Sentences 7-9

7.  During his first four years in the Navy, Seaman Miller complained about military life almost constantly. This is why everyone was so shocked when he reenlists last month.

8.  My phone's plan gives me 250 text messages per month, last month I sent over 500.

9.  Mom used two pumpkin's to make the pie. [This issue may not be on the list I gave you, but it's an important one we've mentioned several times in class.]

Final Exam Practice

Throughout the week, I'll be posting sample exam questions here.  Your job is to answer them as quickly as possible.  Once one set of questions is answered, I will post the next.  When the class successfully answers fifteen questions, everyone who participated will receive full credit.

The following sentences may contain one or more of the errors discussed in class.  For each sentence, name the type of error (e.g. comma splice, incorrect title format, wrong word) and then rewrite the sentence (without changing its meaning) so that the error no longer exists.  If a sentence contains no error, simply respond, "no error."

Sample question: My brother borrowed my car yesterday, and he drives it into a stop sign.

Sample answer: Lack of verb tense consistency.
My brother borrowed my car yesterday, and he drove it into a stop sign.

Here are the first three questions.  Please respond in this post's comments area.

1.  Senator Henderson lost he spent seven million dollars on his campaign.

2.  The meteor penetrated well below the moon's surface - over seven miles deep.

3.  One of Groucho Marx's most famous quotations is, "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members".

Good job on the first three.  Here are three more.

4.  Any member of the Cleveland Browns who does not attend practice will lose their starting position.


5.  The literary critic David Tabachnick claims that "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is the greatest novel ever written in English.


6.  The dalmatian lost three inches of it's tail in the oven door.

Final Essay Assignment

Choose any aspect of current U.S. culture which has existed for at least fifty years.  We’ll discuss suitable subjects in class.  Once you’ve discovered your topic, begin making yourself an expert on it.  In class, we’ll discuss research techniques you can use to discover newspaper, magazine, and scholarly sources.  Direct your research towards discovering and understanding how your topic has changed over time.

The essay’s goal is to understand how changes related to your topic reflect trends in society in general.  Your essay should not only demonstrate that changes have occurred, but, more importantly, make some claim about changes’ relationship to society overall.  In other words, what do the changes mean?  Sure, many young people today get tattoos, but so what?  Tattoos are now largely acceptable in certain socioeconomic groups which in the past would not have condemned the practice.  True again, but what can we learn about ourselves by making this observation?   

As you develop your thesis, think about different types of claims: Is your trend a good thing?  A bad thing?  Is it the result of particular events?  Will it have unexpected consequences?  Should society make certain policy decisions related to your trend?  Remember, also, that your essay’s claim should be arguable. 

Your essay should demonstrate effective research using credible print sources, and/or sources located by using the library’s electronic databases.  You may not use sources from the World Wide Web without instructor approval (we’ll discuss this in class).  Sources should be documented in MLA style.

The final draft of this essay is due at the time of the final exam.  Please ask questions in class or post them in the comments section below.

Final Exam Review

Because global writing issues like paragraph development, paragraph focus, and essay focus are evaluated through your essays, the final exam will focus mainly on sentence level issues.  To ensure thorough preparation, be sure you understand the following issues:

• Verb tense consistency
• "They" and "their" as plural pronouns
• Title format
• End punctuation with quotation marks (inside or outside)
• Passive voice versus active voice
• Wrong word errors: there/their, its/it's, everyday/every day, quote/quotation
• Indicating numbers (using numerals or text)
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement
• Vague pronoun reference
• Comma splices
• Run ons
• Independent versus subordinate (dependent) clauses
• Compound sentences with commas and coordinating conjunctions
• Compound sentences with semicolons
• Hyphens versus dashes
• Dashes, commas, or parentheses with non-restrictive elements
• Commas after introductory elements
• The serial comma 

You will have an opportunity to ask questions about any of these concepts during our final two meetings.  Furthermore, this week's online assignment will serve as a review of some of these concepts.

Keep in mind that you will be able to use your handbook during the final exam, so don't spend too much time memorizing every rule.

I'll have some practice questions for you in class.