Have you ever wanted to say something in more than one way and couldn't think of other words to describe what you want to say? Have you found yourself racking your brain on finding other words to express the same word when you are writing so you don't have to repeat that word over and over again in your paper? This can be frustrating at times but you don't have to feel this way anymore because we can use synonyms to help us when we come across this problem. Synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings and you can find synonyms in a thesaurus. A thesaurus is a book of words and their synonyms which can be used to build your vocabulary and improve your writing.
To get a better sense of how you can build your vocabulary and improve your writing, complete the following exercise: Refer to a thesaurus and find five other words for the following words - describe, express, problem, frustration, and repeat. Once you have found five synonyms for each word, write a paragraph about yourself using the synonyms you found. Your paragraph will include the words describe, express, problem, frustration, and repeat along with one synonym for each word.
When I think of a conjunction I think of connections. Well, what are connections? They are things that bring two other things together. We see connections everywhere in our environment from transportation maps that show where train lines connect to people getting together and developing relationships. In grammar we also see a need to make connections so our speech and writing can be efficient, logical, and comprehensible.
The following is a brief review of conjunctions that you can refer to when you need a quick refresher on what a conjunction is and what function it has.
Conjunctions connect individual words or groups of words.
Ex. The river is wide and deep. We can fish in the mourning or in the evening.
Types of conjunctions:
Coordinating conjunctions:
A coordinating conjunction connects equal parts: two or more words, phrases, or clauses. Ex. The river rushes down the valley, and then it winds through the prairie. (The conjunction and connects two independent clauses to make a compound sentence.)
Correlative conjunctions:
A correlative conjunction is used in pairs. Ex. Either snow or wind can make the trip dangerous. (Either and or work as a pair in this sentence to connect two words.)
Subordinating conjunctions:
A subordinating conjunctionoften introduces the dependent clause in a complex sentence. Ex. Our trip was delayed when the snowstorm hit. We stayed in town until the snow stopped.
Common conjunctions:
Coordinating - and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
Correlative - either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, both/and, whether/or, as/so
Subordinating - after, although, as, as if, as long as, as though, because, before, if, in order that, since, so, so that, that, though, unless, until, when, where, whereas, while
Review vocabulary words and definitions. Write three sentences for each word. The first sentence will show that you understand the meaning of the word, the second sentence will be about yourself using the vocabulary word, and the third sentence will have a conjunction in it.
It seems as we get older or busier our lives become rushed. We have little time for ourselves and others. We are rushing from one place to another or from one thing to another.This type of pace also affects how we speak and write. There are times we have so much to write and we find ourselves using run-on sentences. So what could one use to help organize our writing so our sentences are clear, understood, and grammatically correct? A semicolon. We are familiar with what an independent clause and dependent clause are and what conjunctions are but do we know what a semicolon is and how do we use it? Well, the following is a primer on what a semicolon is and how to use it.
A semicolon looks like a comma and a period put together. The period is on top of the comma so it looks like this
The semicolon is sometimes used in place of a period; other times, it works like a comma.
When to use a semicolon:
1) To join two independent clauses
Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses when there is no coordinating conjunction between them. Ex. My aunt has a new motorboat; I wish I were big enough to drive it. She takes me fishing in it; however, I still don't get to drive it.
2) To separate groups of words that contain commas
Use a semicolon to separate a series of phrases that already contain commas. Ex. We crossed the stream; unpacked our lunches, cameras, and journals; and finally took time to rest. *note - The second phrase contains commas.
Vocabulary
Pace - (noun) arateofmovement,especiallyinstepping,walking, etc. (verb) tosetthepacefor,asinracing.
Run-on sentence- A run-on sentence happens when two sentences are joined without punctuation or a connecting word.
Dependent clause- A dependent clause does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence. A dependent clause usually begin with a subordinating conjunction like when.
Independent clause- An independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.
Conjunction- conjunctions connect individual words or groups of words.
Activity:
1) Review the vocabulary words and definitions and write two sentences for each word. The first sentence should show that you understand the meaning of the word and the second sentence is about yourself using the vocabulary word.
2) Review the grammar terms and definition and write two examples for each grammar term.
If you want to learn more about semicolons click on the following links :
What is an agreement? In a dictionary it states an agreement is theact ofagreeingorofcomingtoamutualarrangement. When we talk about agreement in grammar it means when words have a grammatical relationship which affects the form of one or more of the elements then they agree. THREE GIRLS shows agreement because the noun (girls) has the plural inflection (word forms can be changed when a suffix or prefix is added to it), which is required by the number. It is another way of saying concord.
Grammar point:
The subject and verb of a sentence must "agree" with one another. If you use a singular subject, use a singular verb. If you use a plural subject, use a plural verb.
Example:
Elizabeth wants to go bowling. (Elizabeth and wants agree because they are both singular)
Her parents want to go bowling, too. (Parents and want agree because they are both plural)
Number (noun) -awordorsymbol,oracombinationofwordsorsymbols,usedincountingorinnotingatotal.
Review the definitions of the vocabulary words and select the correct word to fill in the blank of the sentences below: We had an _____________ when we both decided to move to another state.
The fans showed up in large _____________ to view the Justin Beiber movie.
There was complete ____________among the delegates.
The father and son have a great ___________ that people think they are best friends.
The teacher and student showed one another _______________ respect during class and outside of class.
The _____________ with the rebels lasted only two weeks.
When we decided to open the restaurant together, we made an ______________ to split the profits.
To learn more about subject-verb agreement click on the following link Subject-verb agreement
Have you ever wondered what to do when you want to express a pause or take out some words in a sentence because it's too long to mention in an email, or give the impression of longing or sadness or doubt in your writing? Well, I have just the thing for you to use. It's called an ellipsis or three dots. It's a form of punctuation that can be used to make your writing efficient or expressive depending how you use it. You will see an ellipsis in literature, comic strips, advertisements, articles, interviews, and emails ,to name a few sources, where the ellipsis gives the reader the impression of a pause in conversation or a shorter version of a sentence because the journalist who is writing the article has a word limit to adhere to.
So now that you have a better idea of what an ellipsis is, write four paragraphs about your favorite vacation and use an ellipsis in your writing. To help you out, the following are examples of when to use an ellipsis extracted from Writers Express written by Elsholz, C., Kemper, D., Nathan, R., & Sebranek, P. (2000).
When to use an ellipsis: To show omitted words
Use an ellipsis to show that one or more words have been left out of a quotation. Ex. Complete Quotation: "All I know is that something long and shiny on my line jumped. It leaped out of the water so many times. It finally got away."
Shorten Quotation: "All I know is that something long and shiny . . . finally got away."
At the end of a sentence
If the wordsleft out are at the end of a sentence, use a period followed by three dots. Ex. "All I know is that something ling and shiny on my line jumped . . . It finally got away."
To show a pause
Use an ellipsis to indicate a pause in dialogue. Ex. "That's . . . incredible!' I cried.
Grammar point: An ellipsis (. . .) is used to show omitted words or sentences and to indicate a pause in dialogue. When typing or writing an ellipsis, leave one space before, after, and between each period.
Vocabulary
After reading and understanding the new vocabulary words,write two sentences for each word. One sentence will show that you understand the meaning of the word and the other sentence will be about you using the new vocabulary word.
The grammar concept of capitalization seems basic when learning punctuation in elementary grades. We all seem to remember to capitalize the first word of a sentence, people's names, days and months of the year, and names of places. As we get older and this rule has been ingrained in our brain, we tend to over look this rule in other circumstances such as words used as names, titles used with names of persons, or names of religions, nationalities, and languages to name a few. So here is a quick guide to refer to as to when to use capitalization.
Quick Guide to Capitalization Rules
Proper nouns and proper adjectives
Capitalize all proper nouns and proper adjectives. A proper noun names a specific person, place, thing, or idea. A proper adjective is formed from a proper noun.
Names of people
Capitalize the names of people and also the initials or abbreviations that stand for those names.
Words used as names
Capitalize words such as mother, father, aunt, and uncle when these words are used as names.
Geographic names
Capitalize geographic names that are either proper nouns or proper adjectives i.e. planets and heavenly bodies, continents, states, countries, provinces, cities, counties, bodies of water, landforms, public areas, roads and highways, and buildings.
Titles used in names
Capitalize titles used with names of persons i.e. President Obama, Mayor Micheal Bloomberg, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Historical events
Capitalize the names of historical events, documents, and periods of time i.e. Boston Tea Party, Stone Age, Emancipation Proclamation
Abbreviations
Capitalize abbreviations of titles and organization i.e. M.D. (doctor of medicine) ADA (American Dental Association)
Organizations
Capitalize the name of an organization, an association, or a team and its members i.e. Girl Scouts of America, New York Yankees, the Democratic Party, Republicans
Titles
Capitalize the first word of a title, the last word, and every word in between except article (a, an, the), short prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions.
First words
Capitalize the first word of every sentence and the first word of a direct quotation.
Days and months
Capitalize the names of days of the week, months of the year, and holidays. Do not capitalize the seasons (winter, summer, spring and fall (autumn).
Names of religions, nationalities, and languages
Capitalize the names of religions, nationalities, and languages i.e. Islam, Australian, and Hebrew
Official names
Capitalize the names of businesses and the official names of their products (trade names) i.e. Walmart, Bazooka gum, Rice Crispy cereal, and Crest toothpaste.
Vocabulary
Read the following definitions of the vocabulary words and use them in two sentences. The first sentence will be a sentence that shows you understand the meaning of the word and the second sentence will be about yourself using the vocabulary word.
Concept- a general idea
Capitalization- the act of writing or printing in capital (upper case) letters
Grammar point: There are many rules to remember in English grammar so in order to keep them fresh in your mind always go back and review the basic rules and apply them in your writing, conversations, reading, and listening. Capitalization is a rule that we use frequently in most forms of writing such writing emails or letters, filling out an application, or writing out checks. Thus, it's important to review our basics every so often so we don't make careless mistakes in our writings.
Review the quick guide one more time and complete a short quiz on capitalization.You can use the answer key to check your answers. This quiz is from GrammarBook.com
Capitalization Quiz
1. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
She said, "bees are not the only insects that sting."
B)
She said, "Bees are not the only insects that sting."
2. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
"You must understand," he pleaded, "That I need more time to pay you."
B)
"You must understand," he pleaded, "that I need more time to pay you."
3. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
Mark Paxton, the vice president of the company, embezzled over one million dollars.
B)
Mark Paxton, the Vice President of the company, embezzled over one million dollars.
4. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
The president of the United States wields much power.
B)
The President of the United States wields much power.
5. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
I live in the Northeastern part of the state where the climate is colder.
B)
I live in the northeastern part of the state where the climate is colder.
6. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
The West, especially California, is famous for its cutting-edge technology.
B)
The west, especially California, is famous for its cutting-edge technology.
7. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
Have you read All the King's Men?
B)
Have you read All The King's Men?
8. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
I enjoy Summer more than any other season.
B)
I enjoy summer more than any other season.
9. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
Employees of the Company were laid off with little hope of returning to work.
B)
Employees of the company were laid off with little hope of returning to work.
10. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
My dear Mr. Simpson:
B)
My Dear Mr. Simpson:
11. Choose the correct sentence.
A)
Sincerely yours,
B)
Sincerely Yours,
Answer key: B,B,A,A,B,A,A,B,B,A,A
If you want learn more about capitalization, complete practice exercises, or take a quiz,click on the following website link: Capitalization
Hello everyone! Today I received a very interesting and inspiringweb-link about the art of teaching. The video is titled "How to learn from mistakes" and the speaker who is in the video is Diana Laufenberg. She herself is an educator and has been teaching for many years. One of the main points she emphasizes about how teachers should deliver instruction is experiential teaching. What is meant by this is students should learn through their experiences. By experiencing a lesson, a topic, and a subject the student becomes owner of his or her education. When the student "owns" his or her education, the lesson learned becomes lasting almost permanent in their minds. This contributes to forming a solid, well-rounded, and grounded foundation of the student's learning experience. This foundation is what the student carries with his or herself all throughout his or her school experience. I have provided the link for you to watch. I would love to get your feedback and comments of whether you agree or disagree with this approach.
web-link - (Noun) In computing, a hyperlink (or link) is a reference to a document that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. The reference points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document.
foundation -(Noun) thebasisorgroundworkofanything. Practice exercise:
Review the above vocabulary words and definitions and fill in the blanks of the sentences below.
The sight of the president giving his inaugural speech was ____________ to me.
I clicked on the ___________ and was able to purchase the item of my choice.
My mother always ___________ the importance of being clear.
I believe the ability to distinguish right from wrong is ___________________.
The _________________ student has an appreciation for academics, athletics, and music.
Love is one of the ______________ of a successful marriage.
Grammar point:
In order to develop your ideas and provide details and specifics, it's good to use adjectives. Adjectives not only will make your writing more interesting but it will also increase your vocabulary.
Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.Read the above post again and see how many adjectives you can identify. Try to find at least 5 adjectives, write down the sentence where you located the adjective and underscore the word it is describing.
Hello everyone. If you read my last post you saw how I was expressing the importance of maintaining balance in our busy lives. Well, yesterday was a day I should have heeded my own advice! As I also mentioned in my previous post, we have been trying to sell our home since November of 2010 and it's quite a challenge to say the least. It is definitely a buyer's market. The latest update on the house is a perspective buyer came to see our home this past Sunday. She spent more than an hour, yes an hour, inspecting every nook and cranny of the house. Wow! The realtor and ourselves were very excited. We started to think, "could this be the one to make an offer?" At this point our realtor is salivating at the mouth and said "I'm all over this buyer like white on rice!" Well, yesterday I received a call from the realtor telling me that this perspective buyer wants to see the house again today at 5pm, except this time it's her husband coming to see the house because he was not able to see it the first time. So I of course said "absolutely!" I received the call at 11am, started cleaning the house like a mad woman, picked up my children at 4pm, lectured them to not mess up the house, make dinner, and be ready to show the house again at 5pm. Mind you, I have our class to attend at 5:25pm that same day. "Whew!" I'm so exhausted at this point. It turns out the perspective buyer's husband calls the realtor at 5:10pm to say he can't make it and can we reschedule the showing of the house. AHHHH! I screamed , inside my head of course, and told our realtor "sure, another time would be just fine." So where do you think I was today at 5:30am? Yes, that's right, you guessed it! Bikram yoga!
Thanks for listening to my rantings. Until next time ...
perspective - (Noun) a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance realtor - (Noun) a person who is in the business of selling properties i.e house, apartment, building, etc.
Practice exercise:
Review the vocabulary words and definitions, then fill in the blanks in the sentences below using the vocabulary words.
I try to maintain ____________ when juggling many activities in one day so I can feel calm.
I should have ____________ to my teacher's instructions to avoid making mistakes in writing my book report.
It's important to have a positive ____________ when you are going through rough time.
Century 21 is a company that sells properties. A person who sells property is called a ____________.
When my parents asked me if I wanted to go to Disney World I said ___________.
My mother ___________ me on why I need to keep my clean.
Elizabeth was so angry when she heard her car was damaged, her neighbors could hear her loud and furious _________.
Grammar point:
When you want to express a certain feeling in your speech or writing where your audience can tell you are mad, excited, happy, or sad you use interjections. Interjections are words or phrases used to exclaim or protest or command. You can use an exclamation point (!) to show strong feelings or a comma (,) when the feeling is not as strong after an interjection. They sometimes can stand by themselves or found within a sentence.
Practice exercise:
In my post I tried to express my feelings about having a bad day. Read my post again and identify 5 interjections throughout the post. Afterward, write a paragraph, using interjections, on something you feel very passionate about.
Have fun and maybe this exercise could be a good way to release any stress you may have.
Go to the following websites to learn more about interjections:
Hello everyone! I hope everybody had a good week. I had a particularly busy week that involved chauffeuring my son and daughter to their after school activities (swim and diving team practice, piano, gymnastics, chess and robotics), attend to my mother who is 75 years old and lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, work on graduate course assignments, and prepare our house for a fourth open-house which we have been trying to sell since November 2010.
I also substitute teach at two schools when they are under staffed due to teachers on vacation or on sick leave. One of the schools is a nursery school and the other is an adult ESL program at Belmont Racetrack.
Trying to maintain balance and sanity with all these obligations can at times be a bit hairy. Please understand that I am not complaining about my life, in fact I feel very fortunate for the life I have. I am very happy to be a "stay-at-home" mother so I can be there for my children whenever they need me. I also happen to have a wonderful husband who is very supportive and who enthusiastically encouraged me to pursue a second career in the teaching profession. Although my mother is 75 years old and has medical complications, she makes it possible for me to attend classes at night by watching my kids when I'm in school. So, even though I have a fairly busy schedule, life is still good.
My point in sharing this with you all is to impart to you another thing that I practice that helps me maintain balance and a good outlook on life. This practice is yoga. I have been practicing various types of yoga for the past seven years. It has helped me both physically and mentally in staying strong and healthy. The current form of yoga I practice now is Bikram. I attend a 5:30am class, for two hours, from Monday to Friday, and I rest on the weekends, from Bikram yoga that is.
Bikram is an intense form of yoga where classes run exactly 90 minutes and consist of a set series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. Bikram Yoga is ideally practiced in a room heated to 105°F (≈ 40.6°C) with a humidity of 40%, causing it to be categorized as a form of hot yoga. Although this is an intense form of yoga there are other forms that are not as extreme, like Vinyasa or Hatha, where one can learn breathing exercises and poses (in normal room temperature) that help you to meditate, relax, breathe in a manner that reduces stress, and most important learn to empty your mind and go into a complete state of relaxation called savasana.
I wanted to share this with all of you because we all lead very busy lives and can forget to take care of ourselves. Yoga has helped me and if you have an open mind and willing to try something new, like yoga, perhaps you can receive the same benefits I have been getting and achieve a life balance that can help you get through challenging schedules. Thanks for reading and... Namaste
(If I have perked your interest in yoga, go to the following link to get a primer on yoga http://www.squidoo.com/yoga-101)
Grammar point - One of many fundamentals we all learn in the English grammar is recognizing different parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. It is important to know these 8 parts of speech so one can analyze, understand, and construct good sentences.
The following are definitions of the 8 parts of speech along with example words illustrating a speech part.
Part of speech Function or "job" Example words
Verb action or state(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can,
sometimes inserted into a sentence oh!, ouch!, hi!, well
Practice Exercise:
After reviewing these terms and examples, go back to my post and try to identify as many parts of speech in each paragraph. There are six paragraphs in the post. You can create a chart that has two columns to record your findings. One column is for the part of speech and the second column is for the examples you have identified in the paragraph. You may not find an example of all 8 parts of speech in every sentence so you can use the notation of "n/a" which means "not available" as your entry in the column of your chart.
Have fun!
Example: Second sentence of the post reads:
I hope everybody had a good week.
Analysis:
Speech partExample
Noun - week
Verb - hope, had
Adjective - good
Adverb - n/a
Pronoun - I, everybody
Preposition - n/a
Conjunction - n/a
Interjection - n/a
After you have completed your chart analysis, create one sentence for each of the 8 parts of speech and underline the part of speech.
Example sentences:
Verb Ely’s ESL Space is a blog site. I like Ely’s ESL Space blog.
Noun This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London.
Adjective My dog is big. I like big dogs.
Adverb My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly.
Pronoun Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
Preposition We went to school on Monday.
Conjunction I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats.
InterjectionOuch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.
Hello everyone! I just created my first blog and I'm very excited. I will warn you that my writing is not that great and it can use much improvement so I welcome any comments and please be constructive. Although this class is a required class for the TESOL graduate program I'm very motivated to use it for personal use. My first couple of entries may include comments, ideas, and or insight on how I can improve my English writing so I can be a better writer but most importantly be a proficient ESL teacher. Taking the perspective as a student who needs to improve her English writing will be instrumental for me to relate and empathize with my prospective ESL students. I feel it's important for me to remember what it was like to be a student before I can relate to one. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you throughout my journey of re-learning English grammar and welcome any comments along the way.
