It's about waking up and engaging the mind. It's also often about having a sense of humor - just try reading Shakespeare without one!
Oh yes - Shakespeare. That's another reason you hate English class, you say? Well, I think I could change your mind. But English is so much more than the dusty, old (but wonderful!) tomes of the canon. We still speak, read, and write English, don't we? It's about Toni Morrison, Star Trek, Madison Avenue, Hollywood . . . even the Internet! Even instant messaging has its own conventions of rhetoric, usage, and etiquette, not to mention codes, lol. :)
This website is my modest contribution to the cause. It's part of my coursework at the University of Texas at Arlington, where I'm a grad student in the education program. That means I picked the wrong major as an undergrad and they made me take the GRE as a punishment. ;)
I am indebted to the many wonderful teachers who did not bore-ify English but instead let us have fun with it. Special thanks and great affection go to Mr. Scattergood, whose creativity in AP English knew no bounds. He read us poetry by candlelight, stood on his desk, and danced around the room, for which my classmates and I are forever grateful. I'm also grateful to Dr. Chelliah of UNT for humoring our group's endless variations on the "dead dog" sentence in "Structure of Modern English." Grammar truly climbed to heights of hilarity heretofore unsurpassed by any but the Mad Lib.
Like English itself, this website is under continual construction, deconstruction, and sometimes destruction. Please enjoy what's here, and don't forget to sign my guestbook!
Best wishes,
Kerri |
