It is interesting in the current political debate how the Democrats are quick to interpret the
OR in the statement about Romney's felony
OR deceit as logically exclusive, whereas the Republicans are apt to say the statement is false because the
OR is inclusive and the felony is obviously false. This word seems to be used loosely routinely. Pundits say it is a "parsing" difficulty, but the semantic
interpretation is a level further below the syntactic parse. [BTW, the signature on the documents in question was a legal fiction -- not felonous]
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[log in to unmask] wrote:
From: Jan Kammert <
[log in to unmask]>
To:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: Quick Common Core question
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:59:44 -0400
Is anyone else bothered by the use of the word "or" in #1 below? As
in... writing OR speaking? Does this mean writing AND speaking?
Does anyone know who was in the group that worked out the CC?
I am a middle school teacher, and I feel overwhelmed with both how many
standards there are, and how much more challenging they are than the
standards we have been using.
I also find most of the standards vague enough that I'm not always sure
what they mean. I'm not only talking about the language (grammar)
standards. English teachers have reading and writing standards too.
Jan
Quoting John Chorazy <
[log in to unmask]>:
A few Language Standards for 11-12 grades (with my parenthetical
annotations):
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar
and usage when writing or speaking (I'd agree there is no specific
demand here for a language set that describes the conventions, but
there is broad room for introducing it and for students to employ it in
order to fulfill the requirements of an ELA course. The Standards
aren't the end or the all of the curriculum, they're a framework for
"college readiness"... though maybe that's another discussion in
itself...). a. Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of
convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested (How does
one apply this understanding without a common language set to engage in
a productive conversation? I think there's plenty of room for the
classroom teacher here, necessarily). b. Resolve issues of complex or
contested usage, consulting references (e.g.Merriam- Webster’s
Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as
needed (Same as above, I'd say. Complex issues demand a complex jargon).
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