Amy's Blog

2003-10-23T17:46:00.000-04:00

English 328
Prompt 5:
When we think of style, generally what comes to mind is words like personal, individual, and unique. Writing style brings those same words, or similar ones, to our mind as well. I was taught at an early age that each of us write in different ways which makes up our individual writing style. In reading both, Strunk and White(i) and Williams(ii), Style books I found that style is not ours alone. In fact, writing has certain rules and elements that must be incorporated into our writing in order to make our points clear to those we want to read it. Since these elements and rules are common to all writing then style brings forth new meanings.

Strunk and White remind us that words must go in a certain order to make sense and that punctuation is not an option but a command. These are not matters of personal style but rather truths to make writing legible. Without these basic principles your writing would be useless to others. Williams also gives us basic principles but with more detailed explanations of when and how. He shows us how to incorporate these rules, which he calls suggestions, in to our writing to make it more understandable to our targeted audience. Williams teaches how to organize sentences and ultimately paragraphs in order to keep our readers in tune with what we want them to know.

From reading both of these style books, I have learned that writing, excluding creative writing, is more functional than personal. Functional in the sense that in order for your audience to understand what you intended them to, you must include specific rules that have nothing to do with personal choice. If you personally choose to leave out such rules then your audience may not understand your writing. When writing for a specific audience you want to make sure that your readers can understand what message you are trying to convey. It takes careful thinking and planning to accomplish this. Williams reminds us of this throughout his book by showing us how to construct clear sentences and pointed paragraphs. If your purpose of writing is to convey a message then your message must have a point. Often I find myself writing a paragraph that does not have a clear point. I learned that this can cause confusion and requires my readers to make assumptions of what I intended to say.

Clarity is stressed in both of these texts and can be achieved in a variety of ways. I found that Strunk and White were very helpful in putting to rest the assumption that big words are better. In fact, I learned that using "fancy" words instead of more common ones often causes the reader to focus on that one word instead of the subject it self. When we read we want to be able to glide through the text instead of having to slow down for speed bumps along the way. When we take into consideration our own requests as readers then we begin to see our requirements as writers more clearly.

After reading both of these style manuals, I have come to the conclusion that although style is not something that we uniquely create, style insists on a personality. I say this because the number of words we know is finite but the process of creating new sentences is infinite. This means that generally we do not repeat the same sentence but instead construct new ones. Creating new sentences requires knowledge of words and phrases and that exact knowledge is unique. It is not reasonable to believe that two separate individuals would have the exact vocabulary therefore in creating new sentences we each chose different words. This could be considered a small part of our style and be included in our style of writing. For the most part, however, we all adhere to the same grammatical rules and suggestions even if in different ways and circumstances.

i. Strunk, William and White, E.B. "The Elements of Style"

ii. Williams, Joseph M. "Style toward Clarity and Grace"

2003-10-16T16:39:00.000-04:00

English 328
Prompt Four:
In reading through Patty's First Prompt, regarding Strunk and White's "Elements of Style," I found her comment, "writing rules are guidelines, not commands that require punishment..." to be humorous because it fits so clearly with this book. As I read through Strunk and White, there was a constant voice in my head that brought forth images of an old English teacher smacking a ruler across her hand as she made clear these grammatical rules. Patty's picture of this grammarian is not too far off. This image or voice is present through out this book and I believe it is intended to be. The word "rule" itself indeed brings about thoughts of "punishment" and encourages ideas of how to get around them.

Another interesting point that Patty makes is one of style and opinion. She states, quite cleverly, that each individual does not have his or her own style or opinion. "As members of our culture, we pick up cues from what has already been judged [and] we alter or rework that information to our own perceptions." In fact, our opinions and style are based on those we are already aware of. I find this point interesting because we are often told to give our "personal opinion" and to create a style "of our own." Style and Opinion, when it comes to writing, are more a matter of choosing which rules will be used and how and which ones will be bent or broken. Many educated writers have "ignored both grammarians and their rules" (Williams 176). This is a stylistic choice that they have made and whether they have actually broken any rules is a matter of opinion.

Writing well is a necessity in college and also in many professional fields, so it is important to have references such as Strunk and White's and Williams'. Critical analysis of these texts has helped me to learn what it actually means to write well. In my mind, writing well has always meant using more complex language, which is something I don't do well. Williams clearly points out that whenever possible it is better to use simple expressions so that your writing is clear to your readers. I am glad that I learned this important truth because I now know that I am not the only one who hates to spend more time looking words up in the dictionary than actually reading.

2003-10-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

English 328 Prompt Three:

In his book, "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace," Joseph Williams deals with some of the same elements as Strunk and White. However, he does not go in to the elementary details as Strunk and White do. Williams does not want to teach the basic punctuation rules you would find in Stunk and White's book. It is obvious that Williams is focusing on a much different audience than the others. Strunk and White's book seems to focus on early writers, offering them firm rules and vague suggestions. Williams, on the other hand, has focused on educated writers that he assumes already has a basic concept of these basic principles of writing. He is more concerned with showing the writer exactly how to use the rules and suggestions to create better works of writing.

I found that although Strunk and White's advice was helpful in reminding me of some of the simple rules, as I stated in my first prompt, it was not helpful in showing me how to make my writing more effective. Many of the ideas offered in their book would suggest more effective writing but those ideas are left without explanation or instruction. On the other hand, Williams went in to extreme detail on each point he made, to ensure that the reader could understand the principle he was offering. By using detailed explanations and examples the reader is able to see the process and understand how to incorporate it into their own writing. I found this approach to be more effective in teaching the reader how to.

Strunk and White were very effective in certain areas in their approach. I found, for example, that their rules of punctuation were very straightforward. If they were intending their readers to be of limited writing knowledge, or a struggler of the basic concepts, then their book was highly effective in educating in those areas. Their stern approach was also somewhat effective in conveying the importance of many of the rules, although they did start to remind me of my old English teacher from middle school. Too much of their absolute do's and don't do's caused me to focus on ways to get around them, or the exceptions to those rules.

Williams starts his work letting the reader know his intention, which is to help the reader "write clearly." He follows through on this with no exception. In doing so he added many examples that made the reading of his book a little difficult. Treading through those sometimes long examples got harder to do as I progressed through the book. In a sense that became an ineffective approach, as I continued on, more for the fact that I became tired of them and found myself skimming over each one.

Both of these books are invaluable to someone who wants to learn to write well. Each of these brings about a different approach but with the same intended outcome. Both are to be used as a reference guide to enhance writing skills, one using grammatical rules as the main approach while the other use critical thinking and critiquing as his approach. It is obvious that Williams himself has read through Strunk and White's "little" book as he makes references and clarifies many of their points. There is a lot of useful advise in each and is all a matter of what the reader, or writer, is in search of and at what level they are writing.

2003-10-07T22:37:00.000-04:00

English 328 Prompt Two:

In Joseph Williams’ book, “Style Toward Clarity and Grace,” he states that “this book is about writing clearly” and that is exactly what this book teaches. Included in it is step by step instruction on how to make your reading more clear and understandable to the reader.
In searching through the EMU Undergraduate Catalog I came across this paragraph:
“Students also should be fully aware of the possible implications of this option for acceptance into graduate schools and competition for financial aid there. It has been ascertained that most graduate schools will accept students who have elected to take some courses on a pass/fail basis, but that if courses taken on this basis are sufficient in number on the transcript, the Graduate School Examinations may be utilized to determine the student's acceptability. Graduate schools, in general, do tend to favor those applicants who have good letter grades on their transcripts.”
According to Williams, this paragraph would be considered abstract, too complex, and confusing to the reader. The sentences do not seem to go in a logical order and therefore make the paragraph seem choppy and hard to get through. Williams deals with this issue in the section “managing the flow of information,” where he instructs the writer to create active sentences rather than passive ones. He also instructs us to keep topics consistent when dealing with groups of related sentences. “…They should constitute a string that your readers will take to be focused” (56).
I revised the above paragraph in the following way:
Graduate schools, in general, tend to favor applicants who have good letter grades on their transcripts. Although most of these schools will accept students who have elected to take some courses on a pass/fail basis, the Graduate School Examinations may be used to determine the student’s acceptability if there is many of these courses on the transcript. Therefore Students need to be aware of the possible implications that this may have on graduate school acceptance and competition for financial aid.
I chose to revise this way for many reasons. First, I tried to put the ideas that were already mentioned at the beginning of the sentences and put new ideas at the end so that I could use the next sentence to expand on the new material. This creates a more focused string of sentences according to Williams. I also tried to get rid of words that caught the reader and made the paragraph choppy. I replaced those words with more functional ones that allowed the paragraph to flow more smoothly. I believe that in doing these revisions I did not change the intended meaning of the paragraph.

* "Style Toward Clarity and Grace." Joseph M Williams.

*EMU Undergraduate Catalog Online http://www.emich.edu/public/catalogs/current/ugradinfo/acprod.html
Pass/fail section

2003-10-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

English 328 Prompt One:
While reading "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk and E.B. White was not necessarily on my list of priorities, I am glad that I did. This book is full of helpful information and tools for writing. I realized, by reading, I have been breaking many of the "rules" in this book. For example: Strunk and White list numerous words and expressions that are "commonly misused," which I frequently use in my writing.
In considering my own writing, I found "The Elementary Rules of Usage" to be the most helpful. Most of my writing problems come from improper use of punctuation, especially the use of commas, and matching the verb tense with that of the subject. This section of rules not only provides instruction for my writing problems but also many other grammatical problems.
Strunk and White explain comma use clearly in this first section of their book by telling us when and where to use them. The exceptions to the rule are also included along with many examples, which makes applying these much simpler. Rule two states, "In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last" (2). I have always thought that in a series of terms there was no need for a comma between an item and the word "and." My list would look more like this, this and this rather than the appropriate way of this, this, and this.
Another helpful rule in this section was "the number of the subject determines the number of the verb" (9). I find this particular rule challenging at times because this mistake is made by many, especially during oral communication, and can get tricky at times like when we connect other nouns to the subject. When we connect these nouns with words like with, except, and in addition to the subject still remains singular (10). The example that Strunk and White use is 'his speech as well as his manner is objectionable," I often make the mistake of saying that "his speech as well as his manner are objectionable."
Although I found a lot of helpful information in this book, there were a few areas in which I disagree. One of these areas is found in the "misused words and expressions" section. Strunk and White refer to words such as prioritize, finalize, and utilize are "abominations" (50). I believe that there are certain settings in which these words can be useful. The other area that I did not find very useful was some of the vague expressions used such as, "omit needless words" (23), "avoid fancy words" (76), and "use figures of speech sparingly" (80). These phrases do not give the reader clear instructions as to what exactly not to do. Since there are only a few of these vague expressions I consider this book to be very helpful overall.

*"The Elements of Style" William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
fourth Edition.

2003-09-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

Hello, my name is Amy Johnson. I am a junior at Eastern Michigan University. I am a major in special Education/Hearing Impaired and a Language, Literature and Writing minor. I have three beautiful daughters, Meagan 11, Madison 6 1/2 and Emma 2. I enjoy spending time with my family and going out for dinner with my Husband. I am involved in our church youth program (AWANA) and enjoy working with the children.
I don't officially have a job although in my spare time I am a consultant for PartyLite candles.
Between full time classes and a family, spare time is hard to come by but I seem to squeeze in some of what I love.
I love to read, take walks, shopping and any thing that gives me a little alone time! :)

2003-09-04T20:49:00.000-04:00

What a great day!