Improve Your Writing--Avoid Nominalizations

A good basic rule for beginning writers is: KEEP IT SIMPLE. Don't use a lot of words or complicated grammar structures, when a few strong words will get your point across.

One mistake even advanced writers make is using a lot of abstract nouns (nouns that name ideas) as subjects. Here are some abstract nouns: demonstration, analysis, collection. Each of the nouns hides an action: demonstrate, analyze, destroy. 

When a writer hides actions inside nominalized verbs (verbs made into abstract nouns), the only place to put the subject that performed the action is into a prepositional phrase, which requires more words. For example, here are two sentences that contain nominalized verbs, passive verbs, and wordy prepositional phrases:

The destruction of the city by the Romans was followed by the driving away of its citizens.
  
The collection of samples by the scientists was achieved gradually, over a period of ten years.  

Writing is clearer when you use strong verbs, rather than abstract nouns that hide the action of a verb. Here are the same two sentences, rewritten with personal subjects and active verbs:

The Romans completely destroyed the city and then drove away its citizens.

The scientists collected samples for ten years.

Here is another pair of sentences. The first sentence uses abstract nouns (demonstration, transformation) that hide the action and thus need to use more words to name the subject. The second uses specific subjects and active verbs and doesn't overuse prepositional phrases:

1) The demonstration of a new invention, the light bulb, by Thomas Edison was followed by a transformation of the way most homes were lit.

 2) After Thomas Edison demonstrated his new light bulb, this invention soon revolutionized the way most people lit their homes.

My suggestion: Click on the first link to read about how to avoid overusing abstract nouns in your writing. Click on the second link to read more about writing clear sentences.Then try quiz 1 and quiz 2 by clicking on the Student Activity links at the bottom of the page.

Changing Nominalized Verbs into Clear Actions

Sentence Clarity and Quizzes on Nominalizations and Subject Position 

Object Pronoun Practice

My Suggestion: Read the lesson on object pronouns by clicking on the first link. Then practice using object pronouns at the second link:

LINK: Object Pronouns Lesson

LINK: Object Pronouns Quiz

Work on Academic Vocabulary Over the Summer

This academic word list is a list of the most common words found in English academic (college-level) textbooks. They are also words commonly found in newspapers, magazines, novels, television, and everyday conversation. The list was compiled by Averil Coxhead at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand (this information is from the list link at http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com/academic-word-list/index.html).

The list is divided into 10 groups of 60 words each. Learn the 60 words in Sublist 1 over the summer (try learning 8 to 10 words per week). If you learn this list, you will know the 60 most common academic words in the English language by the time school begins again in August.

My suggestion: Click on the "ACADEMIC WORD LIST" link below. Find Sublist 1 and select five words to study. You could simply pick the first five words in the sublist, but here's an annoying thing about the exercises for each sublist. The exercises are divided into Group 1 words, Group 2 words, etc. Each group consists of 10 words from the sublist, but THERE'S NOTHING TO TELL YOU WHICH 10 WORDS ARE IN EACH GROUP! The only way to find out is to click on exercise 1a for Group 1, then click on the answer choices box for question 1. The answer box will list the 10 words in Group 1, which you then have to copy down. After you study these 10 words from the sublist (try them in two groups of five), you can go ahead and try the five exercises for Group 1. Then study the words for Group 2 (after using the same method as before to find out which 10 words are in this group--click on exercise 1a for Group 2 and writedown the words in the answer box). If you just study the words in their order on the 60-word sublist, you can't really use the exercises until you've studied all 60 words! Crazy, huh?

Study the words in whatever way you have learned new words in the past, or you can use the method found below the link. One other note about Sublist 1. Two of these words have different spellings in American and British English. The list gives the American spelling for analyze (The British spelling is analyse), but it gives the British spelling for labour (the American spelling is labor). Again--crazy, huh?

ACADEMIC WORD LIST

1. Click on the first word to see its definition and examples of how to use it in a sentence. Write the word and its definition on your own paper (you should keep your own vocabulary list or journal of new words). If the word has more than one definition, use the first one listed for now, since it is usually the most common meaning of the word.

2. Write down the word again five times, then try to restate the meaning in your own words. For example, the definition given for approach is "to move towards or nearer to someone or something." Your definition in your own words might be "to come near."

3. Now try to think of a synonym (word with the same or almost the same meaning) and an antonym (word with the opposite meaning) for the word, and write them down (you may not have one for every word). For the word approach, you might write come near as a synonym and depart from or leave as an antonym.If you need help with synonyms or antonyms, check a thesaurus such as the online one at this link: http://www.thesaurus.com.

4. Next, write down one of the sample sentences you found when you clicked on the word. Try writing your own sentence using the word. If you are not sure you have used the word correctly, ask an advanced English student or native English speaker to review your work. If you need more examples of how to use the word, click on the link below to go to Oxford Learners' Dictionaries, type in the word, and hit enter. When the word definition page appears, scroll down and click on the heading for "Extra Examples."

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

5. When you have studied all 10 words in a group from the sublist, try the exercises for that sublist. Some of the exercises require you to change the form of the word to fit the grammar and meaning of the sentence. For example, the word legal might need to be changed to legalize or even illegal to correctly complete a fill-in-the-blank question.

List of Common Word Prefixes and Their Meanings

A prefix is a group of letters, usually from another language such as Latin or Greek, that we find at the beginning of a root word. Each prefix has a basic meaning that modifies the general idea of the root word. Some prefixes have more than one meaning. You need to learn the most common prefixes and their basic meanings. This knowledge will help you learn new vocabulary more quickly.

My Suggestion: Click on the link below. Read and study the material on prefixes and then study the lists to learn the meanings of common prefixes used in English words.

List of Prefixes at Englishhints.com

Today in Class--Irregular Verb Quiz and Verb Tenses Review

Today in class we took a short quiz on irregular verbs. Then we started to review verb tense. We use simple tenses when we talk about a point in time (in the simple present tense, this point in time can be repeated regularly (I eat breakfast every morning) or it can be generally true at all times (I love ice cream). We use continuous tenses when we talk about an ongoing length of time. We viewed several time lines that show the differences between tenses.

1) Here is a timeline that tries to show the difference between simple tenses (past, present and future) and continuous or progressive tenses (past, present, and future).

LINK: Timeline--Simple Tenses Compared to Continuous Tenses

2) Another time line shows the difference between simple present and present continuous. It also shows how you can use simple past and past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else (My mother phoned while I was cooking dinner.).

LINK: Tense Helper Timelines

3) If you feel very brave, the website Englishpage.com will tell you much more about the individual verb tenses than you ever wanted to know. We have not studied all of this material yet (such as active versus passive verbs). But if you want to know more, click on the link below to read detailed discussions of the verb tenses we have studied so far (you can read only what we have studied so far, or you can continue reading about more kinds of verbs). For each line of print, read the lessons in the Topics Covered column on the right, then look at the same line in the Exercises column on the left to try the verb tense exercise that goes with those lessons.

LINK: Verb Tenses at Englishpage.com


My Suggestion: Click on each of the three links above. If you find a timeline or explanation helpful, study it. Try reading some lessons and exercises at the third link, Englishpage.com. If it is too confusing, don't spend too much time on it--spend your study time with the links that help you the most.

Review of English Sentence Structure

Yesterday we reviewed subjects and predicates in sentences. You can find a good summary of English sentence structure at the website Englishhints.com. There is a table that takes a simple sentence and changes it to a negative statement, then to a question. Then it adds an adverb, a direct object, an indirect object, etc.

My suggestion: Click on the link and review the parts of a sentence. Soon we will discuss compound subjects, verbs, and sentences.

Basic Types of Sentences

Vocabulary for Scale and Distance at Teacher Kathy's Study Stack Page

I often make vocabulary flashcards to go with a lesson at the website www.studystack.com. I created a stack for today's lesson about using a map scale to calculate distance. On my page at studystack.com, you can view these vocabulary cards and play games that help you remember the meaning of words like scale, ratio, and proportion. Go to studystack.com and type kakcal in the search box, or use the link below. I have also added the link to my list of favorite links on the right-hand side of this page.

Teacher Kathy's Study Stack Page