Grammatical problem analysis

Grammatical problem analysis

Introduction

The purpose of the work was to reflect on teaching practice experience. Throughout the teaching practice time, I learned critical things in instructing the individual needs and ADHD students. For instance, in setting class rules, they ought to be simple and easy to follow. Either, in encouraging teamwork, I let the other students remind the ADHD students to do their classwork in time. I also learned the art of motivating these students by giving them positive feedback. In compiling my reflection work, I made several grammatical errors that I need to address. Precisely, this paper will address run sentences and the confusion on the use of preposition in, on and at, explanation of why these errors keep occurring and suggestions on how to overcome the challenge in the future.

Run-on sentences happen when two complete sentences are joined together without using punctuation, conjunction, a full stop, or semicolon (Chanock et al. 2009). A run-on sentence can either be short or long. Long sentences are not always run-on sentences, despite their name. Also, a quite short sentence can be a run on. A sentence cannot have more than one independent clause without being correctly joined. The only way to define a run-on sentence is when more than two independent clauses are not joined properly. A complete sentence exists through the creation of an independent clause. An independent clause consists of a subject and a verb. A standard error is the comma splice, which happens when a comma wrongly separates two sentences. This error keeps on occurring because writers think that full stop has the same effect as a comma.

Prepositions are among the most challenging parts of speech. Even experienced writers sometimes have challenges using them. Most times, people get confused while using similar prepositions, mostly the propositions of IN and ON. The prepositions in, at, and on having different functions (Alwasila et al. 2016). However, sometimes there is no critical reason as to why one preposition should be used in place of another. Thus, practice and experience are critical. For instance, ‘at’ and ‘in’ serve more than one purpose. ‘At’ and ‘in’ are used to indicate places. ‘At’ is usually used to indicate small places such as a village.

‘In’ is majorly used as an indication of significant places such as cities, towns, counties, etc. Note; ‘in’ is also used to indicate small places, but ‘at’ is never used for significant places.  ‘At’ when used to show time shows the exact time at the moment. For instance, let us meet at 8.00 am. On the contrary, preposition ‘in’ shows a period. For instance, I will meet in a month. Also, ‘on’ is used to depict the general point of time. For instance, on Monday I will attend a meeting.  ‘In’ is used in showing a state of rest. For instance, she is in bed. Also, the preposition ‘on’ shows a state of rest as well. For instance, she sat on the chair.

Several ways can help me overcome these grammatical errors. For the run on an error, there are four fixes available. The first one is the use of semicolon since it gives one a smooth transition between sentences (Sakaguchi et al. 2016). For instance, I should have written; moreover, let their peers help them by reminding them of their homework or any other work; therefore, peer teamwork will be encouraged. The second method is the use of three dots. For instance; moreover, inclusive education is important because we must be able to give all children a sense of being a part of the community… leading to building a more significant relationship with others. The third method is using a colon. Finally is the use of a dash.

I will also deal with the preposition in several ways. The first one will be reading my work out loud after writing. This is because one can never make a mistake in spoken words, but it happens in writing (Kim, 2016). This way, I will be able to identify any errors made in my work. When saying the wrong proposition out loud, I will know what I should have written. For instance, I made a preposition error by writing; this course will help me in developing my skills in various ways, especially on instructional strategies. If I had taken the time to read the work out loud, I would have corrected the error. The second solution is practicing the use of prepositions (Alwasila et al. 2016). Only then will I understand when to use them, where, and how to do it. There are numerous ways to achieve this goal. For instance, I will take time to fill blanks with appropriate prepositions. Also, I will take time reading various articles in order to encounter more propositions. This way, my writing skills will be more apt and better.

Conclusion

My previous assignment had two types of errors; run-on sentences and confusion in the use of preposition IN and ON. This work has tackled the various ways the two errors occur and how to overcome them. I have pointed out ways I can deal with the two mistakes in order to better my writing skills.

References

Chanock, K., D’Cruz, C., & Bisset, D. (2009). Would you like grammar with that?. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 3(2), A1-A12.

Sakaguchi, K., Napoles, C., Post, M., & Tetreault, J. (2016). Reassessing the goals of grammatical error correction: Fluency instead of grammaticality. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 4, 169-182.

Kim, S. (2016). Revisiting Causes of Grammar Errors: Commonly Confused Lexical Category Dyads in Korean EFL Student Writing. English Teaching, 71(2).

Alwasila, T. N. A., Adam, H. A. B., Alnoor, W. B. A., & Elhadi, N. A. M. (2016). Investigating the Difficulties Facing Students in using Prepositional Phrases in Writing (Doctoral dissertation, Sudan University of Science and Technology).