Writing & Grammar

Posts about writing and grammar.

Past and present tenses

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog will cover the all-important tense. When college students write an essay, sometimes they have a tendency to switch back and forth between past and present tense. According to Strunk’s Elements of Style, when a writer is summarizing something, he or she should use present tense. Don’t tell your reader that something is happening and then switch around and say that it did happen.

An example of this is when you summarize the television show House, M.D. in an essay.  Let’s say that you write “House walks in and talks to the fellows.” You wouldn’t then write “House didn’t know what to say” (like that would ever happen to Dr. Gregory House!). Instead, you would write “House walks in and talks to the fellows; he doesn’t know what to say.”

By the way, watch out for using too much of the show and not enough analysis in your essay! Sometimes students give me plot summaries of the show House, M.D. and offer nothing else. There is no analysis of the artifact and no scholarly sources that point anything out about what they have written. The whole essay is just one long chat about what happened on the show. There are websites that I can get this information from; what I want from you is an essay that shares your interpretation of the artifact. I wrote my 400-page dissertation on House; I don’t need to you explain  what happened in an episode.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

How important is formatting? Very!

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog is about the importance of formatting, i.e. following the directions. If an instructor gives you guidance on how he or she wants an assignment to be done, I have only two words: follow it!

Recently, my students at two of the three colleges where I teach had an assignment due. I gave them samples of the formatting I wanted and offered tips on my announcement section of the class page that told them how to complete the assignment successfully.

Amazingly enough, the students who followed my examples and made sure that their documents met all of the requirements (there is a rubric attached to every assignment) did exceptionally well. Those who told me that they “chose” to do the assignment another way did not fare so well.

Why would they choose to not follow the instructions? Folks, that is totally beyond my comprehension. I would welcome your thoughts on this topic! While a little creative thinking is a good thing, not following the directions at your future job could get you fired. Food for thought.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Writing a speech outline

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Sometimes students do not understand what is required for an outline, so I have given you a sample of what is expected for a freshman level communications class that has a group project due. They are to discuss a movie and each team member must have three scholarly sources.  Here is a sample of outline formatting:

Names of the team members

COM1010

Group Presentation Outline and Works Cited

Name of the speech should be centered                                                            on the page (if you want a title)

I. Introduction: please make this a full paragraph.

II. Nonverbal communication is……..

1. Source #1’s point

2. Source #2’s point

3. Source #3’s point

III. Verbal communication can be defined as…..

1. Source #1’s point

2. Source #2’s point

3. Source #3’s point

IV. Emotions can be………..

1. Source #1’s point

2. Source #2’s point

3. Source #3’s point

V. Conclusion: please write a full paragraph.

You may have sub-sub-points that describe the movie under what the scholars are saying, but please DO NOT make the outline into a plot summary.

Your Works Cited page should be attached, with all sources in alphabetical based on the last name of the author.

I hope this example helps you with any outlines you are required to write.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Introductory phrases and words can get in the way of what you are saying

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog shares information on introductory words phrases. What are those, you might ask? Here’s an example straight off a paper one of my students wrote recently:

In almost every workplace, there is at least one process or function that can be improved or made more efficient. In healthcare specifically, it could be finding better ways to attend to the patients faster or making sure that information is entered into their charts more accurately. However, in my office our biggest problem is our phone system. Due to our phone system being an on premises PBX phone system versus a hosted or cloud based PBX phone system, we run the risk of our patients or other healthcare professionals not being able to contact us if the power goes out. In addition, this risk is made even higher because we are located in a very ‘dated’ building which does not have a backup generator in the event of a power outage.

Every single sentence in the above paragraph begins with either an introductory word or phrase. That is a boring way to write. Please note that I used commas with all of them (the student left some of them out), which is my personal preference because doing so helps the reader keep things straighter. Here is the paragraph rewritten without any of those annoying introductions:

There is at least one process or function in almost every workplace that can be improved or made more efficient. The healthcare system, for example, could be finding better ways to attend to the patients faster or making sure that information is entered into patients’ charts more accurately. We run the risk of our patients or other healthcare professionals not being able to contact us, due to our phone system being an on-premises PBX rather than a hosted or cloud-based PBX system.  This risk is made even higher because we are located in a ‘dated” building that is without a backup generator to be used in the event of an outage.

Do you see where the introductory words and phrases went?  I moved them around, putting some in the middle and others at the end of the sentences. I happily eliminated some of them and did not harm the sentence in the least.

Please do your professor (and your writing) a favor: eliminate unneeded introductory words and phrases. After all, we need no introduction because we have already met.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

How grocery shopping is like writing essay transitions

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

How in the world are transitions in an essay like grocery shopping???? Believe it or not, they are alike.  Work with me here!

When you go shopping for food, you put a lot of unrelated items in your cart. Maybe you get some bananas, a container of cinnamon, and some nonfat yogurt. While you are pushing them around the store, they are three separate things. After taking them home, however, you can combine them in your blender (with a few other things) and make a wonderful smoothie.

It’s like that with essay transitions. You see, your goal is to take three different thoughts and combine them into one essay. You do that through transitions. You will use four different transitions if you have three main points.

Your first transition will be between the introduction and the first main point. You need to go from getting our interest and telling us what your essay is about in your introduction to the first point; you don’t just start in. That would be like holding up the banana in your cart and declaring that it is a smoothie.

Nope, you have some work to do first. Your introduction has told me what to expect in the following pages, so now it is your job to start the first point by telling me that you are telling me about the first point. If you are a freshman, you might say something such as “First, this is abc because of xyz.” More advanced writers will use a more profound sentence, but this works for newbies.

The next transition is between points one and two. Perhaps you will write “not only do we have point a but we also have point b.” Again, this is very basic. As you become a stronger writer, you will write a more complex sentence (but you will still need to be concise).

You will then write a transition between points two and three and another one between point three and the conclusion. It is transitions that make your essay come together; it is the work of your blender to make the banana, cinnamon, and yogurt work together (along with other ingredients) to make those random purchases into a wonderful drink.

(By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, I have been using transitions throughout this blog posting. I hopefully got your attention by making the outrageous statement that grocery shopping is like writing transitions for essays. Then I talked about your first transition, went onto the next transitions, and then the last transition. That’s how it works!)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Recalcitrant possessive apostrophes

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

What can we do about apostrophes? We need them, but their proper use often evades our understanding. Here are some tips for their usage:

When you write the word “it’s” you need to understand that this is not possessive. You have written the words “it is.” For example, if you write “it’s a mystery to me,” you have correctly written “it is a mystery to me.” If you write “it’s table,” you have incorrectly assumed that you have used a possessive apostrophe correctly. Nope, you have written “it is table.” That is not possessive of anything.

You see, the word “its” does not use an apostrophe to show possession. You simply write “its table” to indicate that the table belongs to something, like a table, for example. The correctly-written sentence would be: “The room did not have its table in the correct location.” While the room might have misplaced its table, the sentence is correct because it does not read as “the room did not have it is table in the correct location,” which is a horrid sentence.

So please remember, the word “its” does not require a possessive apostrophe. If it has one, it is not possessive, it’s just wrong! (But this last sentence was right because I was saying “it is just wrong!”

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Watch out for typoes and grammatikal errores- yes, that is important

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

So, I guess you can tell what I will be talking about today, given the obvious mistakes in my title. You would not believe what some folks will turn in for me to grade. Today’s list was pretty unbelievable, so here are a few to whet your whistle:

“Staff being arguing about the room….No solutions is found…..” (this gal is a junior in college). What did she write?

Next, “The company I work for provides software that allow us or our clients to medically management their members.”  That sounds painful!

After that, “With having so many varying areas leads to countless barriers in communication.”  Oh, my, this student is writing about communication, but what did the individual actually say????

Another student shared, “This has been the only place of employment, that grew a passion to work with people and customers to reach a common goal.” Huh?????

Still another student wrote about her company, which has “many moving parts.” I am not sure what those parts could possibly be.

Folks, one way these students could improve their writing is to proofread everything before submitting it. These mistakes were not made on discussion boards, which are important but don’t really count for much of the final grade, these sentences came from formal documents that were discussing communication.

Have you ever written something you wish you could change? Have you ever read something that was muddy or unclear? I would love to hear your examples of mistakes you have read!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Don’t re-invent the wheel or color outside the lines

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog is geared to help you get ready for mid-term or final projects.  Let’s say that you have been in a writing class (mine, for example) for the past seven weeks and it is time for either a mid-term or final project. We just took the time to learn how to write a memo, a modified block formatted letter, and/or an Executive Summary. I download your project and find……..a memo hybrid letter and an Executive Summary that is two paragraphs long, double-spaced, with three inch margins. Aughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

What have we accomplished this term? Go back to the basics that we spent weeks on and look over the format. There is a reason why I taught you how to do headings on your memo and how to align the information in those headings so that they look like the buttons on a shirt (translation: they are straight, not jagged all over the page).

Your modified block letter should not have spacing gone wild, with quadruple spaces between the return address, the date, the addressee’s information, and the salutation. I got one of these yesterday; the text of the letter was three two-sentence paragraphs that started in the lower 1/3 of the letter. We have had seven weeks worth of my reminding students that their paragraphs needed to be five sentences MINIMUM. Each. Suddenly, that was thrown out the window as the student decided to re-invent the wheel with a six-sentence letter.

Folks, if you have a writing project that builds on itself all semester long, that’s a good thing, but do not copy and paste all of your old papers into the final report and think you are finished. Especially, do not turn in the old stuff as a new project without making the changes your instructor requested on the feedback you received when she graded your earlier work.

Another student turned in a really nice project rough draft but only used 2 out of the 7 sources she was required to have. She told me, “I’m not quite done with my research yet.” I have a feeling that there will be some source dumping going on in the next few days, since she now has to find someone, anyone, who agrees with what she already wrote. My educated guess is that she will then shoehorn the sources into one page (out of 12 pages) and consider herself done. Friends, do your research FIRST and then write. [Note: Professors do not enjoy source dumping, where only a couple of paragraphs out of the document have all the sources.]

If your instructor has given you examples of formatting for your documents, please use them. Part of going to college is learning to follow directions. Basically, you are learning to color inside the lines. While you may think that coloring all over the place is more creative, it frequently leads to a mess (and a lower grade). Your call.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Writing assignment gone bad

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I recently received a 7-paragraph list of answers to questions that had been posted for a writing assignment. While the answers were rather nice, they did not follow the assignment’s instructions. Instead of writing a 17-page paper like one of the other classmates, this individual wrote a total of 2 pages. [Note: The other papers in the class were a minimum of 8 pages, with most of them 10-12 pages, so the other students clearly understood what they were to do.] Instead of having a full page of references, this person had no references at all. Instead of having an APA-formatted, well-written essay on the topic at hand, this person wrote an un-formatted, hastily-written discussion board posting.

When you have an assignment to do, do not wait until the last minute to throw something together. You will not do your best writing in this situation and you will not have time to email the professor (and get an answer back) if you do not understand the assignment. In this particular case, the student assumed that 7 paragraphs with no references would be sufficient to earn a good grade on an assignment that was worth 15% of the final grade. That was a poor assumption.

What kind of stories do you have about assignments that either you or someone you know did not follow? What words of advice would you give in this situation?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Sending notes to the ill

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

This might be an unexpected blog posting for this time of year, but have you thought about sending notes to folks who are ill?  Your thoughtful comments would mean so much to someone who is hurting.

Here are some tips on how to approach this:

You do not need a fancy, pre-printed card. Food stores (like Safeway, in my neck of the woods) carry blank greeting cards that are available by the packet. I buy some pretty cards in bulk and then send them out as the need arises (it always arises).

Do not tell the other person “I know exactly how you feel.” Obviously, you don’t, but you can share your own personal experience that is similar to what they are facing. Do not make this all about yourself, however.

Mention what the person is experiencing (“I heard that you recently lost your (mother, sister, husband, whoever) and wanted you to know that you are in my thoughts and prayers”). You can then tell the individual about your own connection to their grief (“I remember when John walked out, and understand what that feels like….”). Offer assistance, if you wish (“I would love to come over and cook dinner for you on Tuesday night….”) or just let the friend know that you are available (“I am here if you would like to talk about this or if you just want to have a cup of coffee sometime”). Close the note with assurances (“This is a difficult time but …”). Do not tell the person that he or she will laugh about it some day. There might not be any laughing about this for years, especially if John wiped her out financially when he left to go live with that hussy.

This is not something that takes a lot of time, but it can really be an encouragement to the other person. It can also be a blessing in your own life, as you reach out to someone who is going through difficult circumstances right now.

Best,

Dr. Sheri