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This imitation essay was a lot more helpful than I thought it would be. Having been told since middle school how bad plagiarism is, I never thought that simply copying someone else’s style could improve your writing so much. But it showed me how different tropes can work together to create a different scene. How, when used correctly, some tropes can make a smooth transition between ideas rather than the harsh pause of a paragraph break. How rhyming certain words can make your work flow better. And how by changing something has simple as the length of your sentences can make the scene play out completely differently. Knowing this now, I can apply these ideas to my own writing and try out different tropes on different assignments/audiences.

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For our latest assignment, I had to figure out my favorite author. This is hard for me as I have so many that cover a variety of genres too. However, while I was looking at different books I had read, I began to notice a common theme. I liked the books that did not spend too much time on details. They described the place, the character, and the situation in enough detail to paint a picture of the scene, but not too much that it drowns out the story. I have read several books that spent so much time on details that didn't matter (taking 2 pages to describe the restaurant the main characters are in) and not enough on the details that mattered. I realized that, in my opinion, some of the details should be left up to the readers imagination. The author should lay the groundwork and then the reader fills in the blanks with their own imagination.

The same is true for style. Sometimes, letting the reader create their own analogies is the best way to write. There doesn’t need to be an example of every single idea. In a way, that is insulting to your reader. As if the author is saying, “there is no way you can understand this easy concept, so here is an example.” I thought this was an interesting idea.

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Our class discussion made me reconsider what I thought I knew about style. It was interesting to see how a story about a woman finally being accepted by her mother could also be a discussion on style. Between the way she wrote, her word choice, or how she knew her audience, it was a good way to see how versatile style can be. In some ways, writing is just like any other conversation. Depending on your audience, a piece of writing may sound like something you would say to their face. Doing our presentation, I learned a lot about writer’s voice and that some of the things I had been doing for years had official names. I realized it’s important to make sure your writing reads like something you would say in real life. If you don't agree with or like your writing, how can you expect any one else to?

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The amount of homework students receive is too much. By the time I get done wasting time and putting off what I am supposed to be doing, I have almost no time to finish it all! This past week alone I had four essays due by the end of the week. I barely pulled it off, and I noticed something while writing them.

Versatility is one of the pillars that we focus on in this class and style in general. I focused on this skill the most with these assignments. One essay was more of a book report about a Shakespeare play, another was a research paper, another was a scientific article, and finally a radical revision over a topic of my own choosing. Each had to have their own style, word choice, and audience analysis. I had to tweak my writing and prose for each essay depending on the class. The versatility of the English language means that there are infinite ways to write an essay. It’s also amazing how subtle differences like changing “stubborn” to “obstinate” can affect the rest of the piece. Versatility in language is an oft overlooked part of language; but it should not be forgotten.

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Working on my midterm submission has been a real workout on my revision skills. The hardest part of the paper was thinking of how to start but now that it’s almost done, it’s time to revise. I find myself deleting whole sentences that I realized were repeating themselves. When I was writing it out, I was so wrapped up in what I was writing and getting my point across, sometimes I would simply reword an idea I had previously stated. It’s a good way to meet a word requirement, but not a good writing tactic. I realized how important it is to always revise your writing. No matter how good your first draft is, it could always be better.

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It happened today. For the first time, I heard a word that I didn’t understand. It was in English, I think, but I still couldn’t understand it. There was a tour on campus and one of the kids said the words “Hundo P.” What. I thought for sure I had misheard what was said, but after doing some research from a Teen Slang blog, most likely put together for Soccer moms looking to connect with their estranged kids, I found the term. Apparently, “Hundo P” is short for hundred percent. This makes sense, but also doesn’t. Why not just say “for sure” or “Gotcha” or even the classic “OK.” Why do kids feel the need to create new words that don’t need to be created and make a 20 year old college kid feel like his 62 year old father.

The more I thought about this, the only conclusion I could come up with was that kids want to feel unique or special in some way. They must want to have something that separates them from other generations. A code that only kids nowadays can understand.This style and language invention has been around for decades and looking back, my generation was no different. The Versatility a spoken language has makes understanding it that much harder. People always remember Shakespeare as being a genius who invented new words all the time. But in truth, anyone can be like Shakespeare in their own way. Hundo P.

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In one of my other classes, we’re reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Every one know Shakespeare is a genius. That fact has been rammed down our throats since high school. But I thought he was a genius for his love triangle, surprise ending plays. However, he is more a genius for his audience analysis. He wrote all of his plays with specific audiences in mind. For example, Titania, the Fairy Queen, is a woman who knows her worth and won’t let any man talk down to her. I believe the kids call this “boss bitch” behavior. This is reflective of the time he wrote the play in. Queen Elizabeth was the ruler of England at the time and she was a powerful, respected ruler. He knew his audience wouldn’t like seeing a queen be subservient to a man and wrote the character around this idea. He also used a lot of Greek mythology in the play, like Theseus and Hippolyta. He knew the people watching his plays would be the educated, rich nobles of the times and would understand his subtle nods to history. I thought this was an interesting idea and a new way to read Shakespeare.

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“That’s the best thing about dyin’. You either do or ya don’t.”

-Wise words from Hank Hill

It’s crazy how you can make a fairly accurate description about someone just from hearing how they talk or reading their writing. I heard a guy on the bus talking on the phone and he used the word “enigmatic.” I have only ever seen this word used in a school setting. I don’t know what the conversation was about but he must have been trying to impress somebody. Or he’s a pretentious dick, one of the two. It was just funny to me how someone’s style of speaking can influence how you feel about them.

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“The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is the pretense of intelligent ignorance. The former is teachable; the latter is not.”

-Criss Jami

Velvet Buzzsaw

Just watched Velvet Buzzsaw on Netflix. Not only did it prove that I will never understand art, it also showed the difference between the rich and the poor. I know it is a fictional story but it still was interesting. Every artist was trying their best Andy Warhol impression and using big words just because. The style and way they talk is arguably the best part of the movie.

The way the main character writes his art reviews are a big part of the movie. His reviews are meant for a higher-end, well educated audience. This is like what we discussed in class about knowing your audience. Only the people part of the art world could understand or even comprehend what language he was using. Everyone else was just on the outside looking in.

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Learning Record Observation

It was interesting to hear about Adverbials in the presentation today. I have been using adverbials since high school but never knew what they were or what they were called. “About that time,” “Next,” “Finally,” I have used these for years without realizing they were adverbials. Part of the fun of the English language is that you can use a rhetorical device or grammatical practice and never know what it’s called. That has been the largest learning point I have gotten from this class. The “history” in a way of how I have been writing my whole educational career. What rules and restrictions I have been unknowingly abiding by and why they exist. I am excited to see in what ways I can improve both my writing style and my audience analysis throughout this class.

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Speaking Styles

I had a conversation with a friend today about how President Trump gives his speeches. I commented on how he repeats certain words and uses short choppy sentences. It makes him sound like he has a limited vocabulary. When you listen to other presidents, they have long eloquent speeches with lots of big words and edited grammar. Of course, this isn’t the only thing about Trump that makes him different from other presidents.

I thought about what we said the other day in class about writing styles for different audiences and, unless he makes up his speeches on the spot, someone had to have written his speeches that way. I wonder who his speech writer is and if he approves of how President Trump gives his speeches. Now that would be an interesting interview.

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Journal #1 Conversation

When we discussed conversation and citation in class, I thought the science behind citation was interesting. How do people come up with the different citation methods and who decides which ones are appropriate. I always thought citations were made around the same time as the wheel and hadn't changed since then. I was surprised to find out there are different editions and citations can change from year to year. I would like to go further in detail behind different citations and discuss them in class.

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style3366

What does the way you speak say about where you’re from? Answer all the questions below to see your personal dialect map.

Think we might spend some time on this in class tonight. This New York Times quiz analyzes your dialect to guess what US region you’re from or grew up in.

Actually, it shows similarities between your answers and cities/regions. After ten years living in Texas, my map looks different than it used to! But my strongest similarities are all out west. How accurate is yours?

style3366

Here’s my map–much less accurate than it used to be!

ionlygotthisforaclass-blog

I got Amarillo, Little Rock, and Lexington. 1 out of 3 isn’t bad

I am confusion

I’m not sure what I am supposed to write about for these journals. Do I need to find and write about rhetoric topic blogs? How much do I need to post? How often? How many journal entries should there be? Help.

ye-lost-bard

Some common buzzwords and phrases that Farts, aka Terfs, aka Professional Transphobes, aka Fake-Feminists tend to use in their seemingly innocent feminist posts to trick mainly cis feminists into spreading their hate rhetoric.

Common Terf Whistles are: Female centered Feminism Trans identified male Same Sex attracted Lesbophobia Male Violence Male Socialisation Female Homosexual Lesbian not Queer and lots of female-female-female used in a post.

The bolded words are 99% used by Terfs and point to OP being a Terf, the not bolded words and phrases can be found in feminist posts, but often they also point to OP being a Terf or at least being influenced by their rhetoric. Terfs also love to use *Lesbophobia* whenever someone calls them out on using transphobic rhetoric. Which makes Terfs lesbophobic for using it as a buzzword against trans people.

Photo descripition: A picture of Dori, Nemo and an angler fish. It is a dark deep-sea background only lightened by the bait-light of an anglerfish, monstrously oversized with a wide, gaphing mouth full of needle-like teeth, ready to swallow Nemo and Dori whole who have been attracted by the light. Dori and Nemo have the words Cis Feminists written over them. The bait of the anglerfish has Terf Buzzwords and Phrases over it while the anglerfish has Terf Whistle written over it.

ionlygotthisforaclass-blog

This is interesting. Both as a concept and an argument.

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