grammar rants

Understanding Grammar Pt. 2

2009-12-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

In my first blog, I explained how I was worried about my over-usage of commas, and how I thought I was good at grammar, but knew that I needed work - and oh boy, did I need the work. Until Barbara's class, everything I had known about grammar was techniques that I had gathered by myself by looking at other people's writing (AAAWWUBBIS). In school, no one ever taught me grammar - at least not the correct way, or in a way I understood (dash). Barbara's class, the only class that one can have ridiculous amounts of fun in, has taught me how to identify, clarify, and utilize grammar terms and techniques. And as a result, my writing has improved not only grammatically, but syntactically. Instead of sticking to what I know, I take the risk of using different types of grammar structures, and some things have permanently stuck with me since class(like introductory clauses, and using a comma before and).

Even though at times this class gave me a headache, it paid off. Not only did it improve my writing, a lot of the discussions we had in class would carry to the bus stop. One discussion in particular, was using "lively verbs" to improve the quality of one's writing. I believe this discussion followed after the Lanham Method. The point is, the "lively verb" discussion stuck with me, and I now use it to improve not only my structured writing, but my creative writing as well. Take these two excerpts from my essays for example:

1.Creative Writing Sample
Taking a deep breath, I sit up and swing my legs around to the side of the bed. The room starts to spin in slow, irregular circles, and I get the sensation I might pass out. I grab a pillow and clutch it to my chest with both hands, squeezing it as hard as I can to remind myself that it was only a dream. I had to hold on to something while the collision of my dream and my world spun out of control(Lanham w/ "lively verbs").
2. Structured Writing Sample
In the preface to The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde declares, “vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art” (4). Exploring this idea in the novel, Wilde tells the story of its main character’s decent into total decadence (Lanham w/ "lively verbs"). Some years after Wilde’s publication, segments from the novel were used to describe his homosexuality as a vice, more than a mere reflection. However, the novel uses homosexual bonds to explore larger aesthetic values about the nature of art.

Just by using "lively verbs," my sentences stand out, flow well, and draw the reader in. This one discussion, and technique has stuck with me, and has shown me that I can be a good writer if I vamp up my essays with good verbs. It's made writing fun!

However, it's not just my required writing that has improved, my short letters and emails have completely shifted as well. Anytime that I do something that I learned from grammar class, I always add at the end, "Barbara would be proud." Like Melissa shared in her blog, check out this Facebook comment:

Though there is much more to grammar than "lively verbs," introductory clauses, and comma usage, I feel for me, those are what stuck, and what I use most. I learned a lot of other terms and techniques that I would have never understood before this class (for example: who/whom). I feel comfortable working with grammar now, and using it in my writing - even if it is for exploration. Taking the dive and trying new things out has really improved my writing style and skill (dash). In addition, I feel so comfortable with some of the terms, that I could/can teach them to my peers and others - with explanation - which is something I could never do before (dash/intro clause). So thank you, Barbara, for composing a class that was actually useful to me, and making it fun!

no fluff, hah!

2009-11-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

So, I had to come home this weekend due to family matters, and I totally left my course pack at home. I'm doing this method based off of memory and if I'm right, it's just subject, verb and direct object broken down to just those? Here is a passage from an essay I wrote. I feel that iwas broken down a lot already, so there wasn't much breaking down to do (I think). I guess that's what this exercise is for, right?

One must first understand that Wilde’s views on the purpose of art differ much from the writers during the Romantic era. Wilde feels that historians and art critics who look to the past to find “representative” works of art have no business applying such labels. Art, he feels, is not to inspire or to show things as they really are. He states, “Art never expresses anything but itself” (842). To make something out of a piece of artwork is to apply a false meaning to it. Rather, he notes, “Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself” (839). Wilde, in typical Aesthetic fashion, valued beauty. He felt that the true object of art “…is not simple truth but complex beauty” (836). However, Wilde did not qualify his notion of beauty. Beauty, the superficial quality, could be based on a thousand untruths, but as long as it was beautiful Wilde thought it was worthy of adoration.

brush strokes

2009-10-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

After trying to find something in my blogs that went along with brush strokes, I noticed that I pretty much lacked any kind of those subjects. So, I decided to take an excerpt from an essay I wrote earlier in the semester.

My Life as A Reader

Every summer, my parents would ship me off with a backpack of clothes and my “blankey” to my Grandparents’ house in Gig Harbor, WA. Every summer, I would cry and would pry my fingers around the frame of the car door. I hated my Grandparents’ house. I would have nightmares about how much of a boring week was in store for me (I still do). You see, my Grandparents are the kind of people who own a T.V., but don’t believe in letting their grandchildren watch it. For an entire week it was just me, myself and I . . . and the stiff smell of the elderly. As the first few days of the week passed (which was just me sleeping, eating or catching crabs on the beach to torture), my Grandma asked me if I wanted to go into town with her. Of course I did! I was ecstatic! Finally, a way out!
The town of Gig Harbor is a lot different than a lot of the suburbs surrounding Seattle. It is full of a lot of old, retired yuppies (including my grandparents) . . . but at the time, I was just happy to be out of the house. After walking around from shop to shop my Grandma asked me if I wanted to go into the bookstore (gross, the bookstore). You can’t be mean to old people though, especially your Grandparents; it’s like in the unwritten rule for grandchildren. So, of course, I agreed to go in. There was something different about this bookstore . . . it was old, small but had a mysterious and magical aurora to it. I liked it. It reminded me of something that would be in a book or featured in a sci-fi/fantasy movie. The smell, the old tattered books and new sucked me in like a vacuum sucking up dirt from a carpet. I was in awe at just the pure beauty of this bookstore. After starring off into this Wonderland of a shop, the sales clerk asked me if there was anything I was looking for. Knowing that I didn’t have a preference and didn’t have a particular love for books, I looked at my Grandma with a slight hint of fear and curiosity. My Grandma suggested to the clerk that she let me look around and browse through the selection that was offered. So I did. I looked, and looked, and looked. I finally found myself in the fantasy section of the store. I picked up a few books and read the synopsis on the back. At last, a book that sounded interesting to me. I figured, what’s the harm in doing some reading back at my Grandparents’ house anyway? I wouldn’t be doing anything else. So I found and told my Grandma that I wanted a book, it was called, The Ancient One by T.A. Barron.

My Life as A Reader with Brush Strokes

Every summer, my parents would ship me off with a backpack of clothes and my “blankey” to my Grandparents’ house in Gig Harbor, WA. Every summer, I would cry and would pry my fingers around the frame of the car door. I hated my Grandparents’ house. I would have nightmares about how much of a boring week was in store for me (I still do). You see, my Grandparents are the kind of people who own a T.V., but don’t believe in letting their grandchildren watch it. For an entire week it was just me, myself and I . . . and the stiff smell of the elderly [absolute]. As the first few days of the week passed (which was just me sleeping, eating or catching crabs on the beach to torture)[participle], my Grandma asked me if I wanted to go into town with her. Of course I did! I was ecstatic! Finally, a way out!
The town of Gig Harbor is a lot different than a lot of the suburbs surrounding Seattle. It is full of a lot of old, retired yuppies [absolute](including my grandparents) . . . but at the time, I was just happy to be out of the house. After walking around from shop to shop my Grandma asked me if I wanted to go into the bookstore [participle] (gross, the bookstore). You can’t be mean to old people though, especially your Grandparents; it’s like in the unwritten rule for grandchildren. So, of course, I agreed to go in. There was something different about this bookstore . . . it was old and small [adjective out of order], but had a mysterious and magical aurora to it [absolute]. I liked it. It reminded me of something that would be in a book or featured in a sci-fi/fantasy movie. The smell, the old tattered books and new sucked me in like a vacuum sucking up dirt from a carpet [adjectives out of order and absolute]. I was in awe at just the pure beauty of this bookstore. After starring off into this Wonderland of a shop, the sales clerk asked me if there was anything I was looking for [participle]. Knowing that I didn’t have a preference and didn’t have a particular love for books, I looked at my Grandma with a slight hint of fear and curiosity. My Grandma suggested to the clerk that she let me look around and browse through the selection that was offered. So I did. I looked, and looked, and looked. I finally found myself in the fantasy section of the store. I picked up a few books and read the synopsis on the back. At last, a book that sounded interesting to me [participle]. I figured, what’s the harm in doing some reading back at my Grandparents’ house anyway? I wouldn’t be doing anything else. So I found and told my Grandma that I wanted a book, it was called, The Ancient One by T.A. Barron.

I hope I did this right, haha. I'm no sure if this is what Barbara exactly wanted us to do! And I'm no sure if I got them all right, but I tried!

scrap it up, baby

2009-10-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

On Monday I missed class because I was driving home from Western Washington (Saturday was my birthday). However, it looks like we went over some important stuff: subordination and AAAWWUBBIS? I honestly have no idea what AAAWWUBBIS stands for - which brings me to my question of the week: what does AAAWWUBBIS mean? It sounds like the noise a fog horn would make. Oh well! You guys can teach me now. Anyway, on Wednesday Stephanie and Shannon talked about introductory clauses, and they did a fantastic job. I was really impressed with the way they went about showing us how to point out different introductory clauses. After that, we started working on our scrapbooks. I was really kind of frustrated because we didn't get to spend as much time looking for examples as I wanted to, and I feel that a lot of the people at my table are just as confused as I am when it comes to "breaking the rules" and "errors in print." I'm having a super hard time seperating the two. I mean, there are ones that are just blunt, but a lot of them I feel could go either way. This is something that's been driving me crazy. In addition to that, I'm having a hard time coming up with explainations. I know that there is something wrong with the piece that I pick out, but I can never quite figure out what it is, or how I'm supposed to say it. I looked a lot of my questions up in the Nitty-Gritty book, but everything I'm looking for isn't in there! So basically I'm just a huge ball of frustration right now when it's coming to our scrapbooks, haha. As far as not understanding anything this week, well, I think you can see by my ranting what I'm having a hard time with. So any suggestions you guys have or any ideas circling my problems, please let me know!

spontaneous punctuation

2009-09-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

This week we dug a little deeper in the parts of prepositional phrase, sentence patterns, and the pronoun case. In addition to this, we also learned about "fanboys." Which was actually a really useful tool! I never really thought about putting commas before some of the words "fanboys" stands for. I even applied these rules to a current essay I produced. We also finished reading about the story of "Dora" and how kids struggle with punctuation and why. Honestly, I had a really hard time getting through the second half of the article. It was super dense and very repetitive. I fell like each section was like, "punctuation is hard. . . and this is why" only with a different story to follow. Even though we had a Socratic seminar about the article (which I always love a good discussion), I almost feel that other students felt the same way I did about the article. We did generate discussion, but not like we did last time. I feel that the class struggled, and therefore, didn't really know what to say about it. Anyway, before leaving last class we were posed with a question: "when do you actually notice punctuation and think about what you're doing?" Well, the answer to that question is spontaneous punctuation. I don't really think about what I'm doing unless I have a complicated sentence that I'm trying to form. Honestly, everything else just comes naturally to me and I don't really think about it as I'm typing or writing. I don't see it as punctuation, I guess. I see it as part of the word, part of the spelling, part of its very essence! Overall, I felt that discussions were good this week and there isn't anything I have questions about or don't understand. It was smooth sailing for me this time around!

Question of the week: Than or then? Barbara mentioned it in class this week and now I'm confused and worried that I may be using it wrong! Anyone want to clarify for me?

dora the explorer

2009-09-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

So this week started off with going over sentence structures by identifying subject, verb and direct objects to determine whether the sentence was transitive or intransitive in The Evergreen. I really liked that we touched upon these again because I feel that even though I do understand these concepts, that they're something I could easily forget. So by constantly doing exercises I feel that these rules of identification will finally stick in my head and I'll never forget them. On top of that, it'll just make me more comfortable with the whole idea of transtitive and intransitive verbs/sentences. On Wednesday we read about Dora . . . the fictional girl with grammar issues. Instead of just having lecture or normal class discussion we tried out the socratic seminar as a whole group this time instead of fish bowl groups. I really liked doing the seminar as a whole instead of fish bowl style. I feel that I could jump in a lot easier and had a lot more to talk about. I especially liked how the conversation turned from a positive view on Dora's learning to a negative view. I love hearing what other people have to say because it usually opens up entirely new doors in my mind. I feel that the socratic seminar is a great way of learning new opinions and ideas without having that limited feeling when it's just you and the teacher having a conversation. I've been using seminars since high school and I always loved the way they functioned . . .they feel limitless. As for not understanding anything that happened this week, I really understood the purpose of everything. Again, as mentioned previously, I would still like to continuously work with the whole transitive and intransitive verb sentence concept until it's stuck in my brain for the rest of my life. Other than that, I felt this week was a great learning experience for me and as I'm sure, many other students!

Question of the week:
What's the difference between "i.e" and "e.g"?

"so you can only goove intransitive? you can't groove transitive?"

2009-09-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

This week I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was a little nervous because I had missed a class last week so I thought that I may be behind and I wouldn't understand the concepts being discussed. On top of that, Barbara said that Wednesday was the most important day of the semester . . . and I thought, probably my life. So I was a little nervous considering the dramatic reminder of how Wednesday was important. I didn't really know what was coming. But then, Wednesday came . . . it was amazing! In fact, it was probably one of the best days I've had in grammar thus far. Not only did we learn about sentence structures and what makes them up, we got to do it with magnets! Yes, magnets! Who would have thought of such a brilliant idea?

I have to admit that I learned a lot this week. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't completely clueless before, but pretty close when it came to the whole intransitive and transitive sentences with direct objects, etc. I knew they existed and I knew they were in there . . . I guess I just didn't really know how to break them down to what from what. Doing the magnetic poetry exercise really helped me decode sentences and make them up. Especially since it was with a Shakespeare theme I had to work extra hard. As far as not understanding anything this week in class, there really wasn't anything that I don't understand. I would like to do more exercises with the intransitive and transitive sentences to make sure that I am a wiz at it, but other than that there's really nothing I had a hard time comprehending.

Question of the week:
How do I figure out which verb to use in sentences like, "this is one of those situations that drive/drives me crazy"?

moving forward . . .

2009-09-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

So far in this semester I have to say I've learned quite a bit in grammar class. Not only have we pushed the limits of apostrophes and how they work, but we've also discussed how certain editors choose to use them. I especially like the idea that we're learning this not just by lecture, but by hands-on scrap booking! I never thought that learning grammar could be so fun or interesting. I actually love going to class and knowing that we're going to be learning about apostrophes, dashes and ellipsis, etc. instead of dreading the very idea of them. I also never really paid attention to how editors of magazines chose to lay out their material. It's interesting to see how different editors have various ticks and obsessions that they go by to specifically mark whatever magazine they work for as, "theirs." Although I was missing from class one day and I can't really say what we did, I am happy to say that today when I took my WEST-B there were plenty of questions that had to do with grammar in the "writing section" that made up for my missed lecture on Wednesday. I had to know adjectives, nouns, pronouns and so forth. It really made my brain want to blow up, but I feel like in the end, the constant bashing of these will pay off, well, I know they will. Again, anything that was discussed in class this week I was home sick and missed the lecture. But, I'm sure what ever we did cover is something that I probably need to learn more about! I'm looking forward to discussing more about the parts of speech and when and how to use commas at the right times! The commas problem just keeps popping up for me and I need to figure out how to manage or fix my obsessions with them!

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
As I was taking my WEST-B, I noticed a lot of questions that had to do with sentences being too "wordy." Honestly, I had a hard time figuring out what was too "wordy" and what words could have been changed (that weren't obvious). Does anyone have any ideas on how to eliminate "wordy" sentences without taking away from the paragraph?

understanding grammar

2009-09-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

As an English Major I constantly find myself correcting my own grammar. As it can be overwhelming for anyone, I feel that it is important, as future teacher to understand every bit of grammar possible. Because how can one teach to others what they are unsure of or do not know? I am not only taking this class because it is required, but because I need to know how explain parts of the English language.I feel that my biggest issue has to do with my over usage of commas. I've never had a teacher or professor tell me that I've been using, or have used them wrong. It's just that I have never really been sure if I am using them right. I guess I just put them wherever I feel they should go or feel like they fall comfortably. And, whenever I read over my blogs, essays or journal entries, I notice that there's commas every where!In addition to my addiction to commas, I really want to know how to break apart sentences and know what each part is called (antecedents, prefixes to words, etc). I remember in school learning them, but I never really learned them. I figured, I know how to write a sentence, why do I need to know what the parts are? I now regret not parking those parts into the back of my brain. I think that by knowing parts of the sentence I will be able to choose the right words and have the ability to create strong sentences. Also, using words in the right content are really important to me; such examples as, "lay down" and "lie down" or "farther" and "further." I just have a hard time knowing which ones should be used for what type of sentence. Hence, wanting to know the parts of a sentence.Overall, I just want to suck up as much as I can about grammar. I want to be able to use commas without thinking that they just may be in the wrong places even though Microsoft Word says they're not. I'm looking forward to finding out how to use grammar correctly and to see how my sentences, word choice, and papers becomes magnificent pieces of art over the semester (as I'm sure there is already a lot of errors with this blog).

Question: Whom or who? Does anyone have any suggestions on when and how to use the two?