How to Find a Spouse

From First Things, an article by Betsy VanDenBerghe on what is truly important when looking for a spouse. She lists the five factors that John Van Epp (author of How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk), says are essential to consider in a relationship:

• compatibility in familial, religious, and financial values and priorities,
• communication skills like self-disclosure, mutual assertiveness, and ability to apologize,
• behavior in other relationships,
• patterns of family background, and
• a healthy conscience (neither underactive nor overactive).

Why good grammar matters

Kyle Wiens describes why good grammar matters:

Applicants who don't think writing is important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren't important.

Hat tip: First Thoughts

Not on Facebook

Steve Baarendse has an article in Touchstone on his reasons for not being on Facebook. He is specifically addressing college students. After listing various shortcomings of Facebook, he asks,

How do we use social media responsibly, especially in view of our calling as students? Answering this will require great discernment. ... Let’s agree that the danger doesn’t necessarily lie in our tools, but in our lack of self-control, which can make us the slave of our tools. Just as we can overeat in the cafeteria, so we can over-consume in our use of technology.

Skillful writing of an awful research paper

This editorial by Royce Murray at UNC is good advice to avoid. Rule 3 is particularly good:

Diagrams are worth a thousand words, so in the interest of writing a concise paper, omit all words that explain the diagram, including labels. Let the reader use his/her fertile imagination.

Hat tip: my colleague Elisabeth Smela, who posted a copy on the bulletin board outside her office.

Top 10 misused English words

A list of the top 10 misused English words at Listverse.

I welcome any attempts at a single sentence that uses all 10 words incorrectly.

Hat Tip: First Thoughts.

A reflection on Good Friday

From Joe Carter's post about notifying the next of kin when someone in the military dies:

Over two millennia ago, the greatest “casualty call” in history spread throughout a small Roman province in the Middle East. The news that the truest friend, the most beloved son, the gentlest teacher anyone had ever known had been crucified must have spread like wildfire through the land, sparking the most profound grief our universe has ever known. From this side of the calendar we can’t begin to comprehend the magnitude of loss that must have weighed on the hearts of Christ’s followers, family, and friends. We look backward on Good Friday, seeing it from the perspective of the glory that came on Sunday morning. But they saw only the darkness and pain, the loss of hope and bewilderment; they saw nothing but heartbreak.

Email patterns

The September 25, 2009, issue of Science has a report entitled On Universality in Human Correspondence Activity by Malmgren et al.

The report describes research that shows that typical patterns of using email are similar to typical letter-writing patterns. The researchers studied the correspondence of "16 writers, performers, politicians, and scientists."

The French and l'Internet

Also in the WSJ is an interesting article about how the French adopt new terms for modern technology. For example, the French word for "email" is "courriel."

Using EOM to make email more efficient

Use the subject line for the content of your email message, and end it with EOM. Get the full story in the article at LifeHacker.