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Last Grammar Post YAY!

I have lots of trouble dangling modifiers. I never knew what they were but i have seen that in a lot of my papers this is what I get marked for. In my papers I always have sentences that are not complete that are just "dangling" there like the phrase suggests.

A dangling modifiers is a word or phrase for which the logical headword cannot be found within the sentence.

Ex:

After reading the chapter, the author seemed to have a sound argument.

Many useful techniques are learned attending this seminar.

Correct Way:

"After reading the chapter, I believed that the author had a sound argument."

"Attending this seminar, you will learn many useful techniques."

For further explanation for the reason of the use of dangling modifiers use this website:

http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/6354/grammar.html#Modifiers

Oh Beautiful

For me I feel like most of the people that lived in America, blessed, thankful, and lucky. In D'Souza's essay its says that most people in America believe that this is the best country in the world and that is true. Most people love the fact that they are living in America and are truly proud to be called "An American." There is a lot of " American exceptionalism," in this country we believe that there is no better life than the one that we live here in America.Sometimes a lot of us take what we have for granted though living in this nation. Many other countries do not have what America has and we do not knowledge that enough, that could be one of the reasons why we did not see 9/11 coming.

Many other countries wish that they had what our country has, freedom, a better government and liberties. I did not really realize that by having all of these amazing things that everyone else would hate us.

common words that sound alike

On problem that I encounter in my writing is that i tend to get words confused that sound the same but are spelled differently. I bet that this happens to everyone. I get to these words and I just cant see which one sounds best and I don't even bother to look them up. In this class I have learned that I can't be lazy and that I need to look up the words that I don't know.

Some of these words are like:

except and accept

affect and effect ( this one kills me)

advise and advice

conscience and conscious

and there are much more...


For more of these words and how to tell them apart visit this website:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_spelhomo.html

Grammar Post

Thesis statements. I don't know if thesis statements are actually a grammar problem but it is something that I have trouble with in my papers. I never seem to be able to write a strong thesis statement. When I go to write my thesis statements I have all these ideas but I do not know how to incorporate it to become a good thesis statement. I want to be able to know how to make my thesis so good that when people read my papers they will know exactly what my paper is going to be talking about.
These following two websites below helped me get a better understanding on what a thesis statement requires and how I can be better in writing mine.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

Possible Modes

One of the modes that I am looking at to write my paper in is cause and effect. Here is a website that lets you practice doing some cause and effect situations:

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/causeconnect.html

this other link talks more thoroughly about what a cause and effect essay is:

http://essayinfo.com/essays/cause_and_effect_essay.php

Another Mode that I am thinking about using is exemplification mode. For more understanding of what and exemplification essay entails these websites proved to be helpful:

http://www.swiftpapers.com/howto/22-Exemplification___Illustration_Essa.html

http://www.essaytown.com/writing/exemplification-essay

effect and affect

When i started writing my research question for my research paper I found myself having a hard time knowing if i needed to use affect or effect. It was very frustrating not knowing which word was correct. Effect and affect both sound so similar and I thought that they meant the same thing but I was wrong.

Effect and affect sound similar but they are still used differently in whatever case you may be in.

Effect


Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo."

Affect

Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Ardvark," or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo." Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don't feel," as in, "She affected an air of superiority."


For more about effect and affect I found this website that is very helpful:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx