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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Writing Simplified on Indefinite Hiatus

I apologize for taking so long to announce a hiatus. I recently started graduate school to become a speech language pathologist; juggling clinic patients during the day and classes in the evening is more time-consuming than I had anticipated. Week after week, I kept hoping that the next week I would finally have enough time to write for the blog. And week after week passed with my work load only getting heavier, not lighter.

I can't thank you all enough for sticking with me all this time. I can't imagine Writing Simplified coming to an end and it's not something I anticipate letting happen. Unfortunately, right now I just don't have the necessary time I need to write the extensive, content-filled posts I take pride in sharing with you all. Even though I will be stepping back from this blog for a bit, I am still collecting and creating writing-relevant material for my clients that one day I hope to post here for everyone who needs help improving grammar and writing.

Thank you for being the best readers a blogger could ever hope for! Even though I will be away following my own dream this next year, I will be with you in spirit. You can improve your writing; looking for help online is a step in the right direction. It takes time, patience, and hard work. It may feel like an insurmountable feat, especially if English is not your first language, but people can do amazing things when they put their minds to it - and so can you!




Photo credit: JobotDaRobot

Monday, July 29, 2013

Still Alive, Surviving the Texas Summer Heat!

Picture of sandal in sand

Writing Simplified is officially back from hiatus! I apologize for disappearing for a while unannounced, and I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking the blog had seen its last post.  My real world responsibilities became quite demanding and I needed to step back from the blog to focus on them. I’m sorry to see my Post Bachelor’s Speech and Language Pathology program come to an end; I came out a stronger person after being tempered by the constant stress from juggling clinic appointments and examinations.  I also learned a couple of things that I didn’t previously know, such as:

  • I’m a pushover when it comes to disciplining toddlers.
  • Writing well is incredibly important in healthcare professions.

Writing Simplified isn’t out of the woods yet, though. This fall semester I begin the Speech Language Pathology Master’s program and, from what I’ve heard, students spend upwards of 17 hours a day at the clinic.  I’m going to milk this brief respite for all it’s worth and write as many posts as I can before school starts again to avoid another long hiatus. I can’t thank you enough for staying with me through the highs and lows.  If you haven’t already subscribed to the RSS feed, remember to do so – the ease of having posts automatically come to you sure beats having to continually check a website for updates.

 

Photo credit: Peggy2012CreativeLenz

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Writing Around the Web

Internet neon signs

As overflowing as the Internet is with websites of every shape and kind, it’s still difficult to find fresh blog posts and articles that deal with academic writing.  Posts about grammar are a bit easier to locate (for example, Grammar Girl provides short, painless tips for mastering the intricacies of English grammar), but they focus almost exclusively on syntax, only rarely covering the full writing process. I’ve put together a list of several fairly recent posts about academic writing that people not actively searching for help with school and workplace writing may have missed.

  • Dave Kerpen’s post “Want To Be Taken Seriously? Become a Better Writer” describes not only why writing well is important for everyday people, but it also lists ways to improve your writing skills.  As the CEO of LinkedIn, a very successful business-oriented social networking site, I’d consider him qualified to instruct others how to improve their professional social standing.

  • One of my pet peeves is needlessly long writing, making Melissa Donovan’s post “Improve Your Writing By Eliminating Redundancies” near and dear to my heart. Although she caters to creative writers, her tips for identifying redundancies can easily be applied to academic writing.

  • Paul Graham explains the steps involved in writing an essay, start to finish, in one short, well-packed paragraph. “Writing, Briefly” is more than just a list of tasks, though; it includes tips and suggestions that took me years to discover on my own.

  • Every teacher has a different way of teaching the same concept, some instructors teaching it better than others. Kate and Maggie Roberts are former middle-school teachers who teach persuasive writing with a twist. Their article “Learning the Language of Lawyers: Writing Compelling Arguments” demonstrates persuasive writing using an approach I wish I’d used with my own.

I hope you enjoyed these articles as much as I did!

 

Photo credit: HDZimmermann

Monday, March 4, 2013

Happy National Grammar Day!

english-doesnt-borrow

The Universe is conspiring to keep me from blogging!. Now that I’ve managed to fix my computer woes,* I’m being bombarded with tests and assignments. I’ve managed to scrape together enough time to write a quick post in honor of National Grammar Day, though.

As much of a stickler as I am for writing that is syntactically well-formed, my experience as a teacher has sensitized me to something about the United States that many of its residents seem to forget: this country is made up of a diverse population.  Not everyone shares the same level of education. Not everyone even shares the same first language! Instead of judging a person based on these differences, we should take this day to celebrate the language we have in common, errors and all. The linguist in me wants to remind English-speakers that the very grammar rules that people use to put down others’ writing were once considered errors themselves.

Kory Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, eloquently explains why publicly shaming people who commit grammar errors stifles the learning process. Here’s a short excerpt from her blog post “A Plea for Sanity This National US Grammar day.”

Vigilante peeving does nothing to actually educate people. What it does instead is to shame them and make them feel bad about how they speak, write, and even think. Believe me, you cannot shame a person into good grammar.

Remember, this National Grammar Day, that there are people all around you with varying degrees of knowledge of and appreciation for the intricacies of English. Instead of calling people out on March 4th for all the usages they get wrong, how about pointing out all the thing things that people–against all odds–get right? Can you correctly pronounce “rough,” “though,” “through,” and “thought”? Congratulations, you have just navigated the Great Vowel Shift. If I ask you to come up with synonyms of “ask” and you respond with “question” and “inquire,” congratulations: you have seamlessly navigated your way through 500 years of English history. Do you end sentences in prepositions? That is awesome, because that is a linguistic and historical tie back to Old English, the dyslexic-looking Germanic language that started this whole shebang almost 1500 years ago.

Check out the rest of her blog post for insights into the English language only a lexicographer can give. It’s a long article, but well worth it. You will love her casual writing style and the relevant anecdotes she peppers throughout the essay.  This one in particular made me smile:

[W]hen people take you to be an expert and you make a dumb mistake, you are called out as if you had perpetrated a war crime. I can’t tell you the times that I’ve answered an editorial email and made a dumb mistake– “it’s” for “its,” let’s say–and received a reply that is itself full of errors and misspellings but which essentially says, “OH MY GOD THEY LET YOU EDIT DICTIONARIES AND YOU DON’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ITS AND IT’S? YOU’RE A MORON: LET ME SHO U IT.”

Make today a day of learning, not one of judgment. Educating yourself and others in a respectful manner about the wonderful quirks in the English language should be a joyful experience that ignites an interest in language and history. Too many people dislike writing out of a fear of being called out on their grammar errors. Behave in such a way that you do not add to that population.

 

 

*If you are planning on purchasing a computer with Windows 8 pre-installed on it and plan on uninstalling it, make sure the manufacturer has provided a firmware update for the BIOS on their website. Much to my dismay, when I purchased my laptop I was not aware that Microsoft:

  1. Enables a setting in the BIOS (now called UEFI) called “Secure Boot” which does not allow users to boot installation software from the system start-up process
  2. Requires manufacturers to disable the ability to turn off this setting.
The only work-around that I was able to come up with was to install a firmware update to the BIOS. Unfortunately Lenovo (the manufacturer of the laptop I purchased) inexplicably pulled the file from their website and made the download unavailable to customers. I was lucky enough to figure all of this out within the time-span allowed for returns and was able to return the laptop for a full refund.  I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone else so please test drive Windows 8 at a store prior to purchasing a computer with it installed on it to make sure it’s an operating system you can live with.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

New Laptop Just Arrived! Off to a Fresh Start!

Broken laptop screen

To those who may be wondering: I am, in fact, still alive! I haven’t posted for the past several weeks because an unfortunate accident with my laptop resulted in an inoperable screen. Being a student again means my funds are limited so I put off purchasing a new laptop until the next holiday (and accompanying $ale$) rolled around.  I have the US Presidents (particularly George Washington) to thank for giving me the President’s Day coupon codes I needed to get this beautiful new Lenovo Ideapad!

But just when I thought I was out of the woods, it turns out I’m not exactly home free yet. My beautiful laptop came preinstalled with Windows 8; I’ve read many reviews about how terrible the operating system is, but they in no way prepared me for the reality of trying to use an OS designed for use on a cell phone on a laptop. It was a nightmare. I lasted about 30 minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore and turned the computer off (even that I needed to Google to figure out how to do!).

So for the time being I’m back to using the Asus netbook my sister gave me to tide me over until I got a new laptop. It’s become a dependable companion, even if it is quite small and slow.  I don’t have any of my files saved to it, so uploading posts I’ve already written will have to wait until I can wipe the Ideapad and install Windows 7 on it. Once I do, though, I have a series of templates made that I think students will find very useful for writing and formatting essays and works cited pages correctly.

Thanks for sticking around, all 75 of you who are subscribed! If you’re not already subscribed, click on the orange RSS feed button at the top right corner of this site to have posts delivered directly to your RSS reader OR to your e-mail inbox. It beats constantly checking back to see if a new post has been uploaded!

 

Photo credit: Lacrymosa

Monday, February 11, 2013

Books You Should Read: _The Eighteen Revenges of Dr. Milan_ by Christopher Ruz

Eighteen Revenges by Chris Ruz

It is my firm belief that the quality of your product is only as strong as the quality of the ingredients you used to make it. If you want your physique to be fit and healthy, you need to eat nutritious foods and exercise regularly. If you want your writing to be syntactically correct and eloquent, you need to read literature that is well written. While I'm not knowledgeable enough about kinesiology to recommend any exercise regimens, I can provide a professional opinion on what books to stock your mental bookshelf with that will provide the examples you need to improve your writing skills.

The classics are wonderful literary works that will expose you to quality writing, but their writing style can be out-dated, making them difficult for you to understand their archaic expressions. Not to mention classical novels tend to be long and tedious – not books you want to dive into when you have a limited amount of spare time to devote to reading. That's why Christopher Ruz's writings are at the top of my list when it comes to recommending literature. His book The Eighteen Revenges of Doctor Milan is particularly well suited to an audience that is limited in free time and prefers more action-packed genres.

After reading Chris Ruz's The Eighteen Revenges of Dr. Milan, I had to compose myself before I could write a proper review of it. As an aspiring novelist, Ruz's facility with words makes me so envious, I can barely stand to keep reading his writing. As a reader, I can't get enough of Ruz's creative turns of phrase, his rich settings dripping with imagery. Eighteen Revenges delivers these things more than any of his other works, and (in my opinion) is his finest writing yet.

Eighteen Revenges is a novella, so it is short enough to be read in one sitting, yet meaty enough that you don't feel cheated out of a full-length, detailed story. I'm a bit of a fast reader but it definitely helped that I could NOT stop reading this book once I started. What I love about the book besides the gritty, dark setting that takes you prisoner with its rich detail is how unconventional the plot is. There is no hero sweeping a reluctant damsel off of her feet; in fact, the "hero" is far from innocent himself and the "damsel" is part of a horrifying mystery that will keep you turning pages, searching for answers. This book is a testament to me that the potential for originality in literature still exists. I wish I could elaborate, but I don't want to rob anyone of the enjoyment of uncovering each piece of the story for themselves.

Ruz's writing always gives me a new appreciation of the artistry involved in finding the perfect words. Eighteen Revenges delivers so much spot-on, emotion-evoking writing that I forget I'm reading words, not seeing images. Take these sentences, for example:

"A scattering of tiny lights were the prisoner's chambers, thousands and thousands of rooms twisting with the grain of the rock, bored into the skin of the mountain like honeycomb cells, like alveoli."
"The noise of machinery grew as he descended, the clank and whistle of valves echoing off the rock.
Men swore in chorus. Steel thuds were followed by the sudden hiss of compressed air. Far below, the base of the Pike was a hive of activity, hundreds of prisoners circling with their overalls hanging around their waists, chests smeared with dust and sweat. Their headlamps winked like distant stars."

Seriously, who writes like this?! What has to be happening in Ruz's brain for him to come up with these scenes? If you appreciate fine writing or want to expose yourself to writing you can trust is written well, you HAVE to read this book. Visit Amazon.com to purchase it for a reasonable $2.99 or to read a sample chapter.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Practice Finding and Supporting Topic Sentences

Red pen on paper

Because you are so emotionally invested in your own writing, it's often best to practice your flaw-finding skills with the work of others. Not only can you bring the full force of your writing knowledge to bear on the essay without fear of making a mortal enemy of a classmate or coworker, it helps ease any guilt you may feel about criticizing someone else's work when that person is a stranger far-removed from your life. The following piece of writing is so full of errors, it's a perfect vehicle for honing your revision and editing skills.

To be certain no one is distracted from analyzing the writing itself, I will not reveal the name of the author*. I will say that I found this article in a community college newspaper for which there are no online archives. It was published in February 2011 during a time when society was facing the same issues it faces today with school-related shootings. It will become apparent in the writing that it was written by an English composition instructor. I can't adequately describe how disappointed I am in this quality of writing for someone whose profession it is to teach writing to others, but there may have been reasons of which I am unaware for the caliber of this article's writing (Goodness knows I rush to publish some blog posts at the expense of the writing). At any rate, this article demonstrates that no one is perfect, not even writing instructors.

While there are many errors in this short excerpt, I want to focus on its topic sentences. Feel free to try and locate all the errors you can find, though, as it's great practice. I will include a link to a more full commentary of this excerpt's shortcomings at the end of this blog post. Let me know if I've missed any!

The Excerpt

“Texas legislators are poised to pass a law that will allow professors and students to pack heat on college campuses. If this happens, I will leave the classroom. Wisconsin Legislators, stay in hiding. Run for the good of the people you represent. We here in Texas are in the same boat as you.  But Texas is a “right to work” state, which means, no unions. No wait, there are some unions.”

“Now after I have a lot of experience, I’m actually very good at teaching. I’m not just all charisma and passion for writing. I can inspire students to enjoy literature, I can make the MLA citation style relevant, I can deal with plagiarism, but now will I have to figure out how to handle a situation where a student points a gun at another student when they disagree or break up? Is that ten points off the final exam? I will leave the classroom before I have to do that. In the mean time, I’m going to do something about it. Wisconsin Legislators keep running. Do not vote. Texans you should’ve voted. See who your absence at the voting booth has put into office? Well, now you need to do something. Students, you have to vote with your feet and your cell phones. Call your legislators. Say no to guns in the classroom.“

“The irony is that because college professors in Texas do not have a strong union, for all our brains, we have not been taught how to convene 10,000 strong at our capitol to act as one. So it may be just me and some of my colleagues unofficially representing us all.  And if we lose this time, if we don’t stand up now, we will not have one voice to represent our views as policies are haphazardly slapped together to deal with students on college campuses with guns. Caravan to Austin with your neighbors, friends, and concerned parents. Like our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, we have to practice what we preach. We have to show our students that we did everything we could for them, that we gave a damn. Maybe the pen really is mightier than the sword.”

The Critique

Let's jump right in and start with the article's first paragraph:

“Texas legislators are poised to pass a law that will allow professors and students to pack heat on college campuses. If this happens, I will leave the classroom. Wisconsin Legislators, stay in hiding. Run for the good of the people you represent. We here in Texas are in the same boat as you.  But Texas is a “right to work” state, which means, no unions. No wait, there are some unions.”

If I didn't already know it, I would never have guessed that this paragraph was the introductory paragraph. Traditional introductions usually begin by capturing the reader's attention with some sort of “hook” and include a thesis statement that identifies the essay's overall argument (usually located at the end of the paragraph in order to immediately transition to the supporting main points). The preceding paragraph only resembles an introduction in that its elements are in reverse order.

The first sentence states the overall topic of the essay and so can be considered a thesis statement. However, its placement at the beginning of the paragraph resembles the way topic sentences are placed at the beginning of body paragraphs, and, while not “incorrect” since this article is not an academic essay, fails to engage and lead the reader towards a point of view the way a conventional introduction would. In fact, the first sentence does nothing to direct the focus of the paragraph onto a single point. The remainder of the paragraph is all over the place! It jumps from Texas to Wisconsin with no background information for readers not up-to-date on current events. Then it jumps back to Texas and an awkward contradiction about whether or not unions exist in the state.

The first paragraph was doomed from its start due to poor construction. Let's see if the second paragraph fares any better:

“Now after I have a lot of experience, I’m actually very good at teaching. I’m not just all charisma and passion for writing. I can inspire students to enjoy literature, I can make the MLA citation style relevant, I can deal with plagiarism, but now will I have to figure out how to handle a situation where a student points a gun at another student when they disagree or break up? Is that ten points off the final exam? I will leave the classroom before I have to do that. In the mean time, I’m going to do something about it. Wisconsin Legislators keep running. Do not vote. Texans you should’ve voted. See who your absence at the voting booth has put into office? Well, now you need to do something. Students, you have to vote with your feet and your cell phones. Call your legislators. Say no to guns in the classroom.“

I'm having a difficult time figuring out which sentence in the preceding paragraph is the topic sentence because it is as all over the place as the first paragraph. The first sentence is certainly not the topic sentence because the majority of the paragraph is focused on politics, not his or her teaching skills. The ending of the second sentence “will I have to figure out how to handle a situation where a student points a gun at another student when they disagree or break up?” could be the topic sentence, but only the third sentence elaborates on this point. The fourth sentence transitions into a vague statement that is never explained: “In the mean time, I’m going to do something about it.” Because the fourth sentence is clearly a transition to a NEW point, the fifth sentence should be the beginning of a new paragraph.

Rather than starting a new paragraph that explains what s/he plans on doing about the situation, the fifth paragraph instead references Wisconsin (again without supplying background information). The author instructs the legislators there not to vote and then berates Texans for the consequences of their failure to vote...without explaining what those consequences were. The remaining sentences are a call to action for students to vote with their “feet” (What does that mean? Is s/he asking for students to stage a campus walk-out?) and their “cell phones.” Calls-to-action belong at the END of essays, where they are more effective. Based on these sentences, I would have thought this paragraph were the concluding paragraph.

Instead, the following paragraph is the conclusion:

“The irony is that because college professors in Texas do not have a strong union, for all our brains, we have not been taught how to convene 10,000 strong at our capitol to act as one. So it may be just me and some of my colleagues unofficially representing us all.  And if we lose this time, if we don’t stand up now, we will not have one voice to represent our views as policies are haphazardly slapped together to deal with students on college campuses with guns. Caravan to Austin with your neighbors, friends, and concerned parents. Like our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, we have to practice what we preach. We have to show our students that we did everything we could for them, that we gave a damn. Maybe the pen really is mightier than the sword.”

Despite the sudden shift in person and intrusive phrase “for all our brains,” the first sentence in this paragraph actually does act as the topic sentence. While it does have that strength going for it, the rest of the paragraph could use some reorganization and rewording to make it stronger. For example, “Like our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, we have to practice what we preach” would be more effective if it preceded the call-to-action “Caravan to Austin with your neighbors, friends, and concerned parents.” Speaking of the call-to-action, it should be the concluding sentence in the paragraph, not “Maybe the pen really is mightier than the sword,” which makes no sense as the author has not mentioned writing as a form of voicing her/his concerns (instead, s/he called on people to “use their feet,” place calls to legislators, and drive to the state capitol).

More Practice Finding Writing Errors

Hopefully looking at a stranger's writing with a critical eye has helped you become aware of the kinds of things readers (e.g., teachers and bosses) look for when judging the work in front of them. There are plenty of other writing mistakes beyond how well each paragraph adhered to its topic sentence (if it had one); I've gone ahead and identified all of these errors in a separate document that you can download from Google Docs. I used endnotes to identify errors so that you could have a chance to figure out what each writing error is before scrolling down to the end of the page to see the answer. Feel free to unleash your writing wrath on this article without fear of alienating someone you have to interact with regularly. I certainly won't tell if you don't!

 

*If you are the author of the article from which I excerpted these paragraphs and would like proper attribution for your writing, please e-mail me and let me know. While I am normally religious about making sure people receive recognition for their work, I feel in this particular case the author may not want the recognition.

Photo credit: Jenny Kaczorowski