Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
A Note to My Readers >>>>> Introduction to a Series, Micro-
Fundamentals of An Excellent Liberal Arts Education
So wretched are curriculum and teacher quality
at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) that I have moved to expose the
deficiencies of the district in my Understanding
the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current
Condition, Future Prospect; and via
my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal
Arts Education provide to my students in the New Salem Educational
Initiative with the education of excellence that they are not getting in MPS
schools.
In the cases of students who come to me
post-grade 8, time is of the essence;
thus, that I am now at work on a micro-version of Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, so that my
students may take ACT or SAT exams and apply for and gain entrance to colleges
and universities upon the essence of the education that they should receive but
do not in MPS schools.
Below, readers will find English Usage: Micro-Fundamentals of
an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the first of fourteen chapters that
condense my larger work to the most essential information pertinent to the
subject areas covered.
……………………………………………………………………..
English
Usage: Micro-Fundamentals of an
Excellent Liberal Arts Education
New Salem Educational Initiative
I. Fundamentals of English Grammar
Parts of Speech
Nouns Definitiion >>>>> Words for persons, places, things, and
conditions.
Two Types
1. Common
nouns >>>>>
names for general categories of items, without additional specificity or branding
Examples >>>>> apple,
girl, car, restaurant, cereal
Note: Nouns
that identify conditions include the following:
caution , marriage, residency, fate, and intelligence
2. Proper
Nouns >>>>>>
names for
specific people and items, as in the names of people and brands
Examples >>>>>
Red
Delicious Apples, Angelic (Angelique), Honda, Raisin Bran, Target
Pronouns
Definition >>>>>
words that take the place of a nouns in a sentences.
Three Types
1. Subject
pronouns
>>>>>
pronouns
that occupy the place of a subject in a sentence
Examples >>>>>
he, she, we,
they, you, it
Example sentences
1) He seems to have decided to go fishing today.
2) She said that she would be here in an hour.
3) We are thinking of going to Mexico this summer.
4) They ran the best race of their lives.
5) You may come with us if you’d like to see the new library.
6) It came and went before I could identify it clearly.
2) Object pronouns >>>>> Pronouns that occupy the place of an object
in a sentence
Examples >>>>> Him, her, us, them, you, it
Example sentences
1. I’d like to go fishing with him today.
2. Please get this to her as soon as possible.
3. She ran with us all of the way from my house to the park.
4. She showed a lot of respect for them in her choice of words.
5. They were so happy when they found it.
6. Possessive pronouns >>>>> Pronouns that signify items belonging to someone.
Examples >>>>> His, her, our, their, your, its
Example sentences
1. His
mother is so nice.
2. Do you have any idea if this is her backpack?
3. I hope
that you’ll go with our family to
Mexico this summer.
4. Their pride was obvious when she
told them about her acceptance to the
university.
5. Your
essay was the best in the class.
6. Please put everything in its proper place.
Verbs
Two ways of classifying verbs
1. Action
versus State of Being
Action Verbs are verbs such as run,
drive, climb, talk, and maneuver that
convey motion and activity.
2. State
of Being Verbs that link the subject
of a sentence to the predicate but do not convey motion or activity; such verbs include is, are, were,
was, and become.
Note: There is a special kind of adjective called
a predicate nominative that follows a state of being verb in constructions such as
the following:
You are kind to say so.
Natasha is generous in
every way.
2) Transitive
versus intransitive
Transitive Verbs take direct objects
as with the following:
She wound up and threw the
ball. (Ball
is the direct object)
Intransitive Verbs do not take
direct objects, but rather appear as follows:
Water evaporates quickly in the
desert.
Adjectives describe nouns, as in
the following examples:
delicious meal; brilliant analysis; exquisite gem; huge boulder; slow walk
Adverbs describe verbs and other
adverbs, as in the following examples:
quickly ran; softly sings; heavily breathe; very artfully; extremely carefully
Prepositions convey a sense of
where something is positioned and include words such as in, out,under, over, through, from, to,
and with
Articles are typically short words
that precede nouns such as in the following examples:
A book; an apple; the cpmputer; this plate; that car; those people
Note: The
article, an appears before vowels, whereas the article, a,
appears before
consonants.
II.
Function of Words in a Sentence
Consider the following sentence to
illustrate the function of words in a sentence:
We anticipated with the greatest sense of
excitement that moment when mama would give Roberta the new set of tools
symbolizing our accomplished elder sister’s new status as the handyperson
around the house.
Important word functions in this sentence
include the following:
Subject >>>>> We
Predicate (verb of verb phrase conveying
the main action of the sentence) >>>>> anticipated
Prepositional phrases
>>>>> with the
greatest sense; of excitement; of tools;
around the house
Direct objects >>>>> moment; set
Indirect object >>>>> Roberta
Note on clauses in this sentence
>>>>>
The independent clause of this
sentence is
We anticipated with the greatest sense
of excitement that moment…..
The dependent clause of this
sentence is
…..
that moment when mama would give Roberta the new set of tools
symbolizing our elder sister’s status as
the handyperson around the house.
Note on participles:
The word, symbolizing, is a word ending in ing
that originally is derived from a verb but is used as an adjective.
The word, accomplished, is a word that
originally is derived from a verb ending in ed but is used as an
adjective.
Note on gerunds: Words derived from verbs that end in ing
may also be used as nouns, as in the following example:
Running
long distances is one of my favorite pastimes.
III.
Punctuation
Consider
these examples of proper punctuation in sentences:
He had
thought that he would go to the Uptown area for lunch, but he decided to go
downtown instead.
She thought
that she would go to the Uptown area for lunch;
however, she decided at the last moment to go downtown instead.
Ryan loves
to read; he has a book in his hand every
day.
We had such
a nice surprise yesterday: Raymond paid
us a visit for the first time in a long while.
Among the
ingredients in my recipe for spicy sweet ‘n sour cabbage are the following
items:
green
cabbage, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, sugar, garlic, salt, pepper, and
sugar.
If 125 customers visit Bertha’s Chicken
Shack every day--- and the best guess is
that they will---
she’ll be running an economically
successful business.
If 125 customers visit Bertha’s Chicken
Shack every day, and the best guess is that they will,
she’ll be running an economically
successful business.
If 125 customers visit Bertha’s Chicken
Shack every day (and the best guess is that they will)
she’ll be running an economically
successful business.
IV. Particularly Important Issues
Please study these examples and think
about why the underlined words are emphasized as correct:
1. One out of every five
teachers was of the quality that the school truly needed.
2. The Affordable Health Care program has
brought needed improvements, but the least
comprehensive
health care system among the major world economic powers is unfortunately
still the one serving us
Americans.
3. We Americans have the least
comprehensive health care system among the world’s major
economic
powers.4. I have many times considered my good fortune in having Angelic as a student (for she is
indeed radiantly wonderful), and that sentiment impels me to provide her with the very
best education possible.
5. I have many times considered my good fortune
in having Angelic as a student, for she is
indeed
radiantly wonderful, and that sentiment impels me to provide her
with the very best education possible.
6. I have many times considered my good fortune in having Angelic as a student--- for she is
indeed radiantly wonderful--- and that sentiment impels me to provide her with the very
best education possible.
7. This old multicolored shirt, which
is my very favorite, is the one that you see me wearing so often.
8. The old multicolored shirt that you see me wearing so often is my very favorite.
9. A community-wide effort to
assist people and those in public service working with them is currently underway.
10. What might not be recognized by as many
people as I would hope is that education is the key to living a
life of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.
11. We should examine this issue in further
detail.
12. I’m going to run one mile farther
than I did yesterday.
13. I didn’t allow myself as much time to get to
the concert as I had intended, but I arrived on time anyway.
14. I didn’t allow myself as much time to get to
the concert as I had intended; nevertheless, I arrived with time to
spare.
15. I didn’t allow myself as much time to get to
the concert as I had intended; however,
I arrived on time anyway.
16. Although I didn’t allow
myself as much time to get to the concert as I had intended, I arrived on time anyway.
17. Because I didn’t allow myself
as much time to get to the concert as I should have, I arrived late.
18. Marion doesn’t like to swim and therefore
hardly ever goes to the pool; conversely,
Marcus loves to swim and
may often be found at the pool or the lake.
19. Marion doesn’t like to swim; to the contrary, she avoids all recreational aquatic activity and is never found at the pool or the lake.
20. Marcus loves to swim; consequently, he dives into
some body of water every chance he gets.
21. Martino loves to cook; similarly, Rebecca is quite
the enthusiast regarding the culinary arts.
22. Deborah understands mathematics better that
anyone in the whole school; moreover,
she is among the
very best math students in the entire school district.
23. Deborah
understands mathematics better that anyone in the whole school; in addition, she is among the
very best English students in the school, as well.
24. Deborah understands mathematics better that
anyone in the whole school and is among the very best English
students in the school, as well; in
other words, Deborah is a versatile scholar and errific
student.
25. There are twenty students in our homeroom, and all of them signed up for some club or activity: three in a group assisting Grade 9 students, two in the math club, five in the Spanish club, six on the yearbook staff, and four in team sports.
26.Addressing her remarks to the
entire class, Anita exhorted all of the students to give their very
best efort.
26. Of the three musical instruments, the most
often played at family gatherings is the guitar.
27. No style of playing that instrument
is better loved than that of Uncle Paul.
28. Columbus discovered an area of the
world that had not been known by people of Europe living in the late 15th
century.
29. Galileo Galilei invented a
telescope that allowed him to view previously unseen areas of the cosmos.
30. Phoenicians developed the
first alphabet.
31. Henry Ford divined a new method
of producing goods for mass market.
32. Hammurabi was among the first to institute
a formal code of laws for an entire society.
33. Vera is an accomplished
pianist.
34. Willie Mays is the best baseball player who
ever lived; it is not unlikely
that he will still be regarded as such
long after his earthly sojourn.
35. Three key components of altruism are empathy,
compassion,
and universal
love.
36. Miranda wrote a confessional
article detailing the errant behavior of which she considered herself guilty.
37. Gary spoke in laudatory terms of
his admiration for Stevie Wonder’s song, “A Time to Love.”
38. British antiquities are marked
on governmental
and many private maps and described in
publicly available guides.
39. Our pumpkins are always carefully carved.
40. Our pumpkins are always well carved.
41. We always have well-carved
pumpkins.
42. Those who obtain a postsecondary degree will
in all likelihood succeed economically, while
those who
have just a high school diploma will tend to struggle their whole lives.
43. This is the keyboard on which I wrote
my first book.
44. This is the first book in which is
recorded my own philosophical commentary.
45. This is the first book in which are
recorded my most important deeply held convictions.
46. My students are those for whom I wrote A
Concise History of African America.
47. A desire to convey the features of a unique political polity in East Asia is the purpose for which I wrote A Short History of Taiwan: The Case for Independence.
48. In San Antonio, Texas, is found the fort
known as the Alamo.
49. In San Antonio, Texas, are found many
delightful plazas reminiscent of those found in Mexico.
50. When we got to the difficult parts of the
journey, we just sighed deeply and did what we needed to do to
wend our way through the daunting twists and turns on the road
before us.
51. The most noisome part of this
particular criminal defense case, the attorney told us, was her client’s
changing
his account of the incident from day to day
52. Once several witnesses made full disclosure
of the verifiable facts of the case, her client’s constantly
changing story annoyed her all the more.
53. He seemed to think that his behavior was
comedic, but she regarded his antics as merely
caddish.
54. He tends to cook simple dinners unless one or
two guests are expected at his table.
55. One can
tell that he has children in the household, because toys are always strewn
all over the floor.
56. Toys were strewn on the floor
yesterday, but none are in sight today.
57. He is always upbeat, whatever his particular
circumstances at the given moment:
That’s the kind of person he is.
58. He is always upbeat, whatever his particular
circumstances at the given moment;
whatever his fortunes,
a smile always graces his face.
59. While some people continue to encourage their
children to play football despite concerns about head injuries, some
discourage their offspring from playing the dangerous game: They conclude that the prospect
of multiple concussions is just not worth the
risk
60. When customers peruse the menu at
Timothy’s Café, one of the most difficult decisions they face is whether to
opt for the sumptuous salad or the savory soup.
61. The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s, and much of the action takes place in and around a mansion on Long Island, as that residential area is called.
62. The protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is a
person who has acquired wealth under apparently unsavory
circumstances.
63. In a tone of exasperation she said, “My
son is always saying, ‘I can’t find my shoes.’”
64. His discussion of the novel utilizes
archetypal
criticism focused on the main character’s
identification
with the countryside.
65. She explained why she
loves Minnesota: seasons of varying temperature
and natural scenery, cultural opportunities of high quality, and recreational
options of many sorts.
66. One of my strongly held convictions is that women’s progress on economic and social issues will determine the level of advancement for society as a whole.
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