Commonplace Book @missybow-blog1 - Tumblr Blog

This isn’t really about style but...

Well, at least not WRITING style. It IS about animation styles though.

I am CONSTANTLY getting in arguments with my friends over what counts as anime or not. Probably seems like a strange argument to have, but it heavily revolves around semantics and so it’s revisited very often.

Usually I like to start with the definition of what anime is, because I think that people get confused about this a lot.

So, a quick Google search will tell us that it is a STYLE of animation, specifically from Japan. It can be aimed at multiple kinds of audiences, so audience shouldn’t factor in when you’re trying to determine what cartoon is an anime and what is not. ALSO some people have gotten nit-picky with my use of the word cartoon, so I’ll make sure to define that as well.

The definition we want to focus on is the second one. It’s a moving picture that’s been created using animation techniques. That’s it. It’s a very broad term. Anime is not separate from a cartoon; it is just a specific STYLE of cartoons.

Now this brings me to wear people start arguing with me. Well if anime is a cartoon then isn’t EVERYTHING just anime? No. Not every cartoon is anime. I think you can argue that a specific cartoon is done in the style of anime. For instance, I have a lot of friends that used to think of the early 2000s show Code Lyoko as anime. They argue that that’s in the style of anime, but I completely disagree.

Code Lyoko is clearly done in the style of French cartoons. I’ve seen a handful of French cartoons, typically the most popular ones, like Ladybug and Cat Noir. I feel like the animation styles of the two shows resemble each other quite a bit. Most of the other French cartoons I’ve seen are like this as well.

All I’m saying is that while cartoon is an enveloping word that requires little to no clarification, calling every cartoon an anime is incorrect. Anime is a specific animation style, and I think a lot of people miss the key points of that style and start using the term too broadly. If you want to use a broad term, just use cartoon. It’s easy to agree on.

My biggest disagreement on this subject has been Code Lyoko, but I’m curious as to whether or not there are other shows that are typically called “anime” and if there are other arguments for or against why the shows should be categorized as such.

#lr3366

Honestly Proud

I’m honestly so proud of myself cause I finished the assignment that was due today IN ADVANCE. I’m used to rushing to make tumblr posts at the very last minute and trying to put the finishing touches on whatever essay is due that week, but this time I started working in advance and I got the Imitation and Analysis Essay done YESTERDAY.

Not procrastinating is a huge feat for me. Not gonna lie. Just wanted to give myself a pat on the back for it.

#lr3366

Conversation about Style

I had no clue what to write for a post this week, so I talked to my friends about what they thought about style.

When I asked “Give me a topic to write about that concerns style,” they thought I was talking about document design and the style of creating documents. When I further specified, they started discussing editing and how editors should focus on not taking away an author’s voice. Edit for grammar, not style kind of concept. When further prompted, they brought up subjects such as how different fonts can change the meaning of a message, and as interesting as some of their other points had been, this one really stuck to me.

I noticed recently that whenever I look at Times New Roman text, I think of a professional document. Times New Roman is what I’ve used for every school paper I’ve ever written, and that’s ingrained in my mind the idea that this font is for professional things.

Then there are fonts like Comic Sans which everyone knows for jokes and memes. It’s not a serious font, and if I tried typing a resume up in Comic Sans, there’s no way that I would be taken seriously.

Fonts like Helvetica remind me a lot of Times New Roman. It’s not AS professional, but it still has a professional feel to it.

It’s interesting to me that style pertains to what we’re writing and how we’re writing it, but that how includes more than just grammar choices and sentence structure; it can include the font we choose too. Picking a font can change the meaning or tone of a document or contradict a tone of a document. Font choice is actually a really important thing for writing and style. It’s something that I think about in the back of my mind but never really consider heavily anymore. These days I just pick Times New Roman or Helvetica by habit.

#lr3366

Versatility and How We Order Adjectives

My sister sent me this about a week ago, and I just realized I forgot to make a post about it. So here we are now!

I’m not sure what this is from, but my sister found it on tumblr and I realized how true this is. I’m pretty sure I’ve always ordered my adjectives like this, even though no one taught me too and no one (typically) specifically lists this order out. It always fascinates me how a lot of what we learn about language is just intuitive. We can’t explain it, it just FEELS right.

But also this picture had me wondering... I might think that this order is correct and I might try to adhere to it, but is there somebody out there who reads this and disagrees? Is there someone out there who DOES think that green great dragons exist? Could there be a reason to change your typical style of writing, to change the order of these adjectives? What purpose would that serve? Everything I’ve read since I’ve seen this picture I’ve analyzed for this adjective order, curious to see if everybody does actually follow this, or if people change the order for certain reasons.

#lr3366

Conversation, Class Work, and Copying Style

I really had a lot of fun in our last class copying the styles of those short paragraphs. The opportunity to analyze and copy style has been an exciting prospect for me, although a daunting one. How am I supposed to know what to copy or how exactly to copy? Doing this assignment in class and then discussing the results was extremely helpful. It showed me how exactly to perform this copying exercise, and how to analyze for key points of style in the author’s writing, things that I may want to hang on to in my copy of it to really show that specific style

I keep thinking about things that would be interesting to copy for that upcoming assignment, and I feel like the problem I keep running in to is that I don’t read a lot of prose. I’ve been reading several fiction books for fun, and I keep finding interesting passages that I want to copy, before realizing that I need to be copying prose style. Today I realized that I’ve done a lot of research for work and that there’s a piece of prose that I would really like to attempt copying. This piece is Anna Anthropy’s article “Love, Twine, and the End of the World.”

This article is a choose-your-own-adventure essay. I think that this style of writing poses a challenge, but I also think it’s an exciting one. What can I write about that would be fun as a chooce-your-own-adventure story? What else to her style of writing is there? The gimmick of being able to move between paragraphs is going to be key in the copying exercise, but it’s not the only part of her style that I need to be copying. I also need to SOUND like her. I’m excited to analyze this article more and start picking out exactly how I’m going to copy her style.

#lr3366

Conversation and Radical Revision

This week we did peer-reviews on our gradually changing style essays again. I was really happy to hear that our peer review groups would be the same groups again. This way, I knew that the reviewers would know what I was writing about initially and understand the changes I made and how to better improve on those.

I think the comments I received were really helpful. They suggested several different ways to make more changes to my essay and how to expand on the subject matter. I think a lot of the comments that I got encouraged me to push the changes I made harder. For instance, after the first round of comments I added a primary source, but I was encouraged in the second round to add more primary sources. Put more content into the essay!

Doing these peer reviews has been extremely helpful. After writing the style essay initially, I felt a little lost on how I could change it around for the radical revision assignment. However, the comments from my classmates gave me amazing ideas for how to improve and expand upon my argument. Talking with classmates over these topics has made the assignments easier, and also more encouraging. Hearing comments from my classmates helps me feel like I understand what I’m doing better and like I should keep working hard to improve my assignment.

#lr3366

Radical Revision Essay

This was... an interesting process to say the least. Coming up with HOW I wanted to revise this essay was simple enough. I basically had a Jimmy Neutron style brain blast and came up with a bunch of ideas on how I can flip my argument from discussing how writers and editors should take style guides with a grain of salt to discussing how company’s should create style guides that give more creative freedom to writers.

What was interesting about this is that it wasn’t so much a flip from “oh, I said writers here, so I should change that to company,” but really it seemed to evolve my entire argument. I expected the change of perspective to be interesting, but I hadn’t expected it to change my argument as much as it did.

Instead of arguing mostly on how style guides should leave room for creative freedom, I found myself arguing why company’s should have style guides at all and how they can make the most effective style guides for their employees. I discussed things like how they would save companies money, how they created efficiency in the workplace, and how they had to be constantly updated to keep up with changing times.

The change in audience wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be. Since I was talking to companies, there were a lot more factors that I needed to discuss. Companies are the ones who are in control of what goes into the style guides. Arguing from this stand point, I can actually affect what goes into a style guide. I can tell a company to make a writer’s life easier so they won’t have to ignore the style guide. After I realized this, writing the essay went really smoothly. I was able to think up several different aspects that could affect how a company would create a style guide.

I also took some advice from a peer review that I was given and added in a primary source which was a FANTASTIC idea. Referencing positive examples from a current IBM style guide really accented the points that I was making. I feel like it fleshed out my argument really well. I’m excited to get more peer feedback on this essay and improve upon it even more.

#lr3366

Versatility and Reddit

I was minding my business today, browsing Reddit, not even THINKING about class, when I came across a comment and a user who immediately got me thinking about style.

How people write on the internet is completely different than how people write papers. Different social media sites require different kinds of style and different levels of grammatical correctness; it all depends on where you’re posting and what you’re posting. People who frequent these sites don’t often consciously notice the subtle changes that are happening because we’re so used to being versatile and changing between these different styles in just a few clicks.

Now, read this post and see if you notice anything especially wrong with it.

Today I was brought out of my casual viewing of some random post on Reddit when I realized that the user who posted this comment was named u/CommaHorror. This really confused me. After my first read, I hadn’t noticed any out of place commas. I wondered why they were named that until I read the comment one more time.

The commas. Are everywhere. In absolutely. All the wrong places.

While this rubbed me the wrong way, it also showed me how little grammar affected the way that I read comments and posts on Reddit. Commas don’t really affect the overall message, so I didn’t even pick up on the fact that any commas were out of place, let alone there at all. This was something that really showed me how easily we can slip into a different style and how comfortable we can get with that style.

#lr3366

Revision Plan

--potential change in audience to businesses... +maybe address businesses and a business attitude towards style guides rather than speaking to writers and editors +a business may have a totally different perspective on why style guides are necessary. maybe dig into why style guides are needed for legal reasons and how some things can’t be ignored? +Maybe there are lines that have to be drawn somewhere. Should I define these instead of leaving things so vague like I did initially? +What would be a businesses actual perspective on style guides? Do they really want writers to stick to them entirely? +How could I convince a company to make style guides more loose? --Other than businesses I could change the audience to students maybe... +you will see style guides and this is how you should treat them +what should you follow no matter what in style guides, and what things are a little more loose? +what do you need to know about using style guides? how important are they actually to the jobs you will be encountering in the future? --Consider adding a primary source. Find an actual style guide to reference and pull examples from that to back up the points that I’m making.

#lr3366

Revision and the LR Midterm

Okay, strangely enough, writing this midterm paper was so. Fun.

I knew how it should go, but I wasn’t really sure on how to get started. How do I introduce this? What do I say at the beginning? Does it need an introduction or do I dive right in? Unsure of what to do, I remembered that I had written an LR Midterm before. This was around a year ago and for a different class, but I figured I could still gleam some important information from it.

Opening it up and giving it a skim was so entertaining. I realized that since it’s been a year, I wouldn’t organize it the same way. I set up an entirely different organization system for my paper. I introduced things very similar, and even pretty much copied the first sentence over, because I thought it would give me a good start. Slowly, everything else started to change.

As I was writing, I remembered little comments I received on my LR Midterm and even my LR Final. I tried to implement the revisions into this current midterm in order to write a much better one. It was such a cool experience, because not only was I evaluating how I’ve been learning and changing over the course of the semester, but it was like evaluating how I had been learning and changing as a writer over the past year. I got a kick out of looking at my two midterms side by side and seeing how different they looked, even just on the surface.

Using past knowledge and emerging knowledge to create this LR Midterm was so cool. It makes me want to go back to short stories that I wrote years ago and try to write them again, then read them and compare. I want to see how much I’ve grown, see how I’m now implementing the skills I’ve been learning. I can’t wait to do this again for the final.

#lr3366

days-til-captain-marvel

Tommorow!!!!!!

missybow-blog1

Little do they know that I’m actually going to watch this tonight. Only a few more hours until 11 PM and then I’ll be able to say I’ve seen every Marvel movie again!

Conversation and Spaces

During one of my work shifts this week, someone stopped by to print out documents and I had a brief discussion with them regarding typing. I don’t remember how we got onto the subject per se, but I do remember discussing how many teens graduating from high school these days have not been properly trained in how to type or use computers. This led to discussions of how typing has changed how we write.

Our main focus in this discussion was how those who learned to type on typewriters will often still teach others to type like you would on a typewriter. For instance, my mom taught me that the proper way to type was to double space after every period, like this. It doesn’t look too different than a normal space, but it is a little odd. It wasn’t until I came to college that I was told not to do that. I learned through the conversation I was having that the double spacing technique is actually something that needed to be done to clarify spaces after sentences on typewriters, since the spacing was different. Computers fixed the need to double space after periods, so we no longer do it.

I found this discovery so interesting, as my mother even to this day will double space after every period. It makes me wonder how many other people continue to do this just because it’s an old habit from typing on a typewriter. This is also such an interesting concept in style, because not only is style communicating a specific idea to you or persuading you in some way, it can also tell you a little something about the author, for instance, where they’re from, or in this case, how old they are.

#lr3366

Recent Controversy Regarding Steam...

People have been up in arms over a certain game that was recently added to Steam. This game is blatantly called “Rape Day,” and obviously people were concerned with the subject matter of this game. The game revolves around a serial killer rapist in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. People play as this serial killer and enact heinous crimes against the other people in the game. This game was taken down shortly after it’s release and controversy and reviewed by Valve, the company that runs and owns Steam. They deemed the content not fit for the platform, and took it down permanently.

Yes, I think this subject matter is horrific. No, I do not believe it should have been taken off of Steam.

Many reading this are probably concerned about my thought process with this, but my thought process is simply this: the game followed Steam’s rules, but was taken down anyways because the “developer has chosen content matter and a way of representing it that makes it very difficult for us to help them [express themselves.]” Okay, sure. This is fair. The game contained horrific material, subject matter, and representations of those things, and Valve felt as if publishing such a game would taint their image. That’s totally fair. Here’s my issue with them saying this. Steam’s rules are simply that content cannot be illegal and that it shouldn’t be blatant trolling. Other than that, everything is allowed. Well, Rape Day doesn’t do anything illegal and it’s not intentional trolling, as the creator of the game, Desk Lamp, has described why exactly he created the content.

The point that I’m trying to make here is that if Steam is to monitor games as such, then they need to make the rules very clear. The way they handled this situation was to wait for the public to make an uproar and then evaluated the game. They want to handle this on a case to case basis depending on what the public deems unacceptable. I think this is completely unfair of them. If they want to restrict content that can be published on their platform, then they need to be clarifying what is and what is not allowed in legal terms. Not clarifying will throw content creators into a horrible loop of not knowing whether they can publish a specific game to Steam or not since they won’t know what is and isn’t allowed. Steam needs to get more specific with the rules. This isn’t just for content creators either, as they could potentially deal with some serious legal issues if they aren’t clear enough about what goes and what doesn’t.

All-in-all, regardless of my opinion on the game itself and the content of the game (an undeveloped one since I haven’t played the game myself), I believe that Steam clearly has some holes in their system. This game has come along and pointed them out, clearly showing everybody that Steam does not have an “allow everything” policy even though they like to say they do.

I pulled my quotes and a lot of my understanding of how this game was banned from this article, and I agree with a lot of the points in the article. If you want to know more about Rape Day, the creator, Desk Lamp, or Valve’s position on the subject, go ahead and read this: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/with-rape-day-ban-steam-shows-its-not-as-hands-off-as-it-claims/

avertingtheflamewars

Strong Statements Aren’t Strong At All

(…but they make good click bait.)

Hi! We’d like to talk to you about “strong statements” – statements that can be shocking, debatable, or oversimplified.

And also about “strong arguments” – which tend to be logical and convincing.

People sometimes use strong statements as if they are strong arguments. But those are different things.

The title of this post is a strong statement. But it would be hard to make a strong argument that the title of this post is true.

“Strong” statements are strong in some ways. They can convey a forceful mood, or catch people’s attention. They can prompt people to be more certain and militant about opinions they already have. They can make people feel obligated to take a side. They can be a shortcut to expressing yourself when you don’t have the time, skill, or energy to use gentle and precise words.

In reality, we just think “strong” statements are less convincing than most people seem to think they are.

Sometimes it seems like because what you have to say is important, you should say it in the strongest terms possible. It can even feel like a moral obligation to speak up for your side forcefully.

Really, it depends on what you want to accomplish. When people hear something that disagrees with their beliefs too much, they tend to dismiss it out of hand.

A persuasive statement might be one that is harder for people to dismiss out of hand. Or a statement that the other person technically agrees with, but that has difficult implications for their argument.

Sometimes it’s the most understated or “weak” statements that end up being the most convincing.

If an idea is true and very important, then getting people to agree with it or think carefully about it is a good thing.

When your main goal is to be convincing, it’s useful to sometimes explain your deeply held beliefs in mild terms. It can make your argument stronger and more difficult to dismiss.

Even when it feels like it’s the other way around.

missybow-blog1

This post really got me thinking about the articles we read last week and the differences between Pinker’s argument and Heller’s argument. I was interested in reflecting on Heller’s article and analyze it for strong statements. I wanted to do this because I ended up having such a visceral reaction to reading certain parts of his article and was curious as to whether or not it was due to him making strong statements.

As I re-read Heller’s article, I realized that he does make a lot of strong statements, but initially a lot of them are him rephrasing Pinker’s words into strong statements. Instead of using the strong statements himself, he makes them apply to Pinker’s ideas in an attempt to unsettle his readers. For instance, he, in his own words, states that Pinker is saying “grammar busybodies and their “diktats” should be obsolete.” He continues on to say that Pinker is saying “diehard copy editors are the villains.” These statements that Pinker never actually wrote are written by Heller to turn people against Pinker as soon as possible. I remembered this working on me initially, but I slowly started realizing what Heller’s game was.

My point of view changed when Heller began to write other strong statements such as where in his eighth paragraph he spends a few sentences just angrily poking at Pinker’s arguments. None of these statements on how Pinker is (as Heller presumes) blatantly ignoring grammar rules just because are backed up with any evidence. There are no quotes from Pinker’s writing about how he actually believes the rules discussed should be used. Heller paraphrases every statement from Pinker and turns them into strong statements to further turn readers against Pinker’s point of view. The problem with this strategy at this point was that I had already read some of Pinker’s book. Pinker doesn’t discuss the rules like this at all, and I immediately found it strange and unfair that Heller would take such a harsh stance to Pinker’s writing. Heller ends his article with a few much more calmly worded paragraphs, making it seem as if he is the calm and intellectual one while Pinker is crazy.

I can see what Heller is trying to do here. He’s appealing to his audience through ethos -- he starts out by claiming that Pinker thinks editors are obsolete and then paints this picture of Pinker as a person who thinks the English language shouldn’t have rules at all. This encourages readers to be offended initially, especially if they’re editors, and then fuels that offense in paragraph eight.

But at some point, his delivery begins to sound ridiculous. With so many strong statements, rarely backed up by Pinker’s own quotes, Heller’s argument starts to fall apart. Where’s the proof that Pinker actually thinks like this? Or are you just offended yourself and want readers to feel the same way you do?

Looking back at it now, I’m wondering if Heller really read much after Pinker’s prologue. He quotes a lot of the prologue in his first paragraph, but fades from quoting and just starts angrily paraphrasing. I wonder if Heller got offended at some point and quite reading Pinker’s book just to write his own angry article on the subject. Just some funny food for thought.

#lr3366

Pinker and Revision

I didn’t have to get very far in this week’s reading to feel an immediate connection to the author. Sure, my first thought was, “I’m an English nerd, but it takes a SPECIAL kind of English nerd to want to read style manuals for fun.” But, once I moved past that thought, I was able to really identify with Pinker’s thoughts on style manuals and how they should be perceived by writers.

In my style essay, I argued that while style guides can be extremely helpful, they can also inhibit a writer’s and an editor’s work. Sometimes there are things in style guides that shouldn’t be followed. Pinker seems to be making just this point. However, Pinker goes a step further than I did to describe how following a style guide can inhibit writing and editing, and analyzes WHY style guides can be inhibiting.

I really liked his point that “a skilled writer should...push back against copy editors who, under the influence of grammatically naïve style guides, blue-pencil every passive construction they spot into an active one.” (2) The specific idea here is that some style guides will encourage zero use of the passive voice, even though in certain cases the passive voice can be useful if not necessary. However, his general idea here is what I really clung to. The idea that writers should know better than to blindly follow style guides is extremely important. Style guides are just that: guides. They are useful tools to help writers and editors create a cohesive and easily understandable product. Writers and editors should not feel obligated to follow these guides to a tee.

My prior experience as both a technical writer and a technical editor is what connects me so deeply to this topic. I have used and viewed a handful of style guides for writing classes, and typically, there is at least one technique listed that I disagree with. I think a lot of writers and editors fall into the trap of believing that style guides and manuals are the be-all-end-all of writing. I agree with Pinker though: these guides can often contain errors are advice that writers should not always heed, and we should educate ourselves on the topic of language so that these guides will remain guides.

#lr3366

707kuroyuki

Taiko

missybow-blog1

This is one of my favorite games .-. I’ve been away from home for too long and desperately want to play.

cheschyrart

Completed line art of the second guildy’s prize! Need to color, but I really like the lines on this one, so decided to post it by itself.

Included some progress shots that show my sketch colors and how I layer details. Per the commissioner’s request, I made a lot of changes to facial structure and eyes over the course of the sketch process.

missybow-blog1

Just another great thing from my sister that I wanted to share :) This is something new that I haven’t seen of hers and I feel blessed to get constant updates of her art now!

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