Promotion " Total dictation“This is not the first year that has passed, but for some reason it has only now begun to grow in its own dictionary. This spring (or maybe I just didn’t notice before?) the word “dictator” appeared in the meaning “dictating”. Tina Kandelaki proudly announced on her blog that she will be a Moscow dictator. And one of the websites of the city of Orsk - dictation is ubiquitous, total - complemented the image of this noun, noting that “the text is read by VIP dictator M. Kozlov (artistic director of the Orsk Drama Theater).”
Headlines like “Totalitarianism on a global scale” pop up, as well as mentions of , which are usually indignant, but here they are happy.
And this image of diktat instead of dictation is so popular with the authors of metaphors and puns, it causes them such rapture and fun, which once again confirms my assumptions that.
But I’m just talking about images that seem to me to speak volumes.
If we're talking about the essence, then why not, based on political metaphors - dictator, totalitarianism, go further and ask them to come up with and dictate their texts? famous politicians(considering that many of them are already doing this successfully).
I would be interested to listen to a text that Vladimir Putin would write and dictate (he would probably fall into the category of “VIP dictators”). What words would he be interested in writing? Hesitant "no" with in different parts speeches (hardly)? Or double consonants that give a sense of stability? Maybe he would be interested in the idea of alternation, which he was very successful in implementing in practice? Punctuation would be interesting too. Would he prefer an aggressive dash over other signs? Or maybe I would dictate to the listeners such long sentences, which you write and write, but the end is not in sight. Finally, would he test us on our knowledge of specific vocabulary and phraseology? For example, how to correctly place punctuation marks in the sentence: “An awl in the wall (...) and on the side?” Or how do you spell the word “uk...ntr...pupit”? And the rule of alternating vowels in the roots “growth/growth” could be demonstrated with the phrase that “nothing will grow.”
Or Dmitry Medvedev, who may soon have time for a dictation. Why not? Will the spellings and punctograms he chooses reflect the essence of his reign and his figure? An assertive dash or an intelligent colon? Tough period or weak-willed semicolon? He will probably want to test us on our knowledge of borrowed vocabulary. After his dictation, we will probably find out whether Twitter is inclined and how Facebook is spelled: with an “e” or with an “e”.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky's text would probably have a lot of exclamation marks and such an emotional accumulation of subordinate clauses that he himself would get confused in them while reading.
The text, for example, of Boris Gryzlov would be easy to write: just short sentences and nothing superfluous.
Good dictators, by the way, would come from the opposition: they are already accustomed to repeating calls at rallies three times. It would be interesting to write “dictation from Alexei Navalny.” I am not kidding!
Seriously, the chosen (self-written) text, the words, and the sentence structure in it can really say a lot about the performer. I’m not writing about this just to expand on the dictatorship metaphor with which I started the column.
“Total dictation” is aimed at, excuse the clerical language, increasing the level of literacy. This is a good thing, but, as it seems to me, our illiteracy lies not only in the fact that we do not know how to write the word “in general” or “in general”, which actor Maxim Vitorgan. Our illiteracy lies in our general dislike of the text, in our inability to see its image and even a little analyze what lies behind this image. That is why we often do not distinguish truth from lies, vulgarity from subtlety, intelligence from vulgarity. By the way, about. It seems to me that the new intellectual is the one who subtly feels the fabric of the text. This is literacy.
The atmosphere of general (total?) dislike for the text gives rise to “monsters” of spelling and punctuation. The image of the word is lost, and the places where letters are missing are filled in with whatever comes to hand. I don't know whose fault it is. And schools, and language teaching systems in general, and simply our specific attitude towards the word, in which there is a sense of doom and lack of future (in vain, according to proverbs, “you can’t catch it” and “you can’t cut it out with an ax”).
I would like there to be a little more love for the text, and it was not limited to massive reposting of tests on knowledge of school rules on Facebook (“Hurray, I got 14 out of 14!”).
Just think about this when you go to write “Total Dictation”.
I remind you that in Moscow there is dictation in this year will pass in four places at once: at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, in the Russian state library for youth, Moscow higher school social and economic sciences and at the faculty foreign languages and regional studies at Moscow State University. Entry is by list, so don't forget to register. You can do this on the website
On April 18, 2015, I found myself on a bench among an impressive crowd, with a blank form in my hands and a slight excitement in my soul. On this day, the Total Dictation was written in 500 cities of Russia and the world.
The organizers of the event did everything to ensure that those wishing to test their own literacy did not have unpleasant associations with strict school rules. The atmosphere in the auditorium of the ZIL plant was most favorable. Before the start of the dictation, we were shown a funny video from “Hobosti” about FSB agents and the total illiteracy of the population.
“More than a million soft characters a year suffer from misspellings of the word “like.” More than three hundred thousand “O”s are captured by the non-existent word “cute”. Almost two hundred thousand Russian citizens are looking for last-minute tours to “Thailand”, not suspecting that there is no such country at all…” the announcers lamented.
We filled out the forms together, signed some with names, some with pseudonyms, and came up with a code word so that we could then independently check ourselves on the site. “You can cross out the rating box,” the announcer said. “Then you will only know the number of errors, and no mark will be given.” And then a message appeared at the bottom of the screen: “We strongly do not recommend crossing out the rating field. Only do this if you are very scared."
Then we repeated one of the rules of grammar and became familiar with the spelling and meaning of some words: “fire chief”, “imperial”, “ruler” (meaning “crew”). And finally, we listened to the text of the dictation itself, performed by its author, the laureate “ Big book» Evgenia Vodolazkina. The hall fell silent and concentrated; Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that some of my neighbors were fussily buzzing with their smartphones.
And then our dictator appears on the scene. This is exactly (believe it or not) the name of a person who reads a dictation. In our case, this is Mikhail Kozyrev.
“Hello everyone,” Kozyrev says from the stage. - I am the person who will read you the text of the Total Dictation today. And I’m also the only person in this audience who has a total cold.
And, sneezing in confirmation own words, our dictator begins dictation. We quickly stop laughing, but then we start again, and with redoubled force - now as a defensive reaction.
“...And now, along the seething Nevsky, in the resulting emptiness, a chariot is rushing, carrying firefighters: they are sitting on a long bench, with their backs to each other, in copper helmets, and the banner of the fire department flutters above them; there is a fire chief at the banner, he is ringing the bell.”
What have I done with my life, I think in between placing endless punctuation marks. Seven years of philology, Rosenthal, Krongauz, Nabokov, finally - you were there, you were definitely always somewhere nearby! Where are you, my so-called innate literacy? I used to be able to write two versions of a word or construction on a draft, and then just see which of the two was correct. So where is all this, where did it go, when did it do this, can it be returned? And how, by the way, do you spell “half-turn”?
“I’m crying, and my mother tells me not to be afraid...”
“I’m crying,” Kozyrev repeats and pauses. Hall, tearing nervous tension, everyone roars with laughter. And, of course, she cries too.
There’s probably no need to explain what Total Dictation is. Over the 11 years of its existence, the event has grown to enormous proportions, turning from local entertainment for Novosibirsk humanities students into a national show.
The growth dynamics are explosive: 2009 - 600 people, 2014 - 64,000. Awards, recognition. Superstars are invited to read the dictation - from professors to rappers; this year in St. Petersburg, among others, the text was voiced by a robot. And the authors of the texts themselves! Not names - music: Strugatsky, Bykov, Prilepin, Rubina, Ivanov; in 2015 - laureate of the “Big Book” Evgeniy Vodolazkin.
But the best thing is no big names, and the principles of the action. Total dictation: a) free, b) voluntary, c) available to everyone (“no one can be denied participation in the Total dictation because of his age, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, nationality or level of Russian language proficiency,” unless the organizers forgot to mention religious affiliation on the website). And most importantly, there are no bonuses for writing a dictation. All that participants can get is moral satisfaction, pleasure in the process and assessment of their own literacy. The more surprising is the number of people who want to test themselves.
Today is April 20th, estimates will only be available the day after tomorrow. While I don’t yet know my score and don’t have to be afraid of accusations of bias, I’ll express seditious thought: Of course, calling Total Dictation a real test of literacy is incorrect. This is by no means a universal test - even the universally hated Unified State Exam allows you to get much more objective results. The text of the dictation is deliberately tricky: Vodolazkin himself even said in an interview that the original version seemed too simple to the organizers. And in ordinary life even the lucky owners of “2s” may well turn out to be exceptionally literate people.
But the point is that it doesn't matter at all.
We are not going to the Total Dictation for the sake of a real assessment of literacy. We go there because passing tests is always interesting. Because it is available to everyone cultural event- is not such a common phenomenon in our country, and it is simply wrong to miss it.
Because in this audience everyone is equal - there is no division either by political principle, or by level of education, or by the notorious sexual orientation. Blissful communism in a single space - where else will you see this?
And maybe we are also going there because we all managed to miss our school days a little.
Apr 20, 2015 Ekaterina Kachalina
How to write a Total Dictation with an A, “dangerous” words that will be in the text and tips from excellent students - read the guide from Likes journalists
For all lovers of the great and mighty, who miss school lessons or those seeking to maintain their literacy at the proper level, we hasten to inform you: on April 14 at 13:00 a Total Dictation will be held in Ufa.
No, no, you don’t need to get double leaves, the action is voluntary, free and only promotes the love of language. The All-Russian, (almost worldwide) literacy test annually brings together thousands of willing people from different cities and countries that write Total Dictation in the Russian language.
Traditionally, the event takes place at the same time, adjusted for time zones, and the original, previously unpublished text for the Total Dictation is written by someone specially invited for this purpose famous writer. This year the choice fell on Guzel Yakhina, the author of the acclaimed book “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes.” According to the writer, the text will be dedicated to one day in the life of a village literature teacher named Bach.
Who is participating
If you are reading this article and know how to take dictation, welcome to Total Dictation. There is no discrimination, restrictions or special division: anyone can write a dictation, regardless of age, gender, education, religion, profession or interests.
How to participate
You can write a Total Dictation in 2 ways:
In Ufa, the event will be held at 27 sites for Total Dictation and 2 for TruD - special test for people learning Russian as a foreign language. Among the invited readers (they are also called dictators) are professors, teachers and media personalities.
If you have no one to leave your child with, but really want to test his literacy, come to sites where you can leave your child: while you are writing a dictation, animators and educators will take care of him.
If you do not have the opportunity to come to one of the sites, do not rush to be upset: you can write a dictation online on the website. Broadcasts will be available at 8:00, 11:00 and 14:00 Moscow time. Connect to any of the broadcasts, write a dictation in a special window and click the “check” button - the score will appear in personal account over time.
In both cases, registration is required on the official website, it is open from April 4. Go to the website, open the page with the city of Ufa, select the site that suits you, click the “register” button and follow the simple instructions.
You can also find out your result on the website: enter your full name and code word (as on the form that will be given during the dictation itself). Each work is checked by philologists, and analysis of participants’ mistakes helps in writing scientific works in the field of modern Russian language. The grading system is the same as in school, you can see in the picture.
How to prepare for a dictation
Those who have been familiar with the campaign for several years have long been aware: Total dictation is preceded by courses. Like the event itself, they are free, voluntary and held once a week for everyone who wants to brush up on the rules of the language. In 2018, courses were held on Wednesdays from February 21, the last “lesson” was last Wednesday, April 4 at 18:30 at scientific library BSMU.
Despite the fact that there are several days before the dictation, there is a way out.
Even in such a short period of time, you can improve your literacy.
All on the same official website of the Total Dictation, anyone can access the materials of full-time courses plus an online school. Besides detailed analysis rules, Total texts of previous years are also presented, including TruD - for people learning Russian as a foreign language. Along with repeating the rules, you can familiarize yourself with dictations, analyze difficult places and common mistakes.
And this item is for the very lazy and busy. What basic rules need to be repeated (or skimmed)?
vowel spelling;
“not” and “neither” with parts of speech;
one and two “n”;
derived prepositions;
punctuation marks: isolation and emphasis of phrases;
formatting direct speech and quotes (the most common mistake!).
Bonuses for readers
If you have read this far, receive a small gift: difficult words that will appear in the text this year.
Platband, front garden, recite, zenith, somnambulist, dial, rogue, pelvis, interspersed, interspersed.
Advice from experienced “totalers” boils down to what seems to be very simple rules– read more and love the Russian language.
You can also start writing yourself (if you’ve never written before) - on your desk, in blogs, on a sticky note on your refrigerator. But a universal recipe as old as time is to read as often as possible fiction. One recipe, but many advantages: expansion vocabulary, training attentiveness, memory, rich speech and, most importantly, competent language.
What's the point?
Check your literacy. Total dictation is not just another way to remember school years and hang labels (excellent student, C student and loser). Receiving an A, B, or C is not a mark, but adequate way evaluate your capabilities to improve and figure out what to work on. For some, this is a way to awaken a dormant interest in the Russian language; for others, it’s a way to pat yourself on the head and strengthen your own knowledge.
No gingerbread, no gold medals and applause for straight A's, just another way to make sure that this is not just normal, it is necessary, possible and important, being literate is fashionable.
Tips for Newbies
Lidiya Germanova: Just go on an adventure! Don't think about the results, just remember your school years, fall back into childhood. Read your favorite book in a week, then your brain will definitely remember exactly the words you need!
Denis Yamgulov: My advice is not to repeat the rules of the Russian language, especially chaotically, especially on the eve of the dictation. Relax and don’t make things too important, it’s just an assessment. Be patient while waiting for results and don’t scold yourself if something happens. Read more in everyday life. All.
Aigul Davletova: Arrive early to get a closer seat. A happy hand will not add to your knowledge, and you won’t be able to re-read all the rules. But if a person goes specifically to write for the result, then it makes sense to go to training courses, they begin to be taught in about two months.
This year, the author of the text of “Total Dictation” was Guzel Yakhina. The Kazan writer became famous several years ago after the publication of her first novel, “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes,” about the dispossession of the 1930s.
For the Total Dictation, she prepared three passages called “Morning”, “Day” and “Evening”. They will be included in Guzel Yakhina’s next novel, “My Children,” which will tell about the Volga Germans.
Having received a message with an offer to become the author of “Total Dictation”, Guzel Yakhina did not hesitate for a minute. “I agreed immediately,” she says. “Of course, at first the sense of responsibility weighed down a little: after all, two hundred thousand people who write your text under dictation is a lot.” “Total dictation” was born as a small local action in Novosibirsk. Over these 14 years, it has developed and turned into a powerful international movement. It is written on all continents, including even Antarctica.
Part 1. Morning
Every morning, still in the light of the stars, Jacob Ivanovich Bach woke up and, lying under a thick quilted feather bed of duck down, listened to the world. The quiet discordant sounds of someone else's life flowing somewhere around him and on top of him calmed him down. Winds walked across the roofs - heavy in winter, thickly mixed with snow and ice pellets, elastic in spring, breathing moisture and heavenly electricity, in summer sluggish, dry, mixed with dust and light feather grass seeds. Dogs barked, greeting the sleepy owners who came out onto the porch, and cattle roared loudly on their way to the watering hole. The world breathed, crackled, whistled, mooed, clattered its hooves, rang and sang in different voices.
The sounds own life were so meager and blatantly insignificant that Bach forgot how to hear them: he isolated them in the general sound stream and ignored them. The glass of the only window in the room rattled under the gusts of wind, the chimney, which had not been cleaned for a long time, crackled, and occasionally a gray-haired mouse whistled from somewhere under the stove. That's probably all. Listen great life it was much more interesting. Sometimes, having listened to Bach, he even forgot that he himself was part of this world, that he, too, could, going out onto the porch, join in the polyphony: sing something perky, or loudly slam the door, or, at worst, just sneeze. But Bach preferred to listen.
At six in the morning, carefully dressed and combed, he was already standing at the school bell tower with a pocket watch in his hands. Having waited until both hands merged into a single line (the hour at six, the minute at twelve), he pulled the rope with all his strength - and the bronze bell echoed loudly. Over many years of practice, Bach achieved such mastery in this matter that the sound of the blow was heard exactly at the moment when minute hand touched the dial zenith, and not a second later. A moment later, everyone in the village turned towards the sound and whispered a short prayer. A new day has come...
Part 2. Day
...Over the years of teaching, each of which resembled the previous one and did not stand out in anything special, Yakob Ivanovich became so accustomed to pronouncing the same words and reading out the same problems that he learned to mentally split in two inside his body: his tongue muttered the text of the next grammar rule, the hand clutched in it with a ruler sluggishly spanked the back of the head of the overly talkative student, the legs sedately carried the body around the class - from the department to the back wall, then back, back and forth. And the thought lay dormant, lulled by its own in your own voice and a measured shaking of the head in time with leisurely steps.
German speech was the only subject during which Bach's thought regained its former freshness and vigor. We started the lesson with oral exercises. The students were asked to tell something, Bach listened and translated: he turned short dialect phrases into elegant phrases of literary German. They moved slowly, sentence by sentence, word by word, as if they were walking somewhere in deep snow - trail after trail. Yakob Ivanovich did not like to tinker with the alphabet and calligraphy and, having finished with conversations, hurriedly moved the lesson towards the poetic part: poems poured generously onto young shaggy heads, like water from a basin on a bath day.
Bach was burned with a love for poetry in his youth. Then it seemed that he was not eating potato soup and sauerkraut, but only ballads and hymns. It seemed that he could feed everyone around them with them - that’s why he became a teacher. Until now, while reciting his favorite verses in class, Bach still felt a cool flutter of delight in his chest. The children did not share the teacher’s passion: their faces, usually playful or concentrated, with the first sounds poetic lines acquired a submissive, somnambulistic expression. German romanticism had a better effect on the class than a sleeping pill. Perhaps, reading poetry could be used to calm the unruly audience instead of the usual screams and blows with a ruler...
Part 3. Evening
...Bach descended from the porch of the school and found himself on the square, at the foot of the majestic church with a spacious prayer hall in a lace of lancet windows and a huge bell tower, reminiscent of a sharpened pencil. I walked past neat wooden houses with sky-blue, berry-red and corn-yellow trim; past planed fences; past boats overturned in anticipation of the flood; past front gardens with rowan bushes. He walked so quickly, loudly crunching his felt boots in the snow or squelching his boots in the spring mud, that one would think that he had a dozen urgent matters that should definitely be settled today...
Those who met him, noticing the mincing figure of the teacher, sometimes called out to him and started talking about the school successes of their offspring. However, he, out of breath from fast walking, answered reluctantly, in short phrases: time was running out. In confirmation, he took his watch out of his pocket, cast a contrite glance at it and, shaking his head, ran on. Where he fled to, Bach himself could not explain.
It must be said that there was another reason for his haste: when talking with people, Yakob Ivanovich stuttered. His trained language, which worked regularly and flawlessly during lessons and without a single hesitation pronounced multi-compound words of literary German, easily produced such complex sentences that some students would forget the beginning before they listened to the end. The same language suddenly began to fail the owner when Bach switched to dialect in conversations with fellow villagers. For example, the tongue wanted to read passages from Faust by heart; say to the neighbor: “And your dunce has been naughty again today!” - I didn’t want it at all, it stuck to the roof of my mouth and got mixed between my teeth, like an overly large and poorly cooked dumpling. It seemed to Bach that his stuttering was getting worse over the years, but it was difficult to verify: he talked with people less and less... So life flowed on, in which there was everything except life itself - calm, full of penny joys and miserable anxieties, in some ways even happy.
This weekend, 150 thousand people voluntarily wrote a total dictation. The action once again aroused enormous interest: people on their day off, despite the bad weather and location, found an opportunity to test their literacy. Mel correspondent Tatyana Voloshko also passed this test at the NUST MISIS site.
For those preparing for the main school exam
This year the author of the text of “Total Dictation” was children's writer Andrey Usachev. True, he did not write it specifically for the action. Three excerpts from his work “This ancient, ancient, ancient world!” were selected and specially complicated: “Briefly about the history of the theater”, “Briefly about the history of writing”, “Briefly about the history of the Olympic Games”. As the title suggests, the text is about Greece, the Sumerians, Atlantis, ancient theater, writing and the Olympic Games. Andrei Usachev himself dictated his text in Novosibirsk state university, in the city where Total Dictation was born in 2004.
Total dictation at NUST MISIS
Participants who chose the NUST MISIS site to take the dictation received a part dedicated to Olympic Games. It had 289 words.
Alevtina Chernikova,
Rector of NUST MISIS
NUST MISIS is one of the leading technological universities countries, while we pay great attention comprehensive development our students. Therefore, “Total Dictation” is a very significant event for us. I am convinced that a person with a university education should know his history, his native language, and write correctly. In addition to basic training programs, we organize lectures and master classes on oratory skills, art history, personal effectiveness. In 2015, we created the National Center for the Study of Russian as a Foreign Language for students from foreign countries and as a non-native language for students from CIS countries.
“Dictators” (those who dictate the text are called just that with slight irony) - TV presenter and Chief Editor OK magazine Vadim Vernik, actress Olga Zubkova, presenter Alexander Belonogov (better known as “Alexander Anatolyevich”), as well as journalist and philologist Marina Koroleva. 412 people gathered to test their knowledge at the NUST MISIS site alone. More than half are students and high school students, the rest of the participants are middle-aged and older people. For many of them, participation in total dictation has become traditional over the past 11 years.
Dictation procedure
Preparatory stage
The duration of the dictation is approximately one hour. Upon entering the site, participants receive forms for writing a dictation. You can write under your own name or under a pseudonym. The main thing is not to forget the entered data and the code word in order to find out the result after verification. Before the dictation begins, the philologist present in the audience reminds only one thing: complex rule which appears in the text.
Dictation
The first reading of the text performed by the author (recorded) is heard.
The second reading of the text is performed by the leading dictator; he reads the whole sentence, then dictates it in parts and again in its entirety. So - every proposal.
The final stage
At the end of the dictation, the text is read at a fast pace by the presenter again. Before collecting the forms, participants are given time for a final self-test.
According to the majority, this year’s dictation was difficult: with many controversial punctuation marks and difficult lexical units. It is difficult to predict whether there will be excellent students among those who wrote. But it is clear that the process of testing knowledge in this way gave the participants a lot of pleasure. It wasn't boring.
Vadim Vernik,
TV presenter, editor-in-chief of OK magazine
I am very glad that I was invited as a dictator. Although, I admit, I prefer the word “announcer”. I couldn’t imagine that on this rainy and cold day there were so many people will come test yourself on your knowledge of the Russian language. Of course, I read the text. It's hard for me to say how difficult it is, because I have innate literacy. In those rare moments when I doubt the writing of some difficult words, I write them in the margins, look as if “from the outside” and immediately understand whether something confuses me or not.
Olga Zubkova,
Theater and film actress
I read the text several times. It seems to me that it is only difficult in terms of punctuation. However, it’s difficult to say whether I myself would have written it with an A. Nevertheless, I believe that there will be A’s. I tried to read clearly, expressively and not mislead the people who entrusted me with this mission. The result may depend on how the dictator reproduces the text.
Alexander Belonogov,
TV and radio presenter
In my opinion, the text was not too difficult. I think I would have done an excellent job with him. My audience was mostly students and only 10% of people were about 60 years old. And, I must say, these two generations behaved differently. Still, people of “that time” are distinguished by amazing restraint, delicacy and behavior appropriate to the moment. Young people often asked again, asking me to repeat it, ahead of my already scheduled repetitions. But I am equally grateful to both for their caring attitude towards native language. I admit, I tried to intonate so that it would be easier for people to place punctuation marks.
The work is being checked now, but on April 20, each of the participants will be able to find out their results on the website. Those who were unable to participate on April 16 have the opportunity to do so today or next year.
