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certified-protagonist · 6 years ago

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So You Want to Pace Your Novel

An opinion piece on pacing, an element of fiction that determines the speed and impact of scene in a novel.

Care Warnings for the Example Piece: captivity, implied torture, implied death, panic

Don’t look back.

These monsters will kill them if they let up.

Going back there to captivity to pain—no, they want freedom. They want fresh breeze. They want the sun.

Quick as a whip, the protagonist snaps around a corner and bolts down a hall. Their heels hit the tile lightly and lift just as quick—the percussion of their fear jams their heart and refuses to release. It’s this way. It must be. By now they have no choice. The monsters hoot and holler at their back. They have no time.

Go, they will their body. Go, go, go!

They fly ahead with erratic breaths. The dark walls blur together, nothing is familiar, but there, ahead, there’s the light! They burst toward it with renewed vigor. The ground shakes, almost hurls them off their feet, and the walls shift. This hall—is it shrinking? A hasty look proves it is. The hall is closing in. It narrows with every lunge.

No, they beg, no, no!

The number of lit sconces diminishes, the air thins and clogs with dust, but they’ll be damned if they don’t reach that light. Screeching monsters hound their every step, crave their blood, hiss and spit poison at their back. But they won’t go back. They can’t.

Run!

They push. The protagonist tucks low and aligns themself with the wall and stumbles into an awkward gallop as they near the tightening end. They must fit. They have to fit. They can’t not fit, or the monsters will get them.

Go go go go go go!

The monsters’ shrieks spike higher, closer. They’re right there—the protagonist feels them on their arm, their neck, the skin of their ear.

With one last thrust of speed, the protagonist leaps into the light. They tumble and roll across the loose earth as the walls close tight with a boom. There’s a sickening crunch. They wince at such a sound; it reminds them of broken bones and the lash of cords. They keep their eyes down; the scent is enough. Their every limb trembles from exertion, but they far from relax.

They scrabble around and check their surroundings; are they out? Are they free? The first thing they notice is the quality of the air, its texture. It lacks the dust and musk of their cell or the punishment chamber, and it feels lighter and refreshing and cold and sweet. As they pull in the air, it’s so clean and unfamiliar it turns their stomach. They swallow back any bile and keep drinking. Air. This is fresh air. They take it in greedily.

The protagonist looks up as sweat runs down their face in sheets, blinking away fearful tears and when their eyes clear, they see trees. Color. Green.

They marvel at the canopies, where light shines between the gaps and graces the earth in gentle beams. Tentative and cautious, they crawl over on hands and knees to the closest beam with bated breath. They lift a hand and ease it into the ray, and, holding it there, they watch the light show every fracture in their cut and bruised skin. The warmth presses into their shaking fingers and their palm. Heat. They close their fist in it and squeeze, as if trapping a small piece of the sunbeam.

Pacing is one of those elements of fiction that writers aren’t strangers to struggling with. It’s pivotal, it’s necessary, it demands balance and flow to give the effective punch needed to keep readers engaged. Whether it’s a chase scene where there’s no time to think, or a dark night full of self-reflection, the content of those moments will lose their desired impact if the pacing is wonky. It’s quite tragic.

Think about it: a fight scene with long sentences, passive voice, and clear, full thinking on a character’s part gives off this unhurried tone that begs the question if this is a fight scene or retrospection. Where’s the hurry?

In the opposite sense, quiet time where the character is self-reflecting in an active voice, the narrative is in short sentences, and thoughts are but a moment has such a peculiar energy, it makes you wonder: Just how seriously is the character taking this moment? Why are these sentences so quick and packed tight? What’s the hurry?

These are extreme examples, and as with other elements of fiction there’s that gray area that makes it difficult to discern what a scene needs. Even so, whether it’s almost there, completely out of whack, or missing that mysterious something, this article will offer some elements to keep in mind when you’re pacing/revising the pacing in your novel. Taking them into consideration during the revision process can help get those iffy, stressful areas in the draft where you want them to be.

One of the first things to consider is word choice. How’s the verb? How’re the adjective or the adverb where those apply to the prose? The words that are in use when it comes to narration can change the pace of a sentence or a moment. To achieve impact, diction that specifies the action can not only provide a clearer, packed image, but also imply how fast the action is happening. In the passage above, the protagonist snaps around a corner instead of turns. We know they’re running, but snapping implies a hastier movement, an emotion in place, and a sense of urgency. Later in the piece, the protagonist eases their hand into the sunbeam, rather than stick their hand into it. This implies not only a slow gesture, but also an emotion and a sense of inhibition. It’s word choices like this that can determine how things slow down or speed up; meticulous use of diction is an advantageous skill to have when thinking of pacing a novel.

An element to look at as well is sentence length. Long sentences create a slower pace and short sentences speed it up. Paragraphs of long sentences may be effective for description or reflection, but fast paced moments like fight scenes could benefit from shorter sentences. In the passage above, there are shorter sentences at play when the character needs to move. They’re running for their life; they can’t spend time in a long sentence. Near the end, the sentences get longer. Not long enough to imply the character has relaxed, but long enough that they imply the moment is slowing down. The shorter the sentence, the quicker things move into the next one. The longer the sentence, the more time spent absorbing the information it holds.

Punctuation also plays a role in the pace of a sentence; they decide when an action comes to an end and how it comes to that end. In a sense, it plays with breathing. Poetry teaches that commas suggest a half breath, periods a full stop, and the em dash is a quick cut into the next sentence, interrupting a thought with another, which is a quick or held breath. These and other marks like them effect cadence in a sentence. Commas shuffle through thoughts rather than directly end them; em dashes interrupt thoughts; and periods mark an end to a thought and signals an advance into the next sentence. When working on flow and pace, look into how a sentence or a punctuation mark can play into crafting the desired effect.

There’s also the matter of voice when it comes to pace and flow. Novels have a combination of passive and active voice to control the speed at which a writer wants the plot to move. Active voice brings energy to the page with powerful verbs, like sprint versus run and lunge versus jump. Active voice also uses verbs to mark complete actions and move characters forward. The passage above is in active voice. The character is always moving because of verbs coming right after the nouns or pronouns. Active voice creates a fast, forward momentum that’s hard to achieve with passive voice.

Passive voice contains verbs that tend to be prefixed with variants of to be. Some of these verbs end in -ing; this mean an action isn’t finished and it’s still ongoing. “To be” verbs put before those -ing verbs make that ongoing action complete, but the character is motionless as a result. The same can be said about other verb tenses; “he was stopped” still implies that an action happened in the past, but the character has yet to move forward. Passive voice tells what happened to a character, not what they did. The pace seems slower in these instances and almost stagnant, as if we’re meant to stay in the moment. Keep an eye on the type of voice being used when concerned about pace; sometimes to be is not to be, and it needs to be removed from the sentence.

Speaking of the moment, scenes can also affect the pace of the novel. Long scenes full of introspection, description, and narration are slower paced than short scenes bursting with action, movement, and decisions. There’s also transitions or jump cuts; transitions from one place to another keeps the pace leisurely, whereas jumping from one scene to another can pick up the pace, since the story is leaping ahead rather than taking its time to move from one scene to another. The pace of a novel can be controlled by playing within these parameters and deciding how many long scenes a story needs versus shorter ones.

This also means scene management. It’s a good rule of thumb to not spend any more time in a scene than is necessary to complete its arc. Each scene has its own arc of exposition, rising action, climax, and falling action. It may not be as massive or pivotal as a chapter or even the novel as a whole, but scenes still have these arcs that carry weight, and should be looked at when fiddling with pacing. Say a scene is all exposition. This is a lot to download and remember over the course of the chapter, and it can really bog down the pace. The same can be said of fight scenes that go on for much too long; it’s a lot of energy to keep up with a fight, and readers can only sit on the edge of their seat so long before they get tired and scoot back or fall off. The pace may be quick, but actions can get repetitive and the pace reaches a standstill as a result. Managing how long the characters spend in a scene and how the story moves within that scene can help stabilize the pace as well as determine it.

Another thing to look at in scenes is how much dialogue is in place. Dialogue tends to be the quickest element to digest when reading. If there’s a lot of dialogue, the scene is quicker. If there’s little dialogue, the scene is denser. With dialogue, it’s like being in the conversation; what are they saying, and what are they doing while they’re saying it? And with any conversation, there’s pacing to consider there as well. Monologues are slower to move through than a curt answer, several lines of dialogue require more time than a quip. Deeper conversations are slower than hasty exchanges by trade. Writing the exchange between two or more characters with few pauses and plenty of actions can create that forward momentum that a faster pace requires. To create a slower pace, writing dialogue with pauses, introspection, and less actions is a good way to achieve that vision.

The biggest take away here is that pacing is ultimately regulating how fast or slow characters or events move through a novel, and discovering that pace is dependent on the choices made in crafting the prose. There’s action and introspection, conversation both weighty and light, travel and racing, movement and pausing, and using diction, dialogue, sentence variation, and punctuation as tools to make those tenants of pace leave their desired impression.

Play with these elements, find what works best, and apply what you find to your draft to keep readers engaged and right where you want them.

Keep it pushing, and happy writing!

💕Julie

#writing help #writing tips #writing #pacing #novels #writeblr #my Creative Writing degree is showing #will it continue to show it's face #it's more likely than you think #I hope this helps somebody #gotta get that based reader engagement #can't tell me my princess is in another castle no sir #nunna that

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lingumaniac · 8 years ago

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LGBTQ+ vocabulary - Low Saxon

Now, it is official: Germany voted with 393 Yes and 226 No votes in favor of marriage equality, which we call in German “Ehe für alle” (marriage for all), and the Bundespräsident signed it now. This is a historic moment for Germany and marks the point where we move forward from just tolerance to more acceptance. Hopefully, this will have effects on the German people to be more accepting of other sexual and gender identities and life forms.

In order to do so, here is some vocabulary regarding LGBTQQIP2SAA topics to spread more awareness in Low Saxon, i. e. Low German, the regional language spoken in Northern Germany and the Netherlands. Feel free to add things, to give feedback or to correct me. Low Saxon speakers haven’t been really active in creating new terms for LGBT+ topics, so this is some kind of language development, too, since many of the terms will be coined right now and haven’t been used (yet). So, this is mostly a draft for you and us to work on. It can also be helping to remove discrimination and prejudices since most Low Saxon speakers are living in rural areas where LGBTQ+ topics are mostly seen as something exotic and people are afraid of stranger things and thus still more conservative and homo-/transphobic.

Attributes

(After the comma, the adjective endings are given.) homosexual - homoseksuell, ~e, ~en gay - swuul, swule, swulen (Side note: The German word “schwul” for “gay” derived from Low Saxon. In Middle Low Saxon the word “swul” meant “sweltry” and the word was borrowed by German and then changed into “schwül” as analogy to “kühl” (cool) which has an umlaut, too, for weather terms. The word “schwul” without the umlaut was then used for “gay” because, in German, gays were associated with being warm, hence: warmer Bruder - a gay companion, lit. warm brother.) lesbian - lesbsch, ~e, ~en bisexual - biseksuell, ~e, ~en transsexual - transseksuell, ~e, ~en asexual - aseksuell, ~e, ~en aromantic - aromantsch, ~e, ~en intersexual - interseksuell, ~e, ~en (some might say: innerseksuell) pansexual - panseksuell, ~e, ~en queer - queer, ~e, ~en; dweer, dwere, dweren; dwars, ~e, ~en (Side note: The English word “queer” actually comes directly from the Brunswick dialect of Middle Low Saxon, meaning “oblique, off-centered”.) LGBT - LGBT or in Low Saxon LSBT same sex - liekslechtlich, ~e, ~en out - “he is out” - “he is out” [What a cognincidence!] (”out” meaning in German “geoutet”; there is no “ge-” in Low Saxon and no “-et” after “-t”) coming out - sik outen, “he came out” - “he hett sik out” -gender (adj.) - (ge)slechtlich, ~e, ~en (many would put ge- in front of it) cisgender (adj.) - cisgender, no adjective endings; cisslechtlich, ~e, ~en genderqueer - slechtsdweer, ~dwere, ~dweren; genderqueer, no endings third-gender - drüddslechtlich, ~e, ~en genderfluid - slechtsvlödig, ~e, ~en; genderfluid, no endings agender/neutrois - unslechtlich, ~e, ~en; agender, no endings androgyne - androgyyn, ~gyne, ~gynen bigender - tweeslechtlich, ~e, ~en; bigender, no endings Female to Male / FTM - Vrouw to Mann / VTM; (Se to He) Male to Female / MTF - Mann to Vrouw / MTV; (He to Se) gender nonconforming - slechtsunstimmig, ~e, ~en; nichslechtsövereenstimmen, no adjective endings gender questioning - slechtsunseker, ~e, ~en; slechts-in-Vraag-stellen, no adjective endings (probably gets paraphrased as “S/he stellt eer/sien Slecht in Vraag,”) non-binary - nichbinäär, ~e, ~en pangender - panslechtlich, ~e, ~en; allslechtlich, ~e, ~en Two-Spirit - een Two-Spirit ween; “tweegeestig”, ~e, ~en monogamous - monogaam, ~game, ~gamen polygamous - polygaam, ~game, ~gamen polyamorous - polyamoröös, ~röse, ~rösen; veelleven, ~e, ~en nonconformist - nichkunfoormistsch, ~e, ~en

Nouns

(After the noun, the genus and the plural forms/endings are given.) boyfriend - de Vründ, Vrünn girlfriend - de Vrünnin, Vrünninnen (When you are referring to your own boy- or girlfriend it is mostly enough to just use Vründ or Vrünnin with the possessive pronoun “mien” in front of it. If you want to put emphasis on it or want to distinguish it from a friend you could use the adjective “vast” with it, meaning “tight or close” friend implicating the boy- or girlfriend: Ik ga mit mien Vrünnin na’t Kino. - Een Vrünnin or dien vaste Vrünnin? - Nee, mien vaste Vrünnin. - I am going to the cinema with my (girl)friend. - A friend or your girlfriend? - No, my girlfriend.) relationship - de “Beziehung” f, ~en (Low Saxon often uses the German word.); de Partnerschapp f, -en triangle relationship - de Dreeecksbeziehung/-partnerschapp f, ~en (sexual) orientation - de (seksuelle) Orienteren f sexuality - de Seksualiteet f, ~teten sex & gender - dat Slecht n, ~er (In Low Saxon there is no strict distinction made between sex and gender. If you want to, you can use dat Gender for gender and dat Slecht for sex.) gender identity - de Slechtsidentiteet f, ~teten rainbow - de Regenbagen f, ~s cross-dresser - de Transvestiet m, ~en; de Transvestietsche f, ~n transgender person - en Transseksuellen m, ~en; en Transseksuelle f, ~n polyamory - Polyamoree f.; Veelleveree f. cis-normativity - de cis-Noormativiteet f. phobia - de Fobie f, ~n (You can put Homo-, Bi-, Trans-, Ace- etc. in front of it.)

Gender-neutral speech

This is a little bit harder in Low Saxon than in English because not only do our pronouns have a genus, but all our nouns have one out of three genera and thus the adjective and article declination, too. A big problem we often face is the generic masculine for person terms like professions where it is usual to take the male form but subsume the female members under it, too. If you don’t give context most people will think of men only hearing a word like “de Studenten” for “the students” even it would also include women (which would be “de Studentschen”). Most of the strategies in Low Saxon will be the same as in German, in this case, for example, to use a double form in speaking “de Studentschen un Studenten” or in writing “de Students|chen”. You could also use the gerund which is ungendered in the plural form “de Studeren” (the studying people), but since Low Saxon has a lot of homophonous morphemes, this is not a good strategy and can be confused with many other words. For the plural formation, however, some nouns can be made gender-neutral by putting the word for “people” behind it: de Koopmann m - the businessman vs. de Koopvrouw f - the businesswoman They have own plurals when there are only males or females, but you can hide the gender by adding -lüüd for people: de Kooplüüd - would be the business people. This is known to German, too, but the extent is much bigger in Low Saxon and I would highly appreciate a more frequent use.

One other advantage that Low Saxon has, is that the articles for male and female nouns are the same, just like the respective relative pronouns, making a gender-neutral sentence easier. Also, the two pronouns for he and she are very similar: “he” and “se”, so one could make use of “s|he” similar to English. (We don’t have an artificial gender-neutral personal pronoun and also no singular-they, however.)

Example: Güstern weer daar een, de … - Yesterday there was someone, who … (Neither the indefinite nor the definite article show a distinction between male and female when they are in the nominative case. So, they can be used to establish gender-neutral sentences, whereas in German the sentence would be: Gestern war da eine, die … or Gestern war da einer, der … for either a male or a female person.) This applies only for the nominative/subject case, however, in the object case, the definite and personal pronouns get different forms for either male or female and they can be used as a pair form: Güstern heff ik een seen. - Yesterday, I saw someone. (This is fine because een (one) never changes.) Güstern heff ik em/eer seen. - Yesterday, I saw him/her. (em means “him” and eer means “her”.) Güstern heff ik de|n seen. - Yesterday, I saw him/her. (Oftentimes, the demonstrative pronouns are used, the object case singular for masculine is den, and the female one does not change and is de. You can either use the orthographic method of writing it de|n or a double form den/de.)

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tipsycad147 · 5 years ago

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3 Ways To Use Magic For The Zodiac: Libra

SL Bear

Libras are an interesting mix. They like the finer things and appreciate beauty, but are often categorise as superficial. They are heavily concerned with justice and fairness, but they are motivated to keep the peace above all — the ultimate people pleasers. This makes Libra indecisive when it comes to choosing sides and fearful of confrontation. While they are labelled good mediators, they hold grudges like a dog with a bone and can be swayed easily, especially if they believe it means a faster path to harmony. In essence, Libras are incredibly sweet, down to Earth people who just want a little peace and quiet. Things get tricky for them when other people are involved, which is unavoidable — unlike some other signs, Libras are very social beings.

Looking To The Wind

Because Libras are all about balance and harmony, I wanted to honor this when creating some magic for their birthday. Though Libras can be indecisive, it’s only because they want to make sure they’ve done things right. They want to make the moral choice, that also makes the most people happy. This is a hard thing for anyone, but Libras take this responsibility very seriously.

What you will need:

A small piece of blue material

A stick and a way to affix the material to the stick

A blue candle

A tarot deck

Alternative: A coin and some blue paint

Libra is an air sign so it’s important to bring this element into your magic because it’ll work well with you. For this magic, you’ll be using wind so wait for a breezy day before starting.

To begin, make a small flag out of your materials, then plant it somewhere outside where you can see it from a window. Light a blue candle, shuffle your tarot deck, and draw two cards. Place these cards side by side in front of the blue candle. The card on your right represents the situation you’re having difficulty with — the problem that needs a decision — and the card on the left represents your role in this situation. While you’ve probably already spent a lot of time thinking about this decision, and weighing all sides, something is keeping you from reaching a clear yes or no. This is where the flag comes in. Trust your intuition! You already know the right thing to do, so no more vacillating. Whichever way you’re leaning toward more, take a moment and ask aloud “am I making the right choice?” Then take both of the tarot cards in your hand and look outside at the flag. If it blows east, the answer is yes. If it blows to the west, your answer is no.

Alternatively, you may not have time to wait for a windy day or for whatever reason, a flag is not possible. No worries! Paint a coin (a quarter will work best) blue and mark one side with the Libra glyph, which is a symbol for balance. Instead of looking outside at the flag after reading the cards, flip the coin high in the air. Heads (the side with the Libra glyph) is yes, and tails is a no. You can keep this coin with you and ask it simple yes or no questions whenever indecision strikes.

Pomme d’Amour

Libras are connected to the planet Venus, as well as the goddess. Because of this, Libras are ruled by a desire to find lasting love and a partner who will support them through thick and thin. While they may not necessarily seek marriage, the concept of marriage and union is closely tied to Libra’s symbolism.

This spell is meant to draw out a fitting partner for Libra!

What you will need:

A green (unripened) cherry tomato

Rose petals

A banana

A paper bag

A small altar

Seven red candles

This spell should be started on a Monday.

To begin, create a sigil based on the traits you’d like to see in a partner. Keep it specific “My partner is _____” and add as many adjectives as you’d like. Once your sigil is complete, draw it on the paper bag.

The altar doesn’t have to be as big and special as your regular altar, it’s just a space where everything can sit without being disturbed. Tomatoes are sacred to Libras, probably due to their association with love and Venus. There are also stories of tomatoes being powerful aphrodisiacs, which make them a perfect fit for this spell. Place the candles in a circle and then pop the tomato into the paper bag with the banana and nest this in the centre of your circle. Please space everything carefully so there’s no chance of the paper bag catching fire!

In the space between the bag and the candles, sprinkle your rose petals. This spell will be performed over a week so don’t be alarmed when the petals start to dry — that’s perfectly fine.

At the beginning of the week, once everything is set up, light the candle just to the right of the candle at the very top of the circle, or the candle at the 1 o’clock position. Recite the first line of the incantation. For each following day of the week, moving clockwise around the circle of candles, say the corresponding line of the incantation and light the next candle in the circle, along with all the preceding candles you lit the days before. I recommend letting the candles burn for at least a half hour every day, but feel free to let them burn longer if you like!

On the seventh day, all your candles will be lit and you’ll recite the last line of the spell. Remove the tomato from the bag and tear away the paper round the sigil, so it’s small enough to burn, then activate your sigil with the flame of Sunday’s candle. Save the ashes of the sigil, mix it with the rose petals and set them in your hand. Go outside and blow this mixture to the east.

If the tomato isn’t ripe yet, it’s okay, there’s no time limit on it. However, when it does ripen, use this tomato to make something delicious and share it with a friend or family member who could use a pick-me-up. This is a gesture of kindness and love which hopefully will come back to you!

Libra love spell incantation:

Monday: I send the call out on the wind

Tuesday: And it will come back again

Wednesday: Love built to last and stronger still

Thursday: Than summer sun or winter chill

Friday: Venus, please find them for me

Saturday: And make them beautiful to see

Sunday: I sent the call out on the wind, and now I bring them home again

You may substitute whatever pronouns you’d like here, of course.

Aeolian Force

Though water is by far the most powerful way that our landscape is shaped, wind is a force of change as well. It blows the terrain away or blasts sand and dirt against surfaces thus eroding them over time. This is called the Aeolian process and it’s seen primarily in sparse regions like deserts and areas with little vegetation. It creates smooth, bizarre rock formations and gorgeous dunes. For this spell, we’re going to use it to bury an old grudge.

Libras don’t let go of past insults easily, but holding onto the past — which can never be changed — is unhelpful. Not because you should forgive everyone always and hug instead, but because focusing on anything negative for too long is bad for you. It’s nonproductive for your life. So what do you do? You blow it away.

What you will need:

Sand

Mint

A wooden stick (or any tool handy that can be used as a writing instrument)

You can perform this spell two ways: Go somewhere with a lot of sand or, if that’s not possible, just grab some from the craft store and put it onto a container. Add a little mint to the sand, then with your stick, write out the thing you can’t let go of, or the name of the person who wronged you. It’s hard to write in sand, so keep it short. Let this sit overnight and while it rests, use this time to think about why this action bothered you so much. Think about why holding onto this blip in your past serves you. Does it? Does the person still think about it, or are you the only one that hasn’t moved on? The point is to realize that when you let go of something, it stops having power over you. Instead of negatively affecting you, it disappears into the past.

In the morning, return to the sand and blow onto the surface until you’ve made the words disappear. As you do, imagine you’re wiping it from your memory. This might take a minute, but that’s good. It will give you more time to meditate on why taking this step is the right thing to do.

Libras are complicated; elegant yet down to earth, fair but deeply concerned with making sure everyone’s needs are met. For your birthday, take some time for yourself and celebrate the many facets of your personality — there’s no one quite like you, Libra!

Do you know how to enhance your magic, improve your intent, and get kick ass results from your spells all at once?

If you don’t, then you need to be utilising the amazing energy structure inherent to the human magical system. Tapping into this energy system allows you to understand the magic you’re using on a far deeper level and achieve results that will blow your mind.

In The Witch’s Energy System, I’ll break down the entire system into easy to use pieces so that you can learn to see, feel, and make use of this energy in a way that will completely change how you view your own magic.

Learn More Here >>

https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/2018/8/26/3-ways-to-use-magic-for-the-zodiac-libra

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notarealdisciple · 7 years ago

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30 Phrasal Verbs to Help You With Technology

Welcome back to Everyday Grammar from VOA Learning English. This is our third episode on phrasal verbs. As you know, a phrasal verb is a phrase with two or more words: a verb and a preposition or adverb, or both. Today we look at very current phrasal verbs: ones used with technology. The digital age has created many new words and phrases in English. The world of technology is fast-changing, and it has broken many traditions. It is natural that the language of computers would also change and be informal. Not only is the language of technology full of phrasal verbs, it is also full of new nouns. Many of those nouns grew out of phrasal verbs, as you will learn in this episode. Getting started Let’s go back to 1969, when the first verb sent over the Internet was a phrasal verb: log in. To log in is to enter a code, key or password to gain access to the computer’s abilities. We have been logging in ever since then. Sometimes we say we have to sign in to a web page. Like now, we started a computer by hooking up wire cables and then powering it up or turning it on. Some computers took a long time to boot up, or get ready to run programs. Now, we do not have to wait as long. To install new applications on the computer, users run a set up program. Then we click on the icon, or image, for a program to run it. After opening a program, you choose commands from a menu. These menus are stored in a pull down or drop down bar near the top of the screen. A click of the mouse – the hand-held device that guides the cursor around the computer screen – shows more commands on the bar. That bar is often called the navigation bar or nav bar. This leads us to our first noun from a phrasal verb, pulldown. When we give instructions to a friend about using a web page, we can say, “Look in the nav bar for the pulldown and choose a command.” Another verb that describes up-and-down movement on the screen is scroll up or scroll down. A wheel on the mouse allows you to scroll up or scroll down to read a web page. We can click on an arrow to move to the next screen, too. Storage and other problems Installing upgrades can sometimes damage files. So, users should always back up their files. That is, copy files and folders to another location, like an external disk drive. A user who stores many large files will soon run out of room on the computer, so keeping files on an extra hard drive is a good idea. This phrasal verb became a noun, too. Experts tell us, “Put your backups in a safe place.” My parents used to print out their emails because they wanted to keep a permanent copy, and here is another new noun: a printout. The phrasal verb print out is a separable phrasal verb, like the ones we talked about in a previous episode. That means you can put a pronoun between the verb and preposition, as in “Let me print it out for you.” Even when we use passwords, criminals have learned to enter a computer or a network without permission. They are hacking into the network. Hacking can make computer systems go down, or stop working. A disaster could happen if the hacker wiped out, or erased, all the information on a computer system. That is why you back up your system. Annoying advertising Internet advertisements, or ads, pop up on the screen over a web page. This created a new noun from the phrasal verb, popup. People said they needed a tool to block those annoying ads, so the “popup blocker” was born. This feature is part of the browser software. Speaking of browsers, another phrasal verb that became a noun is plug in. You know that you can plug a wire into the wall. Now, we add small programs to perform specific tasks in the computer, and call them plugins. Companies often will ask for your email address. They create a large list of users from their email addresses. When we sign up to use a website, we key in our name and email address. The organization running an online service usually asks us to opt in, or choose to receive email messages. Usually those messages are asking us to buy products. There are so many of these emails now that many people try to filter out all messages from advertisers – otherwise known as spam. Getting off the grid If you think that the Internet is full of too many advertisements, and your email is nothing but spam, just click on the menu to shut down and turn off your devices for the day. Get off what we called “the information superhighway” and take a walk outside. Wait! There is one final phrasal verb to describe that: go offline. For Learning English Everyday Grammar, I’m Jill Robbins. And I’m John Russell. Dr. Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English. Now it’s your turn. Does your language borrow English phrasal verbs for computer terms? Do you know any new expressions to talk about our digital life? Write to us about them in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. Here is a list of the phrasal verbs in this story: Phrasal Verbs for Technology and Computers Phrasal Verb Meanings Example log in sign in sign-in v. connect to a computer using a username and password n. page or act of registering permission to use a program To begin, log in to your desktop system. hook up to connect wires from machines to a power source or other machines Would you please help me hook up the Internet cable? power up turn on provide power to a machine Press the red button to power up your tablet. boot up start up begin running a computer system Wait a second, my computer is booting up. set up v. to install a new computer program or assemble a computer system n. the process of adding information using a computer program This application took a long time to set up. pull down pulldown v. choose from a menu of options in a computer application extending down from the action bar like a window blind n. a menu of options Look for the file menu and pull down to “Save As…” click on move a mouse over an item and press to select Click on the start menu to begin. scroll up scroll down to move slowly to the top or bottom of a text The news story was so long I had to scroll down a lot to read it all. run out of exhaust a supply of something You will run out of disk space if you save copies of all your emails. back up backup v. make an extra copy of a file n. an extra copy of a file Be sure you back up your files before you change systems. print out printout v. send an electronic document to a printer n. a printed document I have to print out the directions before I leave home. hack into enter a computer or network illegally Someone hacked into my bank and stole millions of dollars. go down stop operating properly I cannot send any emails because the server went down. wipe out completely erase or delete files Before you donate your computer, be sure you wipe out the hard drive. pop up popup v. to appear suddenly n. an advertisement that appears suddenly on a computer screen If you do not want to see the ads, turn on your pop up blocker. plug in plug-in v. insert a cord into an outlet or port n. an addition to a software program that performs a certain task Plug in your laptop over there. sign up register with a service She signed up for an online dating service. key in type or enter characters using a keyboard It takes too much time to key in that long password. opt in / out choose to receive advertising or messages The company asked me to opt in to get special offers by email. filter out remove unwanted email messages Can we filter out all the spam on this account? turn off shut down power down end a session on the computer by closing an application or removing power I’m tired, so I’m going to shut down the computer for today. go online/offline to use the Internet / not use the Internet I will send you that information as soon as I can go online. . ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story preposition – grammar. a word or group of words that is used with a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, location, or time, or to introduce an object adverb – grammar. a word that describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a sentence and that is often used to show time, manner, place, or degree informal – adj. (of language) relaxed in tone; not suited for serious or official speech and writing cable – n. a group of wires, glass fibers, etc., covered in plastic or rubber and used to carry electricity or electrical signal upgrade – n. an occurrence in which one thing is replaced by something better, newer, more valuable, etc. browser – n. a computer program that is used to find and look at information on the Internet specific – adj. having a particular function or effect opt – v. to choose to do or be involved in something filter – v. to remove (something unwanted) by using a filter spam – n. e-mail that is not wanted or e-mail that is sent to large numbers of people and that consists mostly of advertising Source: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/phrasal-verbs-to-help-you-with-technology/3085650.html

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30 Phrasal Verbs to Help You With Technology

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