Project Conclusion
The last stuff I did was 5 days ago, which was 21 days since I started the project. I had originally thought to do a 2-3 week long project, even though I said:
I was done with the grammar tree videos and I thought I would rather end the project than start on a new set of exercises.
Here’s the time table for the full project.
| Total time | 37:17 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| grammar tree practice | 37:17 | ||
| \_ meta | 4:52 | ||
| \\_ fill in project template | 1:29 | ||
| \\_ project conclusion | 1:21 | ||
| \_ review grammar material | 2:53 | ||
| \\_ FI article | 2:53 | ||
| \_ topics to research | 3:02 | ||
| \\_ using commas | 3:02 | ||
| \_ grammar tree videos | 10:55 | ||
| \_ grammar tree exercise collections | 14:14 | ||
| \\_ first attempt at exercises | 9:43 | ||
| \\_ error correction | 4:31 |
It seems I did some significant work on 15 out of those 21 days. For the 21 days I did roughly an average of 1 hour and 45 minutes each day, and roughly 2 hours each day for the 15 days where I actually did something.
Success Evaluation
I made notes for the FI article and went through all the grammar videos (I’m saving the ones with paragraph analysis and the core grammar video for a later project), but I only did one set of grammar exercises. Making sets of grammar exercise the criteria was a stupid choice since the sets are different length. It would’ve been better to take number of exercises done or time spent doing exercises. Anyway, according to the success criteria I failed. I’m still quite satisfied with my progress and how it turned out.
My success criteria was just about doing a certain amount, so the failure came from not being organized enough. If I had done grammar work as early as I could each day I could have done 2 hours on every day and I could have done another set of exercises, and thus fulfilling my success criteria. I could also have actually scheduled my days and when to do grammar sessions.
Benefits of the Project
- I think my grammar diagramming skill has improved
- I had many errors in the difficult sentences from the grammar tree videos, but I think my trees were closer to the correct ones than I would have had before this project
- I learned new grammar concepts:
- expletives: words that don’t add meaning but change emphasis
- appositives: noun phrase enclosed by commas that can modify the noun phrase it comes after
- relative pronoun: a word that can modify a noun with a clause
- relative advert: a work that can modify other things with a clause
- using commas (though I need practice and revision)
- adjective complements: phrase or clause that modifies an adjective. Really just adverbs, but it’s easier to catch a single adverb than a clause/phrase acting as an adverb
I think I can use my grammar skills to help out in some philosophy learning that I will do. I can only do easy sentences at near instant speed. I think I should at least get to the level where I can do medium level sentences at instant speed. I should also learn to analyze difficult and long sentences with a core and structural approach the way Elliot did in his grammar tree videos.
Next Projects
I think I’ll go through the Peikoff grammar course, and Elliot’s material on that, in my next grammar project. After that I’ll start on paragraph analysis. I’ll do some higher level stuff in between these projects. I don’t know whether I’ll do projects on high level stuff or just some activities.
Other Notes
I’ve enjoyed doing grammar more than I thought I would.
If people have criticism of stuff I did in the project then I’m happy to figure them out and do some error correction. I just won’t start on any new exercises.