Prompt 5

Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" and William's "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" help an author develop clear, concise, and elegant methods of writing by giving advice and rules to follow. These rules however do not make a good writer. It is impossible to take every detail from these texts and make a coherent document because of the inconsistencies and unrealistic demands of the authors. The alternative to taking the writing laws literally is to examine and sort through the differing methods, picking and choosing which style is most comfortable to you. Therefore, I feel that to write a paper well, one must decide what is most important to convey thoughts or research to their audience. This can be done by taking the advice from Williams or the rules from Strunk and White, and finding what will suit your ideas in a relevant way.
"Elements of Style" offers the reader a small and easy to use handbook for quick reference concerning grammar, punctuation, and style reminders. Many sections of this text will aide a writer to develop their compositional techniques, as well as give tips to help write a stylish paper. A simple yet important rule is to make the paragraph the unit of composition. In other words, maintaining a thematic order helps an audience follow ideas without having to strain to find your subject: "As a rule, begin each paragraph either with a sentence that suggests the topic or with a sentence that helps the transition."(16) Moderation and order in a paragraph will keep the reader's focus on your topic and hold their interest through the remainder of the paragraph. (17)
Another important element found in both texts is the idea of keeping sentences in positive form. Strunk and White remind us to "avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language."(19) They suggest being assertive in your word chioces. The reader wants strong sentences, not uncertainty. (20) Williams touches on this subject in the section called "Not the Negative", in which he explains that reader's do not want to be told what they shouldn't do, but what they should. (130) For example, the sentence "Don't write in the negative" can be rewritten by stating directly: "Write in the affirmative" (130). The last sentence has more power and will keep the reader engaged.
Another way to grasp the reader's attention is to use an active voice throughout your paper. I find this to be harder than it seems. As Strunk and White note: "The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing." (18) How does a writer consciously use an active voice while maintaining fluidity? Williams explains that using the active voice is important; however, the passive voice is necessary in some sentences and can be used if the subjects remain consistent. Active and passive aside, Williams shares the secret to writing in a clear and readable style with these steps: "At the beginning of every sentence, locate your reader in familiar territory; ...create for your reader a reasonably consistent point of view, a consistent topic string. When that consistent topic string consists of your cast of characters as subjects, and you immediatley connect those subjects with verbs that express the crucial actions, you are a long way toward writing prose that your readers will perceive as clear, direct, and cohesive."(52-3)
Writers achieve good style by using their innate force or skill for words while adhering to the suggestions and rules outlined in books like "Elements of Style" and "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace". I have learned invaluable information in these texts and hope to learn more as these rules are applied and developed.

Prompt 4

For this prompt, I chose to respond to Sheryl's Blog Prompt 3 which can be found here. Sheryl's Blog
I agree with Sheryl that William's Style text is more helpful when teaching writing, as opposed to the Strunk and White, which is good for quick references. I think that Williams "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" is informative but much too dense to be used as a quick reference. I wish I had the time to read and reread this book, for I feel that the reader can only fully master his advice if the information is fully absorbed. This would take much longer than the time allocated in class. This is not to say that it cannot be used as a reference book; it just may take longer to find specifics than in the Strunk and White text.
I agree for the most part with Sheryl on the avoidance of "big" words as a means to "sound collegiate". She states: "Our writing should have a voice that we can change as our audience changes." That is important to remember, however I do not think that "dumbing down" one's writing is necessary either. It seems a bit arrogant because its assuming that your reader's will not understand your words. At a college level, I feel that exploring new words is part of our learning process, one that keeps us evolving. Isnt this what we are paying for? I would feel cheated if every college paper I read doesnt challenge me to understand it a little better.
Therefore, I agree that the William's text is more useful for writing and the Strunk and White for grammar and composition rules. I still believe that writing is an art and an innate skill. Methods and techniques on style and grammar are taught as fundamental rules that can be tweaked as the writer progresses, but the passion of writing must come from within ourselves.
The next response I have is to Jessy's Blog Prompt 3, found at Captain English
I agree that Strunk and White's "Element's of Style" can be seen as the author's pet peeves in writing, rather than "solid examples of good writing." I also think Jessy makes a valid argument in stating that: "An essay needs to provide a reader with more than a series of grammatically correct sentences." This is what i believe the Strunk and White text falters at. They do provide the means to make sound grammatical choices, but the William's text emphasizes style, fluidity, and readability; that which Strunk and White lack.

Prompt 3

In my first Blog, I discusssed the importance of using an active voice in writing. This method is also found in the section on Clarity in Williams' book "Style(:) Toward Clarity and Grace." On page 36-7, William's advises against using unnecessary passive verbs: "We can usually make our style more vigorous and direct if we avoid both nominalizations and unneccesary passive verbs." I do not find either Williams' or Strunk and White's advice to be more helpful than the other. Williams' charts illustrating the relationship between subject and object, and agent and goal, are useful, but not a necessity. Strunk and White's advice is perhaps more direct in that it reminds us to be mindful of our audience, whereas, William's does not (at least in that section). Another topic I wrote about in Prompt 1 was the value of S&W's chapter on misused words and expressions. I did not find anything comparable in Williams' Style. Overall, I feel that both texts are invaluable to writing for those who may be a bit rusty grammatically (myself). I find the S&W book to be a handy reference book with easy to find suggestions, and Williams' Style to be more useful for specific examples of sentence structure and general writing techniques. I favor Williams' Style because it (for the most part) explains methods in a way that I have not seen or been taught before.



"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."- Albert Einstein

Prompt 2

From the EMU Undergraduate Catalog:
"Failure to meet the application deadline will result in the candidate's graduation being delayed until the following graduation period. Failure to satisfy degree requirements, including the removal of incompletes in required courses or providing official transcripts for course work taken at other colleges or universities, will necessitate that the student file a new application for graduation in the Academic Records Office for the subsequent graduation period."

These sentences do not make the reader feel clear about what he/she is reading. Sentence 1: The verb "(to) meet"does not name the action of the character. The subject is in the middle of the sentence. When placed at the beginning, the subject gains more importance. Passive verbs can be replaced with active, such as, will result =results, and being delayed= delays. "Failure" and "graduation" are nominalizations and can be fixed by changing to a verb that replaces these empt verbs such as "(to) fail" and "(to)graduate". Avoiding nominalizations and passive verbs make for a more direct sentence. Active sentences are more clear and concise. Sentence 2: This sentence can be broken into more than one to achieve clarity. The last part of this sentence is an unnecessary reiteration of the first sentence, and can be dropped entirely. The flow is not smooth in the second sentence. This is my revision:

A student will delay their graduation if they do not meet the application deadline. To satisfy degree requirements, student's must remove incompletes in required courses or provide official transcripts fro m course work taken at other colleges or universities. If student's fail to do this , they must file a new application for graduation. These are fouind in the Academic Records Office.

Prompt 1

I actually found many useful tips in Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" handbook. If I had to narrow it down to just a few, I would have to mention the section on Principles of Composition #14. Using the Active Voice. I have received numerous papers with professors urging me to stop using the passive voice.
I have a problem with brevity and concise thoughts. I overanalyze everything which carries over into my writing. I hate leaving something out if I think it may possibly be relevant.
I suppose I would have to analyze my technique as a writer to induce change, which means I must make a conscious effort to use an active voice. This, as noted in Elements, "makes for forcible writing". However, I think that it may be necessary considering I have gotten this feedback from more than one instructor. To really get to the core of my specific writing style, I must admit that I am a sucker for clutter. I don't know when to stop in terms of omission in writing or anything else for that matter. I am a bag lady, which means that I hate throwing anything away and I usually keep with me more than is necessary. This holds true to my writing technique. I will reference this text in future writings as a sort of "nagging voice" that reminds me that in order to be a more concise writer, I an going to have to compromise my inherent style and think about the reader.
I find the section on misused words and expressions to also be very helpful. I am going to go through a few very simple mistakes that are used by many. To begin, I was under the impression that "alright" was grammatically correct and parallel to "okay" or "agreed". Apparently this is not the case. It is properly written as two words: "all right". "Can I go with you" is incorrect because "can" does not replace "may". It only means "am(is,are)able". Farther and further have always eluded me. Farther is a measure of distance; further, a time or quantity word. "Gratuitous" is one of my favorite words that I have been using incorrectly for quite some time. I may still drop it in here and there simply because I like the sound, the fluidity of saying it. Gratuitous. For example, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, though not incredibly thought provoking, did provide two hours of gratuitous entertainment." "Respective" and "Respectively" are two words which I often use in papers as a filler. This means that, although I know they are not necessary, I still do it. Somewhere down the line, I had the notion that they were collegiate. There are quite a few others that I can comment on but I am overwhelmed by my mistakes so I will conclude.
In reviewing these misused words, I wonder how they snuck into my vocabulary in the wrong form? Perhaps grammar school? I will never know how these incorrect words became solid in my vocabulary, but it is always the right time to advance.

Through reading this book, I have realized that I am a pretty careless writer. With the help of this text, I hope to enhance my writing style.

blogs are cool

this will be a lot cooler when i have my own computer. I need to save some money to get one. I think i will enjoy this class once i have access to a computer. I should really get one for practical reasons such as email or shopping or stealing music, but i am poor because i am in class so much and cant work a lot.