D$8, HW#4, Grammar Assignment

For this grammar assignment I focused on compound sentences (because I seem to use them a lot) and I focused on varying sentence openings. I use a lot of compound sentences in my writing so I thought that refreshing myself on how to do them correctly would be beneficial. It ended up helping out a lot because it gave me helpful hints about using coordinating conjunctions, transitional words, and colons. I also read up on building complex sentences. It helped a lot to be reminded of subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns. The last thing I focused on was varying sentence openings. I found this to be very beneficial because I think papers tend to get redundant and boring with the same openings for sentences. I completed exercises 14.1, 14.2, and 15.3 in Wadsworth. My revised paragraphs are...

• The issue I am researching for this project is abstinence-only sex education in the United States. This is such an important issue because in the U.S. the teenage pregnancy rate is rising and there is a rapid spread of sexually transmitted diseases sweeping the youth. The health and safety of the nation’s teens are at risk. This subject is surrounded by controversy because sex is risqué, sex is forbidden, sex is uncomfortable to talk about. Most Americans may not want to discuss the issue of sex, but they for certain have an opinion about it. These opinions differ greatly from person to person. Sex is a very individual thing and when people try to influence others’ choices controversy arises. Some people do not think anyone should have sex until marriage and that is why they believe teaching abstinence-only education is the only way. Others believe people should not have sex until marriage, but should still be given information about contraceptives and safe-sex in case they do decide to engage in sexual activities. The spectrum of opinion on this matter is wide.
• After looking avidly for the many different perspectives on abstinence-only sex education programs I have come to realize that there is almost no middle ground. There are two extremes to this argument... 1) that abstinence-only sex education is the only method of preventing teens from having sex and getting pregnant or contracting diseases or 2) that comprehensive sex education is the only way that sex should be taught to teenagers because it promotes abstinence, but educates teens about how to be safe and protect themselves. The latter could be considered a middle ground because it is not in complete opposition to abstinence-only sex education and is not promoting that teenagers be taught sexual positions and encouraged to go out and have as much sex as possible. It is however a very radical change to abstinence-only sex education and that is why it is the other radical end of this spectrum. I think it will be tricky, because this topic is so personal and so controversial, to find sources that are not completely biased; terribly biased sources will not go to support my cause or my credibility.

After completeing the reading and exercises I refreshed my mind on many different elements of good sentence structure. I also picked up a lot of helpful tips and pointers in correcting poor sentence structure. In regaurds to the paragraphs I insereted semicolons and changed a few sentence opennings. It seemed as some were just too repetative.