CONTENTS FEATURE: Teach your kids respect for English GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions NET NOTES: Captivating Web sites FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn up to $500 FEATURE: Assume responsibility to teach your kids respect for English      Generations of Americans have relied upon public schools to teach students their ABCs and the rules of grammar and syntax that compose the structure of the English language. Older Americans recall spending hours of class time drawing sentence diagrams to help them understand parts of speech—the structural elements of sentences and how they relate to each other.      Much of that understanding appears to have been increasingly lost, unfortunately, on subsequent generations of students, many of whom experience difficulty in expressing themselves with eloquence, clarity or diplomacy in the workplace.      While that educational failure may be attributable to students' lack of attention, teacher training programs and school districts that excuse diminished English proficiency should shoulder part of the blame.      In a letter to parents, a teacher in Atwater, Calif., wrote, "I believe all students can behave appropriately in my classroom. I will not tolerate any student from stopping myself or any other teacher from teaching and other students from learning."      In that disturbingly inarticulate statement, the teacher improperly paired the verb "tolerate" with the preposition "from," and incorrectly used the reflexive pronoun "myself."      The declaration could have been expressed far more intelligibly by saying, for example, "I expect students to comply with the behavior standards I have established for my classroom. I disdain any behavior by a student that interferes with teaching in class, or that distracts other students who wish to learn."      A teacher in Seattle, Wash., wrote, "As the music teacher, nothing is more important to me than encouraging all of our students to succeed in playing music and enjoying the pleasure of playing an instrument to the best of their abilities."      That sentence begins with a spectacular example of a dangling modifier. Because of the peculiar structure of the sentence, the noun "nothing" is the subject, leaving the intended subject—"me"—as the direct object of the adjective "important." As a result, the sentence literally says that "nothing" is the music teacher.      If the teacher had paid closer attention to basic subject-verb-object syntax, the result might have been a more lucid statement—for example, "As the music teacher, I consider nothing more important than encouraging all of our students to succeed in playing music." That revised version changes the subject of the sentence to the pronoun "I," to which the appositive introductory noun phrase "as the music teacher" properly points.      In an opinion article submitted to a newspaper, a Davis, Calif., elementary school teacher critical of a "gifted and talented education program" wrote, "I believe that public education in general, and our district in particular, has an obligation to provide a basic education to all its students...."      Parents who agree should expect that basic education should encompass teaching students how to avoid subject-verb disagreements by understanding the distinction between simple and compound subjects. The teacher, however, gets low marks on that point of grammar for failing to observe that the elements of his sentence's compound subject—"public education AND our district"—require a verb in agreement. The sentence should have read: "...public education in general, and our district in particular, HAVE an obligation."      Within the same article, the teacher also wrote, "I realize this is a valued program by many parents as well as the district." As a result of a poorly placed direct object, the sentence appears to say that the program is conducted by parents ("...program by many parents"). The teacher, who admitted to eight years of experience, should have written, "I realize that many parents, as well as the district, value this program."      On an Internet discussion board described as a "portal for educators," a self-described new teacher seeking advice wrote, "I teach 6th grade and I cant controll any of them! Also, I cant come up with any good ideas for lessons and teaching! Please help me and give me ideas! Thank you!"      The teacher was woefully unprepared not only in preparation of lesson plans and student discipline, but also in spelling, punctuation and grammar. He twice neglected to include the necessary apostrophe in the contraction "can't," he misspelled "control," and failed to indicate the intended antecedent for the pronoun "them." Readers might presume he was referring to students, but he never explicitly said so; he could just as well have been referring to squirrels that invaded his classroom.      The first teacher who replied to his posting also needed a lesson in grammar. That respondent wrote, "I teach 7th grade, and have mostly boys this year. To get them under control, I started a new management plan, that works wonderful!"      The verb "works" requires modification by an adverb—in this case, "wonderfully," rather than the adjective "wonderful." In addition, placement of the comma after "plan" was incorrect.      Another teacher who responded wrote, "For everytime that I have to say 'sh' 'get to work' 'stay on task,' it adds time at the end of the hour. Also, for those students, they loose the extra points that I give on each project."      Those two sentences contain a combined total of two unnecessary prepositions ("for"), one unnecessary pronoun ("it"), one misspelled verb ("loose"), an unclear reference ("those students"), and a counterfeit adjective ("everytime") that is not in the dictionary.      Here's an improved version: "Every time I must tell disruptive students 'shhh' or 'get to work' or 'stay on task,' I require the violators to remain seated a compensatory amount of time after class has ended. In addition, offending students lose extra points that I normally award for each project."      A Chesterland, Ohio, teacher who prepared a science class syllabus for students needs to dissect some sentences. The teacher wrote, "My goal for you this year is to turn you all into more intellectual thinkers, the information we learn this year may come and go, but if you are able to learn how to think as a scientist, it will remain with you for the rest of your life." That statement is not only a hideous run-on sentence, but also contains a curiously colloquial phrase: "information we learn may come and go." The reader can only wonder in what sense information will "come" and "go."      The teacher may have been trying to say, "In this class, I will strive to help you think more intellectually. You probably will not retain all of the specific facts you will learn in the class. Of far greater importance, however, is gaining the ability to think as a scientist, which you can use to great advantage in various ways throughout your life."      The teacher also wrote, "By your age I do not expect to have behavior problems in my class, I am a teacher not your baby-sitter."      In yet another run-on sentence, the teacher claimed to be the same age as his students, and excluded a comma necessary to demarcate a phrase.      Rewording clarifies the intended meaning: "I expect students of your age to control your behavior. I am a teacher, not your baby sitter."      In a note to parents, the same teacher additionally wrote, "We are consistently only seeing about sixty percent of the students handing their work in on time. It is my responsibility to ensure that your sons or daughters are learning effecting work habbits and unfortunately it has come to this."      He bungled placement of the modifier "only." Intensifiers such as that should be placed immediately adjacent to the word they are intended to modify. While the teacher probably wanted "only" to add emphasis to "sixty percent," its misplacement in the sentence makes it modify the verb "seeing." As a result, the sentence literally says "we are only seeing"—as opposed to other actions, such as hearing, walking, eating or learning. He is doing nothing but seeing. The subsequent sentence contains three sloppy errors: mistaken use of the verb "effecting" instead of the adjective "effective"; misspelling of the noun "habits"; and use of the preposition "it" with an unclear antecedent. To what does "it" refer?      If a student had submitted that passage on a paper, an attentive teacher might have insisted on rewording such as this: "Only sixty percent of students consistently submit their work to me on time. I am obligated to instill effective work habits in your sons and daughters. To encourage more students to better schedule their time and meet deadlines, I am intensifying the consequences for procrastination."      A letter to parents from an eighth-grade teacher in Springport, Mich., treats the adjective "tardy" as a substitute for the noun "student." In a letter to parents, the teacher wrote, "A tardy in my class will be any student not in the classroom by the time class begins."      The teacher should have preserved proper use of the adjective "tardy" by writing, "I will any student tardy for failure to be in the classroom when the class begins."      The teacher neglected to avert an indistinct passive construction and a clumsy subject-verb disagreement—and used an adjective instead of an adverb—by writing, "It is expected that each student write their assignment in their planner provided by the school. Homework will be assigned almost everyday."      The adjective "everyday" (one word) should be used to modify a noun, such as "her everyday clothes." This sentence called for an adverbial form: "every day" (two words).      Here's a more articulate variation: "I expect all students to write their assignments in their planners that the school supplies. I will assign homework almost every day."      The teacher additionally wrote a numbingly nonsensical paragraph: "Students will be allotted a limited amount of hall passes to use throughout the year. They can use these at any time, however, when they are out, they will not be permitted to leave the classroom unless it is truly an emergency. At that point, a tardy may be added to their attendance record."      Following mention of students and hall passes, the use of the pronoun "they" in the second sentence is unclear—as is the intended meaning. The teacher says, "...when they are out, they will not be permitted to leave the classroom...." On the contrary, if "they" (students) are out, they indeed have left the classroom.      No one is infallible and grammatical mistakes in casual writing are excusable. Formal writing, however—appropriate for letters to parents of students—requires greater discipline and precision. Parents may be uncertain if the errors in these passages by teachers reflected mere carelessness—or more disturbingly, inadequate familiarity with grammatical rules.      Parents should assume responsibility, therefore, in helping their children discern grammatical gaffes and in encouraging them to develop understanding and respect for proper grammar. By reinforcing what they learn in school, parents will build a firmer foundation upon which to improve their understanding of the world around them and through which to express themselves articulately and persuasively. What's bugging you? In recent months, we have worked on materials involving insect pest management, agricultural production and traffic congestion. GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions Dave Banwell submitted this month's question:      "I was wondering about the proper format for possessives when titles or credentials are used at the end of a person's name. For example, how would you write the possessive of 'Rev. J. Smith, CS'?" The grammar coach replies:      While we're unfamiliar with the designation "CS" and the protocols that may be associated with it, perhaps guidelines about use of possessives in connection with academic degrees would be applicable.      Possessives are formed, in most cases, by adding "apostrophe-s" ('s) to a common noun or proper noun, as in "Joe Smith's car." Let's say he has a doctoral degree. Any appendage degree designations, such as "Ph.D.," do not take a possessive form. The car belongs to Joe Smith, rather than to his doctoral degree. For that reason, we would avoid use of a possessive when an abbreviated degree or other certificate designation is appended to the name of an individual.      If the abbreviated designation must be retained, try forming the possessive using "of" or forms of "belong to," as in "that car belongs to the Rev. Joseph Smith, CS" or "that is the home of Cynthia Kowalski, Ph.D."      Thanks for submitting your question, Dave.      Are you perplexed by some aspect of grammar or word usage? Don't be shy! Ask the "grammar coach" at EditPros and we'll try to help—at no charge, just for the sport of it. NET NOTES: Captivating Internet resources FoneFinder      Suppose a stranger leaves a voice mail message for you and you're uncertain about the location of the caller's phone number. Head for this site, enter the area code and the first three digits of the phone number, and at no charge FoneFinder will identify the city of origin—as well as the caller's telephone company. If you prefer, you can enter a city name to discover the telephone prefixes and telecommunication companies assigned to it. You can conduct searches for numbers in other nations as well. FACSNET sources for journalists      When journalists need a source for authoritative information on a subject, they can check the catalog of references at FACSNET —and so can you. The site is operated by FACS, a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution in Pasadena, Calif., that is funded by grants from newspaper and broadcast news organizations. FACS educational programs are intended to help journalists gain understanding about economics, science, law, ethics and other complex topics affecting the news. Docfinder searches      If you'd like to learn more about your physician's credentials, this is a good place to start. DocFinder is a database containing information about the licensing backgrounds of physicians and other health-care practitioners, along with disciplinary records encompassing medical malpractice, hospital discipline and criminal conviction information. Administrators In Medicine, a national organization for state medical and osteopathic board executive directors, operates this site, which claims to be America's only free physician database that draws data from state government licensing boards. FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn a finder's fee of up to $500      Do you know of a friend or colleague whose office can benefit from EditPros services? If you do, EditPros may reward you with a "finder's fee" of up to $500.           EditPros, established in 1993, performs writing, editing, proofreading and publication management services for newsletters, brochures, Web sites, annual reports, research studies, business proposals and other informational and marketing materials. Our office is in Davis, Calif., between Sacramento and San Francisco.      If you recommend our services to a friend or business colleague, and that introduction leads to an assignment for EditPros, we will award you a "finder's fee" equaling 10 percent of the amount we earn on the first assignment for the new client, up to a maximum finder's fee of $500. Naturally, the finder's fee is applicable only to clients for which we have not worked previously.      This offer will remain in effect until further notice. YOUR TURN: Ask the "grammar coach" or subscribe      We invite you to submit your questions to the "grammar coach," and we welcome you to subscribe to this monthly newsletter—which we'll send to your e-mail address at no charge. We respond to all "grammar coach" questions personally, but delays may occur because we must place top priority on assignments from our clients. We appreciate your patience and your interest.      You also can change your e-mail subscription address. 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