ABSTRACT
Before you read this chapter, try to recall from your long-term memory some of the English-language lessons—the drills, exercises, worksheets, and the like—you completed in your earlier schooling. Were you asked to identify the part of speech for every word in a sentence? Did you ever underline subjects once and predicates twice? Were you asked to unhinge dangling participles? Did you ever have an assignment that asked you to write sentences containing a particular feature, like a predicate nominative, a predicate adjective, a direct or indirect object? What do you think were the purposes of these activities?
