Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Common Errors in English Usage: Name, Pronoun

Here is a worksheet on the use of name and pronoun in tandem. This is an oddball document with a reading of seven sentences and six-sentence rewriting exercises. This worksheet derives, as do all worksheets under the header above, from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage (to which he allows unfettered, no-cost access at his Washington State University web page).

This document should help students understand the basic concept of usage; as far as the usage issue this document raises, I think you’ll see that students probably aren’t likely to commit the solecism this worksheet addresses.

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.

Dogmatic

“Dogmatic (adjective): Assertively doctrinal, or promulgating a strong belief or viewpoint as if it were fact; showing firm and forceful opinion; unyieldingly certain or prescriptive; narrow and magisterial. Adjective: dogmatical; adverb: dogmatically; noun: dogma, dogmatism, dogmatist, dogmaticism; verb: dogmatize.

‘For ten minutes, Challee tried to get Bird to withdraw the word “sick.” The young doctor was upset. He became querulous and dogmatic, and threw up clouds of terminology.’ Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Cultural Literacy: Verse

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on verse; this is a full-page document with a reading of four relatively straightforward sentences, with the fourth sentence, a bit longish, possibly posing a challenge for emergent or struggling readers, and four comprehension questions. Otherwise, this is a simple yet elegant exposition of the concept of verse.

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.

The Weekly Text, 25 September 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 16, Writing the Compound-Complex Sentence

We’re getting there! Here is the sixteenth lesson plan (of seventeen) from the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit. This one, as the title of this post heralds, seeks to assist students in developing their own understanding of composing the compound-complex sentence. This is, you probably won’t be surprised to hear, a complex lesson. It opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the compound-complex sentence. This is a full-page document with a two-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. As I frequently warn, and therefore do so emphatically this time, the two sentences in the text are, unsurprisingly, are compound-complex sentences. One of the reasons that I left this as a full-page document is that it will definitely need to be revised for emergent or struggling reader, or the student who uses English as a second language.

This scaffolded worksheet on writing compound-complex sentences. This is a bit clearer in its conveyance of the form and function of compound-complex sentences. Students and teachers will most likely benefit, in endeavoring to complete this work, from the use of this learning support on the basic structure of a compound-complex sentence as well as this one on the use of the semicolon in composition.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Multiply by Double/Double, Multiply by 2

Once again, from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage–to which he gives you, yes you!–free access at his Washington State University web page, here is strange (but, I think useful for inculcating the importance of good writing for clear communication) worksheet on the locutions multiply by double:double, multiply by 2. This is a full-page document with a reading of three sentences and ten modified cloze exercises.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Vowels

It’s hard to imagine that I haven’t (my primary interest as a teacher has been in assisting students in developed advanced literacy) that I haven’t heretofore published this Cultural Literacy worksheet on vowels somewhere along the line in the ten-year existence of this blog. It’s probably embedded in a lesson plan somewhere. But here it is as an easily searchable standalone post.

This is a half-page document with a (longish) one-sentence reading and two comprehension questions.

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.

Concepts in Economics: Economic Systems

“Economic system: The part of the social system composed of institutions and customs related to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Important characteristics of an economic system are the property rules and the degree of economic planning: examples are traditional, capitalist, socialist, and mixed systems.”

Excerpted from: Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Miles. Oxford Dictionary of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

The Weekly Text, 18 September 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 15, Writing the Complex Sentence for Practice

OK, this fifteenth lesson plan is a direct companion to the preceding fourteenth lesson plan from the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit: both of these deal with the tricky business of writing complex sentences. The first of these two (again, the fourteenth) introduces students to the subordinating conjunctions that writers use to form complex sentences. This lesson calls upon students to practice this newly acquired (I hope) understanding of composing complex sentences.

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the grammatical concept of coordination serves to open this lesson. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet to write complex sentences for practice that is the mainstay of this lesson.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Motion/Move

Here is a worksheet on the noun motion and the verb move and their use when moving for something in a meeting (e.g. “I move to adjourn and go pig out at an Indian buffet in Murray Hill” or “Herman made a motion to adjourn to an Indian buffet”). This is adapted, as is every document you’ll find under the title header for this post, from Paul Brians‘ book Common Errors in English Usage (which you can access for free at Professor Brians’ Washington State University web page).

This is full page with a reading of two sentences and ten modified cloze exercises.

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.

Dissertation

“Dissertation (noun): A formal and extensive treatment of a subject, such as an academic thesis; treatise; earnest presentation of one’s opinion; discourse; explanation. Adjective: dissertational, dissertative; noun: dissertator; verb: dissert.

‘As the local landlady Signora Maura shows the young couple about the house they have just rented from her, she distracts their attention from the walls with a long dissertation on the gas meter.’ Gore Vidal, Matters of Fact and Fiction”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.