On the first page of Anderson's chapter, I was perplexed by this quote by authors Caroll and Wilson: "It, clearly a pronoun meant to refer to and idea previosly expressed, is often used by students to refer to an idea still in their heads" (103). Can I just say that I have no idea what this means? I don't know if I am reading too much into this, but I didn't know that "it" is tense sensitive! Other than the perhaps not so widespread pronoun-antecedent agreement error, I found these pronoun errors to be some of the most common ones that I personally see. By going off of his research indicating which problems students have most, Anderson has showed me how many common errors relate to pronouns. I feel that these problems don't always stick out because pronouns, being more general or even vague, do not draw as much attention as other, more particular parts of the sentence. Does this in turn mean that pronoun errors don't always interrupt the meaning being conveyed? It may seem that way, but I would say no. I don't think a misplaced comma is nearly as confusing as a misplaced pronoun. I noticed the lesson called "Where Have All the Pronouns Gone?" because it gives students the opportunity to explore how to make sensical use of pronouns. Reading the sentences aloud would definitely help them place the correct pronouns in the blanks.
On Thursday, Kelsey, Sara and I will be presenting on Chapters 9 and 10. Noden pairs these two chapters, on structural and revising techniques, together by suggesting teaching them as part of the writing process. I found the keyboard model of structuring nonfiction pieces very helpful. It made me think that I have probably been able to create such "melodies" using different keys and not even knowing it! But I was also intrigued to read Noden's warning, "A writer shouldn't try to stuff ideas into predetermined boxes of form" (219). I think we should take this into account when planning our lesson and allow the students' ideas to flow freely and have their own style. While I could see the point it was trying to make, I wouldn't use the ladder of abstraction in my classroom. Yet something drew me to Strategy 4 in the second chapter, which teaches students how annoying unnecessary wordiness can be! It uses the same method of showing students the extreme negatives of the habit. I think it would be good to focus on this topic, because it follows up Sara and Jenne's lesson on using vivid parrts of speech, by showing the other side of the coin. As I continued to read on, I came to the final section, "Six Chunks: Techniques for Eliminating Unnecessary Words." Apart from the "Beat the Deadline" game, these chunks show students to re-word some sentences or parts of sentences in order to achieve a tight focus and a clear meaning.
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