Articles of the Week

This is an ongoing listing of links to the Articles of the Week used with our Leaving Certificate pupils, from September 2013 onwards.

The idea came from the American teacher and writer Kelly Gallagher, and it fits very well into the Leaving course, getting pupils used to reading interesting articles and thus helping them in both the comprehension and composition sections of their Paper 1, as well as expanding their knowledge base and vocabulary and providing interesting topics for discussion.

Click here for Gallagher's current articles, and read more about the theory behind the scheme in his excellent book Readicide: how schools are killing reading and what you can do about it. Pupils have to mark up the articles with annotations before class discussion.

1. October 2025: 'Would you watch a film with an AI actor?' by Amy Hume, The Conversation, October 7th 2025.
2. September 2025: 'Ireland is in danger of ignoring the one big benefit of single-sex education' by Finn McRedmond, Irish Times, September 4th 2025 [education, gender, Ireland].
3. May 2024: 'Cramming for an exam isn’t the best way to learn – but if you have to do it, here’s how' by Jonathan Firth, University of Strathclyde, The Conversation, May 17th 2024 [study, cognitive science, examinations].
   
4. February 2024: 'How people get sucked into misinformation rabbit holes – and how to get them out' by Emily Booth and Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, University of Technology Sydney, The Conversation, February 23rd 2024 [technology, psychology].
   
5. September 2023: 'The case against pets: is it time to give up our cats and dogs?' by Ellie Violet Bramley, Guardian, September 13th 2023 [animal welfare}
6. September 2023: '‘Edtech’ offers no escape from reality' by John Thornhill, Financial Times, September 7th 2023 [education, technology].
7. January 2023: 'Why winter walks at the seaside are good for you' by Nick Davies and Sean J. Gammon, The Conversation, January 13th 2023 [mental health].
   
8. October 2022: 'There’s too much of everything. And it’s making us unhappy.’ by Seán Moncrieff, Irish Times, October 15th October 2022 [parenting, adolescence, consumerism].
   
9. September 2022: 'A comeback for nuclear power' by The Week staff writers,  September 4th 2022 [nuclear power, economics, environment].
   
10. September 2022: 'Why is our Government so happy to ignore the financial nightmare young people face?' by Gemma Haverty, Irish Times, August 30th 2022 [economics, society].
    
11. April 2022: 'A year of hunger: how the Russia-Ukraine war is worsening climate-linked food shortages' by Nenad Naumovski, The Conversation (Australia), April 26th 2022 [war, economics, climate change].
    
12. November 2021: 'The climate won’t wait. We need a carbon tax now
    The time for handwringing is definitively over' by Tim Harford, Financial Times, October 29th 2021 [environment, climate change].
    
13. September 2021: 'Leaks just exposed how toxic Facebook and Instagram are to teen girls and, well, everyone' by Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Guardian, September 18th 2021 [social media].
    
14. September 2021: 'Narcissists: there's more than one type' by Nikhila Mahadevan, The Conversation, August 5th 2021 [psychology].
    
15. May 2021: 'We must stop Covid shutting girls out of school forever' by Malala Yousafzai, Financial Times, April 29th 2021 [pandemic, education]
    
16. May 2021: 'Sang culture: how a reluctant Russian singer became the hero of young pessimists across China' by Xiaoning Lu, The Conversation, April 30th 2021 [culture, internet, China].
    
17. November 2020: 'Remembrance Day is an exercise in collective amnesia' by Samuel Earle, The Guardian, November 8th 2020 [history, politics, remembrance].
    
18. October 2020: 'Is Donald Trump a bully or bold protector? That depends on whom you ask' by Arlie Hochschild, The Guardian, October 10th 2020 [politics, bullying].
    
19. October 2020: 'To combat conspiracy theories teach critical thinking – and community' by Thomas Roulet, The Conversation, October 2nd 2020 [conspiracy, social media, education].
    
20. September 2020: 'What can we learn about people from their social media?' by Gwendolyn Sideman, Psychology Today, September 21st 2020 [social media, psychology, behaviour].
    
21. September 2020: 'Oxford scientists: these are the final steps we're taking to get our coronavirus vaccine approved' by Rebecca Ashfield and Pedro Folegatti, The Conversation, September 8th 2020 [science, vaccines]
22. February 2020: 'Are First-Borns Really Natural Leaders?' by Clara Sabolova, The Conversation, February 7th [parenting, upbringing, nurture].
23. January 2020: 'What moral authority does the US have to kill Suleimani?' by Breda O'Brien, The Irish Times, January 11th 2020 [morality, politics, conflict}.
24. October 2019: 'A psychotherapist explains why some adults are reacting badly to young climate strikers' by Caroline Hickman, The Conversation, October 11th 2019 [climate change, teenagers].
25. September 2019: 'Curiosity: we're studying the brain to help you harness it' by by Ashvanti Valji and Matthias Gruber, The Conversation, September 13th 2019 [neuroscience, learning].
26. September 2019: 'A California high school found students' cellphones too distracting, so they're locking the devices up' by Safia Samee Ali, NBC News, August 21st 2019 [education, learning, teenagers, technology].
27. May 2019: 'How Exercise Affects Our Memory' by Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times, May 1st 2019 [exercise, physiology, neuroscience].
28. January 2019: 'Aviation is the red meat in the greenhouse gas sandwich' by John Gibbons, the Irish Times, January 29th 2019 [environment, aviation].
29. January 2019: 'Filling the Silence with Digital Noise' by the Nielsen Norman Group, November 18th 2018 [technology, learning].
30. November 2018: "Window for saving Earth from ecological annihilation closing" by John Gibbons, the Irish Times, October 16th 2018 [ecology, environment].
31. October 2018: "'Fortnite' teaches the wrong lessons" by Nicholas Tampio, The Conversation, October 12th 2018 [gaming, adolescence, technology]/
32. October 2018: "Why true horror movies are about more than things going bump in the night" by Aislinn Clarke, The Conversation [film, horror, comedy], October 3rd 2018.
33. October 2018:  'Is Serena Williams right? A linguist on the extra challenges women face in moments of anger' by Kieran File, The Conversation, September 11th 2018 [women, gender, sport].
34. September 2018: 'Why you should read this article slowly' by Joe Moran, The Guardian, September 14th 2018 [reading, internet].
35. September 2018: 'The ideal school would put children's development before league tables' by Sue Roffey, The Conversation, September 17th 2018.
36. September 2018: 'Another Angle: For the love of God, put down the phones' by Adrian Weckler, Irish Independent, August 20th 2018 [technology, phone].
37. May 2018: 'Neuroscience is unlocking mysteries of the teenage brain' by Lucy Foulkes, The Conversation, April 23rd 2018 [adolescence, neuroscience].
38. March 2018: 'The Tyranny of Convenience' by Tim Yu, New York Times, February 16th 2018 [modern life, technology].
39. February 2018: "The death of reading is threatening the soul" by Philip Yancey, Washington Post, July 21st 2017 [reading, books, internet].
40. January 2018: 'Why more men are wearing makeup than ever before' by Glen Jankowski, The Conversation, January 15th 2018 [make-up, masculinity].
41. January 2018: 'Why 2017 was the best year in human history' by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, January 6, 2018 [history, progress, health].
42. November 2017: 'Boys must behave if women are to be safe' by Fintan O'Toole, The Irish Times, October 31, 2017.
43. October 2017: 'A giant insect ecosystem is collapsing due to humans' by Michael McCarthy, The Guardian, October 21, 2017.
44. October 2017: 'We can't stop mass murder' by Shikha Dalmia, The Week, October 6, 2017.
45. October 2017: 'What every teacher should know about ... memory' by Bradley Busch, The Guardian, October 6, 2017 [learning, memory, teaching].
46. October 2017: 'Think the world is in a mess: here are 4 things you can do about it' by Alexandre Christoyannapoulos. The Conversation, November 16, 2016 [activism, citizenship, economics].
47. September 2017: 'The power of silence in the smartphone age' by Erling Kagge, The Guardian, September 23rd 2017 [technology].
48. September 2017: '5 reasons why people share fake photos during disasters' by A.J. Willingham, CNN.com, September 8th 2017 [journalism, psychology, social media].
49. September 2017: 'Can you identify the psychopaths in your life?' by Rob Hastings, iNews, August 29th 2017 [psychology].
50. February 2017: 'Our roads are choked. We're on the verge of carmageddon' by George Monbiot, The Guardian, September 20th 2016 [environment, transport].
51. January 2017: 'Girls believe brilliance is a male trait' by Nicola Davis, The Guardian, January 27th 2017.
52. January 2017: 'What do teenagers want? Potted plant parents' by Lisa Damour, New York Times, December 14th 2016 [adolescence, parenting].
53. November 2016: 'Trump makes it easy to vote for Her' by Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald, November 6th 2016 [politics, America].
54. October 2016: 'How being alone may be the key to rest' by Claudia Hammond, BBC, September 27th 2016 [rest, reading, introversion].
55. September 2016: 'Why Parents are Getting Angrier' by Nicola Skinner, The Guardian, September 3rd 2016 [parenting, psychology, childhood].
56. September 2016: 'Burkini beach ban: must French Muslim women become invisible?' by Delphine Strauss, The Irish Times, August 22nd 2016 [culture, Islam, France].
57. May 2016: 'How can Lidl sell jeans for £5.99?' by Gethin Chamberlain, The Guardian, March 13th 2016 [economics, retailing, manufacture].
58. April 2016: 'Teaching men how to be emotionally honest' by Anrew Reiner, New York Times, April 4th 2016 [gender, adolescence, masculinity].
59. February 2016: 'Then and now: how things have changed for teenage girls since the 1950s' by Clare Furniss, The Guardian, January 29th 2016 [teenagers, gender, sexism].
60. January 2016: 'Teenagers risk being defined for life by their social media posts' by Karlin Lilllington, Irish Times, January 14th 2016 [social media, teenagers, identity].
61. January 2016: 'Welcome to the Anthropocene, a new geological era for the world', The Week, January 8th 2016 [geology, climate change, environment].
62. November 2015: 'Birth Order Determines ... Almost Nothing' by Jeanne Safer, psychologytoday.com [psychology, parenting, childhood].
63. November 2015: 'How psychopaths can save your life' by Kevin Dutton, The Observer [psychology].
64. November 2015: '10 benefits of reading: why you should read every day' by Lana Winter-Hebert, Lifehack.org [reading, entertainment, education].
65. October 2015: 'How much can you really learn while you're asleep?' by Jordan Gaines Lewis, The Guardian, October 6th 2015 [neuroscience, learning, adolescence].
66. September 2015: 'Fifth of secondary school pupils wake almost every night to use social media' by Sally Weale, The Guardian, September 15th 2015 [social media, learning, teenagers].

The Language of Money

A good one here for senior pupils: John Lanchester on the language of money, with lots to discuss in class, including metaphor and the impact of figurative language on real lives.

Obama victory speech

Another in a series of Public Wordles, analysing rhetoric. Above, a Wordle of the 170 most common words in President Obama's victory speech last night in Chicago. Plenty of good discussion material here for class today. Click on the image above for a closer view.

Now for a Wordle of Mitt Romney's concession speech for comparison (again, click here for a closer look, and here for the video)

Below, the President delivers his speech.

Bill Clinton's Convention speech

Here is a fascinating and valuable resource for studying rhetoric and modern political speech-making - the text of Bill Clinton's speech proposing President Barack Obama for the Democration nomination again at the Convention in Charlotte.

The original speech is in black, with deletions in red and additions in blue. Tracking all these changes gives a vivid insight into Clinton's intentions and expertise as a speaker, and the choices he made as he responded to his audience.

Below, a recording of the whole speech.

Grammar Interrogation

We're on Exodus break now until Tuesday morning, when service will resume. Our Hamlet ShowMe series will be completed then.

Meanwhile, here's a little clip of the kind of questioning you face if you don't have no decent grammar. 

The History of English (in 10 minutes)

One of the modules in our Transition Year course is on the history of the English language (focussing on Geoffrey Chaucer). Above, an entertaining whizz through that history from the Open University, complete with animation and a commentary spoken by Clive Anderson.

Enda Kenny on the Cloyne Report

It's already clear that the Taoiseach's speech responding to the Cloyne Report is one of the most significant statements by a public figure since the foundation of the State. Above is the latest in our irregular series of public Wordles, picking out key words in important public and political language. There is no doubt what the key word is here.

Click on the image to see it in detail. Watch the speech here.

Programme for Government

Programme for Government, March 2011

Another in our series of 'public wordles', using Wordle.net to analyse speeches and official language in documents:- here is Towards Recovery: Programme for a National Government, which yesterday was agreed on by the Labour Party and Fine Gael following their successes in the recent General Election (click on the image to examine it more closely). As always, the largest words are those most used in the document (of 220). Below, two more images - of the same parties' general election manifestos (interesting comparisons to be made).

Fine Gael Manifesto 2011

Labour Party Manifesto 2011

CREEP 7

The Campaign for the Removal of English Errors in Public returns to the fray. Seen last night on Parnell Street, Dublin. At least poker's weren't being brandished.

Spot the Brand

And the April winner of the Most Inappropriate Name for a Men's Fashion Line is...

(from Liberty's, Regent Street, London)

CREEP 1

Inspired by one of the history's truly great acronyms, Richard Nixon's Committee to REElect the President, today we start a new occasional series in defence of the English language, our Campaign for the Removal of English Errors in Public, with two notices spotted over the weekend - above, a Quickpark bus at Dublin Airport, and below, one on the side of the Bank of Ireland in the airport itself.

Guerrilla Punctuation Action Group?

In January 2008 we reported on the mysterious arrival of several apostrophes on the local road signs to the College. These corrected the egregious 'St Columbas College' official signs, and we pondered on who was responsible - the Punctuation Compliance Standards Department of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council? The Punctuation Militant Front? The Apostrophe Action Coalition?

Now it seems that our anonymous punctuation/public signage operative has been at work again. The two remaining signposts to the college to have avoided their rightful possessive apostrophe have been 'dealt with'. One, at the junction of Taylor's Lane and Whitechurch Road (right), had been removed for over a year while interminable road-widening took place. The other sign (left), at the junction of Grange Road and Brehon's Field Road (the road formerly known as the Green Route), is raised some 4.5 metres above the ground and from the photographic evidence appears to have been the greatest challenge to our nameless servant. Click on the photograph for a closer look.

The Prodigal Tongue

Mark Abley's book The Prodigal Tongue : dispatches from the future of English is just out in paperback. It's a lively, wide-ranging and readable account of the constant flux that is contemporary English. He writes that the future has always been cloudy; it always will be. It's best approached, I believe, by looking keenly and closely at what's happening now in the world, without prejudices or preconceptions ... we'll discover that people with little political or economic power can exert economic influence on language ... we'll find a tension between the informal and formal registers of language - between the top-down and bottom-up forces that lead to verbal change.

The subsequent chapter sub-titles summarise the areas that Abley then goes on to analyse:-

• How words are created and organized
  
• Asian English
• Global English
• Language in Japan
• Languages in Los Angeles
• Black English and Hip-Hop
• Language in Cyberspace (which quotes the text version of Pride and Prejudice - 5Sistrs WntngHsbnds. NwMeninTwn-Bingly&Darcy. Fit&Loadd.BigSis Jane Fals 4B,2ndSisLiz H8s D Coz Hes Proud. Slimy Soljr Wikam Sys DHs Shady Past.Trns Out Hes Actuly ARlyNysGuy &RlyFancysLiz. She Decyds She Lyks Him.Evry1 Gts Maryd.)
• Words and the Fictional Future
• Keeping Language Real

There's also a thorough bibliography, and a long list of useful websites, including the following as a sample:-

• 'Lingua Franca', an Australian radio show on language
• Language Monitor
• Wordspy ('The Word Lover's Guide to New Words')
• World Wide Words ('international English from a British viewpoint') by Michael Quinion, the author of Why is Q Always Followed by U?
• Ethnologue, including this list of the most spoken languages

Mark Abley's previous book on language was Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages. His website is here, and columns on language from the Montreal Gazette here.

Top 100 Language Blogs Voting

We're delighted to be in the running for the 2009 Top 100 Language Blogs (in the Language Learning category), and voting has now started (50% of the assessment is via public vote). We'd also be delighted to get your vote - so just click here or on the icon at the top of the sidebar on the right, both of which will take you to the voting page. Then scroll down (alphabetical order) to 'SCC English', click the circle to the left of the name, and go to the bottom of the list and click 'Vote'. Done! Should take 10 seconds. Please vote by the deadline, Monday 27th July.

You can read about all the nominations in the category here - with blogs in Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Hindi, French and lots more. There are also categories in Language Teaching, Language Professionals and Language Technology. The awards are being run by Lexiophiles.com and bab.la, both of which have lots of interesting material about language in its myriad forms.

Professor Dolan on American English

Last night, Professor Terry Dolan talked to our senior pupils about the origins and history of American language. He is pictured above with staff and visitors at dinner before the talk. During an informal talk in the Drawing Room to VI, V and IV formers, he ranged over the origins and uses of words such as 'kibosh', 'OK', 'cool', 'caucus', 'dollar', 'buck', 'Yankee' and 'bagel', and then answered many questions about all sorts of words used in different versions of English, including Hiberno-English.

Professor Dolan was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, where he was Hastings Senior Scholar and later Junior Dean. He worked at University College, Dublin, from 1970 in the Department of Old and Middle English, being first Associate Professor, and then Professor of English and Professor of Hiberno-English. He retired from UCD a year ago. He has been a guest lecturer all over the world, including Brazil, Egypt, USA, Denmark, China and Belgium. He was Director of the International James Joyce Summer School in Dublin. He has also broadcast widely on BBC and RTE, and has a regular slot on Sean Moncrieff's afternoon show on Newstalk where he discusses 'The Meaning of Words'. He is the compiler of the Dictionary of Hiberno-English, a new edition of which he is working on, and his website on Hiberno-English can be visited here. See today's other post for details of his podcast interview on Geoffrey Chaucer.

Banished Words

Each year Lake Superior State University publishes its "List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness". This year, 'green', 'carbon footprint', and 'maverick' feature, as well as 'iconic'. There's also the phrase 'desperate search' for something that can't be found, as opposed to, simply, 'search'. You can express your own linguistic irritations by adding your own words or phrase here.

The Bush Tragedy

A month ago we commented on the fascinating use of language in the American Presidential primary season. Recently language has again become the centre of everyone's attention, following Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech on race in response to the language of his pastor Jeremiah Wright (see the YouTube video and the full text here), and then this week Hillary Clinton's 'misspeaking' of her Tuzla visit (see Steven Poole here on 'misspeak' in his Unspeak blog).

Just published on this side of the Atlantic is Jacob Weisberg's lethal filleting of the current President in his new study The Bush Tragedy: the unmaking of a President. Weisberg, editor of Slate.com, is also the editor of several books of 'Bushisms'. This, too, is a study of language as used by the extended Bush/Walker clan, and how the psycho-dramas within this powerful political family have shaped our world. Weisberg uses Shakespeare's story of Henry IV and Prince Hal throughout as a parallel, and writes:-

As a guide for political reporters, Shakespeare remains underrated. Political science and a lot of political journalism explain the behaviour of politicians mostly in terms of interest and ideology. Shakespeare reminds us that their motives tend to be more complicated than that, and that however much they may try to obscure them, politicians do in fact have inner lives. If sometimes used to turn rascals into cartooons - think LBJ as Macbeth or Nixon as Richard III - Shakespearean analogies can also remind us to look harder at family, national myth, at character. When we are confronted with a political breakdown, Shakespeare advises us to look deeper and judge less.

There's an interview with Weisberg here, on National Public Radio, together with an extract from the first chapter.

JMG

Barack Obama, poet

For students of language, American Presidential elections (and primaries) are always fascinating events, fertile ground for examining the effects of speeches, debates and slogans. Right now, the main angle of attack on Barack Obama by Hillary Clinton (and now John McCain) seems to be on his rhetorical skills, and the suggestion that such linguistic facility is suspicious.

Ben McIntyre of the London Times recently examined Barack Obama's 'creditable' early poetry, and commented that it revealed

a lyrical sensibility and a refreshing awareness of the power of words. No less a critic than Professor Harold Bloom of Yale, America's doyen of English literature, has said of Obama's poetry that 'it shows a kind of humane and sad wit. There is a mind there.'

McIntyre points out that there is a 'long, if patchy, tradition of presidential poetry' in America, and says that if Abraham Lincoln was the best poet in the White House, then Jimmy Carter was undoubtedly the worst, 'though he deserves some sort of prize for the least enticing poem title in literature: "Why We Get Cheaper Tires from Liberia".'

Mr Obama has been hailed as the new JFK; and as the most poetic presidential candidate for a generation inches closer to the White House, it is worth recalling the closing lines of the poem Dedication by Robert Frost, which Kennedy commissioned for his own inauguration in 1961: “A golden age of poetry and power/ Of which this noonday's the beginning hour.”

Meanwhile, Slate.com points out that 'it's hard to imagine that Obama would be as much of a phenomenon if his name were, say, Tom Smith.' You can access Slate's Encyclopedia Baracktannia here. There's Obamania, Obamage, Barackroach, Obamatic Pilot, Obamamatopoeia ... and more are being added all the time. At the moment, of course, he's got Obamamentum.

More seriously, it has a detailed analysis of Obama's rhetoric in an article by Jack Shafer here.

Iraq: The War Card

The American 'Center for Public Integrity' has just launched its remarkable and very detailed database called The War Card, the first analysis of what they call "935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses." The database is fully searchable. There's also a multi-media archive.

Whatever your politics, this is a fascinating resource for English teachers, particularly when teaching the language of persuasion or argument for the Leaving Certificate. See also Steven Poole's Unspeak blog (linked in our sidebar), an extension of his book of the same name (subtitled 'Words are Weapons'), analysing "state-of-the-art rhetorical weaponry, from community through sound science and ethnic cleansing to the war on terror." There's an extract from the book on the blog analysing the phrase 'intelligent design' here.

Punctuation News

Boarders return tonight, and day boys and girls tomorrow morning, after our Exodus break.

Thankfully they will find it easier to locate the College now. Holding as we do to high standards, it has irritated many of us for some time that the local road-signs have referred to the apostrophe-less 'St Columbas College'. Now all but one of these signs have mysteriously sprouted the appropriate punctuation (see pictures below). Who should we thank - the Punctuation Compliance Standards Department of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council? The Punctuation Militant Front? The Apostrophe Action Coalition?

[In the sidebar is a link to Sue Palmer's Home for Abused Apostrophes, which is a fine resource dedicated to examples of that more common phenomenon, the Instrusive Apostrophe].

The last remaining offender

A newly punctuated sign

We will keep an eye on that last offender, and hope that the Language Liberation League strikes again. The local pub obviously also needs some help.