All About English Creative Writing

[The Alternative Story]

pixiedust:

TAS


I think with updated blog/corporate website/facebook, you can cut down precious time taken by answering emails about your school/books/programmes

With the repeated explanations and examples, PAST perfect tense is clearer to me now. Thanks very much!
I would appreciate any need help with PRESENT perfect tense vs past tense :

Jack has pinned a notice on the board. Let's go and read it. (present perfect)
Jack pinned a notice on the board but the teacher took it down. (simple past)

Q1: Does it mean it is grammatically WRONG to say/write -> Jack pinned a notice on the board. Let's go and read it.

Honestly, it sounds alright to me!

Q2: Similarly, when to use the respective tense for these :
Anne has eaten her breakfast. (present perfect)
Anne ate her breakfast (simple past)

Hi pixiedust,

The past tense is an action that has been completed at a specific time in the past.

The present perfect tense refers to an action that
has started in the past and CONTINUED until a time
in the present. It is an action that has been completed
only recently.

Qn 1: Jack has pinned a notice on the board.
Let's go and read it!

In this question, the present perfect tense is
a better answer (has pinned) as compared to
the past tense (pinned) because it is an
action that has been completed in the past and it
seems to have just been recently completed and that is
why you are only now going to read it.

For the second example: Jack pinned a notice on
the board but the teacher took it down.

The answer should be 'had pinned' as in this question,
there is a sequence of 2 events, 1) 'Jack pinning the notice'
followed by 2) 'the teacher taking it down' so when there are
2 events in the past, the earlier event that takes place is in the past perfect tense.

For question 2, both answers are acceptable as it is not clear
from the question whether you are talking about a specific time
in the past or if the event has just recently been completed.
There are not enough clues from the sentence to tell which is
the correct answer.

TAS

[Herbie]

Hi TAS,


I have 2 S&T which need yr help.

1. Mrs Gan is angry with Danoel. His parents are angry with him too.

Not only ____________

Ans : Not only is Mrs Gan angry with Daniel, his parents are angry with him too.


2. Steven takes part in the half-marathon with his brothers every year.
togther with _____________

Ans: Steven takes part in the half marathon together with his brothers every year.


Please advise whether my son’s answer are correct.

Thanks!

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi TAS,


I have 2 S&T which need yr help.

1. Mrs Gan is angry with Danoel. His parents are angry with him too.

Not only ____________________________

Ans : Not only is Mrs Gan angry with Daniel, his parents are angry with him too.


2. Steven takes part in the half-marathon with his brothers every year.
________________ togther with _____________

Ans: Steven takes part in the half-marathon together with his brothers every year.


Please advise whether my son's answer are correct.

Thanks!

Hi Herbie,

The answer for the first question is correct

However, the answer for the second question has a
very common mistake that children make.

The answer should be:

Steven together with his brothers takes part in the
half marathon every year.

'Steven' should be placed with 'his brothers' as the words
'together with' provides extra information about Steven.
We now know that Steven did not take part in the marathon
alone but his brothers also joined him, however the main emphasis
is still on Steven.

In the answer given by your son:

- Steven takes part in the half-marathon together with
his brothers every year.

it would appear that 'his brothers' is the extra information about
the half-maranthon which does not make sense. That is why the
answer is wrong.

TAS

[Herbie]

Hi TAS,


Many thanks for yr explanation.
Can help with the following questions?

1. No sooner had Mother left home ______ the boys started fighting.

ans; than

What does no sooner mean??? can explain???


2. Either the oranges or the bunch of bananas ______ thrown away earlier.

bunch is a collective noun right???


3. Choo Mei is very beautiful. Choo Hong is ugly.

Ans: Choo Mei unlike Choo Hong, is very beautiful.

4. "What must we do now?" the girl asker her mother.

Ans: The girl asker her mother what do they had to do then.

5. As long as yr drink enough water, you will not get dehydrated.

You will not get dehydrated unless you do not drink enough water.

Thanks for yr help!!!

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi TAS,


Many thanks for yr explanation.
Can help with the following questions?

1. No sooner had Mother left home ______ the boys started fighting.

ans; than

What does no sooner mean??? can explain???


2. Either the oranges or the bunch of bananas ______ thrown away earlier.

bunch is a collective noun right???


3. Choo Mei is very beautiful. Choo Hong is ugly.

Ans: Choo Mei unlike Choo Hong, is very beautiful.

4. \"What must we do now?\" the girl asker her mother.

Ans: The girl asker her mother what do they had to do then.

5. As long as yr drink enough water, you will not get dehydrated.

You will not get dehydrated unless you do not drink enough water.

Thanks for yr help!!!!

Hi Herbie,

1) 'No sooner' means 'As soon as'

It could be understood as 'As soon as Mother left the house, the boys started fighting'

- 'No sooner' goes with 'than'. It is an example of
a correlative conjunction. Correlative conjunctions are
used in pairs. They are used to explain the relationship
between 2 ideas in a sentence.

Examples of correlative conjunctions:

a) Both, and

She is both smart and hardworking.

b) Neither, nor

Neither Matthew nor Alex was at home.

c) Hardly, when

He had hardly started swimming when it began to rain.

2) \"Bunch\" is a collective noun. It is singular

3) The punctuation for (3) is wrong, it should be:

Choo Mei unlike Choo Heng is very beautiful OR

Choo Mei, unlike Choo Heng, is very beautiful

'Unlike Choo Heng' is a subordinate/relative clause.
The main subject is Choo Mei. Hence you use double commas
to separate the subordinate clause from the main clause.
If you do not put any commas, that is also correct as the word
'unlike' already tells you that it is a subordinate clause.

4) The answer is correct. The word 'must' is changed to
'had to' in reported speech.

5) The answer is wrong as it contains double negatives,
it is confusing for the reader when there are double negatives
in the sentence.

The answer should be:

You will get dehydrated unless you drink enough water.

TAS

[Herbie]

Hi TAS


Can the answer for the qn below be:
4. "What must we do now?" the girl asker her mother.

Ans: The girl asked her mother what they had to do then.

Ans: The girl asked her mother what do they had to do then. ( You mentioned that this is correct)


2. Steven takes part in the half-marathon with his brothers every year.
________________ togther with _____________

Your earlier answer is:
Steven together with his brothers takes part in the half marathon every year.

Can the answer be:
Steven, together with his brothers, takes part int the half marathon every year.

Thanks for help.

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi TAS


Can the answer for the qn below be:
4. \"What must we do now?\" the girl asker her mother.

Ans: The girl asked her mother what they had to do then.

Ans: The girl asked her mother what do they had to do then. ( You mentioned that this is correct)


2. Steven takes part in the half-marathon with his brothers every year.
________________ togther with _____________

Your earlier answer is:
Steven together with his brothers takes part in the half marathon every year.

Can the answer be:
Steven, together with his brothers, takes part int the half marathon every year.

Thanks for help.

Hi Herbie,

For question 4, the answer is:

The girl asked her mother what they had to do then

NOT

The girl asked her mother what do they had to do then.
(Sorry, I somehow missed out seeing the 'do' just now)

For question 2,

The second answer is also correct. However, we usually
discourage students from using double commas as they
tend to make careless mistakes like missing out one comma.
But there is nothing grammatically wrong with it.

TAS

[Herbie]

Hi TAS


Can provide more info convoluted sentence?

And provide advise on how we can construct convoluted sentence and get it right?

Many thanks!

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi TAS


Can provide more info convoluted sentence?

And provide advise on how we can construct convoluted sentence and get it right?

Many thanks!

Hi Herbie,

Convoluted sentences are not a good idea

They are complicated sentences which often leave the
reader confused.

These are examples of such sentences taken from a blog that
describes such sentences:
(http://www.wordnik.com/words/convoluted)

1) Redistricting decisions such as this can have enormous impact
because the process typically occurs just once every 10 years and
carves up congressional districts in convoluted ways to benefit the powerful. —Andrew Kreig:
Alabama Decisions Illustrate Abuse of
Judicial Power

2) Those subjects are tricky enough without trying to write about
them in convoluted sentences heavy with opaque metaphors and
intricate similes. —Fictionaut, “Ten Minutes, Thats It”

When someone reads convoluted sentences, it makes him want to give
up reading. Good writing is using good vocabulary aptly but not in
a complicated manner.

Hope this helps

TAS

[jtparent]

hi all,


any recommendations for creative class for p4 and 2 somewhere near geylang?

many thanks