Week 4 - Dana Shumway

This week consisted of both successful and challenging moments for me. The concept of “it’s” vs. “its” has always come pretty easy to me. This is a concept I’ve felt confident about for many years, and luckily it’s stuck with me.  I also had a fairly easy time with powerful verbs. I am getting better at identifying run-on sentences, and learned a lot about active voice vs. passive voice.

The most challenging assignment for me this week was our assignment on verbs. Wow. I didn’t realize how difficult verbs can be. I also didn’t realize how many different types of verbs there are! This week I learned about gerunds. I did not know what a gerund was until I took this course.

 A gerund is “ a verb which always has an -ing ending, has the feel of action but serves only as the subject or object in a sentence. Gerunds are always nouns. “I learned that there is a difference between gerunds and participles. Participles also end in -in but are used as adjectives while gerunds act as nouns. This may seem silly but the way i’ve remembered a gerund is by remembering the word “run”.  The word “gerund” has the word “run” in it. Once i remember “run” i think of the example below which is an example of a gerund.

Example of gerund: I really enjoy running. This silly exercise helps me remember how to write/identify a gerund.

I found a couple of grammar mistakes this week. The first mistake I found was while reading a blog.
“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to miss the beach and sunshine but fall is my absolute favorite season. “

This sentence should have a “,” inserted before “but”.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to miss the beach and sunshine, but fall is my absolute favorite season."

I found another grammar mistake while reading the website/story of one of my favorite gluten-free bakeries. The sentence read as follows:

On the other , I had no idea where to start or what to eat.

This sentence should read: On the other hand, I had no idea where to start or what to eat.