Word Nerds Unite


Interactive
March 10, 2008, 9:54 pm
Filed under: Literature, Ramblings, Vocabulary

As I pondered how to best use this space today, I found myself continuously distracted. Maybe it’s this neverending winter; maybe it’s the hour I lost Saturday night. In any event, all this unfocused energy led me (repeatedly) to two of my favorite five-minute pastimes, which — assuming you are as stir crazy as I am these days — I think all word nerds will enjoy.

  • First is the Free Rice website. Yeah, they give out free rice through the UN World Food Program, and that really warms my heart. But the payoff for you (beyond feeling like a small part of the solution) is that the more you play their insanely addictive vocabulary game, the more rice they give away. The most brilliant catch is that you have to answer correctly for them to add 20 grains to the total donation.
  • The second distraction requires more of a long-term commitment. At the Daily Lit website, you can sign up to receive books — real literature even — in your e-mail inbox in tiny daily installments. It works out to about a page or two a day. Most of the good (i.e., classic) books are free, and they have everything from Bleak House and Paradise Lost to King Lear and Beyond Good and Evil. Plus, it looks like you are just reading your e-mail when your boss walks by, when in fact you are slowly devouring War and Peace.

    • Special thanks to Francine for posting our first comment. I would love it if this blog were to become a true forum — an archived conversation among like-minded grammarians. I personally feel that without comments I may as well be writing into an empty well. So don’t hesitate to respond, either by leaving a comment or e-mailing me directly. I would love to read your grammar horror stories, check out your favorite links, and share your news from the ranks of working editors and writers.


    3 Comments so far
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    I’m new to the EditorialCourse.com site and thought I’d check out a few things, since I found this forum, I thought maybe I’d try for a little fun in here. For some strange reason, stumbling upon this blog made me think of a post that was put up in another community. I hope no one minds if I post it here, if so, it can be deleted. Here it goes:

    fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

    i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be
    in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs for wrad it.

    Comment by Brooke March 11, 2008 @ 8:38 pm

    WOW! i am so excited to be here for this spring resurrection! I see it has been awhile ;) I just noticed the link on the side of the index and answered the call to unite, so what’s that tell you? Proud word nerd…I have been taking the Proofreading course, am almost done and very excited to enter this wonderful world of words…plus I am on wordpress too and would love to add you to my blogroll. S’alright? Very happy to see Free Rice promoted too!

    Comment by janflora March 16, 2008 @ 9:45 am

    I’d love it if you’d add Word Nerds Unite to your blogroll and would be happy to reciprocate.

    Comment by editorialcourses March 17, 2008 @ 11:57 am

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