Language Power: Tutorials for Writers

468 Pages·2014·8.868 MB·

by  Dana Ferris

Dana R. Ferris
Connect with the power of language
Language
Want to feel more confident about your own writing and
become more aware of the many choices available to
you? Language Power: Tutorials for Writers will help you
figure out what you already know about grammar and
writing and what you might want to learn more about.
Twenty-five tutorials cover topics such as analyzing
Power
unfamiliar vocabulary, using punctuation correctly and
effectively, and varying sentence structures to achieve
your purpose and reach your audience.
What do you want Language Power to do for you as
a writer?
Tutorials for Writers
Language Power is available in a variety
of e-book formats. For details, visit
bedfordstmartins.com/languagepower/formats.
WHITE SPIRAL
mech_Ferris-LanguagePower-SE-121313
Gloss layflat
Brief Contents Because free stuff is fun.
bedfordstmartins.com/rewriting
Preface for Teachers iii
Introduction for Students x
Finding Out What You Already Know xiii
Part 1: Mastering the Basics 1
Tutorial 1: Parts of Speech 3
Tutorial 2: Subjects and Verbs 23
Tutorial 3: Phrases, Clauses, and Sentence Types 41
To get the full value out of this book and this course, visit
Part 2: Developing Academic Language and Style 59
Re:Writing. It’s completely free. Why not use it?
Tutorial 4: Vocabulary in Assigned Readings 61
Tutorial 5: Ideas that Stick Together: Cohesion and Coherence 73
Watch videos of real writers.
Tutorial 6: Writing Style and Lexical Variety 89
Tutorial 7: Rhetorical Grammar: Effective Communication through
Stylistic Choices 105 Try a tutorial on avoiding plagiarism.
Tutorial 8: Punctuation Power: How Mechanical Choices Influence Writing Style 121
See sample documents in design.
Part 3: Tackling Problem Areas 137
Tutorial 9: Strategies for Self-Editing 139 Find help with citing sources.
Tutorial 10: Wordy Sentences 151
Tutorial 11: Uses and Abuses of the Passive Voice 167 Try exercises for grammar and writing.
Tutorial 12: Inaccurate Word Choice 183
Tutorial 13: Informal Language 195
Tutorial 14: Word Forms 213
Tutorial 15: The Big Three Comma Rules 231
Tutorial 16: The Apostrophe 245
Tutorial 17: The Semicolon, the Colon, and Quotation Marks 259
Tutorial 18: Pronoun Reference and Shifts 277
Tutorial 19: Verb Tense Shifts and Contrasts 297
Tutorial 20: Subject-Verb Agreement 317
Tutorial 21: Sentence Boundaries: Avoiding Run-ons, Comma Splices, and
Fragments 335
Tutorial 22: Noun Plurals 353
Tutorial 23: The Big Three Article Rules 369
Tutorial 24: Verb Phrases 385
Tutorial 25: Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases 405
Reflecting on What You’ve Learned 421
Index I-1
mech_Ferris-LanguagePower-SE-121313
LANGUAGE
POWER
Tutorials for Writers
DANA R. FERRIS
University of California, Davis
Bedford/St. Martin’s Boston New York
◆
For Bedford/St. Martin’s
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Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by
the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
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f e d c b a
For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116
(617-3 99- 4000)
ISBN 978-0 - 312- 57780-3
Ac know ledg ments
Ac know ledg ments and copyrights are at the back of the book on page 428, which constitutes
an extension of the copyright page. It is a violation of the law to reproduce these selections
by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Preface for Teachers
Most of us teach students from diverse backgrounds and with a range of lan-
guage and literacy experiences. Some students make errors in their writing
because they are En glish learners still in the proc ess of long- term language
acquisition. Others may not make many surface errors, but their word choice
and style seem underdeveloped. Many writers, regardless of their background,
need to learn better strategies for self-e diting, for analyzing unfamiliar vocab-
ulary, and for varying the tone of their writing to match a par tic ul ar audience
and task. In short, they need opportunities to focus on and develop the lan-
guage of their texts.
As a writing teacher and teacher educator, I try to provide students with such
opportunities. At the same time, I do not want my writing courses to become
grammar classes or language laboratories. My students and I need time to
focus on rhetoric, content, argument, proc ess, and audience as well. Striking
a balance between attention to discrete language points and higher- order
concerns is challenging. Further, de cades of research demonstrate that decon-
textualized grammar and usage instruction usually does not work very well.
I’m sure you are familiar with this tension. On the one hand, it seems negligent
to ignore the needs for language input and feedback present in our students’
writing. On the other, it is challenging to know how best to address these
needs in ways that are both effective and integrated with other course goals.
So what are we to do?
Language Power: Tutorials for Writers is an innovative and comprehensive
approach to this pers is tent and ubiquitous problem. More than grammar
lessons, Language Power integrates strategy training, language development,
and instruction on common writing errors. It also goes beyond errors to
address style, genre, and audience. The book consists of twenty-fi ve tutorials
that teachers or tutors can use for classroom instruction or assign for indi-
vidualized self- study. For a writing course (or a course that includes writing
development), the book could supplement a reader or rhetoric, or it could be
used as a stand- alone text in a course focused on grammar and language for
writers.
iii
General principles behind the materials
In creating these materials, I’ve been guided by the following insights from
iv research and from experience.
• Teaching language development in a writing class is different from teaching
s
er
h traditional grammar in an En glish grammar class. Instructors should focus
c
ea distinctly and intentionally on the knowledge and issues that are
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or important or problematic for student writers.
e f
c • Language instruction in a writing class should be brief, narrowly focused, and
a
Pref directly responsive to the needs of the students in that part icu lar class. For
example, if most students are not overusing the passive voice or misusing
semicolons, there is no need to spend class time discussing those issues.
• Grammar, language, and strategy instruction should be carefully integrated
with other class activities. Instruction should always be connected to
students’ authentic writing tasks so that the applications are obvious
and salient. For instance, students could analyze and observe language
use patterns in a text they have been reading and discussing.
• Strategy training — teaching students to be more effective self-e ditors — is a
critical component for language development and error treatment. We want
to wean our students from depending on instructors so that they
become monitors of their own work. Strategy training has been
demonstrated to be highly effective when implemented carefully
and consistently.
• If language instruction in combination with strategy training is clear, brief, well
focused, and applicable, students will enjoy and appreciate it. Most students
are aware of gaps in their knowledge, and they fi nd it empowering to
gain control over problem areas in their writing. While instructors may
worry about boring or alienating students with the technicalities of
language, many students in fact wish for more such instruction,
especially with regard to how to apply it to their own writing.
The structure of Language Power
Language Power is divided into fi ve sections that help you gauge student needs;
provide opportunities for study, practice, and refl ection; and evaluate student
progress.
• Finding Out What You Already Know: Diagnostic materials in this section
help students (and their teachers or tutors) refl ect on their prior knowledge
and current needs for developing and improving language skills.
• Part 1: Mastering the Basics: These fi rst three tutorials cover parts of speech;
subjects and verbs; and phrase, clause, and sentence types. The content is
typical for an introduction to Eng lish linguistics course or a traditional
grammar course. While not all students will need this review, most of v
the later tutorials are built on the terms and concepts in this section.
• Part 2: Developing Academic Language and Style: This section includes
P
language topics of use to all writers: vocabulary development strategies; refa
c
linguistic tools for cohesion and coherence; and three tutorials on e
fo
developing appropriate style through word choice, sentence variation, r T
e
and effective punctuation choices. ac
h
• Part 3: Tackling Problem Areas: With seventeen tutorials covering a range e
rs
of grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation topics, this section allows
teachers to assign topics to the w hole class or to individual writers based
on need.
• Refl ecting on What You’ve Learned: This fi nal review- and-r efl ection section
provides activities to help teachers assess student progress and determine
what further language goals still need to be pursued.
Tutorial structure
The tutorials in Language Power follow a consistent structure that helps students
uncover what they already know, practice new strategies, and understand
how the knowledge and tools they’ve acquired are relevant for their own writ-
ing. All of the twenty- fi ve tutorials include the following components:
• Ask yourself: This box at the beginning of each tutorial includes a series
of questions students should consider as they work through the material.
Each question provides a cross- reference to targeted help within the
tutorial.
• Discover: This activity helps students explore what they already know
about the topic.
• Focus: This content connects the tutorial’s activities and includes
descriptions and examples of key terms, defi nitions, concepts, and rules.
• Practice: These activities give students opportunities to check their
understanding and practice strategies throughout the tutorial.
• Apply: These refl ective activities direct students to evaluate their own
writing in light of the information provided and strategies suggested in
the tutorial.
• Wrap-u p: These summary boxes present key points covered in the tutorial,
so that students can check their understanding and revisit any points
they might have missed.
• Next steps: Cross- references to other tutorials and relevant outside
resources appear in these boxes at the end of each tutorial.
• Sidebar: To add some variety and interest, each tutorial also includes
vi several text boxes with illustrations and brief discussions of how the
material relates to real-w orld contexts.
s
er
h Ways to use this book
c
a
e
T
e for In writing this book, I anticipated that teachers and students might use it in
ac a variety of ways. It could be regularly used within a writing course, assigned
ef
Pr or recommended for self-s tudy, or used as the basis for discussion in one- on-
one writing conferences or small-g roup sessions. The suggestions that follow
assume the book’s use in a writing or Eng lish course that includes many
other goals and activities in the syllabus and daily lesson plans. You should,
of course, adapt the suggestions to fi t your own specifi c teaching situation.
Using the diagnostics to gauge student needs
You may wish to have students complete the diagnostic activities in class
or for homework near the beginning of the term. According to your assess-
ments of student writing and students’ evaluations of their own needs, based
on the diagnostic questionnaire and error analysis, you can decide what to
cover with the w hole class and what to fi t into study plans for individual
students.
Using the tutorials to address student needs
You will most likely fi nd that Part 2, “Developing Academic Language and
Style” (Tutorials 4–8 ), will be relevant for most of your students, and you may
want to include some or all of them in lesson plans. In Part 3, “Tackling Prob-
lem Areas,” Tutorial 9, on self-e diting strategies, might be useful early in the
course, when students have written their fi rst paper and are fi nalizing it for
submission. Other topics likely to be relevant for the whole class might include
the tutorials on wordiness (Tutorial 10), on passive voice (Tutorial 11), and
on word choices (Tutorials 12 and 13). Many students also struggle with
rules for commas and apostrophes (Tutorials 15 and 16), so you may want to
assign these broadly or draw from them for class lessons.
Other tutorials in Part 3 and the tutorials in Part 1, “Mastering the Basics,”
will provide good homework, extra credit, or self- study opportunities for
individual students. Diagnostic activities in “Finding Out What You Already
Know” and feedback on student papers can help you determine which stu-
dents will benefi t most from which tutorials.
vii
Addressing language analysis and development
throughout the course
P
Within a typical composition course syllabus, there are at least four distinct re
fa
points at which language analysis or development activities may be espe- ce
fo
cially appropriate: r T
e
a
c
h
1. When the class is discussing an assigned reading, to call attention to the e
rs
language choices made by the author (in addition to discussing the ideas
and org a ni za tion within the text).
2. When students are beginning a new writing assignment, to call attention
to the types of language choices elicited by the task (for example, verb
tenses within a narrative task).
3. When students are polishing or fi nalizing a paper, to give them an oppor-
tunity to peer- and self-e dit for problem areas in their writing.
4. When you have completed responding to a class set of papers and wish to
follow up on language issues you noticed in the students’ texts.
You could integrate tutorials at one or more of those points in your syllabus.
For example, the tutorials on punctuation power (Tutorial 8) or informal lan-
guage (Tutorial 13) might work well as follow- up to the discussion of a reading.
If your students have problems with wordiness or cohesion, Tutorials 5 and
10 might be useful after you return a set of papers.
Another way to integrate language instruction into your course and syllabus
is to devote time to it at regular intervals. For example, you could build in a
weekly “Language Focus” session and determine as the class goes along what
subject will be most useful for students to cover.
Using the content in a lesson plan
Though the tutorials are designed to be relatively short and narrowly focused,
having students complete a tutorial, including all activities, could easily fi ll
a class period. You may want to assign parts of the tutorial as class prepara-
tion. For example, students could complete the Discover activity and read the
Focus sections before class. During class, you could review the main points
and have students complete the Practice and Apply activities together (and
possibly assign some as follow-u p homework). Most of the activities lend
themselves well to pair or small-g roup work, and students will benefi t from
sharing ideas with their peers.
viii
Instructor’s Manual for Language Power
Also important for language development is the feedback students receive on
s
er their writing. Please see “Suggestions for Response to Language in Student
h
c
a Writing” in the Instructor’s Manual for Language Power: Tutorials for Writers
e
T
or for ideas about how to connect your feedback with more help in the tutorials.
e f The instructor’s manual also includes answers and tips for evaluating student
c
a
ef responses to activities for all twenty- fi ve tutorials.
Pr
Additional teaching considerations
Many student writers have underdeveloped vocabulary, which in turn limits
their precision and effective expression. Several of the tutorials focus on
vocabulary, and in Tutorials 6 and 7, I suggest that students maintain a
vocabulary learning journal or a writing style analysis journal. Maintaining
a journal could be a course requirement, an extra credit opportunity, or simply
a suggestion for students who wish to work on vocabulary and style. Please
see “Suggestions for Keeping a Vocabulary and Style Journal” in this introduc-
tory section.
Ac know ledg ments
I am grateful to the students and teachers who have worked with earlier ver-
sions of these materials in the classroom and have given me useful feedback.
I am especially grateful to the student writers who have granted permission
for their work to be used in Language Power, and to the following instructors
for sharing their insights and expertise as reviewers: Michelle Barbeau, Gross-
mont College and National University; Barclay Barrios, Florida Atlantic Uni-
versity; Joe Bartolotta, University of Minnesota; Nancy Bell, Washington State
University; Linda S. Bergmann, Purdue University; Lady Branham, Univer-
sity of Oklahoma; Ben S. Bunting, Jr., Washington State University; Jennifer
Ferguson, Cazenovia College; Sergio Figuerido, Clemson University; Erin
Flewelling, San Diego State University; Christine Garbett, Bowling Green State
University; Clint Gardner, Salt Lake Community College; Melissa Graham
Meeks, Georgia Institute of Technology; Judy Holiday, Arizona State Univer-
sity; Krista Jackman, University of New Hampshire; Jay Jordan, University of
Utah; Hee- Seung Kang, Case Western Reserve University; Sara McLaughlin,