Writing & Grammar

Posts about writing and grammar.

Getting ready for the new semester: Making use of crutches

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

There is an old saying that you only need crutches if you have an injury. But I would argue that crutches (like the ones I will be talking about) can come n handy even if you aren’t aware that you have a problem.

One crutch is the willingness of your professor to review a document before you submit it. If a student brings in an essay or other assignment one week before it is due, I am more than happy to look over it and offer guidance. Is this a crutch? Maybe, but my students who do this oftentimes find their grades are stellar. Interestingly enough, the ones most likely to take advantage of this offer are the ones who need the least amount of help. Sadly, the students who never take me up on this offer are the ones who are failing.

Another crutch is to take and actually use the feedback the professor gives you. I have students to whom I have given very detailed feedback only to find that they completely ignore it and “do their own thing.” If you were a bride-to-be who wanted pink carnations at her wedding and the florist delivered orange mums because “the florist thought they would look better,” how upset would that bride be? The instructor has spent hours building the class as he or she wants it. It is not your job to tell the prof that your way of doing the assignment is better. Part of the assignment is your ability to follow the instructions, whether you like them or not.

Another crutch is asking the professor to clarify the assignment instructions. Now, it is important to show the instructor that you have at least read the instructions before you ask for help. It is also vital that you not wait until 11:00 pm the night something is due to ask for clarification. Believe it or not, I am not online at that hour of the night. I find that students who wait that late to ask are in a panic. They couldn’t understand the instructions if they tried because their vision is blurred by the panic they feel.

So, I hope you see that crutches can come in handy, even if you think you don’t need them.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

When to use possessive apostrophes and close quotation marks

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Here is something that my students struggle with all the time: possessive apostrophes and where in the world should they close a quotation mark. Let’s take them one at a time.

Possessive apostrophes are used to show someone or something owns something. They are not used when you want to show more than one of something.

Here is a case in point (or two): All of our workers will get an employees’ bonus. This means that everyone at the company is getting a bonus.

The next example is one employee getting a bonus: John was the only person to receive an employee’s bonus.

The next example has more than one employee, but no bonus: Employees are not going to get a bonus.

The next topic about where to end your quotation mark is relatively easy to figure out. Your in-text citation is NOT part of the quote. Only the quote is part of the quote, so end the quotation mark after the quote is finished.

(BTW, both APA and MLA formatting requires that you cite either the page or paragraph number with a direct quote.  That means, if there are no page numbers, you literally have to count the paragraphs that the article has and list the correct paragraph number. In a paper I once wrote, I had to count to paragraph number 100 and something, but it had to be done.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions, just post them as a reply to this posting and I will be happy to answer.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

To re-write or not to re-write, that is the question

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Here I am, almost at the semester. My students at one college turned in papers on Wednesday that were, for the most part, pretty awful. It has taken me 45 minutes to plow through 6 of them, there are so many mistakes.

Here’s my dilemma: do I post an announcement, inviting the students to re-write their papers, knowing that the ones who need to the most are the least likely to do it, or do I hold my breath and go ahead and grade these monstrosities, knowing that this assignment is worth 20% of their final grade?

I could list the students who don’t have to do the re-write on our class page or just invite everyone to do it. I could give them till Monday at 1 pm to place their newly re-written papers in my mailbox on campus. I could even list all the things that were wrong with the current batch of papers. In fact, here is the list for your enjoyment:

One student wrote a plot summary for his favorite movie, and then added in three words from our textbook ….to the entire paper (four pages long). He put a Works Cited page at the end of the document, but did not cite anything (except those three words, scattered about the paper, once each).  Those words were never explained or analyzed, just plopped in.

I can hear his argument now, having been lambasted by him on the last writing assignment: “Boy, you sure are dumb if you don’t know the meaning of those three words. I shouldn’t have to explain the concepts to you.” To me, that is tantamount to saying, “Here is my exam. I only put my name on it but I deserve an A+ because you should know what all these terms mean. I shouldn’t have to tell you.” Right on, buddy.

Several students wrote sentence fragments. At this college, three fragments in a single essay means an automatic F on the assignment. Doesn’t anyone proofread anything? Several students wrote sentences that left out verbs, contained commas every few words, misused semi-colons like they were on a fire sale, and offered neither an introduction or a conclusion to their essay. One individual loved the words “as” and “such,” sprinkling them liberally in every paragraph.  Several students wrote sentences that were about 60 words long and went in numerous directions (these are known as run-on sentences).

So, what do you think I should do? Should I offer the re-write or not? I value your opinion.

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

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

Thou Shalt not Write a Fragment

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog is about sentence fragments. They can be the bane of your existence, if you let them. Here are some examples from papers I received on both the undergraduate and graduate levels just this past week:

Input, process and output

One being having little to no human interaction

Also, somewhat unfair if others with the same pay don’t have to work such hours.

In this arena, information, advertising, and entertainment.

Let’s take them one at a time. First, “input, process and output.” How could anyone even think those three nouns and an article make up a worthwhile sentence? I’m sorry but those words did not make any sense even when they were surrounded by other sentences. I believe what the author was trying to say was the following: “One must input information, process it, and evaluate the output.”

Next, we can look at “one being having little to no human interaction.” Now this is obviously something to do with interpersonal communication, so it is easier to figure out. It could be re-written as the following: “There are several difficulties with the development of our personalities, one of which is having little to no human interaction.”

The next fragment could become something like this: “Also, it is somewhat unfair to make some individuals work long hours while others making the same pay do not.”

Finally, we could write: “In this arena, the most important things to consider are information, advertising, and entertainment.”

It doesn’t pay to be stingy with your words; use them to give your sentences subjects and verbs. This will lead to a better grade and will prevent your instructor from sitting there scratching his or her head.

Best,

Dr. Sheri