McMahon Grammar Exercise: Essential and Nonessential Clauses
Birthdays that land on a Monday are a bummer.
Birthdays, which can be costly, are overrated.
Circle the relative clause and indicate if it’s essential with a capital E or nonessential with a capital N. Then use commas where necessary.
One. I’m looking for a sugar substitute that doesn’t have dangerous side effects.
Two. Sugar substitutes which often contain additives can wreak havoc on the digestive and nervous system.
Three. The man who trains in the gym every day for five hours is setting himself up for a serious muscle injury.
Four. Cars that operate on small turbo engines don’t last as long as non-turbo automobiles.
Five. Tuna which contains high amounts of mercury should only be eaten once or twice a week.
Six. The store manager who took your order has been arrested for fraud.
Seven. The store manager Ron Cousins who is now seventy-five years old is contemplating retirement.
Eight. Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts which is my favorite novel was runner up for the Booker Prize.
Nine. Parenthood which is a sort of priesthood for which there is no pay or appreciation raises stress and cortisol levels.
Ten. I need to find a college that specializes in my actuarial math major.
Eleven. UCLA which has a strong actuarial math program is my first choice.
Twelve. My first choice of car is the Lexus which was awarded top overall quality honors from Consumer Reports.
Thirteen. Mangoes which sometimes cause a rash on my lips and chin area are my favorite fruit.
Fourteen. A strange man whom I’ve never known came up to me and offered to give me his brand new Mercedes.
Fifteen. My girlfriend who was showing off her brand new red dress arrived two hours late to the birthday party.
Sixteen. Students who meticulously follow the MLA format rules have a greater chance at success.
Seventeen. The student who tormented himself with the thesis lesson for six hours found himself more confused than before he started.
Eighteen. There are several distinctions between an analytical and argumentative thesis which we need to familiarize ourselves with before we embark on the essay assignment.
Nineteen. The peach that has a worm burrowing through its rotted skin should probably be tossed in the garbage.
Twenty. Peaches, which I love to eat by the bucketful are on sale at the farmer’s market.
Twenty-one. Baseball which used to be America’s pastime is declining in popularity.
Four Writing Options
One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.
Alternative Option:
Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.
Alternative Option:
Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream.
Alternative Option:
Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class is perceived in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class?
Class Definition Summarized
Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system.
Let us be clear: Your class can even determine your happiness and life expectancy, as we read in "All Hollowed Out," an article that would make a good resource.
Also consult "America's self-destructive whites."
And consult "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?"
One. Why does the middle class aspire to be more upper-middle class than upper or top-out-of-sight?
Because middle-class status is a “familiar and credible fantasy: its usages, while slightly grander than one’s own, are recognizable and compassable, whereas in the higher classes you might be embarrassed by not knowing how to eat caviar or use a finger bowl or discourse in French.”
We can’t aspire to something we can’t imagine even if as an abstraction we know there’s a higher tier of wealth. We are bombarded with middle-class images, which tantalize our appetites. The middle class is the Goldilocks of human desire, not too much, not too little.
Sometimes people can’t fall in love with someone who’s “too beautiful” for the same reason that this “too beautiful” person represents a sort of alien planet that lacks comfort and familiarity.
Another factor that compels the middle class to aspire to the upper-middle-class is that the UMC dress codes, car acquisitions (Mercedes), and timepiece choices (Rolex) are synonymous with Success.
Wanting to look UMC also compels the middle class to aspire to UMC body types and UMC gestures and body language. You can actually buy books that help you talk, walk, and posture yourself like the upper class. We see this in A Man's Guide to Dining Etiquette and Proper Table Manners. Here is The Ladies' Book of Etiquette.
The code for UMC body language is polite superciliousness, arch assuredness, confident mindfulness, and calm self-possession. Additionally, the UMC have “controlled precise movements.” They don’t swing their arms when they walk. They don't raise their voice. They don't laugh and spittle. They are in control of their mind and body. This is why drunkenness if frowned upon in the upper classes and most upper class drunks conduct their business in private.
Two. How does one’s zip code or American location define one’s class?
Living in a UMC town compels one to find an elite part of the coast, especially in the North East.
Also an absence of fast food franchises, religious fundamentalist churches, and bowling alleys in one’s town evidences that one lives in an UMC zip code.
UMC people never live in towns where there are churches featuring people “speaking in tongues” or doing “healings” in which the afflicted stand up from their wheelchairs. Such “miracles” happen in lower class zip codes.
Miracle zones are places where there is desperation and a lack of education that compel their inhabitants to seek “miracles” rather than viable ways of achieving self-empowerment.
An UMC person will not see a “holy image” in one’s oatmeal or peanut butter toast and then try to sell such image on eBay.
Another sign of a UMC town is that you won’t be able to find copies of the National Enquirer and similar tabloids in the local markets.
Three. What is Fussell’s collective psychological analysis of the middle class?
He writes, “The middle class is distinguishable more by its earnestness and psychic insecurity than by its middle income.”
We can infer, then, that being middle class is more of a mentality than it is an economic level.
A digression: When we use middle class as a noun, there is no hyphen; however, when we use the term middle class as an adjective, that is to modify a noun, we hyphenate.
Examples
I am a member of the middle class.
She has middle-class aspirations.
Back to Fussell:
Fussell writes the middle class mentality can by characterized by the following:
They are terrified about how people will judge them, so they are very image conscious. As a result, they embarrass easily.
They are “obsessed with doing everything right.” Life is a stage, and one wrong move means they could lose the "leading role."
They are obsessed with table manners and general dining etiquette, and they like to imitate the British whom they feel have a monopoly on refinement and grace.
They are obsessed with not offending others, thus are avid consumers of deodorants, mouthwashes, nose and ear hair clippers, dandruff shampoo, "plush" toilet paper, and pretentious toiletries such as balms, unguents, lotions, and salves, suggesting the use of an old-fashioned apothecary.
They suffer from “status anxieties” and become sycophantic whenever they are in the presence of “important people” with grand titles such as doctor.
Wanting the sycophantism of the middle class, many professionals seek the “doctor” designation, including those who are not physicians. Dentists, professors, chiropractors, and religious divinity commonly use “doctor” to elevate their status in the presence of the middle class.
The middle class suffer from “status panic,” an affliction that comes from the obsession that they are constantly being judged under a watchful eye of some collective middle class.
The middle class loves pretentiousness such as sending invitations with curly cues and rococo designs and writing that screams “Anglophile” aspirations: “In honour [using British spelling] of our daughter we are delighted to request the pleasure of your company for our daughter’s graduation . . .”
Because the middle class is eager to conform to corporate culture, they “grow passive, their humanity diminished as they perceive themselves mere parts of an infinitely larger structure.” They know deep down they are interchangeable parts of a machine.
Because the middle class is treated like an interchangeable slave and knows they are tiny in the big corporate scheme of things, they compensate their inner sense of smallness with grand displays. We read, “the middle class lusts for the illusion of weight and consequence. One sign is their quest for heraldic validation . . .” We see such examples as embossed certificates of excellence, monogrammed bathrobes and towels, slippers, personalized license plates, and other tawdry signs of “personal distinction.”
More than any class, the middle class has the strongest inclination to be snobs. We read, “Worried a lot about their own taste and about whether it’s working for or against them, members of the middle class try to arrest their natural tendency to sink downward by associating themselves, if ever so tenuously, with the imagined possessors of money, power, and taste. ‘Correctness’ and doing the right thing become obsessions, prompting middle-class people to write thank-you notes after the most ordinary dinner parties, give excessively expensive or correct presents, and never allude to any place . . . that lacks known class.”
Longing to be seen as an “elite,” the middle class are fond of memberships to clubs, guilds, associations, and other entities that require “special invitation” and “exclusive membership.” Of course, such longs contribute to their snobbery, the flip side of sycophantism.
Another way to enjoy membership to an exclusive club is to buy high status purchases like Mercedes and Rolex.
The middle class is fond of business clichés like “the bottom line” and “at the end of the day” and “think outside the box.”
Four. What pastime unites men in the United States regardless of their social class?
Sports, games, and competitions of various sorts bring American men together. There is something about a defining manliness in the realm of sports that all men can agree upon. And there is something alluring to men about living vicariously through their sports heroes.
Five. How do economics affect body weight?
The richer we are, the skinnier we tend to be. The poorer we are, the more obese we tend to be. Being poor creates stress, which creates a “fat hormone response.”
Six. Why do proletariats tend to wear clothes with trademarks?
Fussell writes, “By wearing a garment reading SPORTS ILLUSTRATED or GATORADE or LESTER LANIN, the prole associates himself with an enterprise the world judges successful, and thus, for a the moment, he achieves some importance.”
I would argue that the middle class engages in the same kind of “identity branding”:
A Mini Cooper is “hipster.”
An Apple computer is both “hipster” and “creative class.”
A keychain with Porsche or BMW means “player.”
Seven. What are the characteristics of upper class fashion?
They wear expensive clothes, but rarely buy new ones, preferring to wear old high quality clothing.
They avoid being too neat and almost appear to be in a state of “studied casualness.”
Muscular men don’t look good in suits so it’s hard for a muscular man to look high class. A muscular man in a suit looks like a retired athlete, bouncer, cop, military, tough guy, mobster, etc.
Being thin in a good suit is a sign of being high class.
There are many superficial cues that point to high or low class. We have become obsessed with making sure we have the “right cues.”
Is the Dream of Class Mobility a Myth?
Class mobility may be a mythology in America that results from "The More Factor."
McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure
Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.
Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.
Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb
Faulty
For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.
Corrected
For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.
Faulty
In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.
Corrected
In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.
Faulty
Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.
Corrected
The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.
Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause
Faulty
When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.
Corrected
Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.
Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction
Faulty
Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.
Corrected
Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.
Faulty
Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.
Corrected
Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.
Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over
Faulty
In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.
Corrected
In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.
Faulty
Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.
Corrected
Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.
Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.
Faulty
We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.
Corrected
We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.
Faulty
Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.
Corrected
Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.
Faulty
Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.
Corrected
Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.
Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent
Faulty
The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.
Corrected
Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.
Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction
College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.
Faulty
Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.
Corrected
Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.
Faulty
A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.
Corrected
A torn rotator cuff will cause chronic pain in your shoulder.
Faulty
The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.
Corrected
I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.
Faulty
The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.
Corrected
I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.
In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:
One. Verb after a prepositional phrase
Two. Verb after a dependent clause
Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.
Five. Faulty predication
Six: Faulty apposition
Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction
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