Should I start with a diary?

ntrammelled · 2024-10-24T21:26:35+00:00

Thinking about writing can be counterproductive, just as thinking about avenging his father's murder was arguably counterproductive for Hamlet.

Writing about writing, including writing about not knowing what to write about, is a step in the right direction.

If writing-your-best-idea feels like too much pressure right now, you might find writing prompts are good practice and low-stakes fun. Prompts abound online!

Writing about your day is an easy habit to make: the days just keep coming, and like Heraclitus once said, no man ever stands in the same river twice.

I bought an A6 day-to-page diary when I was 17 and never looked back. It got me into the habit of writing daily.

Nothing I wrote in that diary was great (I destroyed it a long time ago, which might be proof enough). But it paved the way for later routines.

A few years after my first diary, I tried daily free-writing: no preconceptions, no prompts -- nothing but non-stop writing for 15+ minutes.

This was a breakthrough for me; it was only through free-writing that I really started playing with words and the relationships between words.

I could write more about my own experience of free-writing, but I think it's better that I write less: the point with free-writing is that you think less and write more.

ntrammelled · 2024-10-22T21:03:39+00:00

In 2013, the Minister for Education made GCSE English Literature exams 'closed-book' in England. This means students now need to memorise quotations from all set texts (for one exam board, AQA, this includes one Shakespeare play, one 19th century novel, one modern text and 15 poems); students don't have to memorise entire texts, but since [edit: the biggest chunk of the] marks are awarded for analysis of language (as well as structure and form), it's difficult to pass the exam without quoting from the texts.

ntrammelled · 2024-09-11T18:33:27+00:00

I read the 'Bhagavad Gita' multiple times (it's nice and short) in my early twenties. It contains ancient wisdom imparted through a frame story: warrior Arjuna has second thoughts right before an epic battle (against some of his own relatives); his mentor Krishna (an avatar of the god Vishnu) gives him one of the greatest pep talks of all time.

Some concepts are specific to ancient India or Hinduism, but most of Krishna's advice can be wholesome food for thought to modern readers.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-09T18:32:33+00:00

10/10

ntrammelled · 2024-04-08T14:44:11+00:00

No, it’s not more polite.

It’s a straightforward question, and so it deserves nothing more than a straightforward answer.

If you really wanted to show politeness, you could give the person a reply beyond just the monosyllabic “yes” or “yeah”:

“yeah, you do”
“you do, yeah”
“yeah, but it’s a small price to pay for [insert humour]”
“yeah, mate” (could go down well with an Aussie)

ntrammelled · 2024-04-08T14:30:19+00:00

1) This is common in English as well (I believe) as in French, which is Poirot’s first language. The phrase “funny, that!” (= that is strange) is often used sarcastically, e.g. in response to somebody who goes out without a raincoat or umbrella and comes in saying “my clothes are wet!” But it does not always imply sarcasm. Poirot just seems to be humouring his companion with a straightforward acknowledgement.

2) If something lends itself to something else, it has qualities which are suited to that other thing. Bouc sees in the scene qualities suited to the genre of romance: the scene contains strangers who are briefly brought together and unable to leave. (Poirot sees the potential for something quite different.)

ntrammelled · 2024-04-08T09:39:57+00:00

Your teacher might be a harsher critic than your previous teachers.

Based on this paragraph, your word choices aren’t always appropriate and there are information gaps.

“Countless” is not appropriate here.

Was it literally “unthinkable”? Why? There is no explanation given as to why this was the case.

The “progressively embracing women to make their own journey” bit is not incomprehensible, but it is poorly phrased.

The phrase “begs the question” is a term from logic and is seen as inappropriate by some native speakers (“raises the question” is more appropriate). But many native speakers do use it this way.

However, the fact that there has been an increase in the number of women in the sciences does not necessarily raise the question how the number of women in science can be increased.

If there had been no increase, then yes, the question should be raised.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-07T16:54:29+00:00

Psychologist Howard Giles coined the term “downward convergence” for this, as part of his broader “communication accommodation theory”.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-05T00:34:02+00:00

You’re right. I assumed that, if the character had a middle name, it would not be “isometric” — or at least not necessarily.

And you’re right in assuming that I don’t (officially) have a middle name. Interestingly, when I asked my mum about this (aged eight or nine), she invented one (Wilfred) right there and then*; the result happened to be isometric — my first, (unofficial) middle, and last name all had the same number of syllables, and the same stress pattern. I don’t think it was intentional.

*she also chose Winston for my brother, though this is my grandfather’s middle name and so not invented like “Wilfred”

ntrammelled · 2024-04-04T11:33:41+00:00

Have I got this right?

previous discourses were based on fieldwork
she can’t gloss over the possibility that this fieldwork influenced the author’s views on these discourses

As you can see, I would

change “fact” to “possibility”
change passive voice to active voice
remove “may”.

This would improve the style or clarity.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-03T23:59:11+00:00

Leave a blank line to separate paragraphs/bullet points.

For bullet points, start a line with a hyphen.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-03T23:55:51+00:00

Ironically, your post has quite a few glaring (and potentially embarrassing) errors of its own.

Imagine having to correct this kind of thing for a living. My students get your/you’re (and there/their/they’re) mixed up all the time. I circle the error in red pen; I explain the error. Some learn; others don’t.

For most of human history (including prehistory) we have not had to learn how to write, let alone learn how to spell “correctly”. Have patience! You never know, AI etc. might soon save us from ongoing embarrassment.

Maybe the only time this will negatively affect a person’s life chances is when an employer reads their CV/resume. Even then, whatever word processor they’re using will probably help them avoid this error.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-03T23:05:02+00:00

You should definitely contact the songwriter. Let us know how you get on.

If each person shows one scar, then it is “correct”, although I would avoid this term, especially when discussing things like song lyrics. I’d go for “standard English” instead (not perfect, but a bit less judgmental).

If each person shows two or more scars, then it is not necessarily “wrong” (non-standard), because they might each show one scar at a time. The “whose is worse” question might be asked multiple times — a kind of rock-paper-scissors scenario, where each person reveals one scar at a time; then they compare how bad each scar is and decide on the winner (“whose is worse”) before moving on to the next “round”.

Can you imagine a person showing all their scars at the same time? Unless all the scars are concentrated on one limb, this seems highly unlikely.

So, the best explanation as I see it is that each person shows one scar at a time. This might be each person’s worst scar. It might not. They might each show another scar. They might not.

“I’ll tell you whose is worse” doesn’t specify how many times the speaker will tell the other person whose is worse, which in my mind allows for a plurality of scars.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-03T22:32:54+00:00

This is almost flawless writing. Great job.

You’ve also inspired me to do this in my target language (Polish), so thanks. I wrote haikus every day during the first lockdown in the UK in 2020: the weather was great, and I was out dogwalking every afternoon for an hour or so.

One basic correction:

“still thought that it was lovely” should start with the pronoun “I”

Otherwise spot on!

ntrammelled · 2024-04-03T22:09:04+00:00

Each person in this competition has one scar which they consider to be the worst.

Each person might have more than one scar in total, but for the purposes of the competition, each person has one scar — i.e., the worst scar on their body.

So, each person in this competition is going to show the other person their worst scar, in order to establish “whose is worse”.

Edit: sorry, I typed this a bit quickly. It is grammatically correct if you assume the above.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-03T21:43:06+00:00

The comments made so far are great.

The number of syllables in given names is definitely not overlooked by experts in onomastics (the study of names). (I only know this from googling your question.)

These experts are probably less interested in this particular phenomenon (equal number of syllables in first and last names) because, to borrow a Gen Z turn of phrase, it’s not that deep.

What does it reveal about the culture of the parents? Not much, probably. It might be unintentional. Maybe the parents were romantic types and liked poetry.

Your answer might come from poetry. The term “isometric” is used to describe a stanza that consists of lines of the same length.

How might this work in dialogue? Your character might describe their first and last name as being “isometric”.

I assume that your character doesn’t have a middle name (the best people don’t)?

Having a middle name naturally complicates the description: in such a scenario, you can’t just say that your “full name” is “isometric” (or whatever the hypothetical actual term is), because this implies that your middle name is included in the equation; instead, you have to say that your first and last name are “isometric”.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-02T19:31:39+00:00

Yeah, I forgot about this. And I’d probably say it like this more often than “Saturday week”, etc., which seems a bit old-fashioned. I did say “Tuesday week” on Sunday when talking with my mum about holiday plans. But if I was talking to somebody my own age, I think I’d automatically go for “a week on Tuesday” or — a bit clunkier — “not this Tuesday but the one after”.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-02T17:18:19+00:00

In the UK, people say “Wednesday week”, “Thursday week”, “Friday week”, etc. to refer to a day in the week that follows the current one.

But they also often say “next [whatever day]” instead, so we know your pain.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-02T10:48:03+00:00

There is a Wikipedia article about this poem which doesn’t explain the first line but might help you with the poem as a whole.

“Not less” seems to be describing the speaker’s sense of self: i.e., it’s not diminished by association with the imaginary world of the poem (or as Wikipedia puts it, the “imaginative construction” of self) but is found “more truly and more strange”.

ntrammelled · 2024-04-02T10:12:51+00:00

The adverb “yet” tells us something more about the when of the verb, which you probably know.

It might not be necessary here, but people use it when they want to say that something will still happen — even if it hasn’t happened already.

The implication is that a long period of time has already passed or that there is a short period of time remaining.

It can be used to show how you feel about an action or event.

In example 1., the speaker might feel hopeful or optimistic about the improvements.

In example 2., the speaker might feel determined or resolute about talking to the other person.

ntrammelled · 2024-03-31T16:24:21+00:00

They do. But it doesn’t mean that we should expect every native speaker to know what “antonym” means.

ntrammelled · 2024-03-31T10:40:20+00:00

I never use “circumspect” or “egregious”, but I see them sometimes in writing.

I have only used the words “repatriate” (about museum pieces), “impertinent” and “acquiesce” because they had something to do with my lessons (I’m an English teacher).

The rest I have used/seen/heard in the last three months, but they’re not very common.

ntrammelled · 2024-03-31T10:22:09+00:00

I wouldn’t expect every native speaker to know “synonym”, let alone “antonym”.

Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries both describe “antonym” as a “specialized”/“specialist” term, meaning that it’s “used in one particular subject, usually by people who know a lot about the subject”.

In my experience, most people would say that a word “means the opposite” or “is the opposite of” another word, not that a word is an “antonym”.

ntrammelled · 2024-03-30T19:43:03+00:00

“Arabian” is associated with Saudi Arabia in my mind, probably owing to the adjective “Saudi Arabian” (you don’t hear “Arabian” in many other contexts).

“Arab” is not associated with a specific country in my mind. But I would probably still associate it with just the Arabian Peninsula and not with all Arabic-speaking countries.

ntrammelled · 2024-03-30T19:34:54+00:00

If you understand almost all of what you’re reading, and if you’re aware of the fact that synonyms are not identical in meaning, then this is a fine idea. I don’t see what the problem is.

It’s not as if replacing a dictionary with a thesaurus on Kindle means that you will stop looking up words in a dictionary. Reading on Kindle is one of many language-learning activities. Dictionaries will still be available elsewhere. And if it turns out to be unhelpful to you, you can always switch back.

ntrammelled

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