03/27/98

Grammar

This week my sister-in-law shared a childhood memory. At the end of every summer, she'd return from sleep-away camp to find her letters home neatly stacked on her desk, corrected with her father's red pen. Year after year, she looked forward to this annual ritual. My father-in-law passed away this week. In his honor, today's topic is Grammar.

Common Errors In English

From "absorption" (not "absorbtion") to "your/you're," this clickable alphabetic list of errors is fun to peruse. Sometimes the easiest way to learn proper grammar, is to learn what NOT to say. For example, did you know a "pompom" is a large gun, but the fuzzy end of ski hat is a "pompon"? And a narrow confining garment is a "straitjacket" not a "straightjacket." Just click on any phrase for the complete skinny.

Darling's Guide to Grammar

This comprehensive grammar guide is organized into topics at the Sentence Level, Paragraph Level and Essay Level. If you're not sure where to find your subject, try the pop-up alphabetic topic list. You'll also find forty-eight interactive quizzes (some are Java-based and will work only on newer browsers) that are corrected instantly for immediate feedback. Have an unanswered grammar or writing question? Ask Grammar! Unless Grammar (Darling's alter ego) is ''away on one of her binges to the Bahamas," your answer will be posted on the Grammar Logs in a day or two.

Grammar Rock

"A noun's a special kind of word, it's any name you ever heard. I find it quite interesting, a noun's a person, place, or thing." You guessed it! This is grammar set to music. You can listen to the songs (Real Audio or .WAV format) or even watch the videos (QuickTime format). Which song is your personal favorite? Let Schoolhouse Rock know by rating each song on a scale of one to ten. After singing your way through grammar, you can hum on over to Multiplication Rock, Science Rock or America Rock.

Online English Grammar

Online English Grammar, from the Lydbury English Centre in Britain, is another extensive grammar site. Hidden gems here are the English Grammar Clinic (a very active bulletin board) and the Grammar Cafe (a chat room accessible from the Clinic). Both require registering with your name, password and email address. Rules of grammar can be looked up in the Table of Contents or the alphabetic Subject Index.

Pop-up Grammar

These three high-school level grammar quizzes test your knowledge of parts of speech. Upon completion, your quizzes are scored, your strengths and weaknesses evaluated. You will need a Javascript-capable browser (such as version 3.0 of either Netscape or Internet Explorer) to take these online tests.

The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!

11 Rules of Writing

Cutting Edge CALL Demos

Free English Grammar Lessons

Grammar Girl

Grammar Safari

Grammar Queen

Please send questions or comments to feldman@surfnetkids.com.