What do they think?

Throughout reading both The Elements of Style, and Style Towards Clarity and Grace, I have gathered my own opinions about each. However I have found that not only were some of my opinions shared by some of my classmates, but some of their opinions had an effect on how I felt as well.

After reading through the blog of Ana W. I realized that she and I had a lot of the same thoughts about the readings. We both agreed that William’s work was better for the writer. Although our reasons for believing this differed slightly, we came to the conclusion that it went more in depth and helped out the writer’s artful expression. What I was surprised to read about in Ana’s blog, was that she felt both of the readings to give off a somewhat “condescending” attitude. As soon as I read this and became intrigued as to why she felt this way. I read further to see that her reason lied in the statement by Williams about the first paragraph that was introduced as an example of poor writing. Ana read between the lines and interpreted what Williams was saying as follows: “I could have edited this even better, but that would have shown my super secretly awesome editing skills that only amazingly talented writers can learn so I didn’t want to go over your head.” After reading how Ana felt about the subtextual language she was perceiving, I thought to myself, “Hmm. That actually does make a lot of sense”. The readings do have a small sense of “I’m better than you and I know it” but I do understand why this is. When you write a book on style and rules, it must be hard to keep yourself completely humble throughout the entire process. It is entirely possible to become lost in the writing, and loose your sense of tact along the way.

Tony W. takes a completely different look from both Ana and me. Tony feels that both Strunk and White and Williams are both equally useful. I feel that I disagree with this statement, not necessarily stating that it is wrong, but a little confusing to me because the Williams readings went into far greater depth and Strunk and White. Tony himself refers to the Williams reading as requiring “… a little more ‘mental marinating’”. Tony finally sides with Williams’ writings he felt it was ”more timely” and ”discusses more about writing”.

Both of my classmates presented different viewpoints than my own on the writings of Strunk and White, and Williams which lead me to a higher plane of my own thinking about the materials. Through reading what they each had to say about both style guides, my own views were strengthened, and I was also inspired enough to have new views develop. In the case of Ana’s writing, I now feel both style guides to be somewhat pretentious, but not to the point that I feel these two guides were written to make their readers feel inferior in any way.

Strunk and White V.S. Williams

Looking at the Active and passive voice and how it was explained in both The Elements of Style, and Style Towards Clarity and Grace, it is easy for me to see that Williams clearly goes into greater detail about the subject. Strunk and White had good advice about the subject but it still came up a little lacking when I was trying to figure out not only what made a sentence sound passive, but why. Strunk and White gave plenty of examples, but Williams went one step farther and diagramed a passive sentence and pointed out exactly what was going on.

In the first example given by Williams, an active sentence is given with the explanation that “In active sentences, the subject typically expresses the agent of an action, and the object expresses the goal or the thing changed by the action”. This gives a clear concise explanation of what an active sentence should be. This explanation is more helpful than the information set forth by Strunk and White, which states that an active sentence is simply “…more direct and vigorous than the passive”. The fact that Williams tells us exactly what is expected in an active sentence, allows us to discriminate against passive tendencies. Williams then goes on to break down the structure of a passive sentence. According to Williams “In passive sentences, the subject expresses the goal of an action; a form of be precedes a past participle form of the verb; and the agent of the action may or may not be expressed in a by-phrase”.

Strunk and White don’t go into the explanation of exactly what a passive voice is. They just continue to give examples of active and passive voice without explaining the parts of the sentence, and how they fit into each form of the sentence. I feel that overall the advice that Williams gives on finding and correcting a passive sentence is much more reliable than the information that Strunk and White offer their readers. I specifically appreciated the way the sentences were broken down and explained as they both came along in the reading. Williams even diagramed and labeled arrows above and throughout the sentences to demonstrate the differences in structure and the nature of both active an passive sentences.

I can still appreciate the information that Strunk and White give on the topic of active and passive sentences. The number of examples that they give shows a nice contrast of active and passive voices. On page 19, they offer up 4 different sentences and they immediately show how to fix each of the passive voices. The contrast that is demonstrated helps the reader to recognize the use of passive voice, and then attempt to correct it.

Overall, the Williams literature is a much more effective tool when learning about active and passive sentences for a few different reasons. The first of which is that Williams covers a wider breadth of information about both active and passive voices. The second of these is that Williams goes into deeper depth of the information, which I feel to be one of the more important factors when deciding which material to use. It is because of the depth that I was able to aid my own writing by discerning the active voice from the passive voice.

Williams V.S. the Catalog

After clicking on the link that took me to the EMU online catalog, I immediately spotted my sentences that I would be revising. The opening paragraph on the website definitely needs some love:

“A new year and a new catalog! As you can see the look of the catalog has changed. The new face-lift has refreshed the left side navigation along with adding quicker and easier access to Eastern’s main web pages. The catalog has also become an annual publication, allowing changes to programs and courses to occur more quickly.”

My Revision:

“It’s a new year, and we have a new catalog! Those of you who are already familiar with the catalog will notice that the look has changed. The new interface features an all new navigation sidebar on the left had side of the page, and we have also added convenient links to direct you to the main Eastern Michigan pages. The catalog is now an annual publication, which allows us to make changes to programs and courses in a more efficient manner.”

One of the biggest things that I have struggled with when writing my papers, or any literary work for that matter, is the use of passive voice. In the chapter on clarity, Williams dedicates an entire section to “Passives and Agents” which he clarifies both what a passive voice is, and how to correct it. He indicates “In passive sentences, the subject expresses the goal of an action…”.In my revision, among other things I took the liberty of correcting the passive sentence that I underlined. The catalog is the subject that expresses the goal of the action of becoming an annual publication. You will notice that I also revised the opening statement to turn it into a complete sentence. I did this to make the reading more clear. I also changed the second sentence to be less, as Williams puts it, ”turgid”. The original sentence was awkward and wordy, so I re-worded it and clarified it.

Peer Review Recap Part 2.

Going through this process for the second time, I feel like I’m much more partial to doing this in person. I can’t stand having to wait for a response and the answer to a question that I may have about said response. I suppose however the trade off comes from being able to get to the editing at my own convenience. I feel that I’m seeing a pattern in the comments I receive by way of citation. I feel that many people see flaws in my citations that I don’t seem to catch the first time through, and they offer up a correction. I find that the corrections that I offer up follow a more grammatical trend. I tend to find smaller mistakes in mechanics and syntax such as periods and commas, as well as some spelling issues.

Considering Youtube Commercials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZXM_g3mqew

I’ve noticed that in most television commercials today, the use of onomatopoeia is quite prevalent. While the All State Ad doesn’t use the literary device, it does have its own unique style. I would like to focus on the Tinactin and the Progressive commercials. Both commercials use the literary device of onomatopoeia. In the Tinactin commercial, John Madden say “Boom!” several times. Not only is this a part of his gimmick so to speak, but also demonstrates a few different things throughout the commercial. He says boom at the same time in the commercial that the model’s feet spontaneously erupt into flames. This could be a replacement of the sounds that would be produced by the actual phenomena. He later says it to introduce the product as they ‘spray’ it over the flames and they disappear. The second boom could be used to demonstrate the quick and efficient manner in which the product works to reduce the burn produced by athletes foot.

The Progressive commercial I feel uses onomatopoeia a little differently than the Tinactin commercial. More towards the end of the commercial, the character Flo uses the words ‘vroom vroom’. I feel this usage of onomatopoeia is used not to replace a sound that was being made, but to make the viewer feel like the company itself was trying to relate to motorcycle riders. Following her usage of the words, her customer seems to be a little more receptive to her because he thinks that she rides a bike. She even corrects him when he guesses the size of her motor incorrectly.

Ancient Style

After reading the selection by Crowley and Hawhee, I feel like my knowledge of ancient style has been refreshed. In high school, I went over many of the terms they decided to go over. My literature classes focused on classical and ancient literature, on works such as Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’, Dante’s ‘Inferno’, and ‘The Divine Comedy’ to name a few. Terms like hyperbole, irony, rhetoric, tropes, climax, and metaphor were key in understanding these classical works. I liked the way that Crowley and Hawhee took these terms, defined them, and proceeded to give a practical example relating the terms to a particular writer, poet, or classical work. For example, they define, and then apply ‘trope’ to a saying by Winston Churchill that goes as follows “this is a kind of impertinence up with which I will not put”. I wouldn’t say that the reading was completely straightforward. At times, I feel that the reading can become a bit confusing, however as long as you focus on the concepts they are explaining instead of becoming lost in the words, the reading is less difficult to move through. Overall, I found the reading quite helpful as a refresher on these terms, as well as enlightening for a few new ones.

Peer Review

I have never been a fan of the peer review process. However this time around, I found it quite useful for a few different reasons. The first of which being that I was able to correct simple mistakes that my peers made while they were typing their papers. The second of which was that I was able to find mistakes that I made in my own paper as I was going through and checking for errors in my classmates. In finding their errors, I additionally realized that  I had left certain things out of my own paper. I also thought that working with google docs was extremely helpful for all parties involved. The application was very user friendly, and saved the trouble of emailing a document out to several different people, and getting several back.

My Writing Technologies.

Presently, we live in an age of technology that provides for us many options which would allow us to write down words, thoughts, emotions, etc… I have lately chosen the computer for my technology of choice to write what needs to be written. I have chosen the computer for a few different reasons. The first of which being that it is convenient and portable. I don’t have to worry about bringing multiple items wherever I need to be in order to take notes or write letters. The second of which is that a computer, unlike a pen, will never run out of ink, and won’t tear through paper, and you can easily go back and edit what you have written without white out or an eraser. The third of which is that a computer doesn’t necessarily impose any physical limitations on how much, or how fast you can write. To this day, I have never gotten a writers cramp from typing on a computer.

Throughout the years, I have used many different writing technologies that are including, but not limited to paper and pencil, type writer, markers, crayons, etc… As a child I began writing with the very basic setup of crayon and paper. Fairly basic and permanent, yet unacceptable (by the standards of people at our level today) to use as any sort of official way for writing. As I progressed through school, I began to use pencil and paper, and Eventually made it to simply pen and paper (with math classes being an exception). Nowadays I pride myself on my knowledge of computers and word processors, and the proficiency at which I use them. As of late, I have really been avoiding using anything like pen and paper for two simple reasons. First, I don’t have very good handwriting, and it is often difficult for my peers and superiors to read what it is that I have written. Second, I fatigue very easily and often get writers cramps shortly after I begin writing. As I said before, that is one of the reasons that I have almost completely switched to writing with the computer.

What is Style?

To me, style is the individualized voice that each person possesses and demonstrates while writing. Each person has their own style that they attain through trial, error, editing, revision, and re-revising. There are different types of writing style as defined by literary experts and authorities, however I feel that there are too many different variations of style to put labels on.

Finally… I have a blog

This is the first blog that I have ever written, so I expect to start off a little rough, and hopefully improved along the way.