Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Cultural Literacy: Friend of the Court

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a friend of the court. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (the second of which is a compound–two clauses separated by a semicolon) and two comprehension questions. In other words, this is a basic introduction to an important concept in jurisprudence, particularly at the level of the Supreme Court. Right now, given the sleaze we’re seeing from at least two associate justices, i.e. taking lavish trips funded by individuals with business before the court, the Supreme Court needs all the friends it can get.

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: Definitely for Definitively

“Definitely for Definitively. ‘It was definitely decided.’ Definitely means precisely, with exactness; definitively means finally, conclusively.”

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

Bon Vivant (n)

It was the Word of the Day yesterday at Merriam-Webster, so here is a context clues worksheet on the noun bon vivant. It means “a sociable person who has cultivated and refined tastes especially with respect to food and drink.”

I’d given myself a semi-firm promise that I wouldn’t indiscriminately prepare these documents every time a flashy word came over the transom–or in this case the Merriam-Webster app on my phone. But I cannot resist Gallicisms, so here you are. Besides, I think educated people use bon vivant on the right occasion. So shouldn’t our students be able to work with this useful and euphonious noun?

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.

Cognate

“Cognate (adjective): Related or common ancestry, as two words having the same derivation; descended from the same verbal root; intrinsically similar. Noun: cognate, cognateness.

‘The vulgarity of a lot of writing about food is cognate with the vulgarity of a lot of writing about sex.’ Anthony Burgess, The New York Times”

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

Robert De Niro

Here, on an oppressively humid Monday morning in Brooklyn, is a reading on Robert De Niro along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This has tended to be high-interest material, especially among young men, so I have so tagged it.

Nota bene, please, that the reading cites “eight collaborations” between Mr. De Niro and Martin Scorsese. In fact, at least two more collaborations–The Irishman and the forthcoming Killers of the Flower Moon between these towering figures in American cinema have occurred since this reading was published. In other words, as film history continues to unfold where it concerns Scorsese and De Niro, this reading will need revision.

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 English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Deserve

Last and quite possibly least this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb deserve when used with an infinitive. Users of Mark’s Text Terminal deserve to find better material than this on the site.

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: Disenfranchisement

On an already, at 5:10 a.m., hot and muggy morning in northeastern Massachusetts, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on disenfranchisement. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence–to wit, “Removal of the franchise, or right to vote”–and one comprehension question. A concise explanation of a relatively simple concept with big consequences for a democracy like ours in the United States.

And given what has happened in some of our state legislatures in the past several years, something that it is important, indeed vitally important, I would argue, that our students 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.

The Weekly Text, 7 July 2023: A Pair of Context Clues Worksheets on the Nouns Deficit and Surplus

OK, this week’s Text, at the end of the the first full week of summer vacation, is a pair of context clues on the nouns deficit and surplus. For the purposes of these worksheets, deficit means “an excess of expenditure over revenue”  and “a loss in business operations”; surplus means “the amount that remains when use or need is satisfied” and “an excess of receipts over disbursements.” If you think it would be helpful, I prepared this lexicon on deficit and surplus for classroom use.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I served for ten years in an economics-and-finance-themed high school in Lower Manhattan. Therefore, the definitional range of these worksheets is narrow when viewed in the broader context of the meanings of these words. The lexicon is edited for simplicity (mostly by removing the etymology and some of the diacritical marks) but contains full definitions of both words. In any event, these documents are, like almost everything you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal, formatted in Microsoft Word. In other words, you can edit them for your classroom’s needs.

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: Languish (vi), Luxuriate (vi)

Once again, from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage (to which he allows free access at his Washington State University web page), here is a worksheet on use of the verbs languish and luxuriate. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of six 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: Calvinism

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Calvinism. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of four simple sentences and four comprehension questions. A basic, symmetrical introduction to Calvin’s ideology, which the reading observes is today found primarily in Presbyterianism.

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.