Comma Sutra

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Comma Sutra
4
Fri, 06-24-2005 - 8:41am

Comma Sutra: Position Yourself for Success with Good Grammar

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Boost your language libido with Comma Sutra! Filled with quickie faux pas fixes and kinky wordplay, this irresistible, offbeat grammar guide is instant grammar gratification.
Bestselling author and grammarian Dr. Laurie Rozakis will show you how to:

Assume the position-Sentence building made simple! This fun chapter gives you all the skills you need to write fabulous sentences.
Add spice-Modifiers are the spice of life. In this chapter, you'll learn to use effective adverbs and adjectives to seduce others through speech and writing.
Engage in fourplay-A kinky look at the four most annoying grammar pests and how you can overcome them.
As entertaining as it is enlightening, Comma Sutra is guaranteed to stimulate your style chakras, perk up your paltry punctuation, and dominate your dangling prepositions-adding an orgasmic lift to your daily lexicon!

What is this new obsession with punctuation and grammar? Are we not teaching enough of is in schools?


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Avatar for guili12737
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-23-1997
Fri, 06-24-2005 - 9:36am

Gotta put on my educator hat to answer this one. Although I am not currently in a teaching position, I still get to see kids' writing as stuff comes out of the printer, and I read my own kids' stuff and in the position before this one I taught library skills to 6th graders and I required them to do a research project as a final project for the class.
Kids today cannot write! I think that IM-ing and e-mailing has had a lot to do with it. Forget about the conventions of punctuation and spelling, we now have spell check on all computers and kids never use proper punctuation on line.

I have to say though, in my school district, there is a big emphasis on grammar in 6th grade. Kids who do not do well in grammar in 6th grade may not begin a foreign language in 7th grade. I remember when I was in school, we did not do a lot of grammar and I learned all my grammar in my French class.

I think e-mail and the like is making adults lazier about this type of stuff as well. JMHO

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-06-2004
Fri, 06-24-2005 - 1:36pm

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Kids yesterday couldn't write either--this is not a new trend. Most people can't write properly, even those who are now senior citizens and were in school fifty years ago. Most people have poor grammar, worse spelling and use only the Terrible Trio of punctuation (period, question mark and exclamation point), mostly innocent that any other punctuation marks exist. When I took 10th grade Advanced English, we spent the whole first quarter learning grammar, punctuation and overall paper presentation. I thought I could write before then--I found out I couldn't, and since then I have practically not ever met anyone who can write to the standards of my 10th grade English teacher. (I really appreciate her as an adult!)

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2003
Fri, 06-24-2005 - 3:13pm

English was never my favorite subject when I was in school.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Mon, 06-27-2005 - 1:59am
Well, perhaps kids can't spell or use proper punctuation, but at least they can type and apparently they are reading. I've been encouraged by the number of kids who are discovering reading through the Harry Potter series. The single thing that will encourage our kids to read and hopefully write, is having parents who read and who read to them as children. A child who goes to bed each night with stories of exploration and adventure will have doors opened for them that other children do not even encounter.
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