Saturday, August 28, 2010

Un-rules - The Boston Globe

Un-rules - The Boston Globe

Un-rules

Start the school year right: Forget these 10 language laws

By Jan Freeman
August 29, 2010

Another school year, another set of writing assignments: Students of all ages will soon be composing papers on summer vacations, the Chinese economy, or the heroines of Henry James. And beginners or veterans, these student writers all risk exposure to usage myths — bogus rules of English they may hear, or read, or suddenly discover (via a teacher’s red pen) that they’ve violated.

Fake language rules can come from respected sources, but that’s no reason to believe them. As Kathryn Schulz explains in her new book, “Being Wrong,” people don’t know that they’re misinformed: Being wrong, after all, feels just like being right. But learning to write is hard enough without the burden of following non-rules. So let’s lighten the load a bit, starting with 10 usage topics that deserve a good leaving alone.


GLOBE EDUCATION NEWS

Un-rules

Start the school year right: Forget these 10 language laws (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe)

When left is right

Surprising insights from the social sciences (By Kevin Lewis, Boston Globe)

Fabrication plausible, journal editor believes

The editor of a scientific journal said yesterday that the only plausible conclusion he can draw from his knowledge of an internal investigation into research by a Harvard psychology professor is that some of the data had been fabricated. (By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff)

Mass. schools to share $204m in jobs funds

Governor Deval Patrick announced yesterday how much each school district will receive in the coming weeks to rehire laid-off teachers and other employees, under a new federal aid program that is bringing $204 million to the state to save school jobs. (By James Vaznis, Globe Staff)

Sports facilities also suffering under strain of funding

Just as battered budgets in Gloucester and most communities are making it hard to fund afterschool activities such as sports, increasingly the communities are also finding it hard to maintain playing fields and field houses. (By Rich Fahey, Globe Correspondent)

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