Category Archives: Reference

These are materials for teachers and parents, and you’ll find, in this category, teachers copies and answer keys for worksheets, quotes related to domain-specific knowledge in English Language Arts and social studies, and quotes on issues of professional concern. See the Taxonomies page for more about this category.

Stephen Leacock on Statistics

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

“In ancient times they had not statistics so they had to fall back on lies.”

Stephen Leacock

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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Brewer’s Curious Titles: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

“The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: An autobiographical account by the British soldier, archaeologist, Arabist, classical scholar and writer T(homas) E(dward) Lawrence (1888-1935) of his adventures in Arabia during the First World War. Lawrence too his title from the Bible:

‘Wisdom had builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.’

Proverbs 9:1

It is not clear why seven, although seven is commonly a mystical or sacred number and crops up frequently in the Bible. Lawrence famously mislaid the first draft of his manuscript in 1919 while changing trains at Reading.

The book formed the basis for the Oscar-winning epic film Lawrence of Arabia (1962) directed by David Lean (1908-1991) with a screenplay by Robert Bolt (1924-95), starring Peter O’Toole in the title role.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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Paraphrase

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Paraphrase: 1. The (more or less) free rewording of an expression or text, as an explanation, clarification, or translation: ‘Paraphrase, or translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view…, but his words are not so strictly followed as his sense’ (John Dryden, preface to his translation of Ovid, 1680). 2. An act or result or rewording, such as a simplified version of a legal document: a plain-English paraphrase of The contractor shall have a general lien upon all goods in his possession for all monies due to him from the customer is We have a right to hold some or all of the goods until you have paid our charges. 3. To make a paraphrase; to translate or define loosely: the compound word teapot can be paraphrased or explained by the phrase a pot for tea but not by a pot of tea.”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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Scott Adams on the Dilbert Principle

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

“The basic concept of the Dilbert principle is that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved where they can do the least damage: management.”

Scott Adams

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Brewer’s Curious Titles: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: A historical study (1971) by Dee Brown (1908-2002) of the conquest of the American West and the destruction of the Native American tribes. The title comes from the last verse of a poem ‘American Names’ (1927), by Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943):

‘I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.

I shall not lie easy in Winchelsea.

You may bury my body in Sussex grass.

You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.

I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.’

Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, was the site of a massacre of Teton-Sioux by US forces on 29 December 1890, in which at least 150 Native Americans and 25 US soldiers were killed. It marked the final suppression of Native American resistance. In the Wounded Knee protest of 1973, two years after the publication of Brown’s book, some 200 armed members of the American Indian Movement occupied the symbolic site. The occupation ended after a 70-day siege, but helped to focus international attention on the US government’s treatment of Native Americans.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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Kin Hubbard on…A Visit to the Office of a Professional

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Nothing is as irritating as the fellow who chats pleasantly while he’s overcharging.”

Kin Hubbard

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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Funk Art

Posted on July 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Funk Art: A term coined in the 1960s to describe a class of art that emerged in the San Francisco Bay area. It was often witty, sometimes deliberately distasteful, with a diversity of styles ranging from comic-strip derivations to William Wiley’s use of found objects. Funk artists looked to popular culture rather than traditional canons of fine art.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Term of Art: Word Recognition

Posted on July 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

“word recognition: An ability to apply any number of strategies to recognize and understand a word. Word recognition strategies include:

  • configuration—using visual cues such as the shape and size of the word
  • context analysis—using surrounding information (including pictures) to predict a word
  • sight words—instant recognition of a word without further analysis
  • phonemic analysis—‘sounding out’ a word
  • syllabication—dividing a word into syllables
  • structural analysis—using morphological information such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Libertins

Posted on July 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Libertins: A sect of French freethinkers and skeptics of the 17th and 18th centuries, precursors of Voltaire and the encyclopedists. Advocates of total freedom of thought and conscience, the Libertins questioned the doctrines and morality of all received religion and were continually accused of atheism and immorality. The greatest religious thinkers of the day, including Bossuet and Pascal, denounced their views, and ultimately the Libertins’ own poor conduct discredited their name.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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Boilerplate

Posted on July 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Boilerplate (noun): Standard, stereotypical news stories, features, etc., syndicated to newspapers; ready-to-print copy; pedestrian or hackneyed writing (from the printer’s matrix or plate form). Adj. boilerplate

‘In newspaper jargon, you might call all this the boiler plate of the novel—durable informative matter set up in stereotype and sold to country newspapers as filler to eke out a scarcity of local news, i.e of ‘plot.’ And the novel, like a newspaper boiler plate, contains not only a miscellany of odd facts but household hints and how-to-do-it instructions (you can learn how to make strawberry jam from Anna Karenina and how to reap a field and hunt ducks).’ Mary McCarthy, On the Contrary”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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