Say it again, Sam?

My old Aunt Christie used to regale us with tales of her childhood. My favorite story is the one about a joke that drove her uncles and her aunts up the wall.

She would say, when she was about six, “Pete and Repeat were sitting on a log. Pete fell off. Who was left?” Her uncle or aunt, any one of them playing along, would reply, “Repeat.” Then little Christie would laugh and laugh and say again, “Pete and Repeat were sitting on a log. Pete fell off. Who was left?”

After a while, five minutes or so, the uncle or aunt of the time would grow tired, but Christie kept on and on. She totally loved the joke and would tell it again and again…and all over again. Not knowing that the joke might (and did) grow stale, she just wouldn’t stop. Her family was nice enough to indulge her…some of the time.

The term redundancy comes to mind when considering both the joke and a decided tendency of writers to fall back on something they’ve already said and then say it again when they’ve run out of anything new to add. Trust me – repeating the same idea becomes tiresome for the reader very quickly.

My advice is the following:
· Double check supporting examples and do not use the same one over and over again, even with slightly different phrasing.
· Review each paragraph to be certain the gist of it is not basically the same as a preceding or following paragraph.
· When a new thought fails to appear, set the essay aside for a while and come back with a refreshed brain - and something new to add.
· Check, double check even, for often repeated words; they often (get it?) indicate repeated ideas, not always, though.
· Finally, read what you’ve written as if you’re reading it for the first time to make sure you’ve kept it interesting.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

"Hang Ten" or "Hang 10"?

Math Friends, the fact that the word “numb” is contained in the word “numbers” is purely coincidental. If your brain goes numb when the question of whether to write “2” or “two” is asked, rest assured that there is a rule in English to guide you.

Use numerals when the number is over two words long if spelled out. For example, if I wanted to write 5,897,321, it would take many more than two words to write the number: five million, eight hundred ninety-seven thousand, and three hundred twenty-one. Whew.

Like clouds rolling in to hide the sun, exceptions to the above rule come to chill anyone who thinks one rule suffices for all occasions. The first exception comes when a writer is using data, etc., that is expressed with many numbers. In that case, no matter how many words are involved in spelling out any given number, use all numerals. The data is easier to read and is consistent that way. Addresses, room numbers, percentages, and dollars and cents are also written in numerals.

The second exception involves beginning sentences. There’s another rule that insists that a sentence has to begin with a word. If your first word winds up being a number like 5,897,321 and you’d rather not have to spell that out, change the wording of your sentence so that the number comes somewhere else in the sentence, somewhere after the first word.

What more can I add?
· Compound words (“five-year-old cousin”) or fractions (“one-third”) should be spelled out.
· Numerals should be used for numbers that would take three or more words to spell out.
· Lists or series of numbers are also written in numerals.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten, not 10!

Now is the Right Time

You read the book a week ago, someone else is reading it right now, and still another person will read the book someday far into the future. If you are given an assignment that requires writing about the book, however, it doesn’t matter when you read it (as long as you read it in plenty of time to write about it for your assignment). Discussions of written works are supposed to be written in present tense, also known as literary present tense.

There actually is a reason for the rule that says that writing about writing is done in the present tense. Books, plays, movies, poems, and other literary works are considered to exist in a timeless place; but when referring to them, there is a given time – it is always right now, in the moment, in the present. The logic behind this convention is that even if you read the book five months ago, well into your personal past, the book still exists in the present and continues to do so in the future.

Exceptions to the rule come into the mix when writing about subjects other than literature, though. For some disciplines (science, math, history, etc.), the convention or preference of instructors may be for their students to use past tense, at times even when the students are writing about something they’ve read for a course.

While you probably won’t need to ask an English teacher whether or not past tense is acceptable when writing about written works (the answer is definitely “no”) other instructors may not may insist on the traditional rule. It’s best to double check with individual instructors and verify requirements before composing an essay.

What is likely to happen when you quote from a book about which you’re writing? You’ve probably heard that it’s wrong to mix tenses in a sentence; and it’s equally probable that the quote you’ve chosen to use will be framed in past tense, since most stories are written in past tense. Again, exceptions occur. Continue to use present tense in your own discussion of the literary work.

A sentence that leads into the quote might go something like this:

The author of Zee Book tells the reader his character represents joy when he writes, “Zee loudly proclaimed that she’d never before known such terrible happiness.”

The tenses are mixed, yes, but there is a logic that continues throughout your paper. You have discussed the book and provided evidence of what you say through a quote about the character in present tense, while the quote from the book in past tense flows along without confusing the reader.

As long as you keep to a pattern, that of using present tense for discussions of written works, there won’t be strange or awkward tense shifts in your paper.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

The Useful & Graceful Pronoun

Unless someone figures out a way to travel into the past, it is probably impossible to know exactly how and why pronouns came to be a part of our language; but they certainly do play a useful role when it comes to writing. Compare, for instance, the following two passages, one (1) using pronouns and the other (2) written as if no such things as pronouns exist:

(1)The seagull flew to its favorite perch on the bay front and claimed ownership with a loud cry. It glared at all the other birds gathered nearby. It was determined to hold its place as it waited for some shrimp boats to arrive.

(2)The seagull flew to the seagull’s favorite perch on the bay front and claimed ownership with a loud cry. The seagull glared at all the other birds gathered nearby. The seagull was determined to hold the seagull’s place as the seagull waited for some shrimp boats to arrive.

The first version is easier to read than the second, and the second version sounds strangely stilted, lacking grace. Pronouns are useful!

A grammatical point to add here is that when using pronouns to refer to animals, birds, insects, snakes, fish, any creatures other than human, if the gender is not known, using the pronoun it is correct. If someone is talking about Princess Daisy May la Belle, however, the pronoun she is probably the right choice, provided the people who named their dog Princess Daisy May La Belle were sticking to traditional masculine and feminine forms for names.

When Daisy May La Belle saw the glaring seagull perched near the bay front, she barked madly at it until her master corrected her.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

Sentence Variety

Children’s poetry is often written in an unvaried sentence structure, each sentence repeating the cadence of the ones before. For instance, “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are? / Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky” not only rhymes but also has a pattern of syllabication and sentence structure. While it is easy to remember lines such as these, it is not a great idea to write a college essay without variation in sentence structure.

There are basically four different sentence structures: Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound/Complex, and it’s a good idea to use all four types in compositions (Sentence Structures);

To keep a reader’s attention, variety is necessary. An essay composed of simple sentences only will soon have the reader nodding off, no matter what the content of the essay might be. An essay written solely in compound/complex sentences might result in brain overload for the reader. Good writers avoid endless repetitions of the same kind of sentence structure and use all four types so that their readers remain alert and focused.

One way to add interest to a paper that happens, for unknown reasons, to be a series of simple sentences is to combine sentences, thereby adding variation and liveliness to the writing.

"I went to the beach. The sun was shining. The waves were great. I spent hours surfing."

A good day sounds somewhat dull when described in the four simple sentences above.

If I combine the four simple sentences, perhaps the moment will seem more exciting.

"I surfed for hours when I went to the beach because the sun was shining on great waves."

Even that doesn’t truly capture the moment, so I might consider adding adjectives and adverbs to make the day come alive for the reader.

"I surfed in the zone for hours when I went to the nearly deserted beach where the sun shone brightly on amazingly great, sky-blue waves."

A clearer picture emerges with both sentence structure variety and words and phrases that modify.

Good writers generally use all the ways the language allows to inspire their readers to think and to imagine. Varying sentence structure and using modifiers are two ways to keep the readers’ attention from wandering away to peaceful daydreams of sunlit beaches with waves that reach as far as the clear blue sky.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

New Beginnings

We don’t have a long and cold winter in South Texas, but we’re glad to know that spring is on its way, even so. New green and growing plants all over the city, time to head to the beach and feel sunshine beaming down… good things happen in the spring.

Another good part of spring is that the Stone Writing Center remains a rock of support for writers in all disciplines on campus and online. You can send a paper to our expert and receive a reply via email in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. You can even submit a quick question and get a faster response.

If you’ve not come to see us yet, maybe I can give you an overview of what to expect when you do visit in person.

You’ll notice immediately how polite, knowledgeable, and welcoming the Student Assistants are. They’ll be the first people you see, and they’ll sign you in to use our computers (loaded with Office 2007, wifi connected) or schedule you for an appointment with one of the tutors. Any one of the staff will answer questions you might have. You’ll also notice an array of handouts, hard copies you can pick up and keep. The topics range from how to cite sources to information on grammar and literary elements. All handouts are written by SWC staff, and they’ve condensed information very clearly and succinctly. You can also find all of our handouts online (Handouts).

The computer lab is quiet, the equipment is up to date, and you are allowed to print your papers here. Tutors and Student Assistants are in the area to help if you have computer questions or writing questions. You can also complete a lab (Labs) make-up here.

Tutoring sessions are face to face with professional Writing Consultants who read your paper and talk with you about your writing. Mostly, we like to make sure you have higher order elements in place, thesis statement, topic sentences, unified paragraphs, etc., but we will point out lower order areas, mechanics problems if there are any, and show you how to fix mistakes with commas and such. It’s against our rules to proofread papers, but we do let you know if there are errors and show you ways to identify and fix them. Some students come to talk with a tutor even before they start writing just to clarify assignments or get feedback on the ideas they have for an upcoming paper.

The SWC‘s Boot Camps (Boot Camps) are great for reviewing and improving all things related to writing, from grammar to essays to research papers. It’s one more way for students to prepare for college level writing.

The SWC is among the first writing centers established in the country, and we have kept pace with the times. You’ll see us on Twitter, we have podcasts, and we have a professional on-line tutoring service.

Spring is a time to renew and to do something new. We hope to see you here or on line. Welcome, from the Stone Writing Center.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!

Happy Holidays!

As the semester is winding down, I would like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes."

~ William Makepeace Thackeray

I hope that, once finals are over, you will be able to reflect upon the joy of writing. Take up your pen during your resting time between semesters and see what thoughts may emerge.

Happy Holidays!

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! My next entry will come at the beginning of the Spring 2011 semester. ‘Til then, hang ten!