Warming Up

I’ve been bad, but I’ve really enjoyed my vacation..
I’ve not really given any thought to work related concerns.  Classes begin on the 8th, and I’ve barely even cracked open the text for the composition course.  I have no idea where I’m going to start.
I’m not OVERLY concerned about it.  I’ve taken a ton of writing [...]

Grammar Wednesday!

This week’s offering? Frequently misused words!
imply / infer: imply means to throw out a hint or suggestion and infer means to take that hint or suggestion:
Am I to infer from your comments that you’re implying that I’m gaining weight?
fewer / less: If you have a countable noun, use fewer; if you have [...]

Grammar Wednesday!

Today’s topic comes to us via request from Derek: the proper use of colons and semicolons! (aren’t you excited!?)
Semicolons are most often used to connect two closely related independent clauses:
I could have gone on and on about the fund raiser; the charity it benefits is near and dear to my heart.
It’s too late [...]

Winter Break

I’m going to take a small break from posting here – but probably no more than a few days, though.  Classes are over for the term, grades have been submitted, and all’s quiet on the work front, at least for the moment.  I’ll come back in a few days to really start planning my classes, [...]

Writers on Writing

I loved NaBloPoMo. Not only did it get me into the habit of writing every day, but it also exposed me to a number of new bloggers – some of whom I can see becoming good friends.
Yesterday, Meg wrote a beautiful piece about how she sees herself as a writer, and about trying to [...]

Scheduling Changes

No big surprise, but my schedule for next term has been altered a bit.
Instead of teaching three composition courses, I’ll be teaching two – one face-to-face and one hybrid class – and one section of public speaking.
It turned out that there was a scheduling conflict, and Joe was able to remedy it by giving one [...]

Grammar Wednesday

Today’s topic: subject-verb agreement!
I’ve ranted about this before, but it keeps coming up so I’m going to go over it for my own edification. I was inspired to address subject-verb agreement while waiting at a red light yesterday, listening to some interviewee on NPR fail to equate his subject and verb not once, but [...]

Adventures in Engrish

I thought we could use a little chuckle today…
About five years ago, MeadMaker gave me a toy for Christmas, which I found again while unpacking things we’d stored in the basement while we had our addtition built. Anyway, he didn’t give me the toy for the toy, so much as he gave me the [...]

Last Day

Today is the last meeting of my Public Speaking class.
I’ve lost two students from the class in the last week. One student really should have been dropped from the course; if he showed up, he sat in the back, contributed nothing to the class and never turned in any of the work. I [...]

Same Question, Different Forum

A while ago, I started a conversation in the “old room” about what I’m going to have my composition students read next term. I’m determined that they’re going to read – a lot – and I’m looking for suggestions from you, Loyal Readers, about what I should send their way.
My main motivation for asking [...]