Many things have changed since those hot August days we spent sweating in class, only to get out of class to walk home and sweat some more. I’ve changed a lot as a person – my understanding of grammar has exploded, and I think I might have grown a little taller. I was a younger person – my mind less-developed. My knowledge of grammar was pretty much limited to my own writing, where the knowledge of grammar overall is what I was striving for. Although I was fairly confident in my grammatical skills at the beginning of the year, there is no doubt they have been sharpened like a diamond and are ready for a lifelong era of excellence.
Of all of the skills attained while on my path to becoming an English major, perhaps my most anticipated was just learning the terminology. I knew more than enough rules at the beginning of the semester to write like the scholar I am, but didn’t know what they were called. After a semester in Barbara’s Grammar Camp, I know what these rules are called, and have learned a few more in the process. These rules have become a part of my writing and are undeniably the best thing to happen to my writing – aesthetically and grammatically. My favorite of these clauses is the AWWWUUBBIS strategy (which I have used a few times in this blog) for its simple effectiveness. I’ve used the concept of introductory clauses for some time now, but to know the exact method for using them gives me the confidence to use them along with other lesser-known grammatical strategies.
Of the many things you have brought into class and shown us throughout the semester, the most interesting was Gary Provost’s take on the importance of sentence length/structure. The piece was brought in perfect timing, because my sentence structure was a worry of mine. As I wrote in the first blog, “Sometimes I am unsure whether or not I should end a sentence with a certain word, or if I can’t because of a weird rule. This goes back to the issue of having a strong grasp on the subject and being uneasy in some areas of your writing. I have found that being weary of a topic causes me to change my writing style, and I will start being passive or not make any sense.” Because of my inflated ego and over usage of confidence on a daily level, I need to be sure that what I’m writing is safe and sound. If I am weary of a sentence, or unconfident in my understanding of a rule or concept, it will most definitely show in my word choice and structure. But this is where Provost comes in. He stressed the importance of sentence length. Each sentence must vary or else the writing begins to sound boring – a writer’s nightmare. From this I have begun my path to writing excellence. Whatever that means.
As I reflect on the word-work we’ve done this semester, I have at least gained a sense of confidence – if nothing else. Now I know I can grasp the concept of grammar. If I just continue to put in the work I have been putting in, and devote some of my academic attention on grammar, I will keep developing skills while successfully using the ones I already know. Perhaps the most important concept to remember from this semester is to be myself as a writer. My knowledge of rules will always be in the back of my head. I need to learn to suppress any lack of confidence that might creep into my mind and let my creativity flow – it’s worked so far!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Lanham Method in Action
The novel is in the first-person point of view, which lets us into Frankie’s life to see the priorities she has as a student. She is interested in the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, an all-male secret society. She finds outs her crush Matthew is a Basset Hound. Frankie feels discriminated against and investigates the group. She steals a book of their history and uses it to take anonymous charge, taking place of their absent leader. Frankie is manipulative through the first person view. I would enjoy hearing the story from another person’s point of view. Were the other Basset Hounds clueless about Frankie’s participation? I think it would be an interesting story, different than the account we have.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Brush Strokes
My Original Blog
Although I consider myself to be a far beyond average writer (as most of us should in this class), there is no denying that many facets of my writing need work. Writing has always been something I naturally picked up. I learned to type when I was five years old. And I swear I could type faster than any other kid in the nation. Rarely have I struggled to write an essay or whip up a poem; class assignments were always easy. I have been destined to become a student of the language since my earliest years.
However I have never been taught grammar, it just wasn’t part of my curriculum in school. Of course I know the basics (noun, verb, adverb), but I don’t have a strong grasp on the other 95%. I have always had a hard time breaking down sentences and assigning the technical terms to each word in the sentence. It only makes sense that if I am going to be teaching the subject, I better learn what a subject actually is (see the play on words? I crack myself up).
One of my favorite English teachers of the past used the term “comma-litterer” for those of us who tend to elaborate, you know, draw things out. I am a comma-litterer. Is it that I have too much to say all the time? Or can I not organize what I want to say into a strong paragraph? Either way, the over usage of commas is detrimental to my writing and an overhaul of my style is needed if I wish to improve.
Another area that has always troubled me has been the structure of my sentences. It goes along with the aforementioned problem, but is different in a way. Sometimes I am unsure whether or not I should end a sentence with a certain word, or if I can’t because of a weird rule. This goes back to the issue of having a strong grasp on the subject and being uneasy in some areas of your writing. I have found that being weary of a topic causes me to change my writing style, and I will start being passive or not make any sense. I just want to know that whatever way I decide to go in my writing I will have made the error-free choice, which sounds like it will come with practice in this course.
I must learn grammar. Well. I need to be able to avoid hearing the “…but you’re an English major” astonishment. I hope to begin to master the sticky grammatical issues of the English language, and I hope this course puts me well on my way.
A Try at Some Brush Strokes
However I have never been taught grammar, it just wasn’t part of my curriculum in school. Of course I know the basics (noun, verb, adverb), but I don’t have a strong grasp on the other 95%. I have always had a hard time breaking down sentences and assigning the technical terms to each word in the sentence. It only makes sense that if I am going to be teaching the subject, I better learn what a subject actually is (see the play on words? I crack myself up).
One of my favorite English teachers of the past used the term “comma-litterer” for those of us who tend to elaborate, you know, draw things out. I am a comma-litterer. Is it that I have too much to say all the time? Or can I not organize what I want to say into a strong paragraph? Either way, the over usage of commas is detrimental to my writing and an overhaul of my style is needed if I wish to improve.
Another area that has always troubled me has been the structure of my sentences. It goes along with the aforementioned problem, but is different in a way. Sometimes I am unsure whether or not I should end a sentence with a certain word, or if I can’t because of a weird rule. This goes back to the issue of having a strong grasp on the subject and being uneasy in some areas of your writing. I have found that being weary of a topic causes me to change my writing style, and I will start being passive or not make any sense. I just want to know that whatever way I decide to go in my writing I will have made the error-free choice, which sounds like it will come with practice in this course.
I must learn grammar. Well. I need to be able to avoid hearing the “…but you’re an English major” astonishment. I hope to begin to master the sticky grammatical issues of the English language, and I hope this course puts me well on my way.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Comma Confidence
I never would have believed a simple comma placement could cause so much confusion, until this week’s classes where we discussed introductory clauses and where the pause should take place. Commas have never been a nuisance for me, but I’ve seen it before. The short sentences that should have commas don’t. Because the author doesn’t know how to use a comma. I find it funny that an item as simple as a comma and an idea so easy to grasp can cause so many green squiggly lines underneath writing in MS Word because there is a very important missing component that the writer chooses to neglect.
As for the idea of AAAWWUBBIS I found the concept quite interesting. Much of the lessons I am getting in this class are things I already knew, but didn’t really know I knew. Take the idea of putting a comma before “but” as I did in the previous sentence. I do that naturally most of the time without paying attention to it, but now that I know the rule, I find myself double-checking my comma placements.
However, after spending the bulk of two days learning bout comma placement, sentence structure and the like, we read this piece by Gary Provost. I really liked his writing as it played to the creative side of writing, my favorite area of writing. I guess the piece was full of errors, but it was refreshing to see how his writing could make so much sense while being deemed “grammatically incorrect” by us grammar-heads.
I like writing creatively like Provost does. I do it sub-consciously most of the time. I just like how it sounds in my head as opposed to the way I guess I should frame my words. But, I need to make a stronger approach towards punctuating my writing correctly, while still adding my own creative style. This week’s class helped me to pay closer attention to my writing. By reaffirming these tactics that I have (for the most part) employed for quite some time, I am more confident in my writing and the formal layout of my sentences. If I can keep on this pace I will no doubt master the language.
My question this week is: After learning a lesson such as introductory clauses, do you also feel the same reassurance in your writing that I do? I mean, are you more confident when adding a comma for effect, now that you know it really should go there?
As for the idea of AAAWWUBBIS I found the concept quite interesting. Much of the lessons I am getting in this class are things I already knew, but didn’t really know I knew. Take the idea of putting a comma before “but” as I did in the previous sentence. I do that naturally most of the time without paying attention to it, but now that I know the rule, I find myself double-checking my comma placements.
However, after spending the bulk of two days learning bout comma placement, sentence structure and the like, we read this piece by Gary Provost. I really liked his writing as it played to the creative side of writing, my favorite area of writing. I guess the piece was full of errors, but it was refreshing to see how his writing could make so much sense while being deemed “grammatically incorrect” by us grammar-heads.
I like writing creatively like Provost does. I do it sub-consciously most of the time. I just like how it sounds in my head as opposed to the way I guess I should frame my words. But, I need to make a stronger approach towards punctuating my writing correctly, while still adding my own creative style. This week’s class helped me to pay closer attention to my writing. By reaffirming these tactics that I have (for the most part) employed for quite some time, I am more confident in my writing and the formal layout of my sentences. If I can keep on this pace I will no doubt master the language.
My question this week is: After learning a lesson such as introductory clauses, do you also feel the same reassurance in your writing that I do? I mean, are you more confident when adding a comma for effect, now that you know it really should go there?
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Powerful Punctuation
When looking at a block of words, the only thing keeping them from being a jumbled mess are the many different kinds of punctuation. These tiny marks are often overlooked, and are most definitely underrated. But with so many of them to keep track of it is quite a hard system to learn. Teaching younger children the basic rules of punctuation is a difficult task. Being able to cross the student’s minds from spoken word to the written word is incredibly confusing. The many differences between the two styles are hard for a young mind to comprehend.
The Socratic seminar we had this week about how older kids learn punctuation was pretty interesting. Come to think of it, I haven’t really given punctuation much of a thought since I was younger. I think the subject becomes an afterthought after writing so many essays in my life. Sometimes I am surprised as to where I put my punctuations, and when I’m typing my fingers put the punctuations there for my drone-like brain.
One of the more common themes we talked about in our discussion Wednesday was the idea that punctuation is very often overlooked. For those who understand punctuation, it gets more difficult to teach in a way. It becomes an expected thing to be able to punctuate writing. So when a teacher sees a student’s piece of writing with poor punctuation, their instinct is to just correct it with a red pen and not bother to teach the student the right way.
This teaching move is in my opinion one of the worst ways to try and teach a concept. It is the exact opposite of the teaching model discussed in the book, and gives no chance for the student to “do” anything. This is the all too common fatal mistake in the area of punctuation. Rather than giving a personal lesson on exactly what the student has confusion on, the only help a student gets is with little marks in the margins of their paper. The idea that a student can misunderstand the rule, and in their own head think they are right, and continue this mistake in each piece of writing. More attention needs to be paid in teaching each student the right way to avoid this costly misunderstanding. Punctuation is not a very difficult concept once it is fully understood, but fully understanding its complexities is the hardest part.
The Socratic seminar we had this week about how older kids learn punctuation was pretty interesting. Come to think of it, I haven’t really given punctuation much of a thought since I was younger. I think the subject becomes an afterthought after writing so many essays in my life. Sometimes I am surprised as to where I put my punctuations, and when I’m typing my fingers put the punctuations there for my drone-like brain.
One of the more common themes we talked about in our discussion Wednesday was the idea that punctuation is very often overlooked. For those who understand punctuation, it gets more difficult to teach in a way. It becomes an expected thing to be able to punctuate writing. So when a teacher sees a student’s piece of writing with poor punctuation, their instinct is to just correct it with a red pen and not bother to teach the student the right way.
This teaching move is in my opinion one of the worst ways to try and teach a concept. It is the exact opposite of the teaching model discussed in the book, and gives no chance for the student to “do” anything. This is the all too common fatal mistake in the area of punctuation. Rather than giving a personal lesson on exactly what the student has confusion on, the only help a student gets is with little marks in the margins of their paper. The idea that a student can misunderstand the rule, and in their own head think they are right, and continue this mistake in each piece of writing. More attention needs to be paid in teaching each student the right way to avoid this costly misunderstanding. Punctuation is not a very difficult concept once it is fully understood, but fully understanding its complexities is the hardest part.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Dora Learns to Write Right
This week was a very big week as far as the maturing of my grammatical knowledge goes. We took a look at a story of a young student named Dora, who was just beginning to read and write her own stories. Her understanding of the language was pretty cloudy, as she wrote words together without spaces, and then progressed to putting periods in between the words for some reason. Eventually, through examples and some guidance from her teacher, she started to grasp sentence structure and was soon writing complete sentences on her own!
In class we organized a Socratic circle to discuss the reading on Dora, and analyze the process behind her writing. Instead of a fishbowl discussion, we had the whole class sit in a circle, which in my opinion, was a better system for talking about a certain chunk of reading. Everybody input what they thought to be the main message of the text as we looked at what worked for teaching Dora how to write.
Much of the class, including myself, focused on the fact that the teacher let Dora write misspelled words and even let her run the sentences together LIKDIS. Dora’s first sentences were extremely hard to decipher, but she was showing progress and the teacher wanted to foster that. I can’t remember who mentioned it in our class, but they commented on the fact that by not breaking her spirits she was actually being taught the wrong way. She could grow accustomed to these bad habits in writing, and the concepts of writing these wrong sentences could stick. However, as evident by her spelling and lack of understanding of words, I think she needed to be taught slowly but surely.
Dora’s progression is a classic example of different learning styles, and what it takes to finally achieve the common goal. In this case, the goal was being able to form a grammatically correct sentence (at least at a 1st grade reading level). Through practice and daily work, Dora grasped the concepts and was soon teaching her fellow classmates the tricks she had learned. It just goes to show that different children can learn differently, and take different approaches to achieve the goal in the end. My question is: how important is it to teach kids the right way the first time? In Dora's case, she takes a unique and extended approach to writing sentences, but eventually gains understanding. What is your opinion?
In class we organized a Socratic circle to discuss the reading on Dora, and analyze the process behind her writing. Instead of a fishbowl discussion, we had the whole class sit in a circle, which in my opinion, was a better system for talking about a certain chunk of reading. Everybody input what they thought to be the main message of the text as we looked at what worked for teaching Dora how to write.
Much of the class, including myself, focused on the fact that the teacher let Dora write misspelled words and even let her run the sentences together LIKDIS. Dora’s first sentences were extremely hard to decipher, but she was showing progress and the teacher wanted to foster that. I can’t remember who mentioned it in our class, but they commented on the fact that by not breaking her spirits she was actually being taught the wrong way. She could grow accustomed to these bad habits in writing, and the concepts of writing these wrong sentences could stick. However, as evident by her spelling and lack of understanding of words, I think she needed to be taught slowly but surely.
Dora’s progression is a classic example of different learning styles, and what it takes to finally achieve the common goal. In this case, the goal was being able to form a grammatically correct sentence (at least at a 1st grade reading level). Through practice and daily work, Dora grasped the concepts and was soon teaching her fellow classmates the tricks she had learned. It just goes to show that different children can learn differently, and take different approaches to achieve the goal in the end. My question is: how important is it to teach kids the right way the first time? In Dora's case, she takes a unique and extended approach to writing sentences, but eventually gains understanding. What is your opinion?
Saturday, September 12, 2009
What have you learned so far, and what concepts discussed in class this week don't you fully understand?
I thought I was well rounded in my grammatical prowess, but after the first couple weeks of class I have found this to be false. More important than any concept I don’t fully understand is the concept I have actually learned so far. Grammar isn’t necessarily something that everybody can pick up instantly; there are multiple approaches to teaching and understanding the subject. Showing somebody the difference between “it’s” and “its” is a lot tougher than it looks, especially when you (the teacher) knows it so effortlessly.
Something I have always felt comfortable with, and have therefore overlooked, is the use of apostrophes. I never really realized how complicated the tiny character can be. Although I have been using them correctly throughout my writing career, I never understood how many more uses it has aside from possession.
The section of our scrapbook that we completed last week plays towards the complexity of our language, and the characters within it. Depending on the “House Style” of the publication, apostrophes might or might not be used with letters and numbers. ATM’s could be ATMs, or A.T.M.’s, or atms if you want to get tricky. I could really like 5s or I could be ecstatic over 7’s, solely depending on how I am feeling. This is confusing, although I understand why it is.
I admittedly have trouble understanding the concept of pronouns. Are they just a form of noun that isn’t direct that refers to a noun? Or is that just a confusing cycle that repeats infinitely? So I guess my question is: what is a pronoun and why should I care?
Something I have always felt comfortable with, and have therefore overlooked, is the use of apostrophes. I never really realized how complicated the tiny character can be. Although I have been using them correctly throughout my writing career, I never understood how many more uses it has aside from possession.
The section of our scrapbook that we completed last week plays towards the complexity of our language, and the characters within it. Depending on the “House Style” of the publication, apostrophes might or might not be used with letters and numbers. ATM’s could be ATMs, or A.T.M.’s, or atms if you want to get tricky. I could really like 5s or I could be ecstatic over 7’s, solely depending on how I am feeling. This is confusing, although I understand why it is.
I admittedly have trouble understanding the concept of pronouns. Are they just a form of noun that isn’t direct that refers to a noun? Or is that just a confusing cycle that repeats infinitely? So I guess my question is: what is a pronoun and why should I care?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
