英作文、英文ライティング、英語学習ブログ

This quote is from Charlotte Whitton:

Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult.

It has been almost 50 years since this quote. How times have changed. Men still have an advantage over women in some areas, but every day the advantage is being reduced. In America, more girls go to college than boys. More boys have attention problems than girls. The list goes on...

How things have changed...

Today we would like to present one of our old Topics of the Week. This one is on watching English TV and you can read the entry at http://www.aaronlanguage.com/weekly_English_topic/weekly_topic_3.htm. We suggest watching more English TV and less Japanese TV. Your English will improve greatly if you do this long term. Please click the link above to read the entry.

Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. To be a better writer, read. Read everything. Read the classics; read new authors. Read the newspaper. Read!

Get feedback. Ask people to read and tell you what they think.

Reread your own writing. See what you can improve.

For example, if I look back at this blog entry, written just once, and not yet edited, I see the following problems:

Need better vocabulary: For example, change 'get' to something better.

Read is overused; find other words or other ways to say that.

Some of this is not clear: 'Ask people to read and tell you what they think.' Is it clear that this is your own work? That is, to write something and ask people for feedback.

Writing something once is never enough: Edit.

And keep reading!

On November 27, 1978 gay rights trailblazer Harvey Milk was assassinated in San Francisco. Today, over 30 years later, nephew Stuart Milk continues his uncle's work across America and around the world, speaking about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality.

Stuart Milk is a cofounder of the Harvey Milk Foundation. In 2009, Milk accepted two medals on behalf of his uncle: the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama and the California Hall of Fame Medal from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This year, Milk celebrated California's first Harvey Milk Day, which took place on May 22.

Gay like his uncle, Milk spoke with Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Tutu asked him what he was doing to carry on Harvey Milk's legacy. Milk understood he must do more. Today he continues to carry the message of equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Like all of California, San Francisco is seeing an increase in drivers texting. In 2008, California passed a law against texting and driving. The Automobile Club of Southern California surveyed drivers in March and April this year, finding that texting has increased from 0.5 percent before the texting ban to 1.1 percent now. The percentage increase may seem small, but it is statistically significant and moving in the wrong direction.

Drivers from January 1 will probably see fines rocket to approximately $250 for texting, which will become a moving violation. Moving violations can can lead to increased insurance rates. About 2,600 texting tickets have been written out since July 1, 2008 compared to about 230,000 cell phone tickets. The number of cell phone users while driving has not increased.

The California legal system sees the problem, however, and may be getting tougher. California resident Martin Kuehl killed a pedestrian while texting and driving. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Approximately 28 percent of traffic crashes happen while driver are talking on cell phones or texting.

We sincerely hope you are not driving and texting.