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 Being Trusting (Week 13)

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 Weinstein and Finn expressed that "grammar affords us a variety of ways to stress certain words" (51). Stressing certain words can help speakers and writers to emphasize their important points. For example, the use of exclamation points, italics, capitals, and emphatic (Weinstein and Finn) can help speakers and writers put more emphasis on certain points in their messages. For example, "Before 9/11, no one could have predicted that terrorists would use our own planes as missiles against us!"  The use of an exclamation mark in this sentence strongly express that speaker's strong feeling for this sentiment. I would use this mean to emphasize my strong feeling about the event.  However, the use of exclamation mark is only good for writing. In speaking, I have to stress with emotions to ensure my targeted audience would understand my feelings. I would not use capitals in the previous sentence because it could indicate that I was screaming. I would not also use ita...
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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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