By Kevin R. McClure. On the heels of its inaugural football season in the Big Ten Conference, the University of Maryland announced bold plans: The Board of Regents’ Finance Committee unanimously agreed to move forward with construction of a new building that would transform Cole Field House, an old basketball arena turned student activities center, into a “dynamic hub at the intersection of athletics, academics and research.” More...
By Karen A. Stout. At one point on Friday afternoon #FreeCommunityCollege was the top trending hashtag on Twitter, a sign of universal interest in, if not universal acceptance of, President Obama’s “America’s College Promise” proposal. The president’s big vision is to ensure that postsecondary education is as universally affordable and accessible to as many Americans as possible. More...
By David M. Perry. Next week, when the president re-announces his “free community college” plan during the State of the Union address, I’d like to see him add a sentence about the teachers.
They’ve been missing in the White House language promoting the plan. None of the critics, even those who have said mean things about community colleges, have mentioned the plight of part-time community-college teachers. With a few exceptions, such as this Chronicle piece by Peter Schmidt, the journalism surrounding the plan has focused on students, costs, and consequences. More...
By George Williams. Jonathan Goodwin was going to give a talk at last weekend’s Modern Language Association convention on “Jobs of the MLA,” a look at the history of the MLA’s Job Information List. Unfortunately, he got sick and was unable to travel; happily, he was able to post the talk online. Read more...By George Williams. Last week, Microsoft announced that they’re expanding the “preview” — formerly only available to a limited number of users — of their Office apps for Android tablets. Read more...By Prof. Hacker. Google’s new app and interface for Gmail, concisely named Inbox, tries to streamline email and thus make “inbox zero” more attainable and less something one needs to chase. Currently, the app is available through invitations only, but one can request an invite through a friend or through Google. Read more...
By Lucy Ferriss. A commenter on a newspaper article about Prince Charles (the opinionated royal destined to inherit the throne under Britain’s hereditary monarchical and theocratic system of government) said this:
The moment the Monarchy, with he at its head, begins a campaign of public influence is the moment the Monarchy should be disbanded.
“With he at its head?” Not “with him at its head”? Let’s face it: The traditionally accepted rules for case-marking pronouns in Standard English are simply a mystery to many people who in general are counted as literate as well as conversationally competent. More...
By Lucy Ferriss. “Is your novel fiction, or did any of it really happen?” I’ve started doing readings of my new novel, A Sister to Honor, and sure enough, the question came from one of the attentive listeners waiting in line to buy a signed copy. More...
By Ben Yagoda. The email came in with the heading “Ben! How could you!?” The message read, in its entirety:
“How Not to Write Bad,” page 26: “As for state names, never abbreviate when they’re four letters or less, or when they’re standing alone.” More...
By Allan Metcalf. Early in January every year, nearly a thousand people who study how language works flock together for the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America together with six smaller groups under its wings, including the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, the Association for Linguistic Evidence, and of course the American Dialect Society. More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
