A review of three books about style in writing:
A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age, by Emmy J. Favilla; Bloomsbury, 400 pages, $26.
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, by Steven Pinker; Viking, 368 pages, $27.95.
Write to the Point: How to be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page, by Sam Leith; Profile Books, 288 Pages, £14.99.
Earn up to €150: Participants are paid €10/hour for their time, with a bonus of €20 if all 12 sessions are completed.
What are the consequences for the mind and the brain to learn a new language even for a relatively short time? We are seeking enthusiastic volunteers who want to learn Dutch for 10 days! This study will take place over the course of 12 sessions. Each session will last between 1 and 1.5 hours.
During Session 1 volunteers will complete simple tasks such as; counting items, remembering sequences, responding to patterns on a screen, and completing a short language history questionnaire. During Sessions 2-11 volunteers will come to the lab and study Dutch through computerized software. During Session 12 (final session) volunteers will repeat all the tasks that were administered on Session 1.
Requirements:
If you would like to participate in this study, please contact Sanna Tahir – stahi001@ucr.edu
If you have questions or concerns about the nature of this research, please contact jfkroll@gmail.com
Drink jij geregeld koffie en spreek je naast Nederlands ook Engels? Dan is dit experiment iets voor jou!
Wij doen een studie naar het effect van cafeïne op reactietijd.. Als je meedoet krijg je ofwel een capsule met cafeïne (3 mg per kilo lichaamsgewicht), of een capsule met een placebo. Bijvoorbeeld, als je 65 kilo weegt, krijg je 195 mg cafeïne, wat overeenkomt met 2 kopjes koffie. Om je veiligheid te garanderen zal je nooit meer cafeïne binnenkrijgen dan wat de Europese Voedselveiligheidsauthoriteit heeft bepaald als veilig om dagelijks te consumeren. Elke participant hoeft maar één keer een sessie van 1.5 uur te doen. Het experiment bestaat uit een serie reactietijdexperimenten voor en na cafeïne inname, een kleine enquête, en een Engelse taaltest. Alle experimenten zullen in de multimediazalen van het Harmoniegebouw plaatsvinden.
Voorwaarden om mee te doen
Als je geïnteresseerd bent, vul dan alsjeblieft de korte enquête op Qualtrics in op
https://qtrial2017q1az1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_elE0Y3adnYS9lul
Voel je vrij een email te sturen naar jellebrouwer96@gmail.com indien je nog vragen hebt.
Confusion over punctuation led to a potentially vital piece of evidence in the Stephen Lawrence murder case being overlooked for 21 years, a senior investigator has revealed.
Chris Le Pere, the man now leading a fresh investigation into the 1993 killing, said the error led to a bag strap that may have been used as a home-made weapon being wrongly recorded as discovered almost 100 yards away from where Stephen was targeted by racist thugs.
Some people are literal minded – they think in black and white whereas others colour their worlds with metaphor. A new paper published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reports on the first standardised measure of this difference, and it shows that having a proclivity for metaphors has real consequences, affecting how people respond to the world around them and even how they interact with others.
A summary of the paper in non-technical language can be found in The BPS Digest (from which this quote is taken).
This year’s MacDonald Lecture will be held on Friday 10 April, from 15:00 in the Heymanszaal of the Academiegebouw. Prof. Barbara Seidlhofer will talk on ‘Standard Deviation and English as a Lingua Franca’. Students may recognise the speaker’s name from syllabus recommended reading lists.
See: seidlhofer-ppt
31 per cent of scholars think international students’ English skills are not up to scratch
Geoffrey Galt Harpham on a timely reminder of the common root of modern human sciences.
A review of a recent book on metaphor prompts some thought about a topic that is very familiar and yet far from exhausted.
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/grand-affiliations/
Warning: your tutor may not agree with all of these.
Steven Pinker: 10 ‘grammar rules’ it’s OK to break sometimes | Books | The Guardian.
