I’ve put all of my literacy shorts posts from the past couple of years or so onto a single Word document to download by clicking on the link below: Literacy Shorts Help yourself – please use/adapt/ignore as you see fit. Here is a list of the areas covered: Adjectives Colons Commonly Confused Words Ellipsis Euphemism … More Collection of Literacy Shorts Posts
Phatic language is commonly called small talk. It’s the language we use to perform a range of important social functions: to make others feel welcome or to initiate conversations, for example. Think back over the week… Like me, you’ve probably commented from time to time on the changing weather conditions (very interesting) or some of … More Literacy Shorts: Phatic Language
A euphemism, broadly defined, is a mild or vague expression used in place of one that is unpleasant, embarrassing or offensive. Typically, euphemistic language is used to help us politely understate our references to topics that are perceived to be socially awkward. However, as we’ve seen so clearly in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, … More Literacy Shorts: Euphemism
Rhetoric, broadly defined, is the art of persuasion through the manipulation of language – both written and spoken. From an academic perspective, it’s important for students to possess explicit knowledge of rhetorical devices and how they function because it gives them more conscious control over the way in which they are able to communicate. Clearly, … More Literacy Shorts: Rhetorical Devices
Function words, sometimes called grammatical words, are the words in our language that make little sense by themselves; they’re the ones that are easily overlooked, the ones we tend to omit when analysing poetry or passages from a novel. Have a look at the list below where I’ve included a selection (22 out of the … More Literacy Shorts: Function Words
The Oxford comma, also known as the Harvard comma or the serial comma, is the name given to the stylistic comma that precedes the final word or phrase in a list before ‘and’ or ‘or’. For example: Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Hulk are members of the Avengers. Here, the Oxford comma highlights that … More Literacy Shorts: Oxford Commas
An idiom is a common expression that possesses a meaning not explicitly clear in a grammatical or logical sense. For example: Thinking-hats are, pedagogically and sartorially speaking, the best thing since sliced bread. Here, the idiomatic reference to sliced bread helps to amplify my bold claim that thinking hats (all six of them) are … More Literacy Shorts: Idioms
Elliptical dots are used to indicate to the reader that words have been omitted from a sentence. For example: Mrs Kemp’s English lesson was … outstanding. So, here, the three elliptical dots tell us that information has been purposefully removed. We have no real way of telling whether or not the omitted information is important, … More Literacy Shorts: Ellipsis
Interesting fact: we get the plural noun parentheses from the original Greek word parentithenai, which roughly translates as ‘put in beside’. Today, linguistically speaking, we use the term to describe both the additional information that is inserted into an already grammatically complete sentence and the punctuation marks used to contain that information. In this bulletin, … More Literacy Shorts: Parenthetical Dashes
One of the main functions of the full stop is to separate sentences. For example: The Christmas break was very relaxing. I feel ready to tackle the term ahead. Here, the full stops mark the separation between what David Crystal calls ‘units of sense’ – they help to aid clarity. The tricky, but undoubtedly rewarding … More Literacy Shorts: Full Stops
Douglas Wise 