Great News for Two Loft Tutors

Two Loft tutors reach new milestones.

On a note that is both happy and sad, part-time North instructor and Loft tutor Prairie Brown has been hired as a full-time writing consultant at the CWU branch campus in Des Moines where she will be serving as the primary instructor for their new writing center. Prairie has been a strong advocate for the Loft and a dedicated member of our staff for the last two years, so we wish her the best as she embarks on this exciting career opportunity.

Also, Loft tutor and creative writer Michael Overa was selected as a finalist for the Glimmer Train New Voices Competition this year. You can learn more about Michael’s writing at his Web site http://www.thelocalwriter.com/.

All right vs. Alright

It seems there is quite a debate about the usage of “all right” versus “alright” rampaging among English grammariticians. A cursory review of the debate reveals that traditionalists prefer writers to use the “all right” form of the expression while others argue “alright” is an acceptable evolution, or truncation, of the expression.

Some links to explore this heated debate:

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/

http://p211.ezboard.com/Alright/fwordoriginsorgfrm23.showMessage?topicID=62.topic

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/is-alright-all-right/

Academically speaking, it’s probably safer to use “all right”. However, as many linguists will point out, a language is not static…unless it’s a dead language like Latin…and so it sounds as if “alright” may one day become as acceptable as “all right”. Considering our tendency to shorten words or expressions, this evolution, or “de-evolution” depending on your preference, is probably as good a bet as a $10,000 investment in Google stocks.

Announcing Loft Writing Center Hours for Winter 2008 Quarter

The Loft Writing Center will be open:

Monday – Thursday 8:30 am – 6:30 pm
Friday 8:30 am – 1:30 pm
Sunday 12:30 pm – 4:30 pm

We look forward to seeing you in the Loft!