Hi Mark,

Thanks for your post. I must say, except for a concert I attended back in 1977, I’ve never been associated in any way with KISS. Based on the interesting link you sent, I can nonetheless see how you’d make the connection.

To an extent, I’m a fan of the solution you offered: it’s simplicity and effectiveness in meeting Janet’s challenge is undeniable. A potential problem with what I proposed is its visual complexity. And, in fact, in my first-year college writing classroom, I’ve never used those kinds of formulaic models. I’m actually much more non-linear in my thinking, which is probably why I even suggested that approach.

Yet, despite my personal preferences and instructional choices, it’s possible that such a plug-and-play approach might be more helpful for some. For students who may tend to be more linear in their thinking—think mathematicians, chemists, computer programmers, etc.—such formulas might be a helpful, especially for non-native speakers unaware of the numerous linguistic options they have.

The bigger concern I think we all face, beyond the conundrum that Janet identified, is how our students who display limited language skills will be disadvantaged beyond the classroom environment.

When I dwell on that, I cannot content myself with the quick-and-easy solution because taking that approach will do nothing but get students through this present and narrow challenge; it won’t help them build a stronger foundation of knowledge and skills to help them deal with the bigger problems they will encounter.

The short-cut is a good start, but in the long run, I don’t think it’s enough.

Attached files cannot be sent in this forum, but if anyone is interested, I’ll send you a PDF file of Chapter 1 from the eighth edition of Max Morenberg and Jeff Sommers’ The Writer’s Options—Lessons in Style and Arrangement (2008) . If you can get past the artificial character constructs—and it’s worth doing so—the book has a wealth of useful techniques for improving one’s writing. Practicing sentence- combining activities such as the one introduced by ‘the professor’ and doing the exercises at the end of the chapter are good ways to help our students realize that they may have a lot of options they haven’t thought about.

Kind regards,

Richard

[log in to unmask]

Hi Janet,

 

If the construction in your example sentence isn’t ringing any ‘form’ bells in your students’ ears, perhaps you could try presenting some alternative patterns for your students to use as models.

 

Examples:

 

 

According to               [author’s]      [type of source]                            [name of source],                           [main idea.]

 

According to        Jesse Wegman’s          article,                “The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests,”          people can be put behind bars for smoking marijuana.

 

 

According to           [name of source,]                                              [type of source]         by      [author/writer]           [main idea.]

 

According to           “The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests,”              an article                  by       Jesse Wegman,          people can be put behind bars for smoking marijuana.

 

 

*[author’s]                      [type of source,]           [name of source]                                              [predicate]

 

Jesse Wegman’s         article,                              “The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests,”        explains people can be put behind bars for smoking marijuana.

 

 

The third possibility is unlike the first and second because it starts with a subject, but its style may be what your students are subconsciously attempting to replicate.

 

In addition to helping students contextualize sources,  I’d also be working on essentials for writing clearly and more effectively in general:

 

·I’d teach students to identify a sentence’s subject and predicate (subjects can always be replaced with a subject pronoun)

·I’d give students a list of common prepositions/phrasal prepositions and practice identifying them

·I’d teach them the questions that adverbials answer (prepositional phrases frequently function adverbially)

·I’d work with them to show how prepositional phrases can be moved around in the sentence (beginning, middle, end) to highlight information

·I’d help them understand the subject of a sentence isn’t found in a prepositional phrase

 

Then, their own names and ‘sources,’ I’d let them play with the language, coming up with different ways to say the same thing and noting how the different arrangements highlight different ideas.

 

I don’t know what language background(s) your students have, but I work with several student populations from a variety of language backgrounds and proficiencies: students in ESL, ‘Basic’ English, traditional first-year composition courses, and Honors Rhetoric. I’ve had very good success with all those groups by raising their grammatical awareness and putting it to very practical use in their writing.

 

I hope you are able to find ways to help your students as you’d like to.

 

Good luck,

 

Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Castilleja, Janet
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2015 7:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New topic

 

Hello

 

I am teaching  a composition course in which we use sources.  Here is a common problem that I see constantly:

 

“According to the article “The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests” by Jesse Wegman (2014) explains that people can be put behind bars for smoking marijuana.”

 

I have tried everything I can think of to persuade my students to include a subject in a sentence like this, but to no avail.  Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

Janet Castilleja

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Di Desidero
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 10:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Passive Voice vs. Copular + Predicate Adjective

 

You can register at the website or you can register in person on the day of the conference, Linda.

Keep in touch! 

 

 

Linda

 

Linda Di Desidero, PhD

Director, Leadership Communication Skills Center

Marine Corps University

Gray Research Center, Room 122

Quantico, Virginia 22134

703-784-4401

 

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 12:59 PM, Linda Comerford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Thanks for the helpful information from both of you who replied to my about an Indy conference.

 

One more question:  I’m not a member of CTE.  May I still register for the conference?  The sessions/panels you described sound interesting, and I’d enjoy finally meeting some of you in person after years at ATEG-listserv-only interactions.

 

Linda Comerford
Cell: 317.696.4444

Office and Fax: 317.786.6404
[log in to unmask]
www.comerfordconsulting.com

 

From: Linda Di Desidero [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 4:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Passive Voice vs. Copular + Predicate Adjective

 

Hi Linda.

 

The conference that is in Indianapolis at the end of March is that of the College English Association (26-28 March at the Hyatt Regency)

 

There will be four panels in Grammar/Linguistics at the conference; several of these speakers are members of ATEG. (This is a new interest group at CEA)

 

You can preview the program at this link http://www.cea-web.org/

 

Let me know when you can be there and we'll set up a grammar group for dinner (maybe Thursday eve?)

 

Look forward to meeting you! 

 

Linda Di Desidero

 

 

 

Linda Di Desidero, PhD

Director, Leadership Communication Skills Center

Marine Corps University

Gray Research Center, Room 122

Quantico, Virginia 22134

703-784-4401

 

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 3:19 PM, Linda Comerford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Changing subjects, am I writing to the correct people about what I believe is an upcoming grammar conference in Indianapolis at the end of March?  I’m interested in both attending it as well as providing some guidance about Indy as I live there.



If anyone knows anything about this and can provide some details, I’d appreciate it.



Linda Comerford
Cell: 317.696.4444

Office and Fax: 317.786.6404
[log in to unmask]
www.comerfordconsulting.com <http://www.comerfordconsulting.com/>



From: Linda Di Desidero [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2015 8:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Passive Voice vs. Copular + Predicate Adjective



Just two more cents toward Herb's suggestion about stativity, as that clearly seems to be the key to this question:



We think of something being closed as an adjective that describes the current state or condition of the thing. We do not think of it as something that has happened or been done to the thing. Even when we talk of something as partially closed, we are referring to the state of the object, not to what has been done to the object. For that reason, viewing "X is closed" as passive seems odd. Better to view it as stative/descriptive.



On the other  hand, if you add an agent, the passive view emerges:



The window is closed by me every Wednesday at 2 pm.



In this case, I am not referring to the state of the window so much as the action that is carried out on it.



Linda






Linda Di Desidero, PhD

Director, Leadership Communication Skills Center

Marine Corps University

Gray Research Center, Room 122

Quantico, Virginia 22134

703-784-4401



On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 9:38 PM, Hancock, Craig G <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Herb,

    I think we can say that something is "partly" or "partially" closed. (window, door, bridge.) My university sometimes "partially closes" and is therefore "partially closed" as a result. (They cancel classes but keep the offices open.)  "I didn't see who actually fired the shot because the door was partially closed." We can use "very" before open in some contexts ("He had a very open personality"), but it seems awkward to me in others. ("The window was very open" *?) I think we would probably say "wide open."

    You could explain it also as a question of "construal." Someone closed the port, but for a boat approaching from sea, that may be irrelevant. The child who wants to know if he has a snow day doesn't care who closed the school. And, of course, the TV station will give a list of "school closings," which construes the whole action as a "thing." We also have "the close of the show" as an option.

    I vote for teaching about prototypes early and often. We do a terrible job with parts of speech in our schools. Students memorize definitions that are close to worthless in application. Certainly, we should teach that the boundaries are not rigid or fixed and that words shift category routinely. Students recognize prototypes for things like furniture or fruit. My experience has been that they enjoy looking at language that way, not least of all because it seems to fit.





Craig

  _____

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

 

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

 

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

_____
This email has been scanned by WAU 3-Tier Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam System.

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

_____
This email has been scanned by WAU 3-Tier Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam System.

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/