Why does punctuation matter?

Punctuation matters for many reasons. Punctuation is important because when there are punctuation errors in the text, it leads the reader to believe that there are errors in the writing, as well. Although it may not be true, punctuation errors show immaturity and lack of knowledge, and readers lose respect for authors that contain those simple errors. Punctuation is also imoprtant because it should be common knowledge. Punctuation is something that has been taught almost every year in school, yet some people cannot seem to grasp it. In school, high school especially, if there were too many gramatical errors in a piece of writing, students would start to lose points and their grade would lower. Students should have learned their punctuation for just that reason, but it just didn't seem to happen.

School might be like ________

School might be like home to some people. To people with a rough home life and who try to work hard in school, school might create a home-like atmosphere for them. School might be like home to the one girl that has everything at school - sports, academics, friends, boys; but at home she lives a very different life. To her, school is where she rules, and where she feels strong. While home is considered warm and comforting to some, school might be considered warm and comforting to others.

School is not like ________

School is not like home. It is not a place that makes me feel happy. School here is not like high school. College is not like a sunny day - it doesn't make me feel warm, nor does it brighten my spirits and put me in a good mood. Actually, it does just the opposite. School is not a place filled with freedom and fun; there are a myriad of rules that must be followed, and the fun you do have is constantly interruppted by work, teachers, and homework.

School is not like a sunny day. Those days always make me happy and eager to go outside to embrace the beautiful day. School makes me want to climb back into bed and sleep for the rest of the day. School is also not like a sunny day because those sunny days give you energy to get up and do things and to have fun. School makes me extremely tired, which makes me not do my work because I am exhausted and would much rather take a nap in my warm bed than write a paper or read a book. School is not like a sunny day because on those days, the sun can be seen from many different areas. In school, however, there are many rooms that contain no windows, like a prison cell, that block the students off from the outside world.

Home is like...

Home is like a warm place that you can always go back to and always turn to. It contains memories, family, and is filled with laughter and fun. It has your dog, your room, pictures of our past, and always has open doors for you.

notecard

Newer media and technology are becoming more and more advanced. Media is very cyclical; one technology is always being replaced by something that claims to be better (Bolter 26). The cycle is always in motion, so new technologies are constantly created to replace the old ones. These new technologies attempt to remmove interazction between non-media, but that is virtually impossible. There will always be a connection between media and the unmediated world (26). Apple, for example, is constantly trying to achieve this by coming out with a new IPhone and IPad every year and claim it to be better than the previous one. They are trying to get rid of that interaction with non-media. Advancements in media and technology attempt to get us in contact with the unmediated world, but this task is something that cannot be achieved. Hypermediated media presents itself as something immediate. This is why digital writing cannot completely replace written text. This remediation process will never be fully complete.

Group 3 Argument

This group did not have that stong of an argument, but I think what they wanted their argument to be was that there will always be a battle between print media and online text. This group wanted to convey that the differences between the two are very large, and that there will always be a competition between them. This group also believed that eventually, the two mediums have to coincide and work together. Because there are people who strongly believe in both mediums, for anything to succeed, the two types of writing have to meet in the middle and have to create a bond or friendship to make the readers and users happy.

Taylor Mali

The poem, "Like You Know," by Taylor Mali differs in many aspects from the spoken word and the print text. The spoken word can be said in different tones, which adds meaning to the text and poem in general. The spoken word also has laughter and comedy in it because the audience listening can recognize the tones and sarcasm of the poem, which is an asset to the poem. The written word of the poem, which is considered to be unconventional, is not as essential to the peom. It does not add meaning or any additional feeling or emotion to the poem. It also does not add the sarcasm that the speaker says when he reads the poem out loud. The writing space does not benefit the writing in any way. This shows that the writing space is essential to the peom.

Chapter 3 Argument

Group 3 was trying to argue that even though electronic writing is becoming more and more popular, it is not changing the essentials of writing. They believed that writing as a whole and in general is not really changing; the only thing that is changing is how it is being written. People are going to write how they write, feel how they feel, and believe what they believe no matter how they are writing those thoughts down. This group believed that electronic writing is faster and more advanced and that there will always be competition for newer technologies that can improve writing.

Chapter 2 Argument

The argument that the group for Chapter 2 was trying to make was that electronic media was overtaking print media. They were saying that print media and actual writing comes from inside of you, and you can tell so much about a writer just by the way they write their alphabet. They believe that writing comes from the soul, and it is important to keep it that way. This group also argued that although handwritten writing is more personal, electronic writing can provide many different things that written text cannot. Electronic text is more flexible, faster, and advanced than printed text.

Extra Credit John Edgar Wideman

He is reading an excerpt from a new book called "Inspiration" he is working on right now. He likes to read what he is working on to an audience to gain some feedback and information on it. He made sure he could do a questiona dn answer after he was done reading, so that shows he wants feedback and he wants people to be able to voice their opinion  and say what they want.

He read an excerpt from one of his essays, and it was about African American people living in the South during times of racism. His reading greatly confused me because it sounded like he was reading two different stories, especially when he was reading newspaper excerpts. He is an excellent writer, but I was greatly confused by his reading.

10/12 Blog

I am afraid to write sometimes because if I have to write about something that is out of my comfort zone or about something that I don't have that much information on, I am afraid that I will not be able to back up my points. I am also afraid that I will be writing wrong information just to write any information down. I also get afraid to write sometimes when I have to write really long papers and my grade is at the disposal of a teacher or professor. I am even more afraid when I have a new teacher who I don't know and I am unsure of how he or she grades or what they are looking for in their papers.
I do not take writing as seriously as Jacques Derida because I am not a professional writer. I take writing seriously when I am writing something important for school. I like to know all of my material and have it studied so I can make the clear points and understand what I am writing about, but I do not feel like writing is necessary as I am doing it. I think writing should be like that for authors and essayists because that is what they do for a living, and that is what they love to do, but for other people, especially students, it is not usually taken that seriously.

10/3/11 Reading Quiz REWRITE

Bolter is condemning the end of print text. He believes that print is the best way for the writer to produce a strong piece. He feels that authors today also affirm that printed text is still considered the highest form of writing, and he does not believe that electronic writing is better than print. Throughout his book, especially during this chapter, he acclaims that print is the highest form of writing for many. "Both as authors and readers, we still regard books and journals as the place to locate our most prestigious texts" (Bolter 3). If Bolter believes this to be true, he would not be in favor of the end of print text to come. Bolter also proclaims that the internet is open and available to all, but writing in a book is not. Authors still strive to achieve their books and writings in print. "Few authors today aspire to publish a first novel on the internet," (Bolter 3). This is true. Writers know how easy it is to put writing up on the internet, and they also know how hard it is for a writer to get published in print. Anyone can post anything online, but not everyone can get a book printed from a publisher. Because of these beliefs from Bolter, it would be hard to pronounce that he would be celebrating the end of print text and moving on to electronic writing.


Computers do not produce any homogeneity with reading or writing done on it. All readers are going to read differently, analyze contrastingly, and imagine what the reader is saying in opposing view points, so it becomes anything but homogeneous. Reading and understanding are going to vary per person, and the computer is not going to change that. "What unity there is in an electronic text derives from the perpetually shifting relationship among its verbal elements" (Bolter 12). By saying this, Bolter is saying that online text and comprehension of that text are not solely based on the computer; other factors are involved. Because of this, the computer cannot create a homogeneous piece of writing. Other factors including outside elements, the reader, and the imagination of each individual will constantly vary, and those said variations will create a heterogenous result. Electronic writing and printed text do not differ in this sense. They both inspire the reader to believe what they want to believe, and think what they want to think.

9/28/11

I believe that technology is a huge influence in how people are doing this, especially the younger generation. Technologies like phones and internet limit the amount of actual writing or even spelling that needs to be done, so the younger generations are getting more and more used to writing in that slang form. Social networks also create relationships that are only through the computer. People can meet on websites, can video chat to see each other, and then have a Facebook relationship. I don't think that the 'machine' is necessarily playing us, but I think it is coming close to that. People want to be up to date on the latest technology, and that often means dating online, or typing letters instead of words. The technology we are so used to is very powerful, but we can also be just as powerful if we want to.

True Confessions

Trimble's advice about 'Freshness' was very useful to me because I feel like that is one of the main problems I have in my writing. I seem to use the same wording and structure throughout my whole paper, and I need to mix it up a bit. I liked this advice because he showed you how your writing can be done and what really needs to change in order to keep your writing 'fresh.' He also said to keep the reader surprised, which I thought was really good advice. I think that that is a good way to look at your essay or piece of writing in order to make it more memorable and more enjoyable to read. I also liked the advice that Trimble gave on similies and metaphors. Those are two good ways to spice up your writing and to make it more fun, as well as more interesting.

Freshness is also important because it makes the reader enthrolled into your writing. The reader will then be more intrigued and happy reading your writing because it will come off as more interesting and fun to read. Also, with freshness, the reading should be easier because freshness also has to do with word choice and sentence structure, so that should lead to easier to read and comprehend sentences. Trimble uses many different examples of other writers and their pieces to show their freshness. This is something that all writers have to do, so it has to be very important in every piece of writing. Freshness is something that is very important to all writing, and Trimble does a good job explaining how to make your writing more fresh, and what exactly you need to do.

Presentation Blog

During this presentation by this writer, he talked about open admission and free tuition and his true thoughts and feelings behind it. He believed that it was absolutely necessary for this to happen. It was something that was in place at City College in New York and at UC in California, but they have since been replaced  with colleges that cost money to go to. He truly believed that for the largest amount of people to receive higher education, open admisssion needs to exist at colleges where there is free tuition. I do not necessarily agree with this. I agree that everyone has the right to an education, but there are people that either can't afford it, or people that don't try hard enough and don't deserve it. I believe that if there were many schools with open admission with free tuition, it would be very hard to determine which students could go there. I think the students that go there would have to be in need of serious financial aid in order to receive completely free tuition to a school that has open admission. I just think that it would be biased, unfair, and not necessarily needed.

Centraal Beheer Commercial

During this commercial, a man has acupuncture done to him in a small, sketchy building by a strange man. Once about 150 needles were put into his body, the building catches on fire. The man doing the acupuncture runs out of the building to get away and leaves the man filled with needles. The man slowly gets up and walks to the open window to try to get away from the fire. Outside the window on the ground is the firefighters with a life net waiting to catch him. The man just stands there and looks terrified and is most likely thinking "What the hell am I going to do?'' The commercial then shows the Centraal Beheer's slogan "Even Appledoorn Bellen" which means "Just Call Appledoorn", which is the name that Centraal Beheer often goes by.

This was a good commercial because it provided viewers with comedy as well as proving a strong point. It also showed that sometimes people are put in situations where they really do need help and they need to call people to help them out, which is where Appledoorn comes into play. This commercial was also successful because it was so unexpected. The commercial started about a man getting acupuncture, and then the building caught on fire, and then the man had to escape some how, and it ended up that the way to escape was a life net. This showed that unexpected things could happen and when those things happen and people need someone to call, they can "Just Call Appledoorn."

Heineken Walk-In Fridge Commercial

In this Heineken commercial, sexism is largely represented. In this commercial, a couple is giving a tour of their house, specifically their closets. The girls are so excited looking at the woman's walk-in closet filled with clothes, shoes and accessories and are yelling and screaming about it. They are represented as the typical girl stereotype being girly, dumb, loud and ditzy. This is one of the areas in the commercial where sexism was shown. Another part was with the men. When the men are taking a tour, they are only shown to his closet, which happens to be a huge walk-in fridge stocked with Heineken beer. The men freak out and are almost in tears over these beers, and seem to be acting like girls, if not making fun of them. They are not shown as the typical sterotype associated with men and beer, which would be big, manly and strong.

Another way that sexism plays a role in this commercial is that when looking at the walk-in fridge, only the men are freaking out and getting excited over it. The girls are looking at the men like they are crazy, and are never really shown the fridge let alone taken inside it. During these tours of the house, it was seperated into men and women; women were shown clothes and men were shown beer. This was interesting because it categorized both sexes into what Heineken thought would appeal towards their audience the best, since this beer is usually sold to men. In the end, the commercial came off as sexist towards women, however, towards a man it most likely came off as awesome, amazing and many other wonderful adjectives, which was what Heineken was hoping for.

Centraal Beheer Commercial

"even Appledoorn bellen" means "just call Appledoorn"

Centraal Beheer is an insurance company in the Netherlands, often referred to as Appledoorn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv750BWrUhY&NR=1&feature=fvwp

12 AT&T Questions

1. Why were they in the city alone?
2. What city were they in?
3. What were they doing with the bread crumbs?
4. Where is their cottage?
5. How did they have a phone?
6. How long were they in the city for?
7. How old are they?
8. Where are they from?
9. How did it go from night to day so quickly?
10. How far did they walk?
11. Did phone sales increase?
12. Did this make parents buy their children phones that have GPS?

Pantene Commercial

In this extraordinary Pantene commercial, a deaf girl has such a strong desire to play her violin. She is always practicing because she really wants to play that violin. Even though she is merciliessy mocked by her peers, she keeps on playing to try and improve her skill because it is something she truly loves. Throughout this whole commercial, I felt bad for this deaf girl because she was tormented just because she was deaf and she wanted to do something that she loved. I felt bad that she had to deal with this disability, but I was also felt proud of her at the end of the commercial. After her weeks of practicing and nearly quitting, she entered a competition and amazed the whole audience.

What amazed me about her performance was that her violin was so beat up from her peers torturing her and ruining her violin, that her violin would have made little to no sound, and the sound that it would have made would have been a loud, horrible sound. I was amazed by the audience, as well. The audience gave this girl a roaring, standing ovation once she was done her performance. This ovation was started by the claps of a single man in the front row. This surprised me because just by looking at her, the audience did not know she was deaf and that she was bullied, but yet they applauded her like they had seen the beginning of the commercial, or like they knew all about her life and how she got to that performance. I think this might have been part of the point of the commercial. Pantene might have been showing how it was like to live with a disability, and how people have to fight through it and shine, but they also might have been showing that people with disabilities might not be able to see the beauty, or 'shine' in themselves, so they might need the help of kind others to sow them that they can be great, and that they can shine.

AT&T Commercial

In the AT&T commercial, two young children who look to be about 8 years old, are dressed in anachronistic clothing and roaming around the city. They were dressed in Hansel and Gretel-like clothing and were dropping bread crumbs so they could find their way back to their cottage. They first arrived in the city from the subway, so their cottage must not be in walking distance. However, when the bread crumbs run out, they use their handy AT&T phone to GPS how to get back to the cottage, and once the GPS figured out where it was, the children started skipping of back home. This just goes to show how ficticous this commercial is.

This commercial is very ficticous because two young children dressed in antiquated clothing are walking around the city by themselves, and when they need to get back home, they have a cell phone with GPS all ready to go. When they got into the city, the children stepped off of the subway and looked up into the bright blue sky, but once they lost all their bread crumbs and needed to use their phone, it was suddenly night time as they were going back home, following their GPS. The night time showed the AT&T bars in lights coming from buildings, which shows again how ficticous this commercial is. Everything in this commercial was marketing; AT&T was trying to sell their product, so the commercial was very unrealistic.

FFW 9/12

I think John Trimble makes a valid point. I believe that writers are like warriors because they have to be able to make a good and strong argument to be able to have an audience believe and understand what he/she is saying. A good writer has to be able to persuade their audience on what they believe in. I also think that writers must be able to fight off critics and opposition in order to succeed. Strong writers need to be able to look at their opponents and learn from them in order to become a better writer. 

First Post

Here I am at Hofstra and I am blogging for my Writing class while I am sitting on my carpeted floor listening to Wiz Khalifa. All my friends play the guitar, and I would really like to learn. I think it is such a cool instrument and I think it would be so fun to play and I really believe it is a great hobby to have, especially if you really enjoy it. I think I would enjoy it, so I would play it and practice it a lot, especially so I could get better. I want someone to teach me how to play, or maybe I could take lessons so I can play next year with all my friends. I don't remember how to read music, however, so it will probably take me awhile to learn how to play and read music, but I think it will be worth it. I think it would be so fun to be able to play the guitar, and be able to learn how to play the music for some of your favorite songs. It would be nice if I could sing too, but I think that is a lost cause for me.