Commonly Confused Words

Partly due to the rich ethnic heritage of the language, there are many words in English that are confused with other words. We have words that sound the same but have different meanings such as fair, fare, and fair.

I recently attended the State Fair [event] of Texas, where the fare [cost] to ride the Ferris wheel seemed quite fair [just or reasonable], considering the stunning views of Dallas at night from the tallest Ferris wheel in the Western Hemisphere.

In this sentence, all three are homonymns (same pronunciation but different meanings). Fare is also a homophone of the other two (same pronunciation, different meaning and spelling).

Adding to the confusion potential, English also

Declaring My Big, Red "C"

The title for this post refers to my response to Craig Newmark when I interjected myself into a conversation he and Tim O'Reilly were having on Twitter about needing transparency of lobbyists:

@craignewmark Tweeted that same story about lobbyists a half hour ago. Trying to figure out what to do about it. Registered Lobbyist badge?

@craignewmark @timoreilly yup, lobbyist story circulating well, which is good. I like idea that professional communicators should be marked.

Being a "professional communicator" myself, although not a lobbyist, this stream piqued my interest. The tweets that started this concerned a Washington Post story circulating on Facebook and Twitter about PR professionals and other "tech industry lobbyists" using social media to further the interests of the organizations they represent. According to the Post, the issue is that many of these "influence peddlers" are not declaring

Did Arizona "Ban Ethnic Studies"?

Controversial topics always bring out the rhetorical devices. Arizona House Bill 2281--Arizona's latest in a series of controversial actions related to immigration, race, and culture--has enjoyed more than its fair share of rhetorical spin. Because cultural and ethnic studies are a large part of my own research and teaching agendas, I decided to look more closely at what the bill actually says rather than the rhetorical spin.

The primary attack on the bill is evident in various forms of the oft-repeated headline:

Arizona bans "ethnic studies"

This is a fascinating rhetorical spin

Rules and Tools: Does New Media Warrant New Standards?

In a recent Twitter post, a colleague complained about an academic tool he had to use for compliance training.

Blackboard was obviuosly designed by engineers who have never used tech more advanced than an overhead projector.

Having recently been engaged in discussions with my class, other faculty, and instructional technology folks about the "hinckyness" of Blackboard in its current iteration, naturally, I reposted this to my own Twitter stream.

My tweets automatically post to my Facebook page. As a result, a parallel discussion about the eLearning née Blackboard software ensued within my Facebook community. The thread largely took the form of academic commentary about Blackboard, eLearning, Moodle, and course management software in general. That is, until this.

Maybe it was invented by English teachers. I guess it's "obvious" Dave isn't one..

The author of the original post is, indeed, an assistant professor of emerging media and communications at my university. My first thought was to delete the critical post in order to spare "Dave" (and myself) any embarrassment resulting from the criticism. I had noticed the typo