WELCOME

Welcome to the English 155 Blog. This course may be taken separately or as part of the English Language Proficiency Program. The goal is to increase the communication between students and instructors,to provide you with an opportunity to communicate with each other, and to practice the grammar and mechanics taught in this course. If you post general questions about the assignments or the course, they will be answered in the blog. If you have detailed questions you want answered, then e-mail your instructor.

Feel free to post comments and suggestions for how to improve this blog. Click here for the course syllabus.

WELCOME NEW STUDENTS!

A hearty welcome to all the new students joining this course. We hope you enjoy your studies and have fun participating in this blog.

For information on how to participate, please see the information in pages, in the sidebar, or click here.

IMPORTANT: This blog site is open to the public; do not post personal information that could identify you--first name and the initial of your last name are the only personal information you should post. Please watch this video from the Government of Canada about privacy and social networking issues.

Next blog: November 1, 2013 (tentative)

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

Oct. 24^th. United nations Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Day

Oct. 26^th. Eid al Adha

Christians and Jews will be familiar with the Bible story of the Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Muslims now ritually sacrifice an animal (commonly a goat) to commemorate this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha

Oct. 31^st. Halloween—originally called All Hallows E’en (evening). Adults now celebrate with costume parties, and children celebrate by dressing up and “trick or treating” from door to door. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Nov. 1^st. All Saints Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day

WHAT’S NEW

Apostrophe disaster!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pondspider/4863410939/in/pool-413045@N24/

Why punctuation is important—beating a parking ticket:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/aug/04/drawing-a-line-between-law-and-grammar/

http://behindthegrammar.com/2010/07/top-10-made-up-words/

Previous Grammar Question

Peter and me are needing knowing to who to address the letter before its written in it's envelope and than being posted by us too the company in the states.

1. Pronoun: “Peter” is the subject of the verb “are needing” and so is “me”; therefore it should be “I” as “me” is the direct object pronoun.

2. Verb tense: For something that is generally true rather than something that is ongoing, use the simple present tense “need” instead of the present progressive “are needing”.

3. Relative Pronoun: “Who” is the subject pronoun—after “to” the object pronoun “whom” is grammatically correct.

4. Apostrophe “s”: In this sentence, “its” means “it is”; a letter is omitted so use an apostrophe. However, “it’s” is incorrect because this time it is a possessive.

5. Word confusion: Don’t mix up “than” and “then”; “than” is used in comparisons; “then” indicates what happened next. Also don’t confuse “to” the preposition with “too” the adverb.

6. Verb form: “being posted” is a progressive form of the verb; here the passive voice can be confusing as the word is “been”; they sound very similar.

7. Capitalization: Whether it’s the United States, or just the States, it’s a proper noun and requires a capital letter.

8. Punctuation: Elements that are non-essential grammatically to a sentence are set off with commas—use commas around “in its envelope”; this is why items in a series are set off with commas.

GRAMMAR QUESTION

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

Its important that we are on time for todays meeting on affective marketing techniques so please be picking Bryan and I up prompt at 8 am avoiding the trouble with the boss.

Solutions will be posted in the Course Announcement of the next edition of the blog.

PUZZLE

Previous Puzzle Solution:  

Without changing the order of the letters, place the four letter words on the dashes to form eight letter words. 

Veto, Rake, Hilt, Clam, Tile

1. __ um__ __ i __ y = humilty

2. Pro __ __ __ i __ =  proclaim

3. __ err __ b __ __ = terrible

4. __ __ xa __ i __ n = vexation

5. Ove __ t __ __ __ = overtake

New Puzzle:  

Remove the nine letters one by one from the word STARTLING; each letter removed, should leave another word. Example: MATE—remove E and the remaining word is MAT.

IDIOMS

There are three idioms that use the word GREEN:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theteacher/2009/03/090409_teacher_colour_green.shtml

Watch this VIDEO and then write a sentence of your own that uses one of these three idioms.

ALL CHANGE!

Change the words in the sentence below as indicated. You can only change the exact word in the sequence given; after someone else has posted the next change, then you can post another change. For instance, student 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Student 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes that noun. Each student only makes one change at a time and keeps to the order indicated. If you complete all 7 changes, then start making more changes again from 1 to 7. Each student should build on the changes that the previous students make.

The fussy housewife carefully laid the lace cloth on the rosewood table.

Changes: 

1. subject noun 

2. direct object noun                

3. indirect object noun              

4. adjective(s)  

5. adverb(s)         

6. verb name           

7. verb tense

AFFIXES

The word stem -ortho- (meaning straight or correct) occurs in many words. Add an affix (either a prefix or a suffix) to this stem to make another word. Each student should add a different word to the list.

COMPLETE THE SENTENCE

Use the type of clause, phrase, or grammar indicated to complete the following sentence*; you can add the phrase or clause before or after (not both) to the clause below:

…winter usually starts the week before Halloween in Canada …

1. Use a phrase            2. Use a dependent clause      3. Use an independent clause

* Please write three separate sentences.

NUMBER CHANGE

If the sentences are singular, change them to the plural; if they are plural, change them to the singular.

My daughter is starting school this week. I will take her to a nearby school (one within walking distance of our home). I’m sure she will soon settle in and make a friend. I sometimes think that having a child start school is more traumatic for the mother than for the child.

Each student should write a slightly different answer. 

VOCABULARY

Vocabulary building is important for both reading comprehension and writing. Use the following two words (note the part of speech) in one sentence.

glabrous (adjective) + retrospect (noun)

To further improve your vocabulary, check Word of the Day every day! 

There are also word games and puzzles on this site.

http://dictionary.reference.com/

SYNONYMS

We can describe something that is romantic as being sentimental. Provide a synonym for this word--each student should write a different word.

ACTIVE & PASSIVE

Write two sentences using the word steel. In the first sentence use the verb in the active voice, in the second sentence use it in the passive voice.

TIME CHANGE

I was shopping for school supplies last week, and I was surprised at the number of things I needed to buy. Some items are very specific; for instance, I couldn’t buy just any coloured pencils, they had to be a particular brand of coloured pencils. We didn’t want our child to be different from the others, so we succumbed to the pressure and bought the brand names.

Change the time of this paragraph—you will need to change the verb tense and any time clues. Each student should choose a different time change.

SENTENCE COMBINATION

Learning to combine ideas into more complex sentences is an important skill in writing. There are many ways to do this--many possible bonus points! 

Try to combine the following three sentences.

Sentence 1: Who is the designated driver for the Halloween party tonight?

Sentence 2: I heard that the party is at Sheila's house.

Sentence 3: The designated driver can't be Bill because his car is in the garage.

EXAM PRACTICE

Write a sentence using a dependent clause in the past progressive tense and an independent clause in the simple past.

HWT CHALLENGE

This is an exercise in advanced sentence combining.

Sentence 1: The Chief Financial Officer of the company where I work has a very demanding position

Sentence 2: ABC Engineering, where I am employed, recently hired Ted Schwarz as CFO to take charge of all its financial operations.

Grammar:

1. Use an appositive to combine the sentences.
2. Use an infinitive