English 155

Meeting 4 with Tosspon

Agenda

Review:• Sentences/

Subjects• Presentations

for Buildings

New: • Subject/Verb

Agreement• Benchmark:

Choosing a Topic

Presentations!

• Tell the class about your building – 5 min per student MAX

• Write 10 sentences about your performance: did you find it acceptable? Was your eye contact okay? What could you have done better? What grade should you get (0-100%)? What did you do to prepare? What was the class doing during your presentation?

• Hold onto this until the end of class.

EVERY VERB MUST AGREE WITH ITS SUBJECT

SingularSubject

PluralVerb

PluralSubject

SingularVerb

The Stupidity of English Grammar

To make a noun plural, we add –s Singular: girl Plural: girls

To make a verb plural, we take away the –s. Singular: he talks Plural: they talk

Watch the Verb Endings!

Singular I walk You walk He/She/It walk s

Joe walk s The girl walk s

Plural We walk You walk They walk

Joe and Maria walk The girls walk

Remember the 3 irregular verbs:

DOSingular Plural He does They do

HAVE She has They have

BE He is They are She was They were

Tip for Subject/verb Agreement

Generally, if the subject doesn’t end in –S, the verb will.

If the subject does end in –S, the verb won’t.

The girl dances.

No –S on subject

-S on verb

The girls dance.

-S on subject

No –S on verb

Compound subjects joined by “and”

If there are two or more subjects joined by and, the subject must be plural, so the verb will not get an “s”.

Example The boy and the girl dance.

(= They dance.)

No –S on verb

Compound subjects joined by “or”

If there are two or more subjects joined by or, the verb agrees with the part of the subject closest to it.

Examples: The professor or the students walk

the halls. The students or the professor walks

the halls.

Watch out for “Everybody”

• Everybody loves grammar!

• Everybody understands subject/verb agreement.

Possible PitfallsSometimes, several words come

between the subject and the verb.

The student, though she had lots of problems in other schools, finds/find (?) her new class easy. The student, though she had lots of problems

in other schools, finds her new class easy. The student finds her new class easy.

Appositive Phrase! Cross it out to find the subject!

Prepositional phrases

The subject can never be part of a prepositional phrase.

ExampleThe students in my class study /

studies hard.X

Prepositional Phrase! Cross it out to find the subject!

Possible PitfallsSometimes, the subject will come after

the verb, in questions or when sentence begins with there.

Examples Why is he falling asleep? Why are they falling asleep? There is no excuse for such behavior. There are no excuses for such behavior.

Possible Pitfalls

Relative Pronouns (who/which/that) can be either singular or plural, depending on the word they refer to.

The student who works hard will succeed.

The students who work hard will succeed.

How do I get this right?

First, identify whether or not you have problems with subject/verb agreement.

If you don’t have any problems with this, don’t worry about it!

If you do have problems Identify the verb. Ask who or what is

doing it. This will identify the subject. Say them together and make sure that

they match in terms of number.

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree –Practice

1. Many companies today (tests, test) their workers for drugs.

2. To many people it (seems, seem) an invasion of privacy.

3. Employers (worries, worry) that bus and train drivers are using drugs on the job.

4. They (doesn’t, don’t) want the lives of their passengers at risk.

Subject____________

Subject__

Subject____________

Subject_____

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree – Practice

5. Even operators of rides in amusement parks (undergoes, undergo) tests.

6. Professional athletes on a team (has, have) special problems because of unwelcome publicity.

7. Some factories (installs, install) hidden video cameras for surveillance.

8. The General Motors Company (hires, hire) undercover agents as workers.

Subject_________

Subject_________

Subject_________

Subject____________________________

Benchmark Requirements & Schedule Handout: Benchmark assignment

Argumentative Research Paper Topic must be approved by instructor

Provide Evidence – research! Use 25 vocabulary words from your research 1 primary source (interview, survey, etc) 4 secondary sources (1 MUST be in print) Present BOTH sides of the case/topic MLA + MLA works cited Presentation in wk 7 – what’s new, true, and

you!

Goals for today

Select your topic Do preliminary research – fill out the

research form

Planning your research

Budgeting Sarah, Jane, Josh

Write ideas about solutions to the question

What do you KNOW about this topic:

Causes of the problem, things you KNOW for sure

Facts

What do you need to learn about this?

What questions do we NEED to answer

LearningWhere can we find the answers?

Possible websites (not “the internet”, be more specific)

Need to use • 3 websites• 1 “local expert” • 1 book, magazine or newspaper

Action Plan

Research Plan