Ruminations from the Temple

[This was such a fun English assignment, I thought I'd share...] When asked about my own writing, and even considering three kinds of grammar, punctuation or mechanics errors that I tend to make, my answer will probably always be punctuation concerns including commas and ellipses, inappropriately using sentence fragments, and shamefully using the word ‘and’ as the first word, not only in a sentence, but a paragraph. *gasp* My tendency to make punctuation errors, I realize, probably comes from training. Take, for example, punctuating a series. I was taught, oh-so-many years ago, that in a series of items, thoughts, or ideas, there is a comma after the first and second item (for example: hats, scarves, and shoes). However, as I was schooling my own children, their writing instruction had a different view. Interestingly, they were taught that a series should only have a comma after the first item and not after the second (for example: hats, scarves and shoes). After learni...

I am sitting in the campus library, tapping out my thoughts while ensconced in one of the many private kiosks provided. And, yes, I am supposed to be hammering out my math homework; plotting points on a graph to determine linear relationship can wait, however. My first weeks of time at a community college has been quite an immersion in modern culture. Well, the culture of high school, that is. With so many Running Start students running around, I feel like I stepped back onto a high school campus. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge high school seniors that want to buckle down and work hard to get not only their high school diploma but an AA degree, as well. The concern for me is the adjustment made by the instructors for the influx of all these younger students...and there are a lot of them. Take for example my English class, which happens to be a 101 class. So, I know it's going to be rather elemental from the get-go - no problem. However, when the instructor tak...