Painting with Brush Strokes

I did not do a revision because I wanted the blog to be concise so instead I already made the changes in the blog. Most of this is original except for the adjective out of order. This is an excerpt from a blog of one of my other classes. I was discussing the history of the globalization of education and these are the first two paragraphs.


The first form of education was through survival skills and adaptation. HUMANS EVOLVING,KNOWLEDGE EXPANDING,(absolute) the human race PROGRESSED AND ORGANIZED SCHOOLS WERE INTRODUCED (past transitive), first by religious association and then with public schools. Predominantly during this time teachers were female and the class sizes were small,INTIMATE AND PLAIN (adjectives out of order). Classes covered the basic topics like math, history, language, and grammar. As education grew in importance an organized system was established. This establishment is how the globalization of education began. Through the years education has become globalized by online courses, government and business management, and standardization.


Organizations of education are operated under a nation-state that “controls, regulates, coordinates, mandates, finances, and certifies,” (Nicholas, Carlos, Globalization and Education) the process of learning. These organizations invoke a policy of conformity and identification with the nation state. Having a government run system came about with economic restructuring throughout history. A world trend of economic changes can be classified into several factors. THE FIRST PHASE OF THIS CHANGE: THE GLOBALIZATION OF LABOR AND A NATIONAL ECONOMY (appositive). The next phase is the ARRANGEMENT OF CLASSES (present transitive) and social structure within individual countries and the EXPANSION OF NATIONAL TRADE (present transitive) and world market. Having more trade meant there was a need for an increased workforce and a restructuring of the labor market. RESTRUCTURING THE LABOR MARKET (present participle), a change in labor workers and a new concept of a “team” effort arose. Continual changes in the work force occurred throughout the years but soon economic downfall would ensue around the world and result in the reduction of budgets. This encouraged the privatization of social services like education. Privatization comes with the need for control leading to government involvement and the establishment of policies.


I hope these are right but I might have my transitive examples wrong. They were the ones that I got stuck on most.

Active Transitioning

For me this blog was very stressful and kind of difficult. I didnt realize we had a blog due this week so when I got back from break I had to jump to work to get this done. I used an old paper from my english class last year about the prositution of native american women in the United States.

Prostitution had been founded in nineteenth century Western America. Women of all types provided services, including the Native American women. Women became involved in this business because the economy grew at a rapid pace, with jobs for men but very few opportunities for women. With towns loaded with young single men, women used the resources they had available to them and sold their bodies for meager pay. Prostitution did not stay within city boundaries, spreading to the frontier lands, making it easy for Native American women to join the business. Prostitution presented dangerous situations of drug and alcohol abuse, bodily harm, disease, and posttraumatic stress.


Prostitution was founded in nineteenth century Western America. Services were provided by all types of women including the Native American women. Women became involved in this business because the economy was growing at a rapid pace, with jobs for men but very few opportunities for women. With towns loaded with young single men, women used the resources they had available to them and sold their bodies for meager pay. Prostitution did not stay within city boundaries, spreading to the frontier lands, making it easy for Native American women to join the business. Prostitution presented dangerous situations of drug and alcohol abuse, bodily harm, disease, and posttraumatic stress.

Although I was able to find examples in this paper, it wasn't easy. My question this week is whether or not my examples and their corrections are right. I get confused easily on how to make passive active and what the difference is. So if my wonderful classmates could tell me if I did it right, and if not give some examples of ones that are right. Thanks everyone for putting up with me.

subordination

AAAWWWWUUBBIS, some may know what these letters mean, others may not. Before this week I didn’t know these letters, capitalized and put together are actually a name for subordinating words and phrases. In most writing whether it be newspapers, magazines, or books you will find subordinating phrases used very often. I have used a lot of these in my own writing not even knowing that what I was doing had a name. I have found that most things have a name so I should just assume that anything I do or use is called something specific and that I am not the only one that uses it. So I’ll explain what subordinating words are so that you can identify them in your own writing or reading.


Subordinating words are specific words that act as a linking word or time/place description. Most specifically they link a dependent clause with an independent clause. As I stated in my previous weeks blog an independent clause is a statement or fact that can stand alone and a dependent clause cannot stand alone. These words can be placed at the beginning of a sentence or within a sentence but they include words like: after, although, because, before, unless, until, where, or whenever. There are several more but these are some common ones. I think these subordinating words are important in writing because they connect ideas and help make a sentence complete. If you didn’t have these words you probably would have a lot of questions while you’re reading.


While the subordinating words are important, so too are the subordinating phrases. The phrases use some of the same subordinating words but add in other words to make it a phrase. Even though that was an obvious statement I wanted to try and explain the difference. Phrases include: as if, as though, even after, in order to, and rather than. These help to make the already specific words more specific and able to flow within a sentence. Phrases also help connect parts of a sentence that are not of equal rank. That is what I have learned this week pertaining to sentence structure. Along with subordinate clauses are relative clauses. These clauses also help answer questions while you’re reading with words like: who, which, and that. Subordinate clauses act as a single part of speech like a noun or adjective.

Question: As we were looking for subordinating words and phrases in the newspaper I was confused as to whether or not every time I saw the words was important. I’m wondering if when looking for these words and phrases, does it matter where they are in the sentence or does every time you see one count as something I should highlight?

Learning to Teach

I can’t believe 5 weeks has already gone by and how much I’ve learned in such a short amount of time. This week has been kind of hectic and a challenge for me. I thought I was supposed to post a blog of an old paper I wrote and mark the subject-verb-object in each sentence. As it turns out, that isn’t due until week 11! So I have been stressing out for two days because I didn’t know if I was doing the work right and realized this morning I am just supposed to blog about what I’ve learned this week. So now that I’m back on track, this week I would like to talk about teaching grammar.
Our assignment this week was to read part of an essay about Dora, a first grader who is learning to write. Dora first starts learning about periods, which for her is a very interesting and complicated process. At first Dora does not use periods at all. To some, reading a paper with no periods or spacing between words would be very frustrating, but for Dora’s teacher it was inspiring. The teacher was very patient with Dora and would point out how writing looked in books and ask Dora if her paper looked like the books. Dora had to think for herself and decide how to edit and revise her writing. Step by step Dora slowly began to learn what a period was used for and where to put them in her paper. Along the way the teacher would help her along, sometimes giving direct instruction, and other times giving hints. This way Dora was never given answers directly, she always had to figure it out for herself.
The most important thing to learn from a lesson like this is that as a teacher you must find a happy medium between direct instruction and guiding words. If students do not learn information for themselves they will not remember it as well. That is why Dora’s teacher made sure each step of the way Dora was finding out the answer for herself. This took a lot longer of course but it is a learning process that teachers must understand. I never knew that children wouldn’t fully understand the concept of periods so this lesson is very helpful to me. I know as a teacher that I must never assume something of my kids. I should always believe that they can do something but never skip over a lesson because I assumed that they already knew it. Taking students step by step through every part of learning is very important and making sure to help them along when needed is also important. I think too often teachers will get frustrated and just give out answers when they should take a step back and watch the brilliant mind of a child at work. Children can do a lot when given the chance. Most importantly is that no matter who we are, a teacher, friend, or parent we must always encourage students to keep working and give them positive feedback. By doing this more students will have the confidence to learn and try new things.

My question this week for everyone is about subject verb object. Since I had started on the assignment that is not due for another 3-4 weeks I got very confused. Looking at one of my old papers and try to identify the subject-verb-object in every sentence was very difficult so I was wondering if someone would identify them in this sentence to make sure I’m doing it correctly.
“Brothels were old houses that the owners would turn into living quarters for the prostitutes to work out of, and saloons were town bars that women would perform in”

Verb Structure

I am so happy to be taking a course on grammar. I cannot tell you enough how wonderful it is. Not only am I learning a lot and refining my skills but I’m also studying for my West B test. Everything I’ve learned so far has already prepared me for this test, but what I learned this week has given me even more knowledge. The great thing about this course is that you really do learn something every week. This week we went over the three different types of verb sentences.
The first kind is called a subject-verb intransitive. It is important to pay attention to these names because they are used in dictionaries and if you know what they are, dictionaries are much easier to understand. Intransitive verbs are verbs that can stand alone but may have modifiers. Examples of sentences like these would be something like: the family jumped when they saw the clown. You do not have to say this whole sentence; you could simply say the family jumped. This is an intransitive verb. You can also add the preposition or modifier in but it is not required. For future reference this type of verb sentence is abbreviated as S-Vi.
Transitive verbs are another type of verb sentence structure. Most important with transitive verbs is that they require direct objects. Direct objects can be either nouns or pronouns that will follow the transitive verb. Sentences with this structure could say, My mom baked the cake. In this example “baked” is the verb and “cake” is the following noun or direct object. When looking in a dictionary a transitive verb will be written as S-Vt-O meaning subject verb transitive direct object.
The third sentence pattern for verbs is linking verbs. Linking verbs are meant to connect the subject with a description of that subject. Linking verbs are “to be” verbs. These include am, is, are, was, and were. Also included are verbs of the senses like look, feel, sound, taste, and smell. There is a wide range of linking verbs but the easiest way to understand is by looking at a sentence and determining if there is a verb that links the two halves. Pretty simple concept but just in case you don’t get it an example is “that hamburger looks delicious.” Another sentence would be “Michelle Obama became the next first wife.” When looking at a word in the dictionary how you will know that it is a linking verb is if it has S-LV-SC next to it. Those are the three types of verb patterns. Most of the time you won’t even notice the difference but try picking them out while you’re reading. It can be a brain work out while also refining your grammar.
Another important piece of grammar to keep in mind is prepositions. Prepositions include to, at, by, in, of, from. A lot of headlines in newspapers use these. After a preposition is used a noun or pronoun is sure to follow. If however a verb follows these words then it is infinitive. And that’s my last little tid-bit for the day. Hope this helps anyone that cares.  Like I said if you’re a teacher in training this is a great course for the West B.


My question this week is about “affect” and “effect.” What is the difference because I always mess these up, along with “then and than.” If anyone can explain this I would greatly appreciate it. I know it’s a simple concept but I thought it would be a good one to ask!

Sentence Structure

This week in grammar class we went over sentence structure and its main components. Most specifically we reviewed verbs, adverbs, nouns, adjectives, and articles. These are very important to know because without them you will not be able to identify parts of a sentence. For me this is also very important because this was a part of grammar I didn’t understand in elementary school. I am excited to say that now I understand and I want to share what I’ve learned with you.
Nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives are all part of the open word class. To start we will talk about nouns. Usually a noun is preceded in a sentence by an article, for example when you see “a, the, or an,” you know a noun is coming up next. Another giveaway is when there are numbers or other determiners. Of course you do not always have to have these in front of a noun for it to be a noun. If there are no determiners to give away that you have a noun in the sentence, stick with the fact that nouns are “namers.” Examples would be dog, cat, person, or soda. If words end with ness, tion, and ity, then you know you have a noun. There are also proper nouns that you should look out for which are names for specific people or places and start with a Capital. Now that you know how to find a noun we can move onto verbs which, in my opinion, are the second most important piece of a sentence.
Just like nouns there are a few tricks to determine what words are verbs. Most commonly known is that verbs show action or a state of being. Words that end with “ing” are verbs also when you can be something like: am, is, are, was, and were. That is pretty much all you need to know for verbs. Adjectives are also an easy concept to understand, for the most part. Adjectives are what describe a noun or other parts of the sentence. Common adjectives, to give you an idea, are delicious, sad, broken, and blue. Also adjectives are the words that can answer questions like: which one? How many? Which kind? And whose? When you can answer these questions it usually means you have an adjective. Now you can figure our almost all parts of a sentence, all that’s left is adverbs.
Adverbs are also describing words but in this case describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Just as adjectives, adverbs answer questions of how, when, where, why, how much, and to what extent. The easiest way to tell these two describers apart is that adverbs end with “ly.” These adverbs are often found near the verbs. To test if the word is truly an adverb check to see if the adverb can move around in the sentence. If so then it is an adverb because adjectives can’t move around in a sentence. These are a few of the tricks I’ve learned so far in determining pieces of a sentence. The best way to learn these 4 words is to practice finding them in sentences. Good Luck!

The question I have this week is whether or not I’m using colons correctly in my writing. I’m not sure when they are appropriate so I would love some feedback. Thanks everyone.

What I've learned so far

Although it has only been the first two weeks of the semester I have realized there is much more to grammar then just periods and commas. In the world of grammar a simple apostrophe can do a lot. Within a paragraph the meaning can completely change based on how you punctuate it. A fun activity to try is punctuating a letter to sound like a friendly/love letter and then punctuate it to be a break up/angry letter. This was one of the first activities I did in my grammar course and it was amazing to see how punctuation could change the meaning. So in a sense I have learned that punctuation can go a long way. More importantly I have learned about commas and apostrophes.
Something I have always had trouble with is commas. In my writing I always make the mistake of putting commas where they are not needed. A simple way to think of commas is like they are a pause in your writing, kind of like you have to take a breath. It can be hard to figure out when to pause in your writing but if you can that’s when a comma is needed. When using a comma always put a space after it. So I can give you a tip on a couple of places not to use a comma. When you are listing something make sure to put commas in between your listings but when you get to the last item you may choose to use a comma before the “and,” or not. Either way you will be right, it depends on what looks better to you. Or when you are describing something using words like “such as” or “as in” you should use a comma before your descriptive words but not after them. This is an important point to remember because as a writer I always thought you should fully separate these words from the rest of your sentence. For example: “I love seafood, such as, shrimp, crab, etc.” The second comma is not needed. Another tip for comma use is to not use them before words like “because” or “but.” I do this a lot so I think it’s a good tip to keep in mind. Pretty much just remember that if you are already using a transition word you don’t need a comma.
The second thing I have brief knowledge on that I can share with you, is apostrophes. People use apostrophes all the time to make things plural and to create contraction words. What you may not know is how to use them correctly. Let’s start with contraction words because I just used one. When a word can mean two words like “it is” or “who is” it can be made into one word using an apostrophe. How you do this is by saying “it’s” or “who’s”. But these words can also be used without apostrophes when they are being used as possessive. When you use “its” as possessive think of it as saying “his” or “her,” you do not use an apostrophe with these words so you don’t not need to use an apostrophe with “its” or “whose.” Another way to use apostrophes is in making things plural. With numbers apostrophes are usually used to make them plural but with dates they are not necessary. When working with names it can be difficult to figure out how to make a plural name possessive. To make it simple I always add an apostrophe “s” like in “Chris’s” but you may like using “Chris’” either way is correct. Once again it is what you prefer. If a plural noun already ends in “s” then all you need is an apostrophe, same with words that are 3 or more syllables. The best thing to do is look how others use apostrophes and then test yourself on whether or not they are using them correctly. Usually if it looks wrong it probably is.
Hopefully this helps since it’s all I know so far but as the semester continues I am sure I will have more tips and ideas for those interested in expanding their grammar.


My question: I understand how to use contraction words with apostrophes but I still do not fully understand how to use them in making certain words plural or possessive. I have one example that I would love for someone to tell me if it is correct or not.

My wife’s cooking is considered the best.

And going along with this to make something that ends in “s” possessive do you only use and apostrophe at the end like “boys.” Would you add “boys’ “because it’s already plural or do you not need the apostrophe?