《Essie's Critiques》Nice Reminiscences [PART 4]| Lost_Blithe_

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"I've been teaching in schools for a long time, and yet every time when I enter a class, it was a whole new experience, as if it were my first time stepping in one." (p.1). Your tense-use is inconsistent here, and you have unnecessary filler words. Correction: "I've been teaching in schools for a long time, and yet every time I've entered a class, it was a whole new experience. As if it were my first time stepping in one." Notice how I separated this into separate sentences for clearer readability.

"A very few remembered the best teachers but everyone remembered the bad teacher, the teacher who criticized the student, instead of encouraging them and motivating them." (p.2). I suggest replacing one of the commas with a semicolon. You're also missing a comma, and I suggest restructuring this to be more short and concise. Correction: "A very few remembered the best teachers, but everyone remembered the bad teacher; the teacher who criticized the student instead of encouraging and motivating them."

"And as the old saying goes, there are no bad students, just bad teachers." (p.4). You have tense slip-ups here. Correction: "And as the old saying went, there were no bad students, just bad teachers."

"I arranged the papers, so that they were perfectly aligned besides each other, corner to corner, totally organised." (p.7). You have an unnecessary comma here. Additionally, "totally" is redundant here, and is repetitive within your chapters. Correction: "I arranged the papers so that they were perfectly aligned besides each other, corner to corner and organised." Additionally, you dedicated this paragraph to describing how she set up her desk/classroom, which I found redundant and unimportant to the plot. If you want to show your readers something, such as how she liked to keep her classroom, you can summarize it instead of giving an in-depth explanation for something your audience would probably skim through.

"I didn't break the eye contact first, if I did, it would seem as if I wasn't approving them." (p.9). You have misplaced commas here, a comma splice, and you're missing a hyphen. Correction: "I didn't break eye-contact first. If I did, it would seem as if I wasn't approving of them." Notice the necessary filler words I've added as well.

"My heels clicking rhythmically as I lifted my feet, but no one noticed me as they were all busy catching up with each other." (p.10). I suggest avoiding using passive voice for this. Suggestion: "My heels clicked rhythmically as I walked, but no one noticed me as they busied themselves with catching up with each other." Additionally, keep in mind how I shortened this by replacing "lifted my feet" with "walking." Obvious actions shouldn't be described in that depth, just like you wouldn't say, "I lifted my arms and wrapped my hands around the knob of the door, slowly twisting it and letting the door pull open," as the more obvious way would be to say, "I opened the door." It's more direct and easy to read/understand.

"When he just spoke with his silence, and a yawn, I took that as my cue to leave." (p.10). You have an unnecessary comma here. Correction: "When he just spoke with his silence and a yawn, I took that as my cue to leave."

"As you all were notified earlier that Mrs Bourdreaux was going to retire, it is true, she has retired and now I'm your foreign language teacher for English subject." (p.11). You have misplaced commas and comma splices here. Correction: "As you all were notified earlier that Mrs Bourdreaux was going to retire, it is true. She has retired, and now I'm your foreign language teacher." I was also confused here, because as she was speaking English, I believed for a moment she was teaching English to a class of English-speaking students. If she's addressing them in another language or they're of another language, try to express that more strongly so your readers don't forget.

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In paragraph 12, "Rules Of The Class' should be "Rules of the Class," as typically, in headings, "of" and "the" is not capitalized.

"'... just before the class ends.' I finished, with my previous polite smile evolving to a mischievous one." (p.17). The dialogue tag should be included in the dialogue sentence. Correction: "'... just before the class ends,' I finished, with my previous polite smile evolving to a mischievous one."

"After going through the whole syllabus, and making sure everything was understood by the students, we began the class introduction." (p.18). The comma is unnecessary here. Correction: "After going through the whole syllabus and making sure everything was understood by the students, we began the class introduction."

"... the sound of a chair screeching hit my ears, which resonate around the whole classroom." (p.18). You have a mis-conjugation with "resonate" here. Correction: "... the sound of a chair screeching hit my ears, which resonated around the whole classroom."

"I sighed with disappointment, as I saw him gathering up all his stuff, there wasn't much for him to gather because he just had a few supplies out of his bag." (p.19). You have misplaced commas here, and some of the information here is redundant and adds weight to your sentences. Correction: "I sighed with disappointment as I saw him gathering up all his stuff. There wasn't much for him to gather because he just had a few supplies." Notice how I also corrected the comma splice.

"'The teacher just asked not to be shy, so that's what I'm doing, not being shy and I bet, she doesn't even know any of our names.' He grumbled, and made sure that I had my ears stuck to his words." (p.20). You have misplaced commas here. The dialogue tag should be a continuation of the dialogue sentence, and you can plainly state, "I was listening," instead of saying, "I had my ears stuck to his words." Correction: "'The teacher just asked not to be shy, so that's what I'm doing, not being shy. And I bet she doesn't even know any of our names,' he grumbled, and made sure that I was listening."

"'Sit down, Mr Veloren Martin, rule number two, remember? If you don't, take a look at the board.' I replied reminding him who's in charge of his dismissal." (p.21). You have comma splices here, the dialogue tag should be included within the dialogue sentence, and you need commas as well. Correction: "'Sit down, Mr Veloren Martin. Rule number two, remember? If you don't, take a look at the board,' I replied, reminding him who was in charge of his dismissal." Notice how I also fixed the tense slip-up.

"As expected, his pale skin flushed angrily, as he stomped his way back towards his seat, and violently dragged the chair back, making a screeching sound yet again and sat down with a slight roll of his eyes and an exasperated huff from his mouth." (p.23). This is an abnormally long sentence. You have misplaced commas and unnecessary filler words. I suggest splitting this into several sentences to have a clearer readability for your audience. Correction: "As expected, his pale skin flushed angrily as he stomped his way back towards his seat. He violently dragged the chair back, making a screeching sound yet again, and sat down with a slight roll of his eyes and an exasperated huff." If you were to change something else, I'd suggest changing the "screeching sound," as you've already mentioned that when he first left his seat. Instead of reusing descriptions, focus on using interesting and non-repetitive diction.

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"All the eyes were on him, the kids in front turned back in their chairs, with wide eyes and their jaw unhinged, resting on the ground, not believing that he actually sat down again after being confronted by a teacher." (p.24). This, again, is an abnormally long sentence. If you notice you're using a lot of commas in a sentence, it probably means you should split the sentence into several sentences instead. Correction: "All eyes were on him. The kids in front turned back in their chairs with wide eyes and their jaw unhinged, resting on the ground. They couldn't believe he actually sat down again after being confronted by a teacher." Additionally, how did she know that was what they were thinking? If I were her, I'd think they were surprised because of his misbehavior. Make sure not to stay in the mind of your protagonist, as she can only make assumptions. I'm going to assume that this is an assumption, but you should make that clear for your readers.

"'... wait for me in my office.' I told him with a small smile, reassuring him that there will be no extreme punishment or detention, I just needed to talk to him." (p.26). You have comma splices here. Keep in mind that a comma splice is joining two clauses together with a comma, but without a conjunction. To correct this, you can replace the comma with a period, or add in a conjunction. I always suggest the former, as shorter sentences are better for readability, anyway. The dialogue tag is also a continuation of the dialogue sentence, as it cannot stand as a sentence on its own. The punctuation/capitalization should reflect that. Correction: "'... wait for me in my office,' I told him with a small smile, reassuring him that there was to be no extreme punishment or detention. I just needed to talk to him." Notice how I also corrected the tense slip-up.

"After the introduction, which was unnecessary because I already knew all of their names, as a result of going through their profiles, and the problems they faced, I explained about the back-to-school fun activity, I prepared for them which was obviously related to English." (p.27). Another extremely long sentence. You could get rid of unnecessary filler words, correct your comma mistakes, and get rid of comma splices. Correction: "After the introduction, which was unnecessary because I already knew all of their names as a result of going through their profiles and the problems they faced, I explained about the back-to-school fun activity I prepared for them." Even corrected, this is pretty long, so I suggest shortening this and restructuring it on your own.

"Although, I hadn't seen the movie, but all the kids on the street were always engaged in conversations about it, so I thought that I should give them a topic they knew well about." (p.29). You have unnecessary commas here. Correction: "Although I hadn't seen the movie, all the kids on the street were always engaged in conversations about it, so I thought that I should've given them a topic they knew well about." I also corrected your tense slip-ups.

"I'll admit I was a bit envious but, mostly it was such a good thing to see their young, delighted and untroubled faces, with an exception of one boy at the last, who seemed to have his world under his cap that was only limited to him, restricting anyone else to penetrate." (p.32). This sentence was hard to interpret because of the length and redundant description. You have comma splices and comma mistakes. Additionally, you had some tense slip-ups. Correction: "I had to admit I was a bit envious, but mostly, it was a good thing to see their young, delighted faces, with the exception of one boy. He seemed to have his world under his cap, only limited to himself."

"I was the worst at Math, but I scraped up good marks enough for him to stay out of my way." (p.33). You don't need to capitalize "math" here. Only if it's a specific subject, such as "Trig" or "biology", then you would capitalize.

"I froze outside the door of his office, with my hands shaking violently which caused me to bury them inside the pockets of my baggy yet cool pants." (p.34). You have unnecessary commas here. You also have unnecessary information. Your audience does not need reassurance that her pants were still cool despite being baggy. Correction: "I froze outside his office door with my hands shaking violently, which caused me to bury them inside the pockets of my baggy pants." Notice how I rearranged some parts to make the sentence shorter and more concise.

"'You are late.' He grumbled." (p.35). This should be one whole sentence, as the dialogue tag is a continuation of the dialogue sentence.

"'You seem sick?' She asked me cheerfully, until she saw my red cheeks and my tear stung nose, which caused her happiness to drop drastically." (p.44). The dialogue tag should be part of the dialogue sentence. Additionally, you need hyphens, and I suggest breaking this up into several sentences. Correction: "'You seem sick,' she said cheerfully until she saw my red cheeks and my tear-stung nose. This caused her happiness to drop drastically." I also changed the punctuation of the dialogue, as it isn't phrased as a question. If you meant for her to state something as a sentence, I suggest writing that her voice tilted at the end as though asking a question.

"'I'm so proud of you!' She squealed." (p.46). The dialogue tag should be part of the dialogue sentence. The punctuation/capitalization should reflect that.

"'Th-thank you' It was all I was able to push past my throat." (p.49). You need punctuation to end the dialogue. Correction: "'Th-thank you.' It was all I was able to push past my throat."

"She didn't push me to talk, that was what I liked about her." (p.50). You have a comma splice here. Correction: "She didn't push me to talk, but that was what I liked about her." OR "She didn't push me to talk. That was what I liked about her." Additionally, you could expand here. What caused your protagonist to not speak out against her math teacher? What was going on in her head, and how was she reflecting upon this incident?

"He, in response just rolled his eyes, and literally stomped his way out of the class." (p.54). You have misplaced commas. Correction: "He, in response, just rolled his eyes and literally stomped his way out of the class."

"The rest of the day went by in a blink of an eye, I didn't think I've had a better day than this one." (p.55). You have a comma splice here. Correction: "The rest of the day went by in a blink of an eye. I didn't think I've had a better day than this one."

"'Why do you have an empty photo frame on your desk?' He asked, confused with a slight crease between his eyes, which he seemed to have around all the time." (p.57). The dialogue tag should be included within the dialogue sentence. Correction: "'Why do you have an empty photo frame on your desk?' he asked, confused with a slight crease between his eyes, which he seemed to have around all the time."

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