Top Marks: tips towards better English usage and approaches to literature.

Some useful hints about correct English and tips on literary analysis by Barbara Daniels (Doc Barbara) an ex-teacher with an Oxford M.A. in English Language and Literature and a London Ph. D

Thursday, 25 June 2015

Verbal, oral and aural

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Strictly, verbal means "in words" and refers to something written whereas oral means spoken. Aural refers to the sense of heari...

Thursday, 11 June 2015

Practical Criticism

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This is a method of approaching a text, often a poem, where the reader or student is given no background information about authorship, date ...

Monday, 25 May 2015

Tautology and pleonasm

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These two terms are similar in meaning as both refer to unnecessary words. Some critics regard them as interchangeable but there is a useful...

Monday, 4 May 2015

Principal and principle

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These two words sound alike and so it is only in writing that their endings are confused. Principal means he a d or chief and you can see ...

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Affect and effect

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These two words are easily confused. In practice you can forget about affect as a noun ( the affect ) as its usage is largely psychological...

Sunday, 19 April 2015

The experience of reading a novel

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This post will not give answers or definitions but it will examine what happens when you read a novel . In one sense you enter a contrac...

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Synonyms and antonyms

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Synonyms are words with similar meanings and antonyms are opposites. An easy way to remember is that s ynonyms and s imilar both begin wi...

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About Me

Barbara Daniels: I was born in Ormskirk (Lancashire) before the outbreak of WWII and have moved via Oxford, Aberystwyth and London to my present home in Monmouthshire where I am an established poet.

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