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Purdue OWL News for September 7, 2004
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The Purdue OWL Staff
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Sep 07, 2004 09:15 PDT
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The Purdue OWL News
September 7, 2004
Welcome to the Purdue OWL News!
The Purdue OWL News is an online newsletter about happenings in the
Purdue University Writing Lab and the Purdue University Online Writing
Lab (OWL). You can visit our website at
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit
<http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/>. To unsubscribe
from the newsletter, click on the link at the bottom of this email.
Writing Question of the Week
HELP! I'm a high school student with an assignment on identifying
collective nouns in sentences as well as proper and common nouns. Can
you help in the identification of collective nouns (singular and
plural). The more I sit and think about the sentences, the more
confused I get.
Example sentence:
The ancient Greeks used the games to salute their god Zeus and to honor
their cities. Is 'games' in the above sentence a plural collective noun?
They include competition in music, oratory, and theatre as well as
sport.
Is competition or sport collective?
If possible, I hope you can respond tonight as my homework is due
tomorrow. YIKES!!
Answer
I will try to help you in the following way: give you the definitions of
collective, common, and proper nouns + some examples. Then I would like
you to rethink your assignment.
1. a collective noun refers to a group acting as a unit, such as a
committee, a herd, or a jury
ex. My FAMILY (collective noun) is moving to Colorado.
2. a common noun refers to things, objects, fenomena, relationships,
animals, activities....
ex. This DOG, PICTURE, PENCIL, SON (common nouns)is mine.
3. A proper noun refers to particular persons, places, peoples and their
languages, religions and their followers, mambers of national,
political, racial, social, institutions, trademarks, historical
documents, days, months, ....
ex. SPANISH (proper noun) is a European people.
The definitions come from Muriel Harris' grammar guide Prentice Hall
Reference Guide To Grammar and Usage.
I hope this helps, Oana, Writing Lab Tutor
The OWL Help Nest
Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you wish
to contribute a response to the topic, please write to us at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to
include your name and/or your email address when we publish your
response. The following week, we'll publish the best information and
advice that we receive in the newsletter. If you have a question for our
readers, please send it to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
Last Week's Questions
Question #1:
I have helped many people get through the English course at the local
community college here, and my question is when you are writing a paper
and you say "In our society we do this because, ..." what is a better
term or construction than "In our society..."? I know a lot of the
English professors don't like students to use that term.--Jayne Schubert
Answers:
Students need a "bible". You can specify one. Practically a newspaper
style book may do. Common grammar "rules" change or are modified daily.
Flexibility and agility are now desirable attributes of English
teachers. Example: metaphors. Collect them from various sources and then
try to explain them to your students. A rising tide of resentment. A
bitter woman.
Question #2:
A question about adverbs: Is it, "I don't want him to feel bad", or, "I
don't want him to feel badly"?--Dolores Croth
Answers:
A number of verbs are not followed by an adverb, but an adjective. These
verbs appeal to our senses such as: feel, look, smell, taste, sound.
In consequence, the example "I don’t want him to feel bad" is the
correct one.
Note: All these verbs may be substituted by a form of be.
Examples:
This cake smells good. - This cake IS good.
That sounds really great. - That IS really great.
If, however, "look" is used as a phrasal verb (i.e. followed by a
preposition such as: look at, look for, look after), it gets a different
meaning and then does take an adverb.
Example: He is looking at me angrily. BUT: He looks angry. (He IS
angry).
Please note that smell and taste may have meanings that do not
refer to our senses. In that case the adverb form is used.
Examples:
Last week I bought a fish which smelled bad. (Sense! It WAS bad). That’s
why I always smell fish very carefully.
The tea tasters are tasting the tea most carefully.
--Angelika Weichhart
Question #3:
My students and I are wondering if there is a hard-and-fast rule
regarding comma usage with mid-sentence place names like in the
following example: "The most humid season in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is
spring." Is the second comma necessary? The handbooks I've consulted
are either inconsistent or silent on this rule.--Maradee Kern
Answer:
The second comma is necessary to mark off the area/state/country etc.
Otherwise the sentence would be unclear or practically meaningless.
Example:
She has been living in Vienna, Austria, for all her life.
By the way, the same rule applies to descriptive titles such as:
I met Mr. Smith, your teacher, this morning.
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, delivered a speech this morning.
--Angelika Weichhart
Question #3:
My students and I are wondering if there is a hard-and-fast rule
regarding comma usage with mid-sentence place names like in the
following example: "The most humid season in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is
spring." Is the second comma necessary? The handbooks I've consulted
are either inconsistent or silent on this rule.--Maradee Kern
Answers:
Hodge's Harbrace Handbook offers the following example: "Nashville,
Tennessee, is the largest country and western music center in the United
States." As this is not an introductory phrase and functioning the same
as your sentence, I would assume the same rule applies. However, I
would advise my own students to consider rearranging the sentence to
avoid the possibility of awkwardness. For example: "Spring is the most
humid season in Baton Rouge, Louisiana."
Next Week's Question
Question #1
What do you think of the current use of "absent" as a preposition? I
know it's an adjective and means "missing" or "not present," but it
sounds awkward to me to say "Absent his approval, the project cannot go
forward." Or, "Absent a down payment, you can't buy this property." I
feel it's artificial and too trendy. I teach Composition and Technical
Communications, and I'm not sure what to advise my students.
What's Happening on OWL
OWL Eye on...High School Teachers who Use Purdue OWL
We have a student, Sachiko, in the writing lab who is doing an
internship. Part of her responsibilities include writing a report on the
different types of people who use OWL. If you are a high school English
teacher and would be interested in speaking with Sachiko, please email
Karl Stolley at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
OWL Eye on...A major part of our ongoing redesign involves organizing
the materials on OWL so they are much easier to find. If you have any
suggestions regarding organization and navigation, please send them
along to Karl at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
OWL Eye on...Multimedia content
In the coming months, we'll be designing and adding more multimedia
content to our OWL. We'd like to get your feedback about what kinds of
multimedia content would be most useful to you as a user of our website.
Send your multimedia ideas to Chris at
coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
What's Happening in the Writing Lab
OWL Eye on...Fall Lab Hours
The Writing Lab at Purdue University will be available during its
regular hours. It offers one-on-one tutorials, in-lab and in-class
workshops, lab tours, conversation groups, and a multitude of other
Writing Lab resources every weekday.
Fall 2004 Writing Lab Hours:
Tutoring Hours: M-Th 9-4; F 9-1
OWL Eye on...ESL Conversation Groups
ESL Conversation Groups:
M 1:30-2:30
Tu/Th: 4:30-5:30
W: 11:00-12:00n
F: 11:30-12:30
OWL Eye on...In-Lab Workshops for September
OWL Eye on....Fall Semester In-Lab Workshops
Tues. Sept 7 from 12:30-1:30 Scannable Resumes
Wed. Sept 8 from 3:30-4:30 Email Etiquette
Tues. Sept 14 from 12:30-1:30 Rhetorical Situations
Wed. Sept 15 from 3:30-4:30 ESL orientation
Tues. Sep 21 from 12:30-1:30 PowerPoint
Wed. Sept. 22 from 3:30-4:30 Writing for an American Academic Audience
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading our newsletter. You can email us at any time at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator,
Chris Berry, at coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster,
Karl Stolley, at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Chris and Karl take
turns writing the newsletter.)
If you received this newsletter as a forward and would like to get your
own subscription, visit
http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/ to subscribe.
This newsletter is copyright (C) 2004 the Purdue University Writing Lab
and Purdue University. Purdue's OWL is located at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu.
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