Saturday, March 21, 2020

What to Do If a College Class Is Full

What to Do If a College Class Is Full The class you need to take to make progress toward your degree has already filled up. You have to get in, but what can you do if theres no room when you register? While this situation is incredibly frustrating (and all too common), there are a few steps you can take to either get into the class or find an alternate solution. 6 Steps to Take Next When a College Class Is Full Get on the waitlist as soon as possible. You can often do this at registration and the sooner you get on the list, the higher your ranking will be.Talk to the professor. Do you need the class for graduation? Are there other circumstances that might help you plead your case? Talk to the professors during their office hours to see if theres anything that can be done.Talk to the registrar. If you desperately need to get into a class for graduation or financial reasons, talk to the registrars office. They might be able to make an exception if the professor also approves letting you into the class.Explore other options and alternatives. Sign up for at least one other class that you can take in place of your desired class, just in case you cant get in. The last thing you need is to be blocked out from all of the good classes because you thought youd get into your wait-listed one.Have a backup plan ready to go if you cant get in. Can you take the same course online? With another professor? At another campus nearby? Over the summer? Being creative about your options can help you find a solution in case your original plan doesnt work out. Most Importantly, Dont Panic It may seem like the end of the world, but rest assured that its not. When you discover that one of your most essential course requirements is full, sit down and take a deep breath. Review your options. Read through the advice given above one more time because you may have missed an important detail that can help.  Get out your notebook and make a to-do list. Writing down the steps you need to take, the exact people you need to talk to, and your points for why  you  should be in that class will help clear your head.Go out and pursue it. Take the action needed to put your plan in place and work each of these steps simultaneously. If one approach backfires, you will already have the others in progress or know what you need to do to start the next one.Be professional. Whoever you speak (or plead) with to try and get in that class, do so in an adult manner. Its very easy to be overly emotional when youre frustrated, but thats not the best approach to sweet talking professors and registrars. Whining will not get you anywhere, pleading your case with facts and a professional demeanor will.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Definition and Examples of Words in English

Definition and Examples of Words in English A word is a  speech sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or a combination of morphemes. The branch of linguistics that studies word structures is called morphology. The branch of linguistics that studies word meanings is called lexical semantics. Etymology ​From Old English, word Examples and Observations [A word is the] smallest unit of grammar that can stand alone as a complete utterance, separated by spaces in written language and potentially by pauses in speech.-David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003A grammar . . . is divided into two major components, syntax and morphology. This division follows from the special status of the word as a basic linguistic unit, with syntax dealing with the combination of words to make sentences, and morphology with the form of words themselves. -R. Huddleston and G. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2002We want words to do more than they can. We try to do with them what comes to very much like trying to mend a watch with a pickaxe or to paint a miniature with a mop; we expect them to help us to grip and dissect that which in ultimate essence is as ungrippable as shadow. Nevertheless there they are; we have got to live with them, and the wise course is to treat them as we do our neighbours, and make the best and not the worst of them.-Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, 1912 Big WordsA Czech study . . . looked at how using big words (a classic strategy for impressing others) affects perceived intelligence. Counter-intuitvely, grandiose vocabulary diminished participants impressions of authors cerebral capacity. Put another way: simpler writing seems smarter.-Julie Beck, How to Look Smart. The Atlantic, September 2014The Power of WordsIt is obvious that the fundamental means which man possesses of extending his orders of abstractions indefinitely is conditioned, and consists in general in symbolism and, in particular, in speech. Words, considered as symbols for humans, provide us with endlessly flexible conditional semantic stimuli, which are just as real and effective for man as any other powerful stimulus.Virginia Woolf on WordsIt is words that are to blame. They are the wildest, freest, most irresponsible, most un-teachable of all things. Of course, you can catch them and sort them and place them in alphabetical order in dictionaries. But words do not live in dictionaries; they live in the mind. If you want proof of this, consider how often in moments of emotion when we most need words we find none. Yet there is the dictionary; there at our disposal are some half-a-million words all in alphabetical order. But can we use them? No, because words do not live in dictionaries, they live in the mind. Look once more at the dictionary. There beyond a doubt lie plays more splendid than Antony and Cleopatra; poems lovelier than the Ode to a Nightingale; novels beside which Pride and Prejudice or David Copperfield are the crude bunglings of amateurs. It is only a question of finding the right words and putting them in the right order. But we cannot do it because they do not live in dictionaries; they live in the mind. And how do they live in the mind? Variously and strangely, much as human beings live, ranging hither and thither, falling in love, and mating together.-Virginia Woolf, Craftsmanship. The Death of the Moth and Other Essays, 194 2 Word WordWord Word [1983: coined by US writer Paul Dickson]. A non-technical, tongue-in-cheek term for a word repeated in contrastive statements and questions: Are you talking about an American Indian or an Indian Indian?; It happens in Irish English as well as English English.-Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press, 1992