Showing posts tagged students

NYTimes: Universities Seeking Out Students of Means

American classism at its best! This is an article about how Universities are more likely to admit students based on their PARENTS’ ABILITY TO PAY THEIR TUITION than their grades/activities. This makes me too mad for words. This is one of the things about higher education that I hope to some day influence/change. It’s complete nonsense and unbelievably classist. 

You learn in college (and in high school, if you’re lucky,) that it’s the people with the power who write the rules/write history. You learn that these are the people with the money. If the people with the money are admitting people into the best colleges based on privilege rather than on intelligence, they are doing young students a serious, serious disservice. A university’s job should be to serve its students, not to have its students’ parents’ money serve it.

from Mark Twain’s essay “English as She is Taught”

The writing below is copied from a book of Twain’s non-fiction essays, specifically an amusing one titled “English as she is taught”, which illuminates the mistakes of young children as they learn. I especially find this funny because there are websites today devoted to these sort of things, where teachers post “funny” answers given to them by students. For example, “Biography: Walt Whitman”<— this one is the best.

But I digress. Here is Mark Twain, with the help of some young students:

Under the head of ‘Grammar’ the little scholars furnish the following information:

  • Gender is the distinguishing nouns without regard to sex.
  • A verb is something to eat.
  • Adverbs should always be used as adjectives and adjectives as adverbs.
  • Every sentence and the name of God must begin with a caterpillar.

(…and finally)

  • When they are going to say some prose or poetry before they say the prose or poetry they must put a semi-colon just after the introduction of the prose or poetry.

Texting abbreviations in school papers

There are lots of articles about this topic out there, but this one was just written for today, March 31, 2011. If any of my grammar students are writing about text messaging and its effect on formal language, you may want to read this article. It’s mostly comprehensive and very recent, a good combination for a source. It’s from a newspaper near Chicago.

Grammar girl to the rescue! Many of my students have trouble with run-on sentences, so I&#8217;ve provided them with this link in order to help prevent future mistakes. It&#8217;s a link to the Grammar Girl (pictured above) post on Run-ons. She&#8217;s great with her &#8220;quick &amp; dirty tips&#8221;. You can also read on: TIPS FROM PRSW ON IDENTIFYING &amp; FIXING RUN-ONS Every grammatical sentence you write has a subject, verb and a complete thought. When you have a run-on, you have TWO complete sentences that are not connected correctly. Here are the ways to properly connect two fused sentences: With a comma and a coordinating conjunction. There are 7 coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. With a semi-colon; that guy looks like that. And that&#8217;s it, folks. There are two other ways to fix run-ons, though: Isolate your two sentences, and make them into two separate sentences. Subordinate one of the independent clauses into a dependent clause, usually an adverb clause. SOME EXAMPLES FROM REAL STUDENT PAPERS: &#8220;I was an athlete my whole life and the mentality of leaving it all out on the field will always be my driving force.&#8221; This example is good because these 2 independent clauses do work well together&#8212; but not if they aren&#8217;t separated correctly. We have 2 ideas in this sentence. One is telling the reader something specific about the writer. The second is explaining something about a mentality. Our first independent clause is &#8220;I was an athlete my whole life.&#8221; Our second is &#8220;The mentality of leaving it all out on the field will always be my driving force.&#8221; This is a type of run-on that I come across frequently. It&#8217;s because the first subject &#8220;I&#8221; is a physical noun and the second is an abstract noun that many students make an error like this. Don&#8217;t forget that ideas can be nouns, subjects, too! All this writer needed to do was to insert a COMMA before the word AND, the coordinating conjunction, to make this a complete and non-run-on sentence. Here is another example: &#8220;The metaphor of this line makes this easy to do, however, I put an optimistic spin on the poem, which is further explained with the rest of the stanza that consists of more normal language and supports my earlier claim.&#8221; Often students may think it&#8217;s easy to spot a run-on like this&#8212; this is a LONG sentence. But this writer could have made this sentence NOT a run-on by simply including proper punctuation. Again, we have two independent clauses here, one explaining something about a metaphor, while the second tells something that the writer is illustrating about the poem. Our first subject: &#8220;the metaphor&#8221; and our second subject &#8220;I&#8221; do seem to be separated with a legitimate grammatical function: a comma AND the word &#8220;however&#8221;. HOWEVER, &#8220;however&#8221; is not a coordinating conjunction (see above), and this sentence therefore needs another mark of punctuation in order to be properly grammatical. In this case, a semi-colon after &#8220;do&#8221; and before &#8220;however&#8221; would properly join these sentences together in holy sentence matrimony. Be sure if you are using a semi-colon, that you are also putting a comma after &#8220;however&#8221;&#8212; you need that pause if you are going to write a grammatical AND long sentence. Finally, a third and last example: &#8220;When he says &#8216;temperate&#8217; he means summer days can be brutally hot and not nice, but she is never too hot or too cold she&#8217;s always perfect.&#8221; Now, a sentence like this has good intentions. It seems that all of these ideas can work together as one sentence. But the brutal truth here is that there are TOO many subjects/thoughts trying to work in one sentence here. Try to stick to one thought per sentence with a maximum of two subjects. Once you&#8217;ve given your reader three subjects (in this case, &#8220;he&#8221;, &#8220;she&#8221; and then &#8220;she&#8221; again), you are asking too much of your reader. Why? Three subjects mean three verbs AND three complete thoughts. Think of it that way. This write HAS the comma and the coordinating conjunction &#8220;, but&#8221; between &#8220;nice&#8221; and &#8220;she&#8221; joining two independent clauses, but he ends his sentence with an independent clause &#8220;she&#8217;s always perfect&#8221; that is not at all joined properly to the sentence. Three thoughts are too much, so it is up to the writer here to decide which clause needs to be detached. If it were me, I would correct this like this: &#8220;When he says &#8216;temperate&#8217; he means summer days can be brutally hot and not nice. However, she is never too hot or too cold; she&#8217;s always perfect.&#8221; You can still use a transition word like &#8220;however&#8221; even when you are not using it as connector before a semi-colon. This sentence could have been fixed other ways, but this, to me, makes the most sense. Quickly: Here are ways that some of the above examples could be fixed using the last two ways that I mentioned a run-on could be fixed. By making one independent clause a whole new sentence: &#8220;When he says &#8216;temperate&#8217; he means summer days can be brutally hot and not nice, but she is never too hot or too cold. She&#8217;s always perfect.&#8221; By subordinating one of the independent clauses: &#8220;Because I was an athlete my whole life, the mentality of leaving it all out on the field will always be my driving force.&#8221; There we go folks. Student run-on problems, solved.

Grammar girl to the rescue! Many of my students have trouble with run-on sentences, so I’ve provided them with this link in order to help prevent future mistakes. It’s a link to the Grammar Girl (pictured above) post on Run-ons. She’s great with her “quick & dirty tips”. You can also read on:

TIPS FROM PRSW ON IDENTIFYING & FIXING RUN-ONS

Every grammatical sentence you write has a subject, verb and a complete thought. When you have a run-on, you have TWO complete sentences that are not connected correctly. Here are the ways to properly connect two fused sentences:

  1. With a comma and a coordinating conjunction. There are 7 coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
  2. With a semi-colon; that guy looks like that.

And that’s it, folks. There are two other ways to fix run-ons, though:

  1. Isolate your two sentences, and make them into two separate sentences.
  2. Subordinate one of the independent clauses into a dependent clause, usually an adverb clause.

SOME EXAMPLES FROM REAL STUDENT PAPERS:

“I was an athlete my whole life and the mentality of leaving it all out on the field will always be my driving force.”

  • This example is good because these 2 independent clauses do work well together— but not if they aren’t separated correctly. We have 2 ideas in this sentence. One is telling the reader something specific about the writer. The second is explaining something about a mentality. Our first independent clause is “I was an athlete my whole life.” Our second is “The mentality of leaving it all out on the field will always be my driving force.”
  • This is a type of run-on that I come across frequently. It’s because the first subject “I” is a physical noun and the second is an abstract noun that many students make an error like this. Don’t forget that ideas can be nouns, subjects, too! All this writer needed to do was to insert a COMMA before the word AND, the coordinating conjunction, to make this a complete and non-run-on sentence.

Here is another example:

“The metaphor of this line makes this easy to do, however, I put an optimistic spin on the poem, which is further explained with the rest of the stanza that consists of more normal language and supports my earlier claim.”

  • Often students may think it’s easy to spot a run-on like this— this is a LONG sentence. But this writer could have made this sentence NOT a run-on by simply including proper punctuation. Again, we have two independent clauses here, one explaining something about a metaphor, while the second tells something that the writer is illustrating about the poem. Our first subject: “the metaphor” and our second subject “I” do seem to be separated with a legitimate grammatical function: a comma AND the word “however”.
  • HOWEVER, “however” is not a coordinating conjunction (see above), and this sentence therefore needs another mark of punctuation in order to be properly grammatical. In this case, a semi-colon after “do” and before “however” would properly join these sentences together in holy sentence matrimony. Be sure if you are using a semi-colon, that you are also putting a comma after “however”— you need that pause if you are going to write a grammatical AND long sentence.

Finally, a third and last example:

“When he says ‘temperate’ he means summer days can be brutally hot and not nice, but she is never too hot or too cold she’s always perfect.”

  • Now, a sentence like this has good intentions. It seems that all of these ideas can work together as one sentence. But the brutal truth here is that there are TOO many subjects/thoughts trying to work in one sentence here. Try to stick to one thought per sentence with a maximum of two subjects. Once you’ve given your reader three subjects (in this case, “he”, “she” and then “she” again), you are asking too much of your reader. Why? Three subjects mean three verbs AND three complete thoughts. Think of it that way.
  • This write HAS the comma and the coordinating conjunction “, but” between “nice” and “she” joining two independent clauses, but he ends his sentence with an independent clause “she’s always perfect” that is not at all joined properly to the sentence. Three thoughts are too much, so it is up to the writer here to decide which clause needs to be detached. If it were me, I would correct this like this:

“When he says ‘temperate’ he means summer days can be brutally hot and not nice. However, she is never too hot or too cold; she’s always perfect.”

  • You can still use a transition word like “however” even when you are not using it as connector before a semi-colon. This sentence could have been fixed other ways, but this, to me, makes the most sense.

Quickly:

Here are ways that some of the above examples could be fixed using the last two ways that I mentioned a run-on could be fixed.

By making one independent clause a whole new sentence:

“When he says ‘temperate’ he means summer days can be brutally hot and not nice, but she is never too hot or too cold. She’s always perfect.”

By subordinating one of the independent clauses:

“Because I was an athlete my whole life, the mentality of leaving it all out on the field will always be my driving force.”

There we go folks. Student run-on problems, solved.