Korean Job Discussion Forums

[aka Dave]

My job has evolved at my Univ., and most of my courses are composition courses (academic writing to prepare them for the very difficult English Teacher exam).

Anyway, I had an epiphany today as I was correcting papers.

I always tell my students "Know your subject!" "Know your verb!" "Know your object!"

Often there will be a gerund floating in the middle of the sentence and it's totally unclear what its subject is.

Howeverer, it's not just a question of not knowing the subject. Often, a huge problem arises from the fact that the *agent* is unclear. So many Korean English sentences fail because verbs are left without clear agents and the sentence rambles on, disjointed and unclear.

I could give a lot of examples but I'm tired. This problem is probably related to the fact that Korean sentences often don't have a clear subject/agent.

So it's not just know your subject. It's know your subject and agent!

I have no idea if this will allow me to teach them more effectively, but it did answer why so often I'm grading a paper and my brain will hurt.