Sharpening

In the article "Sharpening" by Ken Marcrorie, he talks about common weaknesses in writing, such as the excessive use of the verb is (and all forms of to be), of it, of adjectives, adverbs, and passive verbs. This can be detrimental to good writing because the use of these can add additional words to a piece that don't help make the point that is trying to be conveyed. Throughout the article, Marcrorie gives many examples of these instances. He speaks on how the verb is can have adverse effects on one's writing. This is because the verb itself doesn't say much, it works collaboratively with other words or proclaims something exists. Writing that is dominated by is suffer from too many nouns and adjectives, which the verb is connects. This leads to unnecessary words being included in the writing. A remedy for this problem is to use more verbs that communicate a specific action. Using the word is also drives the writer to excessively use the words it and there. The author also talks about verbs that can make a paper dull when excessively used. These words are make, go, get, have, move, and come. These words aren't good to continuously use because they don't have specific meaning. When revising a paper, any usage of these words should be checked to determine if there is a more particular and meaningful substitute for it. The author gives an example of this by giving alternative words that can be used in the place of making. Those words are constructing, building, gluing, joining, piling, digging, sticking, and stringing. Of course each word wouldn't be applicable to every situation, but they can be used as a guideline to begin reducing the use of vague verbs in favor of more vibrant, specific ones. The principle in sharpening is to get rid of the words that don't have precise meaning. The inclusion of words sometimes make the words around them unnecessary. An example of this is given by the author, Original: The patients, perhaps sensing my nervous anticipation, possibly evident in my faltering steps and nervous eye movements, said "hello" to me. Revision: Perhaps sensing my anticipation in my faltering footsteps and nervous eye movements, the patients said "hello" to me. This example shows how words can be omitted from writing and the point can be maintained. In good writing, it is important to not allow adverbs and adjectives smother the effect of another word. An example of this is: She was unusually hideous. In this sentence, the use of the word unusually lessens the force of the word hideous, therefore, the word can be omitted. The author also does a good job of letting his audience know that the rules he gives can't always be followed exactly. Many of the changes are debatable and each piece being sharpened should be done so according to the particular piece. The rules aren't given to be followed exactly, but to provide a foundation to become more adept at recognizing these issues and rectifying them while editing your own work.

~Justin Jones~

Dialect Boundaries

In the article,"Folk Linguistic Perceptions and the Mapping of Dialect Boundaries" by Erica J. Benson she talks about the mapping of dialect boundaries in the United States. Since the United States tradition has been based solely on production data that it's approach neglects a rich data source toward language varieties. There has been investigations in the state of Ohio about folk perceptions of boundaries and their relationship to production boundaries. Ohio is a diverse area and a linguistically complex region. There are many diffrent types of dialect mixtures that appear in Ohio. Benson then goes on and talks about diffrent boundries around the United States. Perceptual dialectology is a necessary component of traditional dialectology studies that map dialect boundaries of language variation studies. What did you guys think of the article?

Blog Summary 14: Collaboration: Writing Center Tutorials vs. Peer-Response Groups

In the article entitled Collaboration: Writing Center Tutorials vs. Peer-Response Groups, the author Muriel Harris describes the difference between writing centers and peer response groups. The author also makes it a point to say that there is a distinct difference between collaborative learning and collaborative writing. Collaborative writing is referred to a task that involves two or more writers. These writers work together on one specific project. Collaborative learning is different however. When the author and reader interact to work on the final project, collaborative learning occurs. The author goes through the work and tries to help the writer improve their writing. Next the article begins discussing a brief history about response groups and writing tutorials. The different types of writing groups can also be either formal or informal. The author states that the role of the tutor is to help develop a person's writing abilities rather than help them focus on the specific topic he or she is working on. It is important that students are able to learn how to proofread their own papers and build their own skills. Another thing would be to determine goals. Also peer review is based on a different time frame that writing center tutorials. Further into the article, the author describes the differences more in depth including specific methods. She also gives some precautionary warnings as to what shouldn't be done.

Blog Summary 9: Down Syndrome & Grammar

by: Brandon Trammel

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In this particular study three children with Down’s Syndrome were tested on their language and grammar comprehension in comparison to typically normal children. In the study the children with Down syndrome produce their first 10 words on average 12 months later than typically developing children. This suggests that once the children with Down syndrome get going with the production of the language, they in fact show a similar pattern as typically developing children in the early stages of grammar. Although I know little to nothing about those who have Down’s Syndrome after reading the results of the experiment I was somewhat surprised. I assumed that children with Down’s Syndrome would be slow to catch up on language and grammar rules, but would not have thought once these children grasped the rules of grammar would have the ability to learn it just as well as a typical students. Although I am surprised by these findings I also feel that this cannot be used as valid information for all children with Down’s Syndrome. The study was only done on three children which is a small ratio when being compared to all who have the disease.

Blog Summary 12: "What Makes Texting Distinctive"

Text slang to our youth seems to be new, but according to "What Makes Texting Distinctive", it has been around for nearly over a hundred years. The author starts the chapter off with informing the reader that six media commentators will be describe for a better understanding. Pictorgrams and logograms, these are the most noticeable of text orthography symbols, for instance we recognize" @" as "at", or "2" as "to". These are considered logograms according to the author. In logograms the punctuation is important not the visual. The author goes on to describe emotions (or smileys), where the meaning comes from the shape and symbols. In the chapter hieroglyphics are not compared to orthographics. The author defines rebus as representing pictures that are used for sounds of words instead of the object it refers to. Initialism is another form of a orthographic. It means the reduction of words. This is one of the second most noticeable feature of texting. Sometimes intialism is called acronyms. In most forms of texting people often use intialism for instance "GF" is for girlfriend or "W/E" is for weekend. Another form of texting people use but not as often as the other forms is "omitted letters", most of the time this is used when texters is to lazy to type out the entire word. An example would be "xlnt" which means excellent. Nonstandard spellings are misspelled on purpose for instance "luv" or "fone". Texting is a major factor in most people everyday life. These things are so common that people don't even realize they do it.

Blog Summary 10: Are Twins Language-Delayed???

by: Paul Schmidt

The responses are due on Friday, Sept. 24th, by midnight.
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Are Twins Delayed in Development Language? (Jennifer Ganger)

In this poorly written article that is full of grammar and spelling mistakes, Jennifer Ganger lists a few conclusions of experiments that have all been done prior to her research. The entire article is about twins, more specifically, if twins are delayed in the development of language. Ganger brings up several cases where a certain line could be placed to the ages where twins were delayed compared that of singletons, this age was 2 years old. Any other age that was tested in the numerous studies were found to be a very slim margin for the male twins. But the females on the other hand were of equal stature if not higher than that of their singleton counterpart in that same age group. A lot about what is said in these studies based upon genetics is that the ability to develop language depends a lot upon the weight of the child at birth, this being true with test scores and experiments done by two separate groups in 1986. Also parents have played a role in this debate on how much attention each twin receives and whether or not they are able to get one on one interaction with a parent and just a twin. I have grown up next to a set of twins and from personal experience I can say that there has not been a single moment where either of them seemed to be delayed in the language category, both of whom were in the top 10 of my graduating class. The debate rolls on; do you believe that twins are delayed in developmental language?

Blog Summary 8: A Systematic Approach to Grammar Instruction

Responses are due on Wednesday, Sept. 22nd, at midnight.
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A Systematic Approach to Grammar Instruction,
by Sonya Clark

The teacher in this article had one goal in mind, and it was to improve her students writing skills. She searched endlessly to provide the students with the help they needed. So, she started a two year grammar sequence program. The program started when the students were in the seventh grade and continued until the end of their eighth grade year. Each month the students covered a new topic and reviewed previous material. I was amazed at how the teacher used all the stages in the learning cycle, explain, extend, evaluate, explore, and engage. She made her students incorporate what they had learned into their own writing. Also, she allowed them to edit their peers writing, so they would become better at recognizing simple mistakes that are made. The teacher always provided the students with practice material, mainly from her own writing. At the end of the program, the teacher evaluated the students progress. One student told the teacher how she was able to apply what she had learned and was able to fix the mistakes she made in the past. If I was a teacher or was interested in teaching, I would follow the model this teacher provided because it explains and give details on how to help students improve their writing!