement lasted abo#e - hours, till the gradual retreat of the ersians was changed into a

disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was gi#en by the principal leaders and the

/urenas himself.

0MORE:$hy !mericans 1eed /pelling 2ees and 3ocabulary Tests4

1o one tals lie that casually or should. 2ut it is natural to desire to do so for special

occasions, and thats what oratory is, lie the grand5old inds of speeches that $illiam 6ennings

2ryan deli#ered. 7n the old days, we didnt much write lie taling because there was no

mechanism to reproduce the speed of con#ersation. 2ut texting and instant messaging do and a
http://ideas.time.com/contributor/john-mcwhorter/http://ideas.time.com/contributor/john-mcwhorter/http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/25/is-texting-killing-the-english-language/#commentshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/nov/11/mobilephones2http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/nov/11/mobilephones2http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/16/why-americans-need-spelling-bees-and-vocabulary-tests/http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/16/why-americans-need-spelling-bees-and-vocabulary-tests/http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/16/why-americans-need-spelling-bees-and-vocabulary-tests/http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/16/why-americans-need-spelling-bees-and-vocabulary-tests/http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/25/is-texting-killing-the-english-language/#commentshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/nov/11/mobilephones2http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/16/why-americans-need-spelling-bees-and-vocabulary-tests/http://ideas.time.com/contributor/john-mcwhorter/


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re#olution has begun. 7t in#ol#es the brute mechanics of writing, but in its economy, spontaneity

and e#en #ulgarity, texting is actually a new ind of taling. There is a #irtual cult of concision and

little interest in capitali8ation or punctuation. The argument that texting is poor writing is

analogous, then, to one that the9olling /tonesis bad music because it doesnt use #iolas.

Texting is de#eloping its own ind of grammar and con#entions.

0MORE:2anning the TermIllegal Immigrant $ont :hange the /tigma4

Texting is de#eloping its own ind of grammar. TaeLOL. 7t doesnt actually mean laughing out

loud in a literal sense anymore.LOLhas e#ol#ed into something much subtler and sophisticated

and is used e#en when nothing is remotely amusing. 6ocelyn texts $here ha#e you been; and

!nnabelle texts bac LOL at the library studying for two hours.LOLsignals basic empathybetween texters, easing tension and creating a sense of e


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When Homework is a Waste of Time

Most after&school assignments are 'ased on out&of&date and often ineffective methods

ByAnnie Murphy Paul(anniemurphypaul)ept* !, 2!"#+ %omments

=etty 7mages

$e often hear passionate arguments about how !merican students ha#e too much homewor, or

too little. 2ut 7 belie#e that we ought to be asing a different th in reading,

-?rd in science, and ?st in math, according to the latest resultsfrom the rogram for

7nternational /tudent !ssessment 07/!4. 7n a -&&' sur#ey,one5third of parents polled rated the


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classroom. ! newdiscipline,nown as Aind, 2rain and @ducation, has recently emergedthat is

de#oted to understanding and impro#ing how people absorb, retain and apply nowledge. !

collaboration between psychologists at $ashington Bni#ersity in /t. Louis and teachers at nearby

:olumbia Aiddle /chool, for example,liftedse#enth5 and eighth5grade students science and

social studies test scores by ? to -% percent. The fields methods may seem unfamiliar and e#en

counterintuiti#e, but they are simple to understand and easy to carry out. !fter5school

assignments are ripe for the ind of impro#ements this new science can offer.

/paced repetition is one example of the ind of e#idence5based techni. The

reason the method wors so well goes bac to the brain+ when we first ac


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ways, reportedresearchers from urdue Bni#ersity in -&. D&E /tudentsand parentsmay

groan at the prospect of more tests, but the self5


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This article is from the$rilliant Report% a &eekly ne&sletter &ritten 'y (nnie M)rphy *a)l#

Source: http://ideas.time.com/2013/09/05/when-homework-is-a-

waste-of-time/#ixzz2fbPAHAfI
http://www.anniemurphypaul.com/http://www.anniemurphypaul.com/http://ideas.time.com/2013/09/05/when-homework-is-a-waste-of-time/#ixzz2fbPAHAfIhttp://ideas.time.com/2013/09/05/when-homework-is-a-waste-of-time/#ixzz2fbPAHAfIhttp://www.anniemurphypaul.com/http://ideas.time.com/2013/09/05/when-homework-is-a-waste-of-time/#ixzz2fbPAHAfIhttp://ideas.time.com/2013/09/05/when-homework-is-a-waste-of-time/#ixzz2fbPAHAfI


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Psychology

Over-Practicing akes Perfect-he 'rain can get 'y on less energy when you overlearn a task

By Annie u!phy "aul#anniemu!phypaulAug. 20$ 20135 %omments

=etty 7mages

$hy do 7 ha#e to eep practicing; 7 kno&it alreadyF Thats the familiar wail of a child seated at

the piano or in front of the multiplication table 0or, for that matter, of an adult taing a tennis

lesson4. :ogniti#e science has a persuasi#e retort+ $e dont )ust need to learn a tas in order to

perform it well( we need to o+erlearnit. Cecades of research ha#e shown that superior

performance re


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carbon dioxide they breathed out. $hen the sub)ects first tacled the exercise, they used up a lot

of metabolic power, but this decreased as their sill impro#ed. 2y the end of the learning process,

the amount of effort they expended to carry out the tas had declined about -& percent from

when they started.

$hene#er we learn to mae a new mo#ement, !hmed explains, we form and then update an

internal modela sensorimotor mapwhich our ner#ous system uses to predict our muscles

motions and the resistance they will encounter. !s that internal model is refined o#er time, were

able to cut down on unnecessary mo#ements and eliminate wasted energy.

O#er the course of a practice session, the sub)ects in !hmeds study were becoming more efficient

in their muscle acti#ity. 2ut that wasnt the whole story. @nergy expenditures continued todecrease e#en after the decline in muscle acti#ity had stabili8ed. 7n fact, !hmed and her coauthors

report, this is when the greatest reductions in metabolic power were obser#edduring the #ery

time when it loos to an obser#er, and to the participant herself, as if nothing is happening.

(MORE+Ten $ays $e =et /marter !s $e !ge4

$hats going on here; !hmed theori8es that e#en after participants had fine5tuned their muscle

mo#ements, the neural processes controlling the mo#ements continued to grow more efficient.

The brain uses up energy, too, and through o#erlearning it can get by on less. These gains in

mental efficiency free up resources for other tass+ infusing the music youre playing with greater

emotion and passion, for example, or eeping closer trac of your opponents mo#es on the other

side of the tennis court. Less effort in one domain means more energy a#ailable to others.

$hile !hmeds paper didnt address the application of o#erlearning to the classroom or the

worplace, other studies ha#e demonstrated that for a wide range of academic and professional

acti#ities, o#erlearning reduces the amount of mental effort re


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better and better, e#en when you cant tell youre impro#inga thought to eep you going through

those long hours of practice.

This article is from the$rilliant Report% a &eekly ne&sletter &ritten 'y (nnie M)rphy *a)l#

Source: http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/20/dont-just-practice-over-

practice/#ixzz2fbPpHIfb
http://www.anniemurphypaul.com/http://www.anniemurphypaul.com/http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/20/dont-just-practice-over-practice/#ixzz2fbPpHIfbhttp://ideas.time.com/2013/08/20/dont-just-practice-over-practice/#ixzz2fbPpHIfbhttp://www.anniemurphypaul.com/http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/20/dont-just-practice-over-practice/#ixzz2fbPpHIfbhttp://ideas.time.com/2013/08/20/dont-just-practice-over-practice/#ixzz2fbPpHIfb

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