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

So here's mine. I'm not sure if I did it right...but I thought it was funny.

Drinking
Lots
Of beer
To forget
The assignments
That I should have done

Sleeping Cinquain

My cinquain is below. Let me know if you think there is something I should take another look at to fix.

Sleeping
Soundly
Beside you
Every evening
To show you I care
Even when times are tough

Acceptance vs power

While acceptance is certainly important for all people to exercise, I feel that this is an unrelated issue to that which is addressed in Delpit's article. Delpit is not preaching for us all to "get along" and stop hating each other, but she is rather attempting to propose a way to level the playing field for all individuals to be able to compete on the same level. Acceptance of minorities would not make it any easier for minorities to be successful in the "culture of power"; one example of this that I can cite is that of the Indian in her essay who was interviewed by a panel of White interviewers. It is never even hinted that these interviewers are racist towards or unaccepting of the Indian individual, but rather that the Indian simply does not understand what the interviewers are looking for in an interviewee, and thus, does not know how to successfully navigate the interview. Clearly, the issue here is not about acceptance, but about teaching these individuals how to penetrate the culture of power.

The problem with acceptance

Unfortunately, acceptance is not something that can be taught. This is an environmental factor that we gain as children from our parents. Yes, we can convince ourselves that we should be accepting of everyone, but doing is different from knowing. However, I don’t think that this is the main issue. I do believe that the problem is the way we view those people in positions of power. They are under constant scrutiny, and if they say anything wrong, the world knows it. In politics, this is an everyday issue. A perfect example is the current President Bush. He says things wrong all the time. Each time he does, it is pointed out to the world, and he is (quite frankly) portrayed as being somewhat stupid. Language has such a high standing in today’s society, and everyone knows how people in power speak. At this point, the language of power will remain, and I believe it will remain for a long time.

Welcome to your class blog!

For the rest of the term, you will be posting, commenting upon, and reading the blogs of this class, Writing Commons One through Writing Commons Seven. When you compose a post, you may want to write it in Word first and save it. Then paste it into the blog post block. By composing in Word, you won’t get frustrated if the posting doesn’t work the first time.

You may respond to other people’s posts through the comment feature. You may read and respond to the blogs of the other groups by going to:
http://writingcommonsone.blogspot.com
http://writingcommonstwo.blogspot.com
etc. through http://writingcommonsseven.blogspot.com

You can add a comment to other blogs by using the comment feature. You can only post to your own blog.

Your first assignment is to post your cinquain, a poetic form described on p. 134 of Kolln. Then you will give each other responses and suggestions for revising.

Your second assignment is to respond to one of the following questions related to Lisa Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue.” Aim for about 100-150 words, and post it to your team blog. Please follow the following guidelines:
1. Identify your entry with a title that suggests the content.
2. Single space.


Questions (choose one):
1. If you are preparing to teach, what are you taking away from Delpit’s article regarding language and power that might help you as a teacher, and how could you apply these ideas to your proposed level of teaching?

2. One student asked, “Why do we have to discuss teaching minority children the language of power? Why not just teach everyone acceptance?” Respond.

3. For one of Delpit’s specific proposals (refer to the article), discuss the challenges of implementation. How could these challenges be addressed?

4. If you are not planning to teach, how do issues of language and power apply in the field you plan to enter? Does Delpit offer relevant insight?