Normal Koran (Penguin Classics): 7.7 in x 4.8 in x 0.9 in; 11.2 ounces; 464 pages
Smallest Koran: 0.66 in × 0.50 in × 0.28 in; grams?; 571 pages
Published in Cairo in 1982, the world’s smallest Koran is unabridged, bound, and in Arabic.  It is currently owned by Dr. Muhammad Saeed Karim Beebani of Pakistan.

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(Except, it’s not Christmas).

See you all in July!

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This weeks word is deponinate coming from the Latin root depono, meaning to put down, lay aside. As before, don’t feel confined by the Latin root, but extra points are given to those who keep to it!
Last weeks word was adiciment, coming from the Latin root adicio, meaning to direct, address, or apply [...]

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Starting a new series of blog posts concerning humorous mistakes in newspapers. Our first entry comes from the Edmonton Sun:
A 23-year-old student who was killed when a helicopter crash-landed on him in the middle of the street is raising questions about how aware people are of their surroundings when outside listening to portable audio [...]

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For the last few days, I’ve been busy putting together a poetry database over at The Writers Society, and yes, it is the best poetry database on the web!  If you don’t believe me, check it out.
Currently, there are 505 poems & 122 poets, and both Snoink and Incandescence have helped in adding the poems [...]

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Well, my favorite Writer’s Digest prompt page has apparently met it’s end, so prompts will start being a bit different for awhile because I’m partially making them up until I find another one I really like!  This one is about half WD and half me.  But, it is fun and I may actually do it! 
You [...]

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Haha.  This is pretty much just amazing to me.  Thanks to Penguin for the link!
LONDON (AFP) - A collection of poems by a Scottish bard dubbed the “world’s worst poet” was to go under the hammer Friday, expected to sell for thousands of pounds. William McGonagall was mocked by literary critics and had food thrown [...]

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I don’t think it was until Seventh Grade when I finally understood the difference between too and to. In fact, I can actually remember when I did make this epiphany: it was in English class (or maybe Reading), and I was writing down a sentence about going to the store. I pondered for [...]

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Discussion on the web can be separated into two broad categories: casual and serious.  Casual writing occurs in IMs, e-mails to friends, posts in certain areas of a web forum, and even sometimes in blogs.  Serious writing occurs in professional e-mails, serious discussions, creative writing, and usually in blogs.
In the former - casual writing - [...]

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The Writers Society (TWS) is a new writing community for writers ages 18+ that I’m starting. The site is quite similar to the Young Writers Society in that it’s forum based, and oriented around a strong sense of community. It’s just getting off the ground, but if you got the time, check it [...]

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The answer is in white font. To view it, simply highlight it using your mouse. All answers are on the same line as the question.
Who married his 13 year old handicapped cousin? Edgar Allan Poe
Who killed herself with cooking gas after living for two years in a flat, which is also the place [...]

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There are lots of commonly misused words, and no doubt they number in the hundreds or even thousands. However, the most commonly misused words I always see are “effect” and “affect.”
Many times, the easiest way to discern the difference between two words is to take a look at their Latin roots. In this case:

- [...]

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You’d be surprised how hard it is to come up with a good fake word.  The first one I came up with was a medical term.  The second one I came up with was an ethnic group from an obscure Greek island.  The third one I came up with was a family of insects.
So finally, [...]

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Can you spot the capitalization errors in the image above?
Believe it or not, but there’s a debate as to what constitutes proper capitalization in titles.  Fortunately enough, most people could care less as long the first word is capitalized and your spelling checks out alright.  Unfortunately, English teachers and professors are not counted among such [...]

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So if you’ve made a comment lately, you’ve noticed that it needs to go through approval first.  I started doing this a few days ago because this blog has been getting a large number of hits due to a few posts made popular via stumbleupon.  While that’s great, it also means that the blog is [...]

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When do you write seven, and not 7? Should I write 738,163,291 or seven-hundred-thirty-eight-million-one-hundred-sixty-three-thousand-two-hundred-ninety and one? Do I have 10 fingers, or eight fingers and two thumbs?

Figuring out when to write out a number can be a tricky problem. Sometimes it’s obvious (as in 738,163,291), and sometimes it’s not (10 fingers or ten [...]

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Dear Grammar Nazi Who Sits Behind Me,
I don’t know your name, although I think it begins with a B. You’ve been in my class for a few months now, and I feel quite foolish for not knowing how to address you. I’m often distracted by my own daydreaming, so please do not [...]

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It’s important to know how to write well.
That really should go without saying, but yet I continually see poor writing in forums, in blogs, and even in law school. Sometimes, fixing the problem is as simple as running spell-check, but sometimes the problem is as complex as knowing when and how to use semi-colons. [...]

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Note: The above picture has been edited so as to demonstrate the true nature of Penguins rather than what the hippie authors of the tale would have you believe. 
I know what you’re thinking.  In what way isn’t a penguin objectionable?  Indeed, out of all the species on the planet, penguins raise the most ire.  Fortunately, [...]

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· Don’t tell the readers what they already know about life.
· Don’t assume you’re the only one in the world who suffers.
· Some of the greatest poems in the language are sonnets and poems not many lines longer than that, so don’t overwrite.
· The use of images, similes and metaphors make poems concise. Close [...]

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In the words of Dubya, what is our children reading?
According to a survey of youthful reading in the United States, you all are reading quite a bit.  In the seventh grade, kids read 7.1 books a year.  In the twelfth grade, they are reading 4.7 books a year.  That’s a big drop, but my bet [...]

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Thought I’d try something new: I’ll make up a word, then everyone else has to come up with a definition for it.  The best definition will be chosen after an undetermined length of time, and the winner will have the honor of having invented a new word!
This week’s word is:
parathonal

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When Gutenberg made his printing press, the first book he printed with it was the Bible, which is now popularly known as the Gutenberg Bible. So you might be forgiven if you think the Bible would be the world’s oldest printed book, but that’d be an erroneous assumption.
Gutenberg wasn’t the first to realize that [...]

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The Young Writers Blog is starting to get more attention, so I thought it’d be best to spruce things up.  I think, or at least hope, you’ll agree that the change is for the better.  For now, neither the Archive or About links work, but those will be fixed in time.  In the time being, [...]

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Make sure you are firmly sitting down for if you have not seen it before, then you are about to read the shortest story you will ever encounter in your bleak, meaningless life:
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
According to legend, that is Hemingway’s six-word story and he referred to it as the greatest story he [...]

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