Students Who Think They Know All About English Composition Should Read This and Tries to Come Up With Reasons Why Seem Is Grammatically Correct When It Comes to Seem Seem (To Be) Not Seem (To Be) Or And In Many Other Cases

Students Who Think They Know All About English Composition Should Read This and Tries to Come Up With Reasons Why 'Seem' Is Grammatically Correct When It Comes to 'Seem 'Seem (To Be) Not Seem (To Be) Or And In Many Other CasesMany students who think they know all about English composition will read an essay and take issue with the author's use of the word 'seem.' Yet, while they are clear that this is an incorrect grammar choice, their objection to the sentence structure is different from the traditional 'do this' vs. 'be this' challenge.When 'Seem' is employed in a College essay, the sentence structure is correct. In fact, the correct sentence construction is 'seem (to be) or seem (to be).' The argument can go either way, with the middle part of the sentence referring to whether the reader believes the author to be 'seemingly'seemingly not.'The issue, however, is that when it comes to 'Seem,' some writers will go for the negative construction, whereas others will go for the positive . There is an issue here about the semantics of the words.Students who think they know all about English composition should read an essay like this and try to come up with reasons why 'Seem' is grammatically correct when it comes to 'Seem'seem (to be)' and incorrect when it comes to 'seem (to be) or seem (to be).' This would be a valid question. However, the issue isn't as simple as grammar but more about the interaction of language and semantics.In most cases, 'Seem' is correct because it does not contain any dashes or underscores. It uses only the letter 's' and is unadorned, simple, and clear. It is shorter than 'seem' and a student must understand its difference in order to make a distinction between the two. Most writing experts believe that there is no difference, so 'seem' should be used.The situation gets a little different when 'Seem' is used in an argument. It is still incorrect to use the negative construction, but the exception is that it should only be used when it has absolutely nothing to do with the structure of the argument.The exact same logic applies to 'Seem' that is true of 'Seem' in the College essay - if the argument is about 'seems (to be) or seem (to be)' then the sentence should be 'seem (to be) or seem (to be).' Similarly, 'seem' is inappropriate in the middle of a question. A question is always followed by a verb and it should be continued with the question marker. The reason 'seem' is not acceptable is that it leads off a new sentence.However, there is a bit of semantic gray area when it comes to 'Seem'Seem' in College essays, especially the following passage. It contains the sentence 'He seemed like he was some kind of Superman'Like most supermen, he was a great actor.' The issue is that, while both of these sentences are correct, neither of them is identical to 'seem' and thus can not be part of the argument.