Saturday, March 21, 2020

Definition and Examples of Pseudowords

Definition and Examples of Pseudowords A pseudoword is a fake word- that is, a string of letters that resembles a real word (in terms of its orthographic and phonological structure) but doesnt actually exist in the language. Also known as  jibberwacky or a wug word.   Some examples of monosyllabic pseudowords in English are heth, lan, nep, rop, sark, shep, spet,  stip, toin, and  vun. In the study of language acquisition and language disorders, experiments involving the repetition of pseudowords have been used to predict literacy achievement later in life. See Examples and Observations below. Also, see: Ghost WordLiteracyMountweazelNeologismNonce WordNonsense WordStunt Word Examples and Observations Pseudowords are letter strings which have no meaning, but which are pronounceable because they conform to the orthography of the languages include pseudowords such as shum, laip, and cigbet. Pseudowords can be read by application of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules even though the words are not real and have not been encountered in print or in spoken language. Although it has been argued that pseudowords may be read by analogy to words, some awareness of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules and segmentation skills are necessary to read a pseudoword correctly. For example, for a correct reading of the pseudoword dake, it must be segmented into an initial letter d and a rime or word body ake; the latter could be read by analogy to cake, but the sound of d and the segmentation itself are, in fact, phonological processing skills.(Linda S. Siegel, Phonological Processing Deficits and Reading Disabilities. Word Recognition in Beginning Literacy, ed. by Jamie L. Metsala and Linnea C. Ehri. La wrence Erlbaum, 1998) Pseudowords and Brain ActivityIn some studies no differences in brain activation for real words and pseudowords are observed (Bookheimer et al. 1995), indicating that the tasks activate brain regions for orthographic and phonological but not semantic coding. . . . Presenting the same pseudoword repeatedly so that it is no longer an unfamiliar word reduces activity in right lingual gyrus, suggesting that that structure plays a role in learning to recognize familiar words (Frith et al. 1995).(Virginia Wise Berninger and Todd L. Richards, Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists. Elsevier Science, 2002) Alternate Spellings: pseudo word, pseudo-word

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

The Benefits of Writing Concisely - Proofread My Paper

The Benefits of Writing Concisely - Proofread My Paper The Benefits of Writing Concisely Despite popular belief, wordiness – using more words than necessary to make a point – doesn’t make a paper sound more intellectual. Rather, it clouds your ideas and detracts from the impact of your writing. Writing concisely, on the other hand, will improve your work by: Keeping your point focused Ensuring your arguments flow clearly Helping you stay within the word allowance of your assignments But how do you make sure your written work is always concise? Focus on Your Thesis Somewhere at the beginning of your paper, you should have a clear statement of your thesis. This will guide the rest of your paper, since every point you make should add to your argument. If something in your work is not relevant to your thesis, consider whether it needs to be there. Faster! Harder! Stronger! (aka Editing Ruthlessly) The first draft is only the starting point in writing a good academic paper. Once you’ve got everything down, re-read it carefully, looking for errors and considering potential improvements. In terms of readability, this will typically include eliminating unnecessary words, tightening sentence structures and making sure that each paragraph flows smoothly to the next. Avoid Redundancy and Repetition Beware of redundancy and repetition. Redundancy is when we use a phrase that includes additional terms for no reason: in â€Å"the car was green in color,† for instance, â€Å"in color† is redundant because we know that â€Å"green† usually refers to a color. Repetition, meanwhile, is the unnecessary inclusion of the same point twice. If you’ve already introduced a concept in your work, for example, there’s no need to reintroduce it later on. Cutting repetition can make your writing much more succinct. Words, Not Phrases Try not to use several words when one will do. For instance, the sentence: It was an experience that I found very interesting for many reasons and from which I learned a lot. Could be rewritten more concisely as: It was a fascinating and educational experience. Simply put, â€Å"fascinating† and â€Å"educational† are an economical way of saying â€Å"I found interesting for many reasons† and â€Å"from which I learned a lot† respectively. As such, the rewritten sentence is easier to read.