There are clearly errors which are appropriate to this technique. All of this started because I objected to one decontextualized sentence on an SAT. Susan and I do not agree on this sentence, but I maintain that if standardized test developers are going to use this technique they should at least make sure their test items are not context dependent as this one is. It was a bad test item. The technique itself can be useful, but the example in question demonstrates the kind of problems that can arise. There are whole classes of problem for which the technique works.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott
Sent: 2009-05-31 23:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Parallel structure and homework; ATEG Digest - 29 May 2009 to 30 May 2009 (#2009-129)
I concur fully with Susan van Druten's comment: I have structured similar
sentences for examinations.
In response to Edmund Wright (I hope that I remembered the name correctly),
American High School English do not normally have 6-7 classes; however, the
classes are larger: My first year of teaching, I taught five different
classes of 40 students each with homework required in each subject five days
a week (English, mathematics, General Science, World Geography, Spanish. My
third year, I ended up with Latin I, Latin II, French I, French II, and
World History (the last was for Educable Mentally Handicapped students). My
fifteenth year, I did have seven classes (2 sections of English II, Latin I,
Latin II, Latin III, Latin IV, Spanish I). Classes only averaged 25
students (150 in lieu of the 200, with which I had started); however,
homework was only four nights a week. Several of the Latin classes had two
levels in the same room.
N. Scott Catledge, PhD/STD
Professor Emeritus
history & languages
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ATEG automatic digest system
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 12:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ATEG Digest - 29 May 2009 to 30 May 2009 (#2009-129)
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]
OHIO.EDU] On Behalf Of Susan van Druten
Sent: 2009-05-30 10:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Class size and SAT parallel structure questions
I agree that some test maker sometimes ask questions based on obscure rules=
, but this one seems fair to me. Comparing "Heather" to "Joanne's fear" ca=
uses the reader one second of adjustment. Try reading the sentence without=
the interrupting clause. Unlike her sister Heather, Joanne's fear kept he=
r from going anywhere near the creatures. Parallel structures (such as "unl=
ike x") set up expectations in readers. When the writer doesn't deliver, i=
t is as unsatisfying as the musician who withholds the final note.
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