Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Prompt Entry Five
What did I learn from Strunk & White? The first thought that comes to mind is the content from Chapter One, referencing common errors in grammar. Although most were rules that I already used for some time, many rules I had forgotten about or was unsure about. For example, on page 9, Strunk & White explain in rule #9 the correct method for using hyphens or “dashes”. “A dash is mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses”. However, Strunk & White continue, “use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate.” Early in the book, rules such as these helped me refresh myself with many grammar rules I had not used in a long time, and helped me notice many common mistakes I made in sentence structure. Strunk & White continued to aid with pointers in later chapters on paragraph clarity (rule 16) with examples on how to use “definite, specific, concrete language”. Overall, chapter 2 can be useful as it takes you through a brief reminder of proper sentence and paragraph structure (as Strunk and White see it) in 10 relatively straightforward rules, covering everything from outlining a paragraph (rule 22) to sentence voice (rules 14 and 22). Chapter three on grammar usage and chapter four on common grammar and spelling mistakes reinforce the issues introduced in the first two chapters, but with more details and examples. In fact, the only place Strunk & White is not helpful is on the issue of style, which is ironic considering the final chapter on “style” is the longest chapter in the book. This chapter offers few, if any useful style pointers, with Strunk & White choosing to offer generalized tips such as “place yourself in the background” (rule 1) “revise and rewrite” (rule 5) and “be clear”(rule 16). These rules do not help, and some rules even confuse, such as rule 17, “do not inject opinion”. These style deficiencies are not a positive attribute for a book titled "The Elements of Style". However, the short tips and brief examples offered in the majority of the book make Strunk & White a good handbook when any questions of structure or grammar are raised.
Williams attempted to educate in a far less straightforward manner. Williams is to a textbook as Strunk and White is to a handbook. However, Williams’s main focus was trying to improve the writing methods and style of an already educated writer. So what did I learn from Williams? The idea that stuck with me most clearly was in chapter 5 on coherence. On pages 87-89, Williams discusses proper signaling of “thematic strings” to announce the subjects of a paragraph using words which link back to the subject. For some dorky reason, I really liked this linking of themes idea. Anyway, Williams seems to get more grammar oriented the further you get into this book, culminating with chapter 10 on usage. Williams seems to prefer to express his tips for style early in the book and then using numerous examples to showcase these rules as the test progresses. As covered in class, the audience is different in this book than in Strunk & White, but I can’t seem to find myself anywhere in William’s audience. I respect the idea of the text, to educate the educated on professional style, but even after reading the whole book, and then referencing it numerous times for classwork, I still don’t feel that my style has been improved. Perhaps Williams works subconsciously, or perhaps I’m not cut out for professional writing.
Williams attempted to educate in a far less straightforward manner. Williams is to a textbook as Strunk and White is to a handbook. However, Williams’s main focus was trying to improve the writing methods and style of an already educated writer. So what did I learn from Williams? The idea that stuck with me most clearly was in chapter 5 on coherence. On pages 87-89, Williams discusses proper signaling of “thematic strings” to announce the subjects of a paragraph using words which link back to the subject. For some dorky reason, I really liked this linking of themes idea. Anyway, Williams seems to get more grammar oriented the further you get into this book, culminating with chapter 10 on usage. Williams seems to prefer to express his tips for style early in the book and then using numerous examples to showcase these rules as the test progresses. As covered in class, the audience is different in this book than in Strunk & White, but I can’t seem to find myself anywhere in William’s audience. I respect the idea of the text, to educate the educated on professional style, but even after reading the whole book, and then referencing it numerous times for classwork, I still don’t feel that my style has been improved. Perhaps Williams works subconsciously, or perhaps I’m not cut out for professional writing.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Prompt Entry Four
Analyzing many of my classmate’s views on Williams and Strunk & White, I reached many of the same opinions. Cristyn Castelli said it best when she defined Williams as “a lecture in text book format” and referred to Strunk & White as a reference guide to be used for tips during the writing process. I completely agree with Cristyn on her interpretation of both authors when refering to writing structure and grammar. Williams is attempting to educate the reader while Strunk & White is meant to be an educational supplement, not a lesson in itself.
This theme continues with Williams into the realm of style, where the author sets rules and shows examples, especially in chapters 1-6, on the proper and improper uses of paragraph flow, transitions and ease of reading. Only later in the book, once Williams’ rules of proper style are learned, does he give the reader any kind of chance to write creatively, offering suggestions for writing rather than hard and fast rules. I suppose this is the purpose behind Williams' lesson plan: learn the rules first and once mastered, expand upon them. Williams is a writing lesson in a book.
This is a sharp contrast from Strunk & White, which was established in class to be originally used as a coursepack for the wealthy, English, white Dead Poets Society crowd. Many of the rules in this book are completely insane such as “do not explain too much”, however it also references many common grammatical and sentence errors that are still made today. I disagree with Christine Haas when she states the difference between the two books is strictly the format in which they are presented and that Williams simply gives more examples and is more concise. I agree that there is a difference between the format and the conciseness, but Williams and Strunk & White are also writing to two widely different audiences. Strunk & White, as previously discussed, is appealing to the dead white poet demographic while Williams is taking a more modern attempt to further educate an already collegiate trained writer in professional writing style.
This theme continues with Williams into the realm of style, where the author sets rules and shows examples, especially in chapters 1-6, on the proper and improper uses of paragraph flow, transitions and ease of reading. Only later in the book, once Williams’ rules of proper style are learned, does he give the reader any kind of chance to write creatively, offering suggestions for writing rather than hard and fast rules. I suppose this is the purpose behind Williams' lesson plan: learn the rules first and once mastered, expand upon them. Williams is a writing lesson in a book.
This is a sharp contrast from Strunk & White, which was established in class to be originally used as a coursepack for the wealthy, English, white Dead Poets Society crowd. Many of the rules in this book are completely insane such as “do not explain too much”, however it also references many common grammatical and sentence errors that are still made today. I disagree with Christine Haas when she states the difference between the two books is strictly the format in which they are presented and that Williams simply gives more examples and is more concise. I agree that there is a difference between the format and the conciseness, but Williams and Strunk & White are also writing to two widely different audiences. Strunk & White, as previously discussed, is appealing to the dead white poet demographic while Williams is taking a more modern attempt to further educate an already collegiate trained writer in professional writing style.
Monday, February 16, 2004
Prompt Entry Three
I just realized that I critiqued the wrong book for the first prompt. To fix this problem, I'm going to first give my comments on Strunk and White (prompt one)and then compare it with Williams, per the assignment for entry three.
Strunk and White provides a much easier handbook approach to style. It is easily indexed and tips can be found with less difficulty than Williams. What I liked about Strunk and White the most was the last chapter on style and chapter 4 on commonly misused words.
The chapter on style had some useful lessons, especially on clarity. According to Strunk and White "when you become hopelessly mired in a sentence, it is best to start fresh." They also have interesting things to say about using figures of speech and using standard language as opposed to fancy words in writing. The first three chapters are mostly all grammar and structure related. After that, the book begins to show signs of its age with vague rules like "do not use dialect unless your ear is good", "do not inject your opinion", and "avoid foreign language". In class we also discussed other examples that date the old version of this book that had to do with gender stereotypes. My version (4th) does not have these.
Chapter 4 was incredibly useful and will be useful in the future with its alphabetical listing of commonly misused phrases. Many of these definitions are quite enjoyable, such as Strunk and White's view of "The foreseeable future", which is defined as "a cliche, and a fuzzy one. How much of the future is foreseeable? Ten minutes? Ten years? Any of it? By whom is it foreseeable? Seers? Experts? Everybody?" Very little of this material shows its age, unlike the chapter on style, and remains true today.
Williams presents a different approach. While Strunk and White try to present a easily read handbook, Williams presents a more advanced guide to style, structure and writing that covers many aspects hinted at in Strunk and White, but are further expanded upon in Williams. Williams continues on to voice many of his own theories about thematic strings in chapters 5 and 6, as well as explaining an overall usage of style while writing and what to watch out for in chapter 10.
The audience each book was intended for is what differentiates the two. Strunk and Williams was written as a coursepack for wealthy, white "Dead Poets Society" students. Williams was written for more advanced English students looking for pointers to fine tune their style. Elaborating on this, Williams does go into much more excruciating detail on matters of structure and paper flow, especially sentence and paragraph flow. Because of the larger amount of information available in Williams, his book is the more useful of the two for expert advice on writing. Strunk and White is more like a beginners guide to college writing.
Strunk and White provides a much easier handbook approach to style. It is easily indexed and tips can be found with less difficulty than Williams. What I liked about Strunk and White the most was the last chapter on style and chapter 4 on commonly misused words.
The chapter on style had some useful lessons, especially on clarity. According to Strunk and White "when you become hopelessly mired in a sentence, it is best to start fresh." They also have interesting things to say about using figures of speech and using standard language as opposed to fancy words in writing. The first three chapters are mostly all grammar and structure related. After that, the book begins to show signs of its age with vague rules like "do not use dialect unless your ear is good", "do not inject your opinion", and "avoid foreign language". In class we also discussed other examples that date the old version of this book that had to do with gender stereotypes. My version (4th) does not have these.
Chapter 4 was incredibly useful and will be useful in the future with its alphabetical listing of commonly misused phrases. Many of these definitions are quite enjoyable, such as Strunk and White's view of "The foreseeable future", which is defined as "a cliche, and a fuzzy one. How much of the future is foreseeable? Ten minutes? Ten years? Any of it? By whom is it foreseeable? Seers? Experts? Everybody?" Very little of this material shows its age, unlike the chapter on style, and remains true today.
Williams presents a different approach. While Strunk and White try to present a easily read handbook, Williams presents a more advanced guide to style, structure and writing that covers many aspects hinted at in Strunk and White, but are further expanded upon in Williams. Williams continues on to voice many of his own theories about thematic strings in chapters 5 and 6, as well as explaining an overall usage of style while writing and what to watch out for in chapter 10.
The audience each book was intended for is what differentiates the two. Strunk and Williams was written as a coursepack for wealthy, white "Dead Poets Society" students. Williams was written for more advanced English students looking for pointers to fine tune their style. Elaborating on this, Williams does go into much more excruciating detail on matters of structure and paper flow, especially sentence and paragraph flow. Because of the larger amount of information available in Williams, his book is the more useful of the two for expert advice on writing. Strunk and White is more like a beginners guide to college writing.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Prompt Entry Two
This following excerpt is from the EMU Undergraduate Catalog and concerns the university's academic mission with specific attention paid to "excellence":
Excellence
"The University's principal responsibility is to provide academic programs in a learning environment that promotes academic and personal excellence.
The University, in all of its activities, encourages the achievement of excellence by all members of its various constituencies. "
http://www.emich.edu/public/catalogs/current/ugradinfo/mission.html
The author mentions a vague idea of "excellence", but never details what exactly the University's definition of excellence is. In Williams Style book, the use of words without their understanding often means that the author does not understand the writing subject and uses the words or language to hide this fact. I think that the author of this passage in the catalog did not know what the University meant by excellence and tried to cover it up by repeating a generalized idea of academic standards.
I would append the following paragraphs to the mission of university excellence:
Excellence
"The University's principal responsibility is to provide academic programs in a learning environment that promotes academic and personal excellence."
Academic excellence can be defined as meeting a minimum GPA, dependent on the student's chosen field of study.*
As a student at EMU, representing yourself and the University in a positive light show personal excellence. This includes avoiding plaigarism and any events that could foreseeably tarnish the reputation of the institution or its members while being an active student.*
"The University, in all of its activities, encourages the achievement of excellence by all members of its various constituencies. "
*-New paragraphs
Excellence
"The University's principal responsibility is to provide academic programs in a learning environment that promotes academic and personal excellence.
The University, in all of its activities, encourages the achievement of excellence by all members of its various constituencies. "
http://www.emich.edu/public/catalogs/current/ugradinfo/mission.html
The author mentions a vague idea of "excellence", but never details what exactly the University's definition of excellence is. In Williams Style book, the use of words without their understanding often means that the author does not understand the writing subject and uses the words or language to hide this fact. I think that the author of this passage in the catalog did not know what the University meant by excellence and tried to cover it up by repeating a generalized idea of academic standards.
I would append the following paragraphs to the mission of university excellence:
Excellence
"The University's principal responsibility is to provide academic programs in a learning environment that promotes academic and personal excellence."
Academic excellence can be defined as meeting a minimum GPA, dependent on the student's chosen field of study.*
As a student at EMU, representing yourself and the University in a positive light show personal excellence. This includes avoiding plaigarism and any events that could foreseeably tarnish the reputation of the institution or its members while being an active student.*
"The University, in all of its activities, encourages the achievement of excellence by all members of its various constituencies. "
*-New paragraphs
Monday, February 09, 2004
Prompt Entry One
After I got over the overwhelming joy of doing a blog book report assignment during a week with two tests, I decided I should probably stop whining and buckle down. But I may have a bias: I found this instructional book very tedious. This monotonous book is why writing and style cannot be taught through text. The idea that I have to read 100 more pages of this by Thursday is not a pleasant thought.
But there were some good points. Near the beginning of the book Williams talked about understanding causes of common errors. I especially enjoyed the law school example on pages 12-13.
“As a novice in a field reads its professional prose, he will predictably try to imitate those features of style most prominently to bespeak membership, professional authority. And in complex professional prose, no feature of style is more typical than clumps of Latinate abstractions.”
While at first I thought this was a misunderstanding of professional legal terms, Williams continues on to show that the abundance of “Latinate” terms many times indicate an uninformed writer. This writer will imitate the words of a professional to feign the lacking knowledge.
The second chapter on clarity was like a time warp back to junior high: yikes. I’ve had far too much instruction on sentence structure in school and again in this book to relive that again here.
Chapter three: oh god, not again…see above.
The next chapter on emphasis was a little more interesting. Nevertheless, the idea of voicing the sentence was again brought up, and seems to be an ongoing theme. I’ve never really thought that I had voiced my writing, but I suppose everyone does when they proofread their work and have an audience in mind. My only writing audience has been professors at EMU for the past 4 years, so perhaps this assignment can help me broaden my writing audience.
The final chapter for today’s assignment was on writing coherence. After I got through the prescriptive rules to success, I thought this was the most useful of the chapters. It focused on transitions to aid in the flow of the paper. Beyond transitions, it attempted to discuss thematic flow of paragraphs as well by using “string” words to tie themes together. Today that is called staying on topic. While “string” words would be useful in memorization or recalling facts from previous themes, I believe the main point is what should be explained. The central idea of these “string” words is transition from one sentence to another.
This leads me back to H.L. Mencken: “With a precious few exceptions, all the books on style in English are by writers quite unable to write. Their central aim…is to reduce the whole thing to series of simple rules…” (14)
While Williams has been interesting in places, I cannot say I have learned anything exceptionally useful from William’s rules of style. I believe this book’s audience would ideally be an educator interested in different teaching techniques. It’s far too technical for beginning English students and too tedious for advanced ones. The prescriptive style in which this book was written in is the largest change between the time this was written (1990) and today.
But there were some good points. Near the beginning of the book Williams talked about understanding causes of common errors. I especially enjoyed the law school example on pages 12-13.
“As a novice in a field reads its professional prose, he will predictably try to imitate those features of style most prominently to bespeak membership, professional authority. And in complex professional prose, no feature of style is more typical than clumps of Latinate abstractions.”
While at first I thought this was a misunderstanding of professional legal terms, Williams continues on to show that the abundance of “Latinate” terms many times indicate an uninformed writer. This writer will imitate the words of a professional to feign the lacking knowledge.
The second chapter on clarity was like a time warp back to junior high: yikes. I’ve had far too much instruction on sentence structure in school and again in this book to relive that again here.
Chapter three: oh god, not again…see above.
The next chapter on emphasis was a little more interesting. Nevertheless, the idea of voicing the sentence was again brought up, and seems to be an ongoing theme. I’ve never really thought that I had voiced my writing, but I suppose everyone does when they proofread their work and have an audience in mind. My only writing audience has been professors at EMU for the past 4 years, so perhaps this assignment can help me broaden my writing audience.
The final chapter for today’s assignment was on writing coherence. After I got through the prescriptive rules to success, I thought this was the most useful of the chapters. It focused on transitions to aid in the flow of the paper. Beyond transitions, it attempted to discuss thematic flow of paragraphs as well by using “string” words to tie themes together. Today that is called staying on topic. While “string” words would be useful in memorization or recalling facts from previous themes, I believe the main point is what should be explained. The central idea of these “string” words is transition from one sentence to another.
This leads me back to H.L. Mencken: “With a precious few exceptions, all the books on style in English are by writers quite unable to write. Their central aim…is to reduce the whole thing to series of simple rules…” (14)
While Williams has been interesting in places, I cannot say I have learned anything exceptionally useful from William’s rules of style. I believe this book’s audience would ideally be an educator interested in different teaching techniques. It’s far too technical for beginning English students and too tedious for advanced ones. The prescriptive style in which this book was written in is the largest change between the time this was written (1990) and today.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Snow Day
To the right you'll notice a link to my EMU webspace where I posted my first assignment. I wrote in the snow and then accentuated it with sticks. The assignment was to write a message without using any form of writing technology and then write an essay explaining it. The essay is in progress...
Monday, January 12, 2004
Me
Now that this blog is working, I guess an introduction is in order. My name is Andy and I am a full-time student at Eastern Michigan University. I'm a senior and will be done with my undergrad classes in June and will graduate with major in political science. I just dropped my graduation audit form off today... which means it's almost over. I still haven't decided whether I will walk in April and have to come back to finish the last couple of classes or walk in December and be done with everything. I have to make a decision this week.
I'm planning on going to graduate school to get a MPA, but I didn't reach this decision until late this past December and I still haven't taken the GRE. Admission deadlines are looming at the colleges I was thinking about and I am not prepared to take the GRE yet. I managed to get through two chapters of the GRE textbook over x-mas break. I should have been able to cover much more, but their were too many distractions at home during the holidays. EMU's grad school may be the only option... I guess I can always transfer somewhere else if I don't like EMU's MPA program. We shall see.
Anyway, I'm taking 6 classes this semester so I don't have a lot of free time. But I do I like playing video games. I have a gamecube. I got zelda for x-mas, and this has been turning into a colossal distraction. I may have to hide my controllers before midterms...
When I can I like to catch live shows around town. In Ypsi you can usually catch a decent metal or punk show at the Elbow room. Ann arbor has a few more places. I hear they have blues bands at the tap room, which may be worth checking out sometime...
I work part-time at Sears in the auto shop. It's fairly decent money for a college job, but I can't stand the conform or be terminated corporate work environment. Though I probably should get used to it. They do give me tuition money for school though, so I guess I can't complain too much. That said however, Sears is not where I want to be 6 months from now.
That's pretty much my current life: class, class and work. Probably not the most interesting, but it keeps me busy.
I'm planning on going to graduate school to get a MPA, but I didn't reach this decision until late this past December and I still haven't taken the GRE. Admission deadlines are looming at the colleges I was thinking about and I am not prepared to take the GRE yet. I managed to get through two chapters of the GRE textbook over x-mas break. I should have been able to cover much more, but their were too many distractions at home during the holidays. EMU's grad school may be the only option... I guess I can always transfer somewhere else if I don't like EMU's MPA program. We shall see.
Anyway, I'm taking 6 classes this semester so I don't have a lot of free time. But I do I like playing video games. I have a gamecube. I got zelda for x-mas, and this has been turning into a colossal distraction. I may have to hide my controllers before midterms...
When I can I like to catch live shows around town. In Ypsi you can usually catch a decent metal or punk show at the Elbow room. Ann arbor has a few more places. I hear they have blues bands at the tap room, which may be worth checking out sometime...
I work part-time at Sears in the auto shop. It's fairly decent money for a college job, but I can't stand the conform or be terminated corporate work environment. Though I probably should get used to it. They do give me tuition money for school though, so I guess I can't complain too much. That said however, Sears is not where I want to be 6 months from now.
That's pretty much my current life: class, class and work. Probably not the most interesting, but it keeps me busy.
