That makes sense but I can see why people would be hard to convince. Grammar feels like it comes naturally to me whereas I have to work at math. I can't look at an equation and tell something is wrong (even if I'm not sure what it is) the way I can with a sentence.
Mal: Which one you figure tracked us? Zoe: The ugly one, sir. Mal: Could you be more specific?
'Out Of Gas'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Laga - Jun 15, 2011 1:08:07 pm PDT #15274 of 28286
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
Kat - Jun 15, 2011 1:09:29 pm PDT #15275 of 28286
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
I love diagramming sentences. It makes English mathy!
And it makes it visual. It's not a great skill to teach kids in a world of limited time/maximum testing though.
Speaking of which, my students, age 17 and 18 (and occasionally 19 and one is 20) are having a problem with sentence boundaries. Fully 90% of errors are sentence boundaries. How the hell do I teach that crap?
lisah - Jun 15, 2011 1:51:39 pm PDT #15276 of 28286
Punishingly Intricate
Fully 90% of errors are sentence boundaries. How the hell do I teach that crap?
Lots of reading out loud? (Signed, Can't really teach anyone anything so who am I to say?)
Connie Neil - Jun 15, 2011 1:53:32 pm PDT #15277 of 28286
brillig
What do you mean by sentence boundaries? Where one should end them, and how to avoid run-ons?
§ ita § - Jun 15, 2011 1:54:11 pm PDT #15278 of 28286
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
How close is too close? I vote for at least one space.
DavidS - Jun 15, 2011 1:54:40 pm PDT #15279 of 28286
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
This is why you need stone-word fences.
Sophia Brooks - Jun 15, 2011 1:56:13 pm PDT #15280 of 28286
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
Good fences make good neighbors.
§ ita § - Jun 15, 2011 1:56:38 pm PDT #15281 of 28286
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Hey! Kidz! Get offa ma dangling participle!
Ginger - Jun 15, 2011 2:19:10 pm PDT #15282 of 28286
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I'd do a run of authors and blitz through a dozen Christies or (in my teens) MacDonalds, MacInnes, McLean.
When I find a new author, I still Read All the Books. A friend contends that if I could restrain myself, I'd be less likely to say things like, "Why would anyone go to the theatre with DCI Roderick Alleyn (Ngaio Marsh's detective)?"
My life wasn't bad or difficult, I have no idea why I needed so badly to escape it.
In high school, my life was in such a state that if I finished a book at night, I had to start a new one, in order to have a reason to get up in the morning.
I think that losing sentence diagramming was the beginning of the current steep decline in writing ability and, along with the designated hitter, a sign of the end of Western civilization.
Dana - Jun 15, 2011 2:53:07 pm PDT #15283 of 28286
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
"Why would anyone go to the theatre with DCI Roderick Alleyn (Ngaio Marsh's detective)?"
Or New Zealand.