Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

At the moment, I’m busily developing a unit on argumentation for the fall semester at my school. Ergo, This week’s Text is a quick one, namely these two context clues worksheets on the adjective prolix and the noun prolixity. I can tell you from my experience working in a couple of different college writing centers that students are regularly dispatched to those old-fashioned help desks for prolixity. Students ought to know what these words mean, in any case, especially students planning to major in subjects in the humanities in college–which require a lot of (good) writing.

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.

While I like to think Mark’s Text Terminal adheres to relatively high standards in the tone it sets and the material it presents, I fear this week may be an exception to that rule (if indeed it exists, since I’m not necessarily the best or most objective judge, in the final analysis, of my own work). I’m having too much fun after a long and difficult school year to spend too much time this morning on a blog post; today I’m taking a day trip up to the charming town of Beacon, New York.

Here are two context clues on the verb deify and the noun deity. N.B. that deify is used only transitively; in other words, don’t forget your direct objects–you must deify someone or something, in order to have a deity.

I think these are a couple of words high school students really ought to know. In any case, this pair provides you an opportunity to make connections between two parts of speech–verbs and nouns.

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.