Be Grammar-Confident! with GrammarGURU Leisurely Crash Course in Written English (oxymoron anyone?) Updated Usage Both British and American Forms We lost some people because they could not find things. Here is a map. SEE what you knew, --- and possibly didn't. ......(Are you sure? Check it out, decide what your answers ......would be in a self-test in the box below, ..................and then click to find the answers! ......Note, this gives help before taking 'The Test' !. . TAKE the TEST If you get them all right, (or 12 or more.... ......please tell me! I may need an assistant someday. ) ......Detailed answers and help follow the test.. .. ORGANIZATION General: Website, assignments ......Content, Purposes and Goals, . FOR SERIOUS STUDENTS ......Suggested order of topics, The 5 Levels of the course. . History It is almost too late. Soon no one can help. About like who presumes to teach the rest of us? Please respect Copyright .

Self

Playing with our language: Exploring the writers' toolbox Can you spot the spelling mistakes that spell-check software cannot find because they are real words, just the wrong words? What is the difference: its and it's, your and you're, lay and lie? To, too, and two? Who's and whose? Could you use them correctly in sentences? Do you know how to avoid mistakes in these? Which are right: Give it to me and him. The flock of geese flies south. Everyone has their own way. Between you and I, he's right ? Do you know how to paragraph and punctuate conversation? Important if you'd like to learn how to write good stories. Do you believe plural's need apostrophe's? Some local newspapers do! Do you feel secure with verb tenses, regular and irregular, when to use "may" and "might" and know why it matters? Are you sure? TAKE the TEST Check it out, click answers! And for dessert, to be treated like puzzles: Can you analyze all sentences from whatever source and show what makes them tick? Jobs as publishers' editors need this. You will. .

Organization

FOUR PARTS 1 Cumulative Webpage REFERENCES Found here at www.mattaweb.ca/web2006/Grefs.htm As you progress, change Grefs.htm to Grefs1.htm to Grefs2.htm to Grefs3.htm to Grefs4.htm or as a "favourite" use the links to move to the next. Read the webpage first, each week before starting the assignment because it is more complete and easier to see. Examples are given, memory-hints given. Get familiar with the content in the level you are doing. The rest, B1, C1, D1, and E1 can be ignored until you need them. Down the road quite a bit, at 8 weeks each. . 2 The WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS "Week1" http://allpoetry.com/assignment_list/4453 Only registered class members have access. The assignment week will have all five levels there, so match the numbers A1 and A1 on the web page. In week 2, it will be only A2 and A2 on the web page. Like that. For best results, while working, like a textbook, and question sheet, have both parts open on desktop, half-sized, the Grefs#.htm and the assignment week, with your answer "page" floating on top. Save time and effort: paste the whole thing, no need then to type everything! Just the changes! Copy-paste to Notepad, and paste into e-mail or work offline directly in "plain text" e-mail, and send to tmatt@vianet.ca No deadlines 3 A dedicated e-mail account just for you! for help and feedback Copy-paste to Notepad, then paste into e-mail or work offline directly in "plain text" e-mail, and send to tmatt@vianet.ca Much of the "Teaching" is in the website. If still unclear, it can be dicussed in the group's Board, or by e-mail. Go ahead and ask! More answer sheets are in the plans. Serious students who have registered will be coached through e-mail, on request, and with feedback given on receipt of work. A folder will contain marked copies of all work submitted, as documentation as you progress from level to level. . 4 The GROUP BOARD in AP http://allpoetry.com/assignment_list/4453 If you are taking the e-course in AP, it is there for all to use, for reminders, questions, comments, complaints, general discussion among members of the class, .............. ..............and especially for notices or information of importance for all. .............. Please visit it regularly to see what's happening. So you need not ask, Minimum of 8 assignments, one from each "Week," all at the same level (e.g. level A) will get you a "complete." but where choices exist within the level, extras will be worth bonus points at the end. There will be an icon to display when completed. Students returning to complete a level: There is a record of submitted work. If it has not been credited before, start there, and add to it for a minimum of 8 assignments, all in the same level (e.g. level A) We may need to discuss choices. A change of rules and organization causes problems for those who have passed one or two sessions. If in the previous session you selected items from more than one level (and with open choice, most people did,) it presents a dilemma now. Obviously the same work cannot be used twice for credit so 8 new will be needed to advance to a higher level. With copies of marked work in folders, we will keep it fair. However, 1. if the item isredone, raising its quality noticeably, or 2. the level was left incomplete with no credit given, then it would be fair to accept it now towards a "complete" rating. With the "open" enrollment there will be other issues too. Without a fee on starting, it is unlikely to pay points on completion. (any bonus points are at the discretion of the teacher.) Discussion would be welcome on the Board. .... .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .

It's time to give the dog its supper. Its time to give the dog it's supper. .

Your right if you're answers match these. You're right if your answers match these. .

The dog lay all day on the floor. The dog will lie all day on the floor. Please lay the books on that table. He lied where he laid the documents. Chickens lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully. .

Two boys went to play ball too. Too boys went two play ball to. Too many boys went to play ball. .

Whose going to find who's coat was left? Who's going to find whose coat was left? .

Give it to me and him. Give it to him and I. Between you and I, it is not true. He is smarter than you and me. .

The flock of geese fly south. The flock of geese flies south. .

Everyone has their own way. All have their own way. .

She will not forgive my having to go. She will not forgive me having to go. .

The difference between us Liberals and the others... The difference between we Liberals and the others... .

If only he had arrived sooner, he may have saved her If only he had arrived sooner, he might have saved her

Furthermore . . .
Do you know how to avoid mistakes in their choice?
Which (ones) are right?
Find out why, click answers!

detailed

Challenge-answers and more information

It's time to give the dog its supper. (It's means it is. Pronoun possessives have no apostrophe. . . . . . . . . . . . . Remember, in "He found his wallet," we do not put an apostrophe in "his" either.) You're right if your answers match these. (means you are. Pronoun possessive). The dog lay all day on the floor. (Yesterday it lay there. Past of verb "lie." ) The dog will lie all day on the floor. ( Future of verb "lie.") Please lay the books on that table. ( The present form (now) of verb "lay" must have an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . object.) He lied where he laid the documents. ( Past of "to lie", tell untruths, Past of verb "to lay") Chickens lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully.( "lay" must have an object, eggs, to lie is to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rest. Two boys went to play ball too (Two, number, to play, infinitive of verb, to is a preposition, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "too" means also, remember it has "too many o's"). Who's going to find whose coat was left? ( Who's means who is. whose Pronoun possessive He got a ticket to a Leafs game.( This is the name of a hockey team, and does not take an an. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . apostrophe). Give it to me and him. ( It means to me and to him. ) More polite, Give it to him. and me. The flock of geese flies south.( The flock flies. of geese tells us that sheep have not sprouted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . wings.. All have their own way. ( A plural subject needs a plural possessive, One is singular, his, her.). She will not forgive my having to go. ( "having" acts as a noun, and needs possessive my ) The difference between us Liberals and the others... ( between us and the others ). If only he had arrived sooner, he might have saved her ( May is present, might is past-- . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . because he did not get there in time, the past is needed,)

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To the Rescue: The Truly Amazing GrammarGURU You believe that? Not likely, but in a world that has forgotten more than it ever knew, all things are relative. Achieving the Age of Literacy For hundreds of years in human history the English language struggled to emerge from the Dark Ages where only the scribes and certain clergy.knew how to read and copy scriptures. Beowulf, author unknown, is the earliest written fiction, illegible today except by scholars. Translations do exist, but it was not until the 1200's that another piece of fiction came: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. In it we can decipher that human nature and motivations have not changed much over millennia. Considering archaic "Saxon" spelling and vocabulary of Chaucer's Middle English it is a magnificent achievement that by the 1500's it.could coalesce into the beautifully articulate English of Milton and William Shakespeare. So it continued, for more than four centuries, appreciated by multitudes and easily within the living.memory of this writer!.......... ....................................................................................... Return of the Oral Tradition It was quick but very subtle. At first the advent of Television fascinated the population. Years passed and no one noticed that more and more, we watched and listened instead.. of reading for news and entertainment. Fifteen years, that's all it took here. where I live, for the school system to respond to demands to modernize.... .. Something had to be dropped from the curriculum to make room for new technology; where tape recorders replaced written record keeping, kids wrote less. Cassettes, videotapes soon were all needed to be included in the new Computer literacy. That it added a new visual component to research when connected to a printer, copying the work of others.. During the almost two generations since.the 1960's when intensive. formal teaching of Grammar was dropped, we hardly noticed a quietly surreptitious slide to "anything-goes" acceptance of the oral tradition:. "spelling doesn't matter if it sounds right."... .... It has reached a stage where to many, the correct form looks wrong. It is sad. A beautiful language that took hundreds of years to perfect will have been eroded in less than half a century to mere utility. .......................... Clawing Back Literacy Unaware, our entertainers, leaders, our spokesmen, news commentators, Joe Blow, politicians, and advertisers all lack concept of common errors. Now, who's here to notice mistakes published every day in the media, when few were old enough to learn. . .? When errors sound right, that is when we all approach the point of no return. . .. . . . . .. . . Even more serious: at school, errors are innocently.taught. How could it be otherwise when our younger teachers, themselves taught by a first generation who became teachers, administrators without the base of knowledge needed for English, a formerly proud language. Not their fault. Not anyone's fault what "Progress" insisted should be taught, We simply did not know, and what not. We are looking at progressive decay. Be glad if we can, destruction delay.. . . .