In essays or blogs we often have to EXPRESS REGRET. International writers using English and the rest of us could use a refresher. Note how Kangzi Ren opened her essay, “Nature’s Pets” with regret which hooked us into her world. So, we are curious and will keep reading.
ORIGINAL:
If I wasn’t too tired and afraid of the virus that wild animal could bring to me, I would definitely grab him and keep him as a pet.
REVISED:
If I hadn’t been so tired and…
I would have definitely grabbed him….
Note the simple past form of the verb (was/wasn’t) is not doing the job of “regret,” you need the past perfect form (had)/hadn’t been).
Note also that the word “too” means more than normal and more than sufficient. However, the word “so” is the common choice and will add that emotion that Kangzi would like to convey and will call attention to the high amount of tiredness.
Oh dear, I feel some regrets coming on:
If I hadn’t been so poor…. If I had only talked to him first… I had only finished my double-major…
If I hadn’t quit guitar lessons… If I had only said “Yes”…
Join me now for an essay of regret, an assignment I recently assigned to a writing student of mine. I thought I’d try my hand at it all, where regret is the theme of the essay.
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Continue Module 6, The Essay: An essay of regret
