whit_harm

 This piece is from English 302 which I am currently in.  Our assignment was to write a paper about how visual elements use rhetoric to get a point across and I chose album covers.  I tried my best to go through and make my sentences more active, but we will see.

Album covers are a form of visual rhetoric created in order to sell the audience of the music world, an artist or a band and the music they produce as a commodity.  The creators of the album covers want their audience to feel connected to the artist or band and they want to create a desire within their audience to listen to and buy their music. 

The term nature is used to refer to the original condition of the natural world, completely untouched by human beings.  While the albums themselves often have little to do with nature lyrically, their album covers frequently include images of nature.  By examining the design strategies used in five album covers, this paper argues that albums utilize natural components on their album covers in order to create a pathetic appeal to the audience. While the albums seem to have little to do with nature lyrically, they utilize nature in order to depict the familiarity and comfort of nature and therefore creating a bridge from the natural world to manmade world and simultaneously form a bridge connecting the audience to the artist.  The audience they are targeting is anyone in society, but particularly those who love music and nature.  The album covers work to connect nature in its beauty and simplicity with things that are either human or human made.  The connection between nature and their music will make people apply all that they know about nature to this album that they may know little about.  

The beginning of my creative writing piece without added brush strokes. 

 Spicy, red, uncooked meat it was soft, gushy, warm and moist. This was my first home.  My more permanent residence was found by accident all because of the furfur prepared by well-worked, tired Ethiopian hands.  Warm and inviting, the water was not quite boiled, but lukewarm, perfect temperature for bath water.  The woman’s hands, fatigued after a long day, worked the ingredients into clumps sans sanitation.   Field, outhouse, market, and street, anyone of these places could have supplied her with someone just like me attaching myself to her grimy leathery hands.  But the one place you would hope would be the cleanest was actually the transfer site.  The hospital.  The woman had left her purchased food in a puddle I had been relaxing in, whose contents are another story entirely.  The bag soaked up the puddle a bit and there I transferred quite easily. I was excited by the fact that I was able to stow away on a new voyage. 

The woman heaved the bag and me onto her shoulder and walked slowly up the beaten dirt paths leading to her hut out of town.  She set the bag down along the way picking up dust, which I did not appreciate.  Finally we arrived at her hut, which consisted of a tarp, sticks and stones.  She grabbed handfuls of the food from the bag and slopped them into a rusty pot.  I waited patiently until I too was slopped into the pot. 

Beginning of my creative writing piece with brush strokes.  I tried my best hopefully it is okay! 

                     The spicy, red, uncooked meat  was soft, gushy, warm and moist. This was my first home.  My more permanent residence, the foreigner’s stomach, was found by accident all because of the furfur prepared by well-worked, tired Ethiopian hands.  Warm and inviting, the water was not quite boiled, but lukewarm making it the perfect temperature for bath water.  The woman’s hands, fatigued after a long day, worked -the ingredients into clumps sans sanitation.   Field, outhouse, market, and street, anyone of these places could have supplied her with someone just like me attaching myself to her grimy leathery hands.  The one place you would hope would be the cleanest was actually the transfer site, the hospital.  The woman had left her purchased food in a puddle I had been relaxing in, whose contents are another story entirely.  The bag soaked up the puddle a bit and there I transferred quite easily. I was excited by the fact that I was able to stow away on a new voyage. 

The woman heaved the bag and me onto her shoulder, walking slowly up the beaten dirt paths leading out of town to her hut.  She set the bag down along the way picking up dust, which I did not appreciate.  Finally, we arrived at her hut, consisting of a tarp, sticks and stones.  She grabbed handfuls of the food from the bag and slopped them into a rusty pot.  I waited patiently until I too was globed into the pot.  

    I thought it was interesting that we talked about how 6th graders explore longer sentences.   I have a few middle school girls that I mentor and they write me things sometimes.  They struggle a lot with run on sentences, because they are exploring what a sentence is.  I feel like this is a good exploration for them though, because they are going from choppy sentences to wanting to express more in their sentences.  As they try to figure out what a sentence is they stretch that.  So I thought it was interesting that we talked about that when it is something I have been observing first hand.  I am also observing that if you ask students to write how they talk, they will and you will not be satisfied with it. 

            I also liked that Barbara mentioned showing them examples in print that is huge for me to understand grammar better, so it would make sense that that is the best way to teach it.              

            I think also learning what subordinating conjunctions means, that you are comparing two unequal things is big for me as well.  I feel like knowing that the two things you are comparing are unequal and that is when you use the subordinating conjunctions is important. 

             I loved the Gary Provost poem.  I feel like I am very guilty of having my sentences be the same length, so that is something I need to work on personally.  Often times I am afraid to write too long of sentences because before I was very guilty of run on sentences.  So in order to avoid that entirely I often just write short sentences.  That can make me sound very uneducated and childish.  But it is to avoid going on and on as I usually do. 

            I enjoyed the mini lesson; my favorite part was the comment on how introductory elements are about being courteous to your readers.  That is a common theme for me throughout this class, realizing that punctuation is more of a courteous thing, and we all want to be courteous right? It was important for me to realize that what you are saying to reader in an introductory clause is that, the rest was fluff, and here is what is really important.  This makes me think a lot more about using introductory sentences more often to make your points be enhanced.  

I have always been confused on what a compound sentence is and I am glad that we clarified that in class.  That it is not just compound verbs but that is it two separate sentences chained with an and or another coordinating conjunction.  I feel like the FANBOYS, for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so will help me remember the coordinating conjunctions better.  I never knew that there has to be a comma before all FANBOYS. I had always been taught about having a comma be before but, yet and or.  The rest of them I have misused for my entire writing career by neglecting to put a comma in between there.  I feel like I always used them correctly in a series, but not always in compound sentences.  This will help me to realize when to use them, but I also hope that I do not go too far and create comma splices. 

I feel like our second discuss about Cordeira’s article was interesting.  I feel like the second half of the article reinforced the idea that every attempt to figure out how to use punctuation shows how they are learning, and it makes me believe even more that a lot of time the long process of trial and error is needed for them to figure it out in the long run.  I feel like as teachers we need to let them make those errors, and not punctuate for them.  I thought it was interesting that the article said they punctuate based on a set of hypotheses formed based on prior experience. If we go back after they wrote something and punctuate for them then they did not learn in the situation what they needed to do.  We took their learning experience from them so it would be quicker for us. 

I feel like I do not think about punctuation very often, other than in this class.  Which could be part of my problem with punctuation.  I do not really guess and form hypotheses I just do what I have always done.  I have never really thought of punctuation being a signal to the reader more than being just a constraint to your writing.  I think that I always selfishly thought punctuation was for me, and that is why I did not care about it as much as I probably should have.  That is why I often have a hard time editing my own papers, because I know what I want to say but not everyone else knows what I am trying to say.  It is hard for me to see my writing through someone else’s eyes at times.  I think that to think of punctuation in a more unselfish way or being the connection between the reader and the writer is a better way to think about it from now on. 

Cordeira says that punctuation depends on negotiation and effective writing is the result of good judgment.  But my question is how do we teach our students in the classroom how to use good judgment in punctuation?  How do you teach someone good judgment?

 I think it is sometimes hard for me to tell the difference because transitive and intransitive verb sentence patterns, but applying them to the Daily Evergreen helped it sink in, even though I am extremely slow at it! Thinking about how transitive verbs carry something (a direct object like the transit system carries people) and an intransitive verb does not have to carry anything helps me out a lot in remembering the difference. 

Prepositions are one of those things that have always evaded me, I always think things are prepositions that are not and things that are prepositions are not prepositions, kind of a problem.  I was a bit confused in class when the explanation for preposition was they are positioned before a noun or a pronoun and they can show position or time, or they can indicate a comparison or connection.  I was confused at the time what are they comparing or connecting? Now I understand that they were connected and comparing and explaining the time or space an object is in, or a noun.  The diagram with the plane was kind of helpful, and I realize that prepositions are a closed word class, but are those all the prepositions there are?  (To, toward, above, near, behind, by, beside, below, under, into, over, across, beyond, into, through, beneath, in, for, past, around, of from, within)  It seems like there may be more.  It is kind of sad I don’t know this but I know them better in French than English and that is kind of weird.  I feel like I have learned more about French grammar in the past than English grammar. 

I enjoyed our discussion of Dora Learns to Write and in the Process Encounters Punctuation by Pat Cordeiro much better than the last discussion.  I feel like our group is small enough that one big circle worked rather nicely.  I enjoyed the Dora article, because I think it is really important to look back at how students first learned to write, even though we are secondary.  It helps us understand our students better.  I meant to mention this during the discussion but there was not a good time that it fit in, but I worked in a kindergarten class my senior year of high school and there were several students who had similar struggles as Dora.  One girl did the period thing in the middle of her words, and her teacher let her do it until she was able to spend more individual time with her the next day to help her figure it out.  The teacher was very patient and I think that is something I was lacking while I was helping out because I just wanted to teach her the correct way to use periods.  But the teacher explained that it is kind of like most life lessons, you do not fully understand it or grasp it until you figure it out on your own.  Which is very true, so although I am not a fan of letting it go on for a long time, but I feel like students need to experience things for themselves sometimes, we can cram it down their throats but they have to come to the realization on their own at times.

 I enjoyed the Socratic circles exercise we did this week in class.  I feel like for the most part as a group we kept on the good side of the list of discussion behavior.  Only every once in a while someone looked like a dead fish and was not contributing as much.  I had never done a discussion quite like this one.  In my English classes in high school we did circle discussions, but there was no one on the outside of the circle.  At first I was confused why we would not all be involved in the discussion.  But I feel like as the second group, through our observations we were able to learn and build off of the first group.  It was also interesting to listen to a discussion and not try to think about what you could say to be a part of it, but just pay attention to them.

I think the thing that stuck out the most to me from listening to the first circle was that someone said, “We have to motivate both those who love to write and those who hate to write.”  I feel like sometimes I remember the people who hate to write and revolve my lesson ideas around them, and I forget there are students out there that love to write and my lesson ideas need to be interesting to them as well (which I would hope they would find them interesting too).  But it is just a good thing to remember who is your audience, who are your students, and how do they feel about the subject matter of your classroom. 

I also feel it was interesting to hear people talk about oral vs. written communication and how some people need to write out what they are going to say before speaking.  I have a girl I mentor and she is very, very shy.  If you ask a question and she writes it out she is more likely to answer the question.  Which has always been interesting to me, but it is neat to see how writing can affect someone’s confidence. 

I also really liked the part in the book that talked about how grammar cannot be isolated and that is learned by application.  Someone mentioned that you learn to write by writing and learn grammar by writing, revising and editing.  I think that is a great way to teach our students by doing.   My question is then do you have a small lesson on grammar before they revise? What would you guys do? We all kind of agreed that word classes were important.  I know we talked about not shoving grammar down their throats because it can stifle them in some ways, but what do they need to know to revise effectively?  They could probably revise without a lesson on grammar, but would it be helpful to them to catch more errors, probably yes.  My fear is that may make them out only to catch errors and then when they are writing their next piece they will be afraid to make errors because someone else is going to catch them.  I am sure it could be fine but I am just wondering what other people think about teaching them grammar after they have written a piece and are about to edit.

 In response to the question. Why do you think it’s important to teach word classes? 
I feel like it is important to teach word classes because then a student is able to figure out the uses of each word and that can help them to make educated guess what words mean that they do not know.  I feel like then it helps them not to misuse words.  

  

            I have learned a lot about apostrophes this week, they are something that I have never really thought extensively about.  That is how most of the grammar ideas in this class are to me; they are things that I have never really analyzed individually, but know their general function. (But mostly I just hope I know their general function and am using them correctly.) I did not previously know that there was an old rule and a new rule for apostrophes.  I had never seen the old rule, “Chris’s.”  But I think if I ever saw that I would probably be confused, because it does not look right.  I am glad Barbara said not to show students the old rule and the new rule, because I feel that could get confusing.  I also think it is interesting that each publication has a different, which is an interesting concept.  It would be much less complicated if each publication had the same house style, but it would be difficult to coordinate.  I do not think I have ever looked at a headline’s apostrophes and wondered if they were wrong, it is interesting, but just not something I normally look for in publications, but I probably will now. 

            I already knew about the word classes, but I had never thought specifically about what makes them the word class that they are.  I really enjoyed learning about the questions to ask to classify what class the words are in.  For adjectives, knowing the question, “Which one?” and “How many?” will not only be a great teaching device for students, but I think it will help me to more rapidly classify words.  I also feel like the test sentences will be helpful and make word classes seem less foreign to students if they are confused on what class words are in and for me as well.

            One thing I am kind of confused about is the move ability test for adverbs and adjectives.  It makes sense that the test is adverbs can move around in the sentence and adjectives cannot. Although, I feel like in middle school our teacher taught us that we were not supposed to put adverbs at the beginning or end of the sentence.  She said that was not the proper way to use them, but I may have just been confused by her advice.  I was just wondering, if it is okay to have adverbs at the beginning or very end of a sentence?  I had always received the impression that this is looked down upon in the world of grammar. I am not sure if my teacher in 7^th grade just did not want us to use them, for she feared we would get adverbs confused with adjectives and completely mess it up.  I wish she had taught us this move ability rule and had gone over the differences between adjectives and adverb in 7^th grade it would have been very helpful to get rid of any confusion in the future.

 Grammar and I have never been friends, as you will probably be able to tell as you read this.  The thing that always gets me is the comma.  I am horrible at using them, as in I rarely use them at all.  That is a constant mark on all my papers.  It is not that I do not know they exist.  I just forget to use them.  Often times I just get so excited to get my thoughts out that I forget to slow down and put them in.  Even when I reread my papers I still cannot always see where a comma is needed.  I am sometimes afraid to use commas sometimes because of the possibility of creating a comma splice.  So I become indecisive on what to use at times. 

 The other thing that I am very guilty of is run on sentences.  This problem is heavily related to the above problem.  I just get going and keep going and going.  I feel like sometimes I do not know how to properly use alternate forms of punctuation other than periods.  Unless I am a hundred percent certain I do not attempt to use other punctuation marks.  I feel like if I knew more about all the different punctuation marks, then I would feel more confident about using them.  I remember freshmen year of high school, one of my English teachers told us that unless we knew exactly how to use semi-colons then we were to avoid them like the plague.  So since that day I have probably only used a semi-colon a handful of times.  I feel like I would have appreciated it a lot more if the teacher would have discussed how to use a semi-colon and thus adding another punctuation mark to our writing tool belts.  But oh well.  I think her purpose was to not get us so focused on the little parts of writing but to go for it and start writing.  Which some people might focus too much on the details, but for me I neglect the details far too often.  That is why I have such a problem with grammar.  Often times I find myself thinking that as long as someone can read it and get the idea of what I wanted to get across, then I am fine.

 Ironically, this spring when I did my three-week practicum, the teacher I was working with had me teach the grammar lessons.  She gave me worksheets she wanted me to teach off of.  This was super intimidating for me, to teach a subject that I myself do not feel confident in.  But I felt like through teaching these lessons I learned a lot more about grammar.  I have always felt like I missed the grammar lesson in elementary and middle school.  The students in her class knew the grammar worksheets like the back of their hand.  This was an interesting situation for me, because I felt like they knew more than I did.  Anyways so I hope to focus on commas and punctuation, but I really need help with everything in general.