Image writing from the New York Times

The Return of the Dangling Modifiers

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 06:57 PM PDT

Like the compositional equivalent of lurching zombies, dangling modifiers insistently, incessantly assault the sensibilities of careful writers (and careful readers). I’ve posted several sets of examples of these misbegotten misconstructions in which an erroneously constructed sentence subject is at odds with the modifying phrase that precedes it, but they keep on coming. Here, in honor of Halloween, I execute another sordid sortie of such monstrous errors.
1. “A biostatistician by training, Smith’s initial study of alcohol as a disease was funded by Jones.”
Smith’s initial study is not a biostatistician by training; he is. Therefore, the modifier (in this case an appositive, a word or phrase that takes the place of another word or phrase: Smith and “a biostatistician by training” refer to the same entity) should follow the subject, so that the sentence reads, “Smith was a biostatistician by training, and his initial study of alcohol as a disease was funded by Jones.”
But this revision might alter the emphasis of the author’s intended meaning. “Smith, a biostatistician by training, received funding from Jones for his initial study of alcohol as a disease” might adhere more closely to the original intent.
2. “After nearly four years behind bars, an Italian jury overturned her conviction for the murder of her roommate.”

If I had been part of that incarcerated panel, I would have avoided the jail time by overturning the defendant’s conviction four years earlier. For this sentence to say what it’s trying to say — that the defendant, not the jury, was exonerated — the defendant needs to be introduced in the introductory modifier: “After she spent nearly four years behind bars, an Italian jury overturned her conviction for the murder of her roommate.”
3. “As a member of a political minority in this area, it’s interesting how people here just assume you think the way they do.”
It is not a minority, the writer is. Writers need not introduce themselves at the expense of the expletive it’s, but they do need to introduce themselves: “As a member of a political minority in this area, it’s interesting to me how people here just assume you think the way they do.”
4. “Born in Los Angeles, this isn’t the first time John Doe has sparked controversy with his artwork.”
This sentence suffers from a distracting diversion similar to the one in the previous example; it identifies LA as the birthplace of this, rather than the hometown of John Doe. The statement’s awkward insertion of a detail that is both unimportant and unrelated to the main part of the sentence is easily remedied; reinsert the biographical detail as a parenthetical following Smith’s name: “This isn’t the first time John Doe, born in Los Angeles, has sparked controversy with his artwork.”
5. “Never a fan nor a detractor, the sheer insanity of the band excited and frightened me enough to stay three hours longer than I intended to.”
The sheer insanity of the band is not its own fan or detractor — the writer is. Therefore, the writer must be the subject of the sentence; I also introduced the modifier nevertheless to signal the contrast between expectation and outcome: “Never a fan nor a detractor, I was nevertheless excited and frightened enough by the sheer insanity of the band to stay three hours longer than I intended to.”

English 11 week of October 29

This week’s focus is on your inner reading voice

We will read 15 minutes each day.

Monday – Wrap up NY Times Image writing assignment.

Tuesday – Post-test for English grammar. Chart growth. Homework: Write a reflective paragraph on what you learned and give a specific example.

Wednesday – Viewing October Sky – through the lens of a writer.

Thursday – Viewing October Sky – through the lens of a writer.

Friday – Celebrating success! Discussion about image grammar and October Sky.

November Is the Write Time

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:10 PM PDT

Writing is one of the loneliest pursuits (or professions), and as I know as well as anyone, enthusiasm for expressing oneself is tempered by the daunting challenge of actually doing it. For those of us for whom having written a novel is a more appealing prospect than, you know, actually writing it, National Novel Writing Month provides a quirky motivating nudge.
The annual event, which encourages writers to complete the first draft of a novel in thirty days with the knowledge that one can publicly celebrate one’s progress while embracing the morale-boosting benefit of knowing that one is part of a worldwide community of fellow scribes, is in its fourteenth year.

Last time around, more than a quarter million people participated from all over planet Earth. Only one out of seven hit the 50,000-word goal, but every one of them started — and as we all realize, the first step is the hardest. (More than a hundred NaNoWriMo participants have had the novels they worked on for the event published — again, not everyone, but enough to make it reasonable to imagine that someday you number among them.)
To help encourage participants, the NaNoWriMo website offers various features and tools, including Pep Talks, email messages from published authors ranging from Booker Prize winner Nick Hornby (whose books High Fidelity, About a Boy, and Fever Pitch have been adapted for film) to newcomer Melissa Mayer, whose young-adult novel Cinder started out as a NaNoWriMo draft.
You’ll also find NaNoWriMo badges you can download onto your website or blog, special offers for software products or self-publishing deals, and forums in which you can contact other participants in your area to give and receive advice and encouragement. (Forums include the Appellation Station, where participants can get help with naming people, places, and things — and books — and the Character Cafe, a resource for development of your dramatis personae.)
In addition, NaNoWriMo sponsors ancillary events, such as a fund-raising write-a-thon on site in San Francisco; Camp NaNoWriMo, an extension of the original event held during other months; and support materials for teachers and students involved in the event. And, as usual, the website lets you keep track of your word count and post excerpts of your work.
The beauty of this crazy conception is that the timed nature of the event encourages you to do what writers must do to succeed: Just write the damn thing already — no time to edit, no opportunity to agonize. Write a crappy first draft. (All first drafts, the site assures you in its inimitably perky-but-puckish style, are crappy.) Sign up, already. Operators are standing by.

English 11 Assignment October 23 and 24

   

              

Image Writing from the New York Times

          Click on the New York Times Photo Page at

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/multimedia/index.html

Each day the New York Times displays images from news events around the world. 

These images are always dramatic and high quality, providing an excellent resource for student writing.

          As you examine the photos, please select an image that you find fascinating and write a brief paragraph describing it, using the image grammar ideas. 

 Source the image using www.easybib.com; at 

Easy Bib - paste URL from image. 

Source Type: Photograph found online;
 Contributor: Author - name under photo; 
Publisher: NY Times: 
Electronic Published: Today's date.
include source at the top of the page. Write your paragraph on the same page as the source. 

We will print paragraphs and save them as "Image Writing from the NY Times" in your new English 11 digital portfolio

Create a new folder in your H: drive personal student folder
Name the folder English 11 digital portfolio

Practice ACT test October 25 and 26

Two days will be needed to test

all juniors

for the practice ACT

The practice ACT:

*Familiarizes students with the ACT testing content, format, and testing procedures.

*Used by students to realize their academic strengths and weaknesses.

*Used by educators to customize curriculum to meet individual needs of students.

Student will be tested based on their English 11 class

Testing will take two mornings to complete: Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26

Anti Violence and Bullying presentations October 22

On Monday, October 22  Mr. Jim Merrills will be presenting an all school assembly on Anti Violence and Bullying in schools.  The assembly will be from 8:45-9:30 am.  Afterwards, he will be conducting break out sessions in the library with smaller groups.  In order to try to reach as many students as possible, we are targeting the English classes.  The following is the schedule:

4th hour - Krassow/Knapp, Luttke, & Smith English classes to the library for break out session (approx 75 students).  Everyone else remains the same

5th hour - Class as usual (NO BREAK OUT SESSIONS DUE TO LUNCHES)

6th hour - Natzel, Luttke & Smith English classes to the library for break out session (approx 60 students).  Everyone else remains the same

7th hour - Luttke & Smith English classes to the library for break out session (approx 45 students).  Everyone else remains the same

8th hour - Krassow/Knapp, Luttke, & Smith English classes to the library for break out session (approx 82 students).  Everyone else remains the same

Please let your students know on Friday that these classes will report directly to the library during their scheduled times.  This is so Mr. Jim can get started right away and have more time for his presentation. 

How Long Should a Paragraph Be?

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 09:43 PM PDT

A paragraph should consist of six to seven sentences. No, it should be no longer than three sentences long. Actually, it should include a topic sentence, several supporting sentences, and possibly a concluding sentence. Sigh. Can I end this paragraph yet?
All three of the declarations in the previous paragraph (the first pair of which come, respectively, from sources within Purdue University and Stanford University, two of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the United States), and any similarly quantitative statements, are wrong. The correct answer is that a paragraph has to be long enough to reach its end.
Like this one.
A paragraph can be as long or as short as you want it to be. It can unfold for countless pages or consist of one word — even one letter.
W-
(I meant to write, “Wait!” but was interrupted.)

The determination to make in composing a given paragraph is not the number of sentences or words or letters, but the number of ideas. The rule of thumb — in nonfiction, at least — is that each paragraph should focus on one idea or concept; when you shift to a new idea, shift to a new paragraph. (In fiction, its function is more nebulous: A paragraph is a unit of writing that further develops a story through exposition.)
However, ideas, as we all know, are slippery things, difficult to package and unlikely to remain in their allotted places. How big or small is an idea? What about an idea within an idea?
Ultimately, a paragraph is complete when you decide it is.
Where, then, did the various judgments of proper paragraph length come from? They result from well-intentioned but misguided efforts of educators to help students learn the fundamentals of writing.
The topic-support-conclusion model (one variation of which is named the Schaffer paragraph, after its developer, Jane Schaffer) is valid in that it helps developing writers discipline themselves to craft effective persuasive arguments. Opinions easily dissipate if they are not backed up by facts or reasoning. But the form is only that — a mold that can (and should) be broken once a writer learns how to use it.
And dictating that a paragraph consist of a given number of sentences is an understandable but lazy approach that ensures that student writers provide details before moving on to the next idea but does not teach them why they must hit the number — much like requiring a word count for an essay or report ensures that most students will focus on grasping for quantity rather than striving for quality.
There are, of course, practical considerations in determining paragraph length. Readers of newspapers and other publications with narrow columns of text are more likely to read paragraphs that don’t extend vertically more than a couple of inches. Similarly, websites are easier to read when paragraphs are brief. Care should be taken, likewise, in book manuscripts to avoid paragraphs that extend for more than half a page.
My rule of thumb in editing is, when working in a Microsoft Word file, to break up paragraphs of more than ten lines in 12-point type with a six-inch column width for print publications and to limit online copy to five lines (as I’ve done here), though results will of course vary depending on the point size and column width of the particular text.
Don’t hesitate to adhere to or promote specific models of paragraph construction, but be sure that the teaching or learning involved emphasizes the versatility of the paragraph form.
Please.

Plurals and Apostrophes (Mostly) Don’t Mix

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 09:11 PM PDT

The apostrophe has three functions: To help indicate possession (boy’s), to mark contraction (it’s), and to convert a singular letter, number, or initialism to a plural. However, the mark has all but been relieved of duty in its third task.
One of the few categories in which apostrophes are still retained for plural usage is when plurals of letters are concerned. In expressing how many times a letter appears in a word, for example, one would write “There are five e’s in beekeeper”; it would be distracting to write “There are five es in beekeeper.” This style also applies to the expressions “Mind your p’s and q’s” and “Dot the i’s and cross the t’s.” (Note, however, that in these idiomatic uses, contrary to the previous example, the letters are not italicized to indicate that they are being employed to refer to themselves.)
However, legibility is not a concern when uppercase letters are concerned: No apostrophes are necessary in “She received three As, two Bs, and one C on her report card.” (Note that names of letter grades are not italicized.) But to avoid confusion, don’t start a sentence with “As” or “Is” to refer to more than one uppercase letter; the resemblance to the words As and Is will distract readers.
If plurals of both uppercase and lowercase letters are listed in reference to the alphabet, though, be consistent: “The T’s and r’s in his first signature differ from those in the second one.”
Apostrophes are unnecessary when referring to plurals of numbers. For example, the treatment of the number in “I printed three 5s on a piece of paper” is correct, though when one is referring to any other use of the number than the numeral itself, it is better to spell out the word for the number: “She gave him change in the form of three fives.”
When pluralizing a year, omit the apostrophe: “They came of age in the 1990s.” Use the mark with numbers only to indicate the possessive case, as in “Check out this list of 1990’s biggest hits” — “Check out this list of the biggest hits of 1990” would be better — or to truncate a designation of a decade, as in “They came of age in the ’90s.”
Until relatively late in the twentieth century, inserting periods after each letter in an initialism was customary (“F.B.I.”). Because placing a plural s immediately after the final period would be awkward (“It was as if there were two F.B.I.s”), an apostrophe was customarily inserted before the s (“It was as if there were two F.B.I.’s”) — not an ideal solution, but better than the alternative.
However, now that these periods are almost universally considered obsolete (a few publications, most notably the New York Times, are holdouts), the apostrophe is superfluous and considered incorrect: “It was as if there were two FBIs.” (The Times, for the record, omits periods in acronyms, a series of letters that, unlike initialisms, are pronounced as words.)

Semi colons

Thank you Nathan Dennis and Nick Little for finding some wonderful websites to explain and practice semi colons!

How to use a semi colon at

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

Semi colon wars at

http://mrnussbaum.com/semicolonwars-play/

English 11 week of October 15

This week’s focus is commas.

We will read 15 minutes per day.

Monday – Identify grammar elements from Jurassic Park excerpt.

Mid point self-assessment – pre test returned; students identify grammar issue
What do I know so far?
What still needs to be learned?
How do I learn that information?

Homework: Take self-assessment and work on independent learning. Two – three sentences on what was accomplished overnight. Identify with 1-3-5 scale how ready you are to take the post test.

Tuesday – Exit pass – Correct sentences with misplaced or dangling modifiers. To promote individual growth for next unit, which will be memoir writing, students will list the 4 topics on their Sentence Fluency foldable. Then rereading their Image Grammar paragraph – identify a strength and weakness in their writing as it aligns with their Sentence Fluency foldable. Teacher will use this to identify students’ strengths and weakness to see if they align. Derived poetry – brainstorming. Homework – Derived poem

Wednesday  - Share derived poetry. Human Commas! Exit pass – Correct sentences with misplaced or dangling modifiers.

Thursday – Semi colons – What are their purposes? How do I use them correctly? Partner work, large group sharing.

Friday – Analyze image grammar in Sue Grafton’s murder mystery.

Practice Quizzes for English Grammar

Complete the following quizzes:

 

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers:

http://www.chompchomp.com/modifiers03/modifiers03.htm

Still struggling with Subject/Verb Agreement?

http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/sva03.htm

Still struggling with Irregular Verbs?

http://www.chompchomp.com/irregular04/irregular04.htm

Commas:

http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/commas03a.htm

English 11 week of October 8

This week’s focus is Image Grammar and Commas

We will be reading 15 minutes per day.

Monday – Class time to work on Image Grammar list. A group discussion about dangling and misplaced modifiers. Homework: finish Image Grammar list.

Tuesday - Identify comma rules; Assignment part two of Image Grammar – review sentence fluency foldable. Homework:  Short, descriptive paragraph using grammar list words and own words.

Wednesday – Share paragraph with partner. What is a gerund and gerund phrase? Exit pass – Correct sentences with misplaced or dangling modifiers.

Thursday – Collect Reading Record.  Jurassic Park book, clip, discussion. Exit pass – Correct sentences with misplaced or dangling modifiers.

Friday – ACT prep online

Misplaced, dangling modifiers

Misplaced modifier:
A modifier placed too far away from the word it is trying to modify.

Ex:
I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith.
Really? And what is the name of his other leg?

Corrected
I know a man named Smith with a wooden leg.



Dangling modifier:
It occurs when the word that the modifier is trying to modify does not appear in the sentence.

Ex.
As a young girl, her father taught her to climb a tree.

Modifier: as a young girl, BUT who is she?

Corrected
As a young girl, Sally's father taught her to climb a tree.
OR
When Sally was a young girl, her father taught her to climb trees.


Lastly,
Split infinitive is a type of misplaced modifier. An infinitive is the word to followed by the verb. Don't put any words between the to and the verb!

Ex.
I try to always tell the truth.

Be sure to never break a promise.

Corrected
I always try to tell the truth.
Be sure never to break a promise.

Now you try...


1. He came in even first though he was behind at first.

2. Walking three days a week, the heart increases its muscle mass.
 

Loaded Language

by Mark Nichol

If your parents brought you up vigilantly, chances are that you were admonished to use your words carefully. As far as writing is concerned, that instruction is one of the most valuable lessons you learned.


Consider the power of connotation, the sense of a word apart from its denotation, or literal meaning. Unless you have your heart set on being a propagandist, be cautious about the synonym you choose in a particular context.
Look, for example, at thin and its associated words: Thin, itself, is an ambiguous term; depending on context, it might connote an healthful or unhealthful appearance. To say that one is lithe, slim, slender, svelte, or willowy, meanwhile, connotes an attractive body type maintained, perhaps, by engaging in physical fitness and/or eating sensibly.
However, anorexic, bony, and skinny suggest an excessive thinness. To say, for example, that a fashion model is lithe is complimentary; to describe her as bony is pejorative. (An anonymous wag went further in coining the phrase “bag of antlers” to suggest a woman whose bones protrude in such an unsightly fashion that she resembles such an object.)
This post does not advocate avoidance of loaded language; if you wish to express your opinion, you will likely make use of weighted words. But if your intention is to express impartiality, take care in the terms of art you choose.

Misplaced and dangling modifiers

Misplaced and dangling modifiers

Sentences:

Go to http://www.chompchomp.com/modifiers04/modifiers04.htm

Long passages:

Go to http://www.chompchomp.com/modifiers02/modifiers02.htm

The Fundamentals of Verbs

Posted: 02 Oct 2012 09:20 PM PDT

This post outlines the basic principles of the verb, the workhorse of language.
A verb describes an action (talk), an occurrence (become), or a state of being (live). Verbs are complicated by their many variable states, based on inflection depending on functions. For example, an action might, depending on the number of talkers, be described with the word talk or the word talks. (This quality is called agreement.)
Based on the tense of the sentence, the verb, accompanied by an auxiliary, or helper, could appear in the phrases “will talk,” “has talked,” or “was talking.” (Tense is one of several similar qualities; the others are aspect, how the action or state occurs through time, and modality, the expression of the speaker’s attitude toward the action or state.)
Other qualities of verbs are the voice (such as active voice, as in the form of the verb saw in “Many saw it as a turning point,” or passive voice, as exemplified by the syntax in “It was seen by many as a turning point”) and the valency — whether the verb is intransitive (accompanied by a subject alone, as in “It moves”), transitive (accompanied by a subject and a direct object, as in “We went to the store”), or ditransitive (accompanied by a subject, a direct object, and an indirect object (“I brought him the report”).

The six types of verb follow:
An intransitive verb is one that does not precede a noun or an adjective. If any part of speech follows an intransitive verb, it is usually an adverb (“I walked quickly”) or a preposition (“I walked in”).
A linking verb precedes a noun (“She remained home”) or an adjective (“He appeared tired”); an adverb may not follow a linking verb. In these sample sentences, home is an example of a predicate noun, and tired exemplifies predicate adjectives.
A transitive verb — sometimes, to distinguish it from two other types described below, called a one-place transitive — precedes a noun (“We watched the movie”) or a noun phrase (“They talked in the dark”). In this case, the noun or noun phrase is called a direct object because it is the thing being acted on in the manner indicated by the verb.
Two types of verbs are called two-place transitive verbs. The first, labeled the Vg type (the letters stand for verb and give), precedes two nouns or noun phrases (“I bought my wife a bouquet of flowers”) or a noun or noun phrase and a prepositional phrase (“I bought a bouquet of flowers for my wife”) in succession. The first word or phrase after the verb is an indirect object (a recipient) and the second is a direct object.
The second type of two-place transitive verb, the Vc type (c is for consider), precedes a noun or noun phrase and another one (“I consider the chairman an arrogant person”), or an adjective (“I believe that the chairman is arrogant”) or an infinitive phrase (“I found the chairman to be arrogant”). The first word or phrase after the verb is a direct object, and the second is a complement, so called because it teams up with the direct object to complete the thought.
A to-be verb is one that is a form of the phrase “to be,” such as is, were, or being. A to-be verb precedes a noun (“I am a fool”), an adjective (“I was foolish”), or an adverb of place, a class of adverb that describes where something occurs (“I am in the doghouse.”) These other parts of speech are sometimes referred to as predicate nouns, predicate adjectives, and predicate adverbs.
As is the case with nouns, a sentence need not include a verb (for example, “Right” spoken or written as an affirmation), but not much can happen in communication without reference to an action, an occurrence, or a state.

English 11 week of October 1

This weeks reading focus is prepositional phrases. We will be reading 15 minutes each day in class.

Monday – Celebrate success – Parts of Speech pre and post test. Exit pass – Irregular verbs and subject/verb agreement. Homework: Write directions to your house from the high school; include street names, landmarks or both. Please write them in a line by line format.

Tuesday –Pre test – Tragedy in the Factory 15 grammar based questions in ACT format. Highlight prepositional phrases on directions. Go over answers and types of questions.

Wednesday – Socratic question – What is an appositive? Image Grammar – definitions and handout. Exit pass – misplaced and dangling modifiers. Image Grammar  – part one due October 9, part two due October 10.

Thursday – In class time to work on Image Grammar. Writing – sentence starter… Use chart to identify your problem areas and any improvement.

Friday – Finish sentence fluency. Reading from Jurassic Park and watching film clip. Discussion of image grammar.