Eh, discussion boards

I logged onto my online class to see if anyone posted to the discussion board yet. Low and behold, two brave souls did just that. And that's when I notice the discussion question for Module 2 was posted, and I was like, what the hey, my false confidence just faded.

I looked at Module 1's posts and was pleased to see I must not be the only person who feels discussing subject/verb agreement really isn't much of a discussion because it is what it is.

The first post was to complain about The Chicago Manual of Style and it's complete unfriendliness to users, and to give props to A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker, which the poster felt was much easier to navigate.

Personally? I don't really care. I have a question, I just go look it up. These books aren't really meant for thumbing through and random reading. So I thought, hmmm...I can actually reply to this person's post and get some points. Bingo.

The second person posted a question about how soon we actually get feedback on our assignments from our MIA teacher. And yes folks, this is why have a real live teacher in front of you to introduce the term "pimp my class" is way better than a cyber teacher who hardly shows her face via words or feedback.

I decided to check out Module 2's discussion before posting a reply to either one of the Module 1 postings.Module 2 is about pronouns and their antecedents (I'm assuming since I didn't think I had to look at Module 2 stuff until I was done with my assignment). Our teacher asked us to try rewriting a sentence to make it read better. It was littered with singular subject, plural possessive pronouns and a whole ugly mess of "his or her" because we don't know if the subject is a he or she.

Someone beat me to it and rewrote the sentence so the subject was a general plural one, and so using "their" fixed the sentence. I rewrote the sentence to make the antecedent general. And then for a bonus, suggested using "one." Even though one doesn't often like to write this way, especially when one's grade is on the line.

I then went back to the book post and wrote that I liked both books, these books are good as well (including my Dad's grammar book from the 60's), and so on and so forth. Didn't add too much value to the original post, but what the heck, I have to do it.

So this weekend I'm thinking of posing some bizarre question and seeing if anyone tries to take it on or if I get ignored. At least I'll be getting some sort of credit for it (I hope). And maybe the Smarty McFarties will come out of the wood works and start posting their thoughts.