Word Documents: Changing the Header or Footer

Frustratingly, Word documents tend to reproduce the same header or footer throughout. If you want different headers or footers, here's how. The steps work in Word 2008 (Mac) and I think the procedure is very similar in Word 2007:

1. Your Word document must be open and your cursor must be inside the header or footer that you want to change.
2. Then, go up to View. In the Toolbox, select “Formatting Palette.”
3. Toward the bottom of that palette, you will see “Header and Footer.” (If you don’t see it, then your cursor is not in the Header or Footer.)
4. Click on the triangle to open this Header and Footer Menu.
5. If you want your title page to have a unique header or footer, select “Different First Page.” If you want to format your document for two-sided copying, click “Different odd and even pages.”
6. If your document is in sections, put your cursor in the header or footer of the section you want to change. Now, in the Formatting Palette’s Header and Footer menu, you will see “Link to previous.” Click that box if you want this section’s header or footer to reproduce the previous section’s. Unclick the box if you want to enter a different header or footer in that section. Then go into the section’s header or footer and type what you want there.

Clear Sentences in the Service of Physics

Here I pose with Dr. David Kielpinski, a young “old” friend from University of Chicago days. David was an MIT post-doc and is now a physics researcher at Griffith University in Brisbane.  He and his colleagues wrote “Imaging trapped ions with a micro-fabricated lens for quantum information processing,” recently accepted for publication in Nature Letters. 

Editing the paper for clarity, I used the techniques that you can learn in my WriteWell classes.  David and his colleagues were pleased, and they look forward to my help on future papers. 

If you know me, you know that I am as ignorant of quantum physics as a ladybug is of Chinese calligraphy.  But clear sentences always follow the same rules.

Do You Know These People?

In 30 years of teaching writing, I’ve learned from my godchildren (above).  Do you work with any types like them?

From left:

Norine, second-born: languorous, smart, but so independent that, at age 4, a teacher thought she was learning-disabled.  Refuses to learn a bit more than she chooses.  To teach a Norine, you wait until she is motivated and let her ask the questions. 

Eddie, the youngest:  Deeply empathic; wildly athletic; dyslexic.  Understands time as “now” or “the other day.” Declines to organize anything more ambitious than a sandwich.  Will write “at gunpoint,” but only if the writing expresses his own ideas. (His idea of a great argument is that, in Julius Caesar, Brutus was an alcoholic.)  To teach him writing, I stimulate his imagination, seat him at my Mac, and then use the Mac’s text to speech so he can hear all the errors.  Likes to listen. Generous and popular.

Bill, the oldest: Introverted; pianist; smart. Took a long time to enjoy reading, but now tells his brother, “You’ve got to read so you’ll have something to say.” Passionate about music. Talks little but thinks first.  As a child, he would not write, and words seemed to come easier when his were hands busy.  Liked to be timed so he could "beat the clock."  Excellent leader of outdoor activities. A high school English teacher called him "smart, serious, and independent."

Rosaleen, third-born:  Verbally precocious, meticulous.  A social learner.  At age three, would greet me by criticizing my clothing.  Through high school, came to my house where she wrote every assignment.  Bored when she was not conversing, she made me listen to every version of each sentence she wrote.  Once she tied me down for nine solid hours until she was happy with a paper on The Great Gatsby.  You have to beg her to stop editing.  Turn it in already!

Do you recognize any of these types at your workplace?  In your family?

Education Is the New Oil

Finance expert Niall Ferguson thinks (as I do) that better education in China may help explain China's new economic power.

On Dec. 7, 2010, the NY Times reported that Shanghai students outscored the rest of the world in reading, math, and science. US students ranked 17th to 23rd worldwide.

All children are born thinking outside the box. (They haven't seen the box.) Like Shanghai, we could educate for discipline and skill. And in the great American tradition, we could nurture creativity and inventive scope: music, art, and writing.

Education is the best investment. Communication can win what armies only botch.

Websites for Learning English

There are hundreds of websites that help (or claim to help) people learn English as a Foreign Language. Recently I reviewed some of them. I sought the ones with the most free resources, the fewest ads, and the easiest navigation.

1. World English/ ***** very few ads; a menu of hundreds of activities, exercises, and tests. This one offers hundreds of free quizzes.

2. Rong-Chang.com **** includes many free lessons and is easy to navigate. Dr. Ron Lee limits ads to one band across the page. Despite the .com, his site is generous with free tutorials, most of which he wrote himself.

3. ESL Mania * So heavy with ads that I couldn't navigate to free material.

4. a4esl.org ** This nonprofit site has little new to offer except a large variety of two-language quizzes (Czech-English, French-English, etc.) created by volunteers.

5. 1-language.com ** Offers, for example, 40 units of free audio English instruction if you have Adobe Macromedia Flash Player. My Mac has it, but I still could not coax sound from my computer.

6. English for Internet ** http://www.study.com/ voluntary $20 contrib, or voluntary $1/month subscription. Calls itself "a free place to study world languages: real teachers, real classmates, real time." Requires you download an .exe file. Good luck.

Special Categories

7. VOA News/Special English *****  Listen to a news story while you see the text. News stories are written in a basic-English vocabulary, easy to understand and imitate. Excellent practice!

8. Cambridge Dictionary for nonnative speakers of English: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ I don't know how many free lookups this site offers. But it tells you whether a noun is count or uncount, and it distinguishes among British, Australian, and US English.

9. Macmillan Dictionary lets you toggle between British and U.S. English: http://macmillandictionary.com

Thanks, Ekaterina of Indore, India

If you read the comment to my  post "Websites for Learning English," you will see links to four sites.

Thanks, Ekaterina of Indore, India! You remind me of a crucial factor: Some English sites use British English. The sites you graciously mentioned use British spelling and pronunciation.

The first site, englishtips.org, has a free daily "English tip." Today's was an excellent discussion of "scope out." Englishtips.org is primarily a blog that reviews and rates ESL books and materials.

The second site is the general site of Open Learning, a British open university; it offers audio in that it allows you to download a "speaker" application. The accent will be British. I clicked on Languages but could not find any EFL lessons.

The third site, functionalenglish.in, is a blog about teaching English worldwide with a link to Ekaterina’s 4QL site.