Feedback on Warm-Up 3

I think I've just finished all the Warm-Up 3s - so if you've submitted yours, but not yet received feedback, please first check your mailbox … and then get back to me and I'll see what's happened to it!

Warm-Up 3 was also done very well, with most people navigating the shoals and quicksands of formal language in English very well. There are all sorts of pitfalls and traps for you to fall into, from choosing the right kind of formal vocabulary to avoiding using spoken language in formal reports. Here are a few hints and tips:

1. Don't start sentences with 'And' or 'But' in formal writing. They work in informal, internal memos and e-mails, but not in formal written documents.

2. Don't use short forms (like 'don't') in formal writing. Write the short form out in full instead (e.g. do not).

3. There are some words in everyday use which aren't sufficiently formal for more formal documents. Among these are 'get' (receive/become/obtain are three useful synonyms) and 'big' ('large' for size; 'great' or 'major' for importance). Using them can make you sound a little like a lightweight.

4. Then there's the difference between 'security' and 'safety'. The former is more existential and the latter more physical. Thus a 'security barrier' is designed to keep you hooligans in the crowd in your place (Kalmar's full of exuberant people this evening who need to be kept in place by security barriers).

A 'safety barrier' on the other hand is for your protection to stop you from falling off a high building.

5. The distinction (or rather sometime lack of distinction!) between 'damage' and 'damages' has come up. 'Damage' is physical harm done to an object or person. 'Damages' is the sum of money a court may make you pay if you cause damage (nb) to someone or something else. The Swedish for 'damage' is 'skada' and for 'damages', 'skadestånd'. You can imagine the confusion that might be caused by mixing them up.

In addition to this, 'damage' is something that's called an 'uncount noun' in the grammar books. We have quite a few people on the course this term who have as their native languages languages which don't have the same system of articles as Swedish and English, so here's an extended explanation for Lithuanians, Koreans and Chinese students, amongst others!

In English we divide nouns (names of things, people, emotions, etc) into two categories, 'count' and 'uncount', depending on whether we see the nouns as separated objects (like 'chairs') or as representatives of a more amorphous type of experience (like 'patriotism' or 'damage').

Count nouns have singulars and plurals; uncount nouns only have a singular form. This is why 'damages' has got to deal with the money, not with the damage, since the uncount noun 'damage' can't have a singular form.

Singular count nouns must have a word of the grammatical category of determiners in front of them. Determiners are words like a/the/my/this/another which tell you exactly which one of them you're talking about. Thus you can't say *I need chair* - you have to say "I need a chair" … or "…that chair"… or "… your chair", etc.

Uncount nouns, on the other hand, can stand without a determiner. Thus, "he did some damage to his knee … but without love and kindness it just festered until he could hardly walk"!

And … just to be really English … count nouns can stand without a determiner if they're in the plural! Thus: "Chairs are to be stacked on one another before leaving the classroom".

I always say that if English were easy, you wouldn't need teachers!

If anyone feels the need for further explanation of this point, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Good luck with Send-In 3 this weekend.