“Transitive Verb: A verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning: They washed their new car. An intransitive verb does not require an object to complete its meaning: The audience laughed. Many verbs can be both: The wind blew furiously. My car blew a gasket.”
Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Hot off the press at Mark’s Text Terminal (I just wrote this), here is an English usage worksheet on differentiating the use of select and selected as adjectives. This is a usage exercise meant to meet the Common Core Standard on usage. These are words, particularly in the context in which I’ve presented them (as the reading dictates), that are commonly used in marketing and promotional materials. So, if you’re teaching anything related to business and marketing, this worksheet will clarify these words in that context.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
[I confess that in more than thirty years of trying to appreciate his work, the appeal of Raymond Carver is completely lost on me.]
“There is nothing here to appease a reader’s basic literary needs.”
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities
If you’re teaching Hemingway’s fiction, this reading on Ernest Hemingway and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet might serve as an introduction to the author himself. I wrote it for that purpose, to support students who were about to start with The Old Man and the Sea–a novella which, despite its plaintive prose, can baffle struggling and emergent readers.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Better than anyone else, Benchley recognized his own irresponsibility in matters of finance. He once applied for a loan at his local bank and, to his shock, was granted the money with no questions asked. The next day he reportedly withdrew all his savings from the bank, explaining, ‘I don’t trust a bank that would lend money to such a poor risk.’”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb rue, which is used both intransitively and transitively. This today’s Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster; I couldn’t let it go by for the simple reason that it is a word in common use in English. I think henceforth that will be the criteria for qualifying for treatment in a context clues worksheet: if I’ve read the word, used it myself, or heard another person use it within recent memory, then it is probably a word students should know.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“bond: Binding agreement, used as a means of compulsion as well as security; for example, to enforce a commercial contract or to ensure good behavior. Bonds generally have two sections: the bond proper and the condition which, if ignored, cause a sum of money, specified in the bond proper, to be paid as forfeit.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
A few weeks ago I rummaged through my Cultural Literacy folder and pulled up a bunch of worksheets that I thought might be useful for some basic civics education in the run-up the the United States presidential election next week. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on reprisals is the last of them. I think this is an important word, particularly as a concept in political science and sociology, is important for students to understand.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Banquet. A good enough word in its place, but its place is the dictionary. Say, dinner.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged diction/grammar/style/usage, humor, literary oddities
I just returned from a CVS store, where the “seasonal” aisle, already freighted with Christmas merchandise, kind got me down. I assure you that my post of this English usage worksheet on the adjectives seasonable, seasonal, unseasonable, and unseasonal is purely coincidental.
That said, these are solid, commonly used words that students probably ought to be able to use. If nothing else, though, this document meets the Common Core standard on teaching English usage.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
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