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Re: grammar tricks
> Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 13:23:14 -0600
> Reply-to: wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> From: Wes Chapman <wchapman@titan.iwu.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> Subject: Re: grammar tricks
>
> OK, I'm confused. What's a "trick for teaching grammar," as opposed to,
> say, a grammatical rule (e.g. who is subjective case, whom is objective),
> or a pedagogical principle (e.g. teach grammar in the context of a
> particular task, address performance errors before knowledge errors,
> etc.)? A mnemonic? And how about tricks that are generally regarded as
> suspect but which work for most people, such as putting commas where one
> pauses?
Wes --
Forgive my butting in, but that "commas for pauses" trick is probably
one of the biggest fallacies ever perpetrated by English teachers --
people pause at so many different places when they read -- perhaps
because we all have our own internal rhythms -- and also there
are words that carry their own pauses with them (like "although," for
example), so a comma won't necessarily belong where a person pauses.
Besides, this idea that a comma = a pause is one of the root sources
of the comma splice. So please, please, please -- don't use this
trick.
Carol Finke
>
> ----------------
> | Wes Chapman |\ --------------------------
> --------------------------- | wchapman@titan.iwu.edu |
> | Writing Coordinator |/--------------------------
> -----------------------------------------/ \
> / | Illinois Wesleyan University |------------------
> ------ | P.O. Box 2900 || (309)-556-3090 |
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>
Carol G. Finke
Writing Center, Kirtland Community College
Roscommon, MI 48653
517-275-5121 ext. 338
finkec@k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us
Any teacher who CAN be replaced by a computer SHOULD be. --B.F.Skinner