resources for students

software and websites of interest. via

wordie

juv3nal at MetaFilter pointed out this cool thing in this thread. I had posted this short list of cool words a little while before.

Thanks juv3nal! (He also has a pretty cool site, here.)

LibriVox...

is a very cool site that features free audiobooks within the public domain. Check out the short story and poetry sections.

Caffeine is pretty cool.

In general, each of the following contains approximately 200 milligrams of caffeine:

• One 200 milligram caffeine pill
• One 12 oz cup of regular Starbucks coffee
• One and one quarter 16 fluid ounce cans of Monster Energy (590 millilitres)
• One and a half pounds of milk chocolate (680 grams)
• Two 8 fluid ounce containers of regular coffee (470 millilitres)
• 1/2 tube of Spazzstick Caffeinated Lip Balm
• Two Foosh Energy Mints
• Two Buzz Bites Chocolate Energy Chews
• Two and a half 10 oz. bottles of Bawls caffeinated drink (740 millilitres)
• Three standard Excedrin pills
• Three 8 fluid ounce cups of Red Bull energy drink (710 millilitres)
• Four 8 fluid ounce cups of Vault energy drink (1.0 litre)
• Five 1 fluid ounce shots of espresso from robusta beans (150 millilitres)
• Five 8 fluid ounce cups of black tea (1.2 litres)
• Five 8 fluid ounce cups of Mountain Dew (1.2 litres)
• Five 12 fluid ounce cans of typical soda pop (1.8 litres) (variable)
• Eight and a half 8 fluid ounce cups of Coca-Cola Classic (2.0 litres)
• Ten 8 fluid ounce cups of green tea (2.4 litres)
• Fifty 8 fluid ounce cups of decaffeinated coffee (12 litres)

Internet Anagram Server

Internet Anagram Server

major dew shoes
jade moss whore
mow sod; ah, jeers
who so jams deer
jaws does homer

Proofreader's Marks

Copy What You Like

Paul Graham: Copy What You Like [via]

The Essentials of Micro-Fiction : by Camille Renshaw

Why A | Ask MetaFilter

Ask MetaFilter: "Why do the letters of the alphabet occur in the particular order that they do?"

This is part of the reason I love MetaFilter

Flash IPA chart

need to know what an unvoiced/voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sounds like? All your phonetic issues solved at the touch of a button or two. From Paul Meier Dialect Services.

Also see
Wikipedia on IPA, and the IPA's Homepage.

Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book

One of the most effective ways to get the most out of a book is to mark it up. There is no standard way to mark up a text, but below are a few ways that students have found effective in marking up a textbook so that one can see the important points quickly, make it more memorable, and make it easy to pick up years later and re-acquaint oneself with the major concepts.

William Safire's Rules for Writers - Amidst a tangled web

Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs have to agree with their subjects. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. A writer must not shift your point of view. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.) Don't overuse exclamation marks!! Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. Always pick on the correct idiom. The adverb always follows the verb. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

-- William Safire

Anglo-Saxon Poetry

The Ruin

The Age of the Essay

I've been approaching them all wrong. Mostly due to time constraints, I've viewed essays as arguments. The process involved is much shorter; consider the work, and then come up with a position (hopefully one that hasn't been addressed before) and defend it.

The other big difference between a real essay and the things they make you write in school is that a real essay doesn't take a position and then defend it. That principle, like the idea that we ought to be writing about literature, turns out to be another intellectual hangover of long forgotten origins.

This makes much more sense, is much more interesting, and I think makes for a much better paper overall... but one can't do it quickly. There's got to be more rumination, more rolling around of ideas to explore- it's more playful and almost counterintuitive. Start somewhere, then wander around and connect some dots.

You just can't do it in a day, or maybe even a few days. It's no good for an undergrad, in terms of academic work, but I can immediately see the value in doing this regularly.

Perhaps we'll see some essays here, in the future.

dotlit

creative writing online mag.

Prosody Guide

Including rhyme schemes and open and closed forms. Good stuff.

never defend your writing against criticism...

instead, try to explain what it was you were trying to accomplish.
(via)

The Thirty-Six Dramatic Variations

There are probably more, but this is a good start.

metrical insanity

When looking for information on feet
I found these pages filled with goodness sweet
As with all you see on teh intarnets
Take what you can and try to leave the rest.

Wordcount: Tracking the way we use words