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Toni Morrison and Jane Austen are among the most-read female writers on college campuses, a new TIME analysis found.

A flake of limestone (ostracon) inscribed with an ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC turns out to be the world's oldest known abecedary. The words have been arranged according to their initial sounds, and the order followed here is one that is still known today. This discovery by Ben Haring (Leiden University) with funding from Free Competition Humanities has been published in the October issue of the 'Journal of Near Eastern Studies'. The order is not the ABC of modern western alphabets, but Halaham (HLHM), the order known from the Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Arabian and Classical Ethiopian...

 Patrick Buchanan is usually a great writer. He must have had Scrooge's indigestion when he was writing today about the consequences to the GOP of impotently voting against Obama's Iran Deal…he thinks their veto response will demonstrate whether or not the Repubs can govern. "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" Charles Dickens, "Christmas Carol"  Buchanan goes off on a tangent about Nixon in China after the ChiComs had killed so many Yanks in...

Nostalgia is overrated, a Harvard psychologist says. “The bad-dominates-good phenomenon is multiplied by a second source of bias, sometimes called the illusion of the good old days,” Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker said at a forum sponsored by the Cato Institute last November. “People always pine for a golden age.” “They’re nostalgic about an era in which life was simpler and more predictable.” And Dr. Pinker has some cold water to throw at them, metaphorically speaking, of course. “When I told people that I was writing a book on why writing is so bad and how we might improve it,...

The Deseret News National Edition fills a void in the American media landscape through rigorous journalism for family- and faith-oriented audiences. Representing more than half of all U.S. news readers, this segment is consistently underserved by newsrooms that either overlook or do not report on readers' core values.

Discus­sions of English Language pet peeves pro­vide an enter­tain­ing forum for the expres­sion of ire. In fact, if a “pet” is some­thing we cher­ish, and a “peeve” is some­thing that annoys us, “pet peeves” are what we love to hate. Here’s a col­lec­tion of com­mon English solecisms—guaranteed not to lit­er­ally blow your mind:

30 Writers Other Writers Loved To Hate

Does handwriting matter? Not very much, according to many educators. The Common Core standards, which have been adopted in most states, call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard. But psychologists and neuroscientists say it is far too soon to declare handwriting a relic of the past. New evidence suggests that the links between handwriting and broader educational development run deep. Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate...

When kids put pen to paper, chances are they are printing. But Toronto’s Catholic board, hand-wringing over the handwriting skills of its students, is now looking to make sure all of them learn cursive. Parents have told her their children can’t sign their name, “or they have been handed a handwritten note and can’t read it,” said Trustee Ann Andrachuk. She proposed a recent motion—unanimously approved—asking board staff how to reintroduce cursive in all schools, and how early children should start learning it. […] Across Canada and the United States, concerns have been raised that cursive is becoming a lost...

Why Can’t College Students Write Anymore? Is it just me, or are student competencies like basic writing skills in serious peril today? Granted, I am about a decade in to my teaching career, but even within this fairly short span, I have noticed a startling decline in the quality of written work turned in by my students, regardless of which institution (community college, private, four year school) the papers are coming from. It’s not just that students aren’t demonstrating critical thinking skills in their writing, basic competencies like proper syntax, spelling, and even proper structure like paragraph indentation and how...

UNDEFINED NAN, NAN, NAN:NAN AM|Renowned author and poet Maya Angelou recalls the struggles Nelson Mandela faced during his life and explains why Mandela is one of the most admired men of his time.

<p>Current and former students in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies expressed their support for professor emeritus Val Rust following a demonstration in one of his graduate classes last Thursday.</p> <p>Student demonstrators alleged that there is a “toxic” racial climate in the graduate school, including in Rust’s classroom. Organizers told the Daily Bruin last week that they decided to host the demonstration after a recent report examining racial discrimination among the university’s faculty stated that UCLA’s policies and procedures do not sufficiently address racially motivated instances of discrimination.</p>

It certainly makes for a good story: a scrappy kid from Baltimore flunks out of an English class at what is now Loyola University Maryland only to become an international bestselling author. The problem is that the oft-told tale concerning Tom Clancy is just as fictitious as Jack Ryan. “It was an urban legend that just wouldn’t die,” said Carol Abromaitis, the English professor accused of giving Clancy an F in her class. For decades, Abromaitis urged English majors to let others know the truth. Her efforts bore little fruit. “One major said to me, ‘Of course not. It makes...

WASHINGTON — Almost a third of this year’s high school graduates who took the ACT tests are not prepared for college-level writing, biology, algebra or social science classes, according to data the testing company released Wednesday. The company’s annual report also found a gap between students’ interests now and projected job opportunities when they graduate, adding to the dire outlook for the class of 2013. “The readiness of students leaves a lot to be desired,” said Jon Erickson, president of the Iowa-based company’s education division. The ACT reported that 31 percent of all high school graduates tested were not ready...

WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

A man whose wit was matched only by the looseness of his tongue, the combative John Adams quickly acquired a hefty reputation for articulate jabs and razor-sharp put-downs... 1. On Benjamin Franklin “His whole life has been one continued insult to good manners and to decency.”2. On Alexander Hamilton “That bastard brat of a Scottish peddler! His ambition, his restlessness and all his grandiose schemes come, I'm convinced, from a superabundance of secretions, which he couldn't find enough whores to absorb!”(Hamilton certainly wasn't above returning the fire.)3. On Thomas Paine's Common Sense “What a poor, ignorant, malicious, crapulous mass.”(For more...

A single sentence, uttered in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, has catapulted an issue into the national spotlight. When asked if she could read a letter in court, witness Rachel Jeantel, her head bowed, murmured with embarrassment, "I don't read cursive," according to court testimony. Is it any surprise that cursive -- the looped, curvaceous style of handwriting that's been a mainstay of education for generations -- is all but dead? [15 Weird Things We Do Everyday, and Why] "Cursive should be allowed to die. In fact, it's already dying, despite having been...

Last June, a pulp-fiction thriller was published in Paris under the title “Le Chemin de Damas.” Its lurid green-and-black cover featured a busty woman clutching a pistol, and its plot included the requisite car chases, explosions and sexual conquests. Unlike most paperbacks, though, this one attracted the attention of intelligence officers and diplomats on three continents. Set in the midst of Syria’s civil war, the book offered vivid character sketches of that country’s embattled ruler, Bashar al-Assad, and his brother Maher, along with several little-known lieutenants and allies. It detailed a botched coup attempt secretly supported by the American and...

This week the Enquiring Hitchhiker has several new interviews. The first of these is with  Dr. Gregory Benford. Dr. Benford is one of the leading authors of hard science fiction working today. His novel In the Ocean of Night was one of my first introductions to the idea of artificial intelligence.

... what then makes for good entertainment and what qualities does that entertainment have? What causes me to like something when I watch it? What excites me enough to drop money on something and go watch it? ...