Prepositional phrases

Practice identifying prepositional phrases at


http://www.quia.com/quiz/298373.html

OR


http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Quiz-Prepositional-Phrases.topicArticleId-251364,articleId-251286.html

Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

Practice your dangling and misplaced modifiers  at

http://aliscot.com/bigdog/dmmm_exercise.htm

OR

http://uwf.edu/writelab/test/dangling_and_misplaced_modifiers_practice_test.htm

5 Examples of Misplaced Modifiers

Posted: 14 Jan 2013 09:53 PM PST

You’ve heard that timing is everything. In writing, however, placement takes first place when it comes to conveying meaning. Consider these examples.
1. “So far, the book has only come out in Italian.”
It has only come out in Italian? It hasn’t done anything else in that language? No, it is only in Italian that it has come out. This revision says so clearly: “So far, the book has come out only in Italian.” (The placement of only within a sentence is the most common type of misplaced modifier. It’s forgivable in spoken English, but in writing, it’s best put in its place.)
2. “Then you’ll be able to survive just about anything that life throws at you with confidence and style.”
What, exactly, does life throw at you with confidence and style? Nothing. It’s you, not your life, that exhibits these traits: “Then you’ll be able to survive, with confidence and style, just about anything that life throws at you.”
3. “She broke ground as the first woman to run for president of the United States in 1872.”
This sentence implies that the subject was the first woman to register as a presidential candidate that year. But the meaning is that in that particular year, she became the first such candidate in history. This revision communicates that point: “In 1872, she broke ground as the first woman to run for president of the United States.”
4. “She got a job with an organization that developed policy for youth and children while she was a political science major.”
The impression one gets from this sentence is that the organization carried out its mission only during the duration of the subject’s time at the university. But what it means to say is that she obtained her job with an organization that pursued that objective independently of her tenure, and that she was a student when she did so, as conveyed here: “While she was a political science major, she got a job with an organization that developed policy for youth and children.”
5. “Smith recently presented a paper at a conference titled ‘Averting Bloodshed: The Benefits of Community-Based Mediation Services.’”
To what does the title refer — the paper, or the conference? The proximity of conference to the title implies that the event was so named, but this revision reveals the truth: “Smith, at a recent conference, presented a paper titled ‘Averting Bloodshed: The Benefits of Community-Based Mediation Services.’”

English grammar review

I recommend that you leave a draft for 24 hours before you revise and move onto your next draft.

Between drafts I would recommend that you review your English grammar at

https://www.number2.com/exams/act/daily/question/index.cfm

OR

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

OR

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/act/chapter5section2.rhtml

OR

http://www.actstudent.org/sampletest/english/eng_01.html

OR

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

OR

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

English 11 week of January 14

Memoir writing – revising and polishing a selection from the memoir writings we did from November 7 – December 20

Monday – draft 1 completed, and begin revising. Revising expectations are:

 Tuesday – Finishing up revisions of 1^st draft.

Wednesday – Expectation between 2^nd and 3^rd draft:

            Read Write For College p. 46 – Voice in Writing

            Self assess with Specific Details in Writing

Thursday – finishing 2^nd or 3^rd draft OR finish up 3^rd draft.

Friday – 3^rd draft completed.

10 Tips About Basic Writing Competency

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 10:47 PM PST

Here are ten areas to be sure to attend to if you wish to be taken seriously as a professional writer.
Formatting
1. Do not enter two letter spaces between sentences. Use of two spaces is an obsolete convention based on typewriter technology and will mark you as out of touch. If editors or other potential employers or clients notice that you don’t know this simple fact, they may be skeptical about your writing skills before you’ve had a chance to impress them.

2. Take care that paragraphs are of varying reasonable lengths. Unusually short or long paragraphs are appropriate in moderation, but allowing a series of choppy paragraphs or laboriously long ones to remain in a final draft is unprofessional.

3. If you’re submitting a manuscript or other content for publication, do not format it with various fonts and other style features. Editors want to read good writing, not enjoy aesthetically pleasing (or not) manuscripts; efforts to prettify a file are a distraction.

Style   
4. Do not, in résumés or in other text, get carried away with capitalization. You didn’t earn a Master’s Degree; you earned a master’s degree. You didn’t study Biology; you studied biology. You weren’t Project Manager; you were project manager. (Search the Daily Writing Tips website for “capitalization” to find numerous articles on the subject.)

5. Become familiar with the rules for styling numbers, and apply them rationally.

6. Know the principles of punctuation, especially regarding consistency in insertion or omission of the serial comma, avoidance of the comma splice, and use of the semicolon. (Search the Daily Writing Tips website for “punctuation” to find numerous articles on the subject.) And if you write in American English and you routinely place a period after the closing quotation mark at the end of a sentence rather than before it, go back to square one and try again.

7. Hyphenation is complicated. In other breaking news, life isn’t fair. Don’t count on editors to cure your hyphenation hiccups for you; become your own expert consultant. (In addition to reading the post I linked to here, search the Daily Writing Tips website for “hyphenation” to find numerous articles on the subject.)

8. Avoid “scare quotes.” A term does not need to be called out by quotation marks around it unless you must clarify that the unusual usage is not intended to be read literally, or when they are employed for “comic” effect. (In this case, the implication is that the comic effect is patently unamusing.)

Usage
9. For all intensive purposes, know your idioms. (That should be “for all intents and purposes,” but you should also just omit such superfluous phrases.) On a related note, avoid clichés like the plague — except when you don’t. They’re useful, but generous use is the sign of a lazy writer.

Spelling
10. Don’t rely on spellchecking programs to do your spelling work for you, and always verify spelling (and wording) of proper nouns.

English 11 week of January 7

Reading time this week will focus on individual learning goals for reading. Our post test for reading is next week Tuesday!

Monday – finish Simon Birch. Final memoir writings returned.

Tuesday – Work on mid point assessment for Reading Learning Goal.

Wednesday – Identify a Memoir writing to revise. Pull and idea from that selected memoir and complete a timed writing.

Thursday – begin to piece together the two memoir writings. Expectations are

Specific details in Writing

A	B	C	D
Meets assignment requirements and does it in an outstanding way	Meets assignment requirements, is well written, and has an impact on the reader	Demonstrates most of the assignment requirements but with inconsistent quality	Represents a substandard writing because it fails to fulfill assignment requirements
Demonstrates consistent critical and creative thinking	Critical and creative thinking are evident	Details tend to be ordinary rather than critical or creative	Rambles with direction, writer’s purpose is lost.
Ideas are unified, coherent; supporting details are relevant and well chose. Artful transitions are used	Ideas are unified and well developed; supporting details are irrelevant or over-emphasized, common transitions are used	Ideas are general, supporting ideas are lacking or no relevant; transitions are used infrequently or unevenly	Ideas are weak, poorly developed; imbalance between main idea/supporting details; transitions are lacked
Definite voice, the writing comes alive	Voice lacks power and creativity	Voice is detached and little sense of the writer is apparent	Voice is lacking
Mechanical skills are controlled by writer	Mechanical errors are few and minor	Mechanical errors may hinder fluency and clarity	Mechanical errors are frequent and severe.

Friday – Working on  first draft of writing.