Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Cultural Literacy: Franz Kafka

Last fall, while unpacking some boxes of books for my classroom library, I learned with considerable pleasure that Peter Kuper has rendered Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis as a graphic novel. Personally, I like what Mr. Kuper has done with that staple of Mad Magazine, Antonio Prohias’s Cold War allegory as comic strip, “Spy vs. Spy.” Mr. Prohias was a hard act to follow, and Mr. Kuper has done so respectably, indeed even admirably. Professionally, that the students I teach–who have neither particular nor general interest in reading for pleasure–all read The Metamorphosis amazed me. Needless to say, I recommend this book for your classroom.

To complement The Metamorphosis, should you come by a copy, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Franz Kafka.

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.

Alcohol

Moving right along: here are a reading on alcohol and its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet if your practice and students would benefit from them.

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.

Write it Right: Sensation for Emotion

“Sensation for Emotion. ‘The play caused a great sensation.’ A sensation is a physical feeling; an emotion, a mental. Doubtless the one usually accompanies the other, but the good writer will name the one that he has in mind, not the other. There are few errors more common than the one here noted.”

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

Sullen (adj)

As sullenness can be a chronic condition among adolescents, perhaps this context clues worksheet on the adjective sullen might be of some use to you.

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: Extrapolation

Finally, on this Friday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on extrapolation. I am hard pressed to imagine why high schoolers shouldn’t know this noun, and, indeed, its attendant verb, extrapolate.

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: Demonstrative

“Demonstrative: A term used in association with pronouns and determiners as an adjective and a noun: a demonstrative pronoun; three demonstratives in one sentence. A demonstrative usage indicates relationships and locations, such as between this (near the speaker and perhaps the listener) and that (not near the speaker, perhaps near the listener, or not near either).”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Sordid (adj)

The day after the President of the United States admits he would gladly accept the interference of foreign agents in the elections in the United States seems as good a time as any to post this context clues worksheet on the adjective sordid.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Matr, Matri, Mater

Ok, it’s a long story, but a prompt from the AFT’s Share My Lesson Plan website made me aware that I had not, despite my best intentions, ever published this worksheet on the Latin word roots matr, matri, and mater. They mean, you have probably already inferred, mother.

This is an extremely productive root in English, showing up in words like maternal, alma mater, and the like.

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: Metonymy

“A figure of speech which designates something by the name of something associated with it: the Crown substituting for monarchy, the stage for the theater, No. 10 Downing Street for the British Prime Minister, the White House for the US president. A word used metonymically (crown, as above) is a metonym. Metonymy is closely related to and sometimes hard to distinguish from metaphor. It has sometimes been seen as a kind of synecdoche and sometimes as containing synecdoche. Both metaphor and metonymy express association, metaphor through comparison, metonymy through contiguity and possession. Many standard items of vocabulary are metonymic. A red-letter day is important, like the feast days marked in red on church calendars. The work redcap (a porter) originally referred to a piece of red flannel tied for visibility around the caps of baggage carriers at New York’s Grand Central Station. On the level of slang, a redneck is a stereotypical member of the white rural working class in the Southern US, originally a reference to necks sunburned from working in the fields.”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Senator (n)

It has been a productive Thursday morning here at Mark’s Text Terminal. Here’s a context clues worksheet on the noun senator as I am on my way out the door for the last of my three days of work for the 2018-2019 school year.

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.