Eng328 Writing log

2004-03-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi Eng.328:
Blog Prompt #5:
Now that I have comlpleted reading Williams and the Strunk and White books, I believe that I have learned quite a bit about writing. There are many rules and strategies to know to be able to write well. For me, these books taught me how to write clearly and precisly, I hope. I was able to understand proper usage of words in the Williams book on Style. Williams seemed to really bring the aspect of writing clearly down to a science. He spent most of his time trying to relate with the reader instead of just naming off rules, like one should do this, and one should do that. I felt better when reading the williams book also, it seemed to read more like a book, and I felt like I was learning something because Williams was more indepth with his topics. Some of the ways that stuck with me about learning to write clearly and precisly were to keep a sentence interesting, one should keep the point twards the front and keep it brief. The writer can sound very intelligent by not saying too much. Too many words can lead to a cluttered finished product. I also am not saying that lengthness is bad, if it is done tastefully there is nothing wrong with it also. For me, this has never really been my style, if I had one reoccuring criticism of my writing, it would be that it is too short and vague.
With the readings of Strunk and White and Williams on Style, I now feel that I can attempt to write clear and concisly with my upcomming writings for this class, (we will see!).

2004-02-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Style Post Blog Prompt four:
I did manage to browse through many peoples blogs about style, and most I found were very interesting and brought up many good ideas.
Like we talked about in class, and like Roshani wrote in her blog, Strunk and White's book is used mainly as a "tool box" for a writing paper. I would have to agree with this. To me this is better used as a reference book to look up something you don't know. Williams is the better book to help the reader to understand concepts better. Adam said that "Williams is the best book for learning about writing clarity". Kacey wrote that she agrees with me that it is definetly a nice feature that williams refers back to concepts later in the book that you might have forgoten what they were. There is a lot of information in the book and it is easy to forget something, thats why a refresher is good, and will keep you on track. Kacey also states that Strunk and White is a more rule based book. When they are on the subject of being clear, Strunk and White only states rules, when Williams dedicates chapters on it.
One good rule I think stands out is, A coherant paragraph will usually have a sentence which articulates its point. A straight to the point sentence is very important to keep the reader interested. Also in the length chapter it states that crisp clauses keeps longer sentences effective. I believe this to be very important also. One can use linking words such as and, but, yet, or, or, to make that particular paragraph longer to suit its purpose.

2004-02-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi: Eng 328,
Blog Prompt 3:
I believe both the Williams and the Strunk and White book are very helpful. Like we discussed in class, I have basically the same opinions as the rest of my class mates. Williams book on style is the better book for more indepth learning. Not only is it twice as thick, but it contains more explainable information. Strunk and Whites, "The Elements of Style" would be a better book for looking up something quickly that you didn't know. It to me would be used more as a manuel. Don't get me wrong, it is a to the point well written smaller sized book, but it lacks the indepth questions brought up by Williams in his book. Strunk and White sticks with the straight rules, like you must do this and you must do that, and end of the question, where as Willliams book "style" would view different versions of the question and say that this is what most people would pick. Williams is overall more clear and gives the reader more examples and situations so that he/she could understand it best. Also at the begining of each chapter it gives an overview of what you have done so far and what is to be expected in this chapter, this is very helpful to me. Williams also refers back to sections of the book of topics that have already passed, and explains them again. one example of this would be when he talks about Metadiscourse on page 125. Williams had already mentioned this earlier in the book, but is refreshing you so you don't forget. The quotes were interesting before each chapter, which I thought made it read more like a book, and less like a manuel.
I would say that the better book for presentation would be Williams, but the better book for usage, as in easiest to use, would be Strunk and White, for reasons stated above.

2004-02-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi Eng.328
Blog prompt:
Original: "Welcome to Eastern Michigan University. This institution's proud heritage has now become YOUR future- a future in which to learn and grow, to advance tward a career and service, and to seek counsel and advice. Here you will find new friens from Michigan, other states, and around the world."

My revision: Welcome to Eastern Michigan University. This institution will provide you with a place to learn and grow, advance toward a career, and to seek counsel and advice. Here you will meet people locally and from around the world.

I did not like the second sentence in the original paragraph at all. It made the sentence too long and sounded too forceful to me. I also combined the second sentences together by using commas like williams suggested to do. The main reason I did this was to keep it interesting and to the point. Through out the Style book Williams stresses to keep sentences clear and to the point. I thought I achieved this better than the original. The last sentence was just simplified to sound and close better.

2004-02-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi Eng328,
Revising the paragraph (Class work):
On my first run through this assignment, I did not find that much wrong with it, except for the second sentence was entirely too long and needed to be broken up into sentences. I did manage to revise the second sentence by taking all of the ideas and linking them so they sound more flowing without loosing any information. I wrote, "Despite imposing a low economic status on the peasants, attempts of economic and social equalization occured. This reduced them to near poverty." To me, this is much better than the original. The only other thing I did was to just change a couple of unessary words around to make the paragraph as a whole more clear.

2004-02-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi, Eng 328
Style by Williams:
I like the fact that this book in particular tries to actually help your writing by attempting to clairify more complicated issues. Williams seems to go more indepth with his concepts and it seems like he cares what he is writing about. As far as the whole quote about trying to be clear and precise is like being told to hit a ball squarely, to me is simply saying that the author understands the concepts delt on the table, but he does not know how to achieve this goal. The message of being clear is very vague. The step by step instructions are lacking. This is why I think Williams is trying to achieve this goal of actually understanding the language. He does not want people to just know terms, but to actually be able to look further into the language and apply concepts into different places in writing.
Williams talks about how one should not clutter writing with extra unessary words. Sometimes this can be hard to do, but overall I would have to agree with this. The aspect of local clarity is also very important in ones writing. It is one of the most important steps to a finished product. The building blocks of writing seem to be along these lines. In chapter 4, it also mentions to begin a sentence well, you must keep it interesting twards the begining, and don't clutter it with unessary words. A stong emphasis of this I think is very important.

2004-02-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi Eng,328
To me the metaphor, "words are like razorblades, you use them as if they were bricks" means that words are delicate and must be used tastefully and correctly to make and impact on somebody. This particular person who had this wrote on their paper must have not chosen wise words, which to me is why they were called bricks. A razorblade is something that is sharp and precise, and a brick is awkward and clumsey, the opposites of eachother. This is why I believe the professor used this choice of words for this metaphor.
For the Elements of Style section, The two categories I like best were the ones that made the most sence to me. Section 2, using a comma after each term except the last in a sentence makes complete sence to me. I have always done this since I was able to write. Also, section 6 makes sence to me, Do not break sentences into two different sentences. This is done simpily by not using a period instead of a comma when needed. This comes second nature to me.
There were none that I would actually disagree with in this chapter of the book, all are logical grammar rulas everybody should follow. If I had to pick one that I understood less I would choose, section 11, because it sounds more confusing than it actually is. Most people do not make this mistake, but trying to explain it could easily get people confused. Lastly, section 8 I don't use very often. Incorporating a dash into a sentence is something I don't do often. They are a perfect example of proper grammar in writing, but I seem to never really use them when I write, I usually just use commas, and never really got marked down. Now I am aware of these things and I will try to fix my writing for the future.

2004-02-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi, Eng.328 2/4
Elementary Rules of Usage: These rules are very important to follow if one wants to write or speak properly and intelligently. There was not too much that came to me as a suprise in this first chapter. Over the years through school and my parents, I have learned to do things this way. This material by now comes kind of second nature to me. It was a good refresher for me. It helped me remember how to structure things properly. Still to this day, I am a little unsure of when to use the words who and whom, but the Elements of Style book helped me cear that up, also I did not know that when you are about to list a bunch of things you can put a colon before they start. I always just used to list them and never get marked down. Besides those two things, I really did not have any other trouble with the reading. This material is something I believe everybody should know about.

2004-01-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi Eng.328 Discussion from 1/16.
Phaedrus: I thought it was interesting how Socrates claimed his arguement and wrote it down for us to read today, which happens to be contradicting this very arguement. It to me was about a false representation of knowledge, and he states that writing makes us forget. I also thought it was interesting on how Socrates related writings to paintings, in that they can be interperterated many different ways.
Ong reading was also interesting, he states that words once on paper are dead and for a text to be intelligable and deliver its message, it must be converted into sound (spoken word). This is an interesting way to look at writings.

2004-01-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi Eng328, Discussion from 1/14:
To be an individual within writing, I believe it has to be what you say in your writing, and not the actual structure of the writing. If you write something out of gramarical format, chances are you will be questioned of marked down, but to express yourself and beliefs in a paper it has to be what you say in it that makes you an individual. One exception to this is if you write something wrong on purpose to get across the point that by doing it this way, it is exactly how you want to say it. Also different people have different reactions to things. Everybody has their own guide lines and they can find ways to be creative within the rules.

2004-01-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi, Eng 328, What this assignment made me think about.
I do agree with the aspect of doing practice writing assignments, but I disagree that making no revisions ever is the best way to go about it. If I was to teach a class, I would probabily not teach using this method. With my own experience, I always have to write things with a pencil and paper first before I can type it on a computer. I can visualize it much better in my own handwriting. Also I would agree with what most of the class was saying about typing slower than I can hand write something, I loose my train of thought when I have to think of what Im typing rather that thinking ahead in what i want to say next. Also the probability of something going wrong is much greater than if you were to just write something down on paper. I have never been a huge fan of computers.

2004-01-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

William Daviddi,
I would agree that computer writing is more constricting than using just a pen and paper. I like to cross things out and mix things up so I can see then visually in my own hand writing. I dont worry about spelling very much, because you cant turn in a handwritten paper usually, and the computer spell checks for you. I could always focus my ideas better on paper than slowly typing (like I do) on a computer.
In my own experience, I would definetly need to rewrite certain parts of longer writings. I would however agree that sometimes the first ideas or the first things you write can be the best things, but on the other hand some things you just need to rewrite after re-reading them.

2004-01-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Im Will Daviddi for eng328, and I hope Im posting this in the right spot. This is my first Blog, and Im not too sure what Im doing.
To expand on my first E-mail topic I wrote about, I basically just wrote that I am not knowledged in the area of computers very well, and the only job that I ever had was with my father, doing hands on traditional style repaire work. This means that I am already behind before I can even start with modern technology. The first example I could think of that effects me in the way of style occures here at Emu, with my papers that I turned in over the years. The teacher gives the directions, I think I followed them correctly, and then when I recieve my papers back, they are marked down because "I did not follow the directions properly." The teachers must not have understood my style,and or approach, because I thought I did the papers properly. This did not occur all of the time, but enough times to make me irratated, and have to rewrite quite a few papers.

2004-01-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog entry.