Chelsea's Summaries and Responses
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Chelsea's Style Respones
Response #1
This chapter was about the writing styles of people today. People seem to be more focused on using large words and ornate sentence than on whether or not people are able to understand what they are actually reading. They also touch down on what specific groups of people tend to write like this. It seems to include occupations such as philosophers, doctors, scientists, and lawyers. He even includes how when one of the greatest writers George Orwell tries to criticize the intense confusing writing style discussed, he also uses this style of writing himself.
This chapter was really well put together. I felt that it explained a lot about why certain people write the way they do. It also made me feel a lot better about the fact that I have always had a hard time understanding writings and articles about those certain topics. The only problem that I had with this chapter was his hit on George Orwell, I have always found that Orwell was an easier read than other writers of his time. One of the main things that was touched on was why people write unclearly, and that was because of audience. I felt that it was extremely helpful that he put this in the chapter because sometimes its hard to remember who you are writing for or who will actually read your paper.
I really liked this chapter because it opened my eyes to what are the reasons that people and articles are written the way they are. He explains that most of the most unclear writings are higher educated persons holding more educationally challenging jobs. To me it makes sense that these people would write something that I would not be able to understand because they have not only years more worth of education but also that much more experience under their belt. When those people write papers they are writing them for their peers to review not the public. Although a lot of time I wish they would write a more simple explanation or short summary of their medical findings or new laws that are being proposed so that the public could understand what is going on with out having to read the article without an open dictionary at their side.
--good work here. In general, some grammar nitpicking, but structure and content look perfect.
Style Response #2
In this chapter Joseph William discusses how to clarify your sentences to your audience. He explains that the audience might think your sentence is dense if the subjects in that sentence have been replaced by nomilizations. A nomilization is when a person takes a verb and slightly changes its form or places it in a certain spot of the sentence. Some examples of this are taking the verb discover and changing it to discovery, or react to reaction. By using words like these as a subject the meaning of your sentence might become lost or skewed. He then talked about how to revise your paper to see if it will fit your audience. He teaches us to diagnose, analyze, and revise. He wants you to diagnose your paper and make sure the sentences are clear enough to the writer. Then analyze to see if the structure makes the subject clear. Finally to revise your paper to fit what you found to be the problem.
I found this chapter extremely helpful. I tend to use nomilizations as subjects in my sentences. The fact that he used children’s stories and political statements to show how people can write unclearly makes it a lot easier to relate to what he was trying to say. It also showed that this needs to be done for any style of writing whether intellectual or entertaining. The best thing a person can do when attempting to teach someone something is to use examples, and Williams fills this chapter with perfect examples to fully explain what he is trying to teach.
This chapter made me realize what can make or break a good sentence. When I try to get fancy with my wording I always tend to lose the original idea of the sentence. This chapter taught me how to go back and check over my work and make sure what I am writing is clear and to the point. It also showed me that a lot of times when one does actually put their subjects out of order they are really changing the entire sentence. By having your subject in the wrong location you could maybe even change the meaning of that original sentence.
Style Response #3
Chapter five in Style covers how to not only make your individual sentences clear and easy to understand, but to be able to weave all the sentences of your paper or story together. It explains how to coherently link sentences together so that the reader will not only be able to follow it, they can do so without getting lost. A way shown in the book to make sure a paragraph is cohesive the end of the sentence should present and idea that will relate to the beginning of the next. All the while to make sure that the paragraph is not only cohesive but coherent. To be sure that your paragraph is coherent have one main topic throughout the sentence. This chapter also explains how to be able to review your paragraph from an outside point of view so that you can get an idea of how your reader might view your paragraph. This is helpful so you can find out if the it makes sense to other people who will read it.
This chapter helped pull together all of the other chapters that we have read so far. He was able to relate this chapter back to the others through references there for making it easy for the readers to understand the topic. Williams helps his audience learn what he is trying to teach by fully explaining with a long list of examples and what is the correct way and what is the incorrect way to write sentences.
After reading I was able to realize what could have gone wrong with my paper after writing it the first time. There were some extremely choppy points in it and I could figure it out until I finished reading. After that I went back to my paper to see if I correctly introduced my new information in my paper in a way that made sense. I also checked to make sure that my paragraphs flowed in a way that did not go off topic or stray from my main point.
--well done.
no style response 4
no style response 5
