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When I was teaching, the very first day of each class, I put this up on the overhead projector:

I don't make misteaks.

...and we discussed why such dumb errors were problematic for a writer.

Then I passed out a list of the the top 10 grammatical errors that writers make (a.k.a., the top 10 ways to drive your English teacher batty), and I taught my class how to avoid those mistakes. I warned them that if I ran into one of those errors in a student's paper after that, I would stop reading the paper and hand it back to him/her ungraded. It would then count as a late paper and the student would lose points accordingly until the paper was corrected and returned to me.

I told them that if I took my time to teach them grammar, then they should take the time to learn it.

You know, I never had to hand a paper back to a student. They made plenty of other dumb mistakes, but not the ones I told them to watch for. It kept me from going completely insane from the grammatical errors, at least.

Who says threats don't work? In combination with good, clear teaching, threats work wonders!

I'm gone for a day and my thread takes a weird "turn". I hope that alot of you will be waiting with me in another few "weeks". Are you guys going to wait????? Its not fun to wait alone.

*Did I manage to squeeze most of the errors in?????*

If I was to think about it, I'd say you just missed the subjunctive.



We'll be waiting with you, crisc! Thanks for your patience!

Oooo Kriston - you sound like a "scaery" teacher!

I have to say compared to other boards I've been on over the years the spelling, grammar, and content of the posts here is generally top notch! After living in a very e-mail based world it's refreshing to get any spelling or grammar skills at all.

You even managed to end your sentence with a preposition!

Score. I love doing that!

I have to admit, that's one that doesn't bother me as much. There are times when it just sounds awkward and tortured to try to stick the preposition anywhere else. It depends on the sentence, naturally, but that one never got me all worked up.

(See! )

Oh, and kimck, I always got really high marks on my end-o-year evaluations, so I don't think I was too awfully scary. I was certainly tough, but I was clear about my expectations, I was fair and I was a good teacher. I even won one of the rare teaching awards given out by my department--with $$$ attached and everything!!!

Some days I miss the classroom...and then I remember how much it sucked to grade papers, and I get over it!

You know the easiest way to fix a sentence that ends in a preposition?

Ex.- Did I manage to squeeze most of the errors in?

Solution - Did I manage to squeeze most of the errors in, b#(ch?

hehehe

I also have a co-worker who uses too many quote marks in her emails & documentation. When she speaks, she puts emphasis on the same words she puts quotes around when writing. She comes across as someone trying to explain something to a 2 year old. It's really annoying.

I would say "an LD" and "a learning disability," because that sounds better to my ear. I think the rule is that if it sounds like it starts with a vowel sound, you use "an" instead of "a."

Thus: an escalator, an M&M, etc.

But I admit I could be wrong on this one...

Sure. It seems weird to me, too, but I think it's right.