New Semester website

To all my students for Semester 3 English Language Proficiency
(Listening & Speaking  and Reading) - PI3311P (Akademik)

Please go to this blog for this semester's class. 

http://pi3311p.blogspot.com/

Week 16: Identification of Errors (3)

 

Week 14: Identification of errors (2)

Week 13: Identification of errors

For this week, I would like you all to review your writing assignment.

Use of Spelling and Grammar Checker

Make use of the spelling and grammar checker in Microsoft Word to help you identify errors in your assignment.  Spelling errors will be underlined with a wavy red line while grammar errors are marked with a wavy green line.  If you right-click on these errors, you will see suggestions for spelling correction.  If you select "Grammar", you can see suggestions for grammar correction.  To help you decide on how to correct your errors, you can get some help by clicking on "Explain".  Here, the type of error you have made is identified and some examples are given. 

An example of a common type of error is a sentence fragment.  A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence.  It can be missing a subject, or it can be missing a verb.  Another possibility is that it begins with a subordinating word  (e.g. although, when, while, before, etc) but it doesn't end with an independent clause.  Such a "sentence" is said to be "hanging" because the idea is not complete. 

For the purpose of our class discussion, you must copy the incorrect sentence and paste it into a new document first before you correct it.  After you have corrected the error in your assignment, again copy the corrected sentence and paste it into the new document on the next line after the incorrect sentence.

We shall discuss the correction of these errors when we have our next face-to-face interaction.  In the meantime, you could also post some of the more challenging errors which you are not sure of and invite your classmates to give you some suggestions.

Happy learning :)

Mdm Lim

Week 9: Simple and Compound Sentences

eBook:  Sentence Patterns by Jimmie


Worksheet Exercises
(You can print out these exercises to do them or if you have installed Adobe Reader Version 10.0.01, you can insert your answer directly as comments.)

1.  Identifying Subject and Verb in Simple sentences and Compound sentences.

2.  Making compound sentences

3.  Simple or Compound sentences 

4.  Commas in Compound sentences

Week 8: Sentence Patterns

Exercise:  

For each sentence pattern, make five sentences of your own.  If you need ideas, go to this website first:

Fun with Randomly-Generated Sentences An Interesting Way to Study English Sentence Patterns

Link:
http://www.manythings.org/rs/

Identify the clause pattern (SV, SVO, SVOO, SVC,SVOC)   in these sentences.

1.  They named the ship Titanic.

2.  The class found the book interesting   

3.  They show them a photograph.

4.  That police officer sings. 

5.  She painted the room green.

6.  That bus driver brought her a small present.

Week 7: Sentence Structure Practice Exercises

For revision, complete the following exercise from your textbook "Towards Better English Grammar", pages 181 until 195.  There will be a test before the mid-semester break.

11.1   Basic sentence structure

A   Writing a sentence

B   Noun phrases and verb phrases

Practice 1 (pg. 181) - Identifying noun phrases and verb phrases.

C   Subjects and Verbs

Practice 2 (pg. 182) - Subjects and verbs (verb phrase)

Practice 3 (pg. 182) - Recognizing a sentence

D   Objects

Practice 4 (pg. 183) - Recognizing objects of verbs

E   Joining sentences with and, but, so

11.2   Making longer sentences: Using because, although, however, etc.

A   Making longer sentences

Practice 1: Recognizing parts of a long sentence (pg. 184)

B   Subordinate clauses: putting one sentence inside another sentence

C   Position of subordinate clauses

Practice 2: Recognizing a subordinate clause (pg. 185)

D   Formal joining words which begin a new sentence

Practice 3: Matching and joining sentences (pg. 185)

11.3   Relative clauses (1): Using who, which and whose

A   What is a relative clause?

Practice 1 - Find relative clauses in sentences (pg. 186)

B   who and which

Practice 2 - Choose who or which (pg. 186)

Practice 3 - Notes expansion using whose (pg. 187)

Practice 4 - Correcting mistakes in sentences with 'extra pronouns'. (pg. 187)

Practice 5 - Making sentences more formal by adding who or which.

11.4 Relative clauses (2): Special problems

A   Using whom

Practice 1 - Changing formal sentences to informal English by using who and moving the preposition. (pg. 188)

Practice 2 - Adding whom to change informal sentences into formal English. (p. 189)

B   Relative clauses with that

Practice 3 - Completing sentences by adding a relative clause with that. (pg. 190)

C   Punctuation Problem:  ‘extra information’ clauses

Practice 4 -  Adding commas to :  ‘extra information’ sentences.  (pg. 190)

11.5 Conditions:  Using if and unless

A   Introduction to the use of if and unless

B   Using  unless

Practice 1  -  Fill in the blanks with if or unless.  (pg. 191)

C   ‘Open’ conditions

Practice 2  -   Fill in the blanks with verbs in the correct form for sentences about possible situations.  (pg. 192)

D   Imaginary conditions

Practice 3  -   Fill in the blanks with verbs in the correct form for sentences about untrue or imaginary situations.  ((pg. 193)

11.6  Parallel constructions

A   Joining word and sentences with and

Practice 1  -  Identify  and correct mistakes in sentences.  (pg. 194)

B   More complicated sentences with and

Practice 2  -  Complete sentences in own words. (pg. 195)

C   Other joining words which need good parallel constructions

Practice 3  -  Complete sentences in own words.   (pg. 195)

Week 6 & 7: Noun and Adverb Clauses

This week, for the replacement class, we shall test our understanding of the different types of clauses through the following online exercises and also go through the notes to further consolidate our understanding of the topic.

Independent / Dependent Clauses

Notes

http://depts.dyc.edu/learningcenter/owl/clauses.htm

Exercise 2

http://depts.dyc.edu/learningcenter/owl/exercises/clauses_ex2.htm

Adverbial Clauses

Notes and Explanation

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/advcls.htm

Exercise

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/advcls1.htm

Nominal clauses 1

    Noun Clause Summary

    http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/nounclausesum.html

Exercise - Noun Clause Quiz

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/nounclausequiz.html

Diagnostic Quiz

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/nouncl-diagnostic.html

Chapter Review

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/az_review12.html

Nominal Clauses 2

Notes

http://www.towson.edu/ows/AdvAdjNomClause.htm

Exercise 2

http://www.towson.edu/ows/exercisenomclause2.htm

Exercise 3

http://www.towson.edu/ows/exercisenomclause3.htm

 Note:  Record your scores and note down the grammar items that you should review.

Additional reading:

Use of Commas 

Commas and Clauses -  A brief introduction to the use of commas with clauses (by Melissa Donovan) 
http://www.writingforward.com/grammar/punctuation-marks/commas-and-clauses

Commas - A comprehensive list of rules in the use of commas (by Jane Strauss)
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp

Extended Rules for Using Commas (by Dana Driscoll and Allen Brizee)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/

Week 5: CLAUSES

This week, we shall focus on CLAUSES.   A clause is an organized group of English words with a subject and a predicate.  There are two types of clauses:  the main clause and the subordinate clause.  The subordinate clause can be further divided into three sub-classes i.e. the adverbial clause, the relative clause and the nominal clause. 

The difference between a phrase and a clause is that a phrase has only either subject or predicate whereas a clause has both subject and predicate in its group of words.  Thus, we can say that a phrase is smaller than a clause. 

The main clause can stand alone as a complete sentence.   Hence, it is often referred to the independent clause.  Another term for it is principal clause.   In contrast, the subordinate cannot stand alone and therefore we can also refer to it as the dependent clause. 

You can test your understanding of independent (main/principal) and dependent (subordinate) clauses by trying out this online exercise at this website: 
http://depts.dyc.edu/learningcenter/owl/exercises/clauses_ex1.htm

Week 3: PHRASES

Earlier, we have looked at individual words and classified them according to their word classes, which we call Parts of Speech.  During the previous semester, you have learned nine parts of speech - Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections and Determiners.  We have revised these grammar items in class.  We have also discussed them in the facebook group "Learn a Word a Day".       

This week, we will study groups of words which function as single units. They are bigger than individual words but smaller than sentences. This is the second level of classification - PHRASES.

Week 2: Nouns or Verbs

For Week 2, students worked in groups to come up with news summaries. Each news summary must be a single sentence so students have to discuss how to fit in all the important information into one sentence only. In their presentation of the news, students have to identify the subject in the sentence and also noun or verb phrases that they have used.

Week 1: Review of Parts of Speech

For Week 1, all three classes (RBT1,RBT2 & MT) have participated in online discussions in the facebook group "Learn A Word A Day" on grammar items they have learnt last semester. Here is a list of the items that were discussed:

1. Nouns
2. Verbs
3. Adjectives
4. Adverbs
5. Pronouns
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions
8. Determiners
9. Interjections

Each class has a separate posting for everyone from that class to respond. Each and every student is asked to post at least one comment about a grammar item e.g. defining the item and giving an example to illustrate the item. Students can also respond to comments made by others by giving improved or clearer explanations and examples to further explain or correct inaccurate statements made.

To view these class discussions on the above grammar items, visit the facebook group "Learn A Word A Day" at https://www.facebook.com/groups/183937388301657/

Week 1: Introduction to course outline and assessment

Course Content
4.2 Phrases
4.3 Clauses
4.4 Sentence patterns
4.5 Sentence types
4.6 Concord
4.7 Direct and Indirect Speech
4.8 Active and Passive Voice

Assessment:
On-going assessment (Coursework) - 50%
Written examination at the end of the semester - 50%

Language Study Component of:
Coursework - 50% (Grammar test)
Examination - 40% (Objective & structured questions)