For this blog post I want to experiment with Pattern #1. I chose this one because I always misplace the comma - therefore I have a lot of comma splices within my writing. I put it after the conjunction and not before. So by practicing using this pattern correctly I think it will make a huge difference in my writing. The piece that I want to work with is from my English 325 - we have to write critical responses for the novel we read each week and as I have said before about these they can be really boring! My hope is that if I incorporate some of these sentence patterns in them it will not only make them more grammatically correct, but also make them much more interesting and dynamic.
"Lee is a strong character, and she has a lot on her
plate at a very young age. (compound sentence with a coordinating conjunction) She has to do step into the place of her deceased mother. She cooks and cleans the house while her father works all day. Lee
has had to become an adult at a young age, and that is not fair to her at all. (compound sentence with a coordinating conjunction) When her father is blamed for the disappearance of Lee’s white, rich friend he
is taken away and sent to jail – most likely will get lynched. Instead of
sitting back and feeling sorry for herself, Lee takes agency and matters into
her own hands. She wants to get to the bottom of this disappearance of her
friend and set her dad free. Lee had to make the decision as to whether she wanted to stay at home by herself, or to go and make things right with her father Lily. (compound sentence with a coordinating conjunction"
I think that I correctly used the conjunctions properly in this exert of text. This is a grammar pattern that I have struggled with for a long time and now that I know the proper rule for it I will be more aware of how it is used in my other pieces of writing.
For my DOL assignment, Corina and I have to teach the class about grammar by, "Discussing a sentence that is technically correct but practically inappropriate (#4)". I think this will be an fun idea to teach because this is the way people talk, and we do not talk grammatically correct 100% of the time. So I think that if will enlighten students to be aware of their speaking dialogue and what is appropriate for academic writing. For example, when answering the phone people do not say, "It is I"....that just sounds weird. However, that is grammatically correct that is just not the way we talk to one another. Another example would be (from a parent's standpoint) the popular phrase, "Because I said so". Written down in a sentence this would obviously be wrong, but when arguing with your kids being grammatically correct probably isn't the first thing you think of. I think it would be fun to have kids look through their text messages and see how they talk to one another. Is it grammatically correct? If not, how would they make it correct? Would it sound weird or out of place in the "text message" context to sound correct? Just to get them thinking of how our dialogue changes from speaking to writing and why there are those changes.
Oh hey, partner :) I also practiced with Pattern #1 this week. In a compound sentence, there should be two independent clauses separated by a comma and a coordinating conjunction. Your first two examples follow this perfectly, but look at your last example. If you took out the conjunction ("or") would it read as two complete sentences? Actually, both of these clauses are dependent, so this would not be considered a compound sentence even though it connects two clauses with "or." If I was to make another compound sentence in your writing, I could take your two sentences, "She has to do step into the place of her deceased mother. She cooks and cleans the house while her father works all day" and put a "so" in between them, changing the period to a comma. I personally, like it better the way you wrote it but that provides an illustration of how a compound sentence is made up of two complete thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I am excited about our partner lesson. It sounds like you have a good understanding of what we're teaching, and I especially like your idea of having the rest of the class look at the text messages on their phones for examples of practically appropriate but grammatically inappropriate sentences. We tend to text how we talk, which makes texts a great tangible reference for this.
Hi Hayley! I liked how you chose one pattern to work on: I think that working on one pattern at a time will really affect your writing in a realistic way, rather than working on a few and maybe forgetting how to use one.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Corina that your first two sentences are great with their use of "and." I am a bit stumped on the second as well, though, because I'm not totally sure if it's a compound sentence. I know that "or" is a coordinating conjunction, but in your sentence, like Corina said, both halves are dependent clauses. I like how you illustrate the choice she has to make, and the sentence works, but if you want to make it a compound sentence I think you would have to reword a bit.
Otherwise awesome job! I really look forward to your DOL!