Category Archives: grammar

Yep. Just the punctuation.

Posted on January 16, 2016 by jyourist

Nicholas Rougeux is someone who is intrigued with making data visual. He also is intrigued with discovering data where we thought there was none. His Between the Words project takes classic pieces of literature in the public domain, removes all … Continue reading →

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Latches of being

Posted on September 20, 2015 by jyourist

Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red

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Magic Words

Posted on February 21, 2015 by jyourist

The students are presently working on their research papers. They have been reading about and exploring their topics for over a week and are starting to organize their ideas. Yesterday we talked about formulating a thesis. This concept is so … Continue reading →

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The incredible persuasiveness of second and third person pronouns

Posted on February 8, 2015 by jyourist

When writing essays I always have to remind my students to not use “I,” that I will know that the ideas are theirs because they are writing the paper. “I believe that the United States is a good place to … Continue reading →

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“Example of the Continuing Past Tense in a Hotel Room” by Lydia Davis

Posted on April 3, 2014 by jyourist
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Diagramming the heart

Posted on November 25, 2013 by jyourist

In class today, we actually did some grammar. Another teacher in our school does diagramming of sentences and the kids were curious exactly what that was. I’m not a big fan of diagramming, which always seems to help the kids … Continue reading →

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Why punctuation is important

Posted on November 20, 2012 by jyourist

At least its importance was what I was trying to convey to my students yesterday. And I truly believe the exercise I gave them to do really drove home the point. I asked them to punctuate the paragraph pictured above, … Continue reading →

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Yesterday morning and last night

Posted on June 27, 2012 by jyourist

I received the following text from my son who is presently teaching English in Japan: A student wrote, “I cleaned my room last morning” and my JTE corrected it to “yesterday morning.” So then the student asked, why “last night” … Continue reading →

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“The Return of the Subjunctive” by Tamara Madison

Posted on November 22, 2011 by jyourist

Oh, the Subjunctive, May it make its bold return! May it ride back proud In liveried coach, May its two fine horses snort And paw the ground, And, escorted by its staunch Attendants If and Whether, May it descend in … Continue reading →

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Could you describe what a transitive verb is?

Posted on June 15, 2011 by jyourist

My son applied to the JET Program this winter and much to his surprise he was accepted. He actually had an excellent interview, lots of laughs and conversation well past the time allotted for it. But at the end he … Continue reading →

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