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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT

Welcome
In June, we welcome the following new students to the course: Ryan, Angela, and Rebecca. We hope you will enjoy the course and participate in this blog. 

Previous Grammar Question
For instant; the way in which the correspondents course differ then classrooms , is that the equipments' costs are very expensive  for  students are ought to have computer, internet, and another modern up to date things.
1. Word form: The correct expression when providing an example is “for instance”.
2. Comparison: The items being compared need to be clear and comparable; it is courses that are being compared; you cannot compare a course and a classroom. The wording needs to make this clear.
3. Word form: “Correspondents” is a plural noun--a noun cannot modify another noun such as “course”; the adjective form needed is “correspondence”.
4. Number: Should it be “course” or “courses”? It doesn’t matter, but there are agreement issues that occur: “a correspondence course/a classroom course” or “correspondence courses/classroom courses”.
5. Word confusion: Many students confuse “then”--what happened next--with “than” a word used to make comparisons. They sound similar when we speak;-) However, here, the word “from” is needed “differ from”/”different than”.
6. Word form: “equipments” modifies the noun “costs”--as an adjective the form should be “equipment” and it cannot be plural or possessive.
7. Verb-iness: There are too many verb words in the expression “are ought to have”; simplify--use “need”
8. Number error: There are several students, so there should be more than one “computer”.
9. Preposition: In this sentence “for” means “because”; it would be clearer to use “because”, “since”, or “as”.
10. Agreement error: ”another” means “one other”--it cannot be used with a plural--use “other”/
11. Punctuation: A semicolon is used between independent clauses when there is no coordinating conjunction; for that reason, it should not be used after the phrase “for instance”. A comma is possible. Omit the comma before “is” as this separates the subject from its verb. Also omit the comma before “and” as the following structure is a phrase and not an independent clause. Finally, don’t forget to hyphenate compound adjectives such as “up-to-date”.
Possible Answer: For instance, the way in which correspondence courses differ from classroom courses is that equipment costs are very expensive since students need to have computers, internet, and other up-to-date things.
Next blog: The next blog will be available on Monday, June21st.

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