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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The " ..... and here's to you Mrs. Eisenhart" Story


Mrs. Eisenhart
It was an ordinary day.  And, I missed it by a day.  "Missed what?" you say.  I missed National Grammar Day which was launched in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, or SPOGG.  It was observed for the sixth time yesterday by I'm sure many language teachers all over the country.  Pretty neat that March 4th was picked as National Grammar Day, since it's an imperative: March forth!  Get it?  When I started to write my blog three years ago I struggled with my writing.  My stories were short and sometimes my vocabulary was limited to what I had used in my spoken language for the past 50 years.  I have found that I have gained a few new words and my stories have increased in length.  Not sure if that's good or bad, but it makes it look as if I know more about less.  I was a teacher for 33 years, but not an English teacher.  Matter of fact I was only a "B" student in English in high school; and maybe even less than that in English literature in college.  Diagramming sentences was a real chore for me as was spelling.  You may have noticed, but I try to make sure I use the spell-check feature of the blog site before I hit the "Publish" button.  My 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Eisenhart, would be proud that I am writing stories that people actually read.  After seeing that my "hit" count is over 50K, she would be crediting me with an "A."  Too bad she isn't around to critique my writing.  I know I use the words "that" and "well" too often, but what the heck, they're my stories!  When I opened the search engine Bing a few minutes ago and saw I had missed National Grammar Day, I was upset, but not annoyed.  Does that make sense Mrs. Eisenhart?  And those commas give me trouble, as if you haven't noticed.  But I hope my content is satisfactory and that's what writing stories is really about, isn't it?  The web page for the National Grammar Day gives a test to see how well you can do in English grammar.  I have included some of the test questions for you to test yourself.  See how you can do.  Personally, I missed one, but I don't agree with the answer.  Answers are at the end, but don't peak.   It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

1. Fill in the blank with a first-person singular pronoun (I, myself, or me). 'I accidentally cut ______ shaving.'


2. Fill in the blank with ‘their,’ ‘there,’ or ‘they’re.’ '______ in no position to buy a car.'


3. Fill in the blank with ‘has’ or ‘have.’ 'Fitzwilliam is one of those lawyers who ______ been with the firm a long time.'


4. Fill in the blank with ‘who,’ ‘whom,’ ‘whose,’ or ‘who’s.’ '______ gets the package?'



5. Which of these sentences uses ‘it’s’ correctly? 'There’s nothing wrong with it’s color.' 'It’s all right if you’d rather not have any.'


6. Fill in the blank with ‘has’ or ‘have.’ 'He is the only one of them, though, who ______ been there since 1975.'


7. Fill in the blank with ‘has’ or ‘have.’ 'Fish and chips ______ always been one of his favorite dishes.'


8. Fill in the blank with ‘has’ or ‘have.’ 'Lulabelle, as well as Buster and Fritz, ______ shown interest in the job.'


9. Fill in the blank with ‘has’ or ‘have.’ 'Ellen and Jake, together with Orlando and Patricia, ______ all moved downtown.'


10. Fill in the blank with a first-person singular pronoun (I, myself, or me). 'We’ve both been so busy that it’s been hard for Sally and ______ to chat.'


#1. myself, #2. they're, #3. have, #4. who, #5. 2nd one, #6. has, #7. has, #8. has, #9. have, #10. me

You able to pick up the one grammatical error I had in my story?







    

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