The month of Augustus

[Little Jack Horner]

>> He inside edges the final ball of Anderson's over through his legs and down to fine leg. <<

Strange game, cricket.  Can “inside edges” be used as a verb in any other context?

[Verbivore]

Hot words – China's new lexical fecundity

[Verbivore]

New approach to speed reading.

I managed the first two trials easily, and got about 90 per cent of the words (and all of the meaning) of the third, the "superhuman" speed. However, what was my comprehension and retention like? The former: okay; the latter: not much at all.

Perhaps my school's having been one of Australia's pioneers of speed reading during the '60s (the SRA system) helped, because at school I was tested and found reading at 1,200 words per minute, with full comprehension and good recall, no great effort. These days I'm certain that I've slowed, partly from age-related visual-acuity issues and partly because I enjoy savouring the way (some) writers manipulate the language to great effect.

[Dave Miller]

For me, the first two were easy and the third one comprehensible in a general way. What I missed out on were the not-previously-encountered proper names, which didn’t trigger my memory, because my memory doesn’t contain those particular words.

I think there’s merit in using this approach for reading basic articles on a small screen. It may be that different readers will need to be able to choose different speeds, and that those assembling the streams will need to let unusual words linger longer.

However, the method doesn't allow the reader to do what I find most useful when I do my own version of speed reading: to skip through the general, irrelevant or boring stuff, pick out the nuggets that I’m in search of, and slow down for those. I’ve been used to doing that with weighty documents and it’s still useful when reading news stories or online articles!

[Twoddle]

The first two were OK, but the third didn't stick in my mind afterwards, and I couldn't read words that I didn't already know. I'm not sure I'd want to read much at that speed, though, as I think it takes away most of the pleasure of reading.

1200 words per minute, Verbivore? Good grief! I've never tested my reading speed but I'd guess it to be between a quarter and a third of that. The Contessa and I get our first news of the day by reading the BBC's text news on our TV, with the sound muted. (I can't abide noisy jabber first thing in the morning.) I find that I'll read a page of text and have to wait for ages for the Contessa to catch up before I can go to the next page. I accuse her of blistering her finger whilst reading all the words, and she accuses me of "skim reading".

[Dave Miller]

Before the website managers get started on this idea, I wish they'd stop putting straightforward stories into video format. Videos are splendid - and relevant - when we need to see something happening, such as a crash or the speed at which a fire advanced. Putting a simple story into video format, with still pictures and on-screen words, means that I - and I suspect others - will immediately turn elsewhere, as the video will make me take in the story at the designer's pace, and with no opportunity to skip read. Why should I have to yawn through a full minute of video, when I can get the same information from the textual version, and then have about 45 seconds left to read 3 more such stories!

[Verbivore]

Aug 11, 2018 10:52:26 GMT Twoddle said:

[...] 1200 words per minute, Verbivore? Good grief! I've never tested my reading speed but I'd guess it to be between a quarter and a third of that. [...]

Which is about what we were told in school was the "average" reading speed – 250–300 wpm. At the time, according to SRA, the fastest known speed reader (with good comprehension and retention) was John F Kennedy, whose reading speed was allegedly 1,800 wpm. Now that's fast!

[Twoddle]

Aug 11, 2018 13:19:43 GMT Verbivore said:

At the time, according to SRA, the fastest known speed reader (with good comprehension and retention) was John F Kennedy, whose reading speed was allegedly 1,800 wpm. Now that's fast!

It's alleged that the current holder of that august office prefers not to read at all (except Twitter which, together with all other forms of social media, I shun), and to have reports presented to him in video form.

[Verbivore]

Here's one I haven't seen or heard in a while – found this morning during my proofreading of a media release posing as news: upmost for utmost. "We will do our upmost … ."

[Verbivore]

A mondegreen quiz from Aunty Beeb.

[Dave Miller]

I’m aware of (and don't like) the pattern where in a possessive any final s is followed by just an apostrophe, so that we get Chris’ friend John, or the boss’ desk. I gather (though am amazed) that some people still pronounce these as though the s were still there after the apostrophe: “chrissez” and “bossez”.

On the BBC News website this morning, though, we have (twice) that rare creature, the apostophe-x:
... the Duchess of Sussex’ father, Thomas Markle ...

[Verbivore]

Dave: Those semi-orphaned apostrophes look ugly to me. In my house styles (my own and my newspaper's – which I compiled) there are no such hanging-off-the-cliff-edge possession markers. I don't really care if there are already "too many esses" – e.g. princess – ending a word, I'll still take the "apostrophe with s of possession" approach. The princess’s slipper … .

[Verbivore]

How Orwell would have laughed.

[Dave Miller]

Two days ago, I mentioned the apostrophe-x. Just now, I came across an apostrophe-z: The revolver action that Surdez’ sergeant is describing.

Are there any other letters which people might use? (I don’t condone it, I just wonder!)

[Dave]

As I recall, my Associated Press Stylebook addresses this issue. Unfortunately, I won't be able to look it up until I return to California in September. It involves sibilants, etc.; conscience' sake sticks in my mind, but further verification is needed.

But you may want to see a previous discussion here: link.