Week 7 peer editing/collaborative review due FRIDAY
before spring break. Here is the Eli Review task, also on your ELMS calendar. Meet me here UPDATED! OHitS/AMA for some questions, including the limitations of the assignment and the question that Jane asked of you: which cup is the best for the environment?
Have you heard that the enemy of done is perfect? Check out this brief Wikipedia entry on similar ideas. Now, a long post to help you think about why the Oxford comma is best for technical communication. Consiider these two inscriptions you might write to that people important to you.
To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
To my parents, J.K. Rowling and God.
To my parents, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.
OR
In a newspaper account of a documentary about Merle Haggard:
Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.
These two preceding examples are from Theresa Hayden. Here is another doosie that cries out for a serial or Oxford comma.
Here is another doosie that cries out for a serial or Oxford comma.
The Times once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov documentary, noting that
"highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."
PAUSE: the link for the d-word gives us a moment to think about how memory works. When an example is particularly EXTRA, we remember. Also, the pairing of the true hero of Mandela with the salacious artifact, well, that pairing is also memorable as well as somewhat unfortunate. The example is real AND now you will not forget the importance of the Oxford, or Harvard, or penultimate item comma or the seriel comma (not cereal comma!).
Now, to be clear, the serial comma does not always solve ambiguity problems:
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a cook –
- They went to Oregon with Betty, who was a maid and a cook. (One person)
- They went to Oregon with Betty, both a maid and a cook. (One person)
- They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and cook. (One person)
- They went to Oregon with Betty (a maid) and a cook. (Two people)
- They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and with a cook. (Two people)
- They went to Oregon with Betty – a maid – and a cook. (Two people)
- They went to Oregon with the maid Betty and a cook. (Two people)
- They went to Oregon with a cook and Betty, a maid. (Two people)
- They went to Oregon with Betty as well as a maid and a cook. (Three people)
- They went to Oregon with Betty and a maid and a cook. (Three people)
- They went to Oregon with Betty, one maid and a cook. (Three people)
- They went to Oregon with a maid, a cook, and Betty. (Three people)
We can also look at the grocery list problem:
buying bread, jam, coffee, cream, juice, eggs, and bacon. VS
eating toast and jam, coffee and cream, juice, and bacon and eggs
Finally, we have a theme song to remember this punctuation convention. WARNING: F-bomb in the title and chorus. Recall the memory note from above.
And, this from S.C., reminding us that humor is another way to remember things.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/fo5d9i/the-colbert-report-vampire-weekend
Marybeth Shea
Happy Wednesday. Let's stay in the same Google doc today. Short little grammar lesson here on using hopefully to begin a sentence. Much of grammar is a convention. Conventions help us in complex systems but conventions are not moral systems nor our they always understood as cognitive absolutes.
HOWEVER, we can be judged by others if we do not know and use conventions. This is true, especially, with the greater formality about language in older people, compared to younger people. Most of your bosses and gatekeeping audiences for now are older. So, let's learn this convention.
- Read or listen to Mignon Fogerty's commentary (she is Grammar Girl)
- OWL, in a short guide to literary theory writes:
"Hopefully, after reading through and working with the resources in this area of the OWL, literary theory will become a little easier to understand and use."
OWL is an guide written by grad students/rhetoric professors and directed at students, generally a young audience. See their use of hopefully?
The take-away here is that language is fluid. Some users prefer deeply rule-driven, technically correct language. And, if you use hopefully this way, to open a sentence, you should use the comma. This comma-convention will help you, when you use this adverb in ways that irritate older audiences. At LEAST, use the comma.
On the OHitS/AMA, I will talk about how Jane the Boss feels about this hopefully thing.
Marybeth Shea
Today's OHitS/AMA document and Friday's Eli Review task is DUE at 11:45. PLEASE RESPOND, as your classmates need your feedback. I will post the next steps here, in the class journal, but NOTHING is due until we come back.
Grammar usage + punctuation lesson:
"that" and "which" should be used with care. Read more here, at Grammar Girl. She offers a simple rule (start here) and a more complex rule; her discussion relies on understanding the difference between restrictive and non restrictive clauses. Note: WHICH takes a comma while THAT does not. Here is another image to help you:
Need more on how to decide? Here is a several page handout (Google doc by me) with many examples about that and which. Recall, that much of this decision lies in the emphasis of the writer.
YET: you can ALWAYS punctuate correctly, whether or not you are completely clear on using that vs. using which. WHICH takes a comma. See that hat? Visual memory for you that WHICH (witch) takes a comma.
Sometimes, getting the punctuation right is enough for a fussy, gatekeeping, older, more exacting reader. Those of you writing personal statements for medical and dental school may want to think about this final flourish, as these readers are often gatekeepers with knowledge of all the grammar and punctuation conventions.
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