Bellwork for February 28, 2014

1. Bellwork for February 28, 2014 • Take out your corrected PoW. I will come around to collect these. If you don’t have it, take out your agenda. • Write in your agenda. • Demonstrate knowledge of writing skills on a test. • Clarify meaning in sentences by correcting misplaced modifiers and dangling modifiers. • Complete page 897 (1-5) in your literature textbook. • Then, write two paragraphs about a superhero named Super Sentence and his arch nemesis Flimsy Fragment. You must use at least five Caught’ya! vocabulary words correctly.

2. Bonus Questions 1. What is the topic? (+2 pts.) 2. What is the controlling idea? (+2 points) 3. List at least 5 transition words or phrases from the text. (+2 points) *When you finish, turn in your test and read.

4. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers The difference between clarity and awkwardness.

5. First things first… • What is a modifier, anyway? • Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that provide description in sentences. Modifiers allow writers to take the picture that they have in their heads and transfer it accurately to the heads of their readers. • Consider this very “un-modified” sentence: • Stephen dropped his fork.

6. Stephen dropped his fork… + = Poor Stephen, who just wanted a quick snack before his after school detention, quickly dropped his fork on the cafeteria tray, gagging with disgust as a large cockroach wiggled out of his grilled cheese sandwich, a sight requiring a year of therapy before Stephen could eat bread again.

7. What are the modifiers? • Adjective = poor. • Adjective clause = who just wanted a quick meal. • Adverb = quickly. • Adverb clause = as a large cockroach wiggled out of his grilled cheese sandwich. • Absolute phrase = a sight requiring a year of therapy before Stephen could eat bread again. • Infinitive phrase = to get through his after school detention. • Participle phrase = gagging with disgust. • Prepositional phrase = on the cafeteria tray.

8. Misplaced Modifiers • In general, you should place single-word modifiers near the word or words they modify, especially when a reader might think that they modify something different in the sentence. If these modifiers are placed incorrectly, they are called misplaced modifiers. Consider the following sentence: • [WRONG] After our conversation lessons, we could understand the Spanish spoken by our visitors from Madrid easily. (Do we understand the Spanish easily, or do the visitors speak it easily?) • This revision eliminates the confusion: • [RIGHT] We could easily understand the Spanish spoken by our visitors from Madrid.

9. Misplaced Modifiers cont. • It is particularly important to be careful about where you put limiting modifiers. These are words like "almost," "hardly," "nearly," "just," "only," "merely," and so on. Many writers regularly misplace these modifiers. You can accidentally change the entire meaning of a sentence if you place these modifiers next to the wrong word: • [WRONG] Randy has nearly annoyed every professor he has had by sending them email spam. (he hasn't "nearly annoyed" them) • [WRONG] She almost gave $5,000 to charity. (But then she thought better of it and bought a big screen TV.) • [RIGHT] Randy has annoyed nearly every professor he has had by sending them email spam. • [RIGHT] She gave almost $5,000 to the charity. (Wow, how nice of her!)

10. And some more… • Like individual words, It is important that you place the modifying phrase or clause as close as possible to the word or words it modifies: • [WRONG] By accident, he poked the little girl with his finger in the eye. (Wha?) • [WRONG] I heard that my roommate intended to throw a surprise party for me while I was outside her bedroom window. (Whoohoo! Party without the birthday girl!) • [WRONG] After the wedding, Ian told us at his bachelor party that he would start behaving like a responsible adult. • [RIGHT] By accident, he poked the little girl in the eye with his finger. • [RIGHT]While I was outside her bedroom window, I heard that my roommate intended to throw a surprise party for me. • [RIGHT] Ian told us at his bachelor party that he would start behaving like a responsible adult after the wedding.

11. Last one I promise • A squinting modifier is an ambiguously placed modifier that can modify either the word before it or the word after it. In other words, it is "squinting" in both directions at the same time: • [WRONG] Defining your terms clearly strengthens your argument. (does defining "clearly strengthen" or does "defining clearly" strengthen?) • [RIGHT] Defining your terms will clearly strengthen your argument. ORA clear definition of your terms strengthens your argument.

12. “Just” is Just a Pain In the Neck! • Placing the word just in different places can change your meaning completely: • Just Evan was rushed to the hospital from the accident scene to treat his wounds on his neck. • Evan was the only one injured in the accident. • Evan was just rushed to the hospital from the accident scene to treat his wounds on his neck. • Evan’s ambulance just got there! • Evan was rushed to the hospital from the accident scene to treat just his wounds on his neck. • Evan has wounds and contusions all over, but only the ones on his neck are really serious.

13. Let’s Try It… Fix These! • I nearly made $100.00 today. • When we opened the leather woman’s purse, we found the missing keys. • The job scarcely took an hour to complete. • I only have five minutes to talk with you. • The striking Honda’s paint job made everyone gasp. Source: http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/moduleDanglingEx1.htm

14. And the Correct Answers Are…. • I made nearly $100.00 today. • When we opened the woman’s leather purse, we found the missing keys. • The job took scarcely an hour to complete. • I have only five minutes to talk with you. • The Honda’s striking paint job made everyone gasp.

15. Misplaced Prepositional Phrases • When you place a prepositional phrase in the wrong place, all sorts of funny things can happen. Be careful! • Christine made the brownies for her aunt with chocolate icing. • What is a woman doing running around covered in chocolate icing? • Christine made brownies with chocolate icing for her aunt.

16. Watch Out For Phrases! The following phrases are verbals (verbs that end in –ing or that have the word “to” before them). • Laila and Rachel talked about dancing in the kitchen making grilled tuna. • I wish my kitchen could make grilled tuna! • Laila and Rachel, making grilled tuna, talked about dancing in the kitchen. • I guess Rachel Ray had Laila Ali as a guest. • Drew and Alex drew pictures for Mom to show. • Is Mom showing the pictures, or are they showing the pictures to Mom? • Drew and Alex drew pictures to show to Mom. • That makes more sense, doesn’t it? Or is Mom a braggart?

17. And Don’t Forget Those Clumsy Clauses! • Make sure that clauses modify (describe) the noun you want them to modify. • The mechanic drove out the car to Joe that was lubricated. • Was Joe just at the bar? • The mechanic drove out the car that was lubricated to Joe.

18. Let’s Practice Again! • The fans stood in line to buy tickets for the show for twenty minutes. • Marian read a chilling article in The New York Times about the effects of mercury poisoning. • The salesman sold the picture to that woman in the silver frame. • We gave the old clothes to a local charity that had been piled up in the basement. • The grass that was covered by the snow was creating a lush carpet of green. • The terrified patient spoke to the doctor with a terminal disease. • The student pleaded with the instructor who cheated on the test. Source:http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/moduleDanglingEx3.htm http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/moduleDanglingEx2.htm

19. And The Answers Are… • The fans stood in line for twenty minutes to buy tickets for the show. • In The New York Times, Marian read a chilling article about the effects of mercury poisoning. • The salesman sold the picture in the silver frame to that woman. • We gave the old clothes that had been piled up in the basement to a local charity. • The grass that was creating a lush carpet of green was covered by the snow. • The terrified patient with a terminal disease spoke to the doctor. • The student who cheated on the test pleaded with the instructor.

20. Dangling Modifiers • The dangling modifier, a persistent and frequent grammatical problem in writing, is often (though not always) located at the beginning of a sentence. Sometimes we write descriptive phrases that point to or modify words that are not clearly stated in our sentences, making our sentences illogical. We call these phrases dangling modifiers. • [Wrong] Walking to college on a subzero morning, my left ear became frozen. (A walking ear?) • [Right] I was walking to college on a subzero morning when my left ear froze.

21. How did these get published? • For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers. • Wanted: Man to take care of cow that does not smoke or drink. • Have several very old dresses from grandmother in beautiful condition. • For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs. • The hunter crouched behind a tree waiting for a bear to come along with a bow and arrow.

22. Some practice! • Piled up next to the washer, I began doing the laundry. • I began doing the laundry piled up next to the washer. • While John was talking on the phone, the doorbell rang. • While talking on the phone, the doorbell rang. • Standing on the balcony, the ocean view was magnificent. • Standing on the balcony, we had a magnificent ocean view.

23. Keep going! • As I was running across the floor, the rug slipped and I lost my balance. • Running across the floor, the rug slipped and I lost my balance • While taking out the trash, the sack broke. • While Jamie was taking out the trash, the sack broke. • Nice job!

24. But What About Dangling Modifiers? • I almost listened to the whole album. • I listened to almost the whole album. • He was staring at the girl wearing dark glasses by the vending machine. • He was staring at the girl by the vending machine wearing dark glasses. • We read that Janet was married in her last letter. • In her last letter, we read that Janet was married.

25. A bit more! • The faulty alarm nearly sounded five times yesterday. • The faulty alarm system sounded nearly five times yesterday. • On the evening news, I heard that there was a revolution. • I heard that there was a revolution on the evening news. • I think you’ve got it.