What is Style? Part 2

At the beginning of the semester I was asked to define what I believed style to be. At first I labeled as one of two things: One, it could be a manner of expression for a person or group or people; or two, it could be considered a mechanic of writing that defines a work. Both of these theories essentially carry the same idea, therefore it was time for a new "definition". However, I believe that the term "Style" cannot be given a set definition now. After everything we have discussed in this class, the word "Style" has essentially become a shape-shifter and taken many forms. While at heart it is basically a manner of expression, the major factor that gives "Style" various meanings would its ability to have varying components.

To one person, "Style" could be how they write on a piece of paper, whereas another person may believe that their typing style is unique to them. Even the way the words and phrases are structured on paper (or processor), defines each person individually. In essence, "Style" is simply an individual and unique form of expression that defines each person, thus creating variation in the way our world communicates and develops.

Peer Review: The Finale

The last peer review.....I thought I would never make it to this point, but alas I am still kickin'. This peer review came at a very bad time, as everything for this semester was slowly winding down and I found myself inside a whirlwind of assignments to finish. The one thing about this peer review that I decided to do was not grammatically focus on the essay, but focus in more on the actual content. I still would highlight different things about the previous essays ideas, but I also would heavily look over the essay's grammar and structure as well. Taking this direction towards revision allowed myself to delve a little deeper into each person's paper and ultimately compare my essay to everyone's and see where I could improve areas of mine. I also noticed that this particular essay seemed to portray a different tone in everyone's paper. This likely due to the fact it was a reflective essay at heart. Overall I felt like this revision worked out despite its timing. Everyone I felt was able to pull through and give positive feedback in a timely manner considering the time.

So this blog post....

Caught me by surprise amongst everything else going on this week. No worries though!

Looking back at all of this classes prior readings there are most certainly ways that these readings apply to this collaborative movie. The one article that stands out in my mind is Ong's text. Ong's views on writing and its relationship with technology proves to be very valid once we began working on this project. When we were devising scripts and editing these movies, their were components of the writing process that paralleled the revisions aspects of making these movies.

In general, this class itself applies to this final essay. I may be making an obvious conclusion, but this class is writing, style and technology. ALL of these components serve equal importance in creating these movies and essay which both represent themselves a reflective project. The final paper simply is a way for us to express our feelings, however this final project is surely the culmination of a semester's work and progress.

YouTube/Low-bridge videos: Are they good? Are they bad? Are they writing?

Up to this point, this collaborative movie project has exceeded my expectations in regards to how much fun it would be. I have never personally filmed, acted in a movie before and I have briefly taken part in editing some videos. Therefore much of this process is relatively new to me, which is always a good thing. I feel like I am able to see how we are supposed to make connections between multimedia writing and essay writing due to some of their common components. Both require the brainstorming of ideas, as well as a revision process to hopefully fine tune a piece. However this varies from essay writing to multimedia writing because of the natures of these two types of writing. Film editing obviously entails the the physical altering of a movie or clip's status so that the filmmaker can have a sufficient product. Whereas essay writing requires the usual grammar checks and analysis of different themes in the essay works.

Peer Review 3...........The Triple Threat!

Reflecting upon my previous two peer reviews, I noticed that it was quite obvious that there were comparable pros and cons to the processes. The only con I could really determine that was present from the first two was that my essay really didn't receive very much attention from my peers. Although it would get reviewed and revised, I felt like having a smaller group allowed for more response from from fellow students. This issue was also noticeable amongst my peers blogs as well.

One area where many seemed to agree on was the fact the wiki appeared easier to work with than Google Docs. While I noticed barely a difference between the two, I could tell that many of my peers found the wiki pages more successful in terms of gaining feedback from our peers.

(Just for future reference I really think having smaller groups for the video essay revision would be awesome! having only 2 other people in a revision group allows me to spend more quality time on fewer essays.)

McCloud Part 2

I decided to take a peek at Stacie's blog post where she decided to analyze "Kittiez!".

http://www.breakcomic.com/kittiez/kittiez3.html


In analyzing "Kittiez", Stacie discussed the elements of icon in regards to the comics characters and layout. She mentions how the kitten characters can be seen as abstract cartoons symbolizing for the reader cats/ and dogs. Stacie also briefly introduces the concept of closure.

As for my interpretation of McCloud and "Kittiez", I felt like talking about how I feel that the comic displays examples of "duo-specific" word combinations. McCloud defines duo-specific words as, "Panels in which both words and pictures essentially the same meanings" (153). Often in "Kittiez", the kittens often express their current emotions through both their dialogue AND the comic's visuals.

McCloud Part 1

So I'm a little behind on this update, things are slowly winding down and that overwhelming feeling is coming back again.....any-who here we go!

The Link>>> http://www.thekitschen.net/sections/comics/finger/finger.html

This comic is essentially about a group of soldiers (who are finger puppets mind you) who are on a "lost adventure". As they are going about their ways, a "beautiful woman" comes around (a hand with eyes and a mouth drawn on it) and invites the sarge over for some 'sugar'. Soon it is revealed that this was a trap of sorts by the evil Dr. Strangeglove and his fingermans. This results in a battle where the sarge is forced to make a sacrifice in order to win this battle. He "jumps" toward Dr. Strangeglove and appears to disembody the puppets, resulting in the "loss of their legs". Finally when all seems won, Strangeglove makes one last attempt to win this battle, until he his stepped upon by the puppetmaster and then Sarge and his men are also crushed by their puppet masters hand....The End.

This comic required a few readings before everything seemed to fall into place. And after this I made a short list of some different things that I found in this comic that McCloud mentions in "Understanding Comics". For those who don't know, Scott McCloud is a comic (creator) who dove headfirst into trying to solve the mystery as to what exactly are comics? His text is a written comic about comics in a nutshell, and this approach he used was very successful in my opinion. So without further ado.....

1) As anyone can see, the puppets in this comic haven't been created with full facial structures. McCloud highlights this phenomena on page 36 when he discusses 'General Placement'. McCloud defines 'General Placement' essentially as the "sketchy arrangement or sense of shape".

2) McCloud introduces on page 66 the 'Gutter' and its importance in comics. He states that it essentially allows for the human imagination to take over. This works in many comics, however in mine I believe that this phenomena is overlooked. Much of this comic's 'plot' and sequences occur in the actual story panel's.

3) Lastly, this comic utilizes a lot of what McCloud calls, "Subject to Subject" progressions. On page 70, McCloud defines this as, " Staying within a scene or idea while keeping a degree of reader involvement which is important because it renders the transitions as 'meaningful'." I believe this comic follows this pattern mainly because of the plot. The plot is basically about a battle between two factions, therefore there is much action found in this comic.

Picturing Texts

Here is the link to my webpage..... http://alienworkshop.com/news/jake-johnson/jake-johnson-wiretap-interview

I guess to start this thing off, I will utilize Steve's initial idea and talk about balance on my web page. As the text suggests, not all visual texts need to produce/showcase symmetry to provide engaging details for the reader. As my page shows, Greg Hunt (AWS layout designer/editor) utilizes chilling asymmetrical layouts and pictures that helps keep the reader visually engaged. While some may not personally enjoy the interview themselves for content, there is no denying that Alien Workshop's designers/writers know how to create a piece that is nothing but eye candy for the reader.

Emphasis is also a key component of visual aide. As Picturing Text also points out, items like size and color in fonts and images are crucial in gaining reader interest. In this Jake Johnson wiretap interview, the editors use both normal size and larger size fonts; but it's the colors of the images and texts that set this interview apart. If this interview was laid out to a black/white color scheme and didn't vary in styles, I firmly believe that many readers who look away from this text. The vibrant and eye popping blues and pinks that go with the text/images is what snatches the readers firm attention in this piece.

Peer Review Duece

Second major writing project.....second peer revision cycle. This time around I felt like the revision process was much easier on my part due to my ability to pick out student's essays. During the first round of revision, I had to wait for my partners to post their essays; this time around I had the freedom to select essays on a "first come-first serve" basis. I also found the Wikis much easier to revise with than Google Docs because I could post messages at the bottom of the essays that would go hand-in-hand with my corrections for the student.

The one issue I found this time around with the review process is the lack of attention some essays may receive. My essay is a notable example of this, as it is now almost ten o'clock Thursday night and I have had one person so far revise my paper. Other than this issue, I felt like the peer review process has so far been a much better learning experience (personally) so far.

What Others Are Saying?

Choosing someone's blog to follow was actually challenging due to the fact I had to browse over multiple blogs. However I came across Jessica's blog and felt like there were areas of interest that clashed between us. For instance where Jessica mentions she tends to agree with using the active voice in writing, I tend to utilize the passive voice. I feel like this variant however does depend on the writer, however this is just one area where Jessica and I don't see eye to eye. It also doesn't surprise me that this rule comes from Strunk and White's book.

An area however where Jessica and I do see eye to eye on would regard the issue of forming the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's'. Now I am not saying we agree with this rule, in fact we both disregard it. I think that just adding an apostrophe to the end of a word that ends in 's' is considered grammatically correct. I just don't see why one would add an additional 's' to the end of a word.

One other thing I noticed when I was reading through Jessica's blog post resided in a particular sentence. Now while I know that my writing is nowhere near perfect, I felt like this issue should be raised. Here is the sentence:

"My decision to become a Journalism minor is the main thing that has helped me implement these rules into my writing more consistently."

While the sentence sounds grammatically correct, shouldn't it read more like this:

"My decision to select Journalism as my minor was the main thing that helped me consistently implement these into my writing."

Just throwing it out there? I wonder who would agree with my revision more? S&W or Williams? Hmmmmmmmmm.....

Comparing Strunk & White to Williams

Upon my completion of Williams' book, I felt a sense of familiarity flow through my mind. While Williams and S&W differ in terms of their guide's structure, they both offer similar theories for revision. However the processes of these similar theories differ for the most part between these writers. For example, Both Williams and S&W believe in clear and concise writing, but Williams' approach differs in regards to S&W's approach. Williams suggests that there are two main principles that help create clear and concise writing, whereas S&W offers the suggestion of eliminating needless words from a sentence. S&W also suggest to avoid "loose" sentences, or sentences with two clauses.

Williams and S&W do agree on different revision techniques as well however. S&W mention that the number of the subject in a sentence will help determine the number of the verb; a theory that Williams can relate to. Another common theme that runs through both books would be the theme of utilizing an active voice in one's work. Both Williams and S&W suggest using the active voice because it is more direct and vigorous in a work and helps catch a reader's attention more effectively.

In regards to the usefulness of Williams and S&W's different texts, I believe that both texts offer good advice in revision technique. However I favor S&W's guide for revision because of its structure. S&W wrote a straight to the point guide that is in itself clear and concise in regards to reaching out to reader's needs. I felt like Williams' style guide was more of a "read" versus a guide. This however doesn't take away from the information of Williams' book, however I feel like writer looking for an effective revision "guide" for writing will end up finding S&W's guide "The Elements of Style" more effective than Williams.

Revising With Williams

(Just to note, I do realize I am pushing the limit on getting this one done around midnight. I purchased a new laptop :] and have spent the last two days transferring files and applications.)

"Eastern Michigan University is open to students who have the potential to succeed academically as determined by a review of official high school records and/or college records. Admission to the University is based on a combination of factors including, but not limited to, the review of high school or college grade point average, high school or college curriculum and scores on standardized tests."

(The re-edit)

"Eastern Michigan University offers students the opportunity to achieve academic success simply by a review of official high school transcripts or college records. For students to gain admission to EMU, the evaluation of high school or college grade point averages and curriculum will be taken into account, along with scores on standardized tests."

I revised this passage by focusing on how the sentences flow along with a grammatical breakdown of words. I replaced words like "records" with official words like "transcripts". I also re-worded most of the passage because I disliked the sentence's flow as I read it aloud. I simply sat down for a few minutes and attempted to simplify the sentence as much as possible, all while keeping smooth flowing sentences. As Williams suggests in Chapter 2 on page 21, clear writing has two principles. These two principles are: 1) The subjects of the sentences name the cast of characters, and 2) The verbs that go with those subjects name the crucial actions those characters are a part of. I essentially tried to follow these steps in order to offer clarity to this passage.

Strunk and White: First Impressions

I must say this book was quite the read. I spent a few hours of my morning reading through this book and it delighted me when I was able to relate to many of Strunk and White's different "elements of style". However there were of course some style rules that I felt deserved a second glance and could go either way.

Of all the chapters in this book, I must say I loved chapter four. This chapter highlighted many of the commonly misused words and expressions. I especially took to the rule for "being". Here Strunk and White mention that the word "being is not appropriate after the phrase, "regard.....as". To showcase this error they introduce this sentence: "He is regarded as being the best dancer in the club." While this may sound correct to most readers, the word "being" actually interrupts this sentences flow. Strunk and White suggest removing "being", in which the sentence now reads: "He is regarded as the best dancer in the club." I for one notice a drastic change in the flow and clarity of this sentence after the removal of "being"; a correction that should be made more often. (41).

As for any rules that I may have felt were dated or misused, I felt comfortable knowing that many of these stylistic rules are still utilized by teachers to this day while editing papers. The only outstanding issue I had with any of Strunk and White's rules(which mind you is really only a small gripe) was there stance on exclamation usage. I believe that even the simplest phrases deserve an exclamation point as long as they are showing prominent excitement, whereas Strunk and White believed that exclamation punctuations should be used after true exclamations or commands (35). Here's a thought.....How do you define what is a "true" exclamation or command? What if someone just is full of emotion or says something which more urgency? Phrases like , "Well I forgot to do my homework", may seem very subtle to most speakers, but how do they know someone might be saying this in urgency, but yet not shouting? To me this rule is shady because you cannot define a "true" point of exclamation or command. I think that this rule, is long overdue for a make-over.

Peer Review Recap: Part 1

After finishing up the first peer reviews for the "Writing as a Technology" assignment, I have to say I am overall pleased with how the process went. While I received very excellent criticism from my peers, I feel like my advice was more helpful for some members. For instance, I have only gotten to review three of my group member's essays because I have yet to get linked up to the last one. And of those three essays, only two of them were complete first drafts, therefore I wasn't able to provide very much to the one draft that was missing portions. However I have to say that if there was anything I learned from this process, it was to make sure I stay on top of things and get my group members g-mail's quickly. This way I can edit their papers sooner and more efficiently.

My Writing Technologies

Sitting down and trying to think about what writing tools I utilize on a daily basis seemed like an easy task at first. I figured it would be a piece of cake after thinking for about ten minutes, then I was quick to realize that this might not be as easy as I had hoped. I felt the best way to discover this answer would be to go throughout my day as I normally would and then as I would record any notes, or data I could make a mental note of what "tool" I used. As time passed I used numerous pens and pencils to take notes in my classes, however I also found myself using sharpies and highlighters along with my keyboard as I typed away. While the sharpie and highlighter were for special occasions, I noticed that I always found myself using a pen or my computer to accomplish my daily writing tasks. And while my pen has always been my trusty companion since I was in middle school, I have spent more time typing up projects and papers on my computer than I have written notes for the past two years. Ever since I began college, my computer has been at my side almost always unless I was reading a textbook or writing down some class notes. And while I am open to trying out new ways of recording my daily tasks or notes, I must say that whenever I have been asked to color in images or write in color, I avoid this at all costs. For some odd reason I have a pet peeve about reading over words that aren't in a black or blue font....I must be crazy? Right...

What Is Style??

"Style" is a term that I believe allows for multiple interpretations and varying definitions. While Merriam Webster Online defines the term in regards to it's writing and speech relation as, "A distinctive manner of expression", I believe that the definition of "style" is in essence how one views it. To one person "style" may be just a manner of expression, while to another, "style" may be a mechanic or tool of writing/speech. While these two views of "style" may at first appear to be similar, I suggest the opposite. I feel that "style" as a manner of expression include the ways that one showcases their work (poems, journals, blogs, etc.), whereas "style" defined as tools or mechanics of a text include items writers utilize like literary devices (allusions, metaphors, etc.) or the way they structure their works (difference in meter in poems, the idea of iambic meter vs free verse, etc.).

While I mentioned before that "style" is something that varies from one person to another, there is one other thing I'd like to discuss. When I was chatting with my roommate the other day, he asked how my blog was going. I responded with the usual "Oh yea, its going good" answer, then he asked me what I was blogging about. As I explained that I was typing up my definition and view on "style" he simply looked at me and said, "Why don't you just look it up on-line and call it a day, I wouldn't put much effort into that." As he walked away it crossed my mind that my roommate's "style" may not help him get very far and from there I just smiled and kept typing...I found the irony in this situation humorous.

Sick already

Hello sinus infection! Not a fun start to the semester, ugh.

Off to the races.......

First entry for my class blog. So far this semester has been nothing but a whirlwind. Hopefully things slow down by Thursday maybe? Have to wait and see....