Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Thoroughness Challenge

The Ides of March


The Thoroughness Challenge is a post consisting of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors. The paragraphs with the errors corrected and highlighted in red can be found at the end of the post.

Note: The purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness. You're only looking for errors in spelling and/or grammar. Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or sentence structure.


Your Challenge paragraphs today look at the origin of the term, Ides of March, and contain 11 errors. Good Luck!

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The term ides originally referred to the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspiscious day in their calender. The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month). The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assasinated in 44 B.C.E.

The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbude that date with a sense of forboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a fancyful expression must signify something more than merely another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time, sixteen centuries later, audiances attending his play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides.

So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which calender is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a mundain meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin: Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is now, the date on witch bills are do.


Vincenzo Camuccini, Mort de César, 1798
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Now, let's see how thorough you are!


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The term ides originally referred to the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspicious day in their calendar. The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month). The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C.E.

The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbued that date with a sense of foreboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a fanciful expression must signify something more than merely another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time, sixteen centuries later, audiences attending his play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides.

So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which calendar is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a mundane meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin: Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is now, the date on which bills are due.


Julius Caesar
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Sources: Wikipedia and infoplease

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Clauses

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Let's find out more about the fun world of sentences, specifically, clauses. If writing is your passion, then having a solid knowledge of what makes a sentence work and what doesn't will separate your writing from the rest.

Different Types of Clauses

Sentences may contain these different types of clauses:

Phrase

A phrase is a group of words that lacks a subject, a verb, or both. Phrases cannot stand alone; they add information to the sentence.

Examples:


to the store
in a hurry
past the window


Independent Clause

An independent clause is a group of words that consist of a subject and a verb but depends on another clause to complete the thought. A dependent clause begins with a connector (or subordinator): if, when, because, although, since, which, or that – and prevents the sentence from standing alone.

Examples:


because I was late
when they arrived
since we're here




Next week we'll take a look at what joins clauses—conjunctions. See you then!



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Source: Grammar Done Right!



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Spelling Challenge

Misspellings
It's time for a Spelling Challenge! So, grab a sticky note and a pen and write down the correct spelling for the words below. Remember …

NO PEEKING!
Peek


1. guteral
2. septagenarian
3. tableau
4. fourty
5. cooly
6. preferrable
7. annoint
8. saavy
9. carberator
10. ingenous


If you spell all ten words correctly, you get the beautiful sparkling gold glitter star!

Good Luck!

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ANSWERS:

1. guttural
2. septuagenarian
3. tableau
4. forty
5. coolly
6. preferable
7. anoint
8. savvy
9. carburetor
10. ingenious


How did you do? It's been a while since I slipped in a word spelled correctly – did you catch it?

Whether or not you got the gold star, everyone gets this spray of PURPLE glitter stars, representing a little of the famous CCP HAPPY for your efforts!


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Have a HAPPY day!




Thursday, March 4, 2010

National Grammar Day



TODAY IS NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY!

Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It's not only a date, it's an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same! - Grammar Girl


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Most of us know clumsy sentences when we hear or read them, but we don’t always know exactly why they are clumsy or possess the skills to fix them. Here's a sentence that needs a little work:

The network that this computer is able to connect to contains information that is privileged and confidential.

The clumsiness is caused by several common writing errors:

Unnecessary dependent clauses
Get rid of that is/which is, that are/which are clauses whenever possible.

Extraneous verb phrases
Delete verb phrases that don’t add meaning: is able to.

Subjects too far away from their verbs

Place subjects closer to their verbs: computer connects, network contains.

Redundancy
Weed out repetitious words: Confidential and privileged mean the same thing in this context.

Finally, tweak the wording so that the sentence flows:

This computer connects to a network containing confidential information.


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Check out The Grammar Song! Find it here: The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Sources: Grammarbook.com, Grammar Girl, The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar



Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Words Matter Week

March 1–7 is National Words Matter Week, (Words Matter Week) sponsored again this year by the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors. In honor of this week, below are some quotes about words.


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When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain. – William Shakespeare

Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. – Mark Twain

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. – C.S. Lewis

Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes. – Theodore Dreiser

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. – James Michener

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music the words make. – Truman Capote

It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. – Robert Southey

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment. – Hart Crane

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. – Author Unknown

A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one. – Baltasar Gracián

He that uses many words for the explaining any subject doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink. – John Ray

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. – William Makepeace Thackeray




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