Two types of expletives exist: the swear words, and the pairing. The expletives that most writers use “begin with there or it and are followed by a form of to be, such as is, are, was or were” (Metz 347). Sometimes they can be helpful but other times they can be poorly used and damaging to the writing. The main use of expletives “slows down the opening of a sentence and emphasizes what follows” but isn’t always correct (SMH 682). In order to understand why writers should avoid expletives, one should first understand the difference between a correct or incorrect usage. The two correct usages of expletives would be when writers “use this sentence form to emphasize the subject in a descriptive pattern… when the writer is simply calling our attention …show more content…
My parents never offered them, and the glass doors obviously guarded them, and so I pilfered from that case. It was neither forbidden nor encouraged. (Steinbeck 30) The usage of “it was” in the beginning is emphasizing the location of Salinas in a descriptive pattern. This is a correct usage trying to emphasize the subject but, it could still be easily avoided by rearranging the words causing the sentence to be more concise and to the point. Also, the use of “It was” in the last sentence is correct usage. The subject is still there, just not acting. That expletive could also be avoided, but one could run the risk of sounding repetitive. The most likely “unnecessary expletive construction involves an expletive followed by a noun and a relative clause beginning with that, which, or who” (Weber 1). Besides the grammatically incorrect usage, expletive use is also seen as incorrect when one over uses expletives. If one uses it incorrectly, they need to omit the expletive and rearrange the words until the sentence holds the same meaning as before. Even though correct and incorrect uses exist, expletives should still be
In the article, Ravitch contends that in spite of the fact that it may appear like we live in our current reality where anything goes, actually, not genuine. Diane researches and accumulates a rundown of more than five hundred words that frequently get erased from reading material and tests. A portion of the words incorporate rancher, fraternity, yacht, and primitive. By and by I trust that the editing of words nowadays is fairly amazing. I comprehend that sure gatherings could be insulted by such words yet why ought to other people not get the first words the writer is attempting to compose in view of
I used to cram fancy-schmancy words into my essay, in part following classmate’s examples from classes like World History where the language wasn’t at all important. Because of the insecurity in my own voice, it took me a while to develop humor. My art memoir was even pretty dry in part because of the depressing topic, but also because I just didn’t put any humor in. My D.A.R.E. essay was much more fun to write because I got to joke around with it, using words like “devil’s lettuce” and “It 's easy to paint the "bad eggs" as
In “Tense Present: Democracy, English and the Wars over Usage,” David Foster Wallace argues that it would be ridiculous to assume “that American ceases to be elitist or unfair because Americans stop using certain vocabulary that is historically associated with elitism.” Just because society uses words that are less offensive does not mean that society has adopted attitudes that are less offensive. To clarify why such a fallacy is often heard, Wallace defines two functions for politically correct language “On the one hand they can be a reflection of political change, and on the other they can be an instrument of political change.” Usage conventions can be the result of change, or they can result in change. However, when one function occurs, the other does not, and vice versa. Care must be taken when determining the efficacy of politically correct terminology; it could either signal great strides being made in social justice, or it could be a superficial impersonation of human
Steinbeck begins the story by creating a serene mood when describing the setting. He illustrates how the Salinas River looks, and stating that “the water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees—willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool” (1). Steinbeck’s word choice alone (“twinkling,” “golden,” and “fresh and green”) makes the setting appealing to the reader. The peaceful mood is created through the way he closely describes every detail; the images that the reader follows are animated and picturesque. He uses such a long sentence with semi-colons, commas, and dashes to make the passage flow smoothly, as opposed to choppy. The run-on like syntax he uses creates a comfortable feeling, showing that the Salinas River and everything surrounding it is an undisturbed area; the...
The idea of good usage can be explored in many facets. Many writers such as Dowst, Sale, Thomas and Albutt have enlightened me to their own views on what constitutes good or bad usage. The thought never occurred to me that I too am guilty in many ways of improper use of the English language, including grammar, word use, tense, structure, the list could go on. But then again what is termed good use by me may not be good to another. To me, my own personal use of language is acceptable and could probably stand some improvement. However, without learning grammar, syntax, diction, etc., I never would have been able to get to where I am now today.
Swearing is just rude. When I hear someone swear, either at me, or someone else, or even at nothing, the respect I had for them before is lost. By blurting out words like that, they disrespect others. They might disrespect the person they talk to, or the people around them by saying offensive words. It also makes me wonder what kind of parents they grew up with. I realize that sometimes it just comes with the...
For example, using sarcasm †̃well thatâ€TMs just greatâ€TM most often used in a sarcastic tone but taken literally it would be interpreted as amazing. The language we use can be confusing we must adapt our verbal communication accordingly.
Both set a slow, heavy pace as we continue to read, as if we are living through these times with this ambiguous community.(Then they asked, What’ll we do? And the men replied, I don’t know. But it was all right. The women knew it was all right. Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole. The women went into the houses to their work, and the children began to play, but cautiously at first. As the day went forward the sun became less red. It flared down on the dust-blanketed land. The men sat in the doorways of their houses;their hands were busy with sticks and little rocks. The men sat still-thinking-figuring.” Page 4, Chapter 1) there was a shift in tense and a shift in the description. The beginning pages of the book set the scene with the imagery and the personification of the environment, and then we shift the focus on the community as a whole. Notice the lack of quotation marks. John Steinbeck didn’t use them for a reason, and that was to emphasize that he wasn 't quoting anyone. These are the questions every family in the community
I I frequently received this comment and it perhaps stems from English classes in high school where I was told to “embellish my sentences” and make them more interesting for the reader. Since coming to college though, I have slowly realized this is unnecessary when writing for professional settings and only is important for pieces meant to entertain an audience and capture their attention. I have been working on this throughout the semester and there has been improvement when examining all of my papers and their feedback chronologically. In particular, I tend to overuse “very,” “a lot,” “always,” and “never.” I believe I use these to overemphasize what I am trying to say and they are unnecessary as long as I have developed my argument clearly. They are vague qualifiers and rarely have a place in professional writing. As a replacement, I could use more descriptive adjectives and adverbs to emphasize my point without having to use extra
Whether you do or don't cuss simply depends on your reasoning and logic behind the idea. To begin let's take a look at why people believe that cussing is wrong. The first main reason for this belief is because cussing is seen in society as morally wrong. First off we are taught from a young age that we should not bring others down which is the intent of curse words. Society puts a lot of focus to make sure that a child in schooling does not become a bully.
2) Example 1: The author uses diction“a fricassee or a ragout”(625,64) as the satire tools because these words sound entertaining to readers. But behind those words were his campaign and the way he was pointing out the situation.
George Orwell’s essay, Politics and the English Language, first published in 1946, talks about some “bad habits”, which have driven the English language in the wrong direction, that is, away from communicating ideas. In his essay he quotes five passages, each from a different author, which embody the faults he is talking about. He lists dying metaphors, operators, pretentious diction, and meaningless words as things to look out for in your own writing and the writing of others (593-595). He talks about political uses of the English language. Our language has become ugly and the ugliness impedes upon communication. Ugly uses of language have been reinforced and passed down in the population “even among people who should and do know better,” (598). Ugly language has been gaining ground in our population by a positive feedback mechanism.
In the story Putting Love to the Stress Test, the writer uses punctuations. An example could be when the writer uses quotation marks to show the conversation between Jaksic and her co worker. “‘How is it going?’ I asked casually.” “‘I’m almost done,’ he said without looking up.”
Let’s start with something simple. Oxymorons. Let’s say you’re getting ready for a job interview and as you’re leaving the house, someone yells out behind you, “Just Act Natural, you’ll be fine.” You get in the car and the only thing you get on your mind is “acing natural.” A person can’t act and be natural at the same time and the entire time you’re driving to the job interview, you’re thinking, what can I do to act more natural. That, my friend, is an oxymoron and can easily be mis-interrupted. You’ve heard of them before. They can easily be defined as a couple of words contradicting one another but used as a fixed expression. A couple of examples, found missing, same difference, good grief, and airline food.
For exampple it was great deal of publicity that the book received in china, it was the book tha received a great deal of publicity in china or it was in china that the book received a great deal of publicity. the theme of an it –structure is not it but rather the element which occurs after the verb to be. It simply acts as an empty subject which allows a certain element such as the book or in china to be placed near the beginning of the clause and to be interreted as its theme, that is what the message is