Page 101 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

SENTENCES, PHRASES, AND TEXT CONSTRUCTION 87
(2) Parsing Sentence and Phrase Slots
In the following texts, please find all subject phrases and all predicate phrases and all objects/complements in all sentences. Circle the entire sub- jects and predicates and include all their elements. Please do not forget that sentences can be compound and complex, in addition to simple. After all subject, predicate, and object phrases are found, underline the main subject
noun, the main predicate verb, and the main object noun.
(a) Vitamin C and minerals, such as iron, can befound in many types of foods.
(b) Frequently, a shortage of vitamin D occurs during the winter months.
(c) Nationwide, the average commute increased 3.1 minutes from 22.4 minutes to 25.5 between 1990 and 2000. Among the 25 large cities, Seattle's average commute time ranked 15th in 2000, up slightly from 17th in 1990. Los Angeles, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, and Dallas were ahead of Seattle on the latest list. (Adapted from the Seattle Times, June 8, 2002, Local News, Section B, p. 1)
(d) The basiccategoriesof marketing mix elements areproduct, place, price, and pro- motion. ... The product variable includes the brand name, thepackage, the warranty, and customer service. Sometimes emotional aspects of the product are very important. We will discuss these topics in the second half of the book.... Decisions about transpor- tation and storage are examples of distribution activities. Price is the amount of money, goods, or services that the customer exchangesfor the product. Pricing goods and services involves establishing appropriate price levels.... Using discounts, re- bates, and other techniques is a way of adjusting prices to make them low.... Cost, competition, and desired profit determine prices. (Adapted from Zikmund, Middlemist, & Middlemist, 1995, pp. 292-293)
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Identifying Specified Missing or Incorrectly Added Sentence Elements.
Depending on students' proficiency levels, the exercise can consist of typed (but not photocopied) short text excerpts from one to four sentences. Typed text can allow the flexibility of deleting or adding elements without visible deletions and omissions.
In thefollowing text, please correct all errors in the subject-verb agreement and object/adjective constructions that follow the verb phrase [explicitly stated foci]. Missing and added elements are included in the square brackets and they should not appear in the student copy of the text.
(a) For many parents, recreation with kids differ[S—deleted] greatly from the days when they could take [object missing—their hiking boots/noun] and
'The benefits of various types of editing/error correction practice (sometimes called nega- tive models or negative instances] have been noted by many researchers, including Corder (1973), Hammerly, (1991), and James (1998).
(3) Text-Level Editing Practice With an Explicitly Stated Focus
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