Kellye had a great question in class about those verbs that signal possibility: could, would, might, should, etc. OK, so the current term for these verbs are modal auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are "helping" verbs--remember Erica's song?

These modals *can* be used alone, but only when the verb they are helping is implied (or, when they aren't being used as modals--yes, exceptions, exceptions, exceptions):
"Could you clean the bathroom?"
"I could."
The second speaker here means "I could clean the bathroom" but doesn't have to say all that.

The primary modals are:
can/could
may/might
will/would
shall/should
must/had to
dare/dared
need
ought to
used to

Thus, these verbs are not a tense or a mood in English. From what I found out, these verbs can be in present or past tense (or it seems part of a verb phrase that is in the other tenses we discussed).

Penn State puts out an online journal with articles written by and for tutors of writing. See here for the latest issue.

So far, I've seen some great responses to our Whale writer. Sarah did a great social constructionist response.  Phil, Lindsay, Whitney, and Cara did current traditional responses. Is this because current traditional type responses are the most frequent type of response made to students here at Ball State? Why do you think that is?

Well, writing is part of my job as a professor. I have to write and I have to publish to keep my job. Fortunately, I usually like it. Sometimes, I absolutely love writing--the thrill of imagining how an audience will encounter my brilliant texts. :)  Sometimes, I think I should never try again because I am sure that no one will read what I write and if they do, they will think I'm an idiot. That sounds almost trite because I think that is how many people feel about writing, especially, perhaps, those who have to write to keep their jobs.

I think my strengths are in organization, logic, structure, and audience awareness. My weaknesses include writing completely mangled sentences that only make sense to me in my first drafts and then not believing readers when they don't understand them. I also am too dependent on deadlines; I learned that habit from too many years in college, I think.

My writing goal for this year is to write more frequently, so that I'm ahead of deadlines.