h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

well this is posably the most dull entry i have seen so far, but as i wrote it i can say that however it is a tipic no-one else has said anything about and it is a topic i think should be included.

http://www.h2g2.com/A424027

I can see a place for an entry in dyslexia(and I know that there is quite e few dyslectycs around h2g2, including muself.

The article needs some kind of structure, or flow, try deviding it in subheaders and sperating the facts thus frome each other (or should that be One-another)

Here is a few sugestions:

* Symptoms of..
* Causes
* Impact on a dyslexics life
* Famous dyslexics
* Link to were parents of dyslexic kids can find help/resorces

My Two bits worth

ZOE ya round

woohoo a reply well yer ok I will re-write it and try again in my defence I wrote it very quickly after reading comments on another site about dylexia was just an excuse perents use for stupid children, and i was not in the best of moods

This is a very interesting article... far from being dull.

One suggestion I'll make is that you consider eliminating the references to yourself. Edited Entries should be written in the third person. The reason for this policy is that, as the Guide continues to grow new material will be added to Entries by a succession of Researchers, at which point first person narratives would become rather a tangle. There are rare exceptions; and, if you feel your own experience is an integral part of what you want say, you should leave it the way it is; as long as you bear in mind that it may end up being altered.

The information on dyslexia is very well presented. I, for one, would enjoy reading more about it.

JTG

I agree with JtG: I hope you will be able to find a way to balance what is obviously your very valid personal experience in a way that will still stand as a guide entry. That should also allow other dyslexics to feed in their experiences, prehaps for a future version. There's a bit n the 'how to write...' section on the guide:

"It's also important to write about what you know... you will end up with a thoroughly worthy piece, much admired by your peers. You'll see canny observation and personal perspective among the following entries, each written by people like you, so tell us about your pet topics:

Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Sadako and the Peace Crane
The Storage of Eggs"

Good luck

Hi

Can I just comment on one part of the article - It isn't true that dyslexia can only be passed down from mother to child. There is strong evidence of a genetic link in dyslexia, but you don't have to have a dyslexic mother to be dyslexic.

A great article

- Adam

Hey, I'm also a dyslexic reseacher. I'm just glad we haven't possted lots of diliberate speling mistakes. They really annoy me.
I was watching a program on Dyslexia on Channel 4 (UK) today. 'Scientists' now think it's to do with the routes information takes accross synapses - not just that we [dyslexics] have two 'sides' of the brain the same, but that we actually have different ways of interpreting information. We're very forgetful of strings of numbers/instructions etc. because they don't 'connect' and get stored in the usual way. I think this is kinda what you were getting at with the chopsticks thing.

My mum's a dyslexia tutor person - she knows lots about it - I might see if she has some specific details for you to include in the article.

Now for my scouting opinions: what you've started with is a great basis for an entry. However, it does need a little... tidying. Like a fellow Scout mentioned, try to keep things in the third person, and it might be an idea to (at least pretend) sound a bit more sure of your topic! (Not so many "ummm"s!). It's also a good idea to split it up into subheadings etc, and maybe include some of the details ZOE mentioned. If you want help with this possibly large task, I'd be happy to help as it's a topic that's close to home...

I think you could be on to something big! Keep it up!

well I have a week free now so i'm gonna rewrite this as soon as posable now, thx to the scouts who have commented, I had a nasty feeling after seeing no replys for 3 days that this article was scaring everyone away If any one has any information that you think needs to go in here please let me have it and I will try my best.

As the guys say, this is interesting and the basis of a really good piece, and one which it is important to have in the Guide.

I find if I write something when I am in good spirits, what I write is fun, flows better, and is generally more positive than if I am in a bad mood. Your bad mood doesn't show in the article, btw.

On the genetics thing: my brother and father are/were both dyslexics, my mother was anything but dyslexic. Interestingly, given the Big Mad Mr Ts comments on the two sides of the brain, but Dad and big Bro are left handed.

Have fun with the re-write. Do it and leave it, and then do it and leave it again.

ok i have been busy re-writing and I was wondering if any one knows an address to contact for more information or testing as I have no idea about the usa

http://www.h2g2.com/A424027
well i have rewriten me enty and it even has sub-headings If you could take another look and tell me what u think. as i said in my last post if you have any contact addresses in america I would be happy to add them along with the UK ones i have

Can I look in the morning, please? It is past my bedtime here in Germany.

hehe look when ever in fact its probably better to read it after a good nights sleep

It's really good - the headings make a big difference. The subs may prefer single exclamation and question marks to doubles, but I say let them make their own minds up about that!!

Thanks for explaining how dyslexia goes though the female side, that section is much better than it was before.

There were a couple of sentences I didn't understand in the section "So it's all bad news??" The sentences are: "However do not forget that while it is true that many dyslexic people are talented in the arts, architecure, enginering etc. many more are not! In the same way people who achieve in areas that require little or no language skills do possess them."

Couple of other points - the bit about Dyslexics not laying down neural pathways in the brain - is that true of ALL learning skills (including chopsticks) or only true of reading and writing skills? Or even only true of information gained by reading?

Also - I liked the crack about Dyslexics liking graphical user interfaces. (Well I guess *someone* has to like Windows!)

Putting in a section called "What does it feel like?" is brilliant. I'd be interested in seeing a couple more quotes, they made me understand more about what Dad and Big Bro have had do deal with.

The list might be better in one column not two. If you want to mke a linebreak instead of a new paragraph, you may find pressing shift-return will do it. It depends on your keyboard.

Finally - put book names and stuff in italics instead of underlining them - underlinings look like hyperlinks on a web page.

Hope this doesn't all sound too picky picky - take comfort from the fact that the content is great, so all that is left to winge about is typography.

Ta-darr Presenting Dyslexia Ver. 2.1

http://www.h2g2.com/A424027

humm well I have changed it a little, I've added the other quotes i had in the "What Does It Feel Like" bit. I've also re-writen a couple of the paragraphs to try and make it easer to understand.

One thing I did not do is remove the 20 questions from there table. I have always seen these questions writen like this and i think its the original writers prefered way of presenting it with the first 9 and then the rest in 2 coloms.

humm I think thats probbaly it. Other than to say a great big thx to "a girl named ben" for pionting out those things i had missed. Oh and please point out anything else that might need changing

This was good before, it is even better now. One very significant typo though (and some minor ones which I am too bad at spelling to pick up).

The major one is that the "not" of the heading "not a brain defect" has become attached to the previous sentance....

Calling Scouts and other dudes for comments, please...?

Oups.... one "not" moved hehe. glad u like it Ben, and yer scouts please can u read it cous me and A girl named Ben like it

Well I'm a Scout, and that's a start...

I'm really really bowled over by the work you've put into this 2nd draft. It's definitely paid off, as the entry is confident and authoritative.

(By the way, I'm coming at this from the opposite end of the spectrum: tests I did as a child showed me to be as un-dyslexic as you could possibly get, and I answered straight 'no's' throughout your test, so I hope any input I have is coming at it from a fresh perspective.)

I didn't quite understand the sentence: "This is the reason why techniques using repetative exercises, and learning to spell words by writing them 50 times is used in teaching dyslexics." because i thought I'd undrestood from the previous bit that repetition didn't work for dyslexics. perhaps that's just me.

I also got stuck on this sentence: "In the same way that people who achieve in areas that require little or no language skills might well possess them, and are simply afraid to use them." I think the preceding part of paragraph is saying that it's no good saying that dyslexics automatically have extra skills to compensate, it might well be that they are otherwaise avaerage, so that the dyslexia is a definite disadvantage, but I didn't get this last analogy.

I think this is going to be a tremendous arentry: well worth the effort!

Thank you for writing this, I came across it by accident as I was posting my own Guide Entry for Peer Review. I stopped to read it as I have a friend who is dyslexic.
I found your article well put-together & informative, and I can recommend it as a Guide Entry.

Thx to Cloviscat and St. Galaxy Babe for saying nce things, and pionting out a couple of things to change. This I have done and hopefuly it will make a little more sence now