WAW p.139 Dawkins

ROW p.61 Bryson

Dawkins

Before you Read

I surveyed several of my friends that live in my dorm, and most of them said that most all grammar rules are bot bendable.  The grammar rules that most of my friends talked about were, proper punctuation, independent and dependent clauses, and using correct spelling for certain words such as "there" and "their".  None of those rules are very bendable.  They have to be used a certain way. 

Summary
In John Dawkins article, "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool", He attempts to explain how people have many issues with understanding punctuation rules.  Dawkin thinks of grammar as "rhetorical" and that grammar involves choices.  He gives many examples on how writers write makes handbook rules seem more like guidelines and less like laws. 

Synthesis
  I feel Porter and Dawkins pieces are very similar.  I also think that McCloud's article is similar to theirs too.  They are all for the student body and how writing can be difficult for all, even professionals.


Dialectical Notebook 

Response	Quotation
I don’t really like this quote.  It is the first sentence in the article and it is kind of makes me not want to read the article.  I don’t think it is setting the article up very well.  It is basically telling me that punctuation is not the first thing you would turn to which makes it seem like this article is going to be boring.	“Punctuation-just one of the “mechanics” of writing, after all-is perhaps not the first thing you turn to after checking the CCC table of contents, but you are here now, so let me try to keep you here by announcing, quickly, the not unimportant claims to be made.” (140)
After that quote, they give a quote from one of George Orwell’s books and the quote doesn’t follow proper punctuation which just shows that even great authors don’t follow the rules.	“And what do handbooks tell students about Orwell’s punctuation of the following sentences from “Marrakech”?” (141)
This quote is an example of raising.  Raising calls attention to itself which makes it gain emphasis.  Paring is thus a device for gaining rhetorical effort.	“I don’t think the Negro problem in America can be even discussed coherently without bearing in mind its context; its context being the history, traditions, customs, the moral assumptions and preoccupations of the country; in short, the general social fabric.” (145)
To be able to use punctuation properly, you don’t need to have as much knowledge and English teachers teach you to be able to do it.	“As should be clear by now, learning to punctuate effectively requires only a little knowledge of grammar, much less than most English teachers will grant.” (150)

Questions for Disscusion
5. In Dawkins article, he gives a lot of examples of the way punctuation should be and not be.  Some of the things I learned from this article would be, the concept of raising and lowering, more about sentences and independent clauses, and punctuating single independent clauses.

Meta Moment
By reading an article asserting that punctuation is rhetorical, I feel I gain a better understanding of all the different types of punctuation and how authors use punctuation in their writing.  

Thoughts
This article was very informative on punctuation and the ways authors use it in their writing.  It had a lot of examples.  It was a little hard to read all of them.  Hard to focus on every single example.  The examples made the article a little boring.  

Bryson


Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
This quote is telling us that even the simplest rule in the English language can still be difficult to explain because the English language is complicated.	“We seldom stop to think about it, but some of the most basic concepts in English are naggingly difficult to define.” (61)
Even experts have a hard time figuring out the English language and forget to apply some concepts when writing.  In the examples that follow this quote, each sentence contained some sort of misusage that colleagues would consider to be wrong.	“The complexities of English are such that the authorities themselves often stumble.” (61)
I like this quote because of the simile that was used.  Comparing the English language to baseball is something that we relate to be makes it easier to understand the concept.	“Making English grammar conform to Latin is like asking people to play baseball using the rules of football” (62)
In the sentences before they talk about how President Carter used the word “flaunt” instead of “flout”.  Then, a day after that had happened bush told a TV reporter he couldn’t believe the “enormity” of what had happened.  This just goes to show how often terms are missed used.  Even by well known people.	“Had president-elected Bush known that the primary meaning of enormity is wickedness or evilness, he would doubtless have selected a more apt term.” (64)

 

Thoughts
I definitely enjoyed this article.  It gave a lot of things to think about when reading.  It showed a lot how even experts struggle with the English language.  It also gave a lot of history behind the English language to show where it has came from and how it has developed.  Very informative article.