I really liked the purposeful punctuation chapter. It explained a lot of those little nitpicky rules I was wondering about. It was very informational and straightforward.

Purposeful Punctuation and Me

After reading "Purposeful Punctuation," I realized that I absolutely do not have a diverse writing style when it comes to punctuation. I don't think I even knew that there were so many different ways to express the same ideas using creative punctuation. Of course, there is no way that I will remember all of the rules and situations proposed in this chapter, but at least I now know where to look for reference.

It still amazes me that there are so many different ways to say the same thing; it just depends on how you want the message to come across to the reader. For me, the greatest example of this is on page 366. Kolln points out that explanatory material can be highlighted by using a dash, or downplayed by using parentheses. Simple punctuation changes the way the information is interpreted.

One of my goals for this course was to learn various ways in which to punctuate my sentences to make them more physically appealing and emotionally exciting. This chapter has shown me many ways to use punctuation to do this. Of course, I don't think I will ever be an expert, and I definitely don't expect to be!

Rhetorical effect of nominals

I'm reading a book by A.J. Liebling called Between Meals. Liebling uses nominals pretty often. They usually contribute to the humor of his writing. "Mens sana in corpore sano is a contradiction in terms, the fantasy of a Mr. Have-your-cake-and-eat-it." The nominal here of course is "contradiction" a noun made out of the verb "to contradict." By making the verb a noun it enhances the strength of the writing. Rather than saying this idea contradicts something, he instead chooses to argue that this idea is, in fact, the very embodiment of what it is to contradict. A contradiction.
Liebling also uses nominals for stylistic reasons. "It was not an epic battle. Mascart advanced behind the top of his head surrounded by the cage, but when he pulled a bar out of the cage to strike, Brown would insert a long left into the vacancy left by the displacement." The choice of using "displacement" as a noun trims down the writing. Earlier Liebling explained "the cage" as a style of fighting. One uses the top of his/her head and forearms to create a cage around the vitals where you want to avoid getting hit. By removing an arm from the cage to attack, Mascart opens himself up to attack. The sentence would not flow as smoothly if Liebling had written "Brown would insert a long left into the vacancy left by Mascart displacing his arm from the defensive formation." By writing "the displacement," his sentence is more artistic, and has a better flow.

Nominalization and My Writing Style

Throughout my college career, I have not noticed the presence of nominals. Of course, I just learned about them this week too, so I have not had much time to search for them in the texts I am reading. However, as a science major, I'm sure that there are nominals used everywhere. Scientific writing is made a concise as possible, and I think that the use of nominals would help decrease the word count and bring the point across more quickly and clearly. I do not have any examples yet, but if I come across some interesting ones, I will post them.

I do not know if this class has already affected my writing style, but I do know that I am much more aware about what I am putting down on paper. I am constantly second-guessing myself. Unfortunately, a lot of the second-guessing comes in the form of trying to mentally diagram the sentences I read or write; this takes way too much time which would be better spent doing other things. It's almost more annoying than helpful right now. However, I think that with time I will stop looking at the details, and I believe that I will noticably improve my writing style by the time the course is over.

Cinquain

Eating
Alone
In my room
A simple meal
To sate my appetite
So I do not fail my midterm.

Display name

So I was just curious if people got my name. Punk2-8...punctuate.

Cinquain

Let me know if I screwed anything up! Thanks

Laughing
Loudly
By myself
This Afternoon
To release some stress
Because I procrastinate