e-Learning Webboard

Good afternoon, Students,

Please correct some of the common errors I've identified in your Module 11 assignment:

1. The party directions are not too hard to follow either. I think I will get lost, so I will just call you if that happens.
2. As there is no receiving gifts or flower.
3. Each of our teammate will bring a company, that will make us 8 people altogether.
4. You can come from Siam square soi 7 until the middle of the road, then you’ll see the Hard rock café opposite Siam square soi 3.
5. He really like to party and meet new friends. He’s half-Thai, half-American that I think he can help others who was struggle in English more or less.
6. We would like to know about the activities what will be organized on the party. So that our team can arrange something if is essential. What time is party close.

Content is, for the most part, not a big problem. However, most teams need to pay very careful attention to grammatical issues, particularly punctuation and capitalization. It is always best to review and edit content and grammar before submission. If you have questions, please feel free to ask!

Next week, I will post my suggested edits.

Hello again!

Please do some research on comma splices and sentence fragments. I will write an additional post on these grammatical issues when I post my edits next week. These are quite big grammatical errors that I see in almost every assignment.


Best,
Aj. Alan

Dear Ajarn Alan,

Thank you for the exercises. I tried to correct them as below:
1. The directions to the party are not too hard to follow either. But if I am lost, I will just call you.
2. There is no need to bring gifts or flower.
3. Each of our teammates will bring a companion to the party. Thus, there will be eight people altogether.
4. You can follow Siam Square Soi 7 until you reach the middle of the Soi. Then, you will see the Hard Rock Cafe on the opposite side of Siam Square Soi 3.
5. He really likes to party and meet new friends. He’s half-Thai, half-American and I think he can more or less help others who struggle with speaking English.
6. We would like to know what activities will be organized at the party so that our team can prepare something if it is necessary. What time does the party finish?

Have a good day

Before I submit my suggested corrections for the common errors, let's begin by talking about sentence fragments and comma splices.
Many nonnative speakers have trouble with this, but you need to be aware of it because it is quite a big error.

I. We'll start with sentence fragments:
What is a sentence fragment? Sentence fragments are phrases and clauses that look like sentences but in fact are not. To be a sentence, clauses need to have at least one independent clause. Remember that an independent clause is a thought or idea that can stand on its own. Fragments are dependent clauses that may have an identifiable subject and verb but due to sentence structure cannot stand alone.

Let me give a few examples of common fragments I see:
Because they were tired. Yes, you may be able to see a subject (they) and verb(s) (were + tired) but that doesn't necessarily make it a correct sentence. If a sentence starts with "because" that is fine, but all clauses that begin with words like "because" are dependent clauses and therefore need an independent clause attached to it. Dependent clauses are NOT correct sentences because they are thoughts or ideas that cannot stand alone. Write your sentences carefully and think about what you're trying to say: Because they were tired (dependent clause because of "because," so you should ask about the result): Because they were tired (dependent clause), they decided not to go out for dinner (independent clause giving result; remember that if a dependent clause starts a sentence you must have an independent clause in the same sentence with a comma separating them); Because they were tired, they went to bed early (another example; identify the parts: dependent clause + comma + independent clause).

Not all dependent clauses begin with "because." It is your responsibility as a student to do some research and study these grammatical points further. I'll give one more example: "If you study English grammar carefully." It has a subject (you) and verb (study). However, it is NOT a COMPLETE sentence. What is wrong here? Is this a sentence? Why or why not? Keep in mind a dependent clause starting with "if" should have an independent clause that explains reasons or gives results.
"If you study English grammar carefully and apply the tips and examples given by your English instructors (long dependent clause because of "if" at the beginning), (do not forget the comma ) your grammar will drastically begin to improve (independent clause)." The first clause is dependent (cannot stand alone) because it begins with "if'; also note that just because the clause contains lots of words does not make it a complete sentence.

****Also note that these examples begin with dependent clauses and are followed by independent clauses. You can also begin sentence with independent clauses and follow with dependent clauses. If the sentence begins with an independent clause and ends with a dependent clause, no comma is needed to separate them in basic form.

II. Now, we'll move to comma splices:
Another rather large grammatical error is a comma splice. So, what is a comma splice? Comma splices are created when two independent clauses are separated with only a comma. To correct the error either insert a conjunction or replace the comma with a period or, in many cases, a semicolon.

Let's look at an example or two. I am not angry with you I am not happy with you, either.
What is wrong here? How can we fix the problem?
There are three simple ways to fix the problem:
1) I am not angry with you, but I am not happy with you, either. (Insert an appropriate conjunction directly after the comma.)
2) I am not angry with you; I am not happy with you, either. (Replace the comma with a semicolon.)
3) I am not angry with you. I am not happy with you, either. (Replace the comma with a period.)

Ready for one more example?
We went to Krabi during our holiday, we had such a fun time.
What is wrong? How can we fix the problem?
Possible solutions:
1) We went to Krabi during our holiday. We had such a fun time.
2) We went to Krabi during our holiday, and we had such a fun time.
3) We went to Krabi during our holiday; we have such a fun time.

Keep studying!!
As always, ask questions if you need help in understanding these points.
Also remember that you are university students and have the direct responsibility to study these points further on your own.

Hi, everyone!

Module 11 assignments will be uploaded sometime next week.

While you're waiting, please pay careful attention to my previous post about sentence fragments and comma splices above. I expect you to try applying this to your next writing assignment and in Writing 2.

See my corrections for the common errors below:

1. The party directions are not too hard to follow either. I think I will get lost, so I will just call you if that happens.
Correction: The sentence itself is fine, but the key issue is that the clauses contradict each other. The first clause says the directions are easy but then says it is likely that he/she will get lost. Maybe you could say, "The party directions are not too hard to follow either. If I get lost, however, I will call you." Do you see the difference?

2. As there is no receiving gifts or flower.
Corrections: Firstly, this is not a complete sentence; refer to the above post. Because this sentence begins with "as," it is a dependent clause, so it may not stand by itself. Also, use the best word choices to make the sentence as clear as possible: "There is no need to bring gifts or flowers." See the difference? You need to add an "s" to flowers for consistency in structure. You may also possibly combine this sentence with the previous sentence and keep "as" but correct the punctuation.

3. Each of our teammate will bring a company, that will make us 8 people altogether.
Corrections: "Each teammate will bring somebody, so that will make 8 people altogether." Be concise and clear. Here you have a comma splice: two independent clauses only separated by a comma. I fixed it by inserting an appropriate conjunction (so) before the comma; however, you can fix it one of the other two ways as well. Refer to the above post. Furthermore, if you keep the original language ("each of our teammate") the "teammate" should be plural because there are several people in the team.

4. You can come from Siam square soi 7 until the middle of the road, then you’ll see the Hard rock café opposite Siam square soi 3.
Correction: The main problem here is capitalization or the lack of it. Look at the edited sentence and compare with the original: "You can follow Siam Square Soi 7 until you reach the middle of the soi (note that this does not need to be capitalized because you are not giving the proper name of the soi). Then, you will see the Hard Rock Cafe (all full /complete names of places are proper nouns and should be capitalized) on the opposite side of Siam Square Soi 3."

5. He really like to party and meet new friends. He’s half-Thai, half-American that I think he can help others who was struggle in English more or less.
Corrections: "He really likes to party and meet new friends. He’s half-Thai, half-American, so I think he can help others who struggle with their English." The content is good but needs a little cleaning up. First, look at the problem with subject-verb agreement: "He like..." In English, the subject and verb must match (He (singular) + likes (singular)). Next, there are several ways to fix the second sentence to make it more cogent and coherent: 1) remove "that" and, as above, insert comma + conjunction; 2) reword/reorder the clauses and structure by putting the dependent clause first with an appropriate word choice: "Because he is half-Thai and half-American, I think that he can help others who struggle with their English."

6. We would like to know about the activities what will be organized on the party. So that our team can arrange something if is essential. What time is party close.
Corrections: From the start, let me say please do not use an online translator to translate Thai into English. This leads to a string of English words that do not make sense when put next to each other. Consult a dictionary and/or a thesaurus for helping translate words; word/vocabulary choices matter a lot. Additionally, pay attention to syntax (word order) and structure. "So + that" makes the clause dependent, so this is a fragment (see the above post about sentence fragments). You may correct this error by removing the period before "so" or by removing "that." Finally, the last sentence begins with "what," a question word, so the final punctuation necessary is a question mark. See the edited sentence: "We would like to know what activities will be organized at the party so that our team can prepare something if it is necessary. What time does the party finish?" Also, as I said, consult a dictionary AND a thesaurus. You may use many different words with the same meaning; for example, for the question, you may perhaps say, "What time will the party end?" Lastly, think about the organization. Do these sentences relate to each other? If not, the organization is fragmented and random. Again, if you outline your assignment before writing the paragraphs, you can avoid problems with organization. Just keep that in mind.

FINAL REMINDERS:
1) Never give up.
2) Keep practicing!
3) Follow all steps of the writing process (brainstorm, outline, write, edit, submit).
4) Ask your English instructors for guidance and help if you do not understand.

Dear Ajarn Alan,

Thank you so much for your detailed explanation.
It is really helpful and useful for me.

Without corrections from Ajarns I will never know what kind of mistakes I have made.
I will also make use of the guidelines you gave for my writing.

Have a great weekend

Thank you for the feedbacks kab.