Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Write It Right: Conservative for Moderate

“Conservative for Moderate. ‘A conservative estimate’; ‘a conservative forecast’; ‘a conservative statement,’ and so on. These and many other abuses of the word are of recent growth in the newspapers and ‘halls of legislation.’ Having been found to have several meanings, conservative seems to be thought to mean everything.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Malaise (n)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and a pretty solid abstraction, so here is a context clues worksheet on the noun malaise.

That is all.

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.

Metacomet

Now that this nation is showing some signs of willingness to face its past of colonial exploitation and subjugation, the time may be right to use this reading on Metacomet and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet in the classroom. 

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Laws of Motion from The Order of Things

Here’s a lesson plan on the laws of motion built around this short worksheet with a list of the laws of motion adapted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book The Order of Things, one of fifty of these short lessons that will ultimately appear on this blog.

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.

Term of Art: Gerund

“Gerund: The -ing (form of a verb that functions as a noun: Hiking is good exercise. She was praised for her playing.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Precedence (n), Precedents (n/pl)

Here are five homophone worksheets on the nouns precedence and precedents. These actually started as a single English usage (Paul Brian’s book Common Error in English Usage) from a passage in  worksheet, but I decided I’d rather have them as homophone worksheets and so rewrote them as such. Precedents, of course, is the plural of precedent–and both are good words for students to know, as is, of course, precedence.

So there you go.

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.

Lucius Junius Brutus

This reading on Lucius Junius Brutus is actually a nice little summary of the founding of the Roman Republic, both in legendary and factual detail. Here is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that goes with it.

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.

Ferret (vi/vt)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, to here is a context clues worksheet on the verb ferret. It’s used both intransitively and transitively. You might note for students that in this sense of the verb’s use–i.e., “to find an bring to light by searching”–ferret always appears with the preposition out.

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: Chauvinism

As I get ready to sign off for the day, I cannot thing of a better or more timely document to depart by than this Cultural Literacy worksheet on chauvinism.

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.

Term of Art: Direct Object

“Direct Object: A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a transitive verb. Pearson publishes books.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.