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From: "Sally Pavia" <>
Subject: [GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES] AskOxford.com is a FREE online resourceproduced by the Oxford University Press
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:10:40 -0700
Research Recommendations: AskOxford.com
by Michael J. Leclerc
AskOxford.com is a free online resource produced by the Oxford University
Press (OUP). The publishing house of Oxford University in England, OUP is
the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary among other things. This site
provides tremendous assistance with English words and language, including
spelling, grammar, and writing. The AskOxford home page shows you the word
of the day, quote of the week, quotes and words from OUP publications, and
featured questions from the Ask the Experts section.
The section on Global English points out that English is spoken as a first
language by more than 300 million people worldwide, while millions more
speak it as a second language. One in five of the worlds population is a
competent speaker of the language. There are six main regional standards of
English: British, U.S. and Canadian, Australian and New Zealand, South
African, Indian, and West Indian. OUP includes many regionalisms in their
publications.
The Ask the Experts section has a database built from questions sent to the
OUPs Oxford Word and Language Service team. For example, you can find their
answer to questions such as:
1. What is the longest word in the English language? [it isnt what you
think it is]
2. Are there any words that rhyme with orange?
3. Are there any English words containing the same letter three times in a
row?
[besides brrr and shhh?]
4. What comes after primary, secondary, and tertiary? [and do we as
genealogists really want to trust vigenary sources?]
5. Is there a word for nephews and nieces collectively?
Also in the Ask the Experts section, you can find a Jargon Buster tool that
gives clear and concise definitions for grammar and literary terms. You can
also find collective terms for animals. This might come in handy for
describing the time your seafaring ancestor ran into a gam of whales or a
huddle of walruses.
The World of Words section gives you abstracts from various OUP resources,
including the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics and the Modern Welsh
Dictionary. In A Word A Year, Susie Dent selects a single word to represent
each of the last hundred years. Vox pop was the word of the year in which I
was born. You can find a list of the one hundred most common words in
English: number one is the and number 100 is us. There is also a list of the
Top 100 Quotes from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, with entries from
Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. to Barbara Cartland in 1993.
Better Writing contains many tools useful for everything from emails to
compiled family histories. Spelling and Grammar Tips will help you to avoid
common errors, such as whether you should use which (or who) and that in a
sentence, when to use less or fewer, words that often get confused (such as
adopted and adoptive or continuous and continual), and common spelling
errors. Plain English gives you tips for user-friendly writing, such as
making average sentence length 15 to 20 words, avoiding sexist usage, and
using only as many words as you need. For those of you confused by emoticons
and modern abbreviation, you can discover what your grandchildren mean when
they write BBL, KWIM, RUOK, and YMMV. You can also find out what :-* :-V and
:-/ mean.
www.AskOxford.com should be bookmarked in your browser if you do any kind of
writing.
You will find it an invaluable resource as you research your family history
and communicate
with others about your findings. BCNU!
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