English Language and Writing: Sentence Structure and Common Errors
Feedback and Grading Process:
For the first assignment, heavy style and grammar feedback is being provided to help students identify areas for improvement. This feedback will lessen as the semester progresses and writing skills develop.
Out-of-class essays are expected to be polished, and the use of spell and grammar checks is an allowed and expected tool.
Grading takes time, typically two weeks, but the instructor aims for one week. The instructor is enjoying reading the essays.
Many students excelled in sensory writing, but fewer did well with simile and metaphor, which requires practice.
Style and grammar errors are common; the key issue is whether they obscure meaning, which impacts grades.
Feedback prioritizes identifying easy-to-fix issues for the next essay; students might be advised to see a writing tutor for more complex problems.
Grading ensures fairness and consistency by comparing papers across different quality levels (A's to A's, B's to B's) and across different groups taking the same class.
A senior instructor also reviews grades to ensure standards are met and that serious errors are appropriately reflected in the grade.
The instructor observed interesting choices in essay prompts and hopes to return graded work by Monday, possibly Friday.
Chapter 1: Introduction to Sentences
Focus on Sentences: It is crucial to focus on writing and editing sentences because common major grammar errors observed include sentence fragments, incomplete sentences, and comma splices.
Understanding these errors will help students fix them when essays are returned.
This chapter on writing and editing sentences is short, useful, and should be revisited for review before the final exam (e.g., when to use periods, coordinating conjunctions, or ensure subject-verb-object structure with modifiers).
Hemingway's Quotation: ""
Highlights the simplified, yet profound, path to becoming an accomplished author.
Ernest Hemingway: A great writer, renowned for beautiful short stories and novels (e.g., The Sun Also Rises, which is highly recommended for its powerful ending: "isn't it pretty to think so?").
Personal life: Known for being difficult, misogynist, sexist, a raging alcoholic, and treating people poorly.
Hemingway's Writing Approach:
Journalism Training: Learned to write with urgency and realism while reporting on crises in Europe (e.g., Spanish Civil War, often seen as a precursor to WWII).
Minimalist School of Writing: Emphasized stripping away unnecessary elements to reveal what is truly important.
This is good advice for beginners who often try to do "too much," leading to long, confusing sentences.
Focus on essential components for clarity, applicable to both creative and academic writing.
Analogy of Foot to Sentence:
A foot (bones, muscles, tendons) is complex but serves the simple purpose of moving forward.
Similarly, a sentence, though complex, should move the narrative or essay forward, one step after another, for both the writer and the reader.
Revision Advice: When revising, ask: ""
Pressure Writing Context: Under pressure (e.g., exams, job interviews), revision time is severely limited (e.g., minutes maximum for those finishing in minutes), making strong foundational training in sentence construction essential.
Chapter 2: Elements of Sentence:
Four Types of Sentences:
Declarative: Makes a statement of perceived fact (e.g., "I can't start my day without at least three cups of coffee."). Most common type.
Interrogatory: Asks a question (e.g., "Did you really just order a triple espresso at ?"). Think "interrogation," uses a question mark. Often used rhetorically in essays.
Imperative: Gives a command or expresses importance (e.g., "Pass me the coffee before someone gets hurt."). Can be remembered with ""
Exclamatory: Expresses strong emotion (e.g., "This cappuccino tastes like liquid happiness!"). Uses an exclamation mark, typically for extreme anger, frustration, or great joy. Least common in formal writing.
Simplified Elements of a Sentence:
Subject: The noun or pronoun performing the action (e.g., "" in "I cried."; "Doctor Strong" in "Doctor Strong walked to the store.").
Verb: The action or state of being (e.g., "cried," "ran," "slept," "walked"). Even just a subject and a verb can form a complete sentence (e.g., "I cried.").
Object: The noun or pronoun receiving the action of the verb (e.g., "store" in "Doctor Strong walked to the store."). Adding an object increases complexity (like a "three-body problem" in astronomy).
Modifier: A word or phrase that describes or limits another word or group of words, adding specificity (e.g., "corner" in "Doctor Strong walked to the corner store."; "virtuous" in "virtuous deed"). Modifiers can significantly change the meaning of a sentence (e.g., "formally" vs. "virtuous").
Complicating Sentences Further:
Adjectives: Describe nouns (e.g., "hot" in "hot coffee"). (Could be called "adnouns" by analogy).
Adverbs: Describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., "rapidly" in "rapidly drank"). (Easier to remember due to "verb" in the name).
References to Time or Positionality: Provide context regarding duration or location (e.g., "as I walked across the campus common," "on the way to his office").
Caution: Overly descriptive, flowery, or trying-too-hard writing can lead to a loss of coherence or disengage the reader who often prefers clarity.
Chapter 3: Sentence Errors:
Sentence Fragment: A sentence that is missing either a subject or a verb (or both), or an independent clause. It often happens under pressure due to the difficulty of translating thought to paper.
Example: " " (Missing a verb, e.g., "sit").
Confusion: Fragments can lead to ambiguity about the subject if it's not explicitly stated or is distant from the fragment.
Fixes: Add the missing subject or verb. For example, change "As if the universe itself had pressed the restart button" to "It feels as if the universe itself has pressed the restart button."
Stylistic Choice vs. Error: While fragments can be used stylistically in some contexts (e.g., journalism: " "), they are almost never appropriate in formal academic writing and are usually unintentional errors.
Incomplete Sentence: Contains a subject and verb, but the clause is not fully completed, leaving the thought unfinished. Less common than fragments.
Run-on Sentence (Fused Sentence): Occurs when two or more independent clauses are incorrectly joined without proper punctuation (like a period or a semicolon) or conjunctions. Common in pressure writing due to rushing.
Symptoms: Sentences bleed into each other, subjects and verbs mix, modifiers get misplaced, leading to obscured meaning.
Extreme Example: An essay ending with only one period, effectively one long run-on sentence.
Fix: Slow down and consider the purpose of each thought; add periods or conjunctions.
Choppy Writing: The opposite of run-on, characterized by too many short, two- or three-word sentences. While grammatically correct, it creates a disjointed style lacking natural rhythm or flow.
Goldilocks Zone: The goal is to find a balance between run-on sentences and overly choppy writing.
Ease of Fixing Sentence-Level Issues: Errors like fragments, run-ons, and comma splices are relatively easy to fix, often involving correct punctuation and ensuring complete clauses. Fixing them can noticeably improve grades (e.g., from a C+ to a B).
More Difficult Errors: Verb tense shifts, agreement issues, article errors, serious spelling mistakes, and incorrect word forms are harder to fix as they require more time and exposure to reading and writing.
Fixing Run-on Sentences with Conjunctions:
Use coordinating conjunctions (e.g., "and," "but," "for," "or," "nor," "yet," "so") or subordinating conjunctions to connect related clauses.
Example: "Machines are useful. They can take people's jobs." (Comma splice) becomes "Machines are useful, they can take people's jobs." (A simple, one-word fix).
Chapter 4: Comma Splice and Semicolons:
Comma Splice: A specific type of run-on sentence where two independent clauses are joined only by a comma.
Example: "The surgeon did his work thoroughly, he turned the patient's colon into a sunny colon."
Problem: A comma alone is insufficient to separate two independent clauses; it can lead to confusion.
Fixes: The same methods used for fused sentences.
Semicolon (Cautious Use):
Use a semicolon only when there is a complete clause on both sides.
The two clauses must be closely related in meaning.
Example: "I poured my third cup of coffee; my hands are still shaking from the second one." (Correct, as the actions are causally related).
Warning: Do not use semicolons if the two sentences are unrelated, as it implies a close connection that isn't logically present, even if grammatically permissible.
Analogy: Think of the semicolon as the