I'm sorry to receive your letters . It must a mistake making between us, if
I had a pop e-mail address. Sorry for my poor english expression.
----- Original Message -----
From: William J. McCleary <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2000 9:30 PM
Subject: Re: Horrors before a long weekend.
> As a teacher of advanced composition, I hope that you don't take the
> students' word as gospel. I think we would shudder at how often our words
> of wisdom are misquoted. If we use a book like Williams' Ten Lessons in
> Clarity and Grace, we would be exposing students to the message that
> by-phrases are a mark of the passive voice. Combine this note with the
> general advice (much qualified in Williams' case) not to use the passive,
> and you get the advice never to use prepositional phrases because they mean
> that you are using the passive.
>
> Bill
>
> >Kathleen, I have just joined your group. The author of the text I use
> >recommended that I join. This is exactly what I have run into many times.
> >In the last few years, I have been teaching groups of working adults in
> >night classes at community college. They are trying to improve their
> >business writing, but are often very confused by such messages from people
> >whom they assume are knowledgeable. Thank you for the example.
> >
> >"Kathleen M. Ward" wrote:
> >
> >> In my afternoon class today, I was trying to explain to my History of
> >>English students how the "of-genitive" was used in Middle English. Okay,
> >>okay, I know--it isn't what they want to hear before a long weekend.
> >>
> >> Anyway, I was using some lame example, like
> >>
> >> the daughter of the king
> >>
> >> when one of my students piped up with, "but my advanced composition
> >>professor told me we should never use those 'of' phrases, because they
> >>were passive voice."
> >>
> >> I reeled.
> >>
> >> Folks, the advanced comp. teacher is a Ph.D. in English at a Research 1
> >>university.
> >>
> >> I have no reason to doubt the kid's word (or the word of the kid)
> >>because I regularly see this sort of thing in the corrected (by members
> >>of the English department) papers that students bring to me for
> >>translation. These are papers marked with a singular lack of knowledge of
> >>grammatical terminology, and, I might note, a complete lack of
> >>consistency.
> >>
> >> Why am I bringing this up? Well, first, I need to vent. Second, the
> >>advanced composition program has come in for a huge amount of criticism
> >>on this science-oriented campus, mostly because it does not seem to be
> >>teaching the students who go through it much about sentence structure.
> >>And, obviously, the teachers themselves don't know much about sentence
> >>structure (other than "what sounds right") and cannot convey it to their
> >>students (to whom very little "sounds wrong").
> >>
> >> I haven't taught comp for a long time now, but is this lack of facility
> >>among composition teachers now usual?
> >>
> >> Kathleen Ward
> >> Linguistics
> >> University of California, Davis
>
>
> William J. McCleary
> 3247 Bronson Hill Road
> Livonia, NY 14487
> 716-346-6859
|
