Dear Ms. Farrell,
Thank you for sending us your novel. Our readers enjoyed the first hundred pages, and we would like to publish the book next spring.
Before we sign anything, two points must be settled. First, the middle section moves slowly; we suggest cutting about forty pages. Second, your English is clean, but several very long sentences will be hard to translate, and we plan to sell the book in Japan as well.
Could you come to our office at two o'clock on 12 May? Our chief editor and one translator will join us.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Reed, Grey Owl Press
Rooms 3 and 4, Central City Library
Members must return each borrowed book within three weeks. Anyone who keeps a book longer than that faces a two-month suspension from the club.
The Thursday group is full until September. Add your name to the waiting list at the desk on the second floor.
Every few years a newspaper announces that grammar teaching is dead. Language, such writers argue, is picked up the way music is: by listening, and by reading enough literature.
The truth is less tidy. Beginners really do learn many patterns without being taught. Yet adults who never study the rules often stop improving after two or three years. Their speech stays clear but simple, and their real strength, a large vocabulary, is wasted.
A short weekly lesson on one point, say the auxiliary verbs used in questions, seems to work best. What fails is a whole term spent naming parts of speech while nobody writes a single paragraph.
A high school library asked 300 students what they read most often outside class.
| Type | Boys | Girls |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction and fantasy | 32% | 45% |
| Comics | 32% | 16% |
| Essays and news | 21% | 19% |
| Poetry | 15% | 20% |
Each student chose one answer only. Next year the library will spend most of its budget on fiction and fantasy.