Ask a teacher

[Auldlangsyne]

How to properly introduce/preface a comment in the “Ask a Teacher” forum?

No hard and fast rules, I know.

A piece of advice, perhaps? When to capitalise and what to cap? When to use a full stop? Certain ways of expressing it are obvious, while some could do with a bit of helpful elaboration of an expert for the benefit of all us learners.


I have seen, e.g.,

1. (not a teacher) — I use this one, scratching my head every time I want to add a comment (once in a blue moon, though).
2. Not a teacher.
3. Not a Teacher.
4. (I am not a Teacher)

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, you're a learner so you're probably not going to be attempting to answer other learners' questions most of the time. However, in case you do, I recommend starting with "Not a teacher." (without the quotation marks but with the capital letter and the full stop).

Otherwise, if you're asking a question or making a comment on your own thread, there is no need to preface it with anything. Give us a relevant thread title and go straight in to your question.

The capitalisation rules apply to everyone and everything - capitalise the first word of every sentence, a sentence inside quotation marks, proper nouns and the word "I" at all times. End every sentence with a single, appropriate punctuation mark, whether it's a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

 

[Matthew Wai]

How to properly introduce/preface a comment in the “Ask a Teacher” forum?

I would use 'How should I' or 'How can I' instead of 'How to' in a question.

I have seen, e.g...

You might have also seen 'but I am not a teacher' at the end of a comment.

 

[tzfujimino]

You might have also seen 'but I am not a teacher' at the end of a comment.

Yes. I've seen it many times.
:-D

 

[Auldlangsyne]

I would use 'How should I' or 'How can I' instead of 'How to' in a question.


You might have also seen 'but I am not a teacher' at the end of a comment.

Thank you, Mat, for your kind input.

Ad.1 To me, same difference.
Ad.2 In my original post, there are no periods of ellipsis. If you prefer to use “e.g.”, and not “eg”, then there is one dot missing (or two if you like to end a sentence this way). But then again, I am not a teacher; merely a crotchety old man with learning difficulties.

Also, I would be very reluctant to always start all quotations with a capital letter. This goes to the previous post.

Regards,
A.

 

[Auldlangsyne]

The difference is that 'How to ..." works as a title, but is not the correct way to ask a question in standard English.

p.s. What does 'Ad' signify?




emsr2d2 said you should capitalise the first letter of a sentence inside quotation marks.

Ad is a Latin word, meaning preposition at (to), literally with regard to the point 1. Ad is a full word, hence the dot after Ad should have been omitted. Mea culpa.

Yes, I meant the first letter of a sentence inside quotation marks. If the preceding part is closely related to the quotation, I would consider a lower case.

 

[Auldlangsyne]

If you are seriously concerned with using the right word, I suggest you eschew 'ad'. There are not many native speakers today who would understand what you meant.

I will remember that, thank you. It hasn’t crossed my mind.

I just grew up using it; first thing that comes to my mind now.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The difference is that 'How to ..." works as a title

emsr2d2 explained that 'When a chapter title or the title of any piece is "How to ...." it is basically a shortened form of "Now we are going to show you how to ..."'. ── quoted from https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/...nuine-or-not?p=1123292&viewfull=1#post1123292

In my original post, there are no periods of ellipsis.

I used ellipsis because your examples were left out of the quote.

Yes. I've seen it many times.

Perhaps you won't see it again because Rover_KE has recently told the person to say it on the signature line.

 

[Auldlangsyne]

I used ellipsis because your examples were left out of the quote.

Matthew, once again, thank you for pointing out some interesting issues.

The examples in my text are in the form of bullet list, and each one can stand by itself. They are not exact words of a specific source. I have seen them in many places; used by many people.

A.