Writing With Style

I have always been interested in style, whether it is in song lyrics, textbooks, novels or other written material. I am glad we had the opportunity this week to learn about writing with style. I found it interesting how free you are as a writer to break the rules. The text even mentions considering fragments and run-ons. If you know what you are doing and it works, then why not? If you are going to break such a rule it is important that you make sure it works, otherwise your writing strength will suffer instead of improve.

There are other ways to create style in your writing as well. I liked the part of the text that talked about playing with words. That section explains how creating words can add to your style. It is also a good idea to make sure you use proper words. For example, instead of writing, “talk a lot” you could write, “jabber”, “yammer”, or “chatter”. It is also a good idea to vary the length of your sentences. When every sentence is short, it can make the writing seem dull and choppy. The risk of using many long sentences is that it can cause the audience to lose interest.

Moving along to grammatical errors, I love the made-up word “irregardless”. It is a word that simply could not exist. I didn’t see it written anywhere but I have a friend who uses it liberally even though he knows it’s wrong. It goes to show that breaking rules can add style to speech as well as writing.

Showing and Telling

The difference between showing and telling is drastic. Telling pulls the reader into a state of boredom while showing pulls the reader into a different world. However, showing becomes problematic when telling makes it simpler and easier to understand. For instance, if a rule book showed through abstract metaphor how to play Battleship the players would spend more time interpreting the metaphor rather than playing. But showing is better in a literary setting.

This week I started reading A.E. Hotchner's personal memoir about dealing with Ernest Hemingway. In it he switches between showing and telling frequently. One section of writing starts off by saying, "Ernest's suite was well attended when I got there." It then goes on like this: In the center of the room was a round table on which rested two silver ice buckets, each containing a bottle of Perrier-Jouet, a huge blue tin of beluga caviar, a salver of toast, a bowl of finely chopped onions, a bowl of lemon slices, a salver of smoked salmon and a thin vase containing two yellow tea roses.

Passive voice aside, he could have just removed the first sentence and only had the second since the second shows and doesn't tell.

The Only Good Lobster is Real Lobster

I was having a difficult time trying to figure out what to write about this week, until I stumbled across this ridiculous picture in my phone. That will come later. First off I want to express my sincere thanks to this book for not stifling our creativity as writers. While the text expresses the importance of not using overworked, overused cliches, it does not state that we should never use them at all. Cliches are the essence of writing. It gives the reader an insight into the noun they are reading about. I think we can all agree that "eyes like a hawk" sounds much better than "he could see well."

I have had a problem in the past with using bad cliches and not giving intense detail where it is due. In the future, I think I could analyze what I am writing about and make sure I give correct attribution to details. I could also use fewer bad cliches, and maybe make up some of my own.

Anyway. Here is that picture. Anyone ever had Main Lobster?

Show, Don't Tell

If I showed more and told less, my writing would become much stronger. After reading the examples in the book, I realized how much better the showing sentences sound. Simply stating something isn't as interesting as using description. In one of my classes my teacher said, "You tell what happened, and then the reader can decide the conclusion." If we describe the scene, the reader can get a mental image of the situation and make a judgment call. Instead of stating that a woman looked elegant, you could write a description of what she was wearing and how she was acting. When your writing shows the reader the story, it means the writing is strong.

Another important writing tip is to use quotations. Whenever I write a broadcast story, I always try to have people tell the story. A strong quote adds power and credibility to a story. Some quotes are boring and don't make sense, so you need to be careful which quotes you decide to use.

The editing mistake I found this week was on the news. One of the anchors said that a drunk man had been arrested. According to the AP style book, they should have said the drunken man. Although the sentence the anchor said was not grammatical, I think it sounded better because drunken would sound awkward.

Eye of the beholder

After careful review of chapter 10, I have noticed that much of it is left to interpretation. The hardest part for me was avoiding cliche's. Everything that I wrote in the chapter 10 assignment sounded like a cliche'. My only recourse was to attempt to be original and to play with figures of speech. Especially helpful for me was the use of similes and metaphors. Remember, similes are verbal comparisons, while metaphors are designed to express a more direct comparison. I also use personification to liven up a story. Personification attributes human characteristics or behaviors to nonhuman or inanimate objects. For example, "that cheesecake is calling my name". The cheesecake is obviously not calling out to me in an attempt to make me eat it, but it is expressing a desire on my part.

For this weeks editing mistake, I don't know how this went unnoticed but here you go. I'm sure they meant Angus burger, but needless to say I will not be going to a McDonald's that sells Anus burgers.

Right Words

I know I'm a little late due to being out of town over the holiday but I wanted to post anyway. This week I found that using the right word is something you need to be very careful of. To find out why, I needed to look no further than this weeks Power Point presentation. How many times do we use incorrect words in our everyday speech? One that stuck out to me first is the use of “whether or not”. The “or not” part is implied in this instance, so it is a little redundant to say, “We will go whether or not it rains tomorrow”. You can simply remove the “or not” part and have the sentence still make sense. Another common mistake in our spoken language is the use of “off of” versus “off”. I never realized until listening to this weeks lecture that “off of” should NEVER be used. This is definitely something that I will need to focus on in my speech and writing because it is a mistake I know that I constantly make. Simply saying, “Get off of me!” is incorrect. “Get off me!” is be the correct sentence. There are several words out there that may seem correct but that should not be used. This week’s lecture and assignment really made me think and also helped me learn the importance of correct word use.

In Love

OK, I’m convinced; the “AP Stylebook” is SO helpful! I may be in love. I have not owned any version of the handbook until this semester. It has helped me on numerous occasions. Overall, it is an extremely helpful guide at Associated Press Style writing, though I have seen a few frustrations come out of it. I have an investigative journalism class with Dr. J as well as this online editing class. A few times in class, Dr. J. will mention changes that have been made in the new edition of the “AP Stylebook.” How does someone keep up with changes that occur with every new publication? I guess it’s just best to have the most recent publication on hand at all times.

I noticed an editing error this week that sort of threw me off. This particular error had me second guessing my editing knowledge and doing some research in the stylebook. I was looking at In-N-Out Burger’s website for nutritional information (or lack thereof) and came across what I believe to be an editing mistake. Under the Food Quality subheading there is a passage that says, “We do all of this in our facility on our property in Baldwin Park, Ca.” The “AP Stylebook” says all states that need to be abbreviated should be done so with capital letters, as in CA, not Ca. If anyone knows any other rule that makes the Ca. version OK please let me know!

The List

I don't know about the rest of you, but the list of homonyms and homophones in Appendix B made me want to lose it. This list made me realize just how many of these pairs and triads of words there are. After a quick glance through the endless sea of black print, I saw how many mistakes I have made on many papers and assignments I have done in the past.

I have heard that English is the hardest language to learn, and now I see why. We have different words for everything and according to the text, more than 300 of them sound exactly like the other. I was talking to Dr. J after the test last week and I confessed that I find myself typing and speaking in a conscious effort to avoid using who/whom. After reading Appendix B, I think I just added some of those 300+ words to do the same thing to.

The man did not sell illicit drugs. The man sold drugs that are not legally permissible to sell.


Thank god for Auto-correct, right?

Right/Rite/Write Words

So I finished doing the "Right Words" assignment Friday night and I must say, it has doomed my speech processing. Question 52 on the assignment asks us to decipher between sight, site and cite. I found myself talking to a friend last night about working a job SITE. Although the meaning was understood because of thousands of years of human-to-human voice interaction and the fact that my friend is not an idiot, I began to think, "Which word do I use when it comes time to process that word? Is it sight, site or cite?" Finally I took my own word for it and fell asleep, but when I woke up this morning, I found myself thinking the same thing, only with a different word. I was watching a news story online about Louisiana budget cuts and how they affect (not effect. Wait! Here I go again.) higher education. A news reporter mentioned the protests around Baton Rouge, the capitol of Louisiana. When the reporter said "capitol," I almost threw a fit. "What capitol/al is she talking about?1?!!?! After looking through the text of the story, I found that she was indeed referring to "capitol."

I am just glad that the men and women who developed the modern English language are dead and gone and all we have to do is conform to their rules, because if they were still alive, we would be having many angry conferences about why they insist on having so many words that sound the same with totally different meanings and ways to use them.

Homonyms and Homophones

I have to admit, when I first started this unit I thought it was going to be a breeze. Homonyms are not something I have problems with! Or so I thought. As I got into the assignment, I realized that there are a ton of words that I didn't even realize were homonyms or homophones! For instance, I had never realized there was a difference between loath and loathe. After thinking about it I realized that it makes sense, but up until that moment I never would have been able to tell you which one was which. Others that were new to me were marshal and martial, and principal and principle. And there were words that weren't homonyms, but that I still have a hard time with choosing the right one, such as 'different from' vs. 'different with' and 'compared to' vs. 'compared with.' One thing that this unit definitely taught me was to never assume the word is correct! Always double check!
The editing mistake I found this week was in the book I'm reading, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." It's on page 70, and one of the characters is talking and using semicolon's all over the place. He says, "I am by no means of the opinion that a ball of this kind...can have any evil tendency; and I shall hope to be honored with the hands of all of my fair cousins in the course of the evening..." the sentence continues, and after every independent clause there is a semicolon and a coordinating conjunction, which we learned way back in the first weeks is a no-no. Only one or the other should be used, but not both together.

Euphemism

Euphemism is an expression designed to be less offensive or disturbing than the word or phrase it replaces. When I was a kid I asked my brother what that word meant and his response was "look it up in the dictionary". I looked it up in the dictionary and I still had no clue what the dictionary was trying to tell me cause I was seven. From that point on I always wondered about the word and have been to lazy to look it up. Thank you "When Words Collide," you have once again cleared up another mystery. 

It is interesting how people use euphemisms a lot. I am fascinated by those who use euphemisms thinking I totally understand what they are saying, but since they don't come right out and say it, I find myself lost and sometimes perplexed. Personally, I appreciate people who are straight forward because there is no mystery and I don't have to assume something that may not be. 

I don't like euphemisms if I am lost in the conversation, but when it works to my benefit I love them! Shocking how that works.

Editing mistake this week. I did see a sign that caught my eye, but I can't recall what it said. It was on a farmers insurance sign. I was excited to report about it too. Maybe next time.

Loathe/Loath

I became excited after seeing this week's assignment load. Then I started to do the assignment not named vocabulary seven. I started to grind through the similar words and some of the differences bounced around, being too minute to care. But other words are so drastically different that I'm glad I did the assignment. One of the words with drastic differences is loath and loathe. although pronounced the same they are as different as a cat and a Crip. Unless it's a cat-Crip, but those don't seem to exist in large numbers. Loathe means to dislike greatly. Loath means to be unwilling.

Being a curious traveller of out-of-shape proportions, I went walking in downtown Salt Lake City. I saw a homeless man with a cardboard sign since those are always in vogue with the homeless population. The sign said, "I am loathe to risk my beauty." I'm pretty sure he meant, "I am loath to risk my beauty." Or he meant he loathes to risk his wrinkly goodness. But either way, It's a case of choosing the right words, and he chose....poorly.

Another Week's Blog

I was excited to see there were only two assignments for class this week. The assignment about using words correctly took me a while to complete, though. I couldn't believe how many words are so similar but have very different meanings. The words that opened my eyes the most were principal and principle. I always thought the word principal could only relate to the principal of a school. I was surprised to learn it actually means first in rank or authority. On the other hand, principle means a truth, doctrine or rule of conduct. The rule I had no idea existed was that principal is the adjective form. The example in the PowerPoint helped me understand this concept. It said, "She is the principal researcher on the project." In this sentence, principal is an adjective so it's spelled the same way as the principal of a school.

The editing mistake I found this week was in my own writing. I was adding notes to a Photoshop assignment. The notes explained the techniques I used to change the picture. I wrote, "I used the saturation tool to effect the color of the picture's background." When I was proofreading my notes, I realized affect should be used because I was using the word as a verb.

Week 7

All of my days are merging together. Today I was told that there is 38 school days left until graduation! Alleluia.

I took the test on Monday and it was easier than I expected. Then today I picked up my test at Sheree's office and realized that maybe it wasn't as easy as I thought.  

I am seriously struggling with what to write for this weeks assignment. I keep deleting it. I am glad this week's work load was lighter with only two items due. I felt like I didn't learn a ton. For the right word assignment I had to look many of them up.  

As for editing mistakes this week, I had a chance to edit a press release. Honestly, they did an impressive job when it came to punctuation, but I did have to fix a few of the style choices that they used. They used an acronym before spelling it out earlier in the release and instead of using quotations they italicised a phrase. Normally the italicised phrase would be fine according to AP style, but for the press release purpose it wasn’t.

Again, the Grammar Gods are Cursing Me

This semester has opened my eyes soooooo much to the world of words, grammar and MISTAKES. I never realized how thin the ice is that we, as writers, skate on. It is ridiculous to me. Now I know why people who move here from another country don't bother learning the language. Can you say "brain damage"? Homonyms and homophones are no exception. They are the epitome of grammar hell. Aisle vs. isle; site vs cite vs sight; foreword vs forward. I am dying here people! But I guess the more aware I am of the possible mistakes, the less I will make them...right?

On to the editing mistake of the week...

Loose or lose? You decide.

Right Words

This assignment due this week in my opinion was both easy and hard at the same time. I looked up all of the definitions in the dictionary, AP style book and When Words Collide just to be sure of my answers. This sounds weird, but I still have problems with who and whom, but I don't have any problems with whose and Who's.

This assignment also brought attention to words that sound the same but are only grammatically correct in certain ways. For example, fewer and less. Affect and effect still cause some issues but I am getting better at analyzing the definitions with further concentration on the context of the sentence. One item that I had absolutely no clue about was blond and blonde. I thought blonde was always blonde until the AP style book corrected me. How did everyone do on the test? Well I hope!

p.s. I still cannot comment on the blogs!

Queen of Bull S%!$

The section on clarity and conciseness really just ticked me off. I am happy with elongating my sentences with as many unnecessary adjectives and adverbs as it takes to fill the page minimum quota put forth by my professors. I mean, let's be honest, how else can we type a 250 word blog every week without getting at least a little "fluffy". Writing college papers almost requires it to get by with some semblance of sanity in the end. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I have found it imperative to cut the crap out of my sentences when it has come to writing for different news media. Stick to the facts; no BS. But according to the section on clarity, clutter is a no-no in the grammar world.

In other news, the test wasn't so horrible, however, I did feel there were one or two unfair questions that I'm sure I'll take up with Sheree.

For my mistake of the week, I was looking up record-long sentences. Look at this whopper and don't feel so bad for your clarity and conciseness mistakes.

“Elizabeth, New Jersey, when my mother was being raised there in a flat over her father’s grocery store, was an industrial port a quarter the size of Newark, dominated by the Irish working class and their politicians and the tightly knit parish life that revolved around the town’s many churches, and though I never heard her complain of having been pointedly ill-treated in Elizabeth as a girl, it was not until she married and moved to Newark’s new Jewish neighborhood that she discovered the confidence that led her to become first a PTA “grade mother,” then a PTA vice president in charge of establishing a Kindergarten Mothers’ Club, and finally the PTA president, who, after attending a conference in Trenton on infantile paralysis, proposed an annual March of Dimes dance on January 30 – President Roosevelt’s birthday – that was accepted by most schools.”
Taken from Philip Roth’s A Plot Against America

Whew!! Are you still awake? Have a great day!

Nearly Halfway There!

I must admit, it’s been nice having a slightly lighter work load the past few weeks! The reading and assignments this week were interesting. Reading over appendix B, “Homonyms, Homophones, Spell-Checks, Oh My!” was surprising for me. I had absolutely no idea there were so many homonyms and homophones. I was pretty shocked to see that many.

I originally thought I had a pretty good grasp on the meanings of different words that sounds alike, but I was mistaken. I thought I knew one, looked it up and realized I was wrong. The homework was definitely a great lesson and learning experience.

I realized I’ve forgotten to write about editing errors I’ve encountered for the last few weeks! Oops! This week I caught one in an email at my work. I can’t copy and paste the full email for privacy reasons but there were several mistakes that I caught. She typed “17 year old” instead of 17-year-old and missed several commas and other punctuation.

Writing with Clarity

This was a greatly needed chapter for me. Being an English major, I frequently have to write papers, and I've become very good at filling them with useless fluff-words, otherwise known as BSing! The interesting thing is, there are many English teachers that seem to like that type of writing. Their reasoning is, the more you go on about a topic, the more clarity your subject will ultimately have. If you say what you mean in several different ways, at least one of those ways will penetrate to the reader. (I can already tell that I'm doing this in my blog post!)So my dilemma was learning how to balance subject clarity and sentence clarity. It's important for your sentences not to be convoluted, even if your paper is. This chapter really gave some good advice on how to accomplish this. There are so many useless phrases that I use to make me look smarter, such as ‘due to the fact that’ or ‘at this point in time’ when really it would be better and smarten up my writing to be more concise. I also have a fondness for “verbizing” words! I think you can get away with this more in creative writing, but in professional writing it should be avoided like the plague!
The editing mistake I found was in another blog that I read. It was made by one of my friends who, unfortunately, doesn’t have the best grammar. A mistake that she frequently makes is mixing up ‘where’ and ‘were.’ It really bothers me because I don’t think it’s that hard to keep them straight! In the same blog post she had these two sentences: “Really, they where rather easy to make.” And, “I’m not sure were the pictures went.” Some people make some interesting mistakes!

Clarity

I would say most people have dreaded having to write essays for school ever since elementary. Looking back, I remember they always had to be a certain length or contain a certain number of pages done in a certain size of font. The only good thing seemed to be that you could type them double-spaced. I would often add useless words and redundant phrases in an effort to obtain the minimum page requirements. This type of thing is exactly what the text is talking about when it mentions redundancy and wordiness. Use of the word “very” comes to mind when I think of wordiness, and the lecture included other intensifiers that should be avoided such as “really”, “extremely”, “severely”, etc. The text gives examples of redundancy such as “end result”, “repeat again”, and “completely destroyed”. Making these mistakes hinders the clarity and conciseness of your writing, making it difficult on the reader. I have found this week that you can add a lot to a sentence by writing it in active voice and choosing appropriate words. Chapter nine in the book gives a lot of good instruction on what not to do if you want to be a clear and concise writer. I suppose what you should do, then, is the opposite of what the book says. Avoid jargon, redundancy, wordiness, etc. Make your sentences easy to read and easy to understand.

For my grammar error this week I thought I would mention a certain banker who I came across. It was actually a co-worker of mine who works in a different department. He might as well have been speaking a foreign language because just about every other word that came out of his mouth was jargon that I had no clue about. Although this was not something I had read, it showed me how the use of jargon can be completely confusing for people.

A Cluttered World

the current state of spoken English is rife with clutter. Airline pilots say, "We will be experiencing precipitation soon." They don't feel the need to simplify because simplicity in speech is equated to simplicity of mind. People have a mild, at least, fear of coming across as unintelligent so they mask that fear with clutter. Pilots cant say "It will rain." That would be simple. Simple isn't good, especially not to the hordes of egomaniacs that operate our airwaves, papers and advertisements.

The other day I listened to a radio commercial about cars. I don't know much about cars, but I do know about people inflating the amount of words they need to use. the announcer went on and on about a sales pitch that bordered on annoying. If he would have went the simple route I still wouldn't have bought a car since that requires cash, but I would've appreciated him more. He said things like, " I have a surplus of cars, and this surplus caused me to lower my prices!" He could have saved some radio time and money by saying, "I have too many cars, and they must go!"

Spartacus Cannot Speak

Thanks to fellow classmate Deric San Juan, I have become fully enveloped in the TV program, Spartacus. The gratuitous violence, profanity and other story elements that are not fit for a classroom blog have entranced me to the point of watching an entire season in 17 hours.

When I saw that we were going to study being concise and clarity, I immediately thought back to this show. The script that these actors read off of is nothing more than a knife to the English language, and the actors serve as the butchers. Instead of saying, "I will kill you and feel good about it when we fight in the arena" these actors would say something like "When we battle in the arena, I will take your life in honor of myself, my house and whatever god they are looking to in order to channel strength and power. No don't get me wrong, the prophetic nature of which they speak (<-- see)is highly entertaining and it masks bad acting with even worse acting, there is something fascinating about their lingo.

I wonder what would happen if I started speaking this way. Maybe I will do it just to see the reactions I get.

For those who have yet to see Spartacus, consider this mathematical equation:

(Gladiator) + (300) = SPARTACUS!!!

Clarity and conciseness

A lack of clarity and conciseness on my part has forced me to partake in extra multifaceted educational supplements, otherwise known as studying. Maintaining clarity and conciseness has proven difficult for me at times. For example, when is it proper to say "janitor"? Is it wrong to say "director of custodial arts" instead of janitor? Thanks to this class I edit and re-edit my writing. I also question everything that is written. For some reason I am finding mistake on everything. Dr. J did say " it's o.k. to break grammar rules if you know how and why you are breaking them." In essence, there is often more than one right answer. Now I am even more confused than ever.

I must admit that I am somewhat worried about the test. I'm sure that I am over analyzing the situation, but I'm still petrified of taking it. Has anyone taken it yet? Also, I noticed that there is an extra credit section in the grade portion of blackboard. Does anyone know if we are going to get extra credit for this class? Good luck the rest of the way everyone.

- suffering from "senioritis" aka Deric -

Say What You Mean

Writing clearly and concisely is a huge part of the stories I write everyday. I write stories for Weber State News, and many times I'll only have thirty seconds to tell a story. In order to get the important ideas across, I have to write concise sentences. It's also important with broadcast news to write clearly. When you listen to a newscast, you only get to hear the information one time. It's important to not use jargon or unnecessary words. With that being said, I enjoyed reading chapter nine. The rules discussed are issues I deal with in my broadcasting work each day.

A professor I had recently said, "Say what you mean, and mean what you say." This quote kept popping into my mind while reading the chapter. Don't use jargon or words the average person won't understand. Write clear, concise sentences. It's important to think about each individual word in the sentence to make sure it is contributing to the meaning of the sentence. If a word is distracting, remove it. When I remember those rules, I write better sentences.

The editing mistake I found this week was at my brother's basketball game. My sister and I are always the loudest in the audience and scream whenever our team steals the ball or makes a basket. One of the player's parents loves that we get into the games. The dad gave us a note. The first sentence said, "Your stentorian, loud cheering helps the team win games." Honestly, what in the world does stentorian mean?! I looked it up, and stentorian means loud. The sentence is repetitive, and the word loud should be used to make the sentence easier to understand.

Precious Time

Chapter 9 introduces what I thought this entire editing class would be about. While we’ve learned a lot more than how to cut down wordy sentences, this has been, by far, my favorite chapter. I absolutely love this side of editing. Clarity and conciseness is something I just recently learned about. High school essays always consisted of flowery words used only to meet the minimum word count. That style of writing became a habit for me and I still really enjoy it from time to time(as you can see from my blog posts). As much as I love it, flowery words and sentences just don’t fly in academic and professional settings.

Clearly, I love using wordy sentences. It’s one of my weaknesses but also one of the things I so thoroughly enjoy about free-writing. Writing academically drains my creativity at times so it’s always fun to write a blog and just let the words flow how I want them to.

Both the “clarity” and the “conciseness” assignment opened my eyes. Sure, sometimes the exaggerated sentences sound better to the writer, but the reader typically wants quick, short, understandable sentences. Word choice is so important in academic and professional style writing. When people read printed or virtual media, they expect the hard facts and they expect them now. Time, precious as is it, cannot be wasted trudging through meaningless and unnecessary words.

Possessive

Possessive case can be somewhat confusing. Sometimes an apostrophe is required, and sometimes one is not. Some possessive case words are homophones, which can lead to confusion about which form of the word is correct. Whose/who’s, and their/there/they’re, are two examples of these homophones. For this reason, it is also important to recognize what a contraction is and what contractions mean. For example, who’s is a contraction for “who is”. If you said “Who’s glass of milk is on the table?”, it would not make any sense. It would be as though you said, “who is glass of milk…” This is a dangerous grammatical mistake, perhaps because it is not easily noticeable. You may be reading the mistake and not even catch it because it sounds the exact same as the correct word. Mistakenly using there instead of their might be even more unnoticeable because neither word is a contraction and both sound the same. In fact, I find myself using the wrong world fairly often, but I usually am able to catch myself.

Another tidbit I learned about possessives is that an apostrophe is not used with personal pronouns. Some indefinite pronouns do use an apostrophe. This looks like just another one of the many detailed rules to grammar.

The grammatical mistake I found this work is yet another homophone. A restaurant marquee using the world "then" when it should be "than". Their marquee said "choose a side more then just fries". It seems like I come across this mistake almost every day.

Verb tenses:

One thing that I've begun paying closer attention to is the use of different verb tenses. I find myself doing it all the time. It can be difficult to make sure you match verb tenses in your writing. I speak fluent Spanish and it is easier for me to use the right verb tenses in Spanish than it is in English. The different verb tenses are more distinct in Spanish than they are for English so I think that is part of the reason it is easier for me. I also think that it may be that I never really learned the different English tenses very well. I now know that when you do use the correct tense it makes the sentence flow uninhibited. The more verbs a sentence has, the greater the need for fluidity in the tenses.

As for the grammar errors, this week at work I found that many of my colleagues don't know how to use proper grammar. I saw many uses of "who's" instead of "whose" and "it's" instead of "its." This is one area I feel comfortable with. It is not difficult for me to grasp this set of rules like it is for some of the others. I was reading notes left on a client's account by one of our brokers and he had written "the client had it's card stolen." First of all, "it" should not have been used. It should have been he. Even if it was correct for him to use "it" he should not have had an apostrophe. It made me chuckle to myself, but I'm sure I have made mistakes like that also so I couldn't criticize too much.

Case vs. Case

Is it just me, or do the grammar head-honchos need to come up with a better word for determining the differences between when to use who over whom, etc.? There is already a grammar definition for the word case-upper and lower CASE. HELLO? Why confuse the English language anymore? I thought this at the first of the chapter while reading the heading. But after reading the chapter I get it; the meaning of case, that is. But I still call for a revolt on a word change. There can only be one "case" in the grammar world as far as I am concerned.

On to the test. Anyone else sweating bullets? I'm just throwing this out there, but I think Dr. J should have to take the test too; but closed book. I'm just saying that it is almost impossible for someone to retain all this knowledge, and after the review I think it is safe to say that she can. I would like to see what score she would get. Anyone else?

I found zero grammatical errors this week because instead of searching for everyone else's mistakes, I was too worried about mine!

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-verb agreement has a tendency to confuse a lot of people. This week I learned that subjects that are always singular take the form of either, each, anyone and everyone along with a few others. Meanwhile, subjects are always plural if the subject refers to different things. Or if the subject isn't considered a unit the subject will be plural. And according to the book, "When a compound subject contains or, or but, either or neither, the subject closest to the verb determines the number of the verb." (80)

When I walk down aisles at grocery stores I like to read the labels of the food that barely qualifies as food. i like to read the labels on the cereals called names like Marshmallows of the Breaded Variety. Or something to that extent. I walked by one cereal that had a coupon sticking out so I grabbed it. The coupon had its subject-verb agreement mixed up. The coupon said, "Buy one and another are free." the coupon, if a person, would be called a poor communicator. The coupon should have read, "Buy one and another is free." Well, it really should have said "Buy one and get one free." But that is for another post.

Keep It Parallel

This week, I enjoyed reading about parallel structure. I am usually pretty good about using parallel structure, but it was nice having a refresher. When constructing a sentence, it's important to keep a series of items balanced and not mix up verbals. It's also vital not to change voice or verb tenses in the middle of a sentence.

One of my biggest grammar pet peeves is changing tenses mid-sentence. For example, if your first verb ends in -ing, stay consistent with the -ing tense throughout the sentence. When you shift from past tense to present tense to future tense within one thought, the message of the sentence becomes unclear.

One point I had never thought of before was changing voice. Changing voice means you switch from passive voice to active voice. We all know using active voice is better, but if you must use passive, make sure to stay passive throughout the sentence. If your writing isn't consistent, it confuses the reader.

The editing mistake I found this week was actually in a text. One of the reporters who writes stories for my show wrote, "Whose anchoring the show today?" Granted it's only a text message, but it is still poor grammar. The word whose is in the possessive form. In the sentence he texted me, he should have used the word who's indicating the contraction who is.

That's all I have to say this week. Good luck on the test everybody!

Test next week...

This week has definitely been the hardest so far for me. There are so many rules to remember! Who would have thought that there could be so much to know about pronouns! You’ve got to keep the types straight, some can be considered plural or singular in different situations, and you have to make sure they always match their antecedent. Not to mention who/whom and who/that. I wouldn’t say any one rule is particularly hard, it’s just that there are so many of them! My brain is being overloaded with information!
I went to the review for the test today, and that was very helpful. I think my favorite part was a hint we discussed regarding who vs. whom: who stands in for he or she, while whom stands in for him or her. So if you can reorder the sentence and replace who with he or she and it makes sense, then you’ve done it correctly! I’m not sure if I explained that very clearly, but it really helped me to get a handle on who/whom so that I can understand it. I think I’m ready for this test, but we’ll see!
The grammar mistake I found this week was a particularly funny one. I was looking through some of my photos and found one that I had taken of a student’s comment on rateyourprofessor.com. What’s even funnier is that the teacher (who shall remain nameless) is an English teacher! I don’t know if the student was actually serious when they posted this, or if they were just trying to be funny, but either way it’s a pretty hideous use of the English language!

Review

Today We reviewed for our exam that we must take next week. I must admit that without the review today, there would be a distinct possibility of test failure. Dr. J helped me with the intricacies and nuances of punctuation and grammar.

The proper use of who and whom has been giving me a headache since I started to dissect its proper usage. Simplification is necessary in my opinion to understand some of the rules of usage. For example, I think of who as the subject and replace the who with he or she. I think of whom as the object and replace it with him or her.

Another aspect of today's learning experience was the use of that and which. That is essential with no commas, while which is non-essential with commas. Similar rules apply with the use of good and well. For example, I am good. Good would be used because of the linking verb in between I and good. I am doing well. Well would be used because of the adverb doing.

Looks like our test is next week. Good luck everyone!

Glitz and Fluff

I thought that chapter 6 and chapter 7 were very informative. I enjoyed the concept of descriptive adjectives. They paint a detailed and colorful picture. I have never been one to use many adjectives. It was good to hear that not only do they add glitz or fluff, but when properly used they provide information to create a more complete picture. I will definitely be using descriptive adjectives from now on.
I thought the degrees of adjectives were interesting as well. It reminded me of the scene in Tangled between the wicked queen and Rapunzel, 'I love you,' 'I love you more,' 'I love you most'.
While growing up I learned that you should never say “me.” You should always use “I” instead. Therefore, this has been a very confusing concept to me, or as I learned growing up, this has been a very confusing concept to I. Do you wonder where I went to school? Between you and me, I am still somewhat confused about this concept. I will have to study up on it more.
As for editing errors, I do not like cutesy misspelled words. One example would be Krispy Kreme. I was watching the Simpsons this week and I noticed that they used these cutesy words in one of their episodes. Bart got his own news show entitled “Kidz Newz , Newz Kidz can Uze.” I guess these titles attract attention, but I still do not like them.

Another Week.

Now onto my week four blog entry. Week four was a crazy week. I had family in town from Vermont which made studying difficult. I promise I learned something, but it didn’t stick as well.

I am a passive writer, normally. It is just what I do. How do you make a passive writer an active writer? I have no clue, but the book does. As I read, they shared the valuable concept of avoiding there is/there are constructions. I am queen at using there is and there are. The more I write the better I become at not using this construct. Gradually, I will be the best at creating creative sentences that are void of there is/there are.

My passive writing abilities are changing. I will write emails now and as I am reviewing, questions pop up in my mind like “how can you make this sentence more active?” Is it working? Maybe, I’m not sure yet. I did get an e-mail back from my mom the other day yelling at me for not using well to describe how I am doing. Sheree, you would like my mom. She is grammatically savvy.

Onto my editing adventure. For work I had to go to the archive office in the library and look at Signposts from the 1960s. As I was reading through some of the articles I picked up on spelling mistakes. I found the word stand spelt as standd. Other than that my week was pretty low key.

Blog...

Oh man, I am so behind on blogging. Sheree, please don’t dock off too many points. At least I am posting, right.

What concept did I learn for week three? Let me see. I gained insight on secret number three, “Organize Your Thoughts.” As I was reading through it, I was struck with how simple this step was in writing. Personally, I have never been one to strategically sit down and plan out my method of writing. After careful thought about this I am realizing that it is probably smart to sit down and follow this simple secret.

After realizing that I need to be better at planning, I took into consideration the concept of revising and I applied it. At work I wrote this profile about a man on campus. I handed in my first draft to be edited and it came back dripping in red. I went through four or five drafts before it finally came to a point where the editors liked what they saw. Revise, revise, revise. Well, I did and hopefully the final product looks better than the first.

As for editing mistakes, I am horrible at finding them. They are all around me and yet my eye just doesn’t see them easily. Horrible I know. What I did notice was how bad people are at using capitals and punctuation on facebook. Where are the capitals and the commas people? I was looking at a cousin’s post and “i” was used a million times and to no avail she did not capitalize them. Shocking, I know. She’s 16 so I’ll let it slide, but I bet her English teacher wouldn’t.

The Book was Wrong...

You may recognize this picture to the left. It is from our book, "When Words Collide." As I was reading the last sentence, "Remember these sentence types are we move through this discussion," I picked up on a grammatical problem. The are seriously sounds wrong. I am not sure what they were going for here, but it would sound better if the are was replaced with as. If that happened it would read like this, "Remember these sentence types as we move through this discussion." Ah yes, that sounds magnificent. Point for me.

Now that I have my 50 words of editing mistakes out of the way, I can move on to more exciting things such as nominative pronouns. I've been lead astray all of these years. My understanding of pronoun placement has been terribly wrong. Chapter 6 and 7 changed my writing world. Who knew that a sentence such as, "He is smarter than I," was not suppose to end in me? Well, I bet all of you did, but I'm a little slow (so much for catholic school).

I feel a bit more confident in writing. I have to admit that the section on who/whom confused me.

My other epiphany from my studies was that there are words out there that seemed plural to me, but in all actuality are singular. Words such as each, either, every, and neither take on the singular verb which was news to me.

I hope I used the correct grammar, punctuation, and tense throughout this blog. It's intimidating to have all of you read this.

The Case of the Missing Comma

One of the most important things I learned this week was a review on compound modifiers. I was never very clear on that topic and reading a little review on it was extremely beneficial. I also found chapter 7, the agreement chapter, to be particularly helpful. As we expand into harder material, I’m finding that I make a few of these mistakes unknowingly. I’ve been known to misplace modifiers and leave the poor things dangling a time or two.

This editing stuff is A LOT more complicated than I ever expected! The “cases” assignment pretty much freaked me out. I can spot the mistakes but I have a really hard time justifying why they need to be changed at all.

Amid all of the complicated vocabulary and countless rules, I am finding myself becoming more editorially analytical on a daily basis. For example, the other day I received a baby shower invitation for my stepsister-in-law and immediately noticed a punctuation error (the case of the missing comma).

Last week I edited an assignment for my group in one of my classes and was able to catch mistakes I know I wouldn’t have caught before. So as overwhelming as it can be to read rules upon rules every week, something must be sticking in this brain of mine!