Our group received the challenge of adapting the first scene of Hamlet with a horror movie angle. We initially went with a stage production (later filmed by Emma and I) and started flinging ideas at the wall to see what stuck. The play began to take shape: Our setting would be a dorm room, with […]
My initial interpretation of the Shakespeare adaptation project failed to include possible difficulties. With the guidelines of the predetermined adaptation (horror film for my group), and a maximum time length of three minutes I perceived the project to come easily. It did not. Upon discussions my group decided to modernize the Shakespearean language in order […]
The sinking of the RMS Titanic has remained fascinating despite the fact it sank over a hundred years ago in 1912, inspiring films, books, documentaries, a traveling museum, a mini-series, and even a kid’s slide (insensitive?). As a “Titanic buff,” one of my biggest disappointments was not being able to attend a reenactment of the […]
***NOTE: Upon multiple attempts to post a screenshot of the referenced text and annotations, I was repeatedly denied the ability to do so, only having been told that the system was unable to process my request at this time. To reference the source, please visit https://archive.org/stream/ost-english-wasteland00elio/wasteland00elio#page/n11/mode/2up *** As I rummaged through the vast expanses of […]
(Photograph taken from Chas. I. Martin’s “A History of Door County, Wisconsin, Together with Biographies of Nearly Seven Hundred Families and Mention of 4,000 Peoples”. Courtesy of www.archives.org.) After searching around the website, archives.org, I decided searching for Door County would be neat. I then went to the oldest publication the site had, and came […]
We all know about Oscar Wilde. Author of his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, many plays including his last famous one, The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as hundreds of poems, Wilde is a name known by many. However, his writing isn’t the only thing that people think about when they hear […]
Growing up, I was a reader. I spent most of my time reading books and fairytales, but I always wished that there were a genre of children’s books that would be unique. For some reason I’ve always thought that children’s books were cool, but not the type you’d expect. I was fond of R.L. Stein’s […]
Little did I ever consider the origins of the phrase “Goody Two-Shoes.” An 1888 edition of a children’s book titled Goody Two-Shoes can be found on the internet archive which includes pictures to embellish the tale. My first question upon this discovery was whether Goody Two-Shoes, the common phrase, originated before or after the publication […]
So everyone has heard of Woodstock, right? It was that giant hippie festival where people sat around, did drugs and chilled out for a couple days. That’s what I thought until I stumbled upon an archive describing the history of Woodstock, taking place in New England. This idea was much different than drugged up hippies […]
Near and dear to my heart, Jane Austen has been my favorite literary author for an innumerable number of years. My favorite book by her? Pride and Prejudice of course. While perusing the various literary works associated with Jane Austen in the Internet Archive, desperately scanning them for something to share, I realized that her […]
Cursing, swearing, profanity, whatever you call it. ITS FUCKING GREAT. Since the beginning of time it’s been considered inappropriate, offensive and even rude to use this type of language. I always viewed profanity as just adding a few extra fun words to your sentence. When I was growing up I didn’t always quite understand the concept […]
Oh. My gosh. “I could care less about that math homework,” she tells me with a groan in her voice, a roll of her eyes, and a clear misery thanks to the homework in question. “I could care less about what the circumference of Jupiter’s third moon is,” he says with slurred words before leaning […]
There is no better feeling than logging onto your preferred social media website and seeing someone’s tweet or post: “Three strikes and your out!” (Insert sarcasm here) The feeling I get inside when I see the improper use of “you’re” or “your” is one that I might have when something horribly embarrassing happens. Imagine your […]
Learning a language is a challenging task at any any age and you always seem to be learning new words as you grow. A particular set of words one learns later in life (usually) are swear words. Ah yes, those wonderful gems that evoke such memorable reactions from our parents the first time we use […]
When I was in middle school, one of my teachers would go on an hour-long tangent whenever someone got “hanged” and “hung” mixed up. I don’t remember what exactly these long-winded lectures usually entailed, just that I thought she was kind of crazy and nitpicky. However, over the years, I have found myself increasingly less […]
My brother was always a very smart person. Growing up, he could always come up with the best arguments. He could sometimes even win an argument against my dad, which I thought was almost impossible. Anyway, I attributed his brightness as the reason why he was and still is such a grammar freak. The first […]
Humans of the world: your existence on social media is slowly diminishing what little faith I have left for humanity. I don’t know if these high schoolers think that it is cute, funny, ironic, or some other form of culturally pleasing behavior to forget everything they learned in their second grade language arts classes, but […]
We all have those little communication quirks that we have no control over. You know, the ones people correct you on. The ones you sometimes feel self-conscious about, but cannot control (without effort or maybe speech therapy). And, despite how self-conscious we might be, I cannot help my quirks, just as you cannot help yours. If […]
The amount of pet peeves that I have with the way people talk is never ending. While I know that the way I talk and my word choice isn’t always the best, it doesn’t mean that I do not have pet peeves with the way people talk and write. From using incorrect punctuation to misusing […]
This is my first time ever reading blogs, along with writing one. Please bear with me, I’m sure I’m going to muck it up. When it comes to the English language I’m able to tune a lot of mistakes out. Or maybe I’m the one guilty of slaughtering the English language. It could have something […]
“I ain’t got nothing” or “I don’t know nothing”–grrrr! My greatest pet peeve in the English language sits comfortably alongside the semicolon; and that is the use and abuse of double negatives by many people including, unfortunately for me, a few within my family sphere. This is as much of a pet peeve of mine […]
Let’s take a trip back to your sixth grade English class, remember that? When you first learned about the difference between there, they’re and their. It was simple and you spent about three days on it right? Well, our teacher should’ve spent more time on this topic because people still don’t seem to understand […]
Theoretically we have all been taught the proper format of the English language starting very early in life. However, some seem to think they are exempt from following proper grammatical structure simply because they enjoy ruining my day. I am under the impression that the difference between they’re and their should be universally known, but […]
Oh, the Oxford comma…it is simple, seemingly insignificant, and yet it holds the singular power of either making or breaking your sentence. Think about it: it’s one miserable little keystroke which if used properly can avoid confusion, and if neglected can encourage grammatical anarchy. Consider, for a moment, the following word series: “We invited the […]
“There car is parked illegally over they’re, and their towing it.” “Their car is parked illegally over there, and they’re towing it.” This should not be difficult. The difference between “there,” “they’re,” and “their,” was something we (theoretically) learned in fourth grade. “I left my keys over their.” Over their what? What, of theirs, did […]
Have you ever had to put down a book because the grammar or style of it was so irritating? I hate it when that happens because a small part of me knows that it could have been so much better. I’ve read a lot of bad writing, from fanfictions that are longer that their source […]
The English language has many concerns with many people. It can be very difficult for someone to understand if they are not accustomed to its ways. As there are many things that drive me crazy within the language, one of the most annoying things to me is a homonym. Homonyms are words that are […]
The English language has many tricky words, phrases, and rules that we encounter on a daily basis. I can often look passed people’s grammatical errors, but there are a few that make me cringe. For one, I can’t stand when people confuse your and you’re. “Your being very rude.” This sentence doesn’t make sense grammatically. […]
I am many things. I am a woman. I am young. I am creative. I am fairly intelligent. I am an avid reader. I am a coffee enthusiast. I am a bit of a hippie. I am blonde and even have blue eyes. Do you know what I am not? A Nazi. We, as a […]
Some people struggle with the basics of using the correct form of a word such as there, their, and they’re or even were, where or wear. I have even seen people use the entirely wrong word, replacing know with no or visa versa. I can understand the difficulty of determining the correct form of a […]
“Nobody doesn’t walk their dog.” “I’m never not tired.” “She can’t go nowhere.” “They did not get none of the money.” Who enjoys listening to sentences like these? Double negatives are not the type of grammar errors that tend to appear in published material; they are more of a way to use the English language […]
I’m scrolling through my Twitter newsfeed in bed one morning- I go past a series of Donald Trump memes, an occasional SoundCloud link, and the customary Wiz Khalifa wake & bake selfie. I stop at a tweet from a girl I graduated with. It reads: “It literally blows my mind.” Literally. It literally blew her […]
To be perfectly honest, I have quite a few pet peeves about the way some people talk. I try not to let things bother me because there’s really nothing I can do about it. So most of the time it doesn’t bother me when I hear someone say, “I’ve done very good,” because I’ll […]
I find it ironic how many people don’t seem to know what irony is. My pet peeve is when people claim irony for something that is simply out of the ordinary or tragic. I don’t get as upset about the concept’s misuse as other people I know, but it’s still annoying. Let’s say you die […]
Whether in person or online I am always judging you by your use of the English language. I am not proud of this, but I have come to terms with this fact. What I have not come to terms with is how relatively intelligent people can butcher their native tongue so badly. I’m not talking […]
Conversation killers they are everywhere you will never know when one will find its way into your conversation. Most time these dastardly things show up in text messages and social media. “Cool” and “k” or “kk” or any other variations are conversation killers peer and simple. If I tell someone something and it demands […]
I may be a Hermione Granger in this situation but I can’t help it. Sometimes it doesn’t bother me. Sometimes I can just let it slide because I know correcting it will be useless. Other times something has to be done. You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. Well, I’ll tell you. I’m talking about […]
Chips. Popcorn. French fries. Pretzels. I don’t want to be all twisted up on this flavor, but people can get salty about different topics, like that word. The first time I heard the word “salty” used in a sentence not describing the flavor of food is about two months ago when my friend was telling […]
Oh, man. I never wrote a blog post before, and although I’ve probably read hundreds, the entire format now escapes me. So in that case I’ll treat this as an awkward postcard to maybe an obscure aunt retired in Bora Bora or perhaps a letter to a weird cousin away at band camp. In that case, salutations […]