Word of the Week
02 February 2012
Use double quote marks at the start and the end of the words you are quoting. Use single quotation marks for a "quote within a quote."
Put full stops and commas inside the quotes, as above.
11 January 2012
An apostrophe shows some kind of possession (belonging to), eg "Lucy's cat", or it shows that a letter has been missed out from a word, eg "I'm for I am". (Sometimes more than one letter is missed out, as in "they'd" for "they had.")
Try not to use an apostrophe to indicate a plural: "There were eleven player's in the team." This is not correct, although you will see a lot of it (especially in shops where it has become known as the "grocer's apostrophe").
To show possession in a word or name which ends in "s" you would normally add an apostrophe plus a second "s" (James's). Plural nouns which don't end in "s" are given an apostrophe and an "s" ( old folk's home, children's toy, people's republic).
Apostrophes used when letters are missed out are more usual in informal writing - they can change the tone of your writing. Do not use this kind of apostrophe in an job application, or a UCAS application.
18 December 2011
"And the Grinch with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons. It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
Have a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year!
05 December 2011
For many people (of a certain age, perhaps!), the word Jackanory takes us right back to our early childhood where we listened or watched the BBC programme of that name. It was the simplest of ideas: someone read a story into the microphone, or to camera. All you had to do was listen. The word Jackanory comes from an old nursery rhyme:
I'll tell a story
About Jack a Nory,
And now my story's begun;
I'll tell you another
Of Jack and his brother,
And now my story is done.
Recent research into nursery rhymes suggests that learning them can have a highly beneficial effect on literacy development. The simple rhymes assist sound recognition - a kind of early phonics (I suppose). Often children have no idea what they mean; but that doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes, of course, the meaning is very clear, and you have a wonderful poem:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Or, as we are approaching Christmas:
Christmas is coming,
The geese are getting fat,
Please to put a penny
In the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny,
A ha'penny will do;
If you haven't got a ha'penny,
Then God bless you!
Great stuff! If you are thinking of buying a book of nursery rhymes this Christmas, why not try The Puffin Mother Goose Treasury by Raymond Briggs. It came out in 1966 and is still wonderful!
10 November 2011
The word November comes from the Romans - it was the ninth month in their year. The Latin word "novem" means nine. The Romans thought that winter began on 11th of November. We certainly had winter in November last year! It is interesting, though, that the 11th of November has significance for us too: we remember those killed in wars and conflicts. Remembrance Day is sometimes called Poppy Day because, at the end of world War 1, our allies decided that the poppy (the Flanders Poppy) should be seen as a symbol of sacrifice. Hundreds of years before that, a poppy was used to represent the blood of Jesus because of its red colour. In November, the pyracantha bush is covered with bright red berries. It is called firethorn.
