Proofreading Q & A: moon or Moon?

 From Grade Six Daily Paragraph Editing (2004).

Each day my eleventh grade class and I begin class by proofreading one of four paragraphs, which together make a short narrative. While using an older workbook designed for use with sixth graders a decade ago, I've found the level of difficulty appropriate for most traditional eleventh graders, especially given the lack of grammar and punctuation acumen many seem to come into class with. The task is simple: using appropriate proofreader's marks, bring each paragraph into grammatical correctness in the cleanest way possible. In some cases, a more "sophisticated" revision (such as combining independent clauses using a well placed semi-colon) is possible (and "correct"), but we tend to go with the more accessible comma and conjunction correction.


For my own reference, as well as though students who occasionally assist at the front of the room, I also have an answer key for each, and last week came across a question from a student (you, know, the whole "teachable moment" thing). On rare occasions in the past, we have found that corrections which are suggested seem incorrect. I suspect that some of those "mistakes" which would have previously required correcting no longer do, given evolving nature of acceptable grammar. More commonly, though, there is a correction or non-correction that the key does accurately address, but I as a teacher am unable to properly articulate at the moment--so the teachable moment is deferred until the next class when I can find a satisfactory (and clear) answer.

Question: In the paragraph above, a question came up regarding proper capitalization of the word "moon" in line two: "his/crew was on his way to the moon." One student suggested that the word moon should be capitalized because it is referring to our (Earth's) moon, as evidenced by the article "the" preceding the noun. Should "moon" be capitalized, as a specific celestial body, or is the noun suitably common and should therefore remain lowercase?

Answer: One online source reads that "Names of celestial bodies: Mars, Saturn, the Milky Way (are capitalized). Do not, however, capitalize earth, moon, sun, except when those names appear in a context in which other (capitalized) celestial bodies are mentioned. 'I like it here on earth,' but 'It is further from Earth to Mars than it is from Mercury to the Sun.'" The key here is the necessary presence of a secondary specific celestial body (Mars, Earth, Haley's Comet) if one is to correctly  proofread line two by capitalizing "moon". In this case, the answer key was correct, and reflected the grammatical rule that the names of certain celestial bodies (moon, earth, sun) are not capitalized except when those names appear in a context in which other (capitalized) celestial bodies.

Source:
Capitalization

Learning the Interrobang with Resident Evil 5!?

Screen capture from Chapter 1-2: Public Assembly in Resident Evil 5 on XBOX 360.

Though often unintentionally, I find that I either 1) learn something new everyday or 2) learn I've been wrong all along about something about which I should have known better. A recent case in point is the use of both the exclamation (!) and question (?) marks at the same time to punctuate a single clause. I had always been under the impression that this was poor grammar, and while I'll maintain that it is still poor to do so in more formal modes, after many years of preaching the evils of doing so, I have been wrong.

While recently playing Resident Evil 5 on X-Box 360, a cut scene came on which again caused me to question one of my existing grammar beliefs around punctuation. As the game's two protagonists, Chris and Sheva,  were entering a foreboding storage facility, the two engage in a quick conversation with helicopter pilot Kirk. During this scene, the helicopter is attacked at which point Kirk exclaims, "What the f*** are those!? Mathison to HQ, I'm under attack by flying B.O.W.'s!" In many video games, when dialogue is being delivered in-game or during cut scenes, it also appears on screen. This is also the case with the Resident Evil games I have played on my XBOX 360 system.

This is actually at least the third instance of this combination of punctuation symbols, suggesting that the exclamation-question mark combo is legit. Earlier, when Chris is attempting to communicate with another off screen character he exclaims (along with the dialogue typed-out onscreen), "DeChant! Do you copy!?" The fact that each of these grammatical instances appear in fairly close proximity to one another in a ba-jillion dollar video game franchise, caused me to (again) ask the question: is it grammatically correct to use both a question mark and an exclamation mark following a statement? Part of me knew it somehow had to be otherwise why would the producers of such a popular (and culturally influential) video game choose to go this route without some purpose. This is not the product of some hack (such as myself) writing fan-fiction in upstate New York.


T-Virus parasitic zombies from
Resident Evil 6 are probably
interrobang worthy. 

One way that I have previously imparted to my students this perceived misuse of punctuation symbols is by asking a number of the young thespians in my classes to read a statement (for example, "I like ice cream") first with each mark individually (! or ?), and then with both side by side(!?). Rarely has "I like ice cream!?" been orated in a manner that is not awkward, or at the very least non-committal or unclear.

In certain rhetorical circumstances, such as when wants to express certain questions with annoyance, excitement, surprise or frustration (among other complex feelings), it IS grammatically acceptable to use exclamation mark in conjunction with the question mark. Apparently it CAN be used, and furthermore, there is an informal name for a punctuation symbols that combines both intentions by combing the marks. This can be in protest or astonishment ("Out of all places, the toilet?!"); a few writers choose to replace the "!?" combo with a single, nonstandard punctuation mark, the interrobang, which is itself a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Again, this is grammatically informal.

While use of the ?! combo, or interrobang, is "okay" to the Grammar Gods, to me, it is formally uncool and, in some ways, lazy. I would equate its use in student work as similar to the tendency to needlessly lace one's creative writing drafts with profanity: if you or your characters have something to express, to do so with profanity (and now with the exclamation-question combo/interrobang) strikes me as sloppy and lazy. I'll continue to suggest that the disciplined writer challenge themselves to find a clearer way using language and punctuation to articulate just what it is you are trying to communicate. But the contrarian in me does find the interrobang slowly begin to grow on me...

Sources:
RESIDENT EVIL 5 Game Script
StackExchange

'Nuff Read: How to Write A Sentence...

This fall I will begin teaching my third year of Advanced Placement Language and Composition for eleventh graders at my public school of employ. Given the sometimes dry nature of the composition's particulars and, by extension, grammar, I am always on the lookout for books that are accessible to curious high schoolers with an interest in the topics of writing and grammar.

I picked up this slight tome (only 162 pages) while at The Coop in Harvard Square, subconsciously probably so I would feel smart. How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish (ISBN-13: 9780061840548, HarperCollins Publishers) is the quintessential "smart person's book." This may be why, despite being an adequate teacher of English, the detail and grammar-ese became a little confusing for this knucklehead, especially the further along I waded into it.

Despite that, there is much useful insight into the process of teaching grammar, though the sharing of this information to younger readers/writers would likely require a more adapt teacher to even further distill the concepts down. Fish's approach to teaching the art of sentences is to use those sentences that can be seen to have either artistic or structural merit as a basis for a series of activities that facilitate the reader's development of their own sentences that mirror the exceptional qualities.  The basis for this seemingly abstract approach, is Fish's assertion that, "The sentence form is King." Fish's underlying premise is that once we grasp what the different forms are, how they work and what they do–then the rest (“the rest” being the ideas we wish to communicate) falls into place. 

Makes sense, right? In fact, as I read I could not help but to consider how this approach is similar to that which coaches at all levels of competition use in training student-athletes. Through the use of models to break up apart exemplary performance into its smaller components (for example, a well run race is the product of many variables including arm carriage, leg drive, torso position, etceteras) for instructional purposes. I like to think of this as the "Miyagi-san (Pat Morita's character in the original Karate Kid films) approach", and along the same lines the deeper into Fish's book one gets the more like a foreign language (such as Miyagi's Japaneses) the diction becomes.

To this end, throughout How to Write a Sentence..., Fish guides the reader though a series of meta-writing activities intended to illustrate the processes he is suggesting. The basis for these exercise are sentence models drawn from numerous recognizable authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Joseph Conrad. Fish relies on these types models and exercises to reveal for the reader the beauty and complexity of sentences and to invite the reader put into practice what he preaches.

The majority of the brief exercises could be easily adaptable for use in a classroom, though a less sophisticated student might find them frustrating, especially if what has been taught previously runs counter to what Fish suggests is the best way to teach. In addition to suggesting an alternative to existing grammar teaching strategies, How to Write... offer philosophical basis for a new approach to teaching writing beginning with its smallest structural building block.

While I do recommend reading (and utilizing) How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish, the purchase of the book is likely unnecessary, especially given its wide availability in local public libraries, including my local own Monroe Public Library branches. Of course, if you are a "local yokel", drop me a line and you're welcome to borrow my copy.

Other Summer Reading Books:
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God From Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
At the Mountains of Madness: The Definitive Edition by H.P. Lovecraft
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kankwamba