“Languages and dialects…do not exist inside of a vacuum,” note linguists Hans Heinrich Hoch and Brian Joseph (Hoch and Joseph, 2009). Throughout all human history, languages have influenced and impacted one another in a series of gentle encounters and violent collisions, leading to some truly complex and truly bizarre linguistic phenomena. Some of these phenomena…
Whether you’re a student who needs to learn Shakespeare for their English class or a veteran reader, chances are you’ve come across several words in Shakespeare’s collected works that confused or frustrated you. Some of them may seem made up or some may be words we are already familiar with that seem to have a…
Image by prettysleepy1 from Pixabay On behalf of the Writing Center, Happy Earth Week! Caring for the Earth is not a once a year event; it is something we should be doing all year-round. Whether you are interested in non-fiction, fiction, or poetry, here are a few book recommendations for celebrating our shared home. Special…
Idioms are phrases that we use everyday and, for most native English speakers, we know exactly what they mean without having to think about it... but when you do stop to think about it, some of these phrases are pretty strange. Have you ever wondered, for example, where phrases like \"raining cat\'s and dogs\" and…
Have you ever wondered, for example, where phrases like \"raining cat\'s and dogs\" and \"going off half-cock\" came from? Idioms are phrases that we use everyday and, for most native English speakers, we know exactly what they mean without having to think about it... but when you do stop to think about it, some of…
Do you have a little more time on your hands, now that classes are online and summer is just around the corner? If you are looking for some book recommendations, here are some from the Writing Center tutors! [caption id=\"attachment_4746\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\"] Image by StockSnap from Pixabay[/caption] If you still haven\'t read some of these…