The Phenomenology of Error is a passage that is written by Joseph M. Williams. He evaluates through the concept that errors of grammar and usage are puzzling. Many believe that we understand the true meaning behind grammar, but we do not. Without a doubt, William repeatedly questioned what defines error and who decides what an error is. Throughout the passage William attempts to describe how the professionals who create rules for grammatical errors tend to break those rules themselves. William elaborates on how the social problems that exist in our society are neglected greatly because we focus on the issues of grammar to a greater extent. Our disapproval for grammar errors had always been seen as a larger problem. The idea that people take …show more content…
Williams claims that errors of grammar and usage are the most complex topics, which have been easily misunderstood by many people in our world today. Whether the grammar has to do specifically with literature or not, it has always obtained errors. William notably supports his claim by giving specific examples of professionals who have stated grammatical errors according to what they think is “right.” William also provided some personal experience and textual evidence to express credibility and accuracy of his argument. William’s argument is effective because the main points he focused on with evidence were powerful and stood out to the audience. The real life examples that William demonstrated to the audience gave a strong base to his argument because he showed how grammar errors actually exist in our society. He made it evident that the audience had their eyes opened to topic that had been ignored in the past. William achieved his argument by providing real life situations and by looking at various researches that analyzed the existence of errors in grammar. However, the ways that William could have made his argument more effective is by not having comments that seemed too self- indulgencing. Also he could have taken out evidence like the graphs that didn’t make
In “Defending Against the Indefensible” by Neil Postman, he proposes a different way of viewing the English language. He says that our civilization is being manipulated by the ambiguity in English, and students are most easily affected by the school environment. Thus, he proposes seven key ideas that students should remember in order to avoid the dangers and loopholes that twist the original meaning of statements.
In Donald M. Murrays’s essay “What is Practical Education” he explains his reasoning behind why he allowed his students to write badly. He shares his own experience with police-like teachers who drove him to hate writing. In hopes of helping his students find their voice he allows his students to write the words down as they come, no matter how awkward they sound. Often times they find out that they have more to say then they thought. Rhetorical devices are used to help the readers relate to his point of view on writing.
Michaela Cullington, a student, wrote a paper “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in 2010 for an English class. The paper is an examination of texting and the belief that it negative effective student’s writing. Cullington goes into detail about textspeak- “language created by these abbreviations”- and their use in formal writings. She organizes the paper in a way that is confusing to understand at first (pg. 1). At the end of the paper, she discusses her finding in her own research which comes to show that texting does not affect writing. But this is contradicting to the information she received from the teachers. The students and the teachers were seeing differences in the use of textspeak in formal writing. Cullington has good support for her
“How to Read Like a Writer” is an article written by Mike Bunn; after reading the entire texts, I found this article was pretty interesting. As before, to my way of thinking, it would be boring and confused because I was not sure how the author will describe this kind of academic idea; however, I changed my mind after reading the first paragraph. Bunn used an interesting way to start this “formal article”- to introduce himself not just the serious explanation of “RLW” or other things; this fancy way made me meet with him as real and listen to him personally even across the paper. As reading continues, Bunn used plant of evidence to improve how to be a better reader as well as a better writer. Numerous new thoughts about the ways to read are
The idea of good usage can be explored in many facets. Many writers such as Dowst, Sale, Thomas and Albutt have enlightened me to their own views on what constitutes good or bad usage. The thought never occurred to me that I too am guilty in many ways of improper use of the English language, including grammar, word use, tense, structure, the list could go on. But then again what is termed good use by me may not be good to another. To me, my own personal use of language is acceptable and could probably stand some improvement. However, without learning grammar, syntax, diction, etc., I never would have been able to get to where I am now today.
Western philosophy has been for the most part in serious error for the last three centuries. The book the Ten Philosophical Mistakes by Mortimer J. Adler sets out to explain where most of modern philosophical mistakes where made by the philosophers of the seventeenth century. Adler was considered to be one of the most well spoken philosophers of the 20th century and he proves that, throughout his book, when he disputes the flawed reasoning’s and introduces us to the correct reasoning’s. Adler was referred to as “the philosopher for the everyman”, because he recognized the massive importance of correct philosophical ideas in everyday life and tried to state the complex idea in terms that someone who is not a philosophy major can easily understand. Although he puts things in simple to understand ways he still uses precise words. When Adler gives examples he uses the most down to earth everyday examples so readers can relate to
The title highlights what is believed to be academic writing, thus the purpose in academic writing becomes lost, since exaggerated analysis containing complicated and elaborate sentences still occur. Though the title states a problem in academic writing, indicating the function placed upon academic writing being at fault, the article itself counter-argues. It says, “…bullshit does not necessarily involve a misrepresentation of facts, but must involve a misrepresentation of the self – one's feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.” (Eubanks and Schaeffer 2008, 375) suggesting the problem is the writer’s incapability to writing properly, resulting in a disconnect between the coherence in the paper and its readers, either because the skills for academic writing were not achieved or a to comprehend its importance. This can be supported by AW, as it notes, “…writing as a thinking tool in the processes of, for instance, verbalising, discovering, understanding, and communicating ideas...” (Björk and Räisänen 2003, 16) meaning conveying thoughts and ideas are means to develop a deeper understanding of information thus gaining implements to a concise language and coherence. AW goes on by stating, “…it will help you not only to learn new things, but to discover things you did not know you knew. Writing also presents an opportunity for critical thinking…”(Björk and Räisänen 2003, 16), thus it illustrates how writing, in general, needs to be seen as a method to relay knowledge as much as a process to receive
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
I’m not very fond of reading books ever since the beginning. But when I was reading this book caught my attention. My love and interest of elephants made me review the book once more and about their role how they were human like how they were trained in World War II. But as soon as I began to read “Elephant Company,” I realized that not only they were special, but that this book is about far more than just the war, or even elephants. This is the story of friendship, loyalty and breathtaking courage that is mind blowing. It was done of most few of the man.
He wrights this essay in order to draw attention to and help to fix the problems with modern English. Therefore, his audience is, broadly, anyone who is a competent writer or speaker of the English language. Specifically he directs his essay to politicians and advanced writers or scholars.
The impact and effectiveness of using proper rhetoric was a strategy of “good” writing that I was not aware of until my senior year of high school. While taking AP Language and Composition my junior year, my fellow students and I believed that we had survived countless essay workshop activities and writing assignments with emphasis on word choices, grammatical structure, syntax, punctuation and spelling. By the time we had entered AP Literature our senior year, we felt we could achieve success; we already knew how to write in the correct format and structur...
Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams) was born on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi. He grew up surrounded with three siblings he was the second of three children. Tennessee was predominantly raise by his mother as his father was more concentrated on his job (salesman) more than his children. This caused Williams to have a complicated relationship with his father.
1. In his chapter “On the Need of Some Grammar” found in Modern American Usage, Wilson Follett argues that we need grammar to govern our language.
Writing has always been my greatest weakness throughout my academic career. I love to talk and debate with other students. I also know writing will be important in any future career. Therefore, being able to translate my thoughts into writing efficiently has been a goal of mine. Thanks to WRC 1023, I have made great progress towards that goal. Because WRC 1023 teaches persuasive writing, I have focused on writing a strong thesis and using credible sources in my essays. But, I still have to improve on grammar, another important aspect of writing.
Throughout this semester, our class has read four powerful and influential pieces by James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldua, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Nick Bear. The first piece we ever looked at was Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” This was our first writing assignment, focusing on using generative writing to get our ideas from our heads onto the paper, to then develop later. However, we were still supposed to focus on the PAR criteria, in order to get an idea on how we would need to develop our writing and our own pieces to pass the class. One of the first mistakes I made as a writer was as follows: “I really enjoyed the latter quote, on page 263. The importance of this quote, to me anyway, is that in every language, there is a common language. You know, English, French, Spanish, Italian, that sort of thing.” (Barley, Ass. 3)