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Michael Cummings
Canada - Ontario - Kanata
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3.9
42 votes
"And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche".
 
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3.9
This commentary provides a chapter-by-chapter analysis of John Wyndham's The Chrysalids. It includes content tests and answer guides, as well as...
$12.00
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3.9
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3.8
(76 pages, 33,000 words)This commentary provides a detailed critique of the novel as well as a short comparison to Knowles' companion novel Peace...
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3.8
4.0
(137 pages, 50,000 words) This commentary includes an analysis of scenes as well as questions, essay topics, tests, punctuation exercise with ans...
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4.0
4.0
(80 pages, 33,000 words)This commentary examines a number of important themes in Brave New World, among them the meaning of friendship and the co...
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4.0
0.0
(122 pages, 52,000 words)The only study guide you need for Lord of the Flies! This study makes an intricate analysis of the text, complete with ...
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4.0
(112 pages, 53,000 words)This commentary is a very detailed analysis of the text, focusing on Nick Carraway as a reliable narrator; his growth an...
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4.0
0.0
(120 pages, 60,000 words)My favourite Canadian novel! This commentary provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the text. Replete with ...
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3.9
(237 pages, 98,000 words)This commentary provides a comprehensive examination of the play - see "Table of Contents" page in the Sample download f...
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3.9
4.0
This commentary presents a detailed analysis of the play, examining the roles of the various conspirators, the concept of tragedy and the charact...
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4.0
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1 Month
0.0
(97 pages, 43,000 words not including Bolt's two prefaces) A brilliant play, grounded in history! This commentary examines Bolt's two prefaces t...
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(96 pages, 35,000 words)This commentary examines Romeo and Juliet as a morality play, the only one of Shakespeare's tragedies where theme is more...
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(66 pages, 32,000 words)Darkness at Noon, perhaps the greatest political novel of the 20th century, is a novel of ideas, Koestler examining the p...
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(160 pages, 54,000 words)This commentary makes a detailed analysis of the play, focusing on such topics as the role of the witches, the character...
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42 total vote(s)
Ask Michael Cummings a question. They will receive an automated email and will return to answer you as soon as possible. Please Login to ask your question.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
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BarbAnnD re: Brave New World: Punctuation Quiz
Where is the answer key?
April 2, 2013 Report inappropriate comment
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Michael Cummings  (TpT Seller)
Hi Barb,

The answer key is there - it follows right after the exercise. It is called Punctuation Exercise (Corrections). Please let me know if you have it. I also just added another punctuation and paragraphing exercise with an answer sheet as well.

Tks,

Mike Cummings
April 2, 2013 Report inappropriate comment

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recycled re: The Crucible: Grammar Exercises
Michael,
I am confused as to why I should place an apostrophe after 1600s in the first sentence.
January 29, 2013 Report inappropriate comment
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Michael Cummings  (TpT Seller)
The modern procedure nowadays is to omit the apostrophe just as it is now common procedure to omit the period after "Mr." or "Mrs." Either option is correct. If the apstrophe is used in "1600," the apostrophe is placed before the "s" (1600's)because the 1660's is a collective noun like the word "children's" or "p's" and "q's" in the expression, "Mind your p's and q's."

In London, England, the city council has created a heated controversy in its decision to remove the apostrophe from its street signs, arguing that the punctuation mark has become antiquated and confusing. This debate concerning the demise of the apostrophe appeared on the Internet on January 31, 2009:


LONDON - On the streets of Birmingham, the Queen’s English is now the Queens English.

England’s second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they’re confusing and old-fashioned.

But some purists are downright possessive about the punctuation mark.

It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the 1950s. Through the decades, residents have frequently launched spirited campaigns to restore the missing punctuation to signs denoting such places as “St. Pauls Square” or “Acocks Green.”

This week, the council made it official, saying it was banning the punctuation mark from signs in a bid to end the dispute once and for all.

Councilor Martin Mullaney, who heads the city’s transport scrutiny committee, said he decided to act after yet another interminable debate into whether “Kings Heath,” a Birmingham suburb, should be rewritten with an apostrophe.

“I had to make a final decision on this,” he said Friday. “We keep debating apostrophes in meetings and we have other things to do.”


They confuse people

Mullaney hopes to stop public campaigns to restore the apostrophe that would tell passers-by that “Kings Heath” was once owned by the monarchy.

“Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed,” he said. “More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don’t want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it.”

But grammarians say apostrophes enrich the English language.

“They are such sweet-looking things that play a crucial role in the English language,” said Marie Clair of the Plain English Society, which campaigns for the use of simple English. “It’s always worth taking the effort to understand them, instead of ignoring them.”

Mullaney claimed apostrophes confuse GPS units, including those used by emergency services. But Jenny Hodge, a spokeswoman for satellite navigation equipment manufacturer TomTom, said most users of their systems navigate through Britain’s sometime confusing streets by entering a postal code rather than a street address.

She said that if someone preferred to use a street name — with or without an apostrophe — punctuation wouldn’t be an issue. By the time the first few letters of the street were entered, a list of matching choices would pop up and the user would choose the destination.

Grammarians revolt

A test by The Associated Press backed this up. In a search for London street St. Mary’s Road, the name popped up before the apostrophe had to be entered.

There is no national body responsible for regulating place names in Britain. Its main mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, which provides data for emergency services, takes its information from local governments and each one is free to decide how it uses punctuation.

“If councils decide to add or drop an apostrophe to a place name, we just update our data,” said Ordnance Survey spokesman Paul Beauchamp. “We’ve never heard of any confusion arising from their existence.”

To sticklers, a missing or misplaced apostrophe can be a major offense.

British grammarians have railed for decades against storekeepers’ signs advertising the sale of “apple’s and pear’s,” or pubs offering “chip’s and pea’s.”

In her best-selling book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves,” (sic) Lynne Truss recorded her fury at the title of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock comedy “Two Weeks Notice,” insisting it should be “Two Weeks’ Notice.”

“Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended,” she wrote. (MSN, Saturday, January 31, 2009)

The decision to retain or eliminate or the apostrophe provides for interesting debate, for it serves to focus attention on the importance or relevance of punctuation; but suffice it to say that those who would abolish the apostrophe on the grounds that it is confusing, use a specious argument, for the purpose of punctuation—the apostrophe included—is not to create confusion but to avoid it, to provide clarity by eschewing vagueness or ambiguity.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed those wooden signs sold at various kiosks inscribed with a family name such as “The Wilson’s” or “The Abercrombie’s.” Most of these signs are wrong because the apostrophe is misplaced. “The Wilson’s” or “The Abercrombie’s” implies that only one Wilson or only one Abercrombie lives at that respective residence. To indicate the Wilson or the Abercrombie family, the sign should read “The Wilsons” or “The Abercrombies” without the apostrophe or “The Wilsons’” or “The Abercrombies’”with the apostrophe placed after the “s.” The signs without the apostrophe mean “The Wilsons or The Abercrombies live here”; the signs with the apostrophe after the “s” mean “The Wilsons’ or “The Abercrombies’ house, home, cottage or place of residence.” Another possibility is to say either “Wilsons” or “Abercrombies” without the apostrophe, the word “family” implied or understood, or “Wilsons’” and “Abercrombies’”with the apostrophe, simply omitting the definite article. With or without the definite article, though, the rule for the apostrophe as stated in the examples above still applies. If only one Wilson or one Abercrombie is intended, “Wilson” or “Wilson’s” and “Abercrombie” or “Abercrombie’s” are correct, but in these cases, the definite article “the” cannot be used and therefore must be omitted.

Hope this explanation helps. Mike Cummings
January 29, 2013 Report inappropriate comment

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Henry Look  (TpT Seller) re: The Chrysalids
Hi, does your materials include test questions with answers? Thanks. Henry Look
May 29, 2012 Report inappropriate comment
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Michael Cummings  (TpT Seller)
Hi Henry,
Included in my commentary are two quotation identification tests with answers, two content tests with very detailed answers and two essay tests with three choices for each test. I have not supplied an answer sheets for these two tests, but you will certainly find the answers in my commentary. Please contact me if you need any more information.
Tks,
Mike Cummings
May 30, 2012 Report inappropriate comment
TEACHING EXPERIENCE

I have been a high-school English teacher for over thirty years and continue to teach after my retirement as a supply teacher. While I was a PH. D student at Ottawa University, I taught a few courses to first-year students and a university summer course at the university's campus in Cornwall. I also taught a few summer courses to high school students for the Ottawa Board of Education. I enjoy writing critical commentaries on a wide variety of literary texts as well as teaching grammar and writing techniques. I especially enjoy dissecting works of literature and helping students come to grips with the text.

MY TEACHING STYLE

I have employed a wide variety of teaching styles: from classroom discussion and debate, to group work and oral presentations, to one-on-one tutorials, to note-taking skills and essay-writing techniques. I believe that having a solid grounding in one's subject, being well prepared, and having a genuine love and enthusiasm for learning are the keys to any teaching style and give one the versatility and adaptability to seize every teaching moment. I learn a great deal from students - both from their questions and their insights - and I encourage students to disagree with me and to present their own perspective and point of view. Please let me know of any changes you would like me to make so that I might tailor my documents to suit your specific needs. I welcome your comments and feedback; it is a real honour to share my ideas with you and I hope that you will find my commentaries beneficial to you and your students.

HONORS/AWARDS/SHINING TEACHER MOMENT

Yet to be added

MY OWN EDUCATIONAL HISTORY

B.A. - St. Patrick's College, Ottawa B.Theology - St. Paul University, Ottawa M.A. - Carleton University, Ottawa Ph. D courses and teaching - Ottawa University, Ottawa B. Ed. - Queen's University, Kingston

ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

I have published a number of literary commentaries for the Ottawa Board of Education. These commentaries, as well as a number of others, have been greatly updated and expanded. I have commentaries on a number of Shakespeare's tragedies-Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Julius Caesar-complete with a detailed explanation of specific aspects of the play, as well as crossword puzzles, quizzes, essay and seminar topics, discussions of the characteristics of the tragic figure and graphs of the structure of a Shakespearean tragedy. I also have commentaries on The Great Gatsby, Darkness At Noon, A Separate Peace, Brave New World, The Crucible, The Chrysalids, A Man For All Seasons, The Pearl, The Moon is Down, Pygmalion, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Stone Angel, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Henry IV, Part I, A Handbook on Grammar, Punctuation, Sentence Structure and Essay Writing, and many, many more. I am sure that many will find these commentaries a valuable resource. Please feel free to contact me through the Q@A forum - I am only too happy to help in any way I can. Mike Cummings