Hacker Exercise Experience

As an international student, Diane Hacker site is a good exercise for me to reinforce my foundation of grammar. I learnt a lot from it.
Since Chinese is my first language, I still can not avoid thinking about Chinese first, then translate it into English which may cause some grammar faults. The exercise helped me solve such kind of problems. For example,  E-ex 12-1,  It should be " Not all thin people are anorexic" instead of  "All thin people are not anorexic". The latter one is what is spoken in Chinese way.
The other one is mixed constructions exercise which taught me how to avoid using some words that are meaningless and rearrange the sentences in a proper way.
Another one is Parallelism exercise,  this part helped me know when to add  preposition correctly. I often forget to add preposition when I write a sentence which makes the sentence incomplete and hard to understand.
In a word, it is a nice exercise for learning and reinforcing.

Hacker Review of Clear Sentence

Hacker Review of Clear Sentence

8-1 Active vs. passive verbs

Although this exercise was not helpful to me, it's still a good exercise to review.

8-2 Active vs. be verbs

I  already understand the difference between active and be verbs.

8-3 Active verbs (edit and compare).

 This exercise helped me learn how to add active words into sentences.

9-1 Parallelism

This part  helped me understand how to write better sentences.

 9-2 Parallelism

This part does not really helpful, but it's still a good reminder.

9-3 Parallelism

These exercises helped me to know when to add preposition correctly.

10-1 10-2  Needed words

This part taught me how to avoid adding some meaning less words.

11-1 Mixed constructions.

This part taught me how to avoid adding some words which are not neccessary.

11-2 Mixed constructions  (edit and compare)

This part taught me how to avoid adding some words which are not neccessary.

12-1 Misplaced modifiers

As an international student, I sometimes use modifiers wrong. This part helped me a lot.

12-2 Misplaced modifiers  (edit and compare)

These examples reinforce the content in 12-1.

12-3 Dangling modifiers

This helped me learn how to express my ideas completely in sentences.

12-4 Dangling modifiers  (edit and compare)

This part let me have more exercises to practice dangling modefiers.

13-1 Shifts: person and number

It's a easy part. I already understand shifts.

13-2 Shifts: tense

This part wasn't helpful  because I already understand shifts.

13-3 Shifts

This part wasn't helpful  because I already understand shifts.

13-4 Shifts  (edit and compare)

This part is more helpful than the previous three parts.It was a little difficult.

 14-1 Choppy sentences

 I did this exercise with my group.It does not very helpful.

14-2 Choppy sentences  (edit and compare)

 I did this exercise with my group.It does not very helpful.

14-3 Subordination

This is a easy part and  I did this exercise with my group.I did not  learn much from it.

Clear Sentences

Clear Sentences

13-4 Shifts

Original: A new neighbor often forms lasting impressions of the neighborhood because of the way they were treated when they first moved in.
Revision: New neighbors often form lasting impressions of the neighborhood because of the way they were treated when they first moved in.
We wrote the sentence like this because it is talking about plural new neighbors in the first sentence, but the second makes it more clear.


14-1 Choppy Sentences
Original: An instruction manual is enclosed with your computer. The manual is user-friendly.  
Combined Sentences: A user-friendly instruction manual is enclosed with your computer.
We put the two sentences together and rearranged its wording to make it more readable.


14-2 Choppy Sentences
Original: The aides help the students with reading and math. These are their weakest subjects.
Revised: The aides help the students with their weakest subjects, reading and math.
We put the two sentences together to have the two sentences to flow together.


 14-3 Subordination
Which Sentence emphasizes the length of time a residency takes?

A)    This highly specialized medical training, called a “residency,” usually takes four years to complete.

 B)   This highly specialized medical training, which usually takes four years to complete, is called a “residency.”
We chose option A because it gets straight to the point on how long a residency is.

Grading and Places for Story-in-a-Box

Grading and Places for Story-in-a-Box

Story-in-a-Box Grading

Story-in-a-Box  Places

Diction

The problem that I studied is diction, connotations and denotations. The relationship between words and meanings is extremely complicated, and belongs to the field of semantics. If someone does not find the connotations behind the sentences, it may cause a big problem. Connotations and denotations is very important to learn to avoid misunderstandings.

For example,

negative

There are over 2,000 vagrants in the city.

 

neutral

There are over 2,000 people with no fixed address in the city.

 

positive

          There are over 2,000 homeless in the city. 

The reason why I chose this problem was that every language has its own specific culture background. In the past few decades, many obvious words in English language have already been changed. As a international student, it's hard for me to know the tiny change in meaning. It will cost me a long time to get used to the culture behind the language and totally understand what every sentence means. As foreigners, it is difficult for us to understand the jokes made by Americans. The way to solve this problem, in my opinion, is paying more attention on connotations and denotations and try to memorize and accumulate.

What Makes a Good Story?

1. A title that is an attention getter.
2. Significant and clear thesis.
3. Creative structure.
4. Clear transitions between paragraphs.
5. Coherent sentences that flow.
6. Use strong emphasis words and sentences.
7. Double check grammar and correct spelling.
8.Conclusion that summarizes main points of the story.
9. Strong Closure that makes the reader want to know more.
10. Have a unique style to the story.
11. Have one plot so it is not confusing.
12. Attractive clues to make you want to read more.
13. Put facts from least important to most important.

The story is about a poor couple begged for lengendary chestnuts to save their daughter.

Story in a box

Lengendary chestnuts
        
        The story happened in a small town in China. 
        Once upon a time, there lived a family, the Wangs. The family was well-known in that region because of three chestnuts.  These three chestnuts were lengendary. It was said that the three chestnuts had a long history which could treat any disease. Everyone wanted to get one but no one was permitted by that family even though people wanted to use coin collection and an antique of a statue of a man and  with drum to exchange.
         The Wangs treated the chestnuts as mystery. They carefully kept it in a jar and measured it with a ruler every day in case that the chestnuts become smaller.
         A couple lived in a farm near that family. They were poor. They worked hard in the farm under the sun every day so that their skins became black. They were so tired to support their family so that they lost all their hair(the two statues in the box). They had a daughter who had inborn disease which made their family poorer.
         One day, their daughter became sicker and sicker. The couple were so worried that doctors had no ways to treat their daughter. They started to think about the chestnuts even though there was little hope to get it. They had no choice but having a try. They put on the clothes made by a grey and purple cloth and went to sell their jade stamps to get more money. Then they rowed a canoe to the Wangs. The couple took all the money from the wallet and begged for that family. The Wangs still disagreed with the request. The couple despaired and kneeled in front of the Wangs' house day and night. Two days passed, the couple still insisted which moved the Wangs. The family had a deep thought. What's the meaning of holding the chestnuts? The chestnuts are used to save those who need help. How could I doing nothing to witness a girl going to death?  Finally they made up their mind to give one chestnut to the poor couple which made the couple so excited. The girl was saved. The Wangs often go to visit the girl and the two families became friends.

Inventory

1.Wallet

It's a leather-made wallet with a button to fasten it. It has a long history. It's from Mongolia.

2. Cloth

It has a history of 200 years. Purple and grey in color with flowers on it.

3. Canoe

It's a wooden canoe which is handmade. It's about 20 centimeters long.

4. Ruler

It's a normal yellow ruler with 12 inches long. We often use such kind of ruler in classroom.

5. Chestnut

There are 3 chestnuts with irregular size which are brown and hard.

6. Finca

This is a small model of a Spanish farm which is about 4 inches long. There is a house and a tree standing in the yard. 

7. Jar

This is a green and light yellow jar with a wooden cork. It was used to contain drugs in the history.

8. Black statue

  It's a statue of a black  woman. Although she is bald, she is still beautiful and young.

9. Coin collection

It's a coin collection for the year of Dog. There are 5 silver coins and 1 cooper coin.

10. Jade stamp

This is a Chinese Jade stamp with a detailed carving on the top and a Chinese character on the bottom of the stamp. It's very delicate.

11. Head statue

It's a statue of a head with blue eyes,red lips. It was hand carved.

12. Wooden sculpture

It's a sculpture of a man wearing a scarf who is walking in the wind and beating his drum.

first day

For the question "who am I" , students expressed their own opinions about it.

Someone maintained that we can introduce our preference, interaction and experience. Some thought we can write about the way we grew up, our background and the education. Others considered that dreams, goals and career are neccessary for this topic. In addition, thinking ways and hobbies were also be concerned. One idea even reached a high level that "How and why we came to this world?".
In a word, people paid more attention on the things they are capable of and the ways they grew up.