Healthcare Video

Possessives and Plurals

If a noun owns something or is closely associated with it, it's possessive. Use an apostrophe. [Exception: pronoun forms like its, hers, whose, ours, yours, and theirs]

If not, it's plural. Don't use an apostrophe.

http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/WritingGuide/13posspl.htm

Dangling Participles

Adjectives ending in -ing (and sometimes -ed) are called participles and must be used with care. Consider the following sentences:
The robber ran from the policeman, still holding the money in his hands. After being whipped fiercely, the cook boiled the egg. Flitting gaily from flower to flower, the football player watched the bee.
If you said the last sentence to the football player's face just the way it's phrased above, you could end up a bloody lump of pulp lying on the astroturf, because he might conclude you think he "flits gaily," a thing most people in his profession don't do, at least in public.
The grammatical problem here rests with the -ing and -ed words used in these sentences: "holding," "being whipped," and "flitting." They are all participles, a type of verbal form that modifies nouns. The antecedent—that is, the noun to which the participle refers—must be clear to the readers in order for them to understand what's being said. Otherwise, an action may be subscribed to the wrong player, such as "flitting" to athletes. That's called a "dangling participle," because it's left "dangling" without a clear antecedent.

http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/WritingGuide/10dangpt.htm

America The Beautiful

D'souza's piece America the beautiful was interesting. To be honest I have never really had a huge interest in history, but being in my history class this semester it was really cool to read an opinion on it. I felt that D'sousa's piece was very much opinionated. I agree with it that when america comes together then we will get more accomplished and I was enthralled by the story when it got to the part about 9.11 because I remember that like it was yesterday.
overall the story was great and seemed to correspond to what I am learning in history. Nice piece.

Thesis

World of Warcraft (WoW) currently has approximately 11.5 million subscribers; over half of the population of Australia, and the average player usually plays about seventeen hours per week. When you average that out an average player spends around two and a half hours in a day on WoW. This may not seem like a problem, but these are the average players. The problem with online gaming comes from the individuals that spend ninety plus hours in a week playing WoW. The health and psychological effects of excessive game play that stem from Wow are fast becoming more of an issue in today’s society; starvation, depression and neglecting real life are some of the most common issues that stem from excessive play on WoW.

Rules For Using Numbers

Rule 1. The numbers one through ten should be spelled out; use figures for numbers greater than ten.

Rule 2. With a group of related numbers where one number is above 10 in a sentence, write the numbers all in figures. Use words if all related numbers are 10 or below.

Rule 3. If the numbers are unrelated, then you may use both figures and words. One through ten should again be spelled out.

Rule 4. Always spell out simple fractions and use hyphens with them.

Rule 5. A mixed fraction can be expressed in figures unless it is the first word of a sentence.

Rule 6. The simplest way to express large numbers is best but be careful to be consistent within a sentence.

Rule 7. Write decimals in figures. Put a zero in front of a decimal unless the decimal itself begins with a zero.

Rule 8. When writing out large numbers of five or more digits before the decimal point, use a comma where the comma would appear in the figure format. Use the word and only where the decimal point appears in the figure format.

Rule 9. The following examples apply when using dates:

The meeting is scheduled for June 30.

The meeting is scheduled for the 30th of June.

We have had tricks played on us on April 1.

The 1st of April puts some people on edge.

Rule 10. Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine.

http://www.writeshop.com/bluebooksample.htm

Who's Black, Who's White, Who cares?

This story was boring, and I had a hard time following it through to the end. Maybe this is because of where I was raised. You don't see a lot of black people around here and when I do what difference does it make? I have no opinion of them if I don't know them. I don't have an opinion of a white person if i don't know them.
However, it was interesting to me in the very beginning before I felt like Steele kept going on and on and on about something I had absolutely no interest in at all because I am in a History class right now learning about the Civil War. The most optimistic thought I had on this story is "huh, I guess racism is still pretty big with some people." Another thing I noticed is that Steele says "The class is afraid to confront the reality of racism". According to my history teacher that was the largest issue between the north and the south for a long time. No one wanted to confront the issue because they were afraid of what would happen. Well, it did. Its called the civil war and last I knew... North won, slavery went away and everyone should probably get over it.
Steele said that whites feel the need to prove their innocents. Funny! I wasn't alive, I didn't do it. Go get mad at all the dead people. I'm not taking a side because of the color of my skin.
Seriously, there has to be a point where people can just get over it!