AGall's Blog

The Key Elements of Style

2004-07-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

There are numerous ideas that I've collected from both Joseph William's book Style Toward Clarity and Grace and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. Although both books are considered reference book, I feel that they provide substantial, valid information for writers looking to improve on their own writing experiences. While Strunk and White's Elements serves as a series of commands, Williams Style provides examples pertaining to the professional world. Each of these books has provided me with substance about the key elements of writing.

There is a large focus on making paragraphs thorough, using the active voice, using concrete language, using correct terminology or simple words, forming transitions between paragraphs (flow), and keeping similar ideas cohesive in both The Elements of Style and Style Toward Clarity and Grace.

According to Strunk and White writers should make the "paragraph the unit of composition"(15). In order to compose a complete paragraph, writers need to have a topic sentence or a transition sentence that thoroughly describes what the paragraph is about. They believe that single sentences should not be published as a single paragraph because it has no purpose. In order to keep the audience's attention, we need our paragraphs to flow and move from old information to new information. As Strunk and White point out, "In general, remember that paragraphing calls for a good eyes as well as logical mind...Moderation and a sense of order should be the main considerations in paragraphing"(17).

In Williams book Style Toward Clarity and Grace, he explains that a well ordered paragraph consists of two main elements, subjects/characters and verbs/actions. Without a topic or subject, the readers may get lost in their understanding of the material. With a character or subject that precedes a verb, and then the verb that precedes the object, the reader has a sense of direction. Williams also discusses flow. Flow is the fluid order in which sentences are arranged. This includes the order of subject, verb, object, and the order of old information to new information. He believes that old information should start on the left, and the new information should be introduced on the right. In other words, we need to transition through the paragraph by discussing a previous idea, and connect the new information to the older idea by way of writing.

In both of these books, I feel that there is an emphasis on using the active voice. Both Strunk and White, as well as Williams believe that "Active sentences encourage us to name the specific agent of an action and avodie a few extra words" (Williams, 37). But for the most part, Williams believes that the passive voice is easily revisable. He notes that sentences can be changed from the passive to the active, where as Strunk and White do not really take notice of this claim. Overall though, both books discuss the advantages of using the active voice.

Besides using the active voice though, Strunk and White and Williams discuss using concrete language, as well as simple terminology. In both The Element and Style, we as readers may notice that concrete language makes writing easy to understand. Not only are we to "omit needless words," but we are to focus on maintaing a topic and focusing on that topic throughout the entire paragraph. Since each paragraph is made up of many sentences, Strunk and White and Williams break down sentence structure by focusing on the concrete langauage and simple terminology that allows readers tomake connections to the reading. It is through this break down that both books help writers recognize who their audience is, and how direct their writing can be.

The last two elements of style that seem to be quite important to Strunk and White, as well as Williams are paragraph transitions and cohesivness. Both books discuss that "flow" is necessary to keep the audiences attention. If the reader cannot understand what the topic of the paper is, or how each paragraph transitions, they'll never understand the purpose of the writing. In order to keep our audience happy, I feel that writers must focus on transitioning and cohesiveness. By relating back to our topic throughout the entire essay, readers will have a great chance of understanding the writing they are faced with.

Overall, style is unique to each and every writer. We talked earlier about how style is not unique and how it does not vary. By unique, I mean that every writer starts out with a particular set of rules that have been introduced by numerous experts on writing. Whether they use every single rule, or only focus on particular rules to appeal to their audience is their decision. So I feel writing is to each his/her own.

Let's Talk About Other People's Blogs

2004-07-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I truly enjoyed reading other peoples blogs discussing the earlier blog assignments. I found that Sarah Bentley's and Heather Powe's blogs were very similar to my blogs. The three of us seem to have pondered a bit about Joseph Williams Style Toward Clarity and Grace, but have found his writing useful in the correction of our own writing. Much like Heather I found that "Williams helped me with some issues that Strunk and White did not even mention in their book such as; length and rhythm throughout a paper, and clarity on sentence structure." I found that Strunk and White's Elements of Style to be much simpler and easy to follow, but for the most part, I feel that Williams gave me the greater advantage to becoming a better writer

Although Williams helped me clarify some of the simpler ideas presented by Strunk and White, I feel that he went further than just helping. Much like Heather's blog, Sarah's blog discussed the advantages of the Williams text. Sarah explains that "Williams has a way of showing and clarifying how to apply the advice given. It does this by giving several examples that explain how to use the rule in a variety of contexts, showing the reader that rules are flexible, and may be at times broken." Although Sarah is discussing the ease of application by Williams, she is also explaining that by using sufficient examples and offering different suggestions, readers have more opportunity to learn and grow from their writing. I feel that Williams uses his examples in a context that applies to the "real world". He does not offer a book full of commands like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, but rather he offers us the opportunity to read examples that make change more clear."

Like both of these young ladies, I feel that Strunk and White did an excellent job of putting a reference book together that covers the basics, and that provides readers with simple, yet concrete examples. But who really wants to be commanded on the "proper" way to write?? Yes, there seem to be rules about grammar usage, but overall it seems that Williams explains in Style Toward Clarity and Grace, that rules are made to be broken. Not all writers follow every specific rule, and it this defiance or reluctance that seems to add style to their writing. But as Sarah says, "The book by Williams is a much longer book, with many examples, and flexibility in all advice given."

Both these books have a purpose. Although both are considered reference materials, Strunk and White proived the basic "Dick and Jane" scenario that allows students to better process the "rules" of grammar. While this book serves the greater good of young writers, it does not provide examples that are sufficient in the "real world": enter Williams. Joseph Williams takes Strunk and White to a second level by applying informative examples that deal with real life situations. Both books teach writers how to be concrete and decisive, but each book maintains it's own personality.

Joseph William's Style Toward Clarity and Grace Vs. Strunk and White's Elements of Style

2004-07-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

In Joseph William's book Style Toward Clarity and Grace, we learn quickly about many common errors made by writers. After reading the last half of this book, I've found that Williams is much more specific and concrete in his writing. He provides readers with sufficient examples of how to appropriately correct their work, or revise their work with the intention of portraying the same meaning. In my first entry, covering William Strunk and E.B. White's book the Elements of Style, I thought I had found great examples to make my writing more concrete and definite. But after reading Style Toward Clarity and Grace, I found myself thinking of Strunk and White as an introductory book to the William's book. In Joseph Williams chapter on Clarity, he provides concrete examples that are relevant to the writer in their every day use of writing. One example he uses stems from his sub-section Subjects and Characters. Williams explains that subjects and characters giving meaning to writing. He says, "There are many kinds of characters. The most important are agents, the direct source of an action or condition. There are collective agents:

     Faculties of national eminence do not always teach well.

secondary or remote agents:

    Mayor Daley built Chicago into a giant amoung cities " (27).

Although Williams believes that subjects and characters are important, he also recognizes the need for verbs and actions that accompany those subjects. Without a subject and character followed by the verb/action and direct object, writing will seem unclear and confusing.

The second subject I focused on after reading Strunk and White's The Elements of Style was the misuse of common words or the use of larger words to sound academically superior. Again, I feel that Style Toward Clarity and Grace gave more concrete and specific examples that we as writers can use in everyday writing. In chapter seven on Concision, Williams discusses the misuse of large words, as well as small words to represent larger words or phrases. I really liked how he broke everything down into sections in each chapter, but this chapter in particular was a great help. He talks about redundant pairs, redundant modifiers, redundant categories, as well as meaningless modifiers, pompous diction, and complex wordiness. My favorite idea is taken from his section on pompous diction. Williams says, "Replacing unnecessarily formal words with more common ones may not reduce wordiness, but you will make your diction sharper and more direct...
   There is a common word for almost every fancy borrowed one. When we pick the ordinary word we rarely lose anything important.
Sometimes, of course, the more obscure, more formal word is exactly the right one" (118). After reading Williams section on Concision, I believe that by focusing on clarity through common words, writing will be less repetitive. What most readers look for is a piece of writing that "flows". Although the word flow is not technically defined we can appreciate that our reader wants a piece of writing that is easy to comprehend and relate to.

Overall, I feel that Williams did a more thorough job of breaking down the common errors of writing. He provided sufficient examples that readers can connect to because each example has been used in professional settings. He does not use "Dick and Jane" sentence structure to portray his point, but rather he provides concrete writing for a professional audience looking to improve upon the writing that already exists.

Joseph William's Style Response #1

2004-07-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

After reading some of the short excerpts pertaining to the Education Program at Eastern Michigan, I was a bit disappointed. After hearing such fantastic stories about educators produced in this successful program, I thought there would be much more enthusiasm outlining this particular section. Instead, I read this particular passage in the 2000-2001 Eastern Michigan University Online Undergraduate Catalog and felt a bit dismayed.

Our programs have received a number of national recognitions. We are fully accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and approved by the Michigan Department of Education. In almost every instance where a program-specific national recognition exists, we hold this recognition at the highest level.

Below are my revisions of this passage:

The Eastern Michigan education programs are recognized nationally through numerous accreditations. Such accreditations include the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Also, Eastern Michigan's education programs have received full approval by the Michigan Department of Education. If a national, program-specific recognition exists, Eastern Michigan's education programs, maintain a high probability, of holding this recognition at the highest level.

With this particular passage I combined the Clarity and Emphasis section of Joseph Williams book Style Toward Clarity and Grace. I found that this passage used a small amount of passive agents (36). To start I rephrased the introductory sentence to catch the reader's attention. I was hoping to gain interest from my reader my emphasizing the national recognition that Eastern has accrued. I felt that if the reader recognized the success of Eastern's education programs, the reader would put serious thought into Eastern's enrollment. After trying to eliminate all possible passive agents, I focused on the emphasis. I felt it needed some excitement. I turned toward Williams Emphasis section of Style for help. On page 68 Williams discusses managable endings. I wanted to trim the end of this paragraph to highlight the education programs' accomplishments. If a student reads this passage with enthusiasm, I believe that they'll focus on attending EMU for the greater purpose of becoming an educator. And like Williams said, "The voice our readers hear, contributes substantially to the character we project-or more accurately, to the character our readers construct" (79). If this particular passage peaks interest in the education program and gives substance to the reader, then the passage has done it's job.

Blog #1: Strunk and White

2004-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

There were two particular sections that I found very helpful in William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's The Elements of Style. The two sections that I would like to refer to are section II The Principles of Composition and section IV. To begin, I'd like to talk about using definite, specific, and concrete language. I really liked this particular section because I never realized how I could make my writing more concrete. The examples provided by the writers made this section is to understand and follow. When E.B. White explains, "If the experiences of Walter Mitty, of Molly Bloom, of Rabbit Angstrom have seemed for the moment real to countless readers, if in reading Faulkner we have almost the sense of inhabiting Yoknapatawpha County during the decline of the South, it is because the details used are definite, the terms concrete" (22). I've realized what a huge impact definitiveness and concreteness can have on the effects of a paper. Readers understanding will flourish, and they will be able to make larger connections. In the fourth section of The Elements of Style, I found that Strunk and White focused my attention on the various misuse of common words and phrases. My favorite entry is about the words aggravate and irritate. I never really thought about the differences between the two. But soon after reading, "The first means 'to add to' an already troublesome or vexing matter or condition. The second means 'to vex' or 'to annoy' or 'to chafe',(39)" I realized that I had been using these words interchangably in my writing. I was impressed by many things in this book, but I was also surprised by a number of things. The two most impressionable parts of the reading for me came from sections II, and IV.

My First Blog: Writing 328

2004-06-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yea first blog posting!!