tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post2430250202847589105..comments2024-03-28T02:46:03.227-04:00Comments on The Historical Society: Historians Teaching GrammarRandallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-62557387859036171602011-02-12T12:49:22.052-05:002011-02-12T12:49:22.052-05:00Plagiarize away, Tim! Anything I write about teach...Plagiarize away, Tim! Anything I write about teaching and writing is my gift to other teachers and students, in hopes that we all will have to spend a little less time in our classes correcting commas and get a little more time to teach history.<br /><br />Possessive's. Thats' an excellent rule to put at the top of the list! I've never tackled that one up front.<br /><br />Randall: That's a great example. It's also, though, a little frightening. 8 out of 10 students would choose to write the former rather than the latter.hcrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07334093881332383848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-55245728049095870542011-02-09T09:41:39.019-05:002011-02-09T09:41:39.019-05:00"I personally believe that US Americans are u..."I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the US should help the US, or, or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children."<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&feature=player_embeddedRandallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-49733738600827281522011-02-08T18:03:43.834-05:002011-02-08T18:03:43.834-05:00Dear Heather,
I l-o-v-e your advice and the way i...Dear Heather,<br /><br />I l-o-v-e your advice and the way it is presented to the student. I'm going to do my best to borrow without plagiarizing. :)<br /><br />- TLTim Lacyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-29044654472333278762011-02-08T11:18:15.930-05:002011-02-08T11:18:15.930-05:00Me fail history? That unpossible.Me fail history? That unpossible.Stevenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-30614129144001392682011-02-07T20:44:31.486-05:002011-02-07T20:44:31.486-05:00I agree about proactively introducing and then enf...I agree about proactively introducing and then enforcing grammar rules. <br /><br />I always start with possessives, to the dismay of my students. I can't stand reading sentences about how the British colonist's settled what is now the United State's. Since it drives me nuts to read such errors, I try my best to stamp them out.John G. Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08461094355047650502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-44456755894057942662011-02-07T20:33:31.888-05:002011-02-07T20:33:31.888-05:00I think our students would be better served if we ...I think our students would be better served if we historians stay out of the grammar business completely. Leave such matters to linguists and other similarly trained personnel (especially any nonsense having to do with avoiding the <a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922" rel="nofollow">passive voice</a>).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-90430371026715822202011-02-07T10:41:22.473-05:002011-02-07T10:41:22.473-05:00Heather: I used a couple of your rules in my clas...Heather: I used a couple of your rules in my class the other day. It was quite helpful.<br /><br />Here are some that I've put together:<br /><br />Don’t write primarily to impress your reader. Write your papers and reviews to express ideas clearly and with a basic sense of style.<br /><br />* Proofread.<br /><br />* Read your papers out loud. Would you speak like you write?<br /><br />* Write as clearly as possible.<br /><br />* Seek assistance.<br /><br />I like to use William Zinsser. His essay on writing, which appeared last year in the American Scholar, is terrific.<br /><br />I try to drive home the point that they should avoid wordiness. So, I also use a number of incorrect and correct examples to give them a better idea about concise, clear writing. This one is from a style manual:<br /><br />INCORRECT: In the month of December in the year of 1885, those who were working on an English ship that was called the HMS Mercury made an attempt to catch hold of and perform a repair job on a lifeboat that had fallen from the ship.<br /><br />CORRECT: In December 1885, sailors aboard the English ship HMS Mercury tried to grab and fix a dislodged lifeboat.Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.com