Thursday, October 30, 2008

Diagram This!

I haven't yet determined how much extra credit this will be worth, but the pure joy of the pursuit for an answer will be a substantial reward in itself.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it (see the image at left), is to use the Kolln-Funk textbook to figure out a way to diagram the following sentence, which appears in the third chapter of Kischner and Wollin's Writers' Choices:

"The belief that there is intelligent life in space is held by many scientists."

To figure this one out, you'll need to learn how to diagram: the passive voice; expletives (no, not that kind of expletive); appositives; and nominal clauses.

On Tuesday the 4th, I'll ask to see if anyone has come up with an answer. And don't forget to check out the updated blog assignment below (it's due Tuesday).

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Diagramming Sarah Palin: Take Two

Click here for another (more thoughtful?) effort to diagram one of Sarah Palin's sentences.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

We Diagram

Those of you who skipped today's class missed an enthralling introduction to sentence diagramming. Whether you were there or not, you may be interested in this article, published today, which applies sentence diagramming to the current presidential campaign (thanks, Kevin Davis, for sending this to me).