WELCOME

Welcome to the English 177-189 Blog. English 177 is English for Academic Purposes; English 189 is English for Business. These courses may be taken separately or as part of the English Language Proficiency Program.The goal is to increase communication between students and instructors, and also provide you with an opportunity to communicate with each other. If you post general questions about the assignments or the course, they will be answered in the blog. If you have detailed questions you want answered, then e-mail your instructor. Note that some activities are more appropriate to one course or the other.

WELCOME NEW STUDENTS!

A hearty welcome to all the new students joining these courses. We hope you enjoy your studies and have fun participating in this blog.

IMPORTANT: This blog site is open to the public; do not post personal information that could identify you--first name and the initial of your last name are the only personal information you should post. Please watch this video from the Canadian Government explaining privacy issues and social networking. 

Next blog: Friday, February 14, 2014 .

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Here are some of the things happening in the few days.

February: Black History Month

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month

Feb. 2nd: Groundhog Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day

Feb. 2nd: Super Bowl XLVIII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl

Do you know of anything else that's going on? Be sure to share your knowledge!

WHAT’S NEW?

Indefinite Pronouns and Agreement:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/indefinite-pronouns.aspx#comments

Words that sound alike but mean something entirely different:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/peak-peak-and-pique.aspx

PREVIOUS GRAMMAR QUESTION

The silver, new, shiny car was drove by Tim and I when we  had gone to Western Canada seeing the Rocky mountains and some of tourist traps along the Highway; but we seen little wild animals and not a single bear: however the wild flowers had been blossoming.

1. Adjective word order: 

Adjectives usually occur in the following order: (1) evaluation or opinion, (2) appearance, (3) age, (4) colour, and (5) origin. This  gives us: shiny, new, silver … (see the online resources page in the sidebar for more information).

2. Spelling: 

words that end in “e” drop that letter before adding a “y” to form an adjective.

3. Verb tense and form: 

The correct form of the passive voice in the simple past tense is “was driven”. Also, be consistent with the verb tense when possible: change the past perfect “had gone” to “went”. Also note that “seen” is the past participle; the simple past is “saw”. Finally, instead of the past perfect progressive, use the past progressive: change “had been blossoming”  to “were blossoming” or “were in bloom”.

4. Pronoun usage: 

If the verb changes to the active voice, the construction is “Tim and I,” as it would form the subject of the verb; however, in the passive voice, these become the object, and must therefore take the objective case, “Tim and me”.

5. Infinitive/gerund: 

After the construction “go somewhere” use the infinitive, not the gerund.

6. Idiomatic usage: 

“tourist trap” is an idiom that refers to places that attract a lot of tourists.

7.  Few/Little: 

Use the word “little” with non-count nouns; with count nouns, such as “animals”, use “few”.

8. Punctuation: 

before a coordinating conjunction that separates independent clauses use a comma: change the semicolon to a comma. Unless you are expanding on an idea do not use a colon. Wild flowers are not a type of animal, so use a semicolon to separate these two independent clauses.

9. Capitalization: 

“Western” is not part of a proper name, so it should not be capitalized. You should also not capitalize “highway” unless you are referring to a specific highway. For the same reason, you should capitalize “mountains” here, as it is part of the official name of the mountain chain.

Suggested solution: 

The shiny, new, silver car was driven by Tim and me when we went to western Canada to see the Rocky Mountains and some of the tourist traps along the highway, but we saw few wild animals and not a single bear; however, the wild flowers were in bloom.

*GRAMMAR QUESTION*

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

I am always eating my dinner late while I get home at 8:00 pm but the food is warmed quick in a microwave we brought at a neighbours garage sale.

Solutions will be posted in the next edition of the blog.

PUZZLE

Solution to the previous puzzle:  

1. Marrying female -> Travel on     BRIDE/RIDE
2. Marrying male -> Indoor area    GROOM/ROOM
3. Inspired -> Married                   AWED/WED
4. Couple -> Atmosphere              PAIR/AIR
5. Fetch -> Band                           BRING/RING
6. Blossoms -> Turns down           FLOWER/LOWERS
7. Gifts -> Begrudges                    PRESENTS/RESENTS
8. Uncontrolled slide -> Child        SKID/KID

New Puzzle:

What are the blended words that come from the following pairs. 

Example:    flutter + hurry
Answer:     flurry.

1.  blankout + beep

2.  pain + sting

3.  haggle + tussle

4.  dumb + confound

5.  bold + rash

6.  chuckle + snort

7.  internal + communication

8.  blow + spurt 

*Note, the first person with the correct answer gets the bonus point.

IDIOMS

There are three idioms that use RED:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theteacher/2009/03/090312_teacher_colour_red.shtml

Watch this video, and then write a sentence that uses one of these three idioms.

Try not to use the same idiom as the other posters.

*ALL CHANGE!*

Change the words in the following sentence as indicated.

Susan is still eating fruit cake from Christmas.

Please change only the exact word in the sequence given, and wait until someone else has posted the next change before making another. Each participant should build on the changes made by the previous participant.

For instance, Participant 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Participant 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes the direct object noun, etc.

Each participant should make just one change at a time, following the order indicated below.

When all 7 changes have been made, return to the top of the list and continue.

Changes:                                                                                                                          

1. subject noun
2. direct object noun          
3. indirect object noun                  
4. adjective(s)
5. adverb(s)    
6. verb name      
7. verb tense

AFFIXES

The word stem -graph- (meaning write) occurs in many words. 

Add an affix (either a prefix or a suffix) to this stem to make another word. 

Each participant should add a different word to the list.

*COMPLETE THE SENTENCE*

Follow the instructions below to create three different sentences from the following clause.*

... the snow fell lightly from the sky ...

Sentence 1. Add a phrase      
Sentence 2. Add a dependent clause
Sentence 3. Add an independent clause


*Add your words to the beginning or end of the clause (but not both).

*NUMBER CHANGE*

If the sentence is singular, change it to the plural; if it is plural, change it to the singular.

The athletes at the coming Winter Olympics will compete in many events on snow and ice.

*VOCABULARY*

Vocabulary building is important for both reading comprehension and writing. 

Use the following two words in one sentence (note the part of speech).

disproportionate (adjective)     +  antipathy (noun)

To further improve your vocabulary, remember to check out the Word of the Day. 

The site also has word games and puzzles.

http://dictionary.reference.com/

SYNOYMS AND ANTONYMS

We can describe something we are guessing about as speculation. 

Provide a synonym and an antonym for this word. Each participant should suggest a different word.

*ACTIVE vs. PASSIVE*

Write two sentences using the word discover.

In the first sentence, use the verb in the active voice; in the second sentence, use it in the passive voice.

*TIME CHANGE*

Change the time in the following sentences by replacing the word "today" with another time clue. 
Each student should choose a different verb tense.

Today we are taking the kids to see the Black History exhibit at the mall. It is open between 10 AM and 9 PM. The children are already excited and are looking forward to learning more about this aspect of history.

*SENTENCE COMBINATION*

Learning to combine ideas into more complex sentences is an important writing skill. There are many ways to do this. Try to combine the following three sentences.

Sentence 1: The snow lay heavily on the ground.

Sentence 2: People were shovelling their driveways and sidewalks.
Sentence 3: There was little traffic on the roads until the ploughs had cleared the major routes.