Reflections on Thursday lessons: Never give up!

Hi guys!
During our Thursday lessons we reflected on our more frequent mistakes and tried to find a way to simplify in order to avoid them. Even if I am attending my last year at the University, I realise that until now I have been focusing more on the communicative aspects of English and I never tried to be really accurate. As a consequence, I keep on making a lot of errors when I write, so I decided that it can be useful to underline them in this reflective post.

• First of all we decided to return to the basics of English and to eliminate some words that we tended to overuse, such as deepen, also, such, in fact, must, will, distinguish, don’t have to, a huge amount. It is better to use the following: learn, too, this, indeed, have to, going to, stand out, shouldn't, to be not supposed to, can't, a lot of.

As far as grammar is concerned the main rules we established are:

• always remember the English word order Subject + Verb + Object, and never split the verb from its object with adverbs, etc..
• don't use Present Perfect, but the Simple Past or the present;
• eliminate non-defining relative clauses, but use parenthesis or dashes;
• remember to use the subjunctive with the verbs to suggest, to recommend, i.e. I suggest/recommend he go;
• find vs. find out;
• Everyone= all vs. anyone= every individual;
• To be vs. to get, i.e. I am married (a state) vs. I’m getting married (a process).

We listed some linking words:

• Coordinate: and, or, but
• Subordinate: since, as, because, although, despite (never preceded by a comma)

We focused on subordinators, which can never be preceded by a comma.

• Time: after, before, while, when, as soon as, until.
• Reason: because, so, since, due to.
• Purpose: to, in order to, so as to.
• Concession: although, despite, even though/even if, though, whereas, while.
• Condition: if, whether, unless, as long as, nevertheless.

We concentrated on conjunctions, which are independent words followed by a comma and preceded by a full stop or a semicolon.

• To introduce a list: first of all, first, firstly,...,finally.
• To introduce a conclusion: in conclusion, to sum up/summarize.
• To express contrast: despite this, however, on the other hand, on the contrary, none/nevertheless, otherwise.
• To reinforce or add: moreover, furthermore, indeed.
• To give examples: for example/instance.
• To say two things happen for similar reasons: similarly, likewise.
• To point out a result: as a result, consequently, therefore, so (at the beginning of the sentence followed by a comma).

These words are relatively formal, and they are more used in academic writing than in a blog, where they can sound heavy.

Finally we should be careful while building sentences and avoid:

• Sentence fragments (not a complete thought)
• Run-ons (grammatically incorrect long sentences)

I think that these discussions in class on our common mistakes can be very useful, but it is essential to reflect on them at home too with a positive predisposition in order to never give up.

Bye Bye,

Anna