run vs running

G

goahead97

Member
Spanish
Let's say a high school gym teacher made an exam at the end of the school year compromising 3 different tests: running test, swimming test and writing test to assess theoretical knowledge. Let's say the teacher needs to prepare his students, from the beginning of the school year, to pass these 3 different tests with a good mark. Let's say he does not want to have to keep on repeating the word "test" whenever he mentions any of these tests to his students through out the school year and for this reason he calls these tests as follows:
- run
- swim
- write

Let's say he might want to wrote some instructions in formal English for his students to read them later:

Doing run within less than 5 minutes will be enough for you to pass. For swim you should prepare at your free time in case you want to pass with grade A. And with good memory you might not even need to study to pass write.


My question is:
Considering the teacher uses non-proper names to name things, run for running test, swim for swimming test and write for writting test, how could the teacher mention, in a writing formal context, these names, run, swim and write, to let the reader know he refers to the names he made up for different types of test instead to an infinitive tense without to of these verbs? May be by capitalizing the first letter of the names as follows: Run, Swim and Write? Otherwise, how could the teacher let the reader know these are the names he made up for things rather than actual verb tenses?

Thanks
 
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    • cidertree said:
    Use the gerund - running, swimming, writing. They function as nouns so there should be no confusion.
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    I know the teacher could use those words.

    But let's say the teacher prefered to call them with the names I mentioned. Isn't it possible in formal English to capitalize the first letter of words that are not proper nouns whenever we want to name specific things in a particular context such as the one I just described?

    Thanks
     
    Last edited:
    If he calls the tests "Run", "Swim" and "Write" he has made labels for the tests which can be regarded as proper nouns. There's no rule for such things.
     
    goahead97 said:
    how could the teacher mention, in a writing formal context, these names, run, swim and write, to let the reader know he refers to the names he made up for different types of test instead to an infinitive tense without to of these verbs?
    Click to expand...
    The teacher would write sentences saying things like I will call the running test "run". I will call the swimming test "swim". I will call the writing test "write".

    goahead97 said:
    But let's say the teacher prefered to call them with the names I mentioned. Isn't it possible in formal English to capitalize the first letter of words that are not proper nouns whenever we want to name specific things in a particular context such as the one I just described?
    Click to expand...
    The tests are for students. The teacher doesn't communicate with students in writing. And there is no capitalization in speech. So I am confused. When and how would he use these written terms?
     
    goahead97 said:
    But let's say the teacher preferred to call them with the names I mentioned.
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    The teacher is not a native speaker, is he? He is a gym teacher, not an English teacher. His English is poor. Speakers of poor English make mistakes all the time.

    If it is acceptable for him to use poor English, it doesn't matter what he says or what he calls the parts of the test.
     
    dojibear said:
    The tests are for students. The teacher doesn't communicate with students in writing. And there is no capitalization in speech. So I am confused. When and how would he use these written terms?
    Click to expand...
    Let's say the teacher needs for example to:
    - develop a teaching program for the school year with written instructions or
    - give his students written instructions

    Let's say all this needs to be written in formal and correct English.
     
    PaulQ said:
    The teacher is not a native speaker, is he? He is a gym teacher, not an English teacher.
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    Let's say the gym teacher is native and it is not acceptable for him to write poor English. Let's say he needs to use formal and correct English in the documents he write.
     
    cidertree said:
    Formal and correct:
    The running test.
    The swimming test.
    The writing test.
    Click to expand...
    Do you mean there is no correct and formal way in written English to avoid the repetition of the test word while letting the reader know the writer means running test, swimming test and writing test....?
    Thanks
     
    This seems to have gone round in circles. Presumably an earlier part of the document will state the test requirements.

    Running within less than 5 minutes will be enough for you to pass. For swimming you should prepare at your free time in case you want to pass with grade A. And with good memory you might not even need to study to pass writing.

    You could improve the text, but we don't proofread.
     
    I did not want to get rephrasing corrections. I just wanted to know how to let the reader know run, swim and write are the names of three different tests. I understood using italics might work for that purpose as long as I define these terms at the beginning of the document at some place. That is all I wanted to know. I only provided some context because I thought it could be useful for the people reading the question. Sorry for breaking the forum rules.
     
    What people are trying, gently or otherwise, to point out to you is that there are problems with your proposed gym teacher statements and they are not expressed in correct English. If all you want to know is that you can italicize, enclose in quotation marks, or capitalize your test names in order to make the point that they are names, then that question has been answered.
     
    LVRBC said:
    If all you want to know is that you can italicize, enclose in quotation marks, or capitalize your test names in order to make the point that they are names, then that question has been answered.
    Click to expand...
    Exactly, that was all I wanted to know. I just made up the statements. The correction of the statements was not the point of the question. Moreover, considering asking several things on the same thread goes against the forum rules, I would not do that.
     
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