Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and a Infinitive: Order

Here is a worksheet on the verb order when used with an object and an infinitive.

Doctor Zaius ordered his patient to schedule an MRI.

The hobbyist ordered some glue to build models.

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.

Dangler

“Dangler (noun): A misplaced modifier or dependent segment of a sentence that often suggests an unintended or jarringly humorous meaning because of its isolation from what it properly refers to, e.g., ‘Sprinting ahead, the cave was soon only yards away’; phrase or clause separated from its antecedent; unattached modifier or participle. Also DANGLING MODIFIER

‘Strictly speaking, as Jesperson notes, strictly speaking is always a loose participle—perhaps if Newman had known anything at all about grammar he would avoided that ‘dangler’ for the title of his first book.’ Jim Quinn, American Tongue and Cheek”

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

Cultural Literacy: Sarcasm

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on sarcasm. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (the second of which is longish, but not insurmountable for emergent and struggling readers) and three comprehension questions. Just the bare facts about this often corrosive form of irony.

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, 12 September 2025: A Lesson on the Latin Word Roots Duc and Duct

This week’s Text is a lesson on the Latin word roots duc and duct. They mean “to lead” and grow such high-frequency English words as abduct, aqueduct, induct, deduct, deduce, and seduce, all of which are included on the scaffolded worksheet, complete with Romance language cognates. I open this lesson with this context clues on the verb guide. I’d like to think that short do-now points toward the meaning of the two Latin roots under analysis in 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 English Verbs Followed by an Object and a Gerund: Witness

Here is a worksheet on the verb witness when used with an object and a gerund.

Several people witnessed the train arriving.

The students witnessed a lion stalking its prey.

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.

Capital

“Capital: 1. Man-made material resource used or available for use in production, for example machinery. This is also referred to as physical capital. See also HUMAN CAPITAL. 2. Material or financial wealth, accumulated by an individual or a company, that can be used to generate income. See also HUMAN CAPITAL.”

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

Cultural Literacy: SAT

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the SAT. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and four comprehension questions. This document may be a bit crowded in this half-page formatting. But since this document (as just about everything here on Mark’s Text Terminal) is in Microsoft Word, you can adjust it to your students’ needs.

And, editorially, I must say once again that the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy have done a nice job with their modest but effective critique of the SAT in this reading. And I like their use of purportedly in the first sentence.

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, 5 September 2025: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Coeducation

The Weekly Text for 5 September 2025, for some reason, is this reading on coeducation and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I have only the faintest idea of why I developed this material; I vaguely recall a class that didn’t believe me when I told them that men and women were–and are (e.g. Smith, Mount Holyoke, both part of the Five College Consortium, which includes my alma mater, Hampshire College)–educated separately in many colleges and universities in the United States.

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: Dilapidated for Ruined

“Dilapidated for Ruined. Said of a building, or other structure. But the word is from the Latin lapis, a stone, and cannot properly be used of any but a stone structure.”

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

Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and a Gerund: Spend

Here is a worksheet on the verb spend when used with an object and a gerund.

The students spent time researching their project.

The tourists spent the afternoon riding around in a tour bus.

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.