Grammar can be very overwhelming for anyone. Even as an English Major I still find myself making grammatical errors in essays and in my everyday writing. As Barbara has said in the few classes I have had with her, being a teacher requires me to become good at grammar. I do not want some parent coming up to me infuriated that his or her daughter is being taught by an imbecile using an email or homework assignment where I used a comma in the wrong place as evidence of my lack of knowledge. So there are things that I would like to learn in this English 326 (Grammar for Teachers) to prevent that from happening such as how to use proper punctuation.In class I have already expressed my woes of semicolons so that is one punctuation mark I would like to be able to use without being scared I am making a fool of myself. Well I will probably make a fool of myself more than once in class but I hope it won’t be grammatical. The example from the worksheet, First Day Activities, “Mottsburgh is a busy industrial city, thousands of cars and trucks move through it every day,” is one that I could see needed a semicolon. In my own writing however I second guess myself on whether to use one or not. That is just one of the punctuation marks that I need to work on this semester.
I suppose that this is not really a punctuation issue but rather a sentence structure question but I would like to learn how to make my sentences seem more diverse and also more grammatically correct. In class we discussed how the example with the semicolon could also have been worded slightly different to make it sound more intelligent. I am not sure if I do this automatically in my writing or not but none the less I would like to be able to notice how to make sentences flow more efficiently. Maybe if I could do this I would not have to use semicolons any longer muhahahaha.
Another punctuation mark that I would like to be able to use without peril is exclamation points! They seem underrated in writing. Is it not proper grammar to use exclamation points? I feel as though they give more diversity to a piece of writing. Of course in fiction it is much more common to see exclamation but where are they in non-fiction? Do I just not know some grammatical rule about when to use them and when not to? Irregardless (haha snuck that one in) I want to learn more about them.
I am sure that there are grammatical errors in this blog entry but maybe every blog entry will get better and better. I wish that I had magical powers that would allow me to have all the grammatical knowledge instantly but unfortunately that is not the case. I am not the Harry Potter of grammar instead I am a lowly mortal. Okay, enough of that I am making myself sound like a bigger nerd than I actually am. I hope that this class can help me discover that grammar is not impossible and that I can use semicolons and other punctuations in the right spot. I will enjoy seeing how my writing improves with the help of this course. Having parents of students come up to me as a teacher complaining about my grammar is something I would love to avoid so the journey of grammar begins.
Riddle of the Week:
I have a point at the bottom,
hooked at the top,
and I’m always looking for answers: what am I?
Question of the Week:
What is the difference between farther and further?Can someone explain this to me? :)
