How Texts Work:explores the ways in which we categorize textsreveals the limitations of some of the polarisations we use to categorize textsanalyzes a wide variety of texts from a range of genres and periods, from Ibsen's A Doll's House to an 18-30s brochure, Internet chatrooms and George Bush's September 11 speechoffers a step-by-step guide to approaching texts and structuring a responsecan be used as both a course st...

The Intertext series has been specifically designed to meet the needs of contemporary English Language Studies. Working with Texts: A Core Introduction to Language Analysis (second edition 2001) is the foundation text, which is complemented by a range of 'satellite titles. These provide students with hands-on practical experience of textual analysis through special topics, and can be used individually or in conjunction with Working with Texts.Language ...

For Who the Bell Tolls is a book that explains the grammar that people really need to know, such as the fact that an apostrophe is the difference between a company that knows its s*** and a company that knows it's s***, or the importance of capital letters to avoid ambiguity in such sentences as 'I helped my Uncle Jack off his horse.'David Marsh's lifelong mission has been to create order out of chaos. For four decades, he has worked for newspapers, from the Sun t...

Student Essentials: Essay Writing – in one hour gives you all the essential skills you need for planning and writing an essay. Taking you step-by-step through every stage, helping you develop and apply your skills straight away. Student Essentials: Essay Writing – in one hour is packed full of jargon-free, practical advice to help you really get to grips with every element of your essay. Checklists and exercises ensure you tackle each stage of your essay head on ...

The English Language is spoken by more than a billion people throughout the world. But where did English come from? And how has it evolved into the language used today? In How English Became English Simon Horobin investigates the evolution of the English language, examining how the language continues to adapt even today, as English continues to find new speakers and new uses. Engaging with contemporary concerns about correctness, Horobin considers whether such changes are improvem...

Lessons from Nothing is an invaluable resource for busy teachers everywhere who are looking for easy-to-use activities that do not require extensive facilities or preparation. It is a practical source of around 70 language teaching activities that encourage interaction and co-operation in the classroom. Special features: * activities for immediate use * activities for all ages and levels * clear presentation * no photocopying required.

Language is always changing. No one knows where it is going but the best way to future-cast is to look at the past. John Simpson animates for us a tradition of researching and editing, showing us both the technical lexicography needed to understand a word, and the careful poetry needed to construct its definition. He challenges both the idea that dictionaries are definitive, and the notion that language is falling apart. With a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at bureaucracy and an inc...

How many words are there in the English language and where were they born? Why does spelling 'wobble' and why do meanings change? How do words behave towards each other - and how do we behave towards words? And what does this all mean for dictionary-making in the 21st century? This entertaining book has the up-to-date and authoritative answers to all the key questions about our language. Using evidence provided by the world's largest language databank, the Oxford English Corpus, Butterfiel...

A more-ishly browsable collection of words and phrases, linguistic quirks, lexical oddities and syntactic surprises.Our langauge is one of delight and curiosity. BUTTERING PARSNIPS, TWOCKING CHAVS is a guided tour of English, exploring the origins of words, their changing meaning, lexical peculiarities, word games and lost words, presented in lists, small passages of narrative text, amusing quotations and nuggets of amazing facts.This must-have compendium s...

How to Analyse Texts is the essential introductory textbook and toolkit for language analysis. This book shows the reader how to undertake detailed, language-focussed, contextually sensitive analyses of a wide range of texts – spoken, written and multimodal. The book constitutes a flexible resource which can be used in different ways across a range of courses and at different levels.This textbook includes:three parts covering research and study skil...

Why teach drama? How can a newcomer teach drama successfully? How do we recognize quality in drama?Starting Drama Teaching is a comprehensive guide to the teaching of drama in schools. Exploring the aims and purposes of drama, it provides an insight into the theoretical perspectives that underpin practice alongside activities, example lesson plans and approaches to planning. Written in an accessible style, the book addresses such practical issues as setting up role play, h...

Essay Writing is a student guide with a mission: to enable students to write better essays and get the grades they deserve by demystifying the essay-writing process.MunLing Shields places essay writing within the larger university experience for students. In a clear and easy to understand way the author guides the reader through the process of writing successful university essays by looking at essay writing in the context of academic communication, academic culture and different le...