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Subject:Re: report on how kids can't write From:Laura Johnson <lauraj -at- CND -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 16 Aug 1994 15:24:14 GMT
Andreas Ramos (andreas -at- netcom -dot- com) wrote:
: Somebody wrote:
: "I am happy to say somehow I made it through the public school system
: knowing exactly what a noun was. ..."
: Whoever wrote this was doing it on their off day. Run on sentences, mixed
: subjects, unclear point, capitalization errors... Here's a go at it:
: "I'm happy to say that I learned about nouns in public school..."
: It's still not clear if there is a point to this, but at least it's readable.
: Born to rewrite...
: andreas
But you changed the meaning. (!) "Somebody" didn't say he/she learned
about nouns in public school, but that he/she made it through knowing
exactly what a noun was. The differences are:
1) "Somebody" may not have learned about nouns in school, but elsewhere.
2) "Somebody" not only "learned about nouns", but ended up knowing what
they are. If you learn that "a noun is a person, place, or thing", you've
learned about nouns, but you don't necessarily know what they are.
