romantic comedy
- Thread starter la ressistance
- Start date
Maurice Picarda
Actually, might as well flounce.
goldenecitrone said:
Should have a question mark. The only questions which can get away without them are polite orders, eg "Would all the English teachers line up there, please, next to the greengrocers."
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
This is where I did my ESOL course.
http://universitywriting.shu.ac.uk/punct/advice/d_exclam.htm
They don't agree.
http://universitywriting.shu.ac.uk/punct/advice/d_exclam.htm
They don't agree.
Maurice Picarda
Actually, might as well flounce.
goldenecitrone said:
I don't want to say anything nasty about Sheffield Hallam University (formerly the Sheffield Institute for Knife-Grinding and Cake Decorating), so I'll just suggest that most authorities would differ.
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
Maurice Picarda said:
Let's have a link, then.
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
milly molly said:
Doesn't stipulate using a question mark.
Surely the problem is that romcom is a genre of film that you don't like.la ressistance said:
I don't really enjoy/appreciate horror films and I think they're all much the same.
Just because I don't enjoy that type of film doesn't mean they're no good. 'Cos you don't like romcom doesn't mean they've never made a good one.
If we all liked the same thing it would be a boring world.
HeroineSheep
Where was I again?
Monkeygrinder's Organ said:Oh no it's the English teachers pedant posse!
I think you omitted both a comma and an apostrophe from that sentence.
HeroineSheep
Where was I again?
Anyway, why are rom coms so derided? There have been some great classics mentioned already on this thread. Saw 27 Dresses a couple of days ago and it was great. Good script, well cast, and er, lots of nice dresses. Went perfectly well with my popcorn and cheered me up no end. Sometimes it's allowable for cinema to be entertaining rather than enlightening y'know.
scifisam
deleted
goldenecitrone said:
Yes, they do. They only mention that, with rhetorical questions, it's also acceptable to occasionally use an exclamation mark instead of a question mark.
Link 1.
Personally, I don't think it's important whether you use uestion marks correctly when you're posting on a messageboard, but it is important that you teach your students the accepted form, especially if they're taking exams.
I've just stumbled upon a 'wikihow' that says definitively that rhetorical questions should not have question marks! (This is one of the reasons I would not have used Wiki as a source in this post). I have to go and correct that. No wonder some people are getting it wrong!
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
scifisam said:
Precisely my point. Rhetorical questions don't always need a question mark. It comes down to literary style and no grammar book can state a hard and fast rule for that. I want my students to have enough confidence to use the language in their own individualistic way rather than kow tow to the conservative, blinkered grammar Nazis who have taken away so much from this thread. Long live language and it's beautiful, unfettered poetry!
scifisam
deleted
Bollocks. (And why choose the one cite which agrees with you, and is written by any old person, and ignore all the other cites which disagree with you?)
Your students need to know the rules before they can break them.
If you really, really think that rhetorical questions don't need question marks then you should be in a different job.
Unless you're teaching TEFL to advanced EFL learners on a creative-writing course, in which case you should, of course, teach them that dropping the question mark can be effective in some fictional prose pieces.
(You might also want to check out how to use apostrophes accurately).
ETA: I know this post sounds somewhat angry; it's just that it annoys me when people treat grammar as though it's optional and doesn't matter; to some extent (in fiction, mostly, and in messageboard posts where it doesn't matter as much, because people expect lower standards), that's true, but for people who are learning to speak the bloody language it does matter!
Your students need to know the rules before they can break them.
If you really, really think that rhetorical questions don't need question marks then you should be in a different job.
Unless you're teaching TEFL to advanced EFL learners on a creative-writing course, in which case you should, of course, teach them that dropping the question mark can be effective in some fictional prose pieces.
(You might also want to check out how to use apostrophes accurately).
ETA: I know this post sounds somewhat angry; it's just that it annoys me when people treat grammar as though it's optional and doesn't matter; to some extent (in fiction, mostly, and in messageboard posts where it doesn't matter as much, because people expect lower standards), that's true, but for people who are learning to speak the bloody language it does matter!
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Why does it matter less on messageboards? I don't think it does
to hell in a handcart......
to hell in a handcart......
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
Attempting to drag this thread back on topic, there are plenty of good romcoms. The 80s Cusack oeuvre in particular has yielded up some gems; Say Anything and Better Off Dead are classic.
*awaits pedantry police*
*awaits pedantry police*
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Yeah, Say Anything - the only Cameron Crowe film I like
goldenecitrone said:
That's all very well, but you've also got to teach them how to play the game. They won't be thanking you when their unfettered poetic writing is getting them Gs. I went to exam training yesterday and - dull as it is - using grammar incorrectly will lose them marks.
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
scifisam said:
Well, seeing as though the punctuation of rhetorical questions has taken on such significance in the Government's bid to integrate refugees into the community, I'll bear your advice in mind.
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
Oooh, handbag!
Anyway - the OP.
I watched Julie Delpy's '2 Days in Paris' last night, which is definitely a romcom, and is definitely very funny and entertaining.
Anyway - the OP.
I watched Julie Delpy's '2 Days in Paris' last night, which is definitely a romcom, and is definitely very funny and entertaining.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
I liked that. I have a weakness for all the Farelly Brothers films
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
Has anyone mentioned Annie Hall yet? Surely one of the greatest romcoms around.
HeroineSheep
Where was I again?
The Farelly Brothers do not belong in the rom com genre. Puerile humour, yes. Comedy, I ain't sure.
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