Article 4 Response: Dave Barry on College

This is has to be the funniest article I have ever read. I literally laughed at every single section of this article. The humor and the truth within every single line made this article extremely interesting. College is, in my opinion, a very scary thing. I am personally scared to go to college because the classes, the tests, the subjects, and the teachers are going to be harder. There is a lot of stress involved due to the amount of work as well.

I thought the portion about English, philosophy, psychology and any other subjects that have actual facts are extremely hilarious. However, what Dave Barry says about each of these subjects is completely true.

Here is a short excerpt in the article:
"...Be sure to choose a major that does not involve Known Facts and Right Answers. This means you must not major in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, because these subjects involve actual facts. If, for example, you major in mathematics... If you don't come up with exactly the answer the professor has in mind, you fail."

This excerpt relates very well with any of the mentioned subjects in high school because in all of the classes like chemistry or biology, if the teacher asks the student a question, the answer must be exactly what the teacher has or it is wrong; there is no such thing as partially right or wrong. It is either one way or the other.

I really enjoyed reading this article. I hope there is more article like this in the future :)

Article 3 Response: 7 Bogus Grammar 'Errors' You Don't Need to Worry About

For today's assignment, we were assigned to read another article about grammar and this article totally contradicts what the other article was talking about. However, I like this article because most of the rules they mention are the types of rules I frequently use in my own writing: ending a sentence with a preposition, using which, begin a sentence with a conjunction, and using the passive voice in my writing.

Ever since middle school or so, I have been told to not begin a sentence with a conjunction because it is improper grammar. However, this article says it is okay to do so, but I think it depends on the teacher and how the teacher wants the paper to be written.

Here is a short excerpt from the article:

"In any case, there is no basis to the rule in English grammar, and, once again, great writers have ignored it with no great loss to their prose or reputations...."

This excerpt is important because it explains that even though English grammar can be tricky, confusing, and frustrated at times, ignoring the rule can do more good than harm.

Article 2 Response: 7 Grammar Rules You Should Really Pay Attention To

For this week's blog, we are assigned to read "7 grammar rules you should really pay attention to." While I was reading this article, I often questioned and ponder on some of the rules presented. The first rule is about the subjunctive. It states that when a sentence in about a non-true situation following the word if or wish, the verb should be were. I personally think that is really weird because the original sentence, in my opinion, is correct. However, it is not if the sentence is followed by if or wish. So, pretty much all of the singular subject is replaced with a plural verb. Therefore, this rule really bug me.

There are several grammar rules I worry about, but two particular on this article worries me; they are the verb and pronoun problems. With the verb problems, I constantly choose the wrong lay or lie. I always have trouble telling them apart because the meaning for each one of them is very similar to each other.With pronouns, determining the differences between using you and I and a person's name and I always give me trouble.

Rule number five, the 'dangling' conversation, is a new rule I have never heard of. The rule the author's presented and the order to correct a bad dangling conversation is really neat. I will definitely try out this rule next time I write a dangling conversation.

Here is a short summary of rule number five:
"Dangers are inexplicable attractive, and even good writers commit this error a lot...in their first drafts. Here's a strategy for smoking these bad boys out in revision. First, recognize sentences that have this structure: MODIFIER-COMMA-SUBJECT-VERB. Then change the order to: SUBJECT-COMMA-MODIFIER-COMMA-VERB. If the result makes sense, you're good to go. If not, you have a dangler."

This rule will definitely help me out a lot from now on. Reading this article creates many thoughtful insight about grammar rules; however, some of the rules bugged me, while others are totally new to me.