Books by Philip Vassallo
Notes on effective writing at work, school, and home by Philip Vassallo, Ed.D.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Spying on New Words
New words are constantly popping up in our lexicon, so it's nice to know that a website devotes itself to tracking them: Wordspy. Billed by its producer Paul McFedries as "the word lover's guide to new words," Wordspy lists some fresh words by combing newspapers, magazines, books, and websites for any coinage it can find—and the results are sometimes funny (googleganger, shelter porn, mom cave), often practical (blizzaster, landscaper), and invariably helpful. What do those words mean? Look them up in Wordspy!
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A participant in one of my workshops, D. Hom, asked a question about hyphenating expressions such as “end of year.” Determining what to h...
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The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is busy creating a National Day on Writing, slated for October 20, 2009, as a way of reco...
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When writers choose an unrelated point to distract readers from the real issue, they are committing the logical fallacy of a red herring . I...