Blair's 328 Blog

Williams vs Strunk & White..The Last Blog Post EVER

2005-03-13T19:07:00.001-08:00

Personally, S & W and Williams both helped me individually. Although one book overpowered the other for certain areas in writing, I thought both books were helpful.
I truly enjoyed reading S & W, because I never got confused. The way they would
give an explanation of what to not include in a paper and then describe it
was beneficial for me. A good example would be: #15-Put statements in positive form. Then they would follow that statement with an example such as, "He was often late" as opposed to, "He was not very often on time." I could visually see the difference in the two sentences and how one was written clearly in a much more positive form.
Another example of why I liked S & W, was for the lists they showed us. A great list that I was just reading in the book was the explanation of hyphens. They gave us three separate examples of a word that is often mistakenly written with a hyphen. Example-wild life, wild-life, wildlife. I think this particular example pertained to me, because I think I often go hyphen crazy and use them when not needed. I like reading about often used mistakes that I do myself, because I feel as if others are doing it too.
Overll, S & W was a good resource for me to help correct the mistakes I make while writing essays. It was very straight forward and really showed me what elements a well-written paper should consist of.

Now to Williams..
What I really enjoyed about this book was the breaking up of paragraphs. Having the first word being in italics helped me see what the point was in that particular paragraph. Then, it continued to describe and explain what he meant when he wrote the first word. To be more clear, here is an example..Williams would write the word, "Convention" then following it would be a clear example of how to link conventions within an essay. I liked this format opposed to S & W, because it gave a longer exaplanation instead of a quick list of answers. S & W is much better for a quick reference opposed to the more lengthy Williams. Although, I felt WIlliams focused more on a specific subject for a longer period of time which I enjoyed because it really got his point across clearly. I could read and re-read what I didn't understand and then try and hook the following chapter and the one I was reading, all together. Williams did a good job of trying to create his book in a more "novel" format which many people can relate well with.

For me, I think that S & W is a better resource to have. I like the consise list format of it, and I can see myself having the book for a long time. With both books I HATED the graphs that were in it. I thought they were useless, confusing and pointless (which I have stated in previous blogs). The books were interesting and something new to me, which is always a plus-as long as they help me.

I am going to go now, the room I am in smells like skunk and it is burning my nose. This blog posting assignment has been fun...'till tomorrow...

-blair-

A Look At My Classmate's Writings..

2005-03-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

While reading through my classmate's writing, I came upon Rob's blog entries. Awhile back, while browsing the blogs, I came across Rob's and just thought he was the most amazing writer. I thought the style, creativity, clearness and honestness of his writings were magnificant. This may sound silly, because it is just a blog entry, but something about the way he so perfectly understood the assignment and the openess of his answers really amazed me.
"In short, Williams’ book requires a reader to sit down and meticulously take notes on what they’re reading, much the same way a high school grammar book does. While books of this sort are useful to those who are less proficient at an activity, they can appear cluttered to people who need to quickly reference some idea." This is quoted from one of Rob's earlier blog entries. This small paragraph explains how he feels, he gives a good visual example (high school grammar book) and then furthurs his explanation even more. I could really follow along in his entries.
Perhaps the way Rob writes so professionally is one of the reasons his work is enjoying to read. He seems as though he understands the "right and wrong" ways of writing essays, but is not afraid to put himself out there and say what he feels.
Rob's writings were consise and understandable. I feel as though he has such a talent for writing, that following along paying attention is not an issue at all. I genuily liked reading what he had to say and his responses to the readings, and I feel that is the best kind of writer-a person whose writings pull the reader in and don't let them go until the end.
Overall, Rob's blog entries were the most beneficial to me. I think as though I feel the same way he does while describing S&W and STLYE. I really enjoyed reading his blog entries and think he is a very intelligent writer. Nice job, Rob!

That's All For Now,
*bLaiR*

2 Metaphors

2005-03-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

Metaphor #1- "Knowledge Is Power"

Although this may sound incredibly cliche, I like the metaphor. Especially when dealing with writing technology. The more you know, the more you can understand, no matter what it may pertain too. No matter what subject or what event may happen in life, the more you know about it, the better you make yourself look, the better you feel and naturally, the more you know. Think about it, it is in the rare minority that people who have achieved an education are looked down upon. There are those in this world who are born into poor conditions, but have worked their tails off in school and are now some of the most successful career-oriented people of all. (Ex.-Oprah, Dr. Phil..) Knowledge really is power, it is the power to choose to not be ignorant, to understand, to succeed, to coast along with ever-changing society.

Metaphor #2- "Silence Is Golden"

This too, may sound a bit cliche but it really works. All I have been reading about in STYLE, is how we should not be wordy with our work. We should always be concise, balanced, down to the point. This metaphor helps explain that when readers don't have many questions after reading a piece of work, then they really understand it to the fullest. Being wordy and junble does not help people get what is being expressed to them. Sitting and listening to professors teach, and being open-minded about it also can help the education of students. Not always feeling that you have to put in your "two cents" can be very beneficial to the student. Sometimes you learn the most while being silent...

That's All For Now,
*bLaiR*

The End Of Williams-Chapters 9 & 10

2005-03-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Chapters 9 & 10 were actually interesting. Despite previous chapters, I liked reading about Elegance, and mixing it with writing. Although, I still find the graphs, or demonstrations, or whatever they are supposed to be, useless. I think it confuses me more then helps me, and I don't like them. I think they get in the way with the rest of the sentences. Williams talks about balance a lot, and how it makes paragraphs much "richer." I like the word use of "richer" and "elegance". I think that those particular words inspire people to incorporate elegance to their specific writings.
Rhythm is also mentioned quite frequently in chapter 9. Rhythm is quite important, because it gives the reader a sense of flow and smoothness to readings. It helps them read through it without much stumble. Metaphors fall right along those lines as well. Comparing two different things to mean the same is very interesting.
Chapter 10 mainly focused on Usage (Style, Grammar & Choice.) This chapter tells us directly how to begin and end a sentence. What the 'wrong" and "right" ways are to write and what "good english" pertains to in essays.
Reading the last pages of this book really makes me think that this author thinks he knows everything. He gives us so many examples of how to write correctly and the history of how "real writing" should be done. He does a good job of getting his points across, but I personally thinks he doesn't do what he is telling all his readers to do. Williams wrote a book about how important it is so get to the point and making papers concise; although his book was not concise at all.
Overall, the book gave me some good pointers and did teach me a lot about writing fluently and what to put in my essays and what to keep out.

That's All For Now,
-bLaiR-

STYLE..with a reference to Rochelle's work

2005-02-22T16:22:00.000-08:00

In STYLE's chapters 4-6, it specifically talks about Emphasis and Coherence. On page 70, it talks about extracting and isolating sentences. It says that if a writer puts the most important information in the middle of their sentence, the sentence swallows the information up. In Rochelle's paper, all of her "important" information is always in the middle of the sentences. She even put an unecessary question in the middle. Over and over again in this book it talks about how unecessary words should be omitted. Rochelle's paper is full of words that need to be omitted.
I think that Rochelle's story is sort of all over the place. She jumps from subject to subject, and does not have a consistant flow within her essay, except the fact that the reader is aware her paper is about Cedar Point. On page 81, it talks about how a cohesive paragraph has consistent topic strings. Rochelle's paper is not cohesive at all.
On page 99 of STYLE, one of the main focuses that is brought up, is making sure that the writer states a point in their essay. It is so important to be utterly clear so the reader do not get confused or have to search for the point the writer is trying to make. The point should start within the thesis statement at the top. Rochelle's paper uses slang such as, "dog tired" and talks to the reader in a very casual way. She generalizes a lot. Generalizing makes the assumption that everyone knows what she is talking about, and everyone lives life the same way. She made a lot of points in her work to try and group every family together and act like everyone does the same things at Cedar Point. I just feel as if Rochelle's work was not done in a professional way at all.
Overall, these few chapters taught me how Rochelle's essay, along with mine can be improved. This book has good ideas and interesting points to how a well written paper should be written. Rochelle's paper, in my opinion and I know many of my classmates would agree, seems a bit amature. Perhaps she should have read this book before beginning her paper.

That's All For Now,
bLaIR

STYLE..from the yellow book

2005-02-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

While reading this book, it certainly gave me some good insight to how to write my papers more clear and to the point. Personally, I think that when essays are written too wordy, it makes the writing more intimidating and not as appealing for the reader. I like when papers are written in a way that makes it completely clear and understandable, with no question as to the point that is trying to be expressed.
When looking back at passed papers, I chose one that I had written in high school. This was a case study on a Nintendo Gameboy. While reading through it, I noticed how wordy I had gotten. I think I used to believe that the bigger the words, the "smarter" the paper sounds. This is not true. At times, using big words can be a downer for the paper, because it seems like you're trying to just fill in space, and don't really know what you're talking about. Here is a specific passage from my essay...
"Over the years, Nintendo completion has gotten larger. They have more companies that they have to compete with for the same target market. Their competitors that they have to compete with the most are Sony Playstation and Sega Game Gear. Others that they have to worry about are TurboExpress and Atari Lynx (they do not have to worry about this company anymore, because they stopped making this product in 1998.) Another major thing that Nintendo has to worry about is cannibalization. Nintendo has many other electronic games to choose from. With such a selection, it can make it hard for consumers to pick."
Ok, now this was all in one paragraph. If I were to re-do this paper, this paragraph would be chopped into at least two separate ones. There is way too much information that does not need to be together in this paragraph, because it does not blend well at all. I use words that sound too much like each other in the paragraph. For example, I use the words "completion," "companies," "competitors" and "compete." Those are way too similar sounding to be back to back in the small paragraph. It might confuse the reader, plus it sounds a bit like a tongue twister to me. I would really think about how I could condense the amount of words in the paragraph, to less and different words.
Looking back at past papers made me realize how I really used to think that the bigger the words, the better. I know now from reading this book, that really you might make yourself sound more like an idiot then an educated person. Sometimes substituting words is a good thing, like in my example with all the "c" words, but I have to remember to make sure I know what the word means if I do choose to change it.
That's all for now,
bLaiR

Introduction to Blair

2005-02-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. It's me, blair. Somehow my first entry has gotten erased. This blog thing has not been going very well for me at all. Basically, through my other descriptions of myself, I think you know enough about me, therefore, I wont waste any time in retyping everything.

-bLaiR-

Strunk & White

2005-02-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

After FINALLY getting my blog to work at home, I read Strunk and White's book. I found it to be pretty interesting and obviously helpful. I have learned a lot of the stuff years before, as I am sure all of you have. Books like these are a good source in helping us write correctly. There were a few points that were made that I especially found to be interesting..

ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE
Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary. I found #8 especially appealing. I often use dashes in my writing. It seems weird because when I think about it, I never really remember learning when and when not to use them in essays. I think they make papers look attractive. I like the look of using a line to break up two separate thoughts.

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
#s 15, 17 & 21 in this category were the most interesting for me. I liked #15, where it said to write statements in positive form. I never thought to not write my papers one way or another. Although, it makes more sense to me now, that when writing essays, it should be in a positive way-it will make it more enjoyable for the reader without all the negativity in it. Also, I liked #17, which was to omit useless words. A lot of time, as writers, people may think that the longer, more complex looking the piece is, the better it is. People do not want to read unecessary words, it makes it look boring and not interesting at all. I think that when work is too long and wordy, it looks intimidating at times too. Finally, #21 it says to keep to one tense in summaries. This is hard for me sometimes. I often have to re-read my work to make sure I did stay all in one tense.

AN APPROACH TO STYLE
#14, was the most useful to me here. The book told us to avoid fancy words. This ties right along with omit useless words. I think that along with what I said earlier, using fancy words is just another way to try and look intelligent-but really, people want to read what they understand. They want to be "talked to" on a level they are comfortable with and feel they can realte to 100%. Using fancy words is not an effective way to write essays the majority of the time.

In conclusion, I am happy that my blog is working now. This book had some good points and reminders to how we can help ourselves be excellent essay writers. It was enjoyable.

That's all for now,

bLaiR