What It Is

If I tell you that I think the sky is blue today, my statement leaves room for you to wonder if the sky is actually blue instead of grey or some other weird and unnatural color simply because I have used the words “I think.” Using other language, such as “I believe” or “It seems to me” or “I feel,” also gives the reader ample reason to question what you’ve said.

The sky is blue today. There is no doubt in that statement. I have stated it as a fact, not something that might just be all in my mind, merely a thought, and possibly not even true.

The writer of an essay is expressing his ideas on a given subject. There is no reason to cause readers to question what is said. Consider the following two directives:

1.      James, I think maybe you should feed the seagulls.

2.      James, you must feed the seagulls.

Which one is more likely to convince James to feed the seagulls?  The first sentence might well leave the birds hungry and squawking for free corn chips and pieces of bread since it is just a thought, not a clear statement of what James must do.

“That’s what you think,” James might respond.

Other lines that weaken essays are those that tell the reader that the writer is going to say something. “I will tell you” or “I am going to write” or “I will describe” -  all of these announcements of intention are unnecessary fillers. Just tell the reader, without first telling him that you are going to tell him.

Straightforward statements convince the reader that what you have written is backed by your authority and knowledge. I believe I feel that’s maybe what I think anyway.

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

 

Believing in Yourself

Self-esteem is an idea whose time seems to have come; but according to my old Aunt Christie, it wasn’t always expected that people would admire themselves much at all. The difference, according to Aunt Christie, has to do with accomplishments that lead to feeling good. She said, “It’s like ‘counting your chickens before they’re hatched’ when you feel great about yourself without having done anything to prove yourself worthy of esteem, your own or any other’s.” In fact, Aunt Christie appears to think that feeling a bit unworthy acts as an impetus to force a person to strive to achieve a goal (maybe just to avoid feeling unworthy).

I can see the points she makes; but there are other factors to consider, such as believing that you can reach a goal and trusting that you are capable of attaining success in the field you choose. You don’t have to be a braggart or be ostentatiously vain, but it is an excellent idea to give yourself credit for the ability to determine a course and stick to it, gaining the skills you need as you continue. A middle ground, a compromise might be to first tell yourself that, yes, you are worthy of esteem and are able to do what you decide to do to prove that worth.

Before I ever got near the beach with a surfboard, I couldn’t say that I was a surfer. Once I learned, however, I could say, and feel right about saying, “I am a surfer.” What I did tell myself before I began was that I could learn. I had enough self-esteem to try.

Pride in something actually accomplished is ever so much better than words without deeds to back them up. Whatever it is that you seek to do in your life, giving yourself a boost by telling yourself that you do have the ability to try is just the kind of beginning point that leads to actually doing the work it takes to succeed.

Having self-esteem is a starting place, an attitude that can give you the confidence you need to begin to work and plan a path to reach your goals.        

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

The Literacy Narrative

A narrative is a story, and literacy has to do with reading and writing. When students are assigned to write a literacy narrative, they are expected to write a personal story connected to their experiences with reading and/or writing. What, you may now be asking, is the difficulty with that? You remember learning to read and write and know your own life’s story, right?

To begin, determining who the reader will be is crucial because the story you are telling needs to connect with your audience. Tales of your life and times that you share with your friends at a party differ from those you choose to tell your grandmother at dinner or your boss at work. Keep in mind that your instructor hopes to read an essay about your learning experiences, your path to literacy.

Another consideration is to decide what event (or events) along the path of your literacy journey has significance. Did a given moment change you? Do you remember a turning point connected to reading or writing?  Did you realize something important or find a new way to regard learning at a certain time and place?

Your purpose for writing and your attitude, both revealed in your story, are also important. Once you decide what you hope the reader will discover in your story (the purpose), you then need to decide whether to get your message across by being serious, funny, wry, or any number of other attitudes you might choose.  Choosing an attitude adds a level of interest to your story and lets the reader perceive how you feel about the event(s).

Details and examples should be included, as is usual for essays. I could mention that a book I read had an impact on me; but, if I say that I read Moby Dick while sitting near the ocean with the sound of the waves coming to shore in my ears and visions of white whales in my mind, the details help my reader picture the moment.

Once you’ve made your point, given your literacy narrative life and color through descriptions and details, and expressed your personality through attitude, then you’ll be close to completing your assignment.  Be careful near the end not to tack on “The moral of the story is….” Instead, throughout your essay, give the reader a chance to find meaning in each paragraph, the true significance of your experiences unfolding all along the way.

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

A Rule of Thumb

Even if there is no need for a colorful design on a surfboard since it won’t change the basic utility of the board, it is often nice to have one anyway (maybe stylized birds or fish in shades of green, yellow, and blue with a few strong black or red lines for a sharp contrast).

In sentences, some information is like a surf board design, extra bits of information added for interest but not necessary for the basic meaning of the sentence. There is, big surprise here, a punctuation rule for essential and non-essential phrases and clauses, AKA  restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses or phrases.

To quickly determine whether or not to punctuate a clause or phrase, one rule of thumb, so to speak, might be to just place your thumb over a group of words in a sentence, perhaps qualifying adjective or adverb phrases or clauses with colorful descriptions. If the sentence reads clearly and makes perfect sense without the group of words covered by your thumb, then set the temporarily hidden words off with commas. The clause or phrase is not essential and doesn’t restrict the meaning of the sentence.

A couple of examples - destined, I hope, to appear in my mind soon - should help clarify all I’ve said so far:

·         The sunlight glinting on the waves, much like tiny touches of starlight, fascinated her. (Nonrestrictive, Nonessential—use commas)

·         The sunlight glinting on the waves fascinated her because it reminded her of starlight. (Essential, Restrictive—do not use commas).

In the second example, a necessary reason is given for her fascination – because it reminded her of starlight. In the first, the same idea of starlight is not necessary for the sentence to make sense, although it also tells the reader why she was fascinated.

For further information on clauses and phrases, please visit the SWC handout section at http://www.delmar.edu/engl/wrtctr/handouts.html.

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

Is it or is it not Ironic?

Before beginning this blog, I asked two SWC Student Assistants how they’d define irony. Both said that they could give me examples of irony but not a solid definition off the top of their heads. One said irony would be when a stressed out person lit an aroma therapy candle to reduce stress and wound up burning down the house. The other said it’s ironic that they can come up with examples of irony but not definitions.  They are both right. 

 

The most common form of irony occurs daily when we talk to each other. Verbal irony happens when what we say means something else entirely. Generally, those with whom we talk get it, know that we are saying one thing and meaning another. When the wind is very calm and the waves are uselessly flat for surfing, I know my friend is being ironic if he says, “Killer waves today for sure!” Generally, verbal irony has an element of humor, a way of making subtle fun of a situation or another person. Sarcasm and satire nearly always depend upon ironic humor.

 

In literature, dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows more than the characters do and perceives that what is happening is far different from what the characters think is happening. One example that most of us recall is when Romeo and Juliet both die at the end of the play when they might have lived happily ever after if they had only known what the audience knows.

 

Tragic irony is almost the same as dramatic irony except that the term applies specifically to tragedies.

 

When the discrepancy between what the audience knows and what the characters know is sustained throughout the entire work, the term structural irony is used because the piece is structured – built – upon irony.

 

Romeo and Juliet, often considered  star-crossed lovers, fall victim to  cosmic irony, the term used for a twist of fate, a turn of events unanticipated and usually (or unusually) cruel, a destiny  governed by forces outside the characters’ control.

 

The terms dramatic irony, tragic irony, structural irony and cosmic irony are mostly reserved for literature, but verbal irony comes into play often in our everyday lives.  It is likely that you will come across at least one instance of verbal irony today, and you’ll most likely see the humor involved in a disconnect between what is said and what is actually meant.

 

When asked to describe irony in a story or other literary work, focus on dissimilarities between dialogue or events and their real meaning, especially when you know that if the characters had a clue, there might be more happy endings.

 

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

Why Compare?

Why do authors often use symbolism, metaphors, similes, and other devices when they write stories or poems? Language itself is a way to name what we perceive in the world, so it follows naturally that writers take naming a step further to add color, form, texture, etc., to their work. They inspire readers to imagine, to feel, and to react to the writing.  Even writers who are not inclined to the literary form, scientists, for instance, use symbolic language to give non-scientist readers a clear idea of what a complicated concept means by likening it to something people can more easily envision.  Analogies and other comparisons give nonprofessionals a way to understand scientific findings without knowing in full the special vocabulary of a particular field of study: physics, chemistry, biology, or others.

You can also incorporate literary devices into your writing, and it is often a good idea to do so.  You can add depth to your commentary by using analogies and similes. If you feel especially brave (foolhardy?), you might use an extended metaphor, which is to continue a metaphor past a one-time comparison of two things and extend it for several sentences or throughout the whole essay. I could write a blog on some basic features of a structured essay by telling my readers that the thesis statement is a ship, topic sentences are its sails, and transitions are the winds that move the ship in a certain direction. I could extend the metaphor further by calling the writer the captain of the boat. Perhaps happily, I won’t write that particular metaphoric  blog; but I wonder if readers would have a  mental image of The Good Ship Thesis essaying across the Sea of Syntax with transition breezes billowing in the topic sentence sails  to move the ship north, northwest .

While such comparisons can be effective, the danger of extended metaphors - as well as other devices -is that they can also appear contrived, fake, or even go so far off base that they seem ridiculous to the reader. The apt phrase, the right likeness, the perfect analogy, however, works and is worth consideration because when used well, they add fabulous fathoms to the writer’s voyage.

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

Gazing into the Mirror

One reason I love the beach so much is that it gives me a place to pause and reflect. Some days, it’s always good to think about what we’re doing and why we’re here. It’s at those moments where we discover ourselves and our place in the world. By the end of it, sometimes I see myself in a new light that I never imagined before.

Reflection also has its place within the writing process.

While it might seem easy to get something out in a single draft and be done with it, we may not always think about what we’ve composed. There are times in writing where the process of reaching the end isn’t immediately clear to us. Sometimes we write to meet deadlines or to fulfill the expectations of others, and that’s perfectly normal. Sometimes we write because we have something to say, and the words flow like a slow and steady stream. However, there are other times that we write because we have to; the words compel us, and we have to get them out of our heads and into the printed form.

However it is that you write, be aware of the process you’re using to get to this point. While the rules—what writers consider their craft—are clearly laid out, each of us has a personal process that is unique. For instance, if you prefer to write first drafts by hand and type later, that’s part of your process. Other people may compose everything on the computer, including notes and prewriting, and that’s also a part of personal process. You may not necessarily be consciously aware of every aspect of your process, but it’s there.

Try to be aware of your writing habits, your preferences, and all the little rituals that you use to get an essay done. If you realize that you prefer blue notebooks and not red, perhaps the words may come out better than you realized. If it helps you become a better writer, embrace it. Make yourself aware of the small changes that improve your process. Think about why the small change made a difference. And if it didn’t, then make a note of that, too—if small changes don’t affect your style, that too is part of your own process.

At some point, you may be asked to write a reflective essay. Reflective essays are nothing more than just a brief explanation of your process of writing. It may seem to you that you’ve learned nothing from repeating the steps you use to write. Then again, maybe you have. Maybe the process of reflection may help you to discover something about your writing style that you didn’t know before.

Be open to the idea of reflecting on your own writing, and see where it leads you. You just might surprise yourself, and even become a better writer along the way.

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