Transcript sentence - Amy Benjamin

Grammar in the Heart of the
Writing Process
Amy Benjamin
America’s Choice 2011 National Conference: Success By Design
Atlanta, Georgia
February 5, 2011
Please feel free to access any of today’s visuals: www.amybenjamin.com
Students struggle with going from speech
to writing, and then from informal
to formal style.
Grammar in the Heart of the
Writing Process
Today’s Agenda:
1. Where grammatical information can fit into the writing process
2. Learning nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs and what to do
with our knowledge of them
3. Using grammatical knowledge to expand vocabulary
4. Trouble-shooting:
Creating complete sentences
5. How and why to teach prepositions
6. Code-switching from informal to formal language tone
I.
Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers.
He advocated for them. He did not
encourage violence. He led a boycott
instead of violence. The boycott was an
effective method of resistance. (30)
III.
Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm
workers, helped them not by
encouraging violence, but by leading
a boycott. The boycott was an effective
method of resistance. (25)
II.
Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers,
and he advocated for them. He did not
encourage violence. He led a boycott
instead of violence, and the boycott
was an effective method of resistance.
(32)
Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm
workers, helped them not by
encouraging violence, but by leading
a boycott, an effective
method of resistance. (22)
Grammar is the most significant
determiner of sophisticated style.
GRAMMAR IN THE HEART OF THE WRITING PROCESS:
Pre-writing
experience:
(non-sentence
form)
Drafting
Sharpen your nouns
Minimize your modifiers
Replace BE verbs and weak verbs with strong
action verbs
Achieve parallel structure
Combine sentences: create complex sentences
use appositives
use absolutes
Expand and shrink noun phrases. Turn clauses
into modifying phrases. Decide where
to place modifiers for desired effect.
Revising
Publication
Editing
Point of
intervention for
substantial
language
improvement
Point of
intervention
for surface
error correction
Parts of Speech: Fast and Furious
Part of Sp.:
Examples:
Quick Definition:
Noun
monkey, river,
America. prize
Person, place,
thing
Verb
eat, wish, is,
find, cry
Adjective
dangerous, big,
green, curly
Describes a noun
usually, slowly,
clearly, eventually
sometimes, now.
Describes a verb
in, on, at, for, with
Shows position
Adverb
Preposition
Action or state
Hint:
The______
He______ or
He is______ing.
The _______truck
He joined the
team______.
Somewhere _____
the rainbow
My Noun Palette
Proper Nouns:
Concrete Nouns:
Abstract Nouns:
-tion,-sion,-ism,-ence, -ance,
-ness, -ment, -itude
Morphology Chart
NOUNS:
VERBS:
ADJECTIVES:
ADVERBS:
They will fit into this frame:
The_____.
They will fit into this frame:
To____ or
Can____or
Is____
They will fit into this frame:
They will fit into this frame:
The ________truck
Do it ___________.
Nouns answer the question: What? or Who?
Verbs answer the question: What is it doing, having, feeling, or being?
Adjectives answer the question: What kind?
(They may also answer the questions Which one? and
How many? but those kinds of adjectives do not fit into
the frame of The______truck.
Adverbs answer any of these questions: Where? When? Why? To what extent? How?
This “Morphology Kit”
is a great way to
expand vocabulary
because most
Noun-Making
of the words
created by
Suffixes
these suffixes
express abstract
ideas.
Morphology Kit
-ment
-ness
-ation, sion
-ity
-ism
-hood
-itude
-ence
-ance
-ide
Verb-Making Suffixes Adjective-making
suffixes
-ate
-ify
-ize
-acious,icious
-y
-ous, ious
-ant
-able, ible
-er; est
Adverb-making suffix:
-ly
5
The Language Tree
Adjective Branches:
very___________
Noun Branches:
Verb Branches:
very___________
very___________
the______________
can___________
can___________
very___________
the______________
the______________
the______________
the______________
the______________
very___________
can___________
can___________
can___________
can___________
Prepositional Phrase Branches:
in________________
on________________
at_______________
for________________
with________________
Topic: ______________________________
Prepositions
Six Reasons for Teaching
Prepositions:
1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences
2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for
a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions.
3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a
prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences
with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.)
4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing
prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in
“A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.”
5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases
deliberately.
6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of
a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me)
Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone:
The “Guess What!” test
How it works: Say “Guess What!” in front of
a group of words. If the group of words
tells you “guess what!” then
you have a complete sentence!
Other tests:
They believed that….
Can you turn it into a yes/no question?
Phrase, Clause, Sentence
A phrase is two or more words that go
together (without being a sentence). There
are noun phrases and verb phrases. Once
we have both a noun and a verb, then
we have a clause.
A clause is a group of words that
may or may not be a complete
sentence. If a clause can stand alone as
a sentence, then we call it
an independent clause. (If a clause
cannot stand alone as a sentence,
then we call it a subordinate clause.
Use worthwhile literature to practice finding phrases and clauses:
from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Monday morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always
found him so, because it began another week’s slow suffering in school. He
generally began that day with wishing he had no intervening holiday; it made
the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious.
Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was sick;
then he could stay home from school. Here was a vague possibility. He
canvassed his system. No ailment was found, and he investigated again. This
time he thought he could detect colicky symptoms, and he began to encourage
them with considerable hope. But they soon grew feeble and presently died
wholly away. He reflected further. Suddenly he discovered something. One of
his upper front teeth was loose. This was lucky.
Informal
Formal
Handout: Page 11
Informal and Formal
backpack
briefcase
flip-flops
dress shoes
McDonald’s
sit-down restaurant
frisbee on the
lawn
football on the team
snack
zapping/nuking
lunch
cooking, baking, roasting
The Sentence-Making Kit
Fold a 5 x 8 index card in half, width-wise:
Guess
What!
1.
They
believed
that…
2.
Yes/no
question
3.
The Sentence-Making Kit
On the inside of the card:
AAAWWUBBIS:
although, as, after
while, when
until
because, before
if, since
If a sentence begins
with any of these words,
it must have two parts.
Place a comma between
the two parts if one of
these words begins
the sentence.
These words, plus the comma, may join
,and two sentences. Writers sometimes begin
,but sentences with these words if they are
,so
doing so for emphasis.
Use as many
These words will help you
ACTION VERBS as possible.
give detail in your sentences:
Try beginning some of your
Use words and groups of words that
sentences with these words:
answer the ADVERB QUESTIONS:
IN
FOR
ON WITH
When? Where? Why? How?
AT
To what extent? How often?
Flip the switch into formal English:
a lot = a great many or a great deal
gonna= going to
wanna= want to
hafta= have to
get,got = become, became, receive
received, obtain, obtained
gotta: must
The Sentence-Making Kit
On the back of the card:
Substitutions for homophones and spelling problems:
their = his
there = here
they’re = they are
your = his
you’re = you are
its = his
it’s = it is; it has
I before E except after C
Or when sounded as A
As in neighbor or sleigh
woman = man
women = men
Common Hitching Devices
Coordinating
Conjunctiions
Subordinating
Conjunctions
And
But
So
Or/nor
As, although, after
While, when
Until
Because, before
If
Conjunctive Adverbs
However
Moreover
Therefore
Furthermore
AAAWWUBBI
Can join two
independent
clauses to make
a compound
sentence.
Warning: You
must use a comma
with these when
they join
independent clauses.
Can hitch up to an
independent clause,
creating a subordinate
(dependent) clause,
forming
complex sentence.
Can appear after
main clause (no comma)
or before main clause
(needs a comma)
Relative Pronouns
That
Which
Who, whom
What
Where
Why
How
Whichever
Whatever, etc.
Can move within
own clause;
Requires commas
on both sides
Warning: If you
wish to use these
to join clauses, you
must use a semicolon.
Can join clauses
Warning: Many
sentence fragments
begin with these
words. Usually, you
must hitch these
words and the clauses
that they introduce to
your previous sentence.