Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Students of English 1 TFU: Something to correct

I am pasting onto this post a short article I received via email just now. It has only one grammatical mistake. If you can pinpoint it, then you've learned something from me. Though you don't have to be a student of English 1 to post your answer, I expect my English 1 students to beat everyone to the draw!
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WORD FOR TODAY (Psalm 90:12):
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

THOUGHT:
When we lose our sense of urgency to live for God, we end up wasting our time. God has a plan for us, for our world, and for His Church. Without God's gift of "spiritual arithmetic" (numbering our days aright), we will never gain a heart of wisdom. So, how do we get such a gift? Ask for it without doubting. Trusting the Lord for wisdom has a huge effect on us and the way we conduct our lives. Rather than losing heart, God gives us a heart of wisdom.

PRAYER:
Holy and Almighty God, King of the Ages, You alone live in complete wisdom, justice and grace. Please help me to know what time it is in my life and the role You want me to play at this stage of my journey. I want my life to be lived glorifying You. In Jesus' precious name I pray. AMEN!

6 comments:

mda said...

Wrong. "That" is an archaic English conjunction that can take the place of "so" or "so that." The verse is most likely from the King James Version of the Bible.

I've been to your blog, however, and like your layout. But don't you want to write in English so you can practice it? Never mind, write as you want; we should be proud of our native tongue, and should promote it as much as we can.

When writing in English, however, take care of your tenses. Since you've started your "Parable of Judgment" with "once," you should use the past tense all the way. It did happen once upon a time, didn't it? Not today, or now?

Happy writing, Francis Christian!

mda said...

You're right, Nelissa, that's the sentence in question. But your answer still isn't right. Em didn't get it (she commented in another post); neither did Francis, who texted his answer to me.

You see, God isn't the one who gives us a losing heart; we're the ones who lose heart, by ourselves. But He can give us a heart of wisdom...IF....

So the contest goes on, but the prize diminishes as more clues are dropped? Hmmm...let me think about that.

:)

Mi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mi said...

There's no parellelism.

"Rather than losing heart, God gives us a heart of wisdom."

It should probably be something like

"Rather than losing heart, ask for a heart of wisdom."

mda said...

Correct! You got it, Misan! "Rather than losing heart, ask God for a heart of wisdom." You missed only one word there, but your sentence is still correct.

Now what's your real name? You got the prize!

mda said...

One other way of writing the sentence is, "Rather than losing heart, we must ask God for a heart of wisdom." This way of writing the sentence would be in accord with the previous sentences.

On the other hand, by itself alone, the sentence would sound better if it's written as "Rather than lose heart, we must ask God for a heart of wisdom."