(no subject)
My English 373 teacher made a very big boo-boo on the final paper prompt. It makes him look silly, and in turn, I am tempted to disregard his instructions altogether out of principle. Of course, in catching his grammatical error, I've also acknowledged that I am somewhat grammatically invested and that locks me in a catch-22. Lemme explain.
Throughout the semester, he drilled the class on sentence construction. His bare-bones advice was to avoid starting sentences with "it is", "there is", and "this is." Fair enough. Unfortunately, his near-Nazi grammar-hammerism falls flat when you turn the prompt over to see that he has made a grammatical error that makes his point confusing only if you know some things about grammar. He writes, "The third paper can explore a topic relevant to any of the units of the syllabus, such as: how haunting narratives explore fantasies and/or anxieties of sexuality..."
I've italicized the problem for my readers. The paper he wants us to write, assuming we take his grammar lessons to heart, should be about sexuality and its anxieties. The average student cannot write papers about some abstract quality's anxieties. Of course, we all know what he means. I can create some analogies to illuminate his error.
- The Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor drinks
- The priest has sex with a prostitute
...and on and on.
I wasted my one freebie "it is" construction in the second sentence of this entry. Of course, "it" refers to the very big boo-boo. Any logical reader knows that.
If I choose to clutter my paper with "it is" constructions out of principle, I betray my grammar-hammerism (my catch-22), risk getting a lower grade, and look like a snob.
And so I've decided to sound like a snob on livejournal instead. Please don't take a grammar manual to this. I'm not that good.
/nerd rant.
Throughout the semester, he drilled the class on sentence construction. His bare-bones advice was to avoid starting sentences with "it is", "there is", and "this is." Fair enough. Unfortunately, his near-Nazi grammar-hammerism falls flat when you turn the prompt over to see that he has made a grammatical error that makes his point confusing only if you know some things about grammar. He writes, "The third paper can explore a topic relevant to any of the units of the syllabus, such as: how haunting narratives explore fantasies and/or anxieties of sexuality..."
I've italicized the problem for my readers. The paper he wants us to write, assuming we take his grammar lessons to heart, should be about sexuality and its anxieties. The average student cannot write papers about some abstract quality's anxieties. Of course, we all know what he means. I can create some analogies to illuminate his error.
- The Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor drinks
- The priest has sex with a prostitute
...and on and on.
I wasted my one freebie "it is" construction in the second sentence of this entry. Of course, "it" refers to the very big boo-boo. Any logical reader knows that.
If I choose to clutter my paper with "it is" constructions out of principle, I betray my grammar-hammerism (my catch-22), risk getting a lower grade, and look like a snob.
And so I've decided to sound like a snob on livejournal instead. Please don't take a grammar manual to this. I'm not that good.
/nerd rant.