Eng. 328 Nick German

The Last Blog Post Considering Style

2005-03-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" and Williams "Style" are both helpful in improving your writing but I feel I got the most out of Williams book. Some of the important things I found where; clarity, metaphors, but the biggest thing I learned was how style is situation based.

First off, clarity is something very important in writing, considering Williams dedicated a whole chapter to it. Without clarity it is impossible for others to understand your paper and the ideas contained within. If you truly want to become a good writer you have to learn ways to make the transition from thinking about something to getting that same idea down on paper for others to understand it. I think the true challenge with clarity is trying to understand the audience you will be writing too. If you are writing towards a more intelligent audience you don’t need as much explanation and can present more complex ideas, but if you are writing towards a younger audience with less intelligence on the subject then you will have to use more explanation and try to use simpler examples before they are able to understand some of your more complex ideas. It is like the difference from writing an elementary math book compared to a college level math book.

In relation to clarity metaphors are another important aspect of writing. Metaphors help with your clarity in writing because they allow you to think in different ways and make comparisons that can help with your own and the readers understanding of the ideas you present. Metaphors also seem to allow you to develop your own style. I find I use metaphors often when trying to be amusing in my writing and that is part of my personal writing style. I also find that metaphors can help relate two different ideas in to one which can help attract different audiences to your writing. If you really enjoy playing music and want to write a book on it but you want to make this book interesting to hunters than you could help hunters relate to your passion of music by using metaphors that relate music to hunting, and this could attract a new audience.

I feel the biggest idea that I came away with from reading these books and discussing them is that style is situation based . Styles will vary depending on what you are writing, what you are writing for, and who you are writing for. This relates back to the idea I presented along with clarity. If you are writing in your own personal journal your writing is going to be different than if you are writing a paper for your college writing class. You will probably have a more casual style while writing in your journal and you will really only be concerned with the clarity of how it relates to you. If you understand the ideas you have written in a journal than that’s really all you need because you aren’t writing this for any audience but your self. If you are writing a paper for a class than your style will be more academic with proper sentence structure and clarity for your teacher and classmates to understand, and it will probably have more complex ideas than just what you throw down in a journal. There are so many different examples where you will use a different style of writing but these are just a few which help show that style really is situation based.

Out of the many ideas and rules presented in each book these ideas are what I seem to remember well, which would show that they are the most important ideas that I have pulled out of this unit or experience.

2005-03-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

As I was reading through our class blogs I found Jen Lapointe's blog and thought she had some very interesting points. Many of Jen’s ideas related with a lot of ideas I used in my posts and things I had thought about while reading through each of these books. She talked about how just by looking at the title of the chapters of each book, Strunk and White, and Williams, you can see the difference in what they seem to be writing about. She listed the chapters which include :
Strunk and White’s
1. Elementary Rules of Usage
2. Elementary precompiled of composition
3. A few Matters of Form
4. Words and Expressions commonly missed
5. An Approach to Style
Williams
1. Causes
2. Clarity
3. Cohesion
4. Emphasis
5. Coherence I, and Coherence II, etc....
I feel that you really can see a difference just by looking at each of these chapter titles. Jen writes that by looking at the chapter titles for Strunk and White you can see that, "Each of these sections approach their topic in a methodical way stipulating rules and common usage thereof." I definitely agree with this idea that Strunk and White offer a much more "methodical" approach to writing and its rules. When speaking of Williams Ms.Lapointe says; "Williams asks his reader to ponder about writing style and how we develop our writing style as unique individuals." Once again I agree with Jen on this point. Williams book is definitely more focused to helping writers develop their own style and make writers question why they write the way they do. Another similar opinion I share with Jen is that Williams does not think that writing should be just simple rules and facts, that it is more than that. "Williams is quick to refute the notion that he thinks writing should be a mechanical list of facts and statements."
As I was reading through each of these books and as I finished I really thought that if Strunk, White, and Williams came together and combined each of their writings that they could make a really good book to guide many writers. I felt that using each of the books together can be very effective so why not try to make a book that combines both of the ideas from the authors in each book. This is an idea that Jen also brings up in her third style blog post, she writes: "If they (Strunk, White, and Williams) were to combine their knowledge it would make for a perfect book on writing tools and information." I completely agree with that statement.
There seemed to be a whole lot of useful points in other students blogs but I seemed to find the ones that Jen used to be very similar to the ideas I had though of. I just believe that these are some very important ideas when it comes to reading these books on style. Good job Jen!

Metaphors

2005-03-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

Two writing metaphors:

"Writing rules are the walls and writing style is the paint on the walls."

-This means that writing rules are the foundation, the basic part of what we need, but style is the part of writing that allows us to express ourselves and make things look better.

"Writing is a car but technology is the steering wheel."

-This means writing is the big vessel we use in communicating but tehcnology allows us to communicate in our writing more effectively.

Style post 3 regarding Strunk and White vs. Williams

2005-03-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

Looking back it seems to me the there are two different approaches in these books. Strunk and White is the book that lays out all the rules for you without hardly any explanation at all, more so it tells you how to write not why. Williams book on style seems to focus much more on why we write the way we do and how we can correct the problems we encounter in our writing. Williams discuses more of a style aspect on how to write effectively, while Strunk and White seem to be more technical just telling you the correct way to write not really how to go about it. I find both of the books to be very useful but in different ways. If I was just looking for a specific rule on writing I would find Strunk and White to be more useful but if I was looking for a way to improve my writing style and make it more effective I would turn to Williams. Throughout all of this I found that writing effectively can be very difficult and I think this really gets brought up with Williams book. He seems to discuses the fact that we have ideas but as we go to transfer these ideas into writing they seem to become mixed up and different than what we actually would like to say. I think this is what makes Williams book more difficult in my opinion because he is presenting to us an idea that is hard to think about. To actually think about the way we right and why we write this way is difficult. it’s a lot more about finding your own style and how to make it effective. Strunk and White seem to be easier because they just lay the rules out , like that is that, which is easier for us to understand because throughout most of our student careers that’s how we have been taught, or at least I have. My experiences with writing are you do this or you do that and if you don’t it’s wrong and will make your writing worse. There has never been much direction in style, but I think Williams is the one laying out a kind of direction to help writers find their own style and try to develop it effectively. Strunk and White lay out all the rules of writing while Williams seems to say yeah there are a whole lot of rules, he even seems to bring some more up, but he gives examples and tries to show how to use these rules. Like I noticed in previous posts the difficulty is remembering these rules while writing and trying to apply them to your own writing to make it more effective. It seems to me that I can just glance at Strunk and White anytime I need some help with specific rules in writing, but I really need to go back and fully read Williams “Style” over and over again to become as effective a writer as Williams would possibly like. Its just not easy, but I think we can all hope for better papers in the future.

Joseph Williams-Style ch.4-6

2005-02-22T16:04:00.000-08:00

In these chapters Williams discusses emphasis and coherence. At the beginning of the chapter 4,dealing with emphasis, Williams talks about beginning a sentence well to end the sentence well. He says that if you don’t manage the flow of your sentence to “build a climatic rhythm” then your sentences will seem weak and unfocused (67). This was a problem in the paper by Rochelle which we looked over in class. Before I had read this chapter I could tell that some of the sentences in the paper were weak but I wasn’t sure why they seemed that way. For example: “ Cedar point is the best amusement park in Ohio and I have been to a lot of amusement parks.”
After using Williams tip on emphasis and climatic sentences I revised the sentence to this:
“I have been to a lot of amusements parks, but Cedar Point is the best.”
Though the revision is still not the best it does make the sentence more climatic as you go from beginning to end.

In chapter 5 about coherence Williams talks about thematic strings. One important principle was Principle 2. Principle 2 is: “A reader will feel that a paragraph is cohesive if it has other strings of related words, strings that we will call thematic strings (83).” This principle is something that was lacked in Rochelle’s paper about Cedar Point. One example of how Rochelle doesn’t use thematic strings and jumps from one idea to another is in the paragraph starting on line 55. In this paragraph Rochelle starts off by talking about wasting money on amusement park games. Then in the same paragraph in which she is talking about wasting money she starts talking about a specific game called the Date Game. This paragraph has too many ideas and they aren’t tied together with thematic strings.

In Chapter 6, another chapter about coherence, Williams talks about giving points in each paragraph. This is Principle 4: “A reader will feel that a paragraph is coherent if she can read a sentence that specifically articulates its point,”(97). Of course Principle 4 is another thing lacking in Rochelle’s paper. There aren’t really any paragraphs that have a specific sentence in which the main point of the paragraph is contained. I think this is because Rochelle jumps around from topic to topic and includes a lot of extra information that doesn’t go along with the topic of each paragraph. There are even paragraphs in Rochelle’s paper that have sentences that barely connect to each other, such as:
“The child is proud of his or her accomplishment and it is the perfect way to end the day at Cedar Point. Since the child only spent $1.00, he or she has $1.00 left to buy some cotton candy for the trip home.”
These are two sentences with two separate ideas. This paragraph does not contain any sentence which “articulates its point.” If I were to revise it I would probably delete this whole paragraph all together and try to tie the sentences in with preceding paragraphs which deal more closely to their separate topics.

Joseph Williams "Style" Post

2005-02-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

After reading the first half of Joseph Williams’ “Style” I looked back at some writing I did for my 18th Century Lit. class last semester. I used the tips Williams discussed to give my writing more clarity and cohesion. This following paragraph was for a paper dealing with the comparison of Ann Radcliff and William Shakespeare:

“Radcliffe and Shakespeare are again similar in the development of femininity and masculinity in their characters. In E.J. Clery’s introduction of “Women’s Gothic From Clara Reeve to Mary Shelly” she writes, “Gothic literature sees women writers at their most pushy and argumentative,” (Clery 3). This relates very well t o Radcliff. We can see how Radcliffe can be “pushy” in her writing by developing argumentative” towards Schedoni, making her seem more masculine by giving her a sense of control over Schedoni. She pushes him to track down and kill Ellena, and when he does not kill her, the Marchesa becomes very angry or “argumentative” with him.”

After reading the rules that Williams mentions I reread the paragraph and rewrote it with attempting to use these rules: (1) the subject of sentences name the cast of characters and (2) the verbs that go with those subjects name the crucial actions those characters are part of (21). I also kept in mind the rules that dealt with looking for nominalizations such as: (1) When the nominalization follows a verb, with little specific meaning, change the nominalization to a verb that can replace the empty verb (31). Another rule I had in mind was managing the flow of information by shifting objects in a sentence and how it helps to echo the last words in a sentence (47-48).

‘Radcliffe and Shakespeare are also similar in developing femininity and masculinity in their characters. E.J. Clery’s introduction of “Women’s Gothic From Clara Reeve to Mary Shelly” states, “Gothic literature sees women writers at their most pushy and argumentative,” (Clery 3). Radcliffe relates well to this idea. Readers see how Radcliffe is “pushy” in her writing. Radcliffe’s character, the Marchesa, is developed to be just that way. The Marchesa is “pushy and argumentative” towards Schedoni. These actions make her seem more masculine and give her a sense of control over Schedoni. The Marchesa pushes Schedoni to track down and kill Ellena. When Schedoni doesn’t kill Ellena the Marchesa is angry and “argumentative” with him.”

Another example from this same paper is this sentence:
“The Marchesa becomes very “pushy and argumentative” by showing how her patience could not wait for Schedoni to explain his story and that she is displeased with him.”
What I wanted to say was that the Marchesa is not very patient with Schedoni and that she becomes displeased with him. After reading the sentence it seems to make “the patience” more of a character and says that the “patience couldn’t wait for Schedoni.” After using the rule of managing the flow of information by shifting objects in a sentence (47-48) and the rules of using subjects and verbs correctly (27-30) I came up with this sentence:
“The Marchesa becomes very “pushy and argumentative” by showing impatience and displeasure with Schedoni.”

One thing that I did learn through the reading and applying it to my own writing is that it is difficult. Trying to look over your old writing while keeping all these rules in mind is tough. Also, there are many rules within rules, such as with nominalization. Basically, after reading I found that writing is a far more complex system or technology than I usually thought it was. Also, like Williams says in chapter one, it is not as simple as just stating rules and following them. You have to find some way to understand these rules and learn when and how to use them correctly. You have to find a language that will help you describe these rules and what they really mean. I also had to re-read some of these rules just to make sure I was getting all the information correct. I noticed that there are many rules that are already implemented in my head that don’t take much thinking but then there are rules that I really would have to try to remember, such as the one’s I had to re-read. Luckily Williams has written this book that doesn’t just give you a set of rules, but explains them and helps you apply them to your own writing.

The Elements of Style: Post 1

2005-02-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

Strunk and White’s book, "The Elements of Style", is something that can be very helpful to almost any writer. I found many rules in the book that I would not have really thought of while writing and found that they could be very helpful. Although I found some helpful tips I also found some rules that I just felt wouldn’t help to much at all.

Rule 6, “Do not break sentences in two,” is a rule that has been and always will be very helpful. An example that Strunk and White use is: “I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago. Coming home from Liverpool to New York.” This is an example of breaking sentences in two and how it just doesn’t work right. The correct form of this sentence is to take away the first period and put a comma in it’s place; “I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago, coming home from Liverpool to New York.” It shows that breaking sentences in two can make the writing seem very choppy, but if you use a comma in the place of the period the writing flows much better. (Strunk, White. 7)

Another rule that I found useful was Rule 15, “Put statements in positive form.” This was another rule that really seemed to bring across a better style of writing. Strunk and White write, “ Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.” An example they use to show this is: “He was not very often on time,” is what you should not be doing, instead you should write, “ He usually came late.” The use of the positive from really allows for the writer to make points more clear and allows for a more diverse use of words instead of using not so often. (Strunk, White. 19-20)

While I did find many helpful rules there were some rules that I just felt wouldn’t be that helpful to me in my writing. One rule like this is Rule 9 on in the section, “An Approach to Style.” This rule is; “Do not affect a breezy manner.” This rule talks about how you should not write spontaneously and that your writing should always have a structure that keeps it “informative” and “unpretentious.” While I do agree with the idea that you writing should have structure and inform the reader I feel that sometimes writing in “a breezy manner” can help you get down ideas, kind of like brainstorming. In my personal writing I enjoy to write lyrics or poetry and I find that when I just write spontaneously it helps me work towards an idea that I may have not thought of before. I feel that you do need structure to your writing but avoiding spontaneity all together could possibly be a bad idea because sometimes it helps triggers other ideas that could help with your writing. (Strunk, White. 73-74)

"The Elements of Style" has many useful rules and tips on improving writing style, although not all of the rules may apply to ones writing at all times. When looking through the book it gives many great reminders of rules that may have faded from memory over the years and it helps keep you informed. While many of the rules are definite ones that should be used almost all the time when writing, there are some rules that you may have to interpret more instead of taking the whole form of the rule and following it completely.

Introduction

2005-02-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

My name is Nicholas J. German. I am now in my third year at EMU and am majoring in Language, Literature, and Writing for Secondary Education. I really haven’t had any writing experiences outside of classes I have taken throughout high school and college. Although, from the diversity of classes I have taken I have learned different writing styles. These different classes have shown me different writing styles and how you have to learn this styles to make your message you want to get across clear. Some examples of where I have had to learn different styles is with speech class, drafting class, and journalism class. In speech class I learned how to write in more of an outlined format and learned how to find more important points from my information to make my points more clear. In drafting class I learned a specific way to write out directions that would help with constructing certain pictures. In journalism class I learned how to make my writing more precise, clear, and to the point without including useless, false, or slanderous information. From these experiences I have learned that there are many different writing styles of course, but more so that you have to learn and understand the different “rules’ of different “styles”. By learning and understanding the ”rules” of the “styles” it can help you make your information distinctive, accurate, and clear.

Check

2005-02-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

check, 1,2 check, check.