Put a red border around my English skillz!

[janetlin]

One of my classes this semester was "Structure of English." Yes, that's grammar. Because sadly, even university students don't always know the difference between a preposition and a pronoun. *rolleyes* _I_, however, was incredibly bored with the classes, and it didn't look like they were going to get any more challenging, so last week I asked my professor if I could challenge the class.

*For y'all in other countries that don't allow this, it means one takes the final exam early and if you get a passing grade, that's the grade you have for the entire class and you don't have to show up to lectures or do the homework or anything because you _obviously_ already know the material.

She said she'd had lots of students ask to do so, and only one had ever earned an A (I need to get at least a B), but I was welcome to try, and "I already have a sense that you've got a pretty good grasp of grammar." :D But she still seemed a little surprised that I even asked, and even more so when I was like, "How about next week?" No, seriously, lady, I'm that confident. Also I don't want my flakiness regarding homework to adversely affect what should otherwise be an insultingly easy A

So last night I pulled out my old Harbrace Handbook (just in case) and skimmed the whole thing in a few hours, and took the test this morning and ACED that sumbitch. Not a perfect score; I missed five points which gave me 93% overall. But still. *spastic happy dance*

There were sections like, "Identify what is incorrect about the following sentences (comma splice, adjective/adverb confusion, dangling modifier, etc)" and "Write a sentence correctly using each of the following words," and the words were commonly confused ones like effect, affect, its, it's, imminent, eminent, etc. For srs, guys. She liked the sentences I came up with, and said she'd keep them for examples when the class gets to that chapter. *preens*

Oh, and the final section was to write a paragraph of around ten sentences which explains how to do something. So I wrote about maneuvering in a hoop skirt. :D Probably _not_ what she was expecting to read today.

So yeah, one less class I have to sit through, a whole lot less homework I have to do, and more time at home to do homework for my other classes. Woot!

Comments

[good2notbeking.livejournal.com]

Devil's advocate here, but I am much better equipped at explaining French grammar, linguistics, etc., than English. I mean, it's not like I ever had to take a uni-level *English* linguistics class, for instance. Could I tell you what the future imperfect is in English? Maybe... if I thought about it long enough. But French? Don't get me started-- I've written ESSAYS on the subject ;)

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Will have been verb-ing?

Yeah, I could probably do that in Russian more easily than English.