Author: Sheri Dean Parmelee

Finishing well or not at all

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hi everyone:

This is the time of the semester when many people just give up. I had a student recently who decided not to do the last two assignments. Then she realized that, by not doing them, she had flunked the class.  She came back to me and asked if she could complete them because flunking the class meant she would not graduate and the job she had waiting would no longer be hers.

What advice do you have for her? What do you think I should do in this situation? What do you think I did? Give me your thoughts and I will tell you how the scenario played out.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Do your homework or dislike the results

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I have been teaching college for 12 years now and one of the biggest mysteries to me is why students pay good money for their education, come to class on a regular basis, but do not turn anything in.

The only thing I can figure is that their parents are paying for their education, they enjoy coming to class, but they don’t want to do the work. Is college entertainment for them or did Mom and Dad say “go to college or get a job?” Do they figure that sitting in a classroom for hours every week is considered “going to college?” I guess it is, technically speaking.

I would love to read your comments about their mindset because they otherwise appear to be intelligent folks. Why do you think they do it (or actually, don’t do it, as far as homework is concerned).

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Parenthetic expressions and commas

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

i just wanted to clarify something. It has to do with the use of vocative commas. Vocative commas are used when you are separating a person’s name from the rest of the sentence, such as the following:

John, it’s good to see you.

You would use the vocative comma instead of writing: John it’s good to see you.

You also need to use a comma with parenthetic expressions. An example of this is a follows:

It is my opinion, and I travel once a month, that flying beats driving.

Please note that, if you use one comma in the sentence, you must use both. Sometimes students don’t use any when writing parenthetic expressions and that can be confusing at best.

Hope this helps!

Dr. Sheri

Oxford commas revisited

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Oxford commas are great at preventing misunderstanding. One of my students sent me a news report on a court case filed on behalf of some workers who thought they deserved overtime. The issue? The lack of an Oxford comma.

So, what is one, you might ask? An Oxford comma is used between the last item in a list of things and the second-to-the-last item. Here are some examples of when they are used and when they are left out:

I love my parents, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck. (Your parents are a couple of ducks, which automatically makes you quackers.) To verify that you are talking about three separate individuals, use an Oxford comma: I love my parents, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck.

I want to leave my 3 million dollars to my children: Child A, Child B and Child C. Child A gets 1 1/2 million; Child B and Child C split the other 1 1/2 million dollars. With the Oxford comma, the sentence reads: I want to leave my 3 million dollars to Child A, Child B, and Child C. Everyone gets one million and all are happy. [Note to my children: I named you with regular names, but sadly do not have 3 million dollars to leave you. Enjoy your names, ’cause there isn’t much else to get!]

I hope this helps!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Parenthetic expressions

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today, let’s visit the world of parenthetic expressions. This is, when you are writing, a brief pause in the middle of a sentence to add some additional information. It also applies to speaking, but I wanted to give you an example of what I was talking about right up front.

Sometimes it is hard to decide if you need the commas, but, if you have one comma, you must include the second one.

For example, you would not say the following:

This is, when you are writing a brief pause in the middle of a sentence to add some more information.

This looks like someone is just putting a comma after a verb. My students do this frequently; it is incorrect.

Here is the same sentence with no commas:

This is when you are writing a brief pause in the middle of a sentence to add some more information.

See how fast that gets confusing? Therefore, when you have a parenthetic expression, use two commas. Keep me happy.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Introductory phrases used to excess are tedious

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog covers the overuse of introductory phrases. These little jewels  can add excitement to your writing but having too many of them is….dreadful.  Here are some examples:

Throughout this time, I have been abcezy.

Along with my entire family, I have done thus and such.

With this steady rhythm, it is possible to …..

With this unique workforce, I find that….

There were 15 sentences in the student’s first three paragraphs of the paper and 11 of them started with either an introductory word or phrase. That is way too many.

To combat this, flip the sentence. Oops- that was an introductory phrase. It could be written without the phrase as:

Flip the sentence in order to combat this.

I don’t mean that you cannot ever write them, but use them like salt: sparingly. I have other blogs on this topic, if you are still struggling with the idea.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Reading announcements and feedback can lead to a better grade

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Two of the best ways to improve your grade is to read announcements and read the feedback from your instructor.

Two of the colleges where I currently teach make instructor announcements mandatory, telling me I must post something twice a week. So I do. Every week. Since this is a requirement, I try to be brief but I also try to include something that will reward my students by helping them to get a better grade on an upcoming assignment.

For example, my announcement might say something like, “I noticed in the past that some students do thus and such a thing as they are doing research but you can work smarter, not harder by doing this instead.”

Or I might remind them about some aspect of the assignment that they might have overlooked. By giving them little hints, or actual full-scale clarification, it pays the students to read what I have written.

Likewise, reading my feedback on one paper (and not making the same mistakes on the next assignments) will lead to a better overall grade in the future. One thing that is really irritating is when I take hours to go over papers for a class, only to find that only a few students read my feedback. (Yes, my computer screen tells me if you read what I wrote or not; I can also trace your activity in the class to see how much time you spent reading it. Aren’t computers amazing?)

So, for better grades, read the announcements to find that pearl that will lead to a better grade and take your instructor’s feedback to heart. Don’t be insulted- thank him or her for taking the time to help you improve your grade.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Following the directions leads to better grades

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

This may not come as a surprise but following the directions on an assignment really does lead to better grades. Here is a case in point:

My students at an unnamed college had a assignment worth 100 points. Some of the students really applied themselves and did a super job of addressing all of the questions the essay was supposed to respond to.

Two of the students wrote two lines apiece. That was it. Now, folks, do they really think that each sentence was worth 50 points? One hint for college success includes the factoid that the teacher’s questions should not take up more space on the page than your answer did.

If you are asked, for example, “what are the pros and cons” of an issue, you should not have your entire answer be “there are some pros and there are some cons.” No, I am not kidding. Details really do matter.

On this same assignment, several of the students answered in full paragraphs, noting that I am very fond of five-sentence paragraphs. I have made mention of this fact several times during the semester, but these two-sentence-wonder students were too busy looking bored to listen, apparently.

The take-away here is: pay attention to the directions, answer the questions you are being asked in a thorough manner, and listen to verbal instructions in class. Write them down. Do the work and make a better grade.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Single Nouns Should Not Double-Date

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Let me share with you a couple of very common mistakes I see when grading students’ essays: the use of a single noun with a plural pronoun and the use of possessive apostrophes when they only mean to use a plural noun.

Folks, where were you when your teachers told you about this in writing class? Here’s the politically incorrect idea here: If you have a single noun (student) and want to use a pronoun with it, you need to use a single pronoun (his or her). Do not use the word “they.” That is a plural pronoun and should be utilized when you are writing about  more than one student (students). Here are some examples of what I mean:

“A student should make sure their homework is done on time.” Nope.

“A student should make sure his or her homework is done on time.” Yep.

“Students should make sure their homework is done on time.” Yep.

Yes, I know that today some folks talk about “zim” and “zer” but those are, in my humble opinion, still single. They should not double-date.

The other issue is when a student means to have more than one noun but uses a possessive apostrophe with the noun. For example, he or she might write the following:

“In that situation, all fee’s could be waived.” Nope. [That was from a senior in college, by the way.] This student MIGHT have meant “In that situation, all fee is could be waived.”  Since there was nothing that the word “fees” was possessing, I have to assume that the individual meant “fee is” but it just doesn’t work with the rest of that sentence. Double nope.

What the student meant to write was the following:

“All fees could be waived.” Yep.

Hope this helps! Have a superb day!

Dr. Sheri

Finishing the semester strong

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Sometimes my students get tired before the end of the term. It can happen to anyone…..it happens to instructors when we have bitten off more than we can grade.

Hang in there, people. There will come a day when you totally forget whatever  is plaguing you now. If you quit, you may never remember why.

Don’t give up. Okay, so you had a bad breakup with the person you thought was your forever-one-and-only. It hurts. I get it. But are you willing to sacrifice an entire semester’s worth of work for someone whose name you might not remember in two years?

I had a 17-year-old student in one of my classes who cried every day before class for weeks about her recent loss of a boyfriend. It was the end of the world. He was her first boyfriend. He was the only man she would ever love. Of that, she was certain. The breakup happened at the beginning of the semester. By the end of the term, she had forgotten him and moved on. It happens. In spite of her pain, she hunkered down and got the class done. She finished with an A.

Life happens, but try not to let it get you off track.

Best,

Dr. Sheri