All About English Creative Writing

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

The Alternative Story:

No problem about asking the questions, we will try our best to help.

Hi TAS

I can never thank you enough.But I'll try! Thank you so much!

Best wishes

Hi Tianzhu,

You are welcome, we really like your questions anyway, very thought-provoking!

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi TAS,


Are you able to provide info on some of the common grammar mistakes?

Tx

Hi Herbie,

Sure. These are some of the common grammar mistakes we have come across:

Practise vs Practice

Many students confuse the two.

Practise is a verb. How do you remember that? PractiSe- the 'S' reminds you of sweat, so you need to 'sweat' quite a bit when you practiSe so practise is an action, it is a verb. This is how it is used:

- I practised my swimming strokes the whole morning.

Practice is a noun. How do you remember that? PractiCe- the 'C' can stand for 'Class' and a class is an object, a noun. So practiCe is a noun. This is how it is used:

- I am going for swimming practice.

Advice/Advise is another example, 'advice' is a noun and 'advise' is a verb.

Anyone else wants to contribute other such confusing pairings?

TAS

[buds]

Fantastic fun applications there TAS!

I dunno if this is so much of grammar
but here are 2 more pairings that i
learnt from watching VCDs with my
girls..

1. Principal / Principle

The principal is your friend hence it is
spelt with the ending \"pal\".

2. Desert / Desserts

Desserts comes with two ss-es
cos we like them so much!

[shchia]

Hi TAS


My son is in P2 and has issues with his composition. He can relate a story based on the 4 pictures given to him but when he needs to write it down, the content is totally different from what he has related previously.

Any advice?

Regards
SH

[The Alternative Story]

buds:

Fantastic fun applications there TAS!

I dunno if this is so much of grammar
but here are 2 more pairings that i
learnt from watching VCDs with my
girls..

1. Principal / Principle

The principal is your friend hence it is
spelt with the ending \"pal\".

2. Desert / Desserts

Desserts comes with two ss-es
cos we like them so much!

Hi buds,

Thanks for the valuable contributions for the confusing pairs The one on 'pal' for principal makes it so much easier to remember!

We have another 2:

1) It's vs Its

It's - stands for it is (it is a shortened form just like 'they're' and 'won't')

How it is used: It's going to rain

Its - it is a possessive pronoun, it shows that the noun belongs to 'it'

How it is used: I could see that the dog was happy. Its tail was wagging incessantly.

2) Emigrant vs Immigrant

Emigrant - Someone who leaves his country to settle in another country.

How it is used: He emigrated from Vietnam to settle down in Malaysia.

How do you remember that? - The 'E' in Emigrant can stand for 'Exit' so you need to exit your country

Immigrant - Someone who enters into a country and settles there.

How it is used: He immigrated to Singapore to join his family who had already become permanent citizens.

How do you remember that? - The 'I' for Immigrant can stand for 'In' so you need to go into another country to be an immigrant

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

shchia:

Hi TAS


My son is in P2 and has issues with his composition. He can relate a story based on the 4 pictures given to him but when he needs to write it down, the content is totally different from what he has related previously.

Any advice?

Regards
SH

Hi SH,

That would mean that he has no problem in his thought process but he probably has problems in penning it down. So his spoken language and thought process is there but his written language is not as strong.

Firstly, you need to analyze why this is so. Firstly, it could be that he is not motivated to write. Secondly, it could be that he is not sure how to spell certain words or how to write grammatically correct sentences.

1) If it is the first scenario, then you can make writing exciting to him by playing games with him using writing. For example, you could play a treasure hunt with him leaving pieces of paper around the house, these pieces of paper could be all the synonyms of 'walk'. So instead of using the word 'walk', you can tell him that he could search the house for treasures that will change a simple word like walk to a word that not many people use and so is more 'precious'. Then you could do some writing exercise with him where he needs to use these synonyms in his writing. This is one example of a game you could play with him.

2) If it is the second scenario, then you would probably need to work on his sentence structure and for spelling, we use mnemonic strategies to break up the word to make it simpler to remember. For example for the word 'cycled' - you could break it up to 'cy'- 'c'- 'led'. In order not to mess up his pronunciation, you can explain to him that the word is pronounced as cycled but when you spell it, to remember in that form- cy-c-led. We find that it helps children to remember their spelling.

However, in order for us to understand more accurately your child's problem, you could write out a snippet of his writing in the forum and we can analyze it more accurately.

TAS

[tianzhu]

The Alternative Story:

As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ringing.

The ringing here functions as a gerund and not an adjective.

Hi TAS

Gerunds and Present Participles can be confusing as they end with ing.

I am trying to make a comparison with one of my earlier questions.Take this example.

I heard John singing.
Is singing here a gerund or participle describing John?

Please advise.

Best wishes

[pixiedust]

My child has a problem with response vs respond.

Any suggestions ?

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

The Alternative Story:

As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ringing.

The ringing here functions as a gerund and not an adjective.

Hi TAS

Gerunds and Present Participles can be confusing as they end with ing.

I am trying to make a comparison with one of my earlier questions.Take this example.

I heard John singing.
Is singing here a gerund or participle describing John?

Please advise.

Best wishes

Hi Tianzhu,

Yes, they are confusing :? Gerunds are nouns and Present Participles are verbs- the present indicates the time that the action (verb) occurred.

Example of present participles:

1) The man is singing

Examples of gerunds:

1) I dislike dancing - dancing here is the name of the activity you dislike. Dislike is the verb.

Example of both gerunds and present participle used in the same sentence:

1) I am going swimming.- 'am going' is the present participle and 'swimming' is the gerund

For your question: I heard John singing. The 'singing' here is a gerund, not an adjective (an adjective is a describing word). If you want to use an adjective in the 'ing' form to describe someone, it will be used in this way:

1) The dying man uttered his last words.

Hope this helps to clarify the issue.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

pixiedust:

My child has a problem with response vs respond.

Any suggestions ?

Hi pixiedust,

Response is a noun(object). It can be used in this way:

1) The children's (possessive noun) response (noun) to the teacher was very good.

- When a word comes after a possessive noun, it is a noun.

Respond is a verb (action). It can be used in this way:

1) The boys only respond when they are shouted at.

-The 'respond' here is the act of responding. It is an action, hence it is a verb.

How to remember?

- Many words that end with 'se' or 'ce' are nouns. (to be used in the context given below and not applied broadly to every word)

1) Respond (verb)/Response (noun)

2) Intelligent (adjective)/Intelligence (noun)

3) Silent (adjective)/Silence (noun)

4) Patient (adjective)/Patience (noun)

TAS