Blundergraduates |
by David Wilkes
THE standards of spelling and grammar among university students
are so appalling that many cannot write proper sentences or understand simple
words, researchers have found. They warn there is a 'degree of crisis' in
undergraduates' poor grasp of the basics of written English caused by their
rising dependence on technology; such as computer spellchecks.
When expressing themselves, they often resorted to informal,
vague word combinations such as 'kind of' or 'sort of'. Students regularly
wrote incomplete or rambling, poorly connected sentences while their descriptive
powers often resulted in them mixing metaphors 'with gusto'. |
Daily Mail Mar 8 2003
Boy's memory is just spellbinding
A BOY of nine amazed his teacher when she challenged him to learn a 310-letter word - and he spelt it out to her in class just two weeks later. Aaron Zweig even paused halfway through to tease the class before carrying on, said teacher Ruth Kalata. 'It was really a joke to challenge him but he thrives on challenges,' said Miss Kalata, of Randolph, New Jersey. The word is:
Ornicopytheobibliopsychocrystarroscioaerogenethliometeoroaustrohieroa otliropoichthyopyrosiderochpnomy oalectryoophiobotanopegohydrorhabdocrithoaleuroalphitohalomolybdoclerobeloaxinocoscinodactyliogeolitho npessopsephrocatoptrotephraoneirochoonychodactyloarithstichooxogeloscogastrogyrocerobletonooenoscapulinaniac.
It was apparently used by medieval scribes to
refer to someone who practises divination or forecasting by interpretation.
[Metro Oct18,2004]
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