SHORT
COMMUNICATIONS 365
Ignorance
Personified
By
Roger
Behra
Recently, September, 2013 a California
newspaper printed an essay that was sent in to be read by anyone interested in
a specific topic. The newspaper printed the essay in it’s original form. Ladies
and gentleman boys and girls it was a monumental disgrace written by a high
school junior male student. It was
ignorance personified pertaining to grammar and spelling. It is a sure bet that
the junior student was nailed to the cross by friends and relatives. It not, he
certainly should have been.
The sad fact is there are untold
numbers of junior high and high school students in the same boat with the
junior male student. Those students are going to help continue the 55% of high
school graduates who must take remedial language courses when they begin their
college careers. They gain no admittance into college until those courses are
completed, period. Many people have to get involved, and that includes parents,
students, and the schools.
The following is going to be helpful
information for parents and their student children. The neighborhood is also a
very helpful place.
Words are used to make sentences, and
sentences are used to make paragraphs. Paragraphs are put together to build
stories and books, and in order to have well composed paragraphs, sentences
have to be correctly written.
Kinds
of Sentences
1. DECLARATIVE-makes a
statement and ends with a period. (.) John loves dogs.
2. INERROGATIVE-asks a
questions and ends with A QUESTION MARK. (?) Who is going?
3. EXCLAMATORY-expresses
strong feeling and ends with an exclamation mark. (!) Catch the dog! Hurry! Dad
is calling you!
4. IMPERATIVE-gives a
command that is urgent. It can end with a period or an exclamation mark. You
must keep good records. Do it now!
Sentence
Structure
1. SIMPLE-makes only one
complete thought. My cat loves me and his cat food.
2. COMPOUND-makes two
complete thoughts joined by conjunction. (and, or, but). He sings the songs,
but he sings to fast. Mary loves to sing, and she practices every day. John,
get up at seven o’ clock, or you will be late.
3. COMPLEX-makes one
complete thought with an added incomplete thought. The picnic was cancelled
because of the rain.
4. COMPOUND-COMPLEX-two complete
thoughts with an added incomplete thought. With all that TV noise, you cannot
concentrate well, and you will make many errors.
*** When you write
sentences-begin with a capital letter-end with a punctuation mark-spell words
correctly-use complete and the coma correctly.
R. B.
1-13-14
