Making Connections: Grammar and Everyday Experiences

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grammar for the Importance!

Image
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...
Read more

Grammar for the Past - Past Tense

Image
  The use of present tense with regards to someone's action is basically labeling someone (Weinstein and Finn 81).  In reality, no one wants to be labeled. Thus, speakers and writers need to cognizant of what they say and how they say something to their targeted audience.  Example: a) Professor Fowler lost her temper with her students. b) Natasha left a paltry tip-less than five percent of the check. c) You complained.  Instances of Labeling: a) I saw Professor Fowler losing her temper with her students. b) You witnessed Natasha leaving a paltry tip-less than five percent of the check. c) You are a complainer.   I recalled a time when I blamed my sister as insensitive to my mother. Here was the dialogue in the present tense: You really do not make sense. You are insensitive to mom's needs. You do not consider her point of view. I am not sure you are such a person. According to Weinstein and Finn, "nobody likes to be negatively labeled" (81). When I had that...
Read more

Grammar for Being Modest (Week 11)

Image
"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...
Read more