LA UACH A TONO CON LA ROJA

UACh con Todo para “La Roja”

En diversas partes de la Universidad Austral de Chile se podrá ver la transmisión de los partidos de la selección en el mundial de Sudáfrica 2010.

Escrito por: Cristian Spuler Garay - Prensa Dirección de Asuntos Estudiantiles Email: noticiasdae@gmail.com

Publicada el: 15-06-2010

Se comunica a la comunidad universitaria que nuestra corporación ha dispuesto diferentes lugares donde se podrá disfrutar de los partidos de fútbol que disputará la selección chilena presente en el Mundial de Sudáfrica 2010.

Los puntos donde se transmitirán los partidos son los siguientes:

.- Dirección de Asuntos Estudiantiles: dispone de una pantalla LCD y sus puertas estarán abiertas a partir de las 07:00 de la mañana para la transmisión del duelo ante Honduras.

.- Gimnasio N°1 Campus Isla Teja: Dispone en el Hall una pantalla LCD y las puertas estarán abiertas desde las 07:30 de la mañana. Este recinto fue facilitado por el Centro de Deportes y Recreación (CEDERE).

.- Casino Casa de la Tierra y Casino Casa de la Luna (Casino Chico) Campus Isla Teja: Dispone de una pantalla gigante y además de sabrosas promociones en comida

.- Auditorio Edificio 3000, Campus Miraflores: Dispone de una pantalla gigante para los estudiantes de ese campus.

En tanto, cabe mencionar que se podrá faltar a clases para ver los partidos de “La Roja”, según resolución N°074-2010 de la Dirección de Estudios de Pregrado que “autoriza a los estudiantes de la Universidad Austral de Chile para ausentarse de clases con el fin de que puedan participar en la transmisión de los partidos de fútbol, en los días y horarios señalados que a continuación se mencionan:”

.- miércoles 16 de junio: de 08:00 a 9:30 hrs. A.M.
.- lunes 21 de junio: de 10:00 a 12:00 hrs. A.M.
.- viernes 25 de junio: de 14:30 a 16:30 hrs.P.M.

Por último, el documento señala además que “se solicita a los señores académicos se sirvan dar las facilidades del caso a los estudiantes, en lo que respecta a pruebas y trabajos prácticos en las fechas y horas señaladas, a excepción de aquellas que no permitan su recuperaci6n o involucren compromisos previamente establecidos, lo cual se debe informar a la Escuela respectiva”.

Do You Overuse "Of"?

Almost everyone has a few bad writing habits. They're often the kind of thing experts or even your friends can point to and say "Yup, I know who wrote that." One of my bad habits is that I tend to overuse the word "of." A while ago, I was working on a technical document, and as I read back through it I noticed that there must have been 20 instances of the word "of." Ugh!

Bad Uses of "Of"

"Of" is a preposition, and although it's not an inherently evil word, overusing it can make your writing sound passive and fussy. Here's an example of a bad sentence:

BAD SENTENCE: She is the wife of George.

That's just horrible. It makes me cringe just to say it. It makes me think of Margaret Atwood's book "The Handmaid's Tale," in which the handmaids had names like "Offred" and "Ofglen" to indicate that they belonged to Fred and Glen. They were the handmaids of Fred and of Glen. But I digress.

Here's a better way to say the same thing:

BETTER SENTENCE: She's George's wife.

See? You don't need the "of." The sentence sounds much more straightforward without it. She's George's wife.

I'm hopeful that none of you would actually write, "She's the wife of George," or any other such strained sentence, but more subtle unnecessary "ofs" can slip into your writing if you aren't careful. Here's a more reasonable example: Reporting on some bizarre science experiment, you might write, "The length of the remaining string can be used to calculate how far the snail has moved."

There's nothing really wrong with that sentence, except that it leaves you wondering how to attach string to a snail, but you'd probably get to that later in the paragraph.

Nevertheless, you could tighten up the sentence by rewriting it to say "The remaining string length can be used to calculate how far the snail has moved." See? "The length of the remaining string," compared with "The remaining string length?" The second version, without the "of," sounds more direct.

Good Uses of "Of"

But remember, I said "of" isn't always wrong. There are good ways to use the word "of." For example, "Please bring me a bucket of water." You have to write it that way to show that you want a bucket that actually has water in it. If you tried to rewrite it the way I did the "length of string" example, you'd end up with "Please bring me a water bucket," which has a different meaning. People would think you were asking for a bucket that is meant to hold water, but is currently empty.

You may remember that in episode 128 I talked about using "of" to show possession. "Of" is especially useful when you are dealing with double possessives. For example, if you want to talk about a photo that you own, you probably shouldn't say "That's my photo" because people might think it is a photo OF you instead of a photo that belongs to you. You could say "The photo belongs to me," but you could also use an "of" and say, "That's a photo of mine." The "of" indicates possession as does the word "mine," which is what makes it a double possessive.

I also find "of" to be useful when I'm dealing with a complex trail of possession. I'm not certain this is a rule, but I find it easier to follow something like "He's the cousin of my neighbor's brother" than "He's my neighbor's brother's cousin."

Finally, there is at least one idiom where you need an "of": You need it in the phrase "a couple of." You have a couple of marimbas, a couple of friends, and a couple of feather boas. In most similar phrases the "of" is considered unnecessary, and you can leave it out. You jump off the pier, not off OF the pier, for example, but "a couple of" is a special case.

So although "of" can be useful, it can also clutter up your writing. If using it the wrong way is one of your bad habits, as it is mine, you might want to use the "find" feature of your word processor to search for the word "of" after you've finished your first draft to look for sentences that could stand some rewriting.