The importance of learning grammar and creative writing for students

 Importance of English Grammar

English grammar is one of the most important aspects when you study the language. But it can also be one of the most difficult and complex parts. Here, I will discuss why English grammar matters in different situations—from informal conversations to professional communications. It will help you study grammar more efficiently by focusing on the concepts that are most important to you—along with some key English grammar rules that you should not ignore. Knowing correct grammar is the key to speaking English confidently. It will help you avoid making errors and save you from embarrassments.

Power of Grammar

Learning proper grammar is important because it is the basis of the language that makes it possible for us to speak effectively. Grammar teaches you words and word groups that make up sentences not only in English, but also in all other languages. We, humans, learn to string sentences together even as children, but the details that talk about how sentences are built, the types of words and word groups that make up sentences—is known as grammar. This knowledge of grammar opens a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity of knowing and learning a specific language. We always connect grammar with errors and correctness. But remember that knowing grammar helps us understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and enjoyable and crisp.

Grammar in Daily Life

There are situations where English grammar is especially important. For instance, if you are applying for a job interview in an English-speaking country, the employer would be interested in the quality of your spoken and written English. In a recent study of UK job recruiters, 50% said spelling and grammar errors were the biggest reasons they rejected an application.

Grammar is also essential for your social life. When you are meeting new people or visiting new places, the last thing you want is to be misunderstood! To avoid confusing your friends, or arriving at the wrong destination, or even ordering more drinks than you intend, you need to have a firm grip on how you structure your words.

Importance of Creative Writing

Developing structures within creative writing helps students build their thoughts into a logical process, as well as their emotions. They will be able to look at situations in the workplace and the rest of their lives with clarity, being able to define clear pathways in order to overcome problems in the future.Creative writing will also help them improve their intellectual skills. Their sentence structure, vocabulary and use of punctuations will be notably more advanced than others of the same age who do not practice creative writing. In a world where text speaks and emojis are common, creative writing helps develop writing skills that are being forgotten. If a child cannot communicate effectively, the problem may become worse as they grow older. Sharing ideas with others allows a child to develop their storyline and collaborate with others. Encouraging creative writing can help a child communicate efficiently in a world of technology.

Creative writing helps improve grades in different subjects. This is because imaginative writing helps improve thinking skills and also helps students learn more about themselves as writers. If you are looking for ways to boost your child’s grades, the best thing you can do is to encourage them to write creatively. Here, I will talk about how creative writing improves grades and tips on how parents can get their child started with their own creativity! Creative work helps improve your child’s study habits, because they are more likely to pay attention in class when they are already thinking about their creative projects at home.

Confidence in Studies

Creative writing helps kids feel more confident in their own abilities. It gives them the opportunity to explore different worlds and ideas without fear of being judged, which can be difficult when it comes to schoolwork. This kind of writing teaches children to express themselves creatively through the words they use.

Communication Skills

Creative writing also teaches students to communicate their ideas in a clear and concise way. This is important for any educational setting, but it is especially true for attaining higher grades, where verbal communication skills are important.

Greater Memory Power

Publishing creative work teaches children about collaboration. It prepares them to work in group projects later in life or starting their own businesses, too. It strengthens memory skills and increases intelligence. Students will be more focused in class because they will think about what happens next for the characters they have created.

It allows students an opportunity to experiment with different types of words, formats, and sentence structures. It broadens their horizon by exposing them to a creative world beyond just reading story books. Children enjoy creative writing enormously! It teaches kids to be more imaginative and explore their thoughts with art. It is also a good way to get to know and bond with unknown people.

About the author: Ritu Rahul Rathod, founder of Moonlight Musings

Source: The Telegraph, 28/12/22

Home fires: Editorial on the types of domestic violence

 Only with education, exposure, maturity and confidence can the Indian woman take full advantage of the law and the insights it contains

Domestic violence does not only mean being beaten to a pulp. A sessions court in Maharashtra, upholding a lower court order, ruled in favour of a woman who had complained that her husband refused to consummate their marriage but conducted affairs with other men. The court ordered the respondent to pay the woman compensation and a monthly maintenance. Physical injuries are certainly part of domestic violence, but the court reportedly said that so are sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse. A woman married to a man unwilling to relate to her sexually but engaged in relationships with men would presumably be subjected to emotional violence, since her expectations and — in this case — her efforts to establish conjugal relations with her husband were foiled. This was a kind of sexual violence, too, through the refusal or withdrawal of sex. The woman suffered from both kinds of abuse, exacerbated by her discovery of her husband’s affairs.

At first glance, the court seems to be reiterating the forms of abuse itemised in the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. What the reiteration does, however, is to underscore the slightly unusual nature of the case, thus suggesting that the kinds of abuse have a wide and varied application. The violence implicit in the situation of a woman who is not beaten up but just not treated as a wife in private could become invisible without an assertive application of the law. Economic violence by the intimate partner, for example, remains largely invisible in spite of the law. A spouse’s full control of household expenses is common enough, but just as common is a man’s pocketing of his wife’s earnings to spend on drink or gambling. Both these situations and more have become normalised by the power-relations within marriage and are, consequently, invisible. That does not make them any less violent or oppressive: acceptance of inequality on one level leads to continued violence on others. The law must be matched with awareness regarding accepted oppressions for it to be effective. The problem with protection from domestic violence is that, apart from physical abuse, it is difficult to recognise and acknowledge the other forms that the court mentioned. Only with education, exposure, maturity and confidence can the Indian woman take full advantage of the law and the insights it contains.

Source: The Telegraph, 2/01/23

129th birth anniversary of Satyendra Nath Bose: a look at the scientist’s contributions

 

Born on January 1, 1894, Bose collaborated with Einstein to develop what we now know as the Bose-Einstein statistics. We take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.

When a relatively unknown Kolkata-born teacher wrote a letter to Albert Einstein in 1924 about his breakthrough in quantum mechanics, nobody knew he was going to make history.

That teacher was Satyendra Nath Bose, who in 1924 reached out to the German physicist while claiming that he had derived Planck’s law for black body radiation (which refers to the spectrum of light emitted by any hot object) without any reference to classical electrodynamics. Bose asked Einstein to review his research paper and, if he found it important enough, get it published.

Impressed by Bose’s findings, Einstein not only arranged for the publication of the paper but also translated it into German. In his translator’s note, he said, “Bose’s derivation of Planck’s law appears to me an important step forward. The method used here also yields the quantum theory of ideal gas, as I shall show else.”

This recognition catapulted Bose to fame and glory. He went on to work with Einstein and together they developed what is now known as the Bose-Einstein statistics. Today, in honour of his legacy, any particle that obeys the Bose-Einstein statistics is called a boson. On his 129th birth anniversary, we take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.

Early life

Born on January 1, 1894, Bose grew up and studied in Kolkata, where he solidified his position as an exemplary academician. His father, an accountant in the Executive Engineering Department of the East Indian Railways, gave him an arithmetic problem to solve every day before going to work, encouraging Bose’s interest in mathematics.

By the age of 15, he began pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree at the Presidency College, and later finished his MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915. Bose topped his class for both degrees and at 22, he was appointed as a lecturer at Calcutta University, along with astrophysicist Meghnad Saha.

These were tough times for Indian researchers as World War I had broken out and, European scientific journals came to India quite infrequently. Not only this, most of the research papers weren’t available in English and both Bose and Saha had to learn scientific terms in German and French languages to read published works. However, the new skill came in handy for them in 1919, when they published English translations of Albert Einstein’s special and general relativity papers.

Two years later, Bose was appointed to the position of Reader in Physics at the University of Dhaka. It was here that he made his most significant contributions to physics.

The Breakthrough 

While teaching Planck’s formula for the distribution of energy from black body radiation, Bose began questioning the way particles were counted — his basic argument was that one photon of light is not distinguishable from another of the same colour — and came up with his own derivation, instead of relying on classical electrodynamics like his predecessors. Bose first sent his findings, recorded in a paper titled Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta, to a famous science journal called The Philosophical Magazine. However, the paper was rejected. Bose didn’t lose hope and made the bold decision of sending his research to Einstein.

The publication of the paper completely changed the Indian physicist’s life and career. He was soon granted study leave from his university for two years and allowed to visit Europe. During his trip, Bose got an opportunity to meet other famous scientists of that era, such as Paul Langevin and Madame Curie. He also joined the laboratory of Maurice de Broglie where he learnt techniques of X-ray spectroscopy and crystallography, the branch of science that deals with the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids.

Return to India

After his two-year stay in Europe, Bose came back to India and was appointed professor of physics and then Head of Department at Dhaka University in 1927. Here, he completely devoted himself to teaching and guiding research. Bose designed equipment for setting up an X-ray crystallography laboratory at the university, and wrote several papers on a range of subjects, such as ‘D2 Statistics’, and ‘Total Reflection of Electromagnetic Waves in the Ionosphere’.

In 1945, he left Dhaka to return to his alma mater, the University of Calcutta, as the Khaira Professor of Physics. He retired from the University of Calcutta in 1956 and spent a year as the Vice Chancellor at the Viswa-Bharati University.

Source: Indian Express, 2/01/23

Quote of the Day December 27, 2022

 

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
Roald Dahl

“आपके विचार अच्छे हों, तो वे आपके चेहरे से सूरज की किरणों की तरह चमकेंगे और आप हमेशा खूबसूरत दिखेंगी।”
रोआल्ड डाह्ल

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

 

Vol. 57, Issue No. 52, 24 Dec, 2022

Editorials

What Is a Safe Level of Government Debt?

A Continuation of Discrimination

From the Editor's Desk

Immigrants against Immigration

From 50 Years Ago

From 50 Years Ago: For a Theory of Colonial Modes of Production

Law and Society

A Defective Data Protection Board

Alok Prasanna Kumar

Commentary

They Who Not Know What the Media Is

Jagdish Rattanani

Booming Foreign Direct Investment in R&D - Sectoral and Regional Composition

Renjith Ramachandran

Brazil Elections - A Win for Democracy, But the Far-right Threat Remains

Kathryn Lum

The Growth of Unicorns - India in a Global Perspective

Saibal Ghosh

The Aragalaya versus Struggles - A Story of Inclusions and Exclusions

Ambika Satkunanathan

Mahua Wine - An Unregistered Geographical Indication vis-à-vis Potent Export Item

Mayuree Sengupta

Book Reviews

The RSS, Hindutva, and North East India

Tanka Bahadur Subba

Questions about the Scholarship on Kashmir

Aijaz Ashraf Wani

Insight

Political Aspects of ‘Freebies’

Avinash Kumar, Manish Kumar

Special Articles

Intergenerational Effects of Educating Girls on Empowering the Next Generation - Evidence from Jharkhand

Mukesh Ravi Raushan, Shireen J Jejeebhoy

DCR33

Hussain Indorewala

Import Surge and Domestic Competitiveness - The Case of Indian Incense Sticks Industry

Tamanna Chatuurvedi, O P Wali

Current Statistics

Current Statistics

Letters

COP27 and Effective Adaptation

Kushankur Dey

Cities and Invisible Classes

Sonu Chauhan

Wage crisis: Editorial on Global Wage Report 2022

 The International Labour Organization has come out with the latest Global Wage Report 2022. Over the past two years, labour markets have witnessed significant changes globally. These changes have been triggered by a slow economic recovery from the pandemic, high and persistent inflation rates, and new uncertainties brought about by the war in Ukraine. Global growth rates slowed down in 2022 and are expected to do so in 2023. The International Monetary Fund had predicted a global growth rate of 3.6% in April 2022, which was revised downwards to 3.2% in July 2022. In October 2022, the IMF’s prediction for economic growth in 2023 was in the range of 2% to 2.7%. Inflation was expected as an outcome of the pandemic; the policymakers’ response to it was presumed to be the loosening of money supply and reduction in interest rates. However, central banks across the world tightened money supply and hiked interest rates in an effort to control high inflation rates. In 2022, the global average inflation rate is expected to be 8.8%, falling to 6.5% in 2023 and to 4.1% in 2024. Weak recovery and high inflation have led to a slow adjustment in nominal wages and rapid rise in prices. Hence real earnings, particularly among low-income households, have fallen sharply.

Globally, real monthly wages fell by 0.9% during the first six months of 2022. For the G20 countries, which account for 60% of the world’s wage-earners, real wages fell by 2.2% in the half year of 2022. The labour market has in some economies been characterised by greater wage inequality. On the other hand, almost all nations, particularly India, have witnessed a large informalisation of the labour market which implies greater uncertainty in job security and earnings. From the policy perspective, there is a need to switch from average targeting to focussed targeting of income support schemes. Since high inflation has raised housing, food and transport prices, lower income households require special attention, with more than average adjustments required in their nominal wages. Central banks have to realise the need to ensure that cheap and assured credit lines are available for the small and medium sectors of the economy while tightening money supply and hiking interest rates. The economic scars of Covid will not go away in a hurry. Interventions must be suitably designed to ensure that the scars do not leave lasting marks on the economy.  

Source: The Telegraph, 26/12/22

Quote of the Day December 21, 2022

 

“If I feel depressed, I go to work. Work is always an antidote to depression.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

“यदि मैं उदास महसूस करती हूं तो मैं काम पर चली जाती हूं। काम में व्यस्तता उदासी का उत्तम प्रतिकार है।”
एलेनोर रूजवेल्ट