What are others saying?

This blog post was interesting to complete because I don’t usually have time to look at everyone’s blog post and I have noticed that some of the readings that I wasn’t so sure about, now makes more sense after reading some of my classmates’ blogs.

“Face off!  After reading the majority of both books, finishing up Williams today, I have my opinions on both.  I found Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” not only informational, but also it was very specific.  It laid out very clear rules, and then the examples followed.  This was helpful for me because the ideas did not get lost in wordiness.  I enjoyed Strunk and White’s book because the ideas were helpful reminders that I could apply directly to my writing.  It would be helpful in revisions because I could simply go through and check off each rule, according to the book.”

Gators’ quote above really hit home for me and explained the book as if she was reading my mind. I agree that Strunk and White’s book could be directly applied to my writing, but I agreed with the Williams book more, that style is sometimes more important then the mechanics of the writing. I think that going through Strunk and Williams and checking off each rule would be a little time consuming, but that would also get the rules in your head and after doing that a few times, it would stick and then you wouldn’t have to go through each time.

“While Williams’ book is intended to be read straight through, Strunk and White’s book is designed to be easily referred to – like a dictionary.”

I could not agree more with Rachael more, I like the fact that Strunk and White is more of a dictionary referral book. There are good rules in it and if you aren’t sure of something while writing a paper, you can just do a quick reference with this book. Williams is more of a novel that you could read if you wanted to become a better writer. Both of these books will be kept, instead of being sold back, not only because we would get like a dollar for them but because I feel that I will be able to use them for the rest of my college career. Not only that, I think I could teach my future students something out of both of these books.

“It covers broader topics than The Elements of Style does.  There’s no question as to that, when was the last time anyone read a book that had more than one chapter on Cohesion or Clarity in it?  Probably never.”

I can tell you one thing for sure, I have never read a chapter in any book about cohesion and clarity, now that I have does it make me think I should have? YES! Good point with this, I never thought about it like that.

I liked reading everyone’s blogs, I’m glad our professor gave this assignment because I don’t get a chance to read my fellow classmates’ blogs on a regular basis.

Comparing Strunk and White to Williams

I can absolutely say that Williams was more useful to me, Strunk and White on the other hand, may be more useful. Strunk and White is a faster read and a quick way to find the information you are looking for. I think that with William, that is more of a longer read that takes time to understand.

Williams teaches us about “style”, about the way we write. Strunk and White is more of the traditional “style” manual. If I wanted to know where to put commas, I would go to Strunk and White. If I wanted to find out how to clearly convey my ideas, I would go for Williams. Williams was more of a fun read to me than Strunk and White because with Strunk and White I felt like it was more of a textbook, whereas Williams felt like an everyday read book.

A good style manual is always good to have, there are so many out there, it is hard to find one that is right for you. Strunk and White has an interesting way on the style manual. I think that in order to produce a good style manual, it needs to be more than just rules. It needs to have little blurbs about the way you actually write and I think Strunk and White did this. Williams on the other hand could’ve used a little break in the text to show some rules in action, other than just paragraph after paragraph on information. After each chapter I had to look back and look through exactly what I just read. It was kind of like information overload for me, thinking about how I write and what I should do to change it. I believe that both of these books will help me with my writing, but Williams will have done a better job of it in the end.

Revising with “Style”

Guest students are admitted (provided space is available) when regularly matriculated and in good standing at another regionally accredited col- lege or university. The student assumes full responsibility for determining whether or not the courses selected at this university will apply to his/her program of study.

I think this might work too:

Guest students are admitted, when space is available, when in good standing at another regionally credited college or university. The student will take full responsibility for determining whether or not the courses selected at this university will apply to his/her program of study at the main college or university.

According to our “Style” book for this course, some sentences are too hard to comprehend and we have to sort out the information in our heads before we can fully understand what the writer is trying to convey. I think that the way I rewrote the sentence could be understood more fully by a transfer student that may be reading our student catalog online. I think that for writing to be conveyed in the right way, the writer needs to write to a general audience that may not understand all “college” terms. That way, you can reach everyone that may be a guest student at this college.

I agree with Williams, simple terms are best. Not “stupid” simple, just “understandably” simple.

First Impression of Strunk and White

So, before reading this style manual, it seems that I may have been misusing commas, and probably still are. Commas have always been tricky for me, something that I haven’t always been quite so sure of. This was one of the first things introduced in this book and I think that that is relevant. I think that a lot of people, of all ages, have problems with commas. “Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause” (Strunk pg 5). When I first read this I was like, huh? Then I started reading and this is actually some good advice that I didn’t necessarily know before reading this book.

There was a couple of things that I found a little outdated in this book, such as the rule on irregardless, I’ve never even heard this word before, so I’m guessing this was a word that was misused “back in the day”.

“Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements by using a mark of exclamation” (Strunk pg 34) This rule seemed a little strange to me because exclamation points seem to be everywhere today, after Yahoo!, that’s definitely just one word, so it shouldn’t have an exclamation point after it. I believe things have changed though because things are more emotional now and have more emotion to them.

There wasn’t many rules/advice in this book that I didn’t think I could use in my writing. I love reading style manuals to see how I can improve my writing, and the little rules always seem to help the most. Strunk and White was something that I have never read before, but I can see why it has been around for so long and has been used in many different settings. What’s even more is now we are leading into reading “Style” which has caught my attention even more!

Peer Review Recap, Part 2

This peer review was a bit different, I liked the star rating system because the professor asked us specific questions on what to look for, specifically, within the paper we were reading. Instead of just reading the whole paper and picking things out ourselves, we had to grade our peers on specific things that make the paper what it should be. Some cons of this: some people rated with the starts and only wrote like one sentence on how to help the paper, still good feedback, just maybe not enough in some cases.

I liked having the “outside reader” because it gave us a chance to see how our papers would come off to other students in the education community. It gave us a chance to see exactly what we need to add in order for our paper to make more sense to everyone, not just someone in English 328.

This project was already interesting to me, but seeing how many starts I got out of five made me really think about the quality of my paper, not just how many words I got up to. I really like the fact that you had to give them stars (out of five) and then tell them how to improve if they didn’t get a perfect score, or if they did, tell them how they did that. It gives people their strengths in weaknesses in a non-confronting kind of way!

YouTube Commercials

This American Express commercial says a lot with just the pictures, first there are sad pictures with everyday objects and then the commercial explains that with their card you can get things replaced (within a 90 day period) if bought with the card. Then the objects turn happy and it ends with “Don’t take chances, Take charge” Take charge of your life by using their credit card? Take charge and charge with a credit card? Something to explore.

This one was kind of like….huh? Is this a joke or for real? But then I was watching TV today and actually saw it on TV!!!!

I have always loved the Progressive commercials and today noticed that her name is Flo. Found that kind of funny. Not quite sure which commercial I am going to go with yet, kind of leaning towards the American Express one, but if anyone has any suggestion, I welcome them

 

I am looking forward to reading everyone’s project this time, it should be interesting.

Ancient Style

I have heard this in a few classes, but what interested me in the “Style” article was that “style can be distinguished from grammar, which is the study of ordinary uses of language.” I have always thought of style and grammar going hand in hand because I have had teachers tell me in the past that I need to write in my own style but still grammatically correct.

I found it interesting that there were different groups: figures of speech, figures of thought and tropes. All of these groups are “ornamenting” our writing and I agree. In our reading it comes compares love to a red rose. Without language like that we wouldn’t have poetry or good literature with descriptive wording.

Climax is the Greek word for ladder, I found that interesting just because I never knew where the word came from, it’s interesting to study the Ancient Style, this is how our language started. All the rules we have learned during our lives have stemmed from this reading.

This reading was a little difficult though, the wording was a little hard to follow and in some places I had to stop and read again because I simply lost my place!

Peer Review #1

Peer review is always a tricky subject, you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, but if you truly have nothing to say, I like to point out the good points. This peer review was no different, the classmates I had to review had some great papers on their projects.

I liked that my classmates pointed out my grammatical/spelling errors, because I would’ve never caught them, its the bad thing about spell check, you can spell something wrong and mean a different word, so you end up not catching the mistake! Of course you always want feedback about the actual content of the paper and I had nice things about that, so I’m hoping that means my paper served its purpose for this assignment.

Overall this  class is a good way to do peer review because you aren’t sitting across from the person in a classroom writing things all over their papers, it’s a little more comfortable if you had to say something that wasn’t necessarily something they would want to hear. Thankfully, I didn’t have that problem with this assignment either, but it’s nice to do it from the comfort of your own home!!!!

My Writing Technology

This project was so different than anything I have ever done in college, it made me think creatively, which as a teacher, I will have to do everyday. I kept thinking about what to do and then I thought, use the things you like that are natural in the world.

My favorite season is fall so……

I used a pumpkin to explain Fall is here!

I also love nature and all different kinds of things in nature so….

I have 1200 books in my home so I spelt BOOKS with leaves, rocks and needles from a bush in my yard! Books 4 Life is a program I run at the middle school I work at!

I hope you all like it and I’m looking forward to see what everyone else has come up with!

My Writing Technologies

I use the writing technology of a “computer” daily, probably too many times a day. All you Facebook users know what I’m talking about! I am a Para-Pro at a middle school so I use the technology of pencils, pens, markers and colored pencils almost daily. We also have Eno boards at our school so I use the Polyvision pen on the board.

The writing technologies that I personally use are pens, pencils, markers, and the computer technology.

I remember being in fourth grade and being so excited to go to computer class so that I could type instead of write with a pencil. Now that middle school that I work for, all of the students have computers with them constantly, it is so strange to me. So now I constantly have a computer with me to keep track of everything in my life. I used to write everything in a planner with a pen or pencil and now I keep track of my life on iCal on my Macbook. My life and the world has changed how everything is sent also. I remember writing letters by hand to my best friend and wait for her reply. Now we can write emails or instant message or send a message on Facebook, there are plenty of options to stay in touch.

I would say the only writing tools I try to avoid are pencils usually just because I write so much during the day that having a pen is a lot easier, I don’t have to sharpen! I would probably avoid a typewriter as a writing tool also, you can’t easily erase your mistakes!