HOMEWORK: The following sentences, taken from student papers contain the most frequent errors in essays. Identify the error in each sentence below; then rewrite the sentences and email me your corrections.
1. Everything I did from sleeping to flat ironing my hair my ear hurted any little tap gets the piercing swollen and bleeding.
2. Watching the little kids play hide and seek and sometimes getting in trouble because they were tearing up the house.
3. As a student in high school, I did not do what was expected of me, I never really read anything and much less did homework.
4. As the days went by with me reminding myself that I was in love, with either a test or post on face book about the times we shared.
5. I would soon learn that old habits die hard; it is never good to do the wrong thing.
6. Raced down the stairs grabbed my nametag and car keys flew out my drive way hoping to make it past every red-light without being stopped.
7. After a long ride on the interstate and going through all the turn pipes we finally arrived to Miami
8. I got in through a great deal of trouble, but I also learned several valuable lessons from it.
9. I woke up feeling somewhat unusual, I did not know what was wrong with me that day.
Punctuation is often thought to be not important, but in reality, punctuation prevents serious misunderstandings. Re-punctuate the following “Dear John” letter to read as a romantic love letter, rather than a “break-up” letter. Include it in the email with the corrected sentences.
Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jane
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jane
Mistakes you should NOT be making:
- A rough draft is NOT the same as a FIRST draft. Rough drafts are to be done outside of class. In college, a first draft is the best essay possible that the student can write, submitted to the instructor or professor. The student should make certain that he is proud of the work completed so far and is willing to spend time to learn and improve his writing.
- Do NOT use 2nd person, “you,” “your,” or “yourself.”
- Informal Standard English does NOT include slang
- Capitalize the personal pronoun “I”
- Indent ALL paragraphs
- Make sure left-hand margin is STRAIGHT and that all margins conform to MLA guidelines
- There is no excuse for misuse of homonyms. Use of the wrong word makes the writer appear uneducated.
- Death/deaf are NOT the same thing; neither are whether/rather; composer/composure
Examples:
- I cried to my parents and they gave me the death ear.
- Life is all about choices, rather good or bad, a person has to live with the consequences.
- I continued to maintain my composer in front of the world.
- Know when to begin a new paragraph
- Dialogue can be effective, but only if it is written correctly!
- Prepositions connect a noun to another part of the sentence and are often used to indicate direction; use the correct one
FINALLY:
Revision is NOT the same as editing! Revision involves re-thinking the topic, completely rewriting sentences and paragraphs to create a good composition. Revision involves MORE than simply changing words and adding commas.
For a better explanation see: http://www.clarion.edu/67245.pdf
