Techniques and Special Effects

For this week's blog I focused mainly on Noden's chapters. I always find his techniques interesting in the way of painting pictures through writing. The five points that I wanted to mention this week are the following: Mixed collage for a Humorous Effect, Painting with Run-ons, Painting Images with Analogies, Creating Special Effects with Punctuation, and Shape Poetry.

Noden begins explaining his section on creating a mixed collage for humerous effect with the idea that it "increases student awareness of the rich specific details that surrounds us if we just take time to observe" (106). By using nouns and a series of adjectives used as nouns it transforms the piece into something more powerful for readers. In the example that Noden uses from Seinfeld, the different sections of nouns and adjectives were repeated with "if" which made it more of a list added to the original description. In my opinion, the list reiterated the fact that could have been stated in one short sentence. However, by continuously reiterating, the list seemed to expand infinitely, making the idea seem more important.

The third chunk of Noden's chapter on Advanced Techniques, is Painting with Run-ons. I found this interesting because I have always found run-ons to be annoying. But as Noden explains,  "run-ons are powerful when used skillfully by professional writers" (107). Separated by commas and even a dash, Noden uses an example from Tom Wolfe to "replicate the frantic feeling of taking off in the F-100" (107). The use of run-ons in the sentence works perfectly and flows so nicely that it's sometimes hard to recognize that this paragraph is ONE sentence.

For the twelfth chunk of Noden's chapter, he describes Painting Images with Analogies. Noden begins with "An analogy is a comparison of two very dissimilar things, one of which is easy to comprehend, the other difficult" (118). When using an analogy, Noden points out that the complex idea is clarified with the simpler concept in an analogy. Personally, I thought it to be pretty difficult to come up with an analogy on my own. However, I appreciated the examples that Noden used for the chapter.

In chapter 6 of Noden on The Artist's Special Effects, I found his section on Creating Special Effects with Punctuation to be really interesting. Using punctuation differently in the same sentence shows the "relationship between the length of a punctuation pause and the intended effect" such as with the example Noden uses (126). There are six ways Noden is able to create a different effect for each sentence without changing the words, but rather the punctuation. The six ways are the following: Maximum separation, Medium Separation Emphatic, Medium Separation Anticipatory, Medium Separation the semicolon, Minimum Separation, and Zero Separation. "Each choice of punctuation communicates a slightly different emphasis" (127).

Finally, my last point that I wanted to focus on was Noden's description of Shape Poetry. Here, writing poetry in a specific sphape "attempts to capture meaning beyond the content of words by shaping the words on the page" (133). Again, I thought this to be extremely difficult to do myself. Before even reading the example that Noden gives on John Hollander's poem, the reader can see this his poem is in the shape of a swan in a lake with the reflection of the swan shaping the end of the poem. Ironically, the name of the poem is "Swan and Shadow."

Until We Meet Again, Adverbs & Adjectives...

As a writer, I am always compelled to use adjectives throughout my work, whenever possible. I have always liked using adjectives because of the detail that they add to a story as well as the idea that adjectives create a vivid picture in the reader's mind. However, contrary to my belief, Anderson has much more to say about both adjectives and adverbs.

Two points that Anderson starts out with when talking about adjectives are adjective strings and adjective clauses.

Anderson suggests that too many adjectives, that create an adjective string, take away from the sentence. Instead, when using back to back adjectives, it is better to only use two at a time per sentence. This way, details are still added and getting the point across without taking away from the original  meaning of the sentence.

Next, Anderson introduces adjective clauses. Anderson explains that "an adjective clause works like a multiword adjective. It describes whatever is to the left of it, usually a noun ...and are usually introduced by relative pronouns such as who, whose, whom, which, that, and where" (135). Anderson also adds that it is important to know which pronouns to use when using an adjective clause. For instance: which refers to things and animals, who, whose, and whom refer to people, and that ususally refers to things.

The next section that Anderson includes in this chapter is about adverbs. More specifically he explains adverb clauses as well as adverbs and conjunctive adverbs.

Anderson begins that adverb section with "adverb clauses tell why, how, when, and under what condition things are or were done" (138). AAAWWUBBIS!!! He continues to explains how well AAAWWUBBIS adverb clauses work for titles of songs, tv shows, and books.

Finally, Anderson explains the uses of adverbs and conjunctive adverbs. This specific part of speech is mainly used best for transitions. Adverbs in particular "help guide a reader through a writer's ideas, signaling a contrast or comparison, or supporting an idea" (140). Whereas, adverb conjunctions transistion more towards new ideas being presented, as in, in between paragraphs, such as however or of course.

Multigenre paper?!

Although I was not in class last Thursday night, I decided to keep up with my blogging and educate myself with what a Multigenre piece of work really is. After reading other blogs that were posted as well as googling "multigenre papers" I discovered that this way of writing seems to bevery appealing to me and maybe even my future students.
I have never written, nor have I heard of Multigenre papers and the idea of centralizing one idea using mulitple styles of writing and perspectives is fascinating to me. There have been many times that I have written research papers, 7-10 pages long and by the 5th page I felt bored with my own topic. However, after reviewing what a multigenre paper is, I feel as though this is my opportunity to finally get all of my and other critic's ideas out onto one piece of work.
The freedom to write about one topic using different, even conflicting perspectives is definately an advantage to me. I feel as though writing this way will help diminish my anxiety of writing a formally structured paper. Because this paper is so informal, the ideas that I have for the paper will be easier to express.

Introducing.....PRONOUNS

Anderson's chapter on Pronouns: The Willing Stand-Ins outlines different strategies that are helpful for teachers to instruct to their students the importances and differeces between pronouns, as well as the uses of apostrophes. I especially like the way Anderson was about to outline the different points of view that prouns are used (First, Second, and Third person).

The section about Marking Text-- In Reference to Pronouns is a great sample of how students can learn to discover pronouns within writing. First, the students are able to recognize which point of view the excerpt is told in. By noticing that the piece is in first person, the students are then able to identify that pronouns such as he, she, it, we, and us will be used in order to refer to something or someone else. What I found most interesting was the group activity the teacher had the students do. Anderson states "In groups, students find pronouns and put boxes around them. Then, students draw arrows back to whatever the pronouns are referring to (their antecedents)" (106). I find this helpful because it gives students a chance to read through a piece and physically recognize which pronouns are referring to what antecedents.

Again, Anderson points out agreements within pronuns by listing pronun words used singularly, plurally, and pronoun agreements that be used both singular or plural. Anderson states that "whenever possible, we should be gender inclusive" and adding that "changing single subjects like student to students will save you from this problem" of using strictly male pronouns (107). An activity that I really found helpful dealing with singular and plural pronouns was Anderson's Where Have All the Pronouns Gone? Here, the pronouns were removed and replaced with blanks for students to fill in the appropriate pronoun using the provided slips of paper from an envelop.

Another interesting point I found of Anderson's is his section on The Case of the Pesky Pronoun. Here he is able to explain to students a trick to ensure they are using the pronouns I or me in the right order when adding in another person to their sentence. The error sentence reads: Me and Javier went to the holiday dance. Because this is wrong, Anderson teaches the student the trick that the guest always goes first. Then it reads: Javier and me went to the holiday dance. In order to know this this is the correct agreement, Anderson says to read the sentence without Javier and. Since the sentence doesn't sound correct as: Me went to the holiday dance. The student is then able to realize that the correct sentence should read: Javier and I went to the holiday dance. I struggle with this concept myself sometimes but after reading this section, I believe I will keep this little trick in mind.

In Noden's text I found the way he outlined the different ways of writing introductory leads to be very interesting. Not only in my non-fiction writing but in my adacemic writing as well, I struggle to come up with a successful interesting opening statement or paragraph. Reading about the different introductory leads gives me a lot of insight on how I can spice up my introductions when writing. A few that I found the most interesting were Noden's suggestions of the Question Lead, the Imagine Lead, and the Statistical Lead.

Overall I believe that both texts are helpful to improve student's writing. Anderson is able to clear up any complexities or confusion by giving tricks to understand the concept of pronouns. Noden, on the other hand, describes the many ways that an introduction paragraph can be intriguing by adding facts or getting the readers attention with visual aspects.

For this week's reading I found a few points worth explaining:
1. Variations of Imitation
2. Keeping a Writer's Sketchbook
3. Paint from a Family Photo
4. Search for a Personal Voice
5. The Visual Scaffold of Double Negatives

To start I want to start with a quote from Noden about Imitating Without Plagiarizing when he states "Used properly, imitation internalized writing techniques that students can later apply in infinite ways. However, imitation is a dangerous precipice above the abyss of plagiarism" (79). However, as Noden explains, it is very important for students to realize the difference between imitation and plagiarism. The Nora Roberts' example in the text fascinates me... first off that anyone would even think to duplicate Nora Roberts' work like that and think that they could get away with it and secondly, Janet Dailey basically COPIES Roberts' work but adds a few more words or changes the action but ultimately says the same thing as Roberts.

This leads me to my first point about the variations of imitation. I liked the idea that Noden presents by reading a passage for students to listen to and give them the important points about the reading. By the next day when the students are instructed to rewrite the passage the original reading is no longer a strong influence on the students. Therefore, by using the given notes the students can come up with their own ideas and effective ways of creating sentences. There are so many ways to rewrite sentences but even I can get caught up relying on the already said text that lies in front of me. Somehow I can't find the right way to reword something when something else says it so much better. It becomes very frustrating and I have to just come back to it later. By the time I come back to it, much like the students used in the example, I am no longer influenced by the original text and my notes help me contrive a new sentence.

I liked the strategy of keeping a writer's sketchbook. I know it sounds lame but I always find myself on bright sunny days wanting to write or read something inspiring. Even when it snows I find the beauty in nature and want to express myself about it through writing. I'm not sure what I would come up with in the end, but just as Noden explains "[artists] capture moments of inspiration for future reference" (92). I may not be able to finish a novel about the weather or how I am feeling on that particular day but the little moments that I write down may inspire me down the road and bring me back to that day and that feeling.

To further emphasize this point, my next point about the strategy, painting a family photo also can be used to inspire writing. From what I have learned in my Creative Non-Fiction Writing class, we have been taught all semester to choose ONE scene from our life. We are not to go off in a tangent about what this scene means to us or the history behind it. Rather, we are to explain through details and emotions this one scene in a creative way that even our readers can imagine themselves there in that scene as well. One activity that we did in my class that relates to this strategy was to explain a time  time that was no longer than five or ten minutes where something drastic happened. We were not to introduce any background information or what we look back at this scene now as. For example I write about the day my boyfriend asked to officially date. However, I did NOT explain the whole day or even where we went on our date. I simply described my emotions and the SHORT build up to the ultimate question.

This guides me to my fourth point; Search for a personal voice. Again, another strategy I have learned from my non fiction writing class. Personal voice helps the reader relate better to the reader by what Noden says the "conversational tone" (97). By the example from Cathleen Conry, the reader can tell that she is very dramatic. Her use of dialogue shows a conversation between friends while also inviting her own interpretations of the conversation.

Moving on to my final point about Anderson's visual scaffolding of double negatives. First of all, I did not realize that "barely" and "hardly" are considered negatives. However after coming up with an example such as "The food is not barely there" it in fact does not sound correct. Something that I found interesting from this chapter is when it talks about how "Some languages, such as French and Spanish, use the double negative" (Anderson 77). I took a French class and that always confused me because I am so used to NOT using double negatives that now I had to, but only because that is how French is structured. As Anderson adds "This is an opportunity to teach students about the formal and informal registers of language, and how they are handled differently in other languages, without disrespecting student dialect" (77). And just as Anderson goes on, he begins to explain these different registers and the uses of language between family in one way and how we are expected to talk in school as the other. Which is correct and what does this mean about how we are being taught?

Relating to Grammar

After reading chapter four in Weaver’s book on “Teaching Grammar Throughout the Writing Process” I became intrigued because of the similar process I am going through in my Non-Fiction writing class. In my class we are taught to simply look at writing for the words on the page. When doing this, we as readers are forced to mentally picture what is going on in the piece whether its fiction or non-fiction. An example that I found in Weaver’s chapter was when she states that “Connie presented a number of examples of how words ending in –ing can add details after a noun as well as before” (59). By doing this, “it illustrates grammatically the concept of an –ing word describing a noun” (59). I find that adding –ing words before or after nouns intensifies the writing, doing exactly what Weaver describes as illustrating. The visual picture while reading is very important for the reader to feel connected to the writer.

Another thing I found interesting was the idea of organization. Weaver states on the same page about –ing words that “Connie also talked about organization and the idea of leading up to those items that are most important, so they are the final images in the reader’s mind” (59). Again, mental imagery is significant to the reader of the piece. We also talk about this concept in my non-fiction class while trying to develop an appropriate way of jumping into an action without excessive background information. However, something I found new was Connie’s idea of the colon to further describe “that something is coming—in this case, descriptive phrases modifying the previous noun” (59). I really found it interesting that such a simple punctuation could be so useful and powerful in writing, especially while describing something in more detail.

However, something that I have noticed and can relate with Weaver is that teachers need to learn to let their student’s writing become their writing, not the teacher’s. If the teacher is constantly editing a student’s paper, the student will eventually rely on the teacher to fix all of their mistakes and ultimately make their paper the teacher’s work. However, this does not make or teach the student to be a better writer. A quote that I picked from Weaver explains “At some point, idiosyncratic for each individual, we need to stop helping students revise and edit: Learning is our goal, not a perfect paper. Students need to consider the new things they have learned (or almost learned), bask in the glow of what they’ve accomplished, and publish the piece in some meaningful way” (61). Eventually, I believe students will become better writers by distinguishing their own style of writing within their own work without the constant correction from a teacher.  

Finally, another relatable topic to my non-fiction writing class is the writing workshop. Especially at the time during the semester, instead of reading other author’s published work, we are now able to fend for ourselves as we use what we have learned to create our own piece. However, in order to know how readers react we have established a writing workshop. This workshop helps the author in the class hear feedback from their peers and understand how they portrayed your writing.

 In Weaver’s chapter she presents three interesting ways of conducting a writing workshop; Minilessons, Focus Lessons, and Teacher conferences. I find teacher conferences to be most influential. Along with my peers (acting as the teacher) I also am able to see the perspective of my professor’s reaction to my writing. In other classes that the professor uses teacher conferences to look over papers, I have found those conferences to be the most memorable. Although initially I am nervous because of the idea that my work in the spotlight and my ideas are the main focus, I am also able to receive honest uninterrupted feedback about my skills in writing.

The fifth and final topic in Weaver’s chapter is the teacher’s act of demonstration. Weaver explains that “Teachers should not only talk about a particular grammatical issue and introduce a related skill; they should demonstrate that skill in their own writing” (67). I feel that by doing this, the teacher isn’t simply copying from a book but rather she is relating her own faults with her student’s, letting them know that grammar mistakes are common and can easily be fixed and detected. Weaver says that “it gives students a chance to conceptualize how the skill is being applied and includes the teacher in the writing community” (67).  By doing this, it shows students that grammar mistakes can happen at all levels, no matter how experienced or inexperienced the writer is. Grammar needs constant revision at every level of writing.

The Dreaded Red Pen

For this week’s article, the first sentence that caught my attention was “To us, intensive correction is the standard, responsible, professional way of responding to a piece of imperfect student work” (Zemelman 1). I instantly began to think about the activity we did last class period as well as our assigned homework to edit other student’s papers with (ironically) our own red pen. I felt as though my corrections were more negative than positive which is exactly what the article went on to explain. Teacher’s red inked corrections make students feel overwhelmed and they rarely go back to improve due to embarrassment.

One part of the article that I found interesting was that “most adults remember their English teachers as people who made them feel bad about writing and about themselves” (Zemelman 2). Although I could not personally relate to this, I know a few that can. I grew up loving English class for many reasons. However, I know that adults and even students today look negatively to their English teachers. From the time I began to notice this trend of “hating English and English teachers” I wanted to change that, helping others realize that there are positives to English. This article helped me realize how I can help establish that positive effect, even in my corrections to student’s papers.

On the teacher side of this issue a quote that stood out to me was “The stories are legion of teachers who pridefully announce their idiosyncratic and arbitrary rule: ‘I’ll read tour paper only until I get to the third error, then I’ll stop and send it back’” (Zemelman 2). This particular quote made me think about my hours of field experience at my former high school. I was shadowing a former English teacher I had had and realized that her grading was very similar to this concept. I remember her telling me that for the research paper drafts that her students were working on she would only go to the second page (of about 5 or 6 pages) and mark the errors only on those first couple of pages. My first thought was, okay maybe YOUR work load is getting done faster but are the STUDENTS improving from this method? Even I could suspect that the errors the student made on the first page may not be the same in the concluding paragraph.

A positive aspect that I found from this article was that “in real life we rely very little on external evaluation and much more on practice—unmonitored, unsupervised, uncriticized practice—as the key way of learning almost everything important” (Zemelman 3). I strongly believe that practice makes perfect and that the practice does not necessarily mean constant correction of errors. Therefore, using the example of the music teacher, “Even when the teacher is evaluation, she does not stop the student to point out and criticize every single misplayed note or passage. Instead, the effective music teacher is selective—she skillfully focuses the pupil on a few problems at a time, one that are within the student’s teacher to attend to and correct (Zemelman 4).

Ultimately, after reading this article I began to look at the student papers we had for homework more positively. I told myself to read completely through them rather than begin marking the very second I see a need for correction. Once I did that I added in suggestions rather than simply crossing out a section. Finally, at the end of each essay I made a list of about two or three suggestions or room for improvement ideas. This article definitely let me see error correcting in a new and more positive light.

Grammar in the classroom?

As we discussed on the first day of class, most of our grammar education from elementary to high school was taught from a textbook. I will be the first to admit that I will agree with Weaver in her chapters about being taught from a textbook should not be the chosen path. The textbook examples, from what I remember would focus on whatever the chapter was about, whether it be about verbs or  about prepositions it would only focus on those topics for 5-10 short pages of activities and examples. I, as a student would simply copy from the example and never really learn anything.... but does that make me too illiterate to write a ten page paper?

Weaver states that historically "Grammar became the chief subject of the trivium , studied intensively because it was considered the foundation of all knowledge ...conscious knowledge of grammar was thought to be a prerequisite for understanding theology and philosophy as well as literature. Furthermore, 'grammar was thought to discipline mind and soul at the same time'" (18). Due to these beliefs in the educational system, grammar was taught as a separate subject in order to focus on parts of speech and word choice as well as specifying nouns, verbs, and pronouns. However, since grammar was being taught as a separate subject, it took away from the process of writing in combination with the subject of grammar. By the end of chapter 2 we learn that although still today teachers continue to teach grammar separate from writing the ultimate winner in this situation has no actual solution. It is the student's ability to write well is because of the wide range of reading which includes the rich use of language. However, the goal is to influence students to read such material while also improving their writing and grammar simultaneously.

The three P's of grammar I found to be very interesting as a future teacher. Weaver explains that "Teaching grammar to enrich and enhance writing is teaching grammar as possibility. We see it as positive, offering options rather than focusing on errors; as productive, especially in the sense that it produces effective sentences and paragraphs that flow; and as eminently practical" (26). To me, this explanation is being able to see grammar in a new light. In order to effectively write a paper, grammar is absolutely necessary. Teachers must positively reinforce the skills of grammar to adequately produce a practical essay or paper. I believe that the three P's are a great way to explain to my students why grammar is so important when learning to structure a paper or why it is important for writing in general.

Inevitable Changes

While reading the various articles for class discussion, I found each one to be uniquely interesting. Learning about the history of the English language has always been an interest  of mine. I find it fascinating that the words that we use every day have so much history behind them.
In Paul Roberts' article A Brief History of English we learn that simple words like wine, cheese, and church come from Latin during the time of the Roman Empire. I also found it interesting that during all of the revolting between countries and cultures becoming united that language had a big influence on it all. Something that I did not realize was that the history of the English language was divided into three periods named Old English, Middle English and today's Modern English. Knowing how much the English language has changed over massive amounts of time shows how much of an influence language, at any rate, is. Lastly about Roberts' article that I found interesting was my own influence with the French language and how many aspects are transferred to the English language. I know that many words that we use today derive from the French language but I did not know that originally many of the words came into English that had to do with government, church, or literary words.
The next article we were to read for class was Bill Bryson's article titled Good English and Bad. This article explained the structure of a sentence and how it is formed. The article emphasizes the importance of nouns, adjectives and verbs. What I found interesting about this article was that "in 1780, in the midst of the American Revolution, John Adams wrote to the president of Congress appealing to him to set up an academy for the purpose of 'refining, correcting, improving and ascertaining the English language'" (519). Later, other proposals like this were formed but it took years for an agreement to be reached. A great quote that I found from the article is that "When this process of change can be seen in our lifetimes, it is almost, always greeted with cries of despair and alarm. Yet such change is both continuous and inevitable" (520). I found this fascinating because it shows that change is consistent and the challenge of stepping up to actually change something may come with a struggle but will and can happen over time. For instance, the way we structure a sentence today has greatly changed since earlier periods. An example that the article uses is "Why would 'you' take a plural verb when the sense is clearly singular? The answer-- is that Robert Lowth didn't like it. 'I'm hurrying are I not?' is hopelessly ungrammatical but 'I'm hurrying, aren't I?' --merely a contraction of the same words-- is perfect English" (522).
The third and final article that I chose to read between the two choices is Scott Lehigh's  It's Like, EXTREME, but not GROSS. The article basically states how our language has evolved over time into approximate meanings, ignored tenses and limited vocabulary. Again, another great quote I came across was  "All languages evolve, of course, and as a living, organic form of expression, youthspeak is no different" (554). This was reflected upon the use of "like" in sentences said by youths of today in order to describe things. I have always wondered myself why we say "like" so much and I hate when I say it in conversation. To me it sounds unprofessional and that I am stumbling over words in lack of a better definition of something. I agree with Lehigh when he states that "Certainly those on the front lines, the educators who teach writing and literacy, think there has been a real diminution in language skills" (555). As a future educator my goal for my students is to properly teach them the language of English and hopefully break their habits of "like" or perhaps even prevent these habits from happening. However, it is not surprising to find out that the biggest influence on these habits over time has been television as the main suspect. I think many would agree that people would rather watch a play than read the script. Therefore, television has influenced us to take the easy way out but shortening our vocabulary and influencing less emphasis on reading.
I found each of these articles to be unique and interesting. Finally, some material that I have always wanted to dig deeper into learning about. This is a great first step into learning more about the history of language and the words that we say and use on a daily bases without a second thought. Even now, the words that I type on this blog fascinate me after reading these articles. How did I know how to structure these sentences? What verbs did I use? How did my word choice help get my point across? Interesting......