“Rather” is rather annoying because it looks like it should be a verb:
“I would rather eat snake soup,” she said after he asked her out.
“Rather” is an adverb. It is not a verbal synonym for “to prefer,” which means that this sentence is wrong and torture to the eye or ear:
“I rather run away than fight you.”
“I would rather run away than fight you.”
In lieu of a lengthy explanation, use this rule of thumb:
When qualifying verbs, only use “rather” with “would.”
“Express your most powerful thought in the shortest sentence” is pretty solid advice.
The above quotation is taken from:
Check it out. You will learn something. Or you might find the advice glib. But do consider it.
The advantage of short sentences for your main idea: no one will lose your thesis is a forest of other ideas.
The disadvantages: it can sound like brow-beating, a harangue or politicking. In other words, expressing complicated ideas in short, short sentences is often over-simplifying. Nobody can express nuance in a five-word sentence. As I hope to have shown in the “Check it out” series of sentences, a series of short sentences is death to rhythm.
On a side-note: keep your e-mails brief. If you want to ask me something, don’t hide the request within 150 words of fluff. Just ask. Be direct but not accusatory (stay tuned for more on this).
Also, check out last year’s series of language notes at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LNW.pdf
101 English Tips: A Quick Guide to Avoiding “Slovenglish” is available at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/101%20Tips%20-%20BLAKE.pdf
and (in a groovy page-turning form) at:
NOTE THAT 70% OF STUDENT MISTAKES ARE EXPLICITLY COVERED IN THESE GUIDES.
Have you ever thought of writing a review for The Messenger? The list of books for review has just been considerably added to, and is available, as always, on the ESSE website: http://www.essenglish.org/books-for-review.html
Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia, The Department of British and American Studies, Faculty of Arts
and SKASE (The Slovak Association for the Study of English)
look forward to welcoming you to the
12th ESSE CONFERENCE
in
KOŠICE, SLOVAKIA
Friday 29 August – Tuesday 2 September, 2014
Link: http://kaa.ff.upjs.sk/en/event/4/12th-e-s-s-e-c-o-n-f-e-r-e-n-c-e
Spoštovani člani Slovenskega društva za angleške študije,
Vljudno vas vabim, da se udeležite redne letne skupščine SDAŠ, ki bo v petek 27. 9. 2013 ob 15.00 v sobi 302 na Filozofski fakulteti, Aškerčeva 2, Ljubljana.
Dnevni red:
– Board meeting v Cluju
– Konferenca v Košicah 2014
5. Mandati predsednika, namestnika, tajnika in blagajnika SDAŠ
6. Imenovanje predstavnika SDAŠ v ESSE Board
7. Načrt dela za leto 2014
– Konferenca Words and Music II, 11 – 12 April, 2014
– ELOPE
– Facebook profil in blog
8. Razno.
Prosim, da se skupščine zanesljivo udeležite.
Smiljana Komar
Predsednica SDAŠ
Ljubljana, 19. 9. 2013
The rules for the ESSE Book Awards for 2014 (for books published in 2012 and 2013) have been issued: see the ESSE website for more information. The prizes will be awarded at the ESSE Conference in Kosice. Click here for more.
In December, 2011, the first Words and Music conference was held in Maribor, Slovenia. Words and Music II will take place at the sunny Slovenian seaside. This conference will explore the relationship between words and music, and the place of that relationship in modern culture.
Conference Website: http://events.ff.uni-mb.si/wordsandmusic/
Conference FB page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordsandmusicconference/
A piece of news for anyone thinking about “The Thinking Approach to language teaching and learning – TA”:
For the past 15 years the TA team has been developing an approach to language teaching and learning that allows for an integrated development of language and thinking skills (The Thinking Approach to language teaching and learning – TA). Nowadays the TA is being used in many European countries and has trained over 500 teachers across Europe. You can find more details about the TA here:
http://www.thinking-approach.org/ (description of the approach and materials for teachers of English)
http://www.ta-teachers.eu/ (a community of teachers using the approach)
http://www.ta-parents.eu/ (materials for family learning based on the approach)
A residential week long TA course for language teachers will take place in Riga in March 2013. This course is included in the official catalogue of the European Commission, therefore all costs associated with the course can be covered by an EU grant (including travel and accommodation). Detailed information about the course, including feedback from the previous course participants, can be found here:
http://www.ta-group.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86%3Acourse-1&catid=47%3Aresidential-courses&Itemid=81
This is a link to the course page in the EU catalogue where you can also see the preliminary course programme:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/index.cfm?fuseaction=DisplayCourse&cid=37808
The deadline for the EU grant application is 17 September. The applications are to be sent to the National Agency of the applicant’s country. The list of the Agencies can be found here:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/national_en.htm
