Writing

Within each section, entries are alphabetized, and searching for an answer is a fairly simple process. Tricky words--those that can be hyphenated (know-how) or not (jukebox), homonyms, nonstandard spellings (mo-ped)--are given their own short entries. Larger categories, such as religions, military titles, the Internet, and datelines, have multiple pages devoted to their explanations, but detail and clarity are brought nicely together in each listing. Many entries concern brand names and trademarks--never again will you question whetherpingpong or Ping-Pong should be used in the flier for your table-tennis tournament.

While a few sections of this book--the ones concerning media law, photo captions, filing the wire, and proofreading marks--will most likely be used by professional and student journalists and editors, the majority of this book is an excellent tool for anyone who ever has to write for the public. Whether it's a newsletter for your badminton league, a training manual for your employees, or a press release detailing your company's quarterly earnings, this stylebook will help you turn out well-written copy that gains the approval of every English teacher you've ever had. --Jill Lightner

Author: Norm Goldstein
Paperback:  432 pages
Company: Basic Books  (2007-07-28)
ISBN: 046500489X
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The songs focus on the relationship between letter symbols (the alphabet) and sounds of the English language (phonemes). The songs also encourage children to search for relationships, order and predictability as they work with numbers.

When the lyrics pose questions or problems, answers often come from children on the recording. There is always a musical interlude or a short pause before the answer is given. This gives the child listening a chance to answer first, then check the answer immediately following.

The 12 songs are presented first with vocal versions and then with instrumental renditions. Once children have learned a song, they can sing along without hearing the words or create their own lyrics and activities. The instrumentals have a soft piano melody line to act as a guide without overpowering the children's voices.

Included with each CD is a teaching guide that describes ways to actively involve children with each song. (Feel free to vary and adapt the ideas suggested in this guide, and to create new ways of using the songs to fit your school or home situation.) The ultimate goal is always the same: to foster enthusiasm and enjoyment of learning through music and movement.

Atists:  Hap Palmer
Audio CD: 
Company: Hap-Pal Music  (2002-02-26)
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Composed in recorded form over a period of five years, Automatic Writing is the result of Robert Ashley's fascination with involuntary speech. He has recorded and analyzed the repeated lines of his own mantra and extracted four musical characters. The result is quiet, mysterious, melancholy and an early form of ambient music.

Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon, and She Was a Visitor are excerpts from an opera entitled That Morning Thing that was composed in 1966-67.

Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon is Ashley's attempt to demonstrate the dichotomy between the rational--whatever can be explained in words--and its opposite--which is not irrational or a-rational, but which cannot be explained in words. A woman describes a sexual encounter in matter-of-fact detail. The rhythm of the woman's voice, the processed back-up chorus, the recurring bell tone, and the pervading tape hiss, are at once unsettling and soothing.

She Was a Visitor is another form of description, it is intended to be understood as a form of rumor. The chorus is divided into groups, each headed by a leader. A lone speaker repeats the title sentence throughout the entire performance. The separate phonemes of this sentence are picked up freely by the group leaders and are relayed to the group members, who sustain them softly and for the duration of one natural breath. The time lag between the group leaders' phoneme choices and those phonemes being picked up by members of the group produces a staggered, chant-like effect, with the sounds moving outward from the nearest performer to the farthest.

Booklet notes by Robert Ashley.

Audio CD: 
Company: Lovely Music  (1996-06-15)
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