Well... this time around I made one of the same mistakes I did the first time, which was not having enough written to get good, sound advice from my reviewers. I only had an outline because I had put it off until the day before it was due, but was called into work. There were other students who had the same issue, so I hope that they also learn from this mistake so that they can get more out of the next (if this is one) peer review.
I did provide more time to review others's papers, which not only allowed me to provide more feedback, but also allowed me to think more about the choices that others had made. Last time I had almost no time, so I noticed quite a difference when I reflected on my own work with their choices in mind.
Using Wetpaint made it easier to read more paper, but it also allowed for some students to not have anyone (or very few) people give them feedback. I only had one reader, which was less than ideal to say the least. Again, because I had so little to be given feedback on to begin with, I'm not sure it really matters.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
First Impressions
I know that this blog is late... but to be honest, it would have been impossible for me to do it on time since I didn't buy the book until a few days ago. Now that I have actually sat down and read it, I am a bit surprised by how few people seemed to like it. It wasn't exactly enjoyable, but I didn't find it a particularly difficult read. Taking it in small chunks helped ease the monotiny of it, and also gave me the time to let it sink in.
The first thing that struck me about this book is the use of the word "Style" in the title. This book is geared towards a very specific style as it currently stands, as opposed to dicussing different styles, or even "stylist" writing. Instead, it is almost completely concerned with what I call "academic writing", or the writing of something where the point is to share an idea as concretely and obviously as possible. To me, writing stylistically involves some flowery language, some metaphors and apstract ideas, and other, more cereibal, devices. A book that claims to discuss and teach "style" should be more open-ended and encompassing than this. I recognize that the last chapter touches more on this particular aspect, but it seems almost as if it were added as an after thought.
However, this book is extremely useful for the "academic style" of writing. It gives advice on ways to make writing more clear, more direct, and more bold. This can be great for college papers, publications in academic journals, resumes and business related writing, etc. It teaches the "correct" way to write, which helps you appear more professional. In a similar vien, the chapter on commonly misused words was useful, and sometimes even interesting.
Finally, I think that the size of the book is both conveinent (who could stand to keep reading more material like this?), and a good illistration of the writers's point. Failing to follow a rule in the same paragraph that you are using to illustrate the rule is so distracting that the reader is more likely to remember that the writer was hypocritical than the actual rule itself. Had Strunk written too much, then he would be breaking his own rule of "Omit needless words," which is a commonly stressed thread throughout The Elements of Style. The rule is a good one when you do not have to meet a certain length quota, and because so many teachers do enforce a specifed length, it is a rule that almost all students not only break intentionally, but are almost forced to learn to NOT follow the rule.
I don't believe that I will consult this book nearly as often as I could, or probably should, but I feel that having read it once has given me a lot of things to think about and reflect on in regardes to my writing.
The first thing that struck me about this book is the use of the word "Style" in the title. This book is geared towards a very specific style as it currently stands, as opposed to dicussing different styles, or even "stylist" writing. Instead, it is almost completely concerned with what I call "academic writing", or the writing of something where the point is to share an idea as concretely and obviously as possible. To me, writing stylistically involves some flowery language, some metaphors and apstract ideas, and other, more cereibal, devices. A book that claims to discuss and teach "style" should be more open-ended and encompassing than this. I recognize that the last chapter touches more on this particular aspect, but it seems almost as if it were added as an after thought.
However, this book is extremely useful for the "academic style" of writing. It gives advice on ways to make writing more clear, more direct, and more bold. This can be great for college papers, publications in academic journals, resumes and business related writing, etc. It teaches the "correct" way to write, which helps you appear more professional. In a similar vien, the chapter on commonly misused words was useful, and sometimes even interesting.
Finally, I think that the size of the book is both conveinent (who could stand to keep reading more material like this?), and a good illistration of the writers's point. Failing to follow a rule in the same paragraph that you are using to illustrate the rule is so distracting that the reader is more likely to remember that the writer was hypocritical than the actual rule itself. Had Strunk written too much, then he would be breaking his own rule of "Omit needless words," which is a commonly stressed thread throughout The Elements of Style. The rule is a good one when you do not have to meet a certain length quota, and because so many teachers do enforce a specifed length, it is a rule that almost all students not only break intentionally, but are almost forced to learn to NOT follow the rule.
I don't believe that I will consult this book nearly as often as I could, or probably should, but I feel that having read it once has given me a lot of things to think about and reflect on in regardes to my writing.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
My writing technologies.
In my daily life, I use the computer for almost all of my writing needs. Good ol' pen and paper doesn't work as well for my needs, because my handwriting is so poor that I usually cannot read what I've written. This makes the computer a god-send, but also i can work while I surf the net or listen to music, so it isn't just about legibility. I actually do like writing using pen or pencil and paper, but it is less useful, and I am a much faster typist. Over the years, I have phased out blogs like Livejournal and myspace, and instead just concentrated my writing for more scholastic purposes.
What is style
Style.... Style is the overall way who you are or what you do comes across to others. In dress, your style is the appearance that you convey of who you are and what you like to wear. In video games, if you play according to a certain style, you are more likely to do certain things than others, which, again, means that your style is acting as an overall description of how you go about doing something. Just for reference, the dictionary defines it as "a particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)