Saturday, November 22, 2008

Puneetha writes:

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Hello uncle, how can I improve my vocabulary?Please suggest some ways where I can make my article small and precise.how shall I end a letter to the Editor regarding some issue like"scarcity of water"
thank you.

Firstly, corrections to the note above: 'uncle' should be written with a capital U, there should be a space after the question mark, instead of 'where' some other word (or different structure) should be used, like 'how'. There are a couple of more mistakes too, try to find them ! Don't feel bad that I pointed them out ! It is just a learning thing.

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Dear Puneetha,
Thanks for writing and apologies for not noticing your comment for a long time. Your questions are pretty broad ! Not easy to give exact or clear answers.

How to improve your vocabulary ? I must admit I don't have a simple answer to this. Looking back at my own experience, I used to read a lot so I got exposed to many new words. I never used to go to the dictionary and look up the word's meaning. This was not a very good thing, as I just used to try to guess the meaning of the word from the sentence or the context where I read it. So sometimes I got only a vague idea or a wrong idea about the meaning of a word. However after bumping into a word enough times, usually things got sorted out. Getting the pronunciation right was much harder -- living in my world of books I rarely heard the words being actually said, so I came up with all kinds of funny pronunciations for words.
There are some more 'artificial' ways to try to improve vocabulary like learning a list of new words and trying to use them in sentences. This is probably good, but it is harder to do and does not come naturally. I would be interested to hear from you and other students what kinds of things they try to do to improve their vocabulary and what are the results.
Do think about this too -- to write good essays, perhaps it is more important to research or think through carefully about what you are saying, express it clearly and logically and have good grammer, than use many big words. As long as you have enough vocabulary to express your thoughts effectively, that should be enough !

How to make your article small and precise ? I think you would need to be clear in your own mind about what you are trying to convey in the article. Normally we are not too clear so then we beat around the bush and talk about different things and the article becomes wordy and diffuse and not precise. So if you can prepare for writing the article by first saying "this is what I want this article to be about", it may help in focussing your writing.

Regarding your question - How shall I end a letter to the editor on some issue like "Scarcity of water" ? Nothing special is needed I think, for example, something like:

Sincerely,
Puneetha
Class X, Only Games School,
Swarganagar
Email: puneetha@english.com

should suffice.

Do write again with your questions !

****

A nice picture, just to add some variety to the post:




It was taken at the Kolkata Maidan, a huge open space in the middle of Kolkata.

Sunday, October 19, 2008




I saw this sign at Bangalore International Airport above a drinking water dispenser (also called a 'water fountain', are there any other synonyms you can think of ? ) that was not working. The spelling is wrong, it is correctly spelt as 'unserviceable'. I first thought that it was wrong usage too and that the word 'unserviceable' referred to something that is beyond repair, cannot be repaired. But on checking, I found that interestingly it has got two uses: one is the meaning above (beyond repair or something that can never be used), and another meaning that means that something that *currently* cannot be used (see for example at answers.com . The second meaning does fit the context in which the word was used.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A funny article



The standard of writing in Indian newspapers in not particularly high, so I was delighted to see a very nice humorous piece in the Hindu Sunday magazine of today. Read it here:

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/09/28/stories/2008092850120400.htm

Do read it. It is very fresh and original, and comes from the author's keen observation of her interactions, as well as a strong command over the English language. The piece is filled with good punning and gentle humor. It is written pretending that the banking 'relationship' as a serious one and using the same language on it, that one would use for other relationships ('anniversary', 'interest', 'birthday')

You can leave a comment if you didn't understand something in the article.

Congrats Indu Balachandran !

Some thoughts

1.) I helped a young friend by 'critiquing' some of her essays recently, and learnt something myself in the process. What I was struck by was how a good essay is distinguished more by the non-English aspects of the essay than the English aspects. These are things like doing the research so that you know what it is you are writing about, logical thinking and arguing coherently to make your point and make it well. No doubt I will get the opportunity in the course of this blog to illustrate the above.

2.) I have a certain 'feeling' for language, particularly the English language, which is what made me experiment with setting up this blog as well as what made me feel that I can add some value through this blog. By this I mean I relate quite strongly to English. I rejoice when I see good communication, I can analyze and occasionally get insights as to why a particular book or other piece of communication works well and why some others don't. I guess you could say I get a lot of joy through English.
Again I hope in the course of this blog, I will get the opportunity to illustrate and communicate some of these things.

Word of the day - critique

'Critique' is a word I like. It has a weight and impressiveness to it that makes you sound like you know what you're talking about. The act of 'critiquing' itself is a good activity. It means to review something in detail and be able to come out with all the pluses and minuses of it. When I do a good critique, I feel good, like I've achieved something of value.

Some common mistakes

This page which had started a while back and updated occasionally, contains a list of some common mistakes in speaking or writing English in India:

http://www.geocities.com/ahminotep/IndiaBlog/inglish.html

Let us know your comments ..

About this blog

More as we go along, but the point of this blog is to give students (primarily high school students) a chance to talk about their english problems and submit their essays or writing for critiquing (meaning here: detailed evaluation or review).

Let me emphasize that again -- this blog is about particapation !! I want you to write with your problems and questions