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Considering Cultural Difference, A Longman Topics Reader, 1st edition

Published by Longman (October 7, 2002) © 2003

  • Lawrence Weinstein
  • Thomas Finn
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Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are helps students understand how the grammatical moves they make reveal their personality traits and present their persona to their readers. 

The text’s rhetorical approach emphasizes the transformative power that grammar choices can have on a writer and helps students develop the personality they wish to portray in their writing.  Writers can use the imperative mood to suggest control, colons to be assertive, parenthesis to keep the conversation real, and even commas to present an organized persona.  By showing students how seemingly small choices can help them manage the impression they make on readers, Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are helps students become more deliberate writers. 

Instead of a rules-driven approach, comprehensive in scope and exhaustive in examples, Grammar Moves uses brevity and humor to engage students and offer them a different way to understand grammar. 

  • A conversational writing style punctuated with humor invites readers into this rhetorical approach to grammar. 
  • Short chapters on selected grammar topics keep instruction brief so that students can focus on thinking about grammar in a new light rather than memorizing a long list of usage rules.
  • A Few Basics opens each chapter, outlining basic grammar rules of the chapter’s topic element so that students without a strong sense of grammar will have a brief lesson to contextualize the chapter content, while students with a strong sense of grammar will be reminded of less common usages.
  • Try This exercises close each chapter with low-stakes practice opportunities to help students learn chapter concepts in writing situations related to both to their academic and personal lives.
  • Sample sentences resonate with students’ pre-college and college experiences, touching on topics such as work, assignments, the Iraq War, the music industry, internships, and more so that students can better connect the grammar topics in every chapter to their own lives in and outside of college.
  • An appendix on MLA style provides additional support for the instructor eager to try a rhetorical approach to grammar instruction but still requiring MLA coverage offered by traditional college handbooks.

Preface 

 

Introduction

 

Part 1. You, the Doer

 

Ch. 1.    Grammar for Being Assertive: The Colon

A Few Basics

Colons... and who you want to be

        Having Your Turn

Try This

 

Ch. 2.    Grammar for Being Proactive: Active Voice

A Few Basics

Active Voice... and who you want to be

      Living Pro-actively

      Writing and Speaking Pro-actively

      ...Even in the Third Person

Try This

 

Ch. 3.    Grammar for Being Practical: Prepositions

A Few Basics

Prepositions... and who you want to be

      Prepositions We Owe to Other People

      Those We Owe Ourselves

Try This

 

Ch. 4.    Grammar for Being In Charge: The Imperative

A Few Basics

Imperatives...and who you want to be

      Emergencies

      Building Up to It

      Gentle Imperatives

Try This

 

Ch. 5.    Grammar for Being Organized: Commas

A Few Basics

Commas... and who you want to be

      Beyond Doing It By Feeling

Try This

 

Ch. 6.    Grammar for Being Optimistic: “But”

A Few Basics

But... and who you want to be

    End-Focus

    Alternatives to “But”

Try This

 

Part 2. You, the Friend

 

Ch. 7.    Grammar for Being Empathetic: Modifiers

A Few Basics

Modifiers... and who you want to be

    The Failure to Put Oneself in the Reader’s Place

    Examples–Funny and Unfunny

Try This

 

Ch. 8.    Grammar for Being Respectful: Apostrophes

A Few Basics

Apostrophes... and who you want to be

        What They’re Good For, Really

Try This

 

Ch. 9.    Grammar for Being Trusting: Cutting Down on Exclamation Points and Intensifiers

A Few Basics

Exclamation Points, Intensifiers... and who you want to be

      Earning a Listener’s Trust

      Developing Trust in Yourself

Try This

 

Ch. 10.   Grammar for Being “Real”: Contractions, Parentheses, Etc.

A Few Basics

Contradictions, Parentheses, etc.... and who you want to be

      Five Ways to Create Voice

      A Cautionary Note

Try This

 

Ch. 11.   Grammar for Being Diplomatic: Semicolons

A Few Basics

Semicolons... and who you want to be

      What We and the Semicolon Have in Common

      A Punctuation Mark for This Age

      Doing Without Thanks

Try This

 

Ch. 12.   Grammar for Being Generous: Cumulative Sentences

A Few Basics

Periodic and Cumulative Sentences... and who you want to be

      The Generous Writer

      Front-Loading and Back-Loading

Try This

 

Ch. 13.   Grammar for Being Intimate: Ellipses

A Few Basics

Ellipses... and who you want to be

      Everyday Ellipses

      The Secret to the Bonding Power of a Joke

      Love Above All

Try This

 

Ch. 14.   Grammar for Being Forgiving: Past Tense

A Few Basics

Past Tense... and who you want to be

      The Problem with the Present Tense

      The Past Tense Alternative

Try This

 

Ch. 15.   Grammar for Being Expressive: Sentence Length, Etc.

A Few Basics

Sentence Length, Etc.... and who you want to be

      The Musical Effect of Placement

      The Musical Effect of Repetition

      The Musical Effect of Sentence Length

Try This

 

Part 3. You, the Thinker

 

Ch. 16.   Grammar for Being Open-Minded: Cross-Outs

A Few Basics

Cross-Outs... and who you want to be

     Normal Everyday Inquiry

     Close-Minded vs. Open-Minded

     The Sound of Crossing Out

Try This

 

Ch. 17.   Grammar for Being Adaptable: Adverbial Provisos

A Few Basics

Adverbial Provisos... and who you want to be

    “Will” as Straitjacket

    A Way Out

Try This

 

Ch. 18.   Grammar for Being Capable of Dealing with Complexity: The Cues of Complication

A Few Basics

Cues of Complication... and who you want to be

    Tips for Avoiding Simple-Mindedness

Try This

 

Ch. 19.   Grammar for Being Well-Mentored: A Special Use of the Present Tense

A Few Basics

A Special Use of the Present Tense... and who you want to be

      Grammatical Time Warp

Try This

 

Ch. 20.   Grammar for Being Honorable: Quotation Marks

A Few Basics

Quotation Marks... and who you want to be

      What They Call It At School

Try This

 

Ch. 21.   Grammar for Being Modest: “I”

A Few Basics

Saying “I”... and who you want to be

      “Me, Me, Me”

      Striking a Humble Balance

      The I in Storytelling

      A Final Word on I

Try This

 

Ch. 22.   Grammar for Being Rebellious: Breaking the Rules

A Few Basics

Breaking Rules... and who you want to be

      Using Grammar to Climb Kohlberg’s Hierarchy

      Caveat

Try This

 

A Grammarian’s Wish

 

Appendix A: Uses of the Passive Voice 

 

Appendix B: MLA Citation Style

Common Types of MLA Citation on a Works Cited Page

The Format of a Works Cited Page

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