It has occurred to me over the last seven years of teaching at both UNCWilmington and at UAlbany that students are not learning grammar, punctuation, and writing style as they did when I was in high school. Here's an example of what I mean: many of you, reading that last statement--after rolling your eyes--thought to yourselves, she goofed--she should have capitalized high school. Many students today do just that. They'll write something like, "after I graduated High School, I went to..."
Unfortunately, there are two problems with that. High school, used generically, is not a name--not a proper noun--and therefore is not capitalized.
What's a proper noun, you say? That's exactly the type of information I'm going to start doling out on a daily basis.
Over the years, I've collected a slew of common mistakes. It's obvious that since I see the same mistakes year after year, class after class, these tidbits were not passed along to you earlier in your education as they were to me, lo those many years ago... It's those commonly made mistakes that I'll be addressing.
So, now I know you just can't wait to check back every day to see what the tip of the day is going to be, BUT hear me out! If you do, I guarantee that you will be happier when you sit down to write, your writing will be better, your essay grades will go up and you'll get the job of your dreams. Well, I've clearly gone too far on that last one, but you get the point.
And think of it this way, if you learn and then focus on ONE grammar tip per day, it will be relatively painless...and you'll get the job of your dreams....drat, I did it again.
So come back tomorrow for the inaugural grammar goody.
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