We don't do stars...
We don't do thumbs...
We read children's books and grade them in 10 categories:
literary quality
plot
voice
originality
descriptive ability
humor (if attempted)
illustrations (if present)
believability of characters
believability of situations
overall reading enjoyment

There is no grading curve. There are no points for classroom participation. There is no extra credit.
If you disagree, come speak to us after class.

The Grading System

A+.....this means (guess what) we think it's great. So great it surprised even us.
A.....this means it's pretty darn good. A book we'd recommend to just about everyone we know.
B.....better than most. Not exactly Shakespeare for kids, though, if you get our drift.
C.....mediocre. Like the color beige, it didn't stand out.
D.....we didn't like it. There were more bad aspects than good ones.
F.....it reeked of badness. We read it over and over when we are in dire need of hysterical laughter.
F-.....We're pretty sure Dante had a circle of hell for the people who wrote these...and a lower circle for those who published them.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Special Topics: The Dreaded Anachronism

This is a short post about a small issue:
One short, small word that is my biggest pet peeve:
"OK."
No one is certain about this word/term's origins, but remember this if you're writing a historical novel: it's American, mid-ninteenth century.
Times and places this word was not used, the literary conversations of which I've seen it inserted into:
Regency England (in a few books, actually)
Revolutionary War America
Revolutionary War France (Although maybe you could make an argument for translation there...I guess they weren't speaking English anyway!)
Here's a link to just one dictionary entry regarding "OK"...for a more thorough treatment, you'll have to find a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary somewhere:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/okay
Posted by at

2 comments:

(Arya) Paige said...

I know! That irritates me sooo bad! Have you seen the new show Merlin? Its set in Arthurian times. They said it on there several times and I was like what the...

July 16, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Nancy said...

The 1978 Supplement to the OED, p. 82, reads in part: "Alleged instances of O.K. in 1790 and 1828 have no evidence to support them. The earliest occurrences ... is in the Boston Transcript of 15 April 1840." Don't ya just LOVE the OED?

July 16, 2009 at 2:43 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)