This document is a presentation by a teacher named Ms. Bradburn about common grammar mistakes that frustrate her. Specifically, she emphasizes that "alot" is not a word and should never be used, as "a lot" are two separate words. To help students remember this, she imagines that mistakes like "alot of homework" are actually pictures of imaginary creatures called "Alots" that are made of homework or other items. Throughout the presentation, she provides humorous drawings of Alots to drive home her point. She also acknowledges borrowing much of the humor from another source, explaining the importance of citing sources.

1. Daily Language 6-5
• Fix this sentence:
The reason their were alot of problems with
the sentence was because the teachur was
showing them witch misteaks bother her the
most.

2. Daily Language 6-5 Answer
• Original
The reason their were alot of problems with the sentence was
because the teachur was showing them witch misteaks did
bother her the most.
• New and Improved
The reason there were a lot of problems with
the sentence was that the teacher was
showing her class which mistakes bother
her the most.

3. English Portfolio #3
• Get out yesterday’s portfolio cover sheet
and attachments.
– Thoughtful cover sheet
– 10 Daily Languages (5-1  6-5)
– Drafts, prewrites, notes from summary
– Any other relevant work
• Staple attachments to the cover and put it in
the in-box. Put your notebook in the bin
underneath if you are turning it in.

4. “alot” is NOT a
word!!!!!!!
A grammar rant by Ms. Bradburn

5. Contrary to popular opinion, ‘a’ + ‘lot’ do
not combine to make the single word
‘alot’. They are, in fact, two words: the
article ‘a’ and the noun ‘lot’. Just as you
would never write ‘alittle’ or ‘abit’, you
should not write ‘alot’.
But even more importantly…it drives me
absolutely crazy when I see it in a paper.
And you don’t want to see me absolutely
crazy…

6. Oops…too late…

7. Confession time.
I am stealing pretty much all the funny stuff in
this presentation from something I found
online, but I had the author’s explicit
permission…so it’s okay.
For future reference, that is called ‘citing your
resources’. I will be teaching you about citing
your resources later on this year.
So I’m really not stealing, I’m “teaching”.

8. Here’s the deal (and pay attention, because
from now on I’m going to hold you accountable
for knowing this…which is to say, you WILL lose
points on your grade if you keep doing this in
your writing) -
There is one grammatical mistake that drives
me particularly crazy. Some students take the
phrase ‘a lot’ and condense it down into one
word: ‘alot’. “Alot” is NOT a word.
When someone says ‘alot’, this is what I
imagine:

9. Alot drawings by Allie Brosh, from whom I am stealing most of the funny stuff in this
lesson. Giving Allie credit is called ‘citing a resource’. It is NOT okay to copy your
friend’s paper, give them credit, and claim that you are citing your resources . That
is actually called ‘getting an F on your paper’.

10. The Alot is an imaginary creature that exists to
help crazy English teachers like me deal with
our need to correct our students’ grammar. It
kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a
yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of
entertainment for me in a situation where I'd
normally be left feeling frustrated.
For example, when I read the sentence "I care
about this alot," this is what I imagine:

11. (Granted, that is a rather touching picture of a student and his alot.)

12. Similarly, when someone says
"alot of _______", I picture an
Alot made out of whatever
they are talking about.

16. ALOT OF MAC ‘N’
CHEESE

17. If a student says something
like "I feel lonely alot" or
"I'm angry alot," I'm
going to imagine him
sharing his feelings with an
Alot.

19. Alots can be found in
other situations…

24. My point is, ‘alot’ is not a
word. Please stop putting
Alots in your papers. If you
remember ONE thing from
this year, please remember
this…
ALOT is NOT a word!!!

25. THANKS, ALOT!!

26. This slide show has been the first
of a series of presentations I hope
to make about writing mistakes
and bad habits that drive me crazy.
As you move forward, you will find
that other teachers have different
‘pet peeves’. This is normal. For
now, learn what mine are and
change your writing as necessary.

27. Coming Up
(someday when I bother to make the slide shows)
• The reason is NOT because!!!
• “Hello, my name is Susie Student, and I am
writing a paragraph.”
• “I think, therefore I write.”
• And and other words not to start a sentence
with.
• With and other words not to end a sentence
with.
• Wacky margins, fancy fonts, and other
formatting things that look weird on paper.