I was both surprised and, in a sick sense, happy to see myself signed up for the “lay/lie” mini-lesson because that issue causes a lot of trouble for me. I don’t like Spell-check or its green and whimsical pal Grammar-check and I fight them both every sentence of every paper I write (just kidding, it’s only a few sentences I have to fight them). But when it comes to the lay/lie problem, I keep my mouth shut and let Microsoft Word do the work. I always mix those up.
It’s not a topic that I’m easily familiar with to focus on the teaching of grammar but it will also help me learn and internalize the subtle rules governing these words.
Our exercises with the newspapers are interesting and I’m seeing the theme develop in Barbara’s teaching of using modern, practical materials to work through the lessons as opposed to teaching them outright. Even for grammar lessons that I feel I already have a good grasp on, it is still engaging to do the activities.
This last installment of grammar classes held less obstacles for me and so I haven’t uncovered any big bad grammar issues that I might have but for the whole class, I’m finding that I do have my quirks and issues with grammar more and more as we move along (while correcting them, of course). They were issues that fell into the background and have been overlooked for too long. I think some of my writing has smoothed out and I have a better conscious understanding of grammar that helps solidify my academic writings.
Question!: I have always cited, in MLA format, with my sentence and then the short parenthetical citation. So I’ll have my sentence go “blah blah blah in the blah century.” (Blah pg. blah) Recently I’ve seen a lot of people keeping the parenthetical citation within the sentence and putting the period outside the last parentheses as if the citation was a short blurb within the sentence. Which one, if not both, of these options is correct?
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
9-20-09
I’ve found these last lessons much more beneficial and outside my intrinsic knowledge of grammar than previous weeks. Although not entirely a new concept to me, our work with transitive and intransitive verbs was clarifying if nothing else. That seems to be a more subtle and therefore difficult understanding of our language and how it functions.
“My quivering flesh secretes delight,” “he made secret love on the kitchen table” and “his turgid pleasure rod filled her” were some of my group’s examples for transitive verb usage which quickly showed itself as a more common usage of the verb. More difficult to comprehend and define for me was the intransitive verb. Nonetheless we created some good examples in our magnetic poetry exercise--working with limited words, though we were. “She came,” was a simple example of an intransitive. No less dirty, I might add.
Otherwise, I’ve been noticing the teaching style of these grammar lessons and, like last blog entry, have been trying to see the bigger picture and the applicable aspect of this grammar course with the mantra that we cannot teach grammar, grammar has to teach itself. Intransitive and transitive verbs could very well make me gouge out my eyeballs whilst crying a sea of bloody tears if taught properly. I can see in Barbara’s activities how to make these grammar lessons, the ones that require some focused attention for our classes, into something at least bearable and more often rather than less often, enjoyable. That is definitely the biggest piece I am taking from this class, the creative aspect of teaching that can sustain the goodness of our subject and why it is enduring as an educational necessity. Someone loved it at the beginning and if it isn’t our sole job to foster love of English, it is our job to not foster loathing for it and, in turn, loss of the practicality which is absolutely a need of every budding young mind and body.
Another interesting note, although outside our grammar focus, is my take on the Socratic circle. I found that self-guided/group-guided method of teaching an exciting and useful teaching exercise. It was something I had experienced in high school once or twice and in context of a teaching class, remembered its effectiveness.
Again, I’m actually seeing slight improvements in my grammar through our focus on understanding difficult rules rather than memorizing them. Thanks Foreman Barbara!
Question: Isn’t the word “law” usable as self-pluralizing, so to speak? Like “deer” or “fish.”
p.s. Sorry this installment of my super interesting grammar blog is late. I’m a spacey sort of guy.
“My quivering flesh secretes delight,” “he made secret love on the kitchen table” and “his turgid pleasure rod filled her” were some of my group’s examples for transitive verb usage which quickly showed itself as a more common usage of the verb. More difficult to comprehend and define for me was the intransitive verb. Nonetheless we created some good examples in our magnetic poetry exercise--working with limited words, though we were. “She came,” was a simple example of an intransitive. No less dirty, I might add.
Otherwise, I’ve been noticing the teaching style of these grammar lessons and, like last blog entry, have been trying to see the bigger picture and the applicable aspect of this grammar course with the mantra that we cannot teach grammar, grammar has to teach itself. Intransitive and transitive verbs could very well make me gouge out my eyeballs whilst crying a sea of bloody tears if taught properly. I can see in Barbara’s activities how to make these grammar lessons, the ones that require some focused attention for our classes, into something at least bearable and more often rather than less often, enjoyable. That is definitely the biggest piece I am taking from this class, the creative aspect of teaching that can sustain the goodness of our subject and why it is enduring as an educational necessity. Someone loved it at the beginning and if it isn’t our sole job to foster love of English, it is our job to not foster loathing for it and, in turn, loss of the practicality which is absolutely a need of every budding young mind and body.
Another interesting note, although outside our grammar focus, is my take on the Socratic circle. I found that self-guided/group-guided method of teaching an exciting and useful teaching exercise. It was something I had experienced in high school once or twice and in context of a teaching class, remembered its effectiveness.
Again, I’m actually seeing slight improvements in my grammar through our focus on understanding difficult rules rather than memorizing them. Thanks Foreman Barbara!
Question: Isn’t the word “law” usable as self-pluralizing, so to speak? Like “deer” or “fish.”
p.s. Sorry this installment of my super interesting grammar blog is late. I’m a spacey sort of guy.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
9/13/09
In these wonderfully grammatically correct two weeks past, I have learned the technical aspects of why many of the more difficult grammar rules are the way they are. I have always had a good intrinsic understanding of grammar and how it functions in language but most of what I understood was: “It is the way it is.” I found it particularly interesting to discuss the plural and possessive rules in words that end with “s.” The Joneses’ dilemma was one of the first grammatical questions that I initially felt as out of my grasp. I didn’t understand the subtler meanings of that particular grammar issue without spending time considering it and discussing it in class. But that led to a much better understanding of that rule and why it works in English language.
Thinking about house styles and the malleability of our language was also new and interesting to me. I found it reinforcing to see up-scale publications with their own sense of language and how grammar isn’t perfectly right or wrong in every situation. It showed me that people have a sense of grammar that is complex and subtle beyond our ability to define in every aspect.
I’ve also learned that this class will be much more enjoyable and beneficial to my learning than I had initially suspected from the course title. I have never minded grammar but because I feel I have always had a solid grasp on it, I was worried that this would be, as Barbara put it, an exercise in rote memorization of grammar rules with no practical benefit transferring over to our writing and, in turn, our future students’ writing. Of course there are always grammar rules to learn but it is presented within context which definitely reinforces my belief in how grammar should be taught in secondary schools.
So yes, I have learned some intricacies of grammar over the past two weeks that will apply to my writing, editing and any other works I do with the English language but I have also started to see the whole process of learning grammar form which, to me, is the aim of this course and in a broader sense of our education for teaching.
Question!: Is there another word for synonym?
Thinking about house styles and the malleability of our language was also new and interesting to me. I found it reinforcing to see up-scale publications with their own sense of language and how grammar isn’t perfectly right or wrong in every situation. It showed me that people have a sense of grammar that is complex and subtle beyond our ability to define in every aspect.
I’ve also learned that this class will be much more enjoyable and beneficial to my learning than I had initially suspected from the course title. I have never minded grammar but because I feel I have always had a solid grasp on it, I was worried that this would be, as Barbara put it, an exercise in rote memorization of grammar rules with no practical benefit transferring over to our writing and, in turn, our future students’ writing. Of course there are always grammar rules to learn but it is presented within context which definitely reinforces my belief in how grammar should be taught in secondary schools.
So yes, I have learned some intricacies of grammar over the past two weeks that will apply to my writing, editing and any other works I do with the English language but I have also started to see the whole process of learning grammar form which, to me, is the aim of this course and in a broader sense of our education for teaching.
Question!: Is there another word for synonym?
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