...Themes and Topics Themes * Theme, according to the text, tells what the sentence is all about and is considered as the first element of the sentence. Once the theme is identified the rest is then considered “the rheme”. The rheme here acts as the supporting details. According to Van Dijk, the theme is called the sentential topic which indicates a special function of semantic units. Thus, it has two main functions according to Brown and Yule, one is to connect back to the previous discourse another is to provide a starting point for the development of the discourse. Thematisation, therefore, plays an important part in the combination and sequencing of clauses. Discourse Topic * The theme of the text is called “discourse topic”. However, as Fries would stress, the first sentence of the text does not usually contain its discourse topic. Sentence topics are different from discourse topics, but not completely independent of them. The topic of the sentence is the main element of the discourse topic. Marcrostructures * Macrostructures derives the topic of discourse from the text and is has one or more macropropositions which expresses the discourse topic of the text. Macropropositions are derived by mean of macrorules. Macrorules summarises and reduces information. Thus, it has three kinds: deletion, generalization and construction. Headlines and leads * Headlines and leads have an important role in news stories, because they are supposed to summarize...
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...English Essay Writing Rubric 1. Name, Date, Class, Teacher’s Name in upper left corner: 5 points. John Smith 11/2/06 Third Form English—RDD 1 2 3 4 5 2. Title in regular 12-size font, centered, important words capitalized. NO quotation marks, italics, bold, etc. Craft a pointed, engaging, and succinct title: 5 points. e.g. Like Father, Like Son 1 2 3 4 5 3. First sentence, interesting and including author, title, and main topic: 5 points. In The Odyssey, Homer builds the essential bond between Telemachus and Odysseus through introducing them as men connected by situation and character. 1 2 3 4 5 4. Thesis paragraph continues. It offers three sentences that could act as topic sentences for each of the body paragraphs and ends with the thesis statement: 15 points. # 2—Both Odysseus and Telemachus first appear in the narrative as isolated, powerless, and grieving for each other. #3—They both receive divine assistance and encouragement… #4—Finally, father and son reveal their heroic qualities as they set off in search of one another. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 5. Three supporting body paragraphs, each with textual proof: 10 points each paragraph. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6. Quotations properly introduced...
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...“After all, grammar has nothing to do with job performance, or creativity, or intelligence, right? Wrong.” (Wiens). Grammar has to do with everything. So, despite what Challenger says about grammar not mattering anymore, Fogarty, Holland, and Wiens say differently. Some people say that grammar doesn’t matter because having good grammar only matters in certain places (Challenger). That is wrong; grammar matters everywhere. People may not think that it matters on the internet, but Wiens says, “Good grammar is good credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have.” If people have good grammar on the internet, society tends to think that that person is intelligent and knows what they are talking about. If that person has bad grammar and uses every grammatical short cut there is, then people may begin to think that person isn’t too bright. If an individual doesn’t put their...
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...Associate Program Material Comprehensive Grammar Read the following sentences, and focus on the grammar area specified in the left column. Then, complete the Associate Program Material: Comprehensive Grammar Answer Form by entering the correct sentence choice (a or b) for each number as well as an explanation of why you made that choice. |Subject-verb agreement|1a. Did you know a famous animal-rights activist has criticized horseracing because of the dangers involved?| | |1b. Did you know a famous animal-rights activist have criticized horseracing because of the dangers | | |involved? | |Subject-verb agreement|2a. Peer editing academic papers require critical-thinking skills and diplomacy. | | |2b. Peer editing academic papers requires critical-thinking skills and diplomacy. | |Subject-verb agreement|3a. Vitamins that are sold in a health-food store are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. | | |3b. Vitamins that are sold in a health-food store is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. | |Using regular and |4a. John has become a rather good actor. | |irregular verbs |4b John has became a rather good actor. ...
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...How to teach Grammar What is Grammar? Why should we teach Grammar? APPROACHES The deductive approach – rule-driven learning The inductive approach – the rule-discovery path The functional- notional approach Teaching grammar in situational contexts Teaching grammar through texts Teaching grammar through stories Teaching grammar through songs and rhymes Some rules for teaching grammar 2 3 6 10 15 21 25 27 28 31 1 What is Grammar? • • Language user’s subconscious internal system Linguists’ attempt to codify or describe that system • Sounds of language • Structure and form of words • Arrangement of words into larger units • Meanings of language • Functions of language & its use in context • • • • • Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics • • “Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works.” (David Crystal) Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time. Grammar is the mental system of rules and categories that allows humans to form and...
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...What is grammar?, a question that seems plain to answer until somebody asks it. Dictionaries usually say something like the rules in a language for changing the form of words and combining them into sentences(Oxford dictionary). This is seriously insufficient; grammar does many things besides sentence-building. The definition also says nothing about the reasons why we need such rules; as if one defined a train as a ‘large vehicle’, without mentioning its use for public transport ( Michael swan, 2008) . For linguists, grammar is a fixed set of words and rules of usage. They consider "good" grammar is synonymous with prestige forms of the language. Therefore, Eugene. J. Hill defines grammar as a description of certain organizing...
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...Grammar and language B Placer adverbiet (biordet) i parentes i sætningen og begrund den valgte placering. Anvend relevant grammatisk/faglig terminologi. Bemærk at jeg I dette løsningsforslag viser mere end én placeringsmulighed i de tilfælde, hvor der er mere end en mulighed. 1. The two students always1 tried to explain why toast always2 seems always3 to (always) land butter side down. (always) 1) The Grammar §244, stk. A. Det lette adverbialled always kan placeres foran hovedverbet i hovedsætningen (tried) - i så fald lægger det sig til verbet/handlingen ”tried”, dvs. de prøvede hele tiden/igen og igen. 2) Det lette adverbialled always kan alternativt placeres foran hovedverbet i ledsætningen (seems), i så fald lægger det sig til verbet seems, med betydningen ”…hvorfor toast(brød) altid synes at lande med smørsiden nedad”. 3) Det kan også placeres foran to-infinitiven (to land), jf. §244, stk. C, og i så fald lægger det sig til hele infinitiven (to land butter side down), med betydningen ”…hvorfor det virker som om toast(brød) altid lander med smørsiden nedad”. 4) Placering mellem to og infinitiv (”split infinitive”), her mellem infinitivmarkøren to og infinitivformen land, bruges kun i uformelt sprog. The Grammar §244, stk. C. 2. The professor could probably have foreseen the students' reaction. (probably) Det lette adverbialled placeres normalt foran hovedverbet, men probably skal her placeres efter første hjælpeverbum (could) (og det er i dette...
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...------------------------------------------------- Learning Journal Week 1 Intro grammar: Units & classes Outline of Content Intro grammar: Units & classes grammatical units: clauses, groups/phrases, words, morphemes, different classes of units: nominal, verbal, adverbial, conjunctive, prepositional Map of grammar: composition Rank of units: [grammar] clause — group / phrase — word — morpheme; [graphology] sentence — sub-sentence — word — letter; Rankshift (downranking) Class: clause: major / minor; group: nominal / verbal / adverbial; word: — nominal: determiner / adjective /noun — verbal: verb (auxiliary / lexical verb) — adverbial: adverb Professor: Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen Core Readings: Thompson (2004), Chapter 2: “Recognizing clauses and clause constituents” DFG, Chapter 1, pp.1-5 Part I : Summary of what I’ve leant (i) Difference between Traditional Grammar & Systemic Functional Grammar Grammar is a subsystem of language for constructing meanings in the form of wordings. Traditional grammarians gradually developed accounts of word classes (part of speech) since words belonging to different classes have different sets of forms and of the grammatical categories associated with the forms of different word classes—e.g. number and case for nouns, and person and tense for verbs. It is the study of traditional grammar. However, if we want to understand how grammar is organized and operates as a resource for making meaning, we...
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...Professional Grammar Grammar is a hot topic in our digital age. With phrases such as “I can haz chezberger?” and “Grammar Nazi” floating around various websites, and the capability of shortening every type of written correspondence, it is easy to become lazy with written word. But, to what end? Is it not possible, even though these “memes” may be in good humor, and that shorthand is just a tool in our busy lives- that it is truly an indicative sign of how our current generation views proper writing in our hyped-up, technological society? I think so. Therefore, proper grammar and correct writing mechanics are essential to success in various facets of our professional and personal endeavors. In the professional world, words always provide the first impression. From a simple greeting of a handshake and “hello,” to a resume submitted by an applicant, correct language is crucial. As a matter of fact, that first impression can depend on if a potential employee lands a job or not. Kyle Wiens, an author for Harvard Business Review, states “If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we politely escort you from the building.” While his approach may err on the side of extreme, it still strikes a chord with many. Grammar is paramount to ensuring communication is concise and accurate in any situation. Anything less, and...
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...r eHIT PARADE OF ERRORS IN GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, AND STYLE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. lack of agreement sentence fragments overly-long sentences overuse of passive voice faulty parallelism vague pronouns dangling modifiers squinting modifiers mixed or dead metaphors faulty word choice / faulty diction wordiness comma splices misuse of comma, semicolon, colon 1. a. FAULTY AGREEMENT Subjects and verbs must agree in number. Recent discoveries about the weather reveals that several cycles are involved. Recent discoveries about the weather reveal that several cycles are involved. The media was biased in its reporting of the event. The media were biased in their reporting of the event. Nouns and pronouns must agree in number. A student is free to express their opinion. A student is free to express his or her opinion. Students are free to express their opinions. Pronouns must agree with each other. Once one has decided to take the course, you must keep certain policies in mind. Once you have decided to take the course, you must keep certain policies in mind. X √ X √ b. X √ √ c. X √ 2. SENTENCE FRAGMENTS A sentence consists of an independent unit with at least a subject and a verb. All of these rules and regulations should be made aware of. Athletes should be made aware of all these rules and regulations. The liquid was poured into a glass beaker. Being a strong acid. Because it was a strong acid, the liquid was poured into a glass beaker. ...
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...------------------------------------------------- Top of Form Bottom of Form Understanding Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Grammar When people hear about linguistics, they often believe that linguists are very much like the character Henry Higgins in the play My Fair Lady, who expresses sentiments like in the following song, where he bemoans the state of English and the lack of proper pronunciation: However, as you will learn in this first week of class, there are two different ways that language has been talked about in disciplines that focus on the use of language. We can talk about these different approaches to language as descriptive grammar vs. prescriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar describes when people focus on talking about how a language should or ought to be used. One way to remember this association is to think of going to a doctor’s office. When a doctor gives you a prescription for medication, it often includes directions about how you should take your medication as well as what you should not do when taking your medication. In a similar way, a prescriptive grammar tells you how you should speak, and what type of language to avoid. This is commonly found in English classes as well as other language classes, where the aim is to teach people how to use language in a very particular (typically described as ‘proper’ or ‘correct’) way. Descriptive grammar, on the other hand, focuses on describing the language as it is used, not saying how it should be used. For example...
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...single best way to teach the English language but there are many ways to do. And it is the main role of the teacher to become flexible enough in applying various techniques in developing the level of competency of the learners. Moreover, grammar is the essentials of language. The means to say that in order to learn the English language, a learner must know when to use a certain tense, word form, knowing how to explain and apply the rule and the right expression. Consequently, teaching English grammar is tricky as there are just so many exceptions to rules, irregularities of word forms, and other that even if you do know your grammar rules, you are probably going o need some help hen providing explanations (http://esl.about.com). Accordingly, the study of grammar began with the ancient Greeks, who engaged in philosophical speculation about language and described language structure. This grammatical tradition was passed on to the romans, who translated the greek names for the past of speech and grammatical endings into latin; many of this terms (nominative, accusative, dative) are still found in modern grammars, but the Greeks and romans were unable to determine how language are related. This problem spurred the development of comparative grammar, which becomes the dominant approach to linguistic science in the 19th century (Microsoft Encarta,...
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...Axia College Material Appendix H Comprehensive Grammar CheckPoint Answer Form Enter the correct answer for each item by typing either a or b in the second column. Provide an explanation for each choice in the Rationale column. The boxes expand to accommodate your text. Item | Correct Answer(a or b) | Rationale | 1. | A | The subject is singular so the verb needs to be as well. | 2. | B | The subject is one group of people so the verb requires is correct. | 3. | A | Vitamins is plural so the verb needs to be plural | 4. | A | Become is correct because became is past tense | 5. | A | Have taken is correct for this sentence because took is past tense | 6. | B | Laid is the correct form of the word lay because it indicates it was done in the past. | 7. | B | Am is correct due to the fact that it is being used in the present tense. | 8. | A | The word have is used to show that the contestants appeared over a period of time. | 9. | A | Have is not needed in the sentence because the pyramids were built in the past. | 10. | A | Have to be well organized refers to the students, so the antecedent is students | 11. | B | The antecedent is Patients because they spend so much time in the waiting room. | 12. | B | It refers to the vehicle and the vehicle is what must be test driven. | 13. | B | Presenters is plural so their should be used. | 14. | B | This sentence is correct because both movie...
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...10 Grammar Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid Version 1.0 May 23, 2005 These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. Often, we're in a hurry, quickly dashing off e-mails with typos, grammatical shortcuts (I'm being kind here), and that breezy, e.e. cummings, no-caps look. It's expected. It's no big deal. But other times, we try to invest a little care, avoiding mistakes so that there's no confusion about what we're saying and so that we look professional and reasonably bright. In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, Did she just say "irregardless"?, but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and with luck, forgotten. That's not the case with written communications. When we commit a grammatical crime in e-mails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there's no going back. We've just officially gone on record as being careless or clueless. And here's the worst thing. It's not necessary to be an editor or a language whiz or a spelling bee triathlete to spot such mistakes. They have a way of doing a little wiggle dance on the screen and then reaching out to grab the reader by the throat. So here we are in the era of Word's red-underline "wrong spelling, dumb ass" feature and Outlook's Always Check Spelling Before Sending option, and still the mistakes proliferate. Catching typos is easy (although not everyone does it). It's the...
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...Grammar Issues Plaguing the Business World Eric Korn Grand Canyon University: UNV 504 September 24, 2014 Grammar Issues Plaguing the Business World Grammar is one of the most essential elements in every form of writing. However, in more recent years it has not been a focal point of study and instruction. In particular, as it applies to the world of business, a lack of grammatical proficiency has significantly reduced in the quality of work created by business professionals (Quible & Griffin, 2007). As reported by the authors, “American firms may spend as much as $3.1 billion annually to remediate their employees’ writing deficiencies” (Quible & Griffin, 2007, p. 32). This staggering figure has created considerable frustration amongst businesses and has stemmed much debate on not only the necessary value of grammatical practice, but on which method of grammar instruction is best suited for today’s business world (Quible & Griffin, 2007). Historically, grammar has been taught according to a traditional model based on set rules, definitions, and exercises, but after numerous studies of this model showing its ineffectiveness, a method based on the material students read and create has been more readily adopted (Quible & Griffin, 2007). This newer approach, however, had led many instructors to simply ignore the basic fundamental rules of grammar, thus leading to incorrect writing and ineffective written communication that is paramount for business writing (Quible & Griffin...
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