Author: metbaseball

More on Conjunctive Adverbs

Posted on by metbaseball

A conjunctive adverb can appear either at the beginning of a sentence or within it. When it starts a sentence, a comma should follow it.

Example: Nevertheless, he ate the ice cream.

When it’s within a sentence, how it’s punctuated depends on what surrounds it. If there’s an independent clause on each side, it needs to be punctuated as described in the previous post.

Example: Today is the first day of spring; however, I’m going to miss winter.

When a conjunctive adverb “interrupts” a sentence that contains only one independent clause, the adverb needs to be “encased” in commas.

Example: For breakfast, however, she prefers to eat oatmeal.

Note: If a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period lacks an independent clause, it’s a sentence fragment. (“Stop!” is a sentence because its subject, “you,” is implied, and its meaning is understood. It expresses a complete thought.)

A Brief Introduction to the Conjunctive Adverb

Posted on by metbaseball

A sentence, at its minimum, needs to contain both a subject and a verb; further, it must express a complete thought, which enables it to make sense when standing alone.

The above sentence actually expresses two thoughts. First, it states that “A sentence, at its minimum, needs to contain both a subject and a verb.” Second, it states that “it must express a complete thought, which enables it to make sense when standing alone.” Each of those thoughts is also an independent clause. They’re connected by “further,” which is a conjunctive adverb.

Whenever a conjunctive adverb connects two independent clauses, it must be preceded by a semi-colon and followed by a comma.

Other words that can serve as conjunctive adverbs are accordingly, besides, consequently, finally, furthermore, however, nevertheless, and therefore.

A Brief Introduction to Reginald Shepherd

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Reginald Shepherd, a name I was unfamiliar with until yesterday, has written one of the most captivating first two sentences in any piece of prose I’ve read in a long time. In the piece, titled “Why I Write,” Shepherd wrote “I write because I would like to live forever. The fact of my future death offends me.” Those are two lines that not only can motivate most readers to continue reading, but almost have the power to drag a reader further into the text.

Besides writing prose, Shepherd also wrote poetry. He wrote the poem, “Syntax,” in a style reminiscent of e. e. cumming’s. It starts with these stanzas:

Occasionally a god speaks to you,
rutted tollway a flint knife breaching
gutted fields hung on event

horizon, clear cut contradiction
through soybeans and sheared corn: blue
pickup an orange blaze, white letters

The first line is straightforward; however, the second line detours into surrealism. It’s a puzzle whose pieces, at first glance, don’t seem to fit together. It’s as if Shepherd doesn’t even expect or want a reader to try to interpret it, but rather, just to flow with its words and create a new, personal experience from them.

Giants In Need of Change

Posted on by metbaseball

Despite losing it last two games in pathetic fashion, the football Giants still are voicing support for their coach. However, counting this season and the previous two, the Giants have one of the worst records in football over the last three games: they’re 3-8. And even if they win the final game of this season, they’ll still have won only 33 percent of those critical games. Should the coach also be spared of blame for that result?

No matter how the team does in its last game this season, change is needed, and the coach is not the only one whose performance needs review. The GM has drafted a number of players in the upper rounds who haven’t made a difference when they get on the field, Clint Simtim and Travis Beckum two examples.

The bottom line: Bill Cowher is available.