Alot

Daily Language 6-5

• Fix this sentence:

The reason their were alot of problems with the sentence was because the teachur was showing them witch misteaks bother her the most.

Daily Language 6-5 Answer

• OriginalThe reason their were alot of problems with the sentence was

because the teachur was showing them witch misteaks did bother her the most.

• New and Improved

The reason there were a lot of problems with the sentence was that the teacher was showing her class which mistakes bother her the most.

English Portfolio #3

• Get out yesterday’s portfolio cover sheet and attachments.– Thoughtful cover sheet– 10 Daily Languages (5-1 6-5)– Drafts, prewrites, notes from summary– Any other relevant work

• Staple attachments to the cover and put it in the in-box. Put your notebook in the bin underneath if you are turning it in.

“alot” is NOT a word!!!!!!!

A grammar rant by Ms. Bradburn

Contrary to popular opinion, ‘a’ + ‘lot’ do not combine to make the single word ‘alot’. They are, in fact, two words: the article ‘a’ and the noun ‘lot’. Just as you would never write ‘alittle’ or ‘abit’, you should not write ‘alot’.

But even more importantly…it drives me absolutely crazy when I see it in a paper.

And you don’t want to see me absolutely crazy…

Oops…too late…

Confession time.

I am stealing pretty much all the funny stuff in this presentation from something I found online, but I had the author’s explicit permission…so it’s okay.

For future reference, that is called ‘citing your resources’. I will be teaching you about citing your resources later on this year.

So I’m really not stealing, I’m “teaching”.

Here’s the deal (and pay attention, because from now on I’m going to hold you accountable for knowing this…which is to say, you WILL lose points on your grade if you keep doing this in your writing) -

There is one grammatical mistake that drives me particularly crazy. Some students take the phrase ‘a lot’ and condense it down into one

word: ‘alot’. “Alot” is NOT a word.

When someone says ‘alot’, this is what I imagine:

Alot drawings by Allie Brosh, from whom I am stealing most of the funny stuff in this lesson. Giving Allie credit is called ‘citing a resource’. It is NOT okay to copy your friend’s paper, give them credit, and claim that you are citing your resources . That is actually called ‘getting an F on your paper’.

The Alot is an imaginary creature that exists to help crazy English teachers like me deal with our need to correct our students’ grammar. It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I'd normally be left feeling frustrated.

For example, when I read the sentence "I care about this alot," this is what I imagine:

(Granted, that is a rather touching picture of a student and his alot.)

Similarly, when someone says "alot of _______", I picture an Alot made out of whatever they are talking about.

ALOT OF MAC ‘N’ CHEESE

If a student says something like "I feel lonely alot" or "I'm angry alot," I'm going to imagine him sharing his feelings with an Alot.

Alots can be found in other situations…

My point is, ‘alot’ is not a word. Please stop putting Alots in your papers. If you remember ONE thing from this year, please remember this…

ALOT is NOT a word!!!

THANKS, ALOT!!

This slide show has been the first of a series of presentations I hope to make about writing mistakes and bad habits that drive me crazy.

As you move forward, you will find that other teachers have different ‘pet peeves’. This is normal. For now, learn what mine are and change your writing as necessary.

Coming Up (someday when I bother to make the slide shows)

• The reason is NOT because!!!• “Hello, my name is Susie Student, and I am

writing a paragraph.”• “I think, therefore I write.”• And and other words not to start a sentence

with.• With and other words not to end a sentence

with.• Wacky margins, fancy fonts, and other

formatting things that look weird on paper.