Proper Subject Linkage!

Make sure that the appositive, participal phrase and pronoun refer to the proper subject. Make sure that their meaning is clear and concise. For more help and some examples click HERE.

RunOnSentence!

People often think that a run on sentence has to be a really long sentence. However, they're wrong. A run on sentence can be very short. It is just two independent clauses joined together without a comma or a conjunction. For more help click HERE.

1. How much does healthcare cost on average per year?
2. How many American families are currently uninsured?
3. How many Americans are living with autism?
4. What is autism?
5. Can autism be detected early enough for abortion?
6. Is abortion morally right in the instance of autism?
7. How much does an abortion cost?
8. What laws are there about abortion?
9. How many states is abortion legal in?
10. How late in a pregnancy can you have an abortion?
11. How many different types of autism are there?
12. On average how much does it cost to care for a child with autism?
13. What are some ways to help children with autism?
14. Is there therapy for families that have autistic children?
15. At what age is autism most prevalent?
16. Can autism be prevented?
17. What are some of the ways autism can be prevented?
18. Are there any medications that can help children with autism cope?
19. Are there studies being done to cure autism?
20. What studies are being done?
21. Can autism be cured?
22. What are some ways to help autistic children “fit in” with other kids?
23. How long does the average autistic child live?
24. What is the oldest autistic child to live?
25. When was autism first recorded?
26. Who had the first case of recorded autism?
27. What form of autism did they have?
28. How long did they live?
29. Is autism hereditary?
30. What are some ways that people can acquire autism if they don’t have the genes?
31. Are there forms of autism that don’t show up until later in life?
32. What are the forms of autism that are present at birth?
33. How much does a doctor’s visit cost without healthcare?
34. How much does a doctor’s visit cost with healthcare?
35. What is the average salary of a doctor?
36. How many hospitals help with charity events?
37. How many hospitals could help with charity events?
38. How many hospitals are there in the United States?
39. How many current licensed doctors are there in the United States?
40. How many of those are practicing?
41. How many doctors run their own private practices?
42. What new technology advances are being made in medicine?
43. How much money is being spent on research for the development of new technology?
44. How much money is being spent on research for the development of new medication?
45. What is cloning?
46. How does cloning contribute to medicine?
47. What research is being done to explore the advantages of cloning?
48. How can cloning help autistic children?
49. Is cloning to save a life morally right?
50. To what extent is cloning okay for the advances of medicine?

Analyzing Breast Cancer Poem

A Yearly Testby Dave HarmSaturday, October 22, 2005 Rated "G" by the Author. Share Print Save Author Tracker
October is almost over and I needed to write something about this month being "breast cancer awareness month." Six years ago my wife decided that it was time to get into having yearly mammograms. Year one went by and everything was fine. Year two... showed... cancer. It's hard being a man and preaching about mammograms. So all I can say is that a mammogram saved my wife's life. Please also click on the link below, to help those who can't afford a mammogram. The sponsors of this site will donate money everytime the mammogram button is click... so please do it...
It would become a yearly test in a cool room she exposed her breast results the doctor would see made it worthwhile she was cancer free she dreaded her mammogram day but appointments always set she couldn’t stay away wasn’t a fear of death she’d hope we’d see done out of love for her family Things changed that one year she was presented with an unknown fear there was a mass on her left breast uncertainty created an emotional mess a biopsy would be performed memories of her past were reborn thoughts of children’s first step’s yellowed artwork on the refrigerator she always kept Results came back cancer – her body was under attack things began to move fast surgery, chemo – radiation would be last thoughts of a future left her mind serenity and acceptance she would find patiently she waited for year five once again, the future came alive A time of life her family won’t forget they thank God for the goals she set to watch her children grow up strong waiting for grandchildren to come along to grow old with the one she said “I do” neither growing tired of saying “I love you” ©2005 Dave Harm

Framing Class

I think that we always want what we don’t have, so yes the media has a lot to do with our perception of wealth. Most people don’t have friends as rich as Paris Hilton or even know anyone that rich, so they have no idea what it is like to live that life. The media shows us exactly what it is like. They show us all the things that she buys and the places that she goes with her indispensible budget. The working-class and the middle-class buy things that are out of their means to “keep up with the Jones’.” Trends are constantly changing and unless you’re changing with them you are looked at as poor, un-cool, or both. On television shows the poor are looked at as unintelligent troublemakers, this often transfers into real life whether we want it to or not. We sometimes can’t help but to think that way because we see it and hear it all the time. The media has a huge influence on or lives whether we realize it or not.

Serving in Florida

I think that we can learn a lot from Ehrenreich’s experiment, especially as college students. I work at a restaurant part time right now, and on several occasions I have thought to myself, I could just drop out of college and work two full time jobs. My thinking is that as a part time employee, not even as a server but just a host, I make enough money to pay for my groceries, utilities, car repairs and plenty of shopping. I figure if I have enough money to do that just working part-time, imagine how much money I would have with the two full time jobs. The only set back is that I would lose the perks of being a college student whose parents pay her rent, school fees, half of her car, medical and dental insurance, car insurance and the occasional shopping trips. Also after reading this story I realize that working two jobs would be exhausting. The effect of George on this story is a little bit unclear to me. I understand that she felt bad for this young kid and that she wanted to help him out, but I don’t’ really see his relevance on her as a working woman. Another thing is that if she really cared for this kid then why would she leave her shift without even picking up her tips to help him out. Was hard labor really such a burden on this woman that she couldn’t even finish her shift especially when she knew that this was only a temporary experiment for her? Most people who are living this life are not just in a temporary situation but a permanent one. I just feel like she couldn’t even humble herself enough to stay and help George out when she expressed such a true concern for him in the beginning.

Titles

The titles of books, plays, long poems, and operas get underlined or italicized. The titles of serials get underlined or italicized as well. Those include: magazines, newspapers, and television series. For shorter works, such as essays and short poems, they get put in quotation marks. For more help click HERE.

To Lay or to Lie

Lay and Lie are two verbs that are usually used incorrectly by most people because they don't know the actual meaning of each of them. Lay means to put something down. Lie means to rest or recline. Now you know the difference betwen lay and lie. For some examples click HERE.

The Colon:

The colon is not a very tricky grammar rule, but I thought that I would clarify it for my sake and maybe yours. A colon should only be used after a COMPLETE sentence, and it should be used to introduce a list. Although the colon is a common punctuation, it is not accepted in all publications. For more help and examples click HERE.

Does She Really Know What She is Talking About?

While I was reading Tannen’s essay, I developed a bias right off the bat. From the very first paragraph I read, I knew exactly what she was going to be talking about and I didn’t agree with her. I think that debate is a wonderful thing. Tannen argues that debate in schools is not always healthy because “Students at these institutions were trained not to discover the truth but to argue either side of an argument.” What is wrong with that, I think this is a perfect reason to debate for many reasons. First of all, usually the things that people debate about in school are not black and white. They are not facts but merely topics to get kids to think. So when he brings up the point that these kids are not looking for the truth, he’s right but there’s nothing wrong with it. Most things in life are not truth, but opinions. If you never give kids the chance to explore these different ideas that they get from other students through debate then our country as we know it would cease to exist. The thing that makes America so great is that everyone is allowed to have their own opinions and formulate their own beliefs. Another reason why debate in schools is so good is that it teaches kids how to argue appropriately. It allows students to argue a point of view while under the guidance and direction of a teacher. If they get out of line the teacher will correct them. It also helps kids because they are always going to be challenged on their beliefs and thoughts, and if no one ever taught them to argue with evidence to support their thoughts then no one will ever take them seriously.
Back to what the author was talking about. The author talks about how even in ancient times the Greek favored the style of debate, whereas the Chinese rejected the art of argumentation. Tannen says that “throughout our educational system, the most pervasive inheritance is the conviction that issues have two sides, that knowledge is best gained through debate.” His example of this is many Ph.D. programs that require a public defense of their own dissertation. He says that their ideas are presented orally so that the audience can pick it apart and tell them what is wrong with it. My opinion is that this is a great way to tell if someone really knows what they’re talking about.
One of Tannen’s problems with debate in the classroom is that women tend not to speak up. Her solution for this was to begin class with open questions and letting comments go unchallenged. In theory this sounds good, but people need to be challenged or else they will never really know what they believe. Another thing that is wrong with this, is to what degree did this actually work? Did it get every girl in the class to speak up and say something or maybe did one girl that already comments regularly throw in a few extra comments? I just don’t think this is a very good argument for Tannen.

I Just Wanna be Average

This story definitely gives the reader a lot of feelings of pathos. Rose was a kid that got put into the wrong category because his school tried to label kids with tests. The kids that were in the vocational school with him felt it was much easier to just be average because of the situation they were in and the teachers that they had. It was much simpler to be like everyone else and just go through school without learning anything than actually trying. The author even speaks about when he was in a class a student by the name of Ken Harvey said something that has stuck with him even to this day. The class was talking about the parable of the talents and when the teacher called on Ken Harvey he actually said, “I just wanna be average.” That phrase right there made such an impact of Rose that he wrote a story on it. Rose has a lot of strong feelings toward what the vocational tract does to students. He backs up those feelings with phrases like, “The tragedy is that you have to twist the knife in your own gray matter to make this defense work.” He means that kids have to act more stupid than they really are just to “flaunt their ignorance” or live up to the labels that they have been given by their school. Clearly, after reading this essay, you get a sense of ethos. That this guy really does know what he is talking about because he got past the labels that his school had given him and he overcame them and made something of himself.

Against Schools

When reading John Taylor Gatto’s “Against schools”, I found a lot of rhetoric. The passage begins with pathos. He gets his readers to feel for the children and teachers in school that are bored by making them remember their own feelings of boredom. There is also a sense of fallacy to an authority in the context that this guy was New York City Teacher of the year and New York State Teacher of the year so he obviously knows what he is talking about when he says that there is a problem with the school system. As a reader you want to just automatically believe him for obvious reasons without actually thinking about it for yourself. He also makes a comment which leads me to believe that he does not think very highly of George W. Bush. He says, “Is it possible that George W. Bush accidentally spoke the truth when he said we would "leave no child behind"?” He makes fun of the fact that George Bush hardly ever says anything right and if he does it is by accident. He is mocking the President (Former President, but when this was written he still was in office). Another thing that the author does is use big words. I think that he feels that the use of big words kind of comes with the territory. Since he is a teacher, he should know big words, and therefore since he knows them he should use them. He uses words such as jettison, resilience, autonomy, banal, satirist, paean, propaedeutic, and several others of which all of them I had to look up. And in the end of this passage he tells readers that in order to make their children really great, they must teach their own children several skills that are not taught to them in schools.

That vs. Which

That and which refer to groups or things. When deciding whether to use that or which you must consider the following question. Is thephrase that you are introducing essential or not? If the phrase is essential then you will use that, and if the phrase is not essential then you use which. For more help and some examples click HERE.

Idiot Nation or Idiot Author?

When I first began reading Idiot Nation I was interested, but by the time I got to the end of it I was almost appalled and offended. I understand that there is a serious problem with our public schools, and I understand that yeah, there are a lot of dumb people in our nation. What I didn’t understand was his tone. He came across as a very prideful, arrogant, and rude person. His demeanor was very off.
He talks about how schools make deals with companies and alludes to the fact that it is wrong. One specific example was when he said that ZapMe! Corporation gave a school a computer lab and access to pre-selected websites in exchange for browsing habits of the students. He acts like this is wrong, but its either the children of the school go without computers or they get them for a small price of advertising advances. I don’t see how having the computers and helping the advertising company out is any worse or even close to being the same as the school not having any computers.
The author seems flawed in a lot of his thinking. He had a bad experience in school and now he is encouraging kids to act out in theirs. He is not just telling them to stand up for what they believe in, but he is telling them to downright defy their authorities. His method of making his point is completely wrong.

Non-Essential Phrases

Use commas to separate phrases that are not essential to the sentence's meaning. Sometimes though I have a problem knowing what is essential to the sentence's meaning and what is not. For examples click HERE.

Prepositions

I was always told to never end a sentence with a preposition because it was improper english. However, according to GrammarBook.com, it is fine to end a sentence with a preposition as long as you do not use extra prepositions when the meaning of the sentence is clear without them. For examples and more help, click HERE.

What We Miss About the 1950's

In the story, "What We Really Miss about the 1950's," Coontz is trying to capture the essence of happiness. She talks with many people that were living in that decade about what made it so great. A lot of people began to describe why the 1950's were so great, and when they started getting deep in their conversations, they realized that even if they could they would never go back. Many didn't like the way that women were treated, how their fathers treated them, or how the parent to child dynamics were. It wasn't anything that they could really describe about why it was so great. What I got from the text is that although times were rough and poverty levels were high, the world was a much safer place. Children's innocence was truly protected in that decade. The saying "ignorance is bliss" is correct on so many levels. The narrorator was telling of time when she was 12 and she wanted to rent a book from the library, but they wouldn't let her because the book had too much adult content. She compared it to the movies of this current decade. There are so many bad things out in the world today that were not there in the 1950's.

Looking for Work

In the story looking for work, the little Mexican boy wants his family to be just like the families that he sees on TV. The show that he refers to is "Leave it to Beaver." When he is watching the show he compares their "table talk" to that of his own. On the show the family dressed high class and had very intriguing conversations. He then talks about how his dinner table is loud and full of laughter and jokes. The point of this story was that although they were living in America, his Mexican family didn't seem to fit in. The little boy wanted nothing more than to be a white collared American citizen who was rich and sophisticated. He wanted to live the American dream.

The Em Dash

I turned in a paper in my English 1010 class to be graded by the teacher. She handed it back to me, and where I had a comma, she had a dash. I wondered why she did that but never did ask. The em dash is usually only used in informal writing. You can replace semicolons, colons, commas, and parentheses with the em dash. For more help with this, click HERE.

Political Cartoons

Who/Whom

I never know when to use who and when to use whom. The rule of thumb is to substitute he and him.
He=Who
Him=Whom
For examples please click HERE.

American Citizen

While I was reading the introduction and thinking about what it means to be an American citizen, the book brought up a very interesting thought that had never crossed my mind before. It said that an American citizen could be from North America, Central America, and even South America. That means that when we say that we are proud to be American citizens we are talking about the continent as a whole and not just a United States citizen. Another very interesting point that this book brings up is that a lot of times we take things for granted as American citizens (I think this was directed to the United States citizens). The most important thing that is taken for granted is our education. Here I am on scholarship, going to school for free, and I am still complaining that I have to do homework, read, and take tests. In other countries the women aren’t even allowed to go to school, let alone college. I am so privileged to be an American citizen; unfortunately, I take advantage of many opportunities that I have.
This book is definitely going to challenge my opinions that I have about life. Already I have thought about things that I never had before, and I am only in the introduction to this book. The book also alluded to the fact that it is good for our opinions to be challenged. I agree because if things are never challenged in life, then they are never thought about.