Preparation for Final Portfolio

1.)    Colon

“He was a rich man: banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not: (Dickens, 19).

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times.  Oxford University Press, 1989.

“…; yet I was not a young Wench of Seventeen and it was easie enough to be distinguish’d: There is nothing so absurd, so surfeiting, so ridiculous as a Man heated by Wine in his Head, and a wicked Gust in his Inclination together;…” (Defoe, 179).

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2004.

“Emerson uses words like: own, mine, my, and we. Words that show ownership.”

I wrote this in a paper for my 19th Century British Literature class.

The examples above are all examples of a colon, although the third example I gave is incorrect. Do you know why?

Colon’s are used to signal information, emphasis an explanation, or shows that a long explanation lies ahead. Although the third signals information and introduces a list, it has an awkward break in the middle of an incomplete sentence. With colon’s you are not allowed to put one between a verb and its object as well as between a preposition and its object. How I would change the third sentence is to write it as a complete sentence before the colon: “Emerson uses four words to emphasis his point: own, mine, my, we…words that show ownership.” The sentence flows nicer and it is grammatically correct.

2.)    Subordinating Conjunctions

“When he is satisfied, he places the deck on the billiard table" (Morgenstern, 212).

Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus. Doubleday, 2011.

“If not, please step aside because I’m about to kick the shit out of life” (Semple).

Semple, Maria. Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

“Although English was my favorite class in High School I never thought of it as a career: until I came to college, I always found reasons why I shouldn’t teach: until I came to college and started by business classes.”

I wrote this for a blog.

The examples above are all examples of subordinating conjunctions, they are all correct. Do you know why?

Subordinating conjunctions connect independent (sentence can stand on its own) and dependent (sentence cannot stand on its own) clauses together. They connect two sentences that are not equal. We as writers use subordinating conjunctions all the time: Although, after, as, while, when, until, because, before, if, since are just some. The sentence type (independent and dependent) can be in either order, but you need them both to have the sentence make sense. You can also have a subordinating conjunction in the middle or at the beginning of the sentence. The second sentence has a subordinating conjunction in both places (not always necessary but for this sentence it works). Mary Semple could have written “If not, please step aside. I’m about to kick the shit out of life.” But because she has the “because” in between with the comma it adds emphasis and shoes that the two parts coincide. Also, having the two simple sentences makes the sentence seem more professional when that is not the tone the author wanted to emphasize.

3.)    Dash

“Oh God! what could I do? I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair …but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder—louder—louder!” (Poe 17).

Poe, Edgar Allen. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ Great American Short Stories. Dover Thirft Editions, 2002.

“I will analyze them separately then explain how they both—although similar—view the theme of nature differently."

I wrote this for a paper for my 19th Century British Literature Class.

“She was so constrained, and yet so careless; so reserved, and yet so watchful; so cold and proud, and yet so sensitively ashamed of her husband’s braggart humility—from which she shrunk as if every example of it were a cut or a blow;…”(Dickens, 121).

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times.  Oxford University Press, 1989.

  

“He also explained the levels of execution—decapitation, hanging, stake and the wheel, and to quarter—and how each level works on this art of pain.”

I wrote this for a blog.

The examples above are all examples of dashes, they are all correct. Do you know why?

Dashes are used to set off single words, phrases or clauses; they are used to emphasize, draw attention or add information; they can also be parenthetical. Dashes are informal and draw your reader into the point you are trying to get across. They also are used to show a sudden break or abrupt change, to show a side comment, to explain or add information, to show hesitation or stammering, and to show attributions. The fourth example I had used the dash for parenthetical use as well as to add information.

 For my final portfolio I plan on making a flipbook. The flipbook’s main audience will be myself. I am picking concepts that I struggle with and the flipbook with be a good tool for me when I am teaching. Also by creating the flipbook I will be able to memorize the techniques I have problems with easier.

Blog 3

In Darren Crovitz’s article “Sudden Possibilities”, he explains Mina Shaughnessy’s concept that teachers should look at the reasons why students make mistakes rather scribbling notes on how to fix. “Proofread” shouldn’t be the advice your students receive while in class because your students (most) don’t know the correct uses of grammar yet. [Parenthesis] They are still in the trial and error process of their writing. Grammar is also taught strictly based off memorization and copying a friend and luck. [List with “ands” and no commas] They are not understanding any of the information they are learning or answering.

The way students are being taught is Daily Oral Language (DOL) and Daily Grammar Practice (DGP). Both DOL and DGP don’t have students integrate grammar into their own writing. Instead of learning the material, students do the least they can do to get points. Students memorize the material that they need for that day; students don’t know the rules so instead of learning the material they copy from a friend; the students will also guess the answer just waiting for the teacher to give them the correct answer.

One of the alternatives to the typical DOL exercise that Crovitz gave was “transform a sentence to make it appropriate to other contexts”. The students themselves will have a plain sentence that they transform into a similar sentence but worded differently. [Reflexive pronoun to show emphasis] The example Covitz uses is “You’re fired”. From there the children can change the sentence to “We regret to inform you that your professional services are no longer required”, “Sorry, Bob, but with the poor economy we have to let you go”, and “Get out now and don’t come Back!” Although all the sentences mean that he is getting fired, it allows your students to think of other ways things can be said.

This lesson can be done using magazine advertisements to show why the author used the sentence they did specifically to advertise their point. Also by using a magazine advertisement you can ask your students how by changing the sentence the advertisement can mean something different. For the advertisement “Got Milk” instead of it saying “Got Milk” it could’ve said “Do you have milk” which would be a completely different ad. Instead of advertising drinking milk to help you bones, it could be an ad for Safeway or Walgreens to go buy some milk. This will help your students see that the way words are organized and said can show different meanings.

I would also change this example so instead of having me as the teacher write down sentences my students transform, I’d have them use sentences in books they’ve read, their own papers, or sentences they came up with on the spot. This way it incorporates the students and allows them to work as well. If I just used my own sentences, it would be similar to DOL which doesn’t engage the students as much. This lesson can also be changed up. Instead of having your student sonly transform sentences short to long it can go the other way around. They also can see sentences that are used in books they are reading and transform a sentence to say something only slightly different but because of that slight difference it changes the context. This shows your students the importance of their sentence structure.

Blog 2

When I decided to go into teaching I hated the idea of teaching grammar. Not because I thought it was pointless—I thought that teaching grammar meant teaching Daily Grammar Practice (DGP). When I was in High School we learned grammar through Daily Grammar Practice—each week we had a sentence we worked on and each day we had different grammatical elements to work on—I learned nothing from my Daily Grammar Practice. [Dash—to explain or add information]  I thought I would need to know all the rules of Standard English and I knew I didn’t learn anything from my years of Daily Grammar Practice.  We were taught that these were the rules of grammar and if we don’t follow them than we will be incorrect and marked down…I never learned where to use the rules in real life situations. [Ellipsis—to indicate pause or hesitation] My teacher only stressed the grammatical elements for that sentence of the week. I never understood why I needed to know a words part of speech…I still don’t. [Ellipses—to indicate pause or hesitation]  A better way to teach grammar is to incorporate the lessons in reading assignments.  In Grammar Alive it explains how you can teach capitalization, paragraph length, and organization of information, numbers, sentence length and style, active versus passive voice, punctuation, and coordinating conjunctions through having your students read something and look for something specific in the text. Incorporating pieces of writing that your students are already reading will make it easier for them to see the grammatical techniques.

After reading Haussamen’s Grammar Alive!  As well as Christensen’s Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard, I have found that how I thought teachers are supposed to teach may not be the best way.  In Grammar Alive, it contradicts this idea and says, “’Standard English’ is a concept with some flexibility to it. It has its gray areas” (5).  There isn’t just one way to speak and write English—each person has their own unique way.[Dash—to emphasize an important point]  In Christensen’s article it explained how when she was younger she was pointed out in class for saying the word lawyer differently than another student.  Christensen than found herself being cautious with what she said in case she said something “incorrectly”.  Although I never thought of a teacher having students stand up and saying a word only to point out how “weird” or “different” that student had said it, I do believe that teachers have been known to correct a student on how they say a word.

The book Grammar Alive! And Christensen’s piece both contradicted my learning on how to teach…but I believe it made my teaching better. It is easy to forget that people in different states and countries will say words and phrases differently than myself. In the books it explains that the differences in their speech shows character and gives the writer a voice…instead of trying to write the same as everyone else. [Ellipses—to indicate pause or hesitation] Promoting your students individuality and showing them different ways to use grammar in their writing is a much more useful way to teach than having one way students can write because this isn’t realistic. There is no correct way to write. There are different techniques, and by promoting these different ways, your students will be better off. My point of view on teaching grammar has definitely improved for the better.

 

I used both the ellipses and the dash. I believe I used them both correctly because for the ellipses I used it to show hesitation and for the dash I used it to emphasize a point as well as explain or add information. I was already comfortable with the ellipses…I seem to enjoy adding hesitation to my writing. Now the das—is my new best punctuation friend and I use it constantly!