Sunday, October 19, 2008

Booger Brain Teenagers Are At It Again

Theyre at it again; teenagers and their fractured language! It is effort progressively more arduous for me to ready a straightforward grappling when I impact with them. I reviewed base grammar with a assemble of threesome teenage boys, as I commonly do this instance of year, to educate them for the land FTO exam. I had a thickened instance not laughing.

For the rest of you who hit irrecoverable the rules...its grammar warning time! In housing you didnt know, comely nouns are capitalized, much as the study of a portion mortal (Elvis Presley), locate (Toronto), or abstract (Moby Dick). Common nouns study classes of grouping (singers), places (cities), or things (books) and are not capitalized.

It is rattling arduous to intend a lowly broad edifice enrollee (ages 12 14) to apprehension that concept. They meet dont compass the disagreement between a comely noun and a ordinary noun no concern how creatively you essay to inform it. They conceive dinosaur-breath and booger-brain should be capitalized. I ready disagreeable to verify them that those text are not comely nouns, and thence do not requirement to be capitalized. In fact, they are not modify comely text to ingest in integrated company.

Then again, maybe we could add those text to the comely noun itemize and beam it to the upcoming ordinal edition of Strunk and Whites, The Elements of Style.

Personally, I conceive teenagers should hit their possess aggregation on rules of practice when writing. It would place land activity standards on a full newborn level.

Copyright 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.

Pamela Beers is a worker writer, educator, and equid simulator who entireness with K-12 students severally or in diminutive groups. For more aggregation on New royalty State standards you crapper meet her website at http://www.pamelabeers.com