Making Connections: Grammar and Everyday Experiences

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Grammar for Being Modest (Week 11)

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"To be or not to be, that is the question" (Shakespeare 1).  William Shakespeare's famous line has continued to influence speakers' or writers' decisions to make certain claims. Weinstein and Finn expressed that "teachers" (121) contribute to "the confusing use of 'I'" (121). Weinstein and Finn stated that the use of "I" is "far too often forbidden" (121) in classes. Wienstein's and Finn's claim on the use of "I" are realistic in many ways. For example, I had to be careful and considerate in the use of "I" when I was in a meeting. If I used "I" to express something, I might omitted the contributions of others even though "other" people might not contribute to the group work. However, it was "me" that did the most, if not, all of the work. To appease the others, I ended up using "we" and "ours" to make false claims about what did not happen...
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Grammar for the Importance!

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Writers and speakers have different ways to present their points of views. Some use simple, complex, compound, complex-compound, and periodic sentences. Other speakers and writers use long sentences to express their thoughts.  For example, one speaker may say, "The cost of higher education continues to rise." A different speaker may make the statement longer to add emphasis to the thought: "The cost of higher education continues to rise due to inflation, global crises, and market demand." One speaker may go directly stating the important point: "In this high-tech age, friends stay in touch easily." In this perspective the speaker stresses the important point at the beginning of the message about high-tech era. A different speaker may say, "Friends stay in touch in this high-tech age because technology is easily accessible for many people whenever and wherever possible." By nature, I am a generous person in many aspects. As a classroom teacher, I...
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Grammar for the Sophisticated - The Use of Semicolon

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  Speakers and writers can use semicolons (:) to join two independent clauses together instead of a comma (,) (Weinstein and Finn 64). For example, 1) John's friend new a about a trip to Virginia. She told him how excited she was. The above statements are two independent clauses, which can be combined with a semicolon (;). John's friend new about a trip to Virginia; she told him how excited she was. According to Weinstein and Finn, the above independent clauses have connections because the second clause relates to the first clause (64). Thus, the purpose of a semicolon is to unit two related ideas together.   In my role as a uniter for a workshop, I had a chance to unite ideas from workshop's attendees.  From one attendee: "I can use technology to help students access information. The presence of technology in my classroom is important for my students.  My students know how to use smartphones, computers, and tablets. So it is critical that I know how to use technolog...
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