What is Style? Part 2

At the beginning of the semester we were asked the same question and I responded by comparing writing style to a dress style. A comparison that was shot down at the next class meeting...
Well, after the last three torturous months, I changed my mind.
Style, to me, is the way in which you use the words to express your message. For instance, at the beginning of the semester we explored how writing is a technology and the change from oral to literate cultures. Before writing, oral was a style. It was the way they expressed their message. The style changed with the shift to literate cultures. Then, rules were made to set a standard for this technology called writing. Hence, the style manuals we read. The new style was writing.
The transition continues... we moved onto comics and the idea of combining pictures with writing to express the message. Thus, another style. More specifically, we studied the style of comics. As we coasted along this sea of pictures and words, we of course came to movies. A moving picture, if you will. Another style. This style used words the least, other than the oral cultures of course, and it was interesting to note the changes of writing and expression throughout the course and the different styles that were created due to these transitions.
So all in all, I think that style is the way in which you express your message or "words". It is not a a style of writing like fiction or comedy, but the way in which you give the message to your audience.

Peer Review Final Post

All in all I would have to say that the most useful part of peer review is the chance for someone else to read your essay and see if they understand the point you are trying to get across. If I don't really understand what someone is saying, I will let them know. Also, if I get the point htey are trying to make, but it is a little confusing, I will let them know. I think the most difficult part of writing our essays in 328 is that we are supppose to write to an audience that has no idea of th eclass or anything we are doing. It is easier to write to an audience that has some background on what you are doing. Many times we assume that since we understand what we are writing, our audience will too.
As far as things not working in peer review, the quality of the comments given. I want and embrace comments, and I mean comments like what isn't working and what should be fixed or if something is wordy or confusing to understand. But it seems that many don't put the extra effort in. I'm sure we all want to believe that we wrote A papers without any editing, but we probably didn't. And giving comments back are our last chance between our own editing and grading.
The one thing that I have learned in peer review over the course of the semester is that not everyone wants or give honest comments or editing. I think that people don't want to hurt other people's feelings so they say it was great or good point even if it really wasn't or they really didn't read it. I remember one time in class we discussed a similar situation where someone felt like their comments were mean or rude. So basically I learned that honesty is the best to give true comments but you should say something positive too so the person dosn't feel like they are being dumped on.
I also found (well someone else found it and showed me) a really really cool tool on google docs. If you go under word count you can check the level of your writing on different scales. If you write for what grade audience, so on and so on. Very neat!

Looking Back at Past Readings

Throughout the semester we have read several different articles, books, ect. that have discussed the realtionship of words, speech, images and movies. Going back to one of the first, by Ong, compares to what we are exploring now. That is, that writing is a technonlgy. It came after speech and is learned. I'm not sure which way Ong would go with the movie making process. One one hand we are using technonlgy much furhter advanced than writing, but we took out a lot of writing and constructed our video on mainly speech. So a comtemporary Ong may think it's wonderful to use the video to express a grammar rule or function vocally, but a more archaic Ong may still be aganist the technonlgy of it all. Baron may shed a slightly different light on it because we didn't actually so any typing. We wrote out all the words or sentences that we used in the video. So we really only used the computer for music and film. I think that McCloud would have the most to say about the film because he wrote about th erealtionship between images and words. The biggest example of this is when we made th eword "wordy" with lincoln logs and then shoved them off the table. It gave a word, a visual and gave a meaning about being wordy to the author. After thinking about all this in regards to my essay, I find it very interesting the twists and turns that this class has taken in regards to writing. It started with articles that preferred speech, which was used in the video, over the written word (also in the video) to learning about the grammar rules and styles of this written form (topic of movie) to the use of visuals and words (helpful for making a movie). It seems like the class moved with the evolution of writing or ways to deliver a message. speech-writing-how to write-pictures-movie. wow, good one krause!

Looking Back at Past Readings

movie making and writing

So far in this movie making process I have seen many similarities between writing and making the movie. The first of which, is brainstorming. Before I begin an essay I always brainstorm possible ideas, make lists and see how much information I have on the subject and what connections I can make. This was exactly what happened when my group was deciding on an idea for our movie. We went through several different topics before choosing and we elimated topics based on a lack of ideas we had to actually make the movie. Like examples to show and how easy the point was to get across. Once we had the idea it was obvious that the creativity within the group took over. This is also true of writing. When writing academically there is always certain information htat must be included and only one form that is suitable. We were fortunate to have the option to instill our creativity and humor into the movie, but I think that this idea compares to the voice the writer tries to create when writing. Even if you are writing a formal piece you still want your voice to be heard. It was also very similar to writing since we had an introduction, body and conclusion. There is form and procedure to a film just like an essay. I very much agree with Anderson and his idea of intergrating low bridge technologies into the classroom, although I really didn't understand the concept of "technical determinism" to see the danger in too much exposure. I agree that "technonogies can facilitate a sense of creativity that can lead to motivation (44)." Mainly because I am very excited to see the completion on the movie and have the chance to write about it. It really did involve crteativity and got me to think about the possibilities of "writing" outside of an essay. I also agree that the computer is more engaging than a piece of paper to write on, but I don't think that it should be taught as being more beneficial as students. Technonlgy should be the stimilus to the writing, just like how our movie making stirred the thoughts in our heads and now we need to collect them and put them on paper.

Peer Review #3

After reviewing what others thought about peer reviw it seems that most of the students had the same opinion as myself. Mainly that the best function of wiki is that you are able to see an entires class' essays on one page. But it was difficult to know who was in which class. It was alo helpful to read other student's essays to get ideas for your own paper. You get to see what others are doing and what they came up with. It seems that many have complained about the kind of feedback they got. Mostly, I think that students want more comments about what ideas were or were not working. I think that people mostly give editing comments. Like if a comma is necessary or spelling is correct. It was also more difficult to edit with wiki. I think that studenst like being able to strike out certain areas and aadd notes and highlight. After using both systems, it seems clear that google docs is preferred. My opinion hasn't really changed and Ithink that many of the students would agree.

McCloud part 2

While reviewing some of my classmates blog posts about the first post of McCloud I found one that was missing a big point in McCloud's book. This blog was posted by David Slaga and the comic he chose to analyze can be found at http://www.comics.com/comics/hedge/archive/hedge-20081027.html.
The comic is shown in 3 panels and is drawn in black and white. It's very "cartoony" and appears to come to have come right out of a sketchpad. The element that David fails to mention is McCloud's idea of space and time. In all 3 panels there are 2 or more characters speaking within the same panel. McCloud talks about this in chapter 4 of Understanding Comics by showing a panel with several different characters speaking right after each other in a row. McCloud does not consider this a "single moment" in time, like everyone is speaking at once. Rather we are walking through the panel meeting each character one after the other. McCloud describes this by saying that "each figure is arranged from left to right in the sequence we will read them, each occupying a distinct time slot" (97).

McCloud part 1

The Eerie Chronicles by Toki www.foolstrip.com/index.php/id=16&serie=15&page=1 has many of the characteristics that Scott McCloud mentions in Understanding Comics. Understanding Comics is a comic book itself about the creation and interpretation of comics.
The Eerie Chronicles is drawn in black and white, and although I haven't read anything in McCloud yet about color, I assume that color choice has an impact on the reader. The first panel has no characters or dialouge in it. It is just used to "...set the mood or a sense of place..."(McCloud 103) This helps the reader get a feeling of hte comic and know what kind of emotions are present. Another panel in the comic shows one of the characters smoking a cigarette. It is drawn with wavy lines coming out of it. McCloud points out that "This is the artist's way of telling you there's smoke coming..."(128) or it is on fire.
The entire first page of the comic deals with the idea of closure. You only see the character's legs or feet. Maybe half of a face to a hand. You never get the whole picture. McCloud gives an excellent example of this in Understanding Comics by showing himself in several panels without his legs and saying "In this panel you can't even see my legs, yet ypu assume that they are there" (61). That is the same idea used in the comic I found. We assume that everyone has more to their body than just their legs or arm so our minds fill in the blanks to create a whole person.
There is also a panel in the comic that zooms in on one of the characters and his eye fills the entire panel. You see huge sweat bead running down his face. This is another element mentioned by McCloud. He describes tools like this as "indicators of emotion" and says that they are "visually based" (130). So the sweat bead allow us to see that the charater is nervous and the close up of hte eye reminds us of our eyes getting bigger due to anxiety or maybe fear. Either way these two elements added together give us a sense of the characters emotions.

Picturing Text

Since I work for Bob Evan's I thought it would be great to see how the company advertises on the web. Many of the same promotions are found in the store and since I am there so much it is easy for me to look over it and not really "take in" the message. When I stopped and really looked at what was in front of me I found a lot of examples used in Picturing Texts to also appear in Bob Evan's advertising. website: bobevens.com
The first thing I noticed was the promotion for our "knife and fork sandwiches". The customer is asked to "Vote now" for their favorite one. The words are shown on a red, white and blue round pin that also contains stars. This design is similar to the use of pattern found in Picturing Texts. Bob Evan's uses the colors and design commonly used in elections to market their product. It is very clever because of the election going on right now. People see these colors and symbols everywhere so their eyes probably go right toward them. Plus asking customers to "vote" would mean they need to try them all, thus making them want to come back to see which one is their favorite. This pattern is easily recognizable by people and follows a pattern of color and the object the words are placed on.

Peer Editing Wiki

I found that peer editing with wiki was more difficult when compared to google docs. My biggest complaint is how wiki saves the changes you made to the essays. When I was finished editing the first essay and went to save it, someone else was trying to save their changes also. (on the same essay) This caused overwriting of my changes, basically none of my changes were saved. It was a hassle to go back and reread (since there were changes I had to reread the essay) and re-edit. I also found it more difficult to type in comments in the essays. Since I wanted my commets to stick out I made them green, but the font color never stayed green. It would automatically change back to black once I clicked out of the text. It may not seem like such a big deal, but it took more time. My third complaint is that I only got two edits of my essay. I don't know if I can blaim that on wiki, but I think that we should have to edit certain student's essays so that everyone gets a handful of responses.
Although I do see the benefit in having both classes essay's available, I still prefer the google docs. I think a good word of advice to others using wiki for editing, or for myself the next time I do, is to look and see how many people have already edited the essay. That way if someone has a lot but others have non or barely any, you can edit that papers that need more attention.

what other people are saying

While looking over classmate’s blogs, I found one that I agreed with on many points. This was written by Chase. He said, “From what I recall in the reading, William's didn't hit the rules I discussed in my Strunk and White blog very much, mostly because it's a different type of book.” http://archasius.blogspot.com/ I faced this same problem while completing the “Comparing Strunk and White with Williams” blog post. This I believe is due to the different nature and audience of the books.
Chase also mentions that he found William’s more helpful because he likes to know why something is correct and not simply that it is. I completely agree. William’s helps understand why we do things and why things should be written a certain way. That way we can use the “rules” in everything we write and know how to actually apply them. For instance, both books mention the importance of the active voice. However, William’s goes further into the “agent-subject” importance by explaining that “…each agent-subject anchors the reader in something familiar at the beginning of the sentence…before the reader moves on to something new”. (38)He compares this to the passive by saying “…you find yourself shifting from one unrelated subject to another…”(38) This gives reason as to why an active voice is sometimes better. The audience is clear of the subject and the writer is consistent. The reader also knows where the action is taking place. As opposed to the passive where the subjects are changing and the reader doesn’t know how to follow. Strunk and White describe the use of the active voice with examples of an active and passive sentence and say that the passive “…is less direct, bold, and less concise.” (18) They offer advice to omit certain words from the passive sentence, but they still don’t explain why. William’s tells us why and how we should use the active voice. Not just to do it and what our sentence will sound like if we don’t.
The only disagreement I found among our ideas is that Chase thinks “It [Strunk and White] gave a good basic layout for each type of punctuation…” and “it would be a good book for reference while writing”I have to disagree because I think that so many “rules” in Strunk and White are out dated. They should really revise some of the language used and “rules”. There were problems with the apostrophe section, the listing section and many of the examples used are full of unfamiliar terms. Not to say that the entire book should be tossed out the window, but there are more useful grammar handbooks out there. I would be very upset if while writing a paper I looked up a rule only to get it wrong. This is another reason why I think William’s is more effective. I don’t believe that creating a clear, concise style that William’s promotes will ever be out dated. That is to say it will never go out of “style”.

Strunk and White vs. Williams

In my recent blog about rules from Strunk and White I found the “who/whom” rule very useful. However after reading Williams I found his take on the rule more effective. Willams gives a better explanation by saying “The form of the pronoun depends on whether it is a subject or an object of its own clause” and “always use whom as the object of a verb or preposition”. Williams explains the use of the word, not just examples of what is correct or not correct in certain sentences. So now I know why I am choosing the word for what reason. Not simply because it sounds correct. That is what I got out of Strunk and White, to determine which word to use say it to yourself and whatever sounds better is the correct choice. Williams also offers the great bit of advice not to use either if you are unsure.

The second bit of guidance offered in Strunk and White that I found useful was to “write naturally”. Williams touches on this throughout the book but dosen’t give a specific example. Rather, he focuses on things like to how to construct meaningful sentences and relate them to each other in paragraphs. This is probably the only thing that stands out to me as “better” in Strunk and White when compared to Williams. I appreciate that Strunk and White say to go ahead and write in a way that comes to easy to you and they say not to “force” anything and if you do it won’t sound as good. It was useful to me to be assured that when writing for work it is still ok to have a personal style and not to simply sound like you are just rattling off facts. It’s almost as if Williams expects everyone to have embraced their “naturalness” and is now giving us tools to revise it.
The topics I chose from Strunk and White that I found to be outdated or against what I was previously taught are writing numerals in text and the use of commas in a list within text. These also aren’t mentioned in Williams. This is probably due to the nature of both manuals. While Strunk and White was written to the newbies of the writing world, Williams is geared toward someone who has more experience. Maybe Williams expects his readers to already know these rules and only highlights the rules found in Ch. 10 “Usage” because they are commonly misused by even the most professional writers. Within the ten chapters and 200 pages of Williams, he only uses one chapter of it to spell out rules about double negatives and subject-verb disagreement. But Strunk and White write and entire book about them.
I feel the overall difference between the two manuals is the audience. Williams sets some expectations in his audience that they already know the “elementary rules of usage” but Strunk and White don’t believe their readers know anything about grammar and writing. I think that both are effective in different ways and almost for different revision objectives.

revising with williams

I think sentence 1a. is "unclear" and as Williams would say, "make[s] us work harder than we think we ought to." (18)
1a. The catalog requirements in effect at the time of the student’s initial registration at a college
or University or the requirements of a subsequent catalog, including those in effect at the time of the student’s graduation, may be used to complete graduation requirements.

1b. When a student registers at a college or University they are to follow the current catalog requirements or what is in effect at time of graduation to satsify graduation requirements.

As Williams writes, sentence 2b. places the subject "chatacter" in the correct place as compard to sentence 2a.

2a.EMU’s perspective has also grown, not only in on-campus program development, but also in online courses offered through the Office of Extended Programs.

2b. The Office of Extended Programs expanded EMU's perspective thru on-campus program development and on-line courses.

Sentence 3b. is more precise and to the point while 3a. repeats information already stated within the paragraph.

3a. Extended Programs dissolves traditional campus boundaries through collaborative programs that extend the education, service and applied research of Eastern Michigan University to benefit local, national and international communities and organizations

3b. Extended Programs dissolve traditional campus boundaries and expands them to the local, national and international communitites.

The Elements of Style

While reading "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White I ran across some very helpful rules/tools for me to imply in my own writing. One being found in "Elememtary Rules of Usage" article 10. This shows how to determine if who or whom is necessary. I have always had a difficult time with that and I just found myself sometimes using one or the other, just to mix it up a bit. Within the section "An Approach to Style" I found article 2, "Write in a way that comes naturally" to also be very beneficial. When writing an essay or paper for school I am always concerned that I added too much "naturalness" to it, that it is too similar to my own personal form of writing. I was put at ease while reading article 2 when the authors state "...using words and phrases that come readily at hand." and "...when you write in a way that comes naturally, you will echo the halloos that bear reapeating".
Although there are many helpful tools in "Elements of Style" there are also some that went aganist other rules I have been taught. In the numerals section found on p.34 states that you "do not spell out dates or other serial numbers". The only exception given for this is when "they occur in dialouge". I was under the impression that there was some rule stating when using numbers in text you should put the actual number, for instance 3, if the number is between 1 and 10 but spell the number if it is higher. I very well be mistaken or mixing the whole thing up, but I know I was taught that somewhere down the line. There had also been a debate about whether or not a comma is needed in a list after the last thing mentioned, before the "and". I used to think it was necessary to write "red, white, and blue" this way, but I was told that is incorrect. I was told that "red, white and blue" is the proper way. On p.2 of "The Elements of Style" it states that "In a series of two or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last". This, to me, sounds like the very thing that I noted as being correct, but the example on p.2 shows "gold, silver, and copper" written that way. The only exception to the rule states that "In the names of business firms the last comma is usually omitted". An example for this is "Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette".

first time with google docs

I honestly fell in love with google docs although it was hard to get the hang of it at first, i think it is a wonderful system. It makes sending to others so much easier and you don't have to worry about opening files or compatibility. I also like the idea of being able to read others editing remarks on other people's papers. It gives me more to think about when writing myself. Plus if I missed something I have the chance to pick up on it. So much easier to read then a hand written paper and people don't have to try to make out my horrible handwriting, plus I don't have to have all those extra papers to carry around.
stacy <3 google docs

My Writing Technologies

Depending on what and why I am writing will depend on which "tool" I will use to write with. For instance, if I'm posting a blog, I will certainly use a computer. ha, ha
But seriously, if I am writing a paper for school I will use a computer's word processor. But if I am writing for fun I usually do it curled up in my bed with a notebook and pen. It feels more personal to me. It wasn't until I had a scare with misplacing things did I start to put the things I wante to save in my computer. It's like a rough draft and finished copy, but if something makes it to my computer I actually want to remember writing it and possibly reread it later on.
I never really looked at my Bic as a tool until now, I thought I was rather primative using it.
I don't think I would ever want to type on a typewriter, though. I make too many mistakes. Too many slips of the finger on other letters. I would get very frustrated, plus I can't stand a paper that is covered in white out.

What is style?

A writing style, to me, is comparable to a dress stlye. There are certain ways one likes to dress that they prefer and there are ways one must dress for certain roles. For example, at home or even at school pajamas may be the extent of your wardrobe, but you wouldn't dare wear them to a job interview or even when you are on the job. You wouldn't wear those same jammies to a wedding or a nice evening out (although that is also subject for interpretation), but you also wouldn't wear your work "uniform" or "interview duds".
A writing style conforms to what and who you are writing for. All writers have their own niche that they prefer. For instance, some may love writing with sarcasim and humor but your boss and teachers may not be so amused. Personally my favorite "style" of writing is poetry, but I couldn't very well post this blog in a poem chalk full of metaphor and allusion and hope for the same response. That is what my creative writing class if for.
So all in all I would say that style has two parts. The personal, warm fuzzy part and the business-like professional part.

first blog EVER

hmm.. well. here it is...in all it's glory.