With communication skills among the expressed greatly needed training of UP Manila employees, the UP Manila Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) conducted a two-day training course, The Basics of English Grammar, Its Proper Usage, and Parts of Speech Training on April 17-18 for the first batch and on April 19-20 for the second batch.
UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences’ Instructor Ma. Caselyn B. Morada from the Department of Arts and Communication served as the subject matter expert in the training attended by a total of 52 employees for the two batches.
The training enabled the employees to (1) have a firm grasp of basic English grammar, (2) improve fluency in English language use, and (2) enhance and build writing and speaking skills using proper English.
Morada focused her discussion during the first day on the different parts of speech considered the basic building blocks of language and essential for effective writing and communicating ideas clearly and concisely. This was followed by the basic grammatical rules including subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and parallelism, aspects that make it easier for readers to understand the message. Day 1 concluded with the common grammatical mistakes to avoid in formal writing to reduce the risk of misinterpretation or confusion and ensure that the message is understood as intended.
The second day covered the different sentence types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory, which provided the framework for a clear written expression of ideas. The sentence structures were also discussed, such as the simple, complex, compound, and compound-complex sentences. Using a variety of sentence types and structures is important as it can help avoid monotony in writing.
Towards the end of the discussion, Morada explained the difference between active and passive voice and the basics of paragraph writing. She concluded the training by sharing technological aids that can be used to improve writing. She emphasized that writing is a skill that takes time and effort to develop as she encouraged the participants to read and practice to have a firm grasp of the English language.
(Contributed by Ma. Janelle D.A Gabion and Jeah May O. Badeo)