I found this to be one of the easier chapters. I had a professor who was adamant about the correct usage of words like good, badly and well. It was a something that she did often and it stuck in my head. I must admit that I have used surely and only incorrectly throughout my life, I’m not ashamed to admit it. It’s interesting how word placement can give a sentence an entirely different meaning. This chapter makes writing seem less intimidating because it shows us that keeping a sentence simple is more effective in the long run. 

This was definitely one of the easier sections that we have hit so far. I already knew how to use “well” “real/really” and “bad/badly” for the most part, maybe I’ll slip one every once in a while but I knew which was correct for which situation, it’s what I was taught to use. I may slip one every once in a while because it might sound like it works, like for example, “I did good on the test.” That would be something I might accidently use.

Or maybe even the 1st exercise in 4.1. “The patient was feeling (GOOD, WELL) after receiving a blood transfusion. I felt that it could be either one but the answer key said ‘WELL’. I believe that ‘GOOD’ would have been a fine answer as well, but maybe because I’m used to slang. For example if someone asked “Are you good?” or “Are you good to go?” Many would answer, “Yeah I’m good.” If the reasoning for the original exercise question is that it’s referring to the person’s health/condition, you can say that my example is also about the person asking about health.

Or if the exercise question was “…after smoking some weed,” I don’t think you would use the word ‘WELL’ in that scenario. *DISCLAIMER I don’t smoke* 

As for Adverbs, it’s pretty much the same for me, I know how it works (or at least for the most part) but now I know the run and/or reasoning of why. Before I just naturally used the correct version because it felt correct based on what I learned before.

I do have an issue with question 9 on exercise 4.3. The statement is “All items are not on sale” and it wants us to rephrase it to where the modifiers are more “appropriately placed.” The answer key said the change is “Not all items are on sale,” which was what I put HOWEVER, that changes the meaning of the sentence compared to the original state.

The original phrase can go two ways: 1. that every single item is voided from being sold or 2. that only some are and a few aren’t; but I feel the 1st one is more appropriate with how the sentence is phrased because no one uses that way to express that meaning. Even then, it uses ‘All’ which means ALL. The book’s change goes more with the 2nd option which I don’t feel is right. It’s just saying that some items aren’t on sale but there are still some. If I were to change it, I would change it to, “None of the items are on sale/No items are on sale.”

I found this chapter to be fairly easy. Most of the concepts presented in this chapter I had internalised but had not truly seen the rules behind them.