Search and Research

I am out of LEX Grapheme decks, 2nd edition.

This means that I’m faced with a choice: do I just reprint them and keep selling? Or do I do what I did the last time they ran out, in 2014: update them with the deeper understanding I have of graphemes now, compared to four years ago?

The first edition came out in 2011. The second in 2014. The last time I came out with a new edition, a couple of colleagues prevailed upon me to just put out a document cataloguing the changes, so that people who already had the first edition wouldn’t have to buy a whole new deck. Because, you know, why should I actually earn anything for my efforts?

I told them: “I did put together a document cataloguing the changes: it’s called the second edition.” Unsatisfied with my response, they prevailed upon me again and I agreed to send them a free deck so that they themselves could craft the document they imagined.

Well, after I think just 3 or 4 cards, they already had 5 pages of notes.

Ahem.

And of course, my researched understanding of graphemes has continued to grow and deepen over the past four years. I have a better sense of the diachronic forces that shaped the forms we see synchronically. I have a much better sense of the clusters of graphemic relatives that each grapheme has in the present-day orthography. Since the 2nd edition was published, I have researched, developed, and presented LEXinars on a variety of linguistic topics, including the history of English spelling, stress, syllables, and a whole series on orthographic phonology, which has continued to shape my understanding well beyond where it was in 2014.

So I think it’s time.

Time to re-search through my Grapheme deck, my magnum opus, and re-discover what it is I know about English graphemes, which is a whole lot. It will take a few months. Right now I am focused on finishing up the 2nd edition of Matrix Study Sheets, which people have been waiting very patiently for. But the new Grapheme Decks will go on pre-sale during the Etymology conference in March, at a discounted, held rate of $60. That has been the price of that deck the whole time, through both editions. That price will be available for the 3rd edition for one week only, March 21-March 28, 2018. After that, the price will increase, depending on my increased production costs.

Anyone who has the deck and actually studies it knows that it’s a lifeline. Well, every lifeline needs to be strong, or it won’t save lives. What keeps my work strong is ongoing research — not some pedagogical study in which one group pilots “using” my deck and another group controls for not “using” it — but deep, meaningful, longitudinal searching and searching again. Over the past four years, I have reconsidered the physical evidence from the writing system itself. I have shared those reconsiderations in real time with the scholars who study with me. They are mind-blowing, if you study them. If what you want is some list of phonemes to inject into children, please go away.

For folks who have the first or second edition of the deck, you’re gonna want the third. If you just recently got the second, don’t worry! It will remain valuable in your learning for a long time! And it’s going to take me at least 5 or 6 months, probably longer, to get the new deck together.

Every so often, someone asks me to recommend journal articles or books or some other source, so they can read it themselves and get some of the understanding I am trying to offer. I think people believe that they will prove something to themselves by looking at what some other person has to say about orthographic phonology, rather than by just looking at my deck. Over the years, people who have really studied the deck have challenged me a lot to rethink patterns that I had or had not included. That ongoing dialogue is part of what shapes this research. Not what someone said in an academic journal somewhere.

The LEX Grapheme Deck is a textbook. It’s an encyclopedia of graphemes. It’s a life’s work. It’s unique in all the world, and that is not hyperbolic. It is researched — I spent a whole academic year of graduate school researching it as an independent study under my dissertation director, and I got graduate credit for that research. If it were even possible to put it in the form of a journal article, it would very likely go through a round of rejections and revisions at the hands of  “reviewers” who have no idea how orthographic phonology works. No thanks.

So even if you’ve had a look, look again. Search, and even when you’ve found something worthwhile, re-search.

19 Comments

  1. Laura Deelstra says:

    Can I buy them if I’m not at the conference?

  2. Dwyer says:

    Personally, I’d rather the information be updated.

  3. Pete says:

    I don’t know if the production costs would make it prohibitive, but one possibility could be to print a smallish run that means that lets people who are looking for this resource now get going — knowing that a 3rd edition is in process. The 1st edition is ridiculously useful, let alone the second. If you are unable to sell any grapheme decks while you prepare your 3rd edition, you are going to feel a rush to take it to print. By contrast, if you print another run of edition 2, you can give yourself say 6-12 months to refine the third edition. I just did a pile of workshops in Edmonton area, and I’m sure you are going to get many orders from there. That 2nd edition is going to offer so much to them. And I’m sure that kind of story is happening in all sorts of areas. The fact that you are recognizing it is time for a revision of your deck is awesome. But it seems to me that that revision will be best if it takes the time it takes to complete without the sense of people banging on your door for more since you are out now.

    I don’t presume to know all the considerations you have to keep in mind. For my own work, I end up (for good or bad) erring on the side of sharing what I’ve got regardless of its errors.

    I guess what I’m sharing is my perspective that your 2nd edition is the richest reference for understanding graphemes that I know. If I were a teacher/tutor getting started – I’d rather have access to that now, knowing that a refined version may be coming in 6-12 months. I also like the idea of signalling that there is a revision in process so that people working with your deck are fully aware that there are revisions coming. Can I find a card now that is going to have a change later? I was working with a teacher a while ago who had introduced the digraph for words like and . His Grade 2 students had made a Venn diagram that was awesome. During our workshop we studied the family of and encountered . We noticed that we found a third phoneme that the could represent! When we looked at the version of the cards he had (I don’t remember which edition) we were EXCITED to discover that you had not addressed that pronunciation of . We should take every reference we work with critically. Knowing that you are in the process of revising edition 3 does not reduce the value of edition 2 for me. It makes it more interesting!

    Of course not everyone may look at it like that.

    But I suspect if you made another run of edition 2 to sell, you’d find plenty who would feel the need for that resource now, even if they know that another edition is on the way..

    I don’t know if that is good advice or not. Just sharing my frame on your question!

    • These decks are labor-intensive and thus costly to produce: they have to be cut, collated, and shrink-wrapped, all of which cost extra, and the boxes have to be custom made and require a minimum order of 500. Each deck is hand-assembled and hand-labeled. It’s not like I get a carton of 500 assembled decks. A small print run is not only costly, but a lot of extra work: without knowing how many to order, or how long the interim is, I’d face either getting stuck with extra stock (which is costly) or having to place more than 1 small order, with the attendant extra costs and extra work. The cards will still be valuable when they come out. I thought about it before I decided to pull it; I priced out various sizes of print runs. This is how I want to do it.

      By the way all your graphemes disappeared. You still can’t use angle brackets in the comment section.

  4. Some companies put out the same edition year after exhausting year, yet still charge as if what they are offering is something new and exciting. I’m thinking that we can break that old mold and invest in something new.

  5. marciasarahandemilysmom says:

    Ready to pre-order! Thanks for doing this Gina. I truly appreciate it and benefit from your efforts!

    Marcia

  6. Sue Hoyt says:

    Hi Gina,

    Since the order I placed the other day can’t be filled, I’m hoping it will remain in the “to fill” que for when the new deck is published? How will an increase in cost for the 3rd edition be handled? I didn’t see anything on the ordering site that indicated my order could not be filled. IF there is a way to put that alert out, it may help people determine if they are going to place the order

    See you in class

    • HI Sue,

      The best way to reach me regarding your personal order is via email, not in a comment on my public website. It is false that your order can’t be filled — you made that up out of assumptions. I never said that orders to date could not or would not be filled. If, in fact, I had not been able to fill your order, I would have communicated with you privately about it. I would never expect a client to assume from a web post that their order would not be filled — that would be pretty unprofessional, and I would hope my clients would expect more of me.

      In terms of putting an alert out, I don’t actually need to put an alert out that orders can’t be filled, because that is a false thing that you just assumed. Instead, I am filling my orders to date, and I took the cards out of the online store, so that no one can order them now. I also posted this blog post to let people know. I appreciate your concern about your order, but I really could have put this 10 minutes to better use. Please check your assumptions next time.

      You should have your cards soon.

  7. Michael Lysakowski, Consultant - Reading Specialist says:

    I would like to order a deck of LEX Grapheme cards, either the 2nd edition or wait for the third edition if needed.

    Thank you.

    Michael Lysakowski ([email protected])

  8. Hi Gina,
    I’ve retired but want the 3rd edition set once it is ready. My grandkids may need this rich information, so valuable. Keep up the good work.
    Ann Champion

  9. Linda Kennelly says:

    Hi Gina, I believe I preordered the set a long time ago. There was a charge on my credit card anyway. Have you mailed them?

    • That is not correct, Linda. The LEX Grapheme Decks were never available for pre-order. However, other products were. Please don’t communicate with me about orders on my blog. This is a ***public*** space. The best way to inquire about orders is via email, privately. Thank you!

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