Strunk and White, First Impressions

First, I will say that I am not fond of this book.  Nothing can be helpful or interesting about a small book jam-packed full of information, with not much orgainization to connect what you are trying to understand to life.

One helpful peice of information I did find was #20- To keep related words together.  This for me is helpful because I often ramble on about something that is non-related to the subject that is being written on. “Confusion and Ambiguity result when words are badly placed.”  This to me is helpful, I often don’t use enough description and what I am talking about doesn’t come across like my mind process it to be.  Number 22 is also reasuring to me.  I try and get my point right across and fill in after the statement is on the page, but this tool suggests to place the empathetic words at the end.  This way you are keeping the reader engaged in what you are writng about and they are forced to keep reading so they can figure out how you are going to end the sentances.  

Other than the above, there is only a few more that are helpful to me as a writer.  What this book is about,is stuff that we learn in elementary school and that doesn’t often leave us throught the years becuase we never stop using the material.   Also I think that the examples are to vague or way to discriptive.  They do not make this book easy to understand, or use as a guide.  I think that, possibly, this book would be a useful to as a teacher to convey the message  to students, but only when explained to them…it would not be helpful for them to try it on their own .

Peer Review Recap, Part #2

I think that the Star system went a lot better this time.  Although I only got two reviews, what they had to say and help with was very helpful to me.  I enjoy as much peer review as I can get, this way I know how everyone else is viewing my paper.  What makes sense to me most of the time doesn’t for others.

Finding an outsider to read my paper was a bit challenging. In my family I am a bit of an outcast. I am the only one that enjoy’s reading and writing, everyone else is hands on math and science people.  I finally had to ask a person in my Literature class because I wasn’t receiving any kind of good feedback from family.

The person that did my “outside” review was a bit confused at first as to why I didn’t put more information in about why I choose the Tropes that I did, and the he also said that my use of “shankapotomus” was a bit overwhelming.   Which I agree, but to me it seems like one of the main themes in the commercial…I am not sure how I am going to minimize the use of the word.

Considering some Youtube commercials

Ok this one is very funny. The E-trade baby is a funny way to get people’s attention.  It think this is grand style.  The use of making a baby talk.  Also the baby calls the man a shankapotomus.  This is a funny use of the word.

“Smokers who know now smoke the big O”  I just think this is a cute older commercial. The couple is skiing while smoking their Oasis cigarettes, which probably isn’t easily done.

Ancient Style

Recapping peer review #1

I think that the peer review went ok the first time around.  The people in my group were very helpful, I didnt realize before how many grammer errors I made, or that an entire paragraph made no sense at all.  I do wish I had a face to face conversation so that it would go a little smoother. I think the point really gets across when you can be shown instead of told what was wrong.

My Writing Technology

I decided to use dog biscuts.  These are something that I have on me almost all the time and while walking the dog last night I decided that theese are what I was gunna use.  Let me tell you…opening a full box in front of the dog…not a good idea

“My Writing Technologies”

Recently my use of writing has been limited. Taking the summer off school reduced my use of email and increased the use of a cell phone.   This is very different from being a child and only having the ability to sit down and write out a letter and mail it to people who I couldn’t sit on the phone with all day.   I think I use my cell phone by far the most to write.  It’s so easy to shoot a text rather than draft out a letter and mail it, or even pick up a phone and call someone.   I would say for sure that I do avoid the use of using a pencil and paper (outside of work).  The quickness of texting has made it easier to stay in touch and a lot faster…this way you don’t have to wait for over a week to hear back on what someone is up for for the rest of the summer.

What is Style?

Style, to me, means a couple of things.  First, Style is an expression of who you are as a person. How you dress, talk, walk, and overall carry yourself as a person.  This style can be laid back, classy, trendy, “goth”, or a unique style that cannot be easily replicated by others.   The way that you behave, defines yourself as a person.  In many ways if you have  a laid back style, you are most likely the kind of person to go with the flow, not easily brought down by change in plans, or situations.  If you are classy, to me this means you are a but high strong, easily effected by change and sometimes hard to get along with.

Another kind of style and the one appropriate for this class would be writing styles.  There are a lot of styles you can choose when writing. Each one has a genera that they generally follow. APA is for science or psychology and MLA is generally for english.  All are different and serve different purposes in a piece of writing.

Labor Day Vacation

I spent the semi crappy Labor Day weekend up north in Traverse City and Petoskey. My girlfriend and I took off for Lake Michigan early Thursday and didn’t look back.  As soon as we got to Traverse City we took off to the Underground Cheesecake Factory. Euphoria!!!!! If you have not been, it is possibly an item that needs to go onto the bucket list.  Great prices and wonderful workers, I’ll definitely be going back soon! 

Along the way to Petoskey is an amazing place in Charlevoix, Mi called Castle Farms.

This Image only shows one small portion of the castle.  This was by far the icing to the trip.  For only $7 you can take a self-guided tour through the inside and out of the castle; it really does compare to Ireland or just Europe.

We then moved on to our hotel in Petoskey, the Odawa hotel/ Casino.  This place is awesome, the rooms were great and the Casino has something for all ages all the time.

I can’t say anymore about the trip because I had to hurry back down Saturday morning due to my mother-in-law going to the hospital. But what I did get to do was awesome!!!!