What was going on when I was born?

TWO Chicago researchers have confirmed what high school and college students have known for years: Many English teachers are more impressed by purple prose than by the clear, concise language that they profess to teach. In a series of experiments over a six-year period, Rosemary L. Hake of Chicago State University and Joseph M. Williams of the University of Chicago asked English teachers to rate pairs of student essays that were identical in everything except linguistic style. One of each pair was marked by simple language, active verbs and straightforward sentences, the other by flowery language, passive verbs and complex sentence structures. The two professors found not only that the teachers consistently preferred verbosity to tight writing but also that the style of language affected their judgment about the kinds of errors they discovered.

Tallal, a 26-year-old who is in prison, is known to the authorities here as a ''muta'assib,'' a Moslem fanatic. His life story is the story of the rise in Egypt of Islamic militancy - the political force that not only assassinated Anwar el-Sadat but also continues to pose a serious threat to the stability of this nation of 43 million. ''Thousands of Egyptian youths see some of their own lives reflected in the image of Tallal,'' said Saad Eddin Ibrahim. A professor of sociology at the American University of Cairo, Mr. Ibrahim compiled a case study of the youth, whom he identified only as Tallal to protect his family. Included among those who identify with Tallal, said Mr. Ibrahim, are undoubtedly the four Moslem militants who are accused of shooting Mr. Sadat on Oct. 6 and who belonged to the same secret society as Tallal, Takfir Wahigra.

Senator Bob Dole, splitting openly with his Republican colleagues in the House, declared today that ''Congress must act in 1982'' to raise more revenues to avert huge budget deficits in the future. Mr. Dole, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Finance Committee, said he wanted to see a bill increasing excise taxes passed by March 31. Mr. Dole also indicated that the bill would include some of the selective tax revisions recommended by President Reagan on Sept. 24 but not yet outlined in detail to the Congress. Two Republican leaders in the House, Representatives Jack F. Kemp and Barber B. Conable Jr., both of upstate New York, have expressed opposition to an early revenue-raising bill or even submission of the Administration's formal proposal. In an Oct. 16 letter to President Reagan, they warned that a tax bill could become a vehicle for ''political mischief,'' meaning acton by the Democratic majority in the House to undo some of the three-year, 25 percent income tax cut enacted in August.

Thirty-three Haitians drowned this morning in choppy waters just north of here after their jerry-built 30-foot boat capsized less than a mile from shore. Thirty-four others from the overloaded vessel swam to shore and were taken, many of them in tears, to a Federal detention facility for illegal aliens. Immigration authorities said it was the worst such accident recorded since waves of immigrants from the impoverished Caribbean country began heading for the United States 10 years ago. Gov. Bob Graham of Florida called it ''a human tragedy which has been waiting to happen,'' and said he would press the Federal Government to work with Haiti to stop the flight to these shores. Two months ago the Reagan Administration ordered the Coast Guard to interdict Haitian boats loaded with illegal aliens on the high seas and return them to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. The first interdiction came last night, 123 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, when the cutter Chase intercepted a leaky 30-foot boat filled with 57 passengers.

The Government will revise the housing part of the Consumer Price Index. Administration officials said the aim was to eliminate the distorting impact of mortgage interest rates on the key inflation measure. They said this would eventually reduce cost-of-living increases for people whose benefits are tied to the index. (Page A1.) Senator Bob Dole said Congress must raise more revenues in 1982 to avert huge future budget deficits. The Finance Committee chairman thus broke with his House G.O.P. colleagues, who have opposed early consideration of the President's revenue-raising proposal. (D1.)

International Polish military units were deployed across the country to help the local authorities resolve shortages of food and fuel. As hundreds of the small units arrived in towns, there was no report of major reaction or any incidents. A one-hour national strike scheduled by the Solidarity union for tomorrow was denounced by officials as ''a threat to security.'' (Page A1, Column 1.) Washington asked Moscow to ''review'' its actions and policies around the world. In making the request, Arthur A. Hartman, the new Ambassador, cited the Reagan Administration's main criticisms of the Soviet Union, but pledged to pursue diplomatic negotiations. He is a career Foreign Service officer. (A6:3-6.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday accused a Kuwaiti businessman and several others of profiting from advance knowledge that the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation planned to buy the Santa Fe International Corporation, an American oil drilling company, for $2.5 billion. At the request of the commission, Judge William C. Conner of the United States District Court in Manhattan froze $5.2 million that the agency said had been earned illegally in the trading of Santa Fe stock and options. The commission identified the Kuwaiti in a lawsuit filed in the District Court as Faisal al-Massoud al-Fuhaid and also obtained a court order freezing his account at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith in New York. Mr. al-Fuhaid and several unidentified defendants were charged with earning the $5.2 million in less than two weeks in late September on an investment of only $344,000 in Sante Fe stock and options.

An appellate court ruled yesterday that New York State's method of relying heavily on local property taxes to finance public education was ''constitutionally defective'' because it discriminated against children in poor school districts. A four-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn upheld a 1978 ruling by Justice L. Kingsley Smith. The panel found that the financing ''presently impinges upon the important right of education guaranteed to all children of this state.'' It upheld the contention of New York City and three other large cities that the formula for state aid failed to take account of their special problems and thus ''fails to establish a school system capable of providing an education for many educable children.''

''Consumers are not as gullible as many regulators think they are.'' -James C. Miller 3d, new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. (A1:5.)

The Exxon Corporation, feeling the pinch of reduced energy use and what its chairman termed a ''temporarily oversupplied market'' for oil, said yesterday that its profits fell 20.6 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier. The company, the nation's largest corporation, said much of the damage to earnings occurred overseas, especially in Europe, where the high value of the United States dollar, compared with 1980, caused demand to sag as the cost of oil soared. ''This has been a problem for all the international oil companies,'' said Barry Good, oil industry analyst for Morgan Stanley & Company. ''In July and August, prices to customers were running about 30 percent higher than a year ago, but in dollar terms they were the same.''

IT was Richard Nixon on the Watergate tapes, saying nothing terribly incriminating: ''The report was not frankly accurate,'' he was saying. ''Well it was accurate but it was not full. And he tells me the reason it wasn't full, was that he didn't know. Whether that is true or not, I don't know. Although it wasn't I'm told. But I'm satisfied with it.'' Incriminating, no. Revealing, yes. At least to Dr. Walter Weintraub, professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who has systematically studied what syntax says about personality. To him, the tapes are evidence that Mr. Nixon may have been clinically depressed at the time the conversations were recorded.

IN England, animal lovers have ''liberated'' animals from the laboratory and daubed paint on the houses of offending scientists. In this country, they recently instigated a well-publicized police raid on a Maryland research laboratory that they charged was mistreating monkeys. Two weeks ago Congress, responding to the pressures, held hearings on bills drafted by animal welfare advocates to cut down the use and abuse of laboratory animals. And the National Institutes of Health, the government's chief supporter of biomedical research, announced that it would inspect a sample of laboratories to see whether concern is merited. Ironically, the animal welfare campaign is accelerating at a time when the use of animals in research and toxicity testing appears to be declining.