Brought to you by a Hole in my Ceiling & a Toblerone

The section on active and passive voice helped me write my article this week. I wrote on the Super Bowl, which was hard because it hasn't happened yet. It also didn't help that everyone I talked to didn't seem to give two hoots about it. ANYWAY, Chapter 4 helped keep me in the passive voice and choose my verbs wisely.

Verbs are like girls; they have mood swings and very loud voices. I didn't realize the amount of fanciness that was attached to verbs, either, which helps understand the differing verb tenses and forms much better.

I did remember a song that helped with linking verbs. I couldn't find a clip of the song that didn't involve shaky camera effects or annoying teenagers, but the lyrics do the song justice: Reggie and the Full Effect - Linkin Verbz

Sentence

What exactly is a sentence? Well for one thing, it must contain a verb and a subject. We know that from the textbook but it should also be common sense. If someone said “on the couch”, they are stating a phrase. By definition that phrase does not make a sentence because it does not contain both a verb and a subject. Even if somebody said this in response to a question such as “Where is my wallet?”, they are still stating a phrase and not a sentence. They would need to say, “It is on the couch.” in order for it to constitute a sentence. “It” would act as the subject and “is” as the verb.

It is interesting to me that a single word can constitute a sentence (i.e. Go. Stop. Wait. All of these are one-word sentences as indicated in the book). A sentence can also be very long; however, you need to be careful not to write a run-on sentence. Email messages are one form of communication where you will find a slew of run-on sentences. Even though emails are less formal it is still a good idea to avoid any grammatical mistake when composing one. Professional writing can be completely destroyed by a run-on sentence so practicing complete sentences in all of your writing is important.

I did find an editing mistake this week. I watch a lot of sports and I always see mistakes in the graphics that are put up during games. During one basketball game it showed a graphic of the made and missed shots of one particular player. Instead of “shot selection” the graphic said, “shoot selection”. I will have to start writing these one’s down because they happen all the time.

I can't wait until I'm allowed to break the rules!

This week was so overwelming! I thought I knew what went into a good sentence, but now I have to go back and check everything I write to make sure it's okay! I think one of my biggest problems that I didn't even realize I did was dead constructions. The book described these as constructions that just take up space and don't really add anything to the meaning of the sentence. Dead constructions include phrases like "There is" and "it is." The book also talks about how avoiding those constructions can help you with subject-verb agreement, which is another problem I have with writing.

However, we also learned from the powerpoint that once we understand a rule we can break it! I can't wait until I can do that! I want to be able to break rules on purpose rather than on accident. There are a ton of writers that do break the rules (the book gives the example of Dickens' "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"), but you can tell that they are breaking it on purpose to add literary style. There are also many writers who use sentence fragments in their creative writing very effectively because they know when to use them and when not to. I want t be a good enough writer that I can know when breaking the rules is appropriate, so bring it on!

I was having a hard time finding an editing mistake this week, so I went somewhere I knew I would find one: Facebook. You gotta love status updates! While I was looking I noticed that there were a lot of sentence fragments, way more than I thought there would be! One such example: "Wanting to do a Valentine photo shoot with my girls. Should be fun." Although we still get the meaning of the status, Neither sentence has a subject. The first one should be clarified with "I am" or "we are" or something similar. The second sentence should start with "it."

Passive Voice

Passive voice is a blight on a lot of writing that I read. This week alone I stumbled upon a plethora of examples I could use for this blog. The only problem I encountered would be classified as choosing what passive voice problem I wanted to address.

The problems I want to address in terms of passive voice are found in Bill Bryson's book The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt kid. The book itself is a relatively interesting foray into the culture of the 1950's in Iowa. Bryson covers growing up in the '50s while also covering the many political aspects associated with that particular time period. But the book suffers from the plague of passive voice.

One sentence with passive voice is this one: She was married sixteen times to nine men. The sentence exhibits Bryson's wit, but it uses passive voice. Words like "was" and "were" always indicate the passive voice and take away from the experience. To avoid passive voice he could have written: She married sixteen times to nine men. Eliminating was from the sentence also eliminates passive voice from the sentence.

Passive Voice, Shmassive Voice

I was reading through some old essays and papers that I had written early on in my college career, and noticed a common trend. I loved to use passive voice. After thinking for a while, I realized that I wrote in passive voice because it sounds prophetic; almost scholarly. It wasn't long before I started to find comments on my papers hounding me about my excessive use of passive voice. Unfortunately, the hounding and point deductions were not enough to make me stop.

I finally decided to make a change in my writing about two years ago and I haven' looked back. Reading the pages about active and passive voice in the book and doing the exercises helped to reinforce and enhance my knowledge of the difference between the two.

The verbs assignment that we had to do for this week was actually fun to do. Mostly because I remembered the one way I would remember transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. In high school, I could never remember the difference between the two until I found a profanity laced video online that helped me to learn transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. While the contents of this video contains words you would not say in front of your mother, it helped me to learn the basic usages of these verbs. Thank you, Internet.

Rules Rules Rules

As we get further and further into the semester I have realized that all of these grammar rules have me going insane. There are rules and rules to those rules, all of which question my ability as a writer. I will admit that I am probably a better writer now than I was four weeks ago because of my ability to catch grammatical errors with more frequency. I also find myself finding grammatical errors by observing everyday life and my surroundings. Attached is an example of a drive-up window, which had a grammar error.

One concept that I am familiar with is the difference between its and it's. The easiest explanation that I can give is, it's equals it is. For example, It's the highest mountain I have ever climbed. Its equals possession. For example, The company is great because of its commitment to higher education. In addition to this, I simply use it is in a sentence to see if it makes sense. In the second sentence it obviously doesn't make grammatical sense to put it's instead of its.

By the way, is anyone else having problems adding comments to the blog? I still cannot add comments to individual blogs.

Too Many Rules!

The English language should be simpler. It's insane how many rules exist about how to create a sentence. While reading the chapter and doing the assignments this week, I couldn't believe all the new rules I was learning. I consider myself a decent writer, but I had no idea about some of the things I was reading. I found it particularly interesting to read the section about the mood of verbs. Who knew verbs had moods?! I write indicative, imperative, and subjunctive sentences everyday. I just never knew they actually had a name. Verbs are indicative if they convey a fact or question. They are subjunctive when they share information that is contrary to fact, and they are imperative when they convey a command.

The way a sentence is structured can make or break the message, so it's important to pay attention to the sentences you write. In the PowerPoint, I liked the tip that said once you know the rules you can break them, but if you break them without knowing it, it is a mistake. Although it feels like there are too many rules to remember, it's important to learn about them.

The editing mistake I found this week was in a script for Weber State News. I was editing when I saw this sentence: Thanks for watching Studio 76...you're home for entertainment. The sentence should have read your home for entertainment because the words you are do not make sense in the sentence. If I could stress one thing, it would be to be EXTRA careful with words that sound the same but convey different meanings.

Way Too Overwhelming

Reading chapter four, like many of you have mentioned, has scared me from writing in any case. Even now, my palms are sweating writing this blog, and not one witty or clever theme is coming to mind. The fun and creativity has been drained out of me, and has been replaced with self-consciousness about how active/passive my sentences are or how long they are becoming. I would like to focus on run-on sentences since I find myself "running on" all the time. Just like the book says, "A run-on sentence doesn't know when to quit." I find myself using the comma-splice error to justify the length of my sentences. But now I understand the correct usage of commas, it may be something to keep under control. I have found that when I correct my sentences, my clarity becomes greater and more defined.

Now for the grammar failure of the week...



Okay, never mind that there are zero punctuation attempts in this billboard. I would like the focus on the "Its" that we were talking about this week. In this sentence the way that they have the word is in the possessive form. The word they need is the contraction, "it's". That way, the sentence would read, "It's (it is) the law." Society is pretty embarrassing.

Terrifying Sentences, Active Voice and a Good Giggle

Alright, is it just me or did chapter 4 make sentences just a little more terrifying? I mean, I can usually spot a bad sentence when I see one, but I have never stopped to look at sentence structure in such depth! To be honest, it’s a little overwhelming. Trying to define the terms in the verbs assignment seemed like a daunting task as well.

The most important thing I learned this week how to differentiate between passive and active voice. Professors often comment about using active voice instead of passive voice in essay and article assignments. Until now, it was unclear what that meant. In a passive voice sentence, the person performing an action becomes the object of the sentence and is acted upon. Even the definition sounds wishy-washy. In active voice sentences the subject performs the action. Now that I know the difference between the two I will be sure to use active voice more often.

I was unable to find an editing problem that related to this week’s discussion. My editing encounter for the week deals with a conversation I had with my dad and closely relates to last week’s topic of poor grammar and spelling. My dad, bless his heart, is most definitely not a proficient text writer, though he does try for the sake of convenience. When he is in a hurry he’ll use fewer key strokes and it ends up looking like this: “Cool- Jess is IN! 12 works best 4 her. That time ok with YOU? THEN DONE!” When he has a little more time and he’ll use a few too many letters. He sent this in his excitement about our lunch date: “Saaaaaaweeeeet!” Though good grammar is obviously important, his texts do give me a good giggle.

I am Terrified!

I have never been scared of sentences, until I read chapter 4. I am terrified! Who made up all those names and rules anyway? And really, whoever heard of a 4,391-word sentence? Most importantly, I finally found out what a passive voice is. If I write passive sentences then people will think that I am listless, stagnant, and leaden. However, if I write sentences with an active voice then people will think that I am lively, agile, and spirited. The big difference is when I use an active voice, the subject acts, thus making him lively. In a passive voice, the person or thing performing the action does not act, but is acted upon by the verb. He is not lively. I learned that it is easy to fix passive sentences. First I have to find the verb. Then I have to identify the actor in the sentence. The final step is to construct the sentence so that the real actor performs the action. It isn’t nearly as hard as I thought.
I was surprised as I read this chapter to find a very awkward sentence on page 23. I cannot believe that it was an actual editing mistake, as this is a grammar book. But take a look and see what you think. In the second paragraph there is a sentence that says, “The sentence is essential building block of memorable prose.” I wonder if the sentence would be less awkward if it read, “The sentence is an essential building block of memorable prose.” That is how I would have written it. But then, I am not the expert.

"Pinacles"

The secrets and mistakes I chose to focus on were, strangely enough, the same numbers for both — 10 and three. This seemed weird enough to me to comment on, but I don't actually see anything particularly witty to say about it.

Maybe someone else will think of something to say.

The secrets I focused on were to actually sit down and write and to organize before writing. While the book focused more on organizational structures for the actual writing, I found myself focusing on physical organization because it's an issue of mine. I lose the prewriting exercises I work on more often than is at all recommended, and I think that if I work on that aspect, the organization of my ideas will fall into place because of the physical structure I have in place.

As for the concept of actually sitting down and writing, I made myself a schedule and committed to it. Tomorrow will be the first day of this new schedule, so I'll see how it goes.

As an example of a humorous experience this week, while I was working on my vocabulary homework, I got a bit burned out while writing sentences. My husband very helpfully decided to contribute to the cause. Here are a few examples:

John Doe went Capitulating with my Grandma.

I find my wife carousing with a clown.

There is a conflagration of mold in the bathroom right now.

I hope I get an “A” on this consignment.

It brightened my day and helped me to continue with my homework.

I wish I'd had the ability to take a picture of it, but I saw a large, flashing marquee the other day that said “Pinacle of Acheivement” as part of a longer, congratulatory quote.

Hear Language

Two of the secrets of writing that stuck out to me this week were “Hear Language” and “Revise”. These two secrets go very well together because as you read through your writing you should hear the language and make the appropriate revisions. I used to really dislike proofreading my own work because it usually just didn’t sound right. As I improved my writing skills, I was more diligent in proofreading and making appropriate revisions. I didn’t mind reading my work, even if parts of it sounded bad, because I eventually knew how to make those revisions. I did this by writing for the ear and hearing the language. Another key aspect that I believe helped me improve my writing is secret #1 from the textbook: read. Whenever I proofread my work I imagine somebody else reading as though it were in a book or a newspaper. Reviewing and revising your work is essential in order to be a competent writer. Not only will it catch embarrassing spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes, but it will also help you decide whether the piece of writing flows and is easy to read. So after writing, re-read it so that you can hear the language, then make the appropriate revisions. It’s worth the extra time and reading to maintain your credibility as a writer.

The grammar mistake I noticed this week was in a bank deposit agreement. I don’t remember the exact sentence but it mentioned certain penalties for excessive transfers “from a account” instead of “from an account.” Those type of errors are little but noticeable and can make it difficult for people to take you seriously.

Affect/Effect

So one of my major grammar problems wasn’t one that the book talked about, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who messes it up. Affect vs. effect. I ALWAYS have problems with it! Who/whom and that/which are also words that I have a hard time using, but it seems like I can get around using them if I’m really having problems. But affect and effect have always bugged me! However, I noticed that the AP stylebook has an entry on affect/effect, and it really helped me understand better. Affect is almost always used as a verb, and Affect as a noun should be Avoided. Affect as a verb means to influence. Effect as a noun means result, and effect as a verb means to cause. I tried to think of some memory tricks to help me remember the differences, but I couldn’t come up with any. (If you guys can think of any I’d love to hear them!) But now that I know the stylebook has them in it, I’m going to keep it handy while I write. I figure eventually I’ll do it enough that I’ll be able to remember the difference without help!

So the editing mistake that I noticed the week was actually in a TV show. It was a murder mystery show called Castle. In it, the victim had phrases written all over her face in marker. One of them said “Your finished.” I think it’s obvious what the problem here is. “Your” should be “You’re” since the word the murderer was going for was the contraction of “you are”, and not the possessive form of “you.”

Comic Spelling

Reading a lot of comic books affords me the opportunity to witness boring, lazy and tragically misguided writing. reading through newspaper comic strips allows me the same result. the other day when I read through a really old Hagar the Horrible I saw some spelling errors. the errors took away from the meaning of the strip and made it much more confusing. Because certain words were misspelled, the fundamental meaning of the misspelled word became obscured, and the overall effect of the strip deteriorated. Although, Hagar already is a horrible strip. One misspelled word was frightened. Although, it was spelled frightnd. The misspelled word stole from the meaning of the strip, as I had to double check the word to make sure it wasn't some sort of strange Finnish word. Another misspelled word I came across was conceived. The i and e reversed places in the strip. This didn't confuse the meaning or message of the actual strip. Usually I don't notice the i and e place switchers in magazines or other reading material without someone telling me the word is spelled wrong. In this instance I found the mistake myself and felt a great deal pleased and a greater deal excited at the discovery.

Troy Aikman- "Blabbering Idiot"

I was watching the Packers-Bears game today, and when I saw Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were commenting on the game, I almost put the game on mute and listened to music. Since I could not figure out what I wanted to write my blog about, I chose to listen to them and count the grammatical mistakes in their speech. Joe Buck is a very well spoken TV personality, but the same cannot be said for Aikman. During the course of the game, Aikman used the word "good" to describe an action. At one point he said, "Aaron Rodgers runs good." I could not help but feel embarrassed for him, but COME ON! I thought individuals who do commentary are supposed to be well-versed in the English language.

I am ignoring all of my annoyance for Troy Aikman and writing this blog as an impartial viewer, but this is just ridiculous. This rant also ties into social media. I was looking through my Facebook and Twitter pages today and noticed that Troy Aikman is not the only well known celebrity to commit this foolishness. Reggie Bush, Ian Poulter (golfer), Page Kennedy (actor), and Paris Hilton all committed these grammatical atrocities.

If someone is going to write something that vast amounts of people will see (or hear) is it too much to ask that proper grammar is used?

Presented with Permission from The National Football League

Aside from charging nearly $2.50 for a pop, this restaurant misspelled 'cherry' and forgot a comma between 'grape' and 'vanilla'. If grape vanilla is an ac

tual flavoring, then a hyphen should have been used. The food and service was also rubbish. This place was the McDonald's of Italian food, and I'm not talking about Olive Garden.

My main guff with this chapter was the #4 mistake of a lack of parallelism. I remember getting in trouble for using parallelism in anything other than a poem. I understand the idea behind using it, but I don't think having little of it constitutes (as the book puts it) "startling poor writing".

The two mistakes I make are confusing 'that' and 'which' & 'who'

with 'whom'. I assumed 'that' and 'which' mean the same thing, but after reading this chapter I know better. 'Which' calls for elaboration, which to me screams "add more detail!" If I can remember that much, then life is good.

As for 'who v whom' the battle is probably going to last forever. I just studied the rule and wrote about it for our assignments, and I still can't seem to remember the rule. I blame the Steelers.

The following links are probably old news, but I think they fit perfectly with this and last week’s topics:

How to Use a Semicolon

Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

How to Use an Apostrophe

Twitter Spelling Test!

Editing for Dummies: HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!!

When you think about editing you think of all those God-awful red pen marks with strike-through lines and squiggly lines telling you what a horrible writer you really are. But in reading about different secrets to writing this week, I learned something new. How can you be a decent writer if you don't have anything to say? DUH! What I used to blame on writers block, I can now blame it on my lack of having anything to say. Well, that is what the book says. I disagree. I think it is because I have TOO MUCH to say. All my thoughts get jumbled and I end up writing a story about a mid-evil princess driving a flying car to a basketball game.

HUH??
Exactly....

I am a jumble of words. So another thing I learned was to pause and organize my thoughts. Use note cards or an outline so my ideas have a similar theme and an even flow that goes in a comprehensible order. Thank you authors (and editors) of When Words Collide.

So I finally found and was able to capture the beauty of illiterate grammar and poor editing in our world in a restroom in Bear Lake this last weekend. Check out this beauty.

What scared me the most is that this sign was at a restaurant... where people were eating... and employees cooking. Which hand are they supposed to wash? Hopefully the one that cooked my food. But seriously, how could you not have seen that unless you did ZERO editing or rereading of the sign before you printed and posted it. People these days...

Revise, Revise, Revise

I've never been a fan of revision. Once I finish writing a piece, I want to be done with it. Thinking of redoing a paper that has already been written once sounds horrifying. Don't get me wrong. I do read my writing after it's finished to correct minor errors, but I've never actually redone huge sections. That is, until I took magazine article writing.

Last semester, I wrote an article that would be submitted to Seventeen magazine. I finished a week early so I decided I would proofread it a few days later. When I reread it, I realized it wasn't very good. I had new ideas and wanted to change the overall message of the paper. I really didn't want to take the time to redo the paper, but I also wanted a good grade. I ended up rewriting most of the paper. The second version was so much better than the first. It was more humorous, relayed my message more efficiently, and contained a better word choice.

Although it took time to revise the paper, I'm glad I did it because the final product turned out extremely well. That experience taught me good writing relies on taking the necessary amount of time to write and revise until you have the paper written to the best of your ability. It takes a lot of effort, but in the end, it's worth it.

The editing mistake I found this week was on Facebook. My friend updated his status and said, "Being in bed sick all day has got me thinking. If I'm ever trapped on a deserted Island, the only things I need are a women, equipment for Netflix, and fishing supplies. I'll take it from there." When people aren't careful about their writing on Facebook, it always stands out to me. Even though I know it's just Facebook, it still irritates me. In the status update, 'island' does not need to be capitalized in the middle of a sentence. Also, does he mean a woman or multiple women when he says "the only things I need are a women"? The two meanings convey very different things. It's important to be careful with punctuation and grammar so you get the correct message across to your audience.

I am a grammar idiot.

I have always thought that I was a decent writer with adequate skills on writing style and grammar. Wrong; this class has definitely forced me to reevaluate everything that I have forgotten. There are so many rules and rules of rules that I have slowly forgotten over time. One piece of advice that I can give to myself and my classmates is located in chapter 3. READ!!!!! Read as much as you can. Different styles of writing can definitely broad your horizons and force you to evaluate your cognitive writing skills. It also took me an extremely long time to do the grammar checkup quiz. I am not used to taking grammar quizzes like that one anymore. What are your thoughts on this class so far? I think that it is very challenging, not because it is particularly hard, but because it forces you to think in ways that we may have forgotten.

I have noticed several editing mistakes on advertisements. Every Monday I watch headlines on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and there are always the most obvious mistakes on advertisements. For example, "bear it all," when the correct usage should have been " bare it all." There is one thing that is still irritating me. I can not seem to leave comments for other blogs. Is anyone else having this problem. I am signed into my Google account and it is still not letting my post comments.

“Wowo;; today is just a crappy day..Me &&Ross are over.. ):”

Reading chapter three in “When Words Collide” was really eye opening to me. The secrets were interesting and I definitely found a few I could work on. Reading the section on “Insta-Talk” was pretty enjoyable as well. I absolutely HATE text language. I hate using it, I hate reading it and I especially hate trying to decipher its actual meaning.

Unfortunately the same language is all over the internet. Most of the time I just find it irritating but sites like failbook.com make it pretty comical. Failbook.com is a place to post “fail” worthy messaging that has occurred over text or on facebook.com. One such “fail” that I saw just today read: “note to the owner of this laptop…. it isn’t smart to leave it in the middle of an airport lounge unattended with your facebook logged in”. Now, this isn’t even HALF as bad as some of the others I’ve seen but there are definitely a few errors in there. This next one is a little worse but still not as bad as I’ve seen. “Wowo;; today is just a crappy day..Me &&Ross are over.. ):” Again, several errors. It’s like once you log onto your Facebook all grammatical knowledge leaks out the ears. I’m not an expert in the grammar department (AT ALL) but I know “Me &&Ross are over.. ):” has just a few errors.

*The picture below is from my post last week. I didn’t have a picture of the sign last week so I ran to Burger Stop this week to take the photo.

Soar Throat Remedy

I have a very difficult time watching movies. It is almost impossible for me to sit through a movie at a theater. If I watch a movie at home, I have to have a book to read at the same time. I have noticed that if I am really enjoying the movie, then the book soon finds its way to the floor. The point is, I don’t really watch movies and read at the same time. Something has to go. So I was not surprised to learn today that there is no such thing as multitasking. The brain cannot do two tasks simultaneously. I am somewhat of a lazy person, and so it is hard for me to do even one thing at a time, but there was always the hope that maybe someday I could get two things done at once. I was especially interested to find out that it takes almost twice the time to accomplish something if you try to multitask. So I learned that if I want to do something quickly and efficiently, then I should concentrate on one task at a time.
As for editing errors, a friend of mine posted this recently on Facebook. “Just discovered the most AMAZING soar throat remedy!” I personally didn’t even notice this error until her husband posted “I love it when my throat SOARS! (Don't be sore at me...)”. This is a mistake that wouldn’t be caught by spell check.

The Internet: Window to Awful Grammar

How many of you have gone onto Youtube, watched a video and found yourself reading the comments attached to that video long after what you were watching is over? It happens to me all the time, and every time, I get a throbbing headache (figuratively, of course). I think the most irritating thing about grammar failure is the misuse of your and you're. This happens all the time on the Internet. It has gotten to the point to where I will post a status update of FB reminding all who see my page that your is possessive, and you're is a contraction for you are. Now don't get me wrong, using "u" to represent "you," and "2" to represent anything but the number is highly aggravating, but I let it slide because it is kind of cute (yeah right).

After reading this week's lesson, I feel like I've been refreshed on my comma usage. I have a tendency to write like William Shatner spoke on Start Trek. Commas, put, everywhere. Commas are used to represent detail (appositive), join two independent clauses, and link two dependent clauses with a conjunction. Thank you, commas. You have made making lists easy to read, but also wrecked many papers I have written.

Next time you're on Youtube, go read the comments. These people get into the worst arguments (some, no doubt, have led to fist-fights). Anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, profanity, and other arguments run rampant through cyber-space with blatant disregard for basic rules of grammar and spelling.

Come on people. If you're going to tell someone how much they suck, at least have the common decency to put commas where they need to go, eliminate run-ons and sentence fragments, and be able to use the correct form or your (or you're). You would still be the same socially offensive, pretentious person, but at least you would seem educated.

Ben Lowell

Hello all, my name is Ben Lowell. Here's a little about me. I am majoring in Spanish and my minor is communication. I plan to teach Spanish and then move into school administration as a principal. I have been married almost4 years.We have two beautiful daughters: Brooklyn, two and a half, and Brighton, a week and a half. I currently work with as a broker with Fidelity Investments and have been there over three years. That is an accomplishment given the state of the economy over the last three years.

I am a sports fanatic. I am a Jazz fan and a BYU fan. Deron Williams is unstoppable and Jimmer Fredette is the best college player fr

om a Utah school I have ever seen. I am a big fan of playing basketball as well. I play in Men's b-ball leagues here in the valley.

I like music. I like to think of myself as a musician in progress. I enjoy composing music and trying to find a way to get into the music business in some place. I like to compose piano/jazz/rock music and I also would like to get into composing movie scores. My dream is to one day have my own recording studio in my basement with all of the instruments that I will need to compose the music.

As for my background, it is somewhat unique. I was born in Quito, Ecuador. I have lived in Utah for many years, but I also have lived 9 years out of the country in Ecuador, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico. I went to Bountiful high school and graduated in 2003. I am the fifth of seven children. My dad is from Colorado and my mom is from Oregon. The reason we traveled so much was for my dad's job. He had some great employment opportunities overseas and so that's why we lived in South America.

In 2006 I was in the Pajama Game at Roger's Memorial Theatre in Centerville and that is where I met my wife. Holly and I were both in the cast and became very good friends during the show. She thought I was hilarious. Now she just shakes her head at my jokes. I guess

I'm really not that funny. She was a Northridge graduate and we now live in South Weber where she grew up. She is an RN and she works at a clinic in South Ogden.

Facebook: The Grammar FREE Zone

Armed with my arsenal of spiral-bound reference books (Hacker, Kessler, and Shertzer), 15 years of primarily academic writing, and my 20 plus years of English speaking, I continue to battle my way through the webs of prolific errors that the internet presents. Sometimes a sentence can be written the same way it would be spoken and it will not make grammatical sense. My biggest problems in grammatical functions are the infamous semicolon and the comma splice. My professor from ENG 2010 devoted almost an entire semester to the comma splice. I learned quite a bit about the pesky little mistake, but the English language is incredibly complex and extremely dynamic. Try as I might it seems that a comma splice or two always seems to sneak into one of my papers.
I wanted to take this last 100 words to make an observation and defend the atrocious grammar and piss poor spelling that I utilize on the social networking site, Facebook. Perfect grammar and punctuation are always goals of mine in most of my writing, however I feel that the friends I have on Facebook are all people who I am very comfortable and relaxed with. Thus, my grammar and punctuation also take a nose dive. I use my grammatical errors as a defiant statement to the monitoring of ourselves on social networks, or any computer mediated communication not set aside as a formal means of communication. On the other hand, I do recognize that lax regulation of my spelling and grammar directly reflects upon my competence as a writer. This is why my online language and my academic writing are worlds apart. I am hardly concerned with my Facebook friends viewing me as less competent because I used the wrong to (too or two) or didn’t capitalize i because I was typing at 65 words per minute.
OK, enough ranting.

An untimely introduction

Hello, my name is Peter Golde. I am a 20 year old outdoor enthusiast. I couldn’t figure out how to post my own blog so I decided this was a viable plan B.

This will be my sixth semester here at Weber State University, and I bleed purple. I am an Organizational Communication major with an emphasis in Training and Development. I chose this major because my previous field of study was Secondary Education with a Physical Sciences concentration. I have always been interested in teaching people new skills, and I was concerned that teaching kids might become too repetitive.

My dream job would be a corporate trainer working with software. As new software is developed I would be able to preview, ‘test drive’ this software, and develop a training program to acquaint employees with the new systems. I would like to make a modest yet healthy salary ($95,000) and have very good benefits.

I look forward to the new software and other computer related technologies that will be coming out in the coming years. The speed at which the world has been developing in the last decade has been really fascinating, and it has revolutionized the way we as a civilization communicate (It was about time for an overhaul if you ask me!).

I work at Snowbasin, a local ski resort, as your friendly man in red and blue running the lifts. I love my job! Working on the mountain is exciting and dynamic, and it provides me with a sense of satisfaction everyday when I go home. When I am not at school I am usually on the mountain working. Working full-time and going to school full-time will definitely be a challenge, but if I can kill that little voice in the back of my head encouraging me to procrastinate all the time it shouldn’t be too hard to excel this semester.

If it is summer time then you will always see me smiling. I love the summer and all the activities that go along with it. If we were meeting in a classroom you might see me with my longboard, but if you are on campus a lot then I guarantee you’ll see me rolling by (always evading Campus PD of course!). I also love to hike, rock climb, run, bike, and a medley of other outdoor activities.

I love to write, but typically I write creatively or in my journal/notebook which I have on my person 24/7. I write lots of lists. I tend to forget things if I don’t write them down and cross them off. It has become a habit of mine to make a list on Friday so that I know what I need to do on the weekend. I think it would be really interesting to continue on with these lists for several years, all the while archiving old notebooks as I fill them up. After many years I would be able to look back and see what my life was like and what I was doing.

Randomness about me

Hi all,

It took me a little while to figure out how to get on here. Ah, the wonders of technology, huh? Anyway, I'm Brian Giles, and I'm a senior here at Weber State. I'm majoring in journalism, specifically literary journalism. It's kind of funny to think about how I ended up choosing that, because I've loved writing for a long time but never really realized it. When I was in high school I did an internship writing a newsletter for the parents of students at the junior high I went to. Looking back now, I have no idea how I pulled that off. I started out at Weber wanting to do radio, but I took a class which proved to be a bit of a challenge, so there went that dream. I thought about technical writing, and for a long time was going to do a BIS with technical writing, communication and spanish. While doing that, I took some journalism classes and loved it. It is a challenge but I found that I'm good at it, so after last spring semester I made it official and switched to journalism.

Now for all the boring stuff. OK, maybe not all of it. I've been blind since birth because I was born three months early, but I've always just considered that part of who I am. Whenever people ask me if I could have my vision back, I always tell them that I'd have to think about it first. I've always enjoyed video games, but not so much of the newer stuff. I think the original Super Mario Bros is the best game ever made. I'm also a huge music fan, and think iPods are the greatest thing ever invented because you can take all your music and slip it in your pocket. Recently, I have started creating playlists as soundtracks for trips I go on as a way to remember them, much like a person does with a photo album.

During the nine years I've been at Weber State, I have also had three guide dogs. They haven't all worked out, thus the unusually high number of them in such a short time. I was planning on getting a fourth this summer, but that has been put on hold for now. This has become a huge passion in my life because once I am working well with the right dog, though it is difficult to explain, it is the greatest thing I have experienced in my entire life.

Anyway, enough rambligng from me for now. Good luck everyone!

So Many Punctuation Rules....

After reading the chapter title, I assumed I already knew everything the next few pages would say about punctuation. I was wrong. The section about comma use and misuse particularly caught my attention. I use commas everyday but have never stopped to think why I'm using a comma. I thought the comma rules for restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses was very interesting. If a phrase is essential to the sentence, commas are not needed around the clause. If the phrase is nonessential to the sentence, commas are needed around the clause. In junior high, I learned those rules, but that was a long time ago. This chapter was a great refresher of the punctuation rules.

Now for the editing mistake I found this week. In Sunday's edition of the Standard-Examiner, there was a section showing the winning contestants of an "Almost Newlywed Game" the paper hosted. Engaged couples sent in their engagement stories, in hopes of winning some great wedding prizes. As I was reading one of the winning stories, I noticed an editing error. The sentence read, "At this point I was so sick to my stomach with nerves that I could barely speak, so I just smiled and try to look calm!" The sentence should have read "smiled and tried to look calm." When writing, it's important to pay close attention to verb tenses.

Well everybody, that's it for this week!

Punctuation!?

It’s not all just commas, periods, and question marks. There are many other forms of punctuation that can, and should, be used in writing. I would say I have learned a lot this week about proper use of punctuation (although I admit I still have a lot to learn). I have fallen into the poor practice of using limited punctuation marks. I am sure this blog entry will contain some but hopefully not as many as normal. Two that come to mind that I never use are the semicolon and the dash. Part of this is due to the fact that I never really new the appropriate times to use them. I would just assume that a comma or a period and beginning of a new sentence would suffice. So the appropriate use of semicolons and dashes is one thing I have learned this week and have been making a point of focus.

Punctuation is indeed something that takes a lot of practice and attention to detail. I will certainly be looking for punctuation errors from now on in my reading. I think one of the main places that I have noticed punctuation errors and editing mistakes have been in my textbooks. I always find it funny when I find errors in textbooks because it completely contradicts what we are being taught about the importance of proper writing and grammar. This latest one was from a Sociology book. It’s not a communication or English book, but nonetheless it was very noticeable.

My dream job has always been to be a book editor. But as I did this assignment, I realized that what I really wanted to do was to read books for money, not to edit them. As I mentioned before, I went to 11 different schools before I graduated from high school, and somehow I completely missed learning any grammar at all. The only grammar I know is from all the reading I have done over the years. I have always had a question about how to use an apostrophe in my name to make it possessive. My last name is Jones and I had a vague idea that all I had to do was to add an apostrophe at the end of my name and be done. Over the years I have gotten letters addressed to the Jones's and even to the Joneses, so I was confused. I learned that I had been correct. To make my name possessive it really is Jones'. I made sure to announce my new-found knowledge to my brand-new daughter-in-law so that she would know how to spell her new last name.

Hyphens were a mystery to me as well. I actually thought that they were over used. Notice I used a bunch of hyphens in the previous paragraph. I have never really understood the reason for a dash either. I was really glad to learn about dashes, and now I will not be afraid to use them. So all in all it is really good to be a little bit more knowledgeable.

Now on to editing mistakes. My oldest son works at KSL, so that is the station that I watch for my news. I have always been irritated by the spelling mistakes in the closed captioning that is provided. I have always told my son that I could do a better job at spelling than they do, and they should just hire me. He defends KSL as the news is captioned in real time and the stenographers have very little time in which to caption the news. So that is it for me. I hope I haven't make too many mistakes in my blog.

Stupid semicolons!

This was a very helpful unit for me, although I agree that it was a lot of information to process. I think I could have used an entire week just to learn how to use commas properly! There are so many rules, and then exceptions to rules.

I have two things that for some reason have always been really hard for me with punctuation. The first is the semicolon. I’m not even really sure why this thing exists. It seems to me that every function it serves could also easily be served by a hyphen or a new sentence or some other form of punctuation. Writers just seem to use it because it’s stylistic. Because of this, I’ve always had a hard time knowing where they’re meant to be used. This chapter helped me to understand them a little better, although I still think the English language would be just fine without them.

The second problem I frequently have with punctuation is whether the period goes inside or outside the quotation! I don’t know why this gave me so much grief for so long, but now that I’ve read the explanations in the book it makes so much sense! I felt like I had a light bulb moment!

So I tried to find a really entertaining editing mistake, but the one I found was actually kind of boring. It was on a notice at work for how employees should wash their hands and all that jazz before they touch the food. The sign said that before an employee handles food they should be wearing “tight fitting disposable gloves.” There should have been a hyphen in “tight-fitting” since “tight” is modifying “fitting” and not “gloves.” So there you have it. I took a picture of it with my phone but I realized when I got home that I don’t have a USB hook up for my phone. Next week I’ll try to figure out how to get a picture up on here!

Guilty as charged

The hardest part of this weeks punctuation exercises were the hyphens, semi colons, dashes and parentheses. Maybe it is because I don't use them very often. I had problems figuring out where to put hyphens and semi colons. Some of the things that I thought were correct punctuation usage turned out to be completely wrong. For example, I learned not to use a comma to precede a partial quotation and use the comma if the quotation is a full sentence.

Some of this was touch up and review from English 1010 and 2010, but most of it takes logical and accurate thinking on my part. I think that we have all become a bit lazy in spelling and proper punctuation because we have programs that will spell the word and punctuate the paper correctly.

I did not see and editing mistakes lately, but I have noticed that whenever I see and email or a text message, the spelling and punctuation are terrible. It would seem that in a world that is dominated by technology, spelling and punctuation errors are commonplace in today's society. I'm just as guilty as everyone else. I almost don't care if I spell something right because I can just spell check it later. On another note, are any of you having problems commenting on the blog? I tried figuring it out with Dr. J, however we were unsuccessful and I still cannot comment on anyone's blog. Please Help!

Punctuation Problem

Hi! My name is Mary and I am a comma-addict.

I have found this week's lesson to be very insightful in my misuse of that cute period with a tail. I feel it appropriate to use it in any part of a sentence where I feel like there should be a pause, regardless if it is correct grammar or not. I want my sentences to sound the way I am thinking them in my head so I find myself adding one here and there in just about every sentence. BUT, after further knowledge in this course, I stand corrected. (OK, now I am really paranoid about my writing. Anyone else?) Commas are imperative to any good sentence to prevent run-ons, but they are not necessary needed in EVERY sentence like I previously believed.

I could not find, for the life of me, a grammatical mistake that would blind an editor. But I did find plenty of mistakes in a paper my husband was writing for a class. It was kind of fun to go through and cross off all the unnecessary commas. It was even more fun to stab the paper with the big red marker whenever he forgot a period. Evil? Anyways, I will be on the lookout once again this week.

Punctuation has always been something I just sort of roll with and hope I’m doing things right. I add a comma here or there, just when it sounds natural I suppose. That seems to come pretty easily but when we get into the crazy stuff like when to use semicolons, how not to use colons, whether or not to include a comma before the word “and”…yeah that stuff I’m not so good at. Needless to say, this week has been very informative for me.

I found the online power points to be EXTREMELY helpful to me. The tips given were exactly what I needed to hear. They answered most of my punctuation questions and helped a lot in the punctuation assignment. Now that I know some of the rules I don’t feel like I’m just “rolling with it” like I did before.

The editing mistake I want to share is one that my husband and I found a few months back. It’s a warning sign at the Burger Stop in Layton. It says something to this effect: “This property protected by video surveillance violates will be prosecuted.” It’s all one long sentence with no punctuation and “violates will be prosecuted”…really? Apparently they did NOT hire an editor :). That’s my exciting editing mistake for this week. Have a good week everyone!

YouTube Commas

YouTube culture has a knack for knowing absolutely nothing about everything. Historical facts are distorted, spelling is an imaginary friend and grammar is as existent as Dick Cheney’s conscience. Prowling YouTube affords the opportunity to see how the movie Idiocracy might be more of a prophecy than a low-budget comedy. Sifting through the comments section reveals a lot of grammar mistakes. These mistakes are especially pronounced when it comes to commas.

One instance of comma misuse came in a comment about Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells.” The comment reads like this: On my 21st birthday which was a long time ago I saw Mike Oldfield in concert.

Using commas to set of parenthetical statements, or aside comments, is the rule. The sentence should have read more like this: On my 21st birthday, which was a long time ago, I saw Mike Oldfield in concert.

This would have put the aside comment in between proper grammar. The writer of that sentence could have also used parenthesis as a way to stay in the graces of proper grammar, but sometimes parenthesis disrupt the flow of a sentence. Using commas instead of parenthesis is better because it does not disrupt the flow of a sentence. Commas also have shorter pauses.

Editing adventure

Alas, the time has come to blog again. My creativity may not be as exciting as my last blog entry, so bear with me.

It was hard to get all the reading in this week, but I did. I learned lots and yet I feel as though I have already forgotten most of it. I have always struggled with punctuation and knowing when to use apostrophes, commas, dashes, you name it.

While reading, I was mostly intrigued by the use of dashes. I never understood the purpose of them. Now that I do, I am reading books in a different way. I see the dash and I think "why is this surprising or ironic?" It has changed my world. I feel like a new woman.

You may be be surprised to hear this, but I have a qualm with semi-colons. For years I have been using the semi-colon wrong – to tell you the truth I have always avoided using it. (Did you like the dash usage? I bet you’re thinking “Colette that is bold!”)

I now understand semi-colons to a greater extent. Still, I am a bit leery of using them, but at least they no longer are my enemy. We are acquaintances now.

Onto my editing mistake search. I found a few. First, I went to a meeting this week and on the agenda they had the wrong date! I was shocked. The next one I found was in a thesis paper I had to read. Not only did he use the wrong tense several times, but there was some definite misuse of the comma. Besides that, I failed in my search. I was too caught up in my new job, school, and – I confess this last one reluctantly – installing and using my new projector.

It’s already friday. Where does the time go?

Brought to You By Bawls & a Sleepy Kitten

Apostrophe Catastrophes highlights the misuse of apostrophes in everyday situations. Tim Burton, Todd Palin and a Utah County Councilman are just a few of many people who have made silly apostrophe mistakes. I caught this blog in my Twitter feed the other day.

Chapter Eight in "When Words Collide" taught me the value of a comma. I knew it was misused a lot, but I didn't realize just how much or that I was misusing it more than I thought. The rule I was taught was "use one less than the amount listed". If there were four items in list, then you only need three commas. However, this is not case for media writing. Hopefully I can implement this new-found rule into my articles when I write for the Signpost. My boyfriend also took notes from this chapter so he could make his video game blog look more professional.

I don't believe I'll ever use dashes unless I specifically have to. Again, this will most likely be used in a Signpost article, but I have to work on creating leads worthy of dashes.

The ellipsis section did settle a bet; I have always maintained there were spaces between each period, but my friend was dead-set on no spaces. I didn't win anything material, but it still felt good to rub it in his face with proof from the book!

It's worth noting the spelling test from last week's module helped me a lot, but I will never have my boyfriend give me a spelling test again. So cocky. . .

WHO DAT!

Hey everyone. I'm Kenny Morris. I'm a senior here at Weber majoring in Public Relations and Advertising.

I moved here from my hometown of New Orleans in 2009. I attended LSU (Geaux Tigers) for the first three years of my undergrad where I majored in microbiology. I enjoy watching sports, listening to music, playing guitar, and playing golf.

I was born in New Orleans in 1988 and lived there until I was three when my family and I moved to Shreveport, La., then to Monroe, La., then to Dallas, Tx., and finally back to New Orleans again when I was just starting 7th grade. During my senior year of high school, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. I was on my way to play in a golf tournament in Pass Christian, MS the day before it hit. I was going to stay there and try to avoid the hurricane, but as it turns out, 80% of Pass Christian was destroyed by the hurricane. My high school was under six feet of water and I had to relocate back to Shreveport with a group of friends from our high school in New Orleans to finish my senior year.

Any way...

Sports are my life. Especially Louisiana sports. My favorite football teams are the Saints and the Tigers, and my favorite basketball team is the Hornets. Since Louisiana doesn't have a baseball team, I am a die-hard Red Sox fan. The happiest day of my life was when the Saints won the Super Bowl last season. I was in Miami for the game, but did not attend. During LSU's 2007 National title year, I attended every home game at Tiger stadium, and watched from outside the Superdome as they they took the Ohio State Buckeyes to the cleaners.

Coming to WSU has been one of the most enlightening and rewarding, both personally and academically, experiences of my life. I have met some incredible people some of whom i will be friends with for many years to come. The culture of this school has changed the way I look at life, and the way I live it.

After I graduate in April, I am going off to graduate school in either Texas, Washington, New York or here in Utah. I hope to one day be a PR/Advertising representative for a major sports team.

If there is anything else you all want to know, don't hesitate to ask.

Random Facts

Hey everybody. I’ll get the boring stuff out of the way first. I am a transfer student from California, and this is my first year at Weber State. I got my A.A. in Humanities, and I enjoy Weber better than the junior college circuit. My major is journalism. Journalism has always been, at the least, a mild passion for me, and I hope that passion doesn’t fizzle any time soon. However, I spent the last few years with the MLA format, and the switch to AP style might be awkward. My emphasis is in Literary Journalism, so maybe one day I can write magazine articles in between spouts of unconsciousness. If the magazine thing doesn’t work out, then writing at least one children’s book with a startlingly ambiguous message will be fine enough with me.

I think basketball is the greatest sport ever conceived. I try to watch the Blazers and Wizards as often as Charles Manson watches the inside of his cell. Even though both teams are awful to watch, I still try to witness all the manly sadness losing provides each team. Mainly I watch because I cling to the hope that God will one day grant mercy to either team and allow them to win more than a few games per year. I used to follow Weber State basketball, but after Lilliard shattered it became dull. I also am coming close to becoming a raging nerd. Star Wars and Star Trek marathons fill up entire days for me, and anything Marvel Comics does is amazing enough for me to gobble up. Despite the fact that most of the writers for their comics have morphed into hacks recently, I still read. But the hope of a nerd always resides in the future, and it is no different with me. One day Marvel will start writing good story arcs again, and I will be waiting for it. Or not. I actually don’t have that much patience.

Random facts are always fun, so I guess I’ll start spewing a few of them off. I have always distrusted cats because they have a knack for tripping me on stairs. Normally tripping on stairs doesn’t make me mad because I’m as coordinated as a crashing airplane, but cats trip with malice. They make eye contact with me as I fall, and I sense their feline hatred creeping out of their suspicious golden eyes. My biggest dream as a child consisted of me trying to become a Storm Trooper from the Star Wars movies. Considering that it supposedly happened a long time ago, I don’t know how I could have made that dream work.

Now that you know roughly nine things about me I will conclude my rant. I would say see you later, but I don’t think I’ll see anybody since this is an online class. But good luck with the upcoming semester.

Eric

Hey, all. My name is Eric Jensen. I'm a Journalism major here at WSU, and Dr. J's favorite student. I am the managing editor at The Signpost, and print journalism has been a passion of mine for a long, long time. Unfortunately, technology is ruining enthusiasm for words printed on paper, so my emphasis is in web publishing. That's not to say all of the technological advances we're seeing are bad things. In fact, I'm as guilty as anyone for the growing trends. My wife gave me a Kindle for Christmas, and it's pretty bomb.

A little about me... I love sports. Basketball, baseball and football are my favorites, but I'll get excited about pretty much any sport. I follow professional surfing and really enjoy MMA. My wife says I'm too competitive. I think competition is healthy.

I write a weekly sports column for The Signpost. It's titled "Pertinent Position," and it runs on Wednesdays. You should check it out sometime. I am currently an intern for KSL.com, where I write stories about WSU men's basketball. I also do play-by-play commentary of the women's basketball games for Big Sky TV's online broadcasts. I enjoy it all.

If I could live anywhere in the world, I would choose Oahu's North Shore. I love the ocean, and would rather sit on the beach than do just about anything else. In my opinion, swimming in the sea is one of the most rejuvenating activities on earth.

My dream job would be as a columnist for ESPN The Magazine. I'd like to win a Pulitzer one day. I don't know exactly where I'll end up after I graduate from WSU, but I'm taking the LSAT this summer and hope that it will give me some direction.

I'm taking too much space now, so I'll end. I'm looking forward to the class, and hoping to make this semester an outstanding one.

Dev

My name is Devin Hill and I am a Communication minor here at Weber State. I got my Associates Degree at Salt Lake Community College before transferring here and I like it at Weber A LOT more than I did at SLCC. I have been in school way too long but I am getting close to finishing (depending on how you look at it because I have thought about going to law school or graduate school after that). Most of my work experience up to this point in my life has been in the financial services industry, but I am getting really tired of trying to help people manage their money because they are too lazy? Ignorant? to do it themselves. I don’t know what some people are thinking when it comes to their finances but it has helped me a lot personally know how to (or not to) deal with finances.

As far as my interests go, I love a lot of things and sports are the first thing that comes to mind. I think college football is the greatest thing in the world. This is somewhat of a sad time as the season is now all but over but we still have a month left of the NFL, which has to suffice after the college season is done, and less than eight months until the 2011 college season begins. My favorite team is BYU and some of my earliest memories are going to games down in Provo. I also love the Utah Jazz and most other sports.

My other favorite hobbies are wakeboarding, snowboarding, golfing, playing tennis, and going to concerts. Wakeboarding and snowboarding give you somewhat of a thrill and also allow you to enjoy the outdoors and nature’s beauty. Golf and tennis are enjoyable and competitive but not TOO competitive. I also love concerts because music is something that I, like most people, am passionate about and the atmosphere and energy at a live concert just can’t be beat.

The thing I love most in my life are my family and friends. I wouldn't have those hobbies if I didn't have family and friends to participate in them with. I am the fifth of six children and am very close to all of my siblings. I also have a close group of friends that I hang out with all the time. We're always having a good time really no matter what we do. This last summer a few of us went on a trip to New York City. It was a nice, long trip and we got a lot accomplished including going the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, going to a Yankees game, going to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck, and just seeing as many sights as we could. I can’t wait to go back there again some day. Our latest thing has been making movies about various real events that have occurred among different members of our group. It’s been a lot of fun. The picture is of some of my friends and myself at the Yankees game in NY. I’m the farthest one back looking at the camera.

Lakers !

Hello Class. My name is Deric San Juan. I am a senior majoring in Public Relations & Advertising with an emphasis in Marketing. I am a transfer student from Los Angeles, California. I decided to go to Weber State because my girlfriend graduated from Weber with a Business Administration degree. Coming to WSU to finish my undergrad has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I am an outgoing person by nature and as some people in this class know, I am not shy. I enjoy writing, reading, playing Call of Duty Black Ops, GOLF, basketball, football, weight lifting, kick boxing, poker, movies, spending time with family, friends and of course my girlfriend.

I am an avid LAKER fan, Raider fan, Angel fan and Trojan fan. I will admit that sometimes debating with Jazz fans gives me high blood pressure since the Lakers are a far superior basketball team.

I currently write for the Signpost and I am also involved with several activities and organizations throughout the campus such as Lampda Pi Eta. After graduation I plan to go to grad school. My top three choices are NYU, the U, or back home at USC. I want to pursue my graduate degree in marketing or communication management after which I will pursue a career in marketing or corporate P.R.

An interesting fact about me is, I was born on Halloween and my mom was born on New Years' day. In addition to this, my girlfriend and I are both ambidextrous, both of our last names start with "San" and both of our last names are capitals of countries. My last name is the capital of Puerto Rico and hers is the capital of Chile.

I love to travel. I have been to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Korea, Canada, Mexico and roughly 30 of the fifty states including Hawaii, New York, Florida, Nevada, Washington and of course Utah. I plan on go to Europe after graduation and possibly New Zealand as well.

More tid bits that describe me: Mac user, 80's baby, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, I like all types of music and movies, spontaneous, adventurous, Japanese food, Italian food, Chinese food, Popeyes, The Food Network, for those of you who have not seen Spartacus; Watch it!!! Sleeping, fishing, eating, playing and sometimes shopping.

Technology and social media are a big part of my life. I am on Facebook and or YouTube on a daily basis. I also own a Blackberry, which is connected to my Facebook, a Mac, which has Skype on it, a PS3, which I use for everything since there is a browser on it and an Ipad, which in my opinion is a giant Ipod touch.

That pretty much sums it up, so good luck everyone with this class and this semester. Hope to see most of you at graduation. Go Wildcats !!!!!!

The Blonde in Me...

Okay, so we've all heard typical blonde jokes and how many of us it takes to fix a light bulb, but I am living proof that we are our own kind of people. It took me just about the whole week to figure out this blogging business and thank goodness for my sister (who is an amazing/hilarious blogger) or I would be SOL for this weeks assignment.

ANYWAYS... My name is Mary Melissa Capron but as far as my records with the school are concerned I am still Mary Melissa Watson. Name changing after marriage should be something they start doing as a drive-thru service because

1- Have you ever been to a DMV? Yuck!
and

2- Marriage is hard enough work in itself do I really need to spend 45 minutes in line just to be told I have the wrong documents?
(and that's after I called four times to verify what I need)

Regardless of my name, I have been married just over two months to my wonderful husband. We lived across the highway, less than half a mile, from each other for eight years and never met. Magically, we met in July of 2009, dated, got engaged the following March, and married October 28th. Best decision I ever made! We have so much fun whether it's arguing over furniture or arguing about how many pairs of shoes I own. He loves me! We just built a home in east Layton, where both our families live and I absolutely love it.

Enough about him; on to me! I am 22 years young and was born in Shreveport, Louisiana where I lived for most of my childhood. My family moved to Utah, where my parents are originally from, for my dad's business and the rest is history! I am a senior, graduating in the spring, graduating with a degree in Public Relations with an emphasis in Health Care. My hope is to join the ranks of a hospital administration to boost their relations with the public!

My favorite things to do include traveling, playing and watching sports (especially the JAZZ!), playing with my adorable nieces and nephews, dancing, finding killer discounts on additions to my house, reading, laughing with my sisters and mom, doing makeup, and beating my husband at any card game we play. My favorite place on earth is the Hyde Park Hotel in London next to Marble Arch. I spent a summer traveling Europe and that place will always be my second home. I would also live on the beach if I could. There is nothing better to me than white sand, blue water, cushioned chair, strawberry daiquiri, and a good book. Is that too much to ask?

I am glad for the opportunity to be taking this course because I am a horrible spelling, for one, and two, because I actually like editing other people's work. My husband and girlfriends always come to me to help with their papers.

I hope that gave you a good enough look into the life of Mary. If not, send me a question!

Just a little bit about me!

Hello all! My name is Shaylee Whiting, I’m an English major with a minor in Communication. I love the English language and everything that has to do with it, whether written or spoken! As such, I love to read and write, talk and sing! I’ve been in some choir or another every year since sixth grade (the most at one time was three). I’m currently the secretary of the Ogden LDS Institute Chorale, which is more time consuming than I ever thought it would be, but so worth it. And for those who don’t know, the shower has great acoustics!

My love of talking has translated well into drama, and I’ve been in several plays. I love theater, even though I don’t feel like I’m the best at it, and can’t quite decide if it’s more fun to watch or participate in. My favorite play has been and always will be the Phantom of the Opera! It’s timeless! I saw it a couple years ago in Denver over spring break and loved every minute! My favorite part that I’ve played would definitely have to be Lina Lamont from ‘Singin’ in the Rain’. It’s a good thing my vocal cords are so well exercised, because that role can take it out of you!

As I said, I love reading and writing, and my hope is to one day become a published writer. I was editor of my high school literary journal my senior year, and I thought that I was pretty good at editing, but after a few years of college I’ve realized I’ve still got a lot to learn. I’m really eager to take this class and improve my skills. I’m also taking a novel writing class this semester which is really helping to exercise my creativity.

I love all genres of books, but especially fantasy. I’m highly opposed to growing up, and as a result I love reading “kid” books and young adult books. Harry Potter has got to be one of the greatest series in the history of the world! I also love all the new dystopian books that are coming out, like the Hunger Games series.

Another passion of mine is cooking. I love being in the kitchen, even though it’s frustrating when the cupboards are too high (I’m only 4’ 11’’). This year for Christmas I got a crepe pan and a food processor! I was a happy girl! I have a strong addiction to anything sweet, but especially CHOCOLATE! I wish sugar was healthier for you, but since it’s not, I make sure I exercise regularly. I love to run and do yoga. I recently tried out Zumba, which was insanely fun even though I’m sure I looked like a complete dork while doing it! I really need to start a weight training program, however, because I’m weak!

I also love the outdoors! I love the summer when I can write out on the trampoline and read in the hammock. Some of my favorite outdoor activities are hiking and boating. I’m not into very many winter sports, so I long for warmer weather!

And that’s basically me in a nutshell!

About Me

My name is Kaylee Connors, a junior here at Weber State. It took me a while to figure out what to major in, but I finally decided on doing Journalism with a Web Publishing emphasis. I love writing and have enjoyed the media experiences I've had in the journalism industry so far. I was the a&e reporter for The Signpost for two semesters. Working for The Signpost strengthened my writing skills and taught me what good reporting is. I was also able to learn about the responsibilities of being a newspaper editor.

I stopped writing for The Signpost to pursue broadcast news. This is my third semester working for Weber State News, and I absolutely love it! I'm the producer of Studio 76, Weber State's entertainment show. It's fun to get a show together and produce stories. I also do the weather for WSN, which is a lot harder than I imagined it would be, but I enjoy the challenge.

I'm hoping my media experience will land me a job in the broadcast news industry. I would love to participate with anything behind or in front of the camera for an entertainment show. If I could replace Big Buddha or one of the hosts on Good Things Utah, my life would be complete.

As of right now, I'm focused on this semester and getting through Winter. I really hate the cold weather and would prefer temperatures near 100 degrees. If you look for me during the snowy months, you can witness me slipping and falling all over campus. I wouldn't say I'm uncoordinated, but I'm definitely not graceful when it comes to walking on snow or ice.

Now for some random facts about me. I was born in Texas and am proud of it. I lived in Fort Worth for four years before moving to Utah. I graduated from Weber High in 2008 and never considered going to college anywhere besides Weber State University. It's nice living at home and not having to pay rent. One of my biggest obsessions is saving money. I'd rather save my money than spend it any day. It almost hurts me when I have to swipe my debit card, but I know spending some money is part of life. I do keep to a very tight budget so I only buy what is absolutely necessary.

Other than my strict money habits, I'm pretty laid back and enjoy doing whatever my friends or family want to do. I'm a huge fan of the Twilight series and could read the books over and over again. A talent that I probably shouldn't brag about, but do, is my expertise at video games. I pretty much rock. I don't have a lot of time to play them, but when I do, nobody can beat me. My favorite type of television show is anything relating to reality television. I know it's a waste of time, but it's addicting. I hate scary movies because my eyes fill up with tears when I'm terrified.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say and luckily I've reached 500 words so I'm going to stop writing now. Good luck with the semester everybody!