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Word Rogues |
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On English and Writing: Leon Lanzbom |
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 instructor: Leon Lanzbom email: lanzbom@yahoo.com Cuyamaca College: English 090 Spring 2007  Instructor: Leon Lanzbom http://www.lanzbom.org M 10-11:50 R408 W 10-10:50 L208 E-Mail: lanzbom@yahoo.com W 11-11:50 R408 ____________________________________  And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath Weekly Menu Note: this is a dynamic schedule and will be changed by the instructor during the course. Week 1 Wed. 24: Lab: Work on paragraph in Lab; Homework: paragraph due next class: with a pink outliner find the topic sentence of your paragraph.
WG: Worksheet 4: Personal Pronouns Langan: read verb chapter, do p. 162; abbreviations do p. 283 omitted words and letters p. 354-58; irregular verbs p. 167 Paragraph 2: The Best Moment in Your life. Due Tuesday, next week on my desk. W-31: WG Worksheets 6-8: Lab work on paragraph. Feb. 2 Last day to drop and add semester
1) Personal pronouns are defined as words that name persons or things. The form of a pronoun will depend on where it is placed in your sentence. SUBJECT I OBJECT me
A helping verb appears before the main verb. The teacher and I have worked hard. A helping verb acts as the buddy of the main verb and gives a sentence its mood, voice, aspect, and tense. Imagine the main verb as the action center, the Boss Tanaka, of a sentence with the helping verb as Boss Tanaka's dweeby assistant, always tweeking the action. Some helping verbs can stand alone and act as a main verb. The linking verbs, such as be, been, being, am, are, is, was, were and helping verbs such as do, does, did, have, had, and has can all stand alone. Other helping verbs work with a main verb: may, might, must, could, should, would, can, shall, and will. You would do well to memorize these verbs, especially the "to be" verbs:
 Week 3 (Feb)Monday 2/5 Paragraph 3: Your first weeks of the semester. What do you feel good about? What do you feel bad about? Due on my desk, Tuesday 9/26 Wednesday 2/7 Lab work on paperWG 13-14: Adverbs Langan 415; 91-92
Class: Review of all material: Contractions, interrogatives, adjectives, adverbs, and modification: Contractions Two parts of speech in one word. Contractions are built out of pronouns and linking verbs. You + are = you’re She + will = she’ll Interrogative Sentences An interrogative sentence asks a question. A sentence that asks a question separates the helping verb from the main verb. Did Crandall run into the shack? Did = helping verb Run = main verb Adjectives Many adjectives have antonyms: Big/small Tall/short Happy/sad Adjectives will make sense between articles and nouns that are places, persons, or objects. The tiny lake The happy boy A red thermos Many adjectives are found to the left of nouns. This is not always the case because they can also be found to the right of linking verbs. Memorize this: Adjectives will answer one or more of the following questions. Which_____________? What kind of_____________? How many______________? Adverbs Adverbs often deal with time. Adverbs can be moved to another place in the sentence. Adverbs often end in –ly Memorize this: Adverbs will answer the following questions: When? How? Where? To what extent? Why? Won’t is a contraction of will not. Not is an adverb for will. It answers “how” or "to what extent" you will do something in the contraction “won’t.” Modification Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
Adverbs not and very almost always modify the words they are next to.
M-12 WG 15-16; consistent verb tenses p. 417; simple sentences W-14 work on description papers subject-verb p. 391-92 introduce simple sentences pretest hand in Simple Sentences A simple sentence is built of a single subject-verb unit. Ron runs. The chicken flew the coop. The unicycle has been riden by several sad circus clowns. Yet, a simple sentence can have more than one subject or verb. multiple subjects: Ron and Aryeh run. The chicken and the rooster flew the coop. The unicycle and the ostrich have been riden by several sad circus clowns. multiple verbs: Ron runs and trips. The chicken flew and buzzed the coop. The unicycle has been stolen and riden by several sad circus clowns. We can even have multiple subjects and verbs: The unicycle and the pogo stick and the Schwinn Airdyne had been stolen, ridden, and returned by several sad circus clowns. Week 5 Wed21 Description papers due
WG Quiz #2 Compound Sentences Week 6 (Feb) M-26 Compound sentences; avoiding run-ons p. 122-26 ; WG Try to cover up to chapter 17 or 18 this week W-28 R-Os p. 127-27, 133, 399; introduce prewriting Click here for daily grammar __________________________________________________ Week 7 M-5 SS Quiz #3; R-Os p. 126-27, 400 & 489; major & minor details W-7 Assign ¶ #1; introduce complex sentences ________________________________________________ 3/7: Assign Cause/Effect paragraph. Due Wednesday March 21. You are going to write about something that happened in your life at one time that caused an unexpected result. It could be anything--trying a new restaraunt and discovering how good it was; going to the zoo and learning about a new animal you didn't know existed; drinking and then driving and getting caught; stealing something and getting caught; taking a class that you thought you would hate and finding out it was one of the best classes you ever took. Go for it! Click HERE to download outline worksheets for this essay. These must be handed in with your paragraph.
Freewriting Begin with the basic idea of what your want to write about. Now, set your timer, and write without stopping for seven minutes. Whether you believe your writing is good or bad, don’t stop. If you run out of thoughts, stay positive. Write “yes” or “a new thought will come in a moment,” or “I can do this.” Repeat until a new thought comes. You must not stop. That is the goal. You are forcing your innate intelligence to overide your educated intelligence. Your turning on your creative engine by allowing your intuitive mind to take over. When you are done, read what you have. There should be several gems in your freewriting that you can use for your first draft. Let these gems reveal meaning to you by finding the bridges between the stored images you've now uncovered on paper and the hidden emotions within your memory. Complex sentences:
When do we use complex sentences? When we want to emphasize one idea over another. Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel. What we want to emphasize here is this guy fed Cessna. I fed my pet cockatiel is a complete thought. Before I left the house is subordinated to the complete thought. This technique of giving one thought more emphasis than another is called subordination. With subordination, the part of the sentence starting with the dependent word or the subordinator will always be the less emphasized part of the sentence. But if you want to emphasize leaving the house you would write: After I fed my pet Cockatiel, I left the house. Do you see how the use of the the word after causes the first half of the sentence to emphasize I left the house? Read it again. This is important stuff and will give your writing a tremendous boost. It depends on what you’re trying to express. If you want I left the house as the emphasis of the sentence, you would leave that clause independent. But, like all the grammar we've learned in this class, it depends on context. Check out the context in the following sentence: After I fed my pet cockatiel, I left the house. But when I got to my office, I realized I had forgotten my keys for the third time this week. And in this one: Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel. Cockatiels are very picky eaters, and if Cessna does not find a piece of mango in her birdseed, she gets into a huff. Can you feel the difference between the above two sentences? One emphasizes the forgetting of the keys; the other emphasizes the feeding of Cessna, the cockatiel A very important point to remember is to make the last part of your sentence the emphatic part. Emphasize your main thought at end of your sentence and pick up that thought in the beginning of your next sentence. Week 8 M-12 complex sentences; p. 402, 415; SV agreement p. 174-78 M-14 Preliminary drafts due ¶ #1; complex sentences; On Subjects and Verbs Words that come between subjects and verbs should be handled with care. Take this sentence for example: The pies in the refrigerator are not as tasty as I thought. The subject pies is plural, so the verb must be plural as well. We must use the verb are for the verb and subject to agree. The words, in the refrigerator, which come between the subject and the verb, do not affect agreement. Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is. By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. Remember this rule: the subject will never be found in a prepositional phrase. Indefinite Pronouns Indefinite pronouns always take singular verbs.
Click here for a cool list of conjunctival adverbs. Week 9
Midterm Panic Fest. AKA the Midterm Essay Assignment.
M-3.12 avoiding fragments p. 103-04; SV agreement p. 179-80 & 416 Week 13 M-4.16 Assign ¶ #2; pronouns p. 201-02, 204-06 Théâtre R 408: Movie! Andy Goldsworthy--Rivers and Tides: Working with Time Click here for reviews on Rivers and Tides. W-4.18 Pronoun types p. 209-11, 420; pronouns p. 196-200, 203-04 |
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Class: Winston Grammar (WG) worksheets 1-3
Subject and Object Pronouns
Subject pronouns
Week 4
Process Analysis: Due March 7: This paragraph is written like all other paragraphs, except you are going to explain a process or how to do something.
Much of the grammar information on this site is taken from or inspired by our fine class textbooks, | Journal Topics | ||
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Note: Before you write about any journal topic, first write the topic number and a brief (one—three word) title. Also, remember each entry must be at least 200 words. All Topics Due As Announced 1. Write about the best moment in your life. It can be anything--maybe your first A, or the flat tire you fixed by yourself, or the first bread you baked, or being there for a friend--anything that made you feel proud of yourself. 2. Stuart Little. Choose one picture from the chapter "In the Drain." Without looking at the words, describe what you think the artist, Garth Williams, says with his illustration.  3. Write about your first weeks of the semester. What do you feel good about? What do you feel bad about? 4. Write about some of your past experiences in English class and, perhaps, with writing. Have these experiences been pleasant or unpleasant? If they were bad experiences who was at fault? Was it you? Was it your teacher? 5. Look at the picture at the top of this section, "Bad Liver-Bad Lung." What is the artist, Shag, trying to say? What do you see? 6. Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.”—Will Rogers. Write about things you are good at and things at which you don’t do so well. 7. Look at the picture on the right: "And then, the unexpected happened." Write about something unexpected that happened to you. 8. Write about a favorite relative: sibling, cousin, niece, uncle, etc.  9. “My Daughter Smokes” ff. 625. How would you deal with a friend who engages in self-destructive behavior, such as smoking, excessive drinking, or taking drugs? Is letting a friend know you are concerned worth risking the friendship? 10. “Men and Their Hidden Feelings” ff. 601. How do the men you know communicate with male and female friends? Do they, as Cohen suggests, keep their feelings and troubles to themselves? 11. Describe a photo that has special meaning. If the photograph is of you and others, describe your relationship to the others. Try to imagine what they were thinking at the time. 12. “A Drunken Ride, a Tragic Aftermath” (handout). Do you think Tyson Baxter’s sentence was appropriate or do you believe it was not severe enough? Explain. |
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