Usage
Project Research
In this part of
the usage project, you will collect data that helps you compare what
the usage guides have to say with what people know and think about the
usage error or dispute you are studying. You will collect data of two
kinds. You need to complete this research before the date of your class presentation.
1. Collect at least five
incorrect usages of the error or dispute you are studying from printed
writing. You can look in newspapers, books, magazines; on websites; in
handouts from teachers. If your error or dispute involves a range of
more and less correct or appropriate uses, try to find examples that
demonstrate the range of acceptability. Write down the source of each example you find, including as much information about the source as possible.
2. A. Make up a list of sentences that demonstrate both correct and incorrect usages
of the error or dispute you are studying. Again, if your error or
dispute involves a range of more and less correct or appropriate uses,
make up sentences that demonstrate the range of acceptability. (I will
be happy to check your sentences to see if they will work well.)
2. B. Using your list of
sentences, interview five MTU students and five MTU teachers about
whether they see anything incorrect in the usage in the sentences and
what they believe to be incorrect. Opinions about and knowledge about
usage varies with level of education and age. In this research you will
be holding level of education more or less equal across the two groups
(both students and teachers have some college education), but we want
to see whether usage is changing, so getting a difference in age is
important. You will want to interview traditional-aged students (in
their teens and twenties) and older teachers (over 40). Also, choose
people who are long-time speakers of American English.
When you do the interviews:
- Do not
tell people you interview what topic you are researching. Just tell
them this is a project for a grammar class. They may be able to figure
out from the sentences what you are interested in, but don’t
start by telling them what to look for.
- Ask them
to look carefully at each sentence and say whether it is okay
grammatically or whether there is something is wrong or strange in it.
If they say something is wrong or strange, ask them to explain what it
is that they find wrong or strange.
- After they
have looked at all sentences, ask them whether they have been told or
know any rules about the usages in the sentences.
- Keep a separate sheet of notes on each person you interview, and write on this sheet their ages and also what department
they are majors in or teach in. Take careful notes on what each person
says about which sentences are wrong, about what he or she says is
wrong in the sentences, and about what he or she has been told about
the usage of the topic you are studying.
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