Be
sure to post the four digit course section at the top of your blog
posting. There is no need to include the ENC 1101 part; Just put the
four digits of the course section. After you post the course number, you
are welcome to give your posting a title if you so choose.
Create a moment where Joseph Williams and William Zinsser meet at a bar to have a few beverages. Zinsser has just finished reading "The Phenomenology of Error" and wants to discuss some aspects of the text with Joseph Williams. Create a dialogue between these two men where they have a disagreement about grammar. What points do they disagree on? Is there any common ground?
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In the next section of your blog post a brief response addressing the following:
After reading "Anatomy of a trending topic: How Twitter & the crafting community put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters" consider other situations where you have witnessed or have heard about a situation where social media mediated some kind of change. If you can't remember anything, try to look up other examples of this. Have you been a part of some social media movement that went viral? If so, what happened and how did it work?
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Write a brief update to where your construct essay stands. What have you learned about the construct you are investigating? What audience do you want to reach? What genre or medium will you use to reach that audience? What purpose do you have in mind?
The initial posting is due no later than Sunday, October 7th, by 11:59pm (Eastern Standard Time).
Your response to a peer is due no later than Tuesday, October 9th, by 11:59pm (Eastern Standard Time).
If you have any questions, please email me at Joseph.Longhany@ucf.edu
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ReplyDeletePart 1:
Zinsser says, "Hey Joe, I just read your essay 'The Phenomenology of Error'."
Williams says, "Oh really, what did you think?"
Zinsser says, "Well, you made some interesting points, but I still disagree with you. I also didn't like how you made all those errors and then pointed it out to your readers."
Williams says, "That was part of my point. I wanted to show my readers that a successful piece of writing could still have over one hundred errors that might go unnoticed."
Zinsser says, "The whole thing was detestable and atrocious."
Williams says, "What was so bad about it?"
Zinsser says, "All of the errors in your writing and the examples you gave made me feel very anxious. I'm so focused on errors in everything I read that I am often distracted from the content."
Williams says, "So obviously you have something to learn from my piece. Everyone needs to focus less on errors and more on content. You should read what I wrote again and this time get past all of my atrocities and learn how you can look over these errors. This will probably be very difficult for you."
Zinsser says, "I don't think I can do it. You are such a horrible writer."
Williams says, "You only think that because you haven't taken to heart what I wrote. You should try again, it might be easier now that you have a few beers in you."
Zinsser nods and waddles out of the bar. Later he has an epiphany after he reads "The Phenomenology of Error" again. He realizes that he has probably done what E.B. White and the other authors in Williams examples have. He goes through all of his previous writings and reads them each three times to find all the errors he looked over before. Poor Zinsser is so old he cannot look at writing in a new way and completely misses the point. He is stuck writing in the construct of error and will never be able to look past mistakes and see how brilliant someone's ideas are.
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I read another story about how a woman tweeted about her stolen bike and her twitter followers helped her catch the thief. I liked this story, but it is important to notice how she couldn't have done this without a picture of the thief and the bike. She also had followers in a specific niche, an advantage that Karnes mentions. Many of her followers were cyclists who spotted the bike thief on trails, sidewalks, and under bridges. There are probably many examples where someone tried to get help from their twitter followers and they were not successful.
I found out about this website called Jig where you can type in what you need and people will respond with advice. This website's purpose is to get answers fast, without the long discussions that might happen on a site like Yahoo answers. The creators wanted friends to be able to interact together to find solutions. Another example of this is on Bing. There are commercial where they show someone searching and then they will see comments their friends posted on Facebook about what they searched. This is a quicker way to get reviews on services that you can trust.
When I used Facebook more frequently a couple years ago, I remember seeing pages made by kids trying to get likes. If they got a certain number of likes, their mom or dad would agree to stop smoking or some other bad habit. This may have been one of the first ways social media was used to make a change.
Unfortunately, I have not been a part of some social media change. I have tried to stay away from the distractions of social media. I did state last week in my reading response that Reingold convinced me that I would like to take advantage of online communication to make a difference. I would definitely take advantage of the advice Karnes gives at the end of her article. Maybe sometime in the future I will take advantage of social media to change people's attitudes.
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I have not chosen a construct yet. I am considering the rule of not going off topic. I have seen several examples in this course where a writer seems to veer off and talk about something else, but then can relate it back to his thesis. I could consider how students are constrained by ideas that have to easily flow with their topic instead of thinking about many different options.
Another construct idea is sentence structure. I was always told to vary my structure, but I was not taught about specific structures.
One construct that makes me very frustrated is the idea that high-level writing has to have confusing vocabulary. Since I do not believe this is true, it would be very interesting to find out where this construct originated.
I like the idea of writing a letter to a previous teacher, so I will probably use this medium for the assignment. My purpose would be to try to disprove a faulty construct in order to encourage my teacher to help his or her students improve their writing.
Williams and Zinsser at Starbucks discussing Williams’ article The Phemenology of Error:
ReplyDeleteZinsser: I gotta say, this one tricked me. I certainly didn’t see that coming. I actually did notice some of the errors but I didn’t let it affect the reading. You have a valid point with some of the examples you use.
Williams: yeah I hope you don’t take offense to what I wrote about you. It was just part of the example.
Zinsser: oh yeah I meant to speak to you about that… well basically what I wanted to say is… impact is not and will NEVER BE A VERB!
William: whoah! Calm down! It was an example… Plus why count that as an error when everyone uses it. It is almost too late to reteach EVERYONE who uses that word as a verb. Why are you still counting that as an error? Doesn’t it frustrate you having to always correct people on that?
Zinsser: You see the thing about that, Joe, is that that would be quitting, and I’m not a quitter! I can’t even believe you right now!
Williams: It’s not about quitting, it’s about you being hardheaded! How will this impact you anyways? Oh yeah it won’t!
Zinsser: It won’t impact me? It impacts me more than anything. If I conformed then… Oh I see what you did there. I guess it didn’t sound too bad. Why are you always right?
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I have never myself been apart of anything viral or that got spread around throughout the internet, but one incidence when that happened was when a girl in Syria that usually would blog daily about the Syrian Government. All of a sudden the blogs stopped and a family member said that they saw her dragged off by government agents. Everyone followed this on Twitter and other social networks and it went viral. It turned out to be an entire scam and the girl who was captured was actually a 40- year old man from Georgia who was just trying to spread the news of the Syrian government because media there is controlled by the government. I think this video went viral because of the same reason the Urban Outfitter dilemma went viral. It was a way for people to try to stand up against a bully. And that is what a lot of people are interested in now a days.
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The construct I will be exploring will be having a set amount of examples for your thesis. The five-paragraph essay is a great example. Well I knew that in a five-paragraph essay there are supposed to be five paragraphs obviously that consist of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. What I didn’t know was that the first body paragraph needed to hold the strongest argument, the second body paragraph needs to hold the second strongest argument, and the third paragraph the weakest. I thought you could put it in any order. I will be writing a letter to my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Pitts who always told me I needed exactly 5 paragraphs when writing an essay. I will research many essays that do not use the five-paragraph format and are very successful. I will also research how you use the other formats for essays and discuss the differences and pros and cons
OMO8
ReplyDeleteZinser: What an interesting book
William: What is that you just read?
Zinser: Ah, it happens to be something you wrote.
William: Remind me of what that is
Zinser: The Phemenology of Error
William: What are your thoughts, opinions?
Zinser: I find it a bit pointless
William: Someone who doesn’t understand
Zinser: No I completely see your point
William: Then what’s the problem
Zinser: You wrote this article to point about errors that go unnoticed
William: Carry on
Zinser: But you pointed out to your readers that in the article there are over 100 errors
William: Correct
Zinser: So why would you make an article about errors if your own article was about errors?
William: The small minds. Well you see I was making a point that a paper, essay or story can be written correctly but there are always errors that go unnoticed
Zinser: Wait I’m confused
William: You see this article was great proof that even when people speak they may not say things grammatically correct but no one thinks to stop and correct them. In order to eliminate error from writing it must be removed from the person first.
Zinser: Makes much more sense what interesting point you made
William: Why thank you.
Zinser: I say we drink on this one.
William: I agree.
I think you did great job in addressing the issues of the essay through your dialogue. One of the points Williams tries to make is that error starts with the reader, not the article/essay itself. I liked that you were able to utilize Zinsser's replies to portray this perceived idea of error that many reader's might have already held(which is that the essay was "pointless",because it had errors itself)before reading. Overall, I think you did well to address the opposing views on the importance of written error held by the two writers.
DeleteOMO8
ReplyDeleteI can recall a time when social media mediated a change this year during the NFL game the Seahawks, and the Green Bay packers. I remember waking up the next morning and seeing my Twitter News feed blow up with the anger from people. Even the celebrities that I am following on Twitter were pretty upset about it. Apparently The Green Bay Packers were supposed to win the game but because offensive pass interference wasn’t called against Seahawks receiver Golden Tate. The missed penalty wasn't able to be reviewed. This led to the Seattle Seahawks winning the game when they shouldn’t have. A lot of people were saying that it was because they were using replacement referees for the game instead of the original ones and the replacements didn’t know what they were doing. This debate went on a few days and it actually caused the replacement referees to be taken out of the NFL games and the original referees resumed doing what they do best. I was involved in a social media movement in high school. We received a new student from a different school and he was shocked to see how Southern our school really was. My school was known for having a lot of rednecks. So this new guy posts on Facebook “I was the only one wearing Polo while everyone else was wearing Camo”. Students from my school saw this and got offended because majority of the people thought he was saying he was better and too good to be around people like us. Many people commented on this status and I happened to leave a comment saying that Polo isn’t all that expensive so he shouldn’t act like he’s the only that can afford it. Somehow some way people from the new guys school started commenting on our status and the conversation escalated from a Polo shirt to hanging black people from trees. This went on for a few days and parents began calling the school and making complaints. The police at our school investigated this whole social media uproar and everyone that commented on the status was taken out of class and suspended. Due to the threats and racists remarks made from people at my school about hanging people from trees is really what everything boiled down too. A lot of people were able to delete their comments on that status before the police saw it but luckily the racist’s remarks and threats didn’t go unheard.
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So far for my construct essay I am going to investigate the five paragraph essay because that seems to be something that has impacted a lot people. My audience is going to be teachers who stress the rule to students. I plan on addressing this in a letter in order to convey my message that I want to be perceived. My purpose for this essay will be to show that teachers shouldn’t pound the five paragraph essay rules into students head because later handicaps them when this rule no longer exists.
0M08
ReplyDeleteJoseph Williams and William Zinsser meet in a bar.
Zinsser: Hello Joseph I have just finished reading "The Phenomenology of Error" so I thought we could discuss it a little bit.
Williams: Hello William it's nice to meet you. What would you like to discuss?
Zinsser: I noticed you quoted me when talking about certain errors.
Williams: Why yes as a matter of fact I did. I believe you exaggerated when you called saying the phrase "OK" was atrocious, horrible, etc. I personally don't understand why such an error would cause so much fury from you while others simply ignore it.
Zinsser: Listen, writing is a very complicated process. It must be perfected in every way to be error-free or else I will go ballistic. I look into errors with great deal. In fact, I noticed many errors in your text and it drove me insane. How can this be a credible source?
Williams: Well sir, you're probably the only one who noticed such errors because you already have that mindset to examine closely just to find an error. Small errors like the ones in my text are overlooked by many and won't have an effect on the content. Even grammartarians such as E.B. White have broken their own rules of grammar but it isn't noticed by many unless you go back and look again. So I don't see what the big deal is.
Zinsser: I'm sorry, it's just how I feel about writing and nothing can change how I feel. An error is an error and therefore must be fixed. It doesn't matter if it's overlooked by others. I guess we can just agree to disagree.
Williams: Yes I certainly have noticed that you go searching for errors. An example is when you were asked about the word "impact", here you just had to find something wrong with it, but I bet you wouldn't have noticed anything about the word if you weren't asked. It's still a verb by the way. Well you're certainly right about one thing, it's that I don't think we can ever come to an agreement.
0M08
ReplyDelete______________________________________________________________
I'm sure everyone knows about the example I will be using for this second section but it was the only one I could really think of. Not too long ago when there was a shooting in the theaters for the new Batman movie, there was a posting on Facebook asking Christian Bale to go visit some of the victims in the hospital and. Due to the amount of shares and likes this got after going viral, Christian Bale actually went with his wife to go visit some injured people in the hospital. Now maybe he would have gone regardless but I believe that this posting prompted him even more to go visit them and in the end made it happen. I was one of the people to share this posting so I guess you can say I was somewhat a part of it but other than that, I have never been a part of anything that just wet viral.
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So far I am examining the rule that we can't speak in first person while writing a research paper. I learned a little bit about the history of how not using first person came to be. Apparently, the subject could be written more clearly when not speaking in first person as it would be "unbiased" as they called it. The point was to eliminate a personal voice. The audience I am trying to reach are all of the teachers/professors that teach this rule to students. I will use a business letter to reach out to my audience. My purpose is to explain that there are certain topics in research papers in which one can use first person. We don't need to be stuck with the rule of never using first person on any research paper whatsoever because there are certain exceptions where it can be overlooked in my opinion.
I liked how in your conversation with Zinser and William you used the example of William stating that Zinser's example of the word OK was atrocious and horrible. You did a good job conveying how Zinser feels about his style of writing and how he thinks its important to be error free whenever you write something. I liked your example you used about the shooting at the theater I spent hours trying to think of something and I didn't even think to think of that. I think that your idea for the construct essay is going to be very interesting and you will have a lot to talk about.
ReplyDelete0037
ReplyDeleteZinsser spots Williams sitting at the bar by himself so he decides to walk over and by him a drink…
Zinsser: Williams! How are you pal?
Williams: Hey! I am doing well how are you?
Zinsser: Same here…let me buy you a drink.
Williams: OK, that sounds…
Zinsser: That was garbage. Why would you say that?
Williams: Say what?
Zinsser: ‘OK’…that’s horrible.
Williams: oh..sorry, I didn’t realize you were a prick when casually talking too.
Zinsser: Speaking of which, I just got finished reading “The Phenomenology of Error”
Williams: Fantastic…what did you think?
Zinsser: I defiantly found it…different.
Williams: What do you mean?
Zinsser: You proposed interesting points through an interesting style. However, I don’t know if I would agree with what you had to say.
Williams: Then what would you say?
Zinsser: I would say what you wrote was simple and could have been composed by any simple-minded person. Did you even reread what you put on the paper?
Williams: No actually I was too busy with your mother to check it.
Zinsser: (smiling as he gets up to leave) That would explain it. Well you have a fine day and learn to write less like an idiot.
Williams: Yeah you too
Zinsser: Oh and Williams…I would consider whats going on in Cambodia and Afghanistan to be horrible atrocities.
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I do in fact remember a local situation that was similar to this. When the movie “Project X” came out, partying was the only thing that everyone wanted to do. So a bunch of kids from a near by school had a friend called Ross Morgan. I am assuming that he is a virgin because they came up with the idea to throw a huge party to just get this kid laid. Thus, the Ross Morgan Rager was born. His friends posted it all on twitter and had a bunch of people tweeting it. This became huge; Ross Morgan gained over 5,000 followers, became a trending topic on twitter and unfortunately a lot of unintended attention. A local news station caught a whiff of the scent and just like a curious dog, they had to find out more. The station ended up doing a story on it and of course, the police had to step in and shut down the party before it even started. Kids tried to find new locations but with it all being so technology based and having every cop in a 10 mile radius on the case it was a party that was just no longer going to take place.
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I am not 100% sure what construct I will investigate. Initially I was thinking about doing my essay on the conclusion paragraph. I pondered about this topic for a while and I came up with the idea that I could also do grammar as my construct. It has been around since the beginning of time so why not look into how we decided to create spaces and periods and paragraphs. Therefore, I am currently stuck deciding between those two. I am however positive that I will make a brochure on which ever construct I select. I will also have the purpose in mind to educate the audience. I actually think that it would be more fun and better to do grammar as my construct. I am going to do my construct essay on grammar with a brochure being my medium.
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William Zinsser has just read Joseph Williams The Phenomenology of Error and noticed how he referred to him in his work and had some questions to talk to him about. Zinsser shoots Williams an email asking to meet up for a discussion and Williams, being the lady-killer, foxy grandpa that he is, invites Zinsser to grab drinks at one of the best, most exclusive bars downtown. Zinsser walks in and finds Williams sitting down at the bar…
Zinsser approaches Williams and Williams jumps up to introduce himself:
Williams: Ah, you must be William Zinsser; pleasure to meet you my friend, my name is...
Zinsser: …Joseph Williams. Yes, the pleasure is mine.
*they shake hands and sit together at the bar and the bartender eyes them from across and walks towards them*
Williams: Bartender, 2 scotches, neat please.
Bartender: Yeah no problem.
*The two get their scotches and start drinking*
Williams: So, what did you have to talk to me about Zinsser?
Zinsser: I saw you quoted me in your writing and made me look like a jerk…I was offended at how you made me out to be this jerk whose psycho for error searching.
Williams: You’re not psychotic at all Zinsser! I referred to you as an example at all some errors can be overlooked and some are huge mistakes and I used you as my example for the individuals who over exaggerate errors to be “atrocious” or “garbage” as you might say. I meant no harm or offense to you Zinsser, I was just making a point to my audience and you were my example, take a chill pill and drink up!
*Williams and Zinsser cheers and drown their drinks and order another round of scotches*
Zinsser: I just don’t understand you Williams. How you can believe that errors are not that bad? A paper cannot be perfection with errors and anything less than perfect or just “OK” is just garbage and horrible in my opinion.
Williams: See I have to disagree with you there because even great writers such as E.B. White and H.W. Fowler have many errors in their writings but the errors don’t take away from the value and message of the writing. It’s the content and rhetoric that’s important as opposed to the grammar. Don’t get me wrong, poor grammar can look “idiotic” as you say but as long as the errors don’t take away from the full book it shouldn’t be sweated over.
Zinsser: Ah I guess you’re right, I like you Williams. You’re very informative and intellectual. Let’s catch up again sometime soon. Thanks for the drinks.
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ReplyDeletePart 1
*Joseph Williams and William Zinsser are at a bar*
Williams: OK, hopefully I can avoid making a fool of myself in front of the bartender. I always feel like an idiot, flirting-wise.
Zinsser: Must you use those words? OK, hopefully, and, ugh, anything ending in the affix “-wise?” It sounds horrible! Those words are garbage.
Williams: It really bothers you that much? Why don’t you pay attention to content more? Then you won’t be so focused on usage.
Zinsser: You know I don’t agree with what you’ve discussed in “The Phenomenology of Error.” It is illiteracy. The rules set out in grammar and usage guides are being broken.
Williams: “Illiteracy” doesn’t exactly describe this. I am puzzled why these errors excite you so much. Upon first glance or hearing, I sure wouldn’t notice these “errors,” and most other people wouldn’t either.
Zinsser: The rules are being broken. They are errors. No questions asked; it is simply how it is.
Williams: So you see these “errors” as strictly isolated items? Why can’t the error be a flaw in how the message is received? What if my perception of error is different from another’s perception of error?
Zinsser: Grammarian handbooks explain otherwise. If it’s not right, it is WRONG.
Williams: But some errors stand our more than others to different people. We vary in how we perceive errors, and some don’t always feel the need to stop and correct them or get distracted by them. Sometimes things sound a bit awkward, but it is not enough to stop the receiver from comprehending the message being given.
Zinsser: Ridiculous. What good is learning a rule if it isn’t obeyed?
Williams: On the contrary, what good is learning a rule if all we can do is obey it? We can test the limits of our language. The most important part is getting our message across; not being concerned about usage and grammar at all times.
*Bartender has been listening intently*
Bartender: I’ve got to agree with this guy here. *Pointing at Williams.* What’s the use in not bending rules? And even if a rule is broken, if you’re getting your point across and making an impact, then who the hell cares?
Williams: See? She’s got some sense.
Zinsser: When no one can understand the vernacular anymore and writing quality has gone downhill, I’ll blame people like you.
Bartender: This guy is a hardass. Why do you even hang out with him?
Williams: He’s like that one person in the group of friends you secretly hate but you hang out with when you’re bored.
Zinsser: I’m out. *storms off*
Williams: …That’s bad form.
Zinsser and Williams disagree on how strictly rules should be followed, how some are open to interpretation, and how definition of error can vary greatly.
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I know of many situations where social media has assisted some kind of change, and I’m sure things like KONY, the blackout against SOPA/PIPA, and the Chick-Fil-A controversy stand out to many people. I actually just remembered a cause that I believe was not as popular as these situations, so I am choosing to discuss it: Does anyone remember, back in November of last year, when Bank of America announced that there would be a $5 monthly banking fee for anyone using a debit card? How outrageous is that? Customers are not gaining anything new, but now would have a new fee to pay. Well, that’s exactly what many other people thought too. And so, news spread on the Internet through the powerful tool that social media is. Change.org, a website which promotes social change, became involved when a woman named Mary Katchpole started a petition using their site to tell Bank of America to drop the unfavorable monthly fee. Hundreds of thousands signed, and the disapproval of the fee was being expressed all over the internet. Within a month of the announcement of the fee, Bank of America did away with it. I had found out about this situation through Reddit, and also found the petition through Reddit.
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For my construct essay, I seem to be pretty interested in exploring the standardized methods that preparation for the FCAT Writes taught us. Other states seem to have standardized writing tests as well, and I also need to investigate what kind of standardized writing exists in other countries. The audience I wish to reach is the Department of Education, and I would use a formal letter. My purpose would be to explain why standardized writing tests are hurting writing skills in the long run and how they are affecting creativity.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis was very original. NOT!
DeleteAlthough I feel like I have read this bog post not once, but twice now, i'm choosing to respond to yours. I think that your construct essay is a good idea.. Many people seem to be writing about the five paragraph essay, so maybe branch out a bit when writing. You could write about the different components within it. The Gangnam song was a great example on how something went viral. The social media was a key role in this. The dialogue was not that great. I felt that you didn't understand or even read the text. It was very short and just explained how he was such horrible writer. Why was he a horrible writer? What made Zinsser disagree with Williams? I did however like the point about everyone needing to focus lees on errors and more on content. Elaborate next time on this.
DeleteHe got rid of the elaboration when he copied and pasted mine.
Delete0119 Part 2:
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that pops up in my mind as a trending social media event was something that was not positive in the least. Flash mobs were huge about a year ago and someone got the inspiration to create a “flash rob”. The situation is witty but in the wrong sense. Basically you have a large group of people about the same age all walk in the same time. One distracts the cashier by actually buying something while everyone spreads around the store, grabs everything they can and sprints out. The groups then split the spoils of their robbery which at times can be entire racks of gas stations or hundreds of dollars in merchandise. I recall stores being extra defensive for a time and always looking vigilantly for theft. This flash rob stimulated a change in store security and also increased suspicion between the customer and the employee. I personally wasn’t a part of anything that really went viral sadly. I had an incident where my friends and I were messing around on the yoga balls and I was videotaping us hitting each other and as soon as I ran out of video time my buddy Victor got whipped in the face and chipped his two front teeth. It was a bloody mess but honestly if it would have been on video probably would have a ridiculous amount of views on youtube.
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Honestly, I haven’t even begun to think about my construct essay. Between the football game and work I’ve been tied up like crazy. So far though if I were to choose a construct I’d probably go with the five paragraph construct of writing just because it is the most organized and I’m most familiar with it. My audience will probably be much of who I’ve been writing to now, my peers and professor. Possibly after researching a little more I can broaden my audience to something bigger. Humor will definitely be at the forefront of my construct genre and my whole purpose will be to inform my audience but do so in a witty, humorous way so I keep my reader interested in what I wrote.
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J. Williams: Hi William, how are you this evening?
W. Zinsser: Great, Joseph! But, I read your article and I would like to discuss some aspects I do not agree with.
Williams: The Phenomenology of Error, correct?
Zinsser: Yes. I found it difficult to pay attention to the content when I could find several errors throughout the piece. Don’t you think you should have corrected that?
Williams: That is what helped me get my point across. Even the writers who establish rules about error, violate them in their own books.
Zinsser: I do not understand the purpose for writing this article about errors that go unnoticed when there are many errors in the article itself. You even admit to your readers that there are about 100 errors in the piece.
Williams: When I admit this to my readers, they realize that they might have been paying more attention to the content rather than the grammar of the piece. The point I try to make is that grammar should not distract from the content of a paper, something that teachers do not often understand.
Zinsser: I think I am starting to understand this better now.
Williams: Let me ask you a question, did you find all 100 errors in my piece?
Zinsser: I do not believe I saw that many.
Williams: Exactly, because the content is more important than the errors that often go unnoticed. Although you complain about the errors, you may not have noticed all of them. Also, if we want a paper with no physical errors on it, we must first remove it from the person. Where is a person getting these rules from? The writers who break their own rules when establishing them.
Zinsser: I see. I guess you have a point.
Williams: It may be a good idea to go back and reread my article.
Zinsser: Maybe I will and attempt to understand all of it. We might agree on something else other than what happens in Afghanistan and Cambodia can be called “horrible atrocities.”
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ReplyDelete“Anatomy of a trending topic” says a lot about how a trend goes viral. I agree that it’s about the meaning of the trend that makes it go viral. Of course, there are those viral videos like Gangnam style, which are just really funny and unique. I know one of the biggest trends and viral videos was the “Kony 2012” movement. This film revealed the terrible things that are happening to children in Africa, and people wanted to make Kony famous by spreading the video and the organizations website. This trend spread so quickly because people thought that they could make a difference, and that by spreading this story with as many people as possible, some how Kony would be captured and his wicked acts would be stopped. I was one of the people who shared the Kony video on my Facebook page. The way the Invisible Children organization created this film made you feel like you can make a difference in the world just by sharing and informing others of what’s going on.
A video I saw today on YouTube was entitled “First World Problems Anthem” this is one of the most popular hash tags on Twitter. People will say things like “forgot my umbrella on the one day it downpours outside #FirstWorldProblems,” or “When I’m bored and there aren’t enough social media websites to keep me entertained. #FirstWorldProblems.” This video has over 200,000 views in two days because it shows men, women, and children from nations that have no clean water and they are quoting some of the #FirstWorldProblems that people tweet about on twitter. At the end of the video it directs you to their website ‘waterislife.com’ and encourages you to donate. Waterislife is a non-profit organization, dedicated to providing an accessible clean water solution to create healthier communities. This video has gone viral on a lower scale, but it shows that the most effective way for a company to create a trend on the internet is to have a cause worth fighting for, or present their story in a way where people want to fight for something.
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Zinsser and Williams meet one day at Buffalo Wild Wings. Willaims is having a beer watching the Cowboys vs. Redskins game when Zinsser walks up.
Zinsser: Hey Joe I just finished reading "The Phenomenology of Error" I've got a few questions about it.
Williams: Alright, shoot.
Zinsser: What are you trying to tell me when you say every person grades and sees errors differently.
Williams: Well, everyone has their own opinion about things. When I read someone's paper I see different errors than you do when you read the same paper.
Zinsser: But that's just because you didn't notice the errors, when reading you have to look for errors, not just read the paper.
Williams: See that's where you're wrong, I think we should read and grade paper by actually trying to understand what the person is saying, not by the wrong things they did. You should read for content, not for errors.
Zinsser: That's just ridiculous! You aren't doing your job as a grader of the paper if you don't look for errors!
Williams: No, I disagree. When i read for content I am grading the paper better than you....because the errors I notice in the reading while I'm reading it for the first time are the errors that matter. If I read it all the way through the first time I can grade the paper more accurately.
Zinsser: I guess that makes a little sense, it is just a different way to grade.
Williams: Exactly, I think the way I grade is more accurate than your method.
Zinsser: Well, I wouldn't exactly say that! I believe there are certain rules and guidelines that a writer must follow, it's not just all about content.
Williams: Yeah, I guess there are rules that you need to follow, you still have to have fairly good grammar so that the reader can understand you.
Zinsser: Yeah! Well I have to go. My wife is expecting me.
Williams: Alright, catch you later.
0037 cont....
ReplyDelete------------------------
My construct essay is going to explain and analyze the writing structure that I grew up with. The five paragraph essay is how I learned to write and is basically the only way I write my essay today. The structure includes the intro, body, and conclusion. I will be analyzing exactly how this limits or affects the writers creativity.
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ReplyDeletePart 2
I remember a few months ago when a Facebook event was created in order to get Taylor Swift to go to prom with a cancer-fighting patient. The boy suffering from leukemia got a unique answer from Swift when she asked him to go to an awards show with him instead. I remember getting the invitation on Facebook to support the cause. The number of people supporting it and writing about it surprised me. Days later, articles appeared on the news once Swift gave the boy her answer. The people who created this “event” on Facebook had the goal to make it so popular that the message would reach Taylor Swift at some point, and they achieved their goal. In the same way, other celebrities are asked for special favors such as when Christian Bale was asked to visit victims of the Batman movie shooting not too long ago. Postings on social media sites have the potential to become extremely popular. It is amazing to see how enough people can make a change.
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I am investigating the construct of the five-paragraph essay. I want to reach an audience ranging from middle school students to seniors in high school. I began by interviewing my two younger sisters about this writing construct. They are twins in the 11th grade and are both enrolled in AP English Language, a class I also had in high school. Although I asked them questions about their thoughts on the rule separately, they both reported first hearing about it in middle school. One of them said she thought it was a way of teachers keeping everything “organized” but she did not know the exact reason behind it. She also mentioned having to use that format in the FCAT test but never elaborated on anything regarding “standardization”. She further informed me that this rule recently changed to four paragraphs instead of five, which I thought was interesting. My other sister, the younger of the twins, did not hesitate to say she hated the rule. The reason she gave was that the majority of the arguments she wanted to make only had two points to support it, not three. Therefore, she was forced to “bullshit” the last point in order to get the assignment done.
I will write this paper in a letter format to either middle and/or high school students, or middle/high school teachers. I will choose after I think which one will turn out to be more effective. My main purpose of the paper is to make the argument of how this construct eliminates creativity in a paper. Not having flexibility in the length of a paper limits originality and reduces the quality of the work.
0M08
ReplyDeleteWILLIAM ZINSSER- So weird running into you here, I just read your article “ The Phenomenology of Error”
JOSEPH WILLIAMS what did you think?
WILLIAM ZINSSER- I couldn’t disagree more with you
JOSEPH WILLIAMS and why is that?
WILLIAM ZINSSER- when something is wrong it is wrong and there is no backwards way that it might be right if it’s a Tuesday, its partly cloudy outside, you squint with you left eye and stand on your right foot while wearing a boa constrictor. When something is wrong it is wrong as simple as that.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS so there are rules without exceptions?
WILLIAM ZINSSER- writing is a delicate and beautiful art that must be exact and precise and free from error
JOSEPH WILLIAMS but isn’t art suppose to be open to interpretation what one person sees as art might be garbage to someone else and it goes the same for writing for some people due to their experiences they are more likely to pick out certain mistakes over other people
WILLIAM ZINSSER- just because someone won’t notice doesn’t mean that it should be done.
JOSEPH WILLIAMS I guess that’s fair.
WILLIAM ZINSSER- I knew you would see things my way
JOSEPH WILLIAMS just out of curiosity, did you find any errors in my writing?
WILLIAM ZINSSER- No, not a single error the way writing should be.
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I am a self-proclaimed social media junkie, I absolutely love it. Twitter seems to be the ultimate source of fast news and people with a cause trying to get their message out as soon as possible. There have been two instances that stand out in my mind that social media has really impacted the outcome of a situation. Hate me if you must but I am a huge Justin Bieber fan, and to be completely honest without twitter and youtube he wouldn’t have the career that he has today. There would have been no way for news to travel about his talent at such an accelerated rate. If you took away twitter there would be no way his career would have skyrocketed at such an epidemic rate. Success of the level of today’s artist is hard to compare to artist before the ages of social media because back then they didn’t have it to where their single could come out at Midnight and by 12:30 all of their fans could have a copy of their latest track, this use to take days, months maybe even years. So it is only natural that artist today have a higher success rate because they don’t have the same barriers. Another situation where I was able to witness the sheer impact of social media is Kony 2012. This was a video that was released to show the impact of the LRA, and to call people to act and capture Kony by spreading awareness and donating funds so that he could be tracked down. I started making donations to Invisible children years’ prior and it was always that some people knew but not everyone, but with the release of this one video and social media. The cause exploded, news about it was everywhere. Something that many people didn’t know about was being brought to them and it seemed like the news was everywhere. It went from nothing to the biggest trending topic in what seemed like seconds. It is truly remarkable how social change can be brought on by sending a simple tweet or posting a video, the power that social media has is truly remarkable.
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For my construct essay I am researching the different approaches taking to writing nonfiction and fiction writing. My target audience would probably be the school board, to show the benefits of both types of writing. In my experience fiction writing is sort of put on a back burner when you enter into middle and high school and is abandoned for writing simply about fact. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just want to show that both are important to the development of the child.
I like how your idea for your construct essay is one of the few that does not focus on the five paragraph essay. I do agree with you that when we get into higher education there is less focus on creative writing and more focus on research papers and factual writing. I think that showing how writing styles benefit children is an interesting way to examine different types of writing. Also, the social media situation that you wrote about, Kony 2012, is the situation that I also wrote about. I think I remember it because it is a fairly recent event that all the details were fresh. I think it is interesting that these types of campaigns had been going on for many years about Joseph Kony and the genocide in Uganda, but it goes to show that the right video in the hands of the popular can bring a lot of change.
DeleteCatherine Rucker
ReplyDeleteENC 0M08
Bar narrative:
Joseph Williams: Hey man, how’s it going? Has the waitress walked by our table yet?
William Zinsser: No, not yet. I told her I would wait until you got here. I think she should be coming over here soon. Until she does, I’ve got to talk to you about this article you wrote.
Williams: Alright, shoot. What’s the problem?
Zinsser: It’s atrocious.
Williams: Well, thank you very much.
Zinsser: I’m serious Joseph. What on Earth are you thinking? All you’re doing is pointing out how instructors and grammar aficionados alike all seem to have a wrong way of thinking about how papers should be read and how grammatical errors effect the content of a paper. It’s highly repetitive. Moreover, your article is filled with errors. How do you criticize us for making ‘careless’ grammar mistakes, and then do the exactly the same thing?
Williams: Don’t you think that was the point I was trying to make? Some instructors are so busy trying to find errors in a student’s paper instead of reading it for what it entails. What about the underlying message the writer tries to relay? It seems as though everything is overlooked, because you all are so focused on ‘like’ for ‘as’, or ‘uninterested’ instead of ‘disinterested’. As for the mistakes, they were intentional. I’m aware that my article at most seemed hypocritical, but one has to wonder at how many actually caught that there were mistakes made without my mentioning them towards the end of the article.
Zinsser: Alright. Well, could you maybe explain the ‘violations’ you mentioned?
Williams: I labeled four types of rule violations in that article. Number one: rules are violated, and people respond to it. Number two: the rule is violated, and it is not responded to. Number three: a rule is not violated and we do not respond. Number four: a rule is violated and we do respond. I even mentioned that the ones who are supposed experts in the field, the ones who write the handbooks for the instructors, don’t even realize how they make mistakes related to their own rules!
Zinsser: True. Well, what about my part in the article?
Williams: I mentioned you to prove the point that errors in grammar do not have to be thought of as ‘detestable’, ‘garbage’, or even an ‘atrocity’. Grammatical errors can hardly be thought of as horrible atrocities when there are countries where war and slavery still exist. Seems like an exaggeration, does it not?
Zinsser: Fine… You’ve made your points. We can move on now.
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I remember an instance where many of Justin Bieber’s fans wished to relay a message to him through trending topics on Twitter. There was once a trending topic that said #imsorryjustin. Many of his fans were tweeting negative comments about him and his relationships, which ultimately got back to him and hurt his feelings. So his fans all gathered together and tweeted the hash-tag as an apology of sorts. Another instance was when his fans found a very sick little girl who wanted to meet him. So they once again, gathered together and started a trending topic so that this little girl would be able to meet Justin. She ultimately did, but afterwards she passed away. I thought it was great that they were able to give her something she really wanted before she passed.
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My construct essay is coming along extremely slowly. I thought it would be easier to write a paper that wasn’t a standard paper, but I don’t really know how to proceed. As for the genre or medium, I am juggling between a texting format or a letter to a previous teacher. I want to be able to present why the five paragraph essays are standard in the development of writers for standardized testing and why once those tests are over, teachers do not seem to want to break the cycle until senior year of high school.
0037
ReplyDelete(Williams and Zinsser join up outside their favorite bar. Zinsser is holding a manuscript of Williams’ latest work, “The Phenomenology of Error.” Williams motions to a displeased Zinsser to proceed inside, where the two men sit at the bar together.)
Zinsser: “Williams! What do you think you’re doing? This…is ridiculous!”
Williams: “Why William, I’m surprised. I thought you would be happy with the work I have produced.” (Sarcasm apparent in his tone.)
Zinsser: “Maybe I would be if your writing wasn’t laced with errors! It is an editorial nightmare.”
Williams: “Well my friend, whose definitions of error are you using? I DID explain that ideal in my writing you know.”
Zinsser: “I am using MY definitions of error! Joseph, you are a better writer than that… I would expect you to know when to use that and which and that impact is not a verb!”
Williams: “I think you missed the point of my writing… Everyone does perceive error differently, especially when we have learned what error is from several sources. I think you may want to read over my manuscript again.”
Zinsser: “Hah! That is a funny one! I wouldn’t give this a second read if it was the last thing on earth to read!” (Zinsser’s patience for his friend is running out.)
Williams: “Alright, but just think about the “rules” of writing. You don’t agree with my writing, and maybe I don’t agree with yours. It’s perspective you know, William. Think about your favorite authors; they have different perspectives about writing too.”
Zinsser: “I have had enough of your ‘perspectives’ Joseph. I will drink with you once I am done being angry at your foolishness!”
(Zinsser gets up from the bar stool, waving the manuscript over his head angrily. Faint shouts are heard as he leaves the bar along with, “…and you told them to point out your errors too! UGH!”)
(Later that night after Zinsser has calmed down, he reads over his friend’s article once again. This time he makes a note of all the errors that he found in the manuscript. Once he finished dissecting Williams’ work, he sighs and picks up a novel by one of his favorite authors. He picks up from his bookmarked place and begins reading. However, instead of being consumed by the story, Zinsser is being consumed by the errors he is finding! Zinsser begins dissecting all of his favorite works and realizes that his friend Joseph Williams was right all along.)
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Not too long ago, social media blew up a story that was not that well known for a while. Kony became an individual in the public eye and his actions were brought forth and put under a spotlight. Twitter began trending topics that were related to Kony, either his name (Kony 2012) or the names of organizations that were trying to raise awareness of his wrongdoings. I was a part of this social media outcry and petitioned to my school to help raise awareness within the school. During the height of Kony’s fame, the social outreach club I helped run agreed that our school should do something to help the kids affected by Kony; my club teamed up with Invisible Children and held a book drive that would give proceeds to those in need. However, many people in my school thought that Invisible Children was a sham of an organization and didn’t want to lift a finger to help. Once the spokesperson of Invisible Children was arrested for public outburst / nudity, my school shut down our book drive. That was the end to my participation in Kony 2012.
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I have given a lot of thought to my construct essay. I have thought up a way to express my feelings towards 5 paragraph essays and not make it entirely boring for a reader. I want to target kids that are struggling with writing but are too lazy to read an article. Instead, I will create an illustrated article to grab the attention of the audience and keep them hooked with illustrations of my interpretation of the subject. (Inspiration drawn from TheOatmeal.com)
Part 1 0119
ReplyDeleteOkay let me first say that in this predicament Zinsser is wasted.. and he is a mean drunk while Williams is more relaxed! Okay here it is:
William Zinsser- *Slurred and stumbling* Heyyyyyyyy Mr. Williams! I think you’re honestly inept.
Joe Williams- *Semi sober… (That awkward buzz when you can’t tell if you’re drunk or in a decent mood)* …Oh really now? Why might that be…Zinsser..if that is your real name?!!
Zinsser: Well, yeah bro! I think that yous a fool for pointing out them errors boy. You’re just stupid!! Phenomenology of Error was horrific… I’d rather read 50 shades of grey out loud to my mother you ignorant fool. You’re piece was a contradictory piece of rubbish!
Williams: Oh I am the ignorant fool, son? The whole point of it was more than just pointing out errors but you’re too sloppy right now for me to explain. Straighten up! You’re as swashed as a freshman in fall semester freshly out of their parents grasp… You’re making an ass out of yourself.
Zinsser: I still find your piece stupid and purposeless so HA! I also want to hear what you have to say of it having a bigger meaning.
Williams: The point of my work was to show people how they need to focus on content rather than focusing on the errors because errors are everywhere regardless. You should probably be cut off from the liquor right about now. The Goose is definitely Loose.
Zinsser- Don’t tell me what I should and should not do!! Although..you’re point is intriguing..man I love you soooo much…we are best friends right bro? Right? Right bro? Let me buy you a shot?
Williams: Uhh…sure we are and no thanks I'm good but thanks for noticing, good talk. Remember a cab is cheaper than a DUI.
Zinsser: Bye beautiful!!!!!!!!
0037
ReplyDeleteZinsser: I had to take a break from grading those essays. It was giving me a headache.
Williams: Were they that bad?
Zinsser: Yeah. Most of them were filled with grammatical errors.
Williams: What else?
Zinsser: What do you mean what else?
Williams: Were the grammatical errors the only thing that was wrong with them?
Zinsser: I suppose so. I wasn’t really paying attention to the content.
Williams: Doesn’t sound so bad. Some of them were probably even great essays. Grammatical errors don’t make or break an essay. In fact, errors are all about perception. You found errors because you were looking for them instead of focusing on the content.
Zinsser: Well that is true, but that doesn’t mean that the errors are something to overlook. They take away from the message of the essay and distract the reader.
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Earlier this year, the internet caught wind of a short video that quickly went viral, reeling in hundreds and causing uproar. The Kony video brought to light a situation that has existed for years to many Americas for the first time. The video and its popularity caused a very intense response resulting in Kony protests, a surge in donations, and other events of the kind. The fever left by the Kony2012 campaign was fairly short lived but, for about a month, many people I knew were obsessed with trying to end Kony’s regime. After a few months, the passion fizzled out.
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For my construct essay I am investigating the basic rules writing rules learned in high school. My intended audience includes high school students and college freshmen. I’m planning on writing a certain type of article specific to one website called Cracked. I’m hoping to convey my message in satirical way.
0037
ReplyDeleteZ: Hey Joe! How have you been?
W: Eh, things are going good. I published an article called The Phenomenology of Error… I hope you didn’t mind that I mentioned you in it.
Z: Nah, not at all. I like the attention! (laughs)
W: have you read it yet?
Z: yes actually, I have.
W: So, what’d ya think?
Z: Actually, I wasn’t too fond of you pointing out all my errors. If you think it really helped to prove your point then I guess I’ll just have to go with it.
W: Yeah well it did help me prove my point otherwise I would’ve never used you in my writing, silly.
Z: Ah, I guess it is okay then. I do have one thing that I definitely don’t agree with…
W: what’s that?
Z: “impact” is not and never will be a verb! You cannot just ignore the rules of grammar.
W: Why count an error if everyone is constantly making that mistake?
Z: there is a reason for rules… If everyone just ignores the rule it doesn’t mean it goes away! It is still the rule and that means most people are making errors! They need to be corrected.
W: I would get tired of correcting that error all the time.
Z: someone has too.
W: Then you go ahead and keep correcting them, sorry if I offended you.
Z: No worries, I will! (Smirks)
W: Thank you for reading my piece!
Z: oh no problem, anytime. I enjoy seeing other’s works. Just try not to point out my flaws in the next one (winks).
W: sure thing! See you at book club on Wednesday?
Z: seven o’clock as always! Have a good night
W: you as well!
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Facebook and Twitter are social media sites that can help an individual get their word out to the public. Some posts are just seen by friends and followers, but it sometimes can go “viral” and become a controversial situation seen and discussed internationally. I have personally been a part of situation that has gone viral, but on a smaller scale. My high school assistant principal and athletic director Brian Grantham was a beloved faculty member by his coworkers and almost every student that attended Alonso High School. This year he was diagnosed with colon cancer and was hospitalized for a month. A former student, Erika Nunez, took it upon herself to get T.G.I. Friday’s to host an event where twenty percent of all proceeds would go to fund Mr. Grantham’s hospital expenses. To get the word out, she created an event on Facebook and invited everyone on her friend’s list. They were encouraged to invite their friends and it became viral throughout the community. Everyone knew when and where the event was taking place. The thought of helping such a generous caring man excited everyone to attend. T.G.I Friday’s donated a significant amount to Mr. Grantham and I have heard he is doing much better and is on the track to recovery. This goes to show how social media networks is not only for personal endeavors, but can be used to inform others to support a cause for the betterment of a community, state, nation, and/or internationally.
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My construct essay has not been started yet, but after some thought I would like to explore either the five paragraph essay structure, the use of capitalization, or why run-on sentences are discouraged. The audience I would like to reach is either high school English students or elementary level students (if I decide to explore capitalization). The genre I would use is a children’s book for elementary or a “burn book” or Facebook page for high school students.
Jayda Burkhardt
0119
ReplyDeletePart 1
(Williams and Zinsser meet up at a local bar to discuss "The Phenomenology of Error".)
Williams: So tell me Zinsser, how did you enjoy my article?
Zinsser: You know exactly how I feel about it. It was completely wrong.
Williams: In your opinion. Which brings me to the point that I was trying to make in my article.
Zinsser: What would that be exactly?
Williams: That everyone has a different perspective on what grammatical errors really are. You can read over hundreds or thousands of what you would call grammatical errors, and still understand the overall point of what you're reading.
Zinsser: I hear you loud and clear, but I still don't understand your point. Oh, and the word "impact" has not been and never will be a verb, so stop lying to your audience.
Williams: I was not lying, I was merely stating that minuscule errors in grammar should not be referred to as "detestable" and "atrocious" because there are worse occasions to use those words.
Zinsser: Such as?
Williams: Such as social errors. It seems wrong to criticize grammatical errors more severely rather than social ones in which someone says something rude or hurtful or violating someone's personal space. Do you see my point?
Zinsser: Yes, I suppose I do.
Williams: I'm glad we could level with each other.
0037
ReplyDeleteZinsser: (puts down some papers) what is this nonsense. I cannot believe the things this man is saying. I’m appalled that he does not find something wrong with this. Some of these statements are extremely offensive.
Williams: (sits down across from Zinsser) what are you offended by?
Zinsser: this nonsense that you’ve been writing about! How can you say that there are no problems with some of these statements?!?!?
Williams: well, can I ask you a question? Why do you find it offensive?
Zinsser: Because these people are disgracing our education. Some of these sentences are completely wrong and they are going against everything people have ever taught.
Williams: well, have you looked farther into these “rules” that teachers and educators have been enforcing on the poor students? Have you noticed that when teachers read, they read to find errors in grammar rather than in the content of the paper? That is the main problem here. You are reading these sentences expecting to find grammatical errors. You want there to be something wrong so you can get angry over it. Instead of just reading the paper for its content and enjoying it for what it is.
Zinsser: I must disagree. I do not look for the errors. The errors just pop out of the paper. These mistakes are crucial to the point of the paper. How am I supposed to enjoy the paper when every other word there is an error? This is just way too distracting and it doesn’t allow me to focus on the content.
Williams: well Zinsser, you missed the entire point of the paper. You were so frustrated at the examples I was giving, you did not see the errors I made in the rest of the paper. I wrote a paper about errors, and made over 100 myself. This proves that many errors can go unnoticed. That was my point.
Zinsser: wait…………………….. what?
Williams: (gets up and walks away)
Looking back, I remember not too long ago there was this trend about “Kony 2012.” Many people were posting a video link on facebook every day. Every day more and more people posted it and more people were talking about it. I stayed out of the wave for a while, but curiosity is evil. I decided one day to check it out. It was about a man named Kony, who leaves in a third world country, I don’t remember where, and kidnaps little kids to join his army. He used and abused these kids for everything he wanted. Apparently someone created a video to tell people about what’s going on, and it spread. They said they would stop Kony in 2012, hence “Kony 2012.” The trend didn’t last very long and I don’t know what really ended up happening.
For my construct essay I am doing it on the catchy first sentence rule that is usually the first problem everyone runs into when writing an essay. I am learning that people even go to google to try to find a catchy first sentence. Once I saw this I thought it had gone too far. My idea is to use a magazine article is a magazine younger people would read, such as teen magazine, and write an article speaking straight to students. I decided to skip the middle man, the teachers and educators, and just explain to the students that when writing an essay, you should not have to worry about a catchy first sentence.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteAs a user of both Facebook and Twitter, and I have seen the common trends go through. I remember when KONY 2012 was all anyone could talk about. One event on Facebook that I was involved in that went "viral", was one that that SGA in my high school set up. There was a teacher at our school who had been battling Leukemia for a few years and he eventually passed away my senior year of high school. SGA wanted to have a special day to remember him, so they sent out a Facebook event to every student at our high school asking them to wear orange on a certain day of the week, since an orange is the Leukemia awareness ribbon color. It got around to everyone, and on that first day of the week, nearly everyone at school was wearing orange. It makes me very happy that social media can be used in ways to bring a group of people so close together in difficult times.
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As of now, my construct essay is still in the planning stage. I am still investigating different constructs to use in my essay. I'm thinking about focusing on the importance of getting to the point when writing and not trying as hard to focus on the amount of sentences you're getting into the essay. I'm trying to break away from the strict form of writing that I have been using for years. My audience will be maybe high school students and possibly other college students.
0119
ReplyDeleteWilliams and Zinsser are about to enjoy a beer at Applebee’s:
Williams: Zinsser! Buddy! I was about to wondered if you would show up.
Zinsser: Ah I guess grammar in speech is just as bad as your linguistic grammar.
Williams: Hey! What is that supposed to mean?
Zinsser: It means I read your essay “The Phenomenology of Error” and I find your grammar quite repulsive.
Williams: What do you mean?
Zinsser: You wrote about grammatical errors in an essay that is plagued by grammatical errors. You even wrote that it is possible to find about 100 errors in your own essay!
Williams: Well have you found 100 errors yet?
Zinsser: I’ve found over 200 errors...I have even made a game out of it!
Williams: What is the game?
Zinsser: I take a drink every time I spot an error.
Williams: Then my essay has taught error spotting well, huh?
Zinsser: I’ll drink to that!
Williams: Oh, Zinsser, you drunk oaf!
-Both Williams and Zinsser take a drink-
Zinsser: I do not agree with everything you have said though. I do not view your lack of sensitivity as evidence of an incorrigibly careless mind. In fact, your mind is anything but careless. Your theory of violation and response made me realize that there are many mistakes that people tend to not care about or just ignore.
Williams: Well thank you for your agreement. Many English teachers ignore the grammatical errors that they see as unimportant, so many mistakes just get left alone.
Zinsser: I’ll drink to that!
Williams: I am starting to think you just love to drink...
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After reading Amber Karnes story about creating an uprising against Urban Outfitters, I started to think about boycotts and passive aggressive revolts that I have seen or heard about. The most dominant story in my mind is the rising revolt against Nike’s ethics for making shoes. Nike shoes are made mostly in Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam by workers being payed the barely enough to survive. This situation has had a countless number of protestors and documentaries attempting to watch out for people in other countries that they have never met before. A few of my classmates at Bishop Moore High School told me about a plan tell our Principle about the situation and ask that Nike shoes not be bought for the school sports. However, I declined the offer to join the cause for the same reason that many others did. My running shoes and throwing shoes for discus and shot-put both were made by Nike, and though I did not agree with the Nike way I could not risk losing distance and timing in the middle of the track and field season.
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I have determine that my construct will be about the need for an essay to start strong. I have always believed that an essay has to start strong because a strong beginning is crucial to grabbing the readers attention. However, I plan to dig further into this predicament as to why there is a need to start strong; if the reader knows the essay is about something they enjoy shouldn’t the essay be fascinating to them already? This is a sample question I will ask in my construct essay, but I assure you there will be many more to come. I plan to reach out to all of the writers that start their essays with a bang, especially to the writers that do not have a interesting essay after the amazing start. My medium will be my own essay, my think aloud protocol, and observations that I make while reading the postings of other students on a random blog. With these mediums I will be able to self analyze while also showing the percentage of other students that try to start their essays with something that can suck the reader in and the percentage of students that are able to keep the reader sucked in.
0119 Part 2
ReplyDeleteI am extremely influenced by social media! I am honestly addicted, and I don't care who knows it because everyone who knows me just accepts it. Anyways in regards to social media now a days I will go on facebook and see different pages or pictures saying "get 1 million likes and Lil Wayne will donate 1 million dollars to children's cancer" or "like this page 1 like = $1 to this girl with leukemia" I honestly don't believe them at all. They annoy me with all do respect. I mean sometimes they can be real but most of the time they are just random and annoying and obviously not legitimate. Other things I have seen are links on facebook or various websites where you can donate to a charity with the click of a mouse. But honestly people let's please not forget about KONY 2012...........the biggest most fake fad of our generation. KONY 2012 was this video that went apeshit VIRAL over night and caused ignorant uneducated people to finally realize that in Africa children don't get coddled by their mommies and daddies and live in nicely equipped houses like they do in America. People were donating to this KONY charity left and right and CONSTANTLY updating facebook posts about it. In the end NOTHING happened, literally, people were expecting streets across America to be flooded with anti Kony posters and other hupla but in reality it just showed how much of a fad the whole thing was and just made an ass out of every kid who went radical for it acting like it was the second coming. I actually have been apart of a viral video. About a few weeks ago I went to my old high school to watch the homecoming football game and catch up with friends who were a grade or two younger than me. Well, there ended up being a streaker at the game and it was caught on video. The video and story have now been on MSNBC, Bay NEWS 9, Fox NEWS, Howard Stern, CNN, ABC, 9.33, 101.5, 97x, the Jimmy Falon show, and more stations I honestly can't remember the others but it became a nation wide thing. It is hilarious, I will give you the link to watch... here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHquau-haAY
Zinnser: “Hey Joe! It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you around here. What have you been up too?”
ReplyDeleteWilliams: “You know, not much now that I finished writing my new essay, ‘The Phenomenology of Error'."
Zinnser: “O ya I just read that the other day. Interesting thoughts you had there.”
Williams: “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Zinnser: “Well I mean I kind of get what your saying but there was just so many grammatical errors I could NOT get past it.”
Williams: “Well I mean that was the whole point of the essay…”
Zinnser: “I’m not putting you down or saying your essay was bad or anything, I just see those errors and it’s like nails being drug across a chalkboard.”
Williams: “Do you even remember any of the actual content in my essay William?”
Zinnser: “That’s not the point. I’m just saying, the reason we can’t have nice things is because of people like you that use bad grammar!”
Williams: “Whatever man.”
*gets up and leaves while whispering…
“I didn’t know that one guy could be so fricking anal.”
0119
ReplyDeleteSo both Joseph Williams and William Zinsser walk into a bar…
Zinsser: “Ah! Joseph Williams, what are the odds that I would run into you here?”
Williams: “Less than the likes of someone identifying every minute error I purposefully implanted into my work “The Phenom-…”
Zinsser: “The Phenomenology of Error?”
Williams: “Why yes, how on Earth did you know what I was going to say?”
Zinsser: “I just finished it actually. It’s rather interesting, I might add. Your take on what vaguely constitutes error engulfed my attention.”
Williams: “So you really like it?”
Zinsser: “It was thought-provoking to say the least. I must say that you were rather critical of my work. One who brings about error into their writing should be aware that a simple mistake of grammar and usage has the potential to subject their work to mass scrutiny, however harsh it may be.”
Williams: “Language such as “horrible atrocities” and “detestable vulgarity” in regards to minor grammar and usage mistakes, are a bit extreme. Why is there such a broad spectrum of reaction from seemingly parallel errors?
Zinsser: “Are you suggesting that similar errors may bring about drastically different criticisms?”
Williams: “Exactly, some errors elicit furious outrage while others, that do not vary significantly, excite only moderate disapproval.”
Zinsser: “That is not the case, sir.”
Williams: “Minor mistakes do not deserve such extreme ferocity. Surely you do not consider novice writers as oafs? Idi Amin, he was an oaf, not the freshman composition students you are putting down. You’re too harsh.”
Zinsser: “I don’t put anyone down in such a way. I only use such strong language to convey my point. Errors are errors and we should treat them as such.”
Williams: “So the descriptive language used indicates the seriousness of the error?”
Zinsser: “Now you’re getting it chap.”
Williams: “I believe so. The rules in which we use to construct our writing also cause us to condemn error with variation in the degree of harshness.”
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Social media can be a powerful entity. When Haiti was devastated by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010, the need to help out was radiating from the web. Twitter and YouTube users reached out to the world and proved an excellent resource in bringing together the whole globe as a whole to help out fellow members of the human race. Once something goes viral on the web, it’s hard to not notice and take action. In fact, my high school TV production class created a very well put together video project showcasing the “elite” work ethic of a rival school’s football team. It the best parody we put forth. It broke through the internet and nestled itself into YouTube and Facebook. Our local community became a buzz. Everyone thought it was rather comical except the rival school. It ended up having to be taken down and an apology was administered from our principle. It was a short-lived viral phenomenon on a smaller scale.
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My essay is in the works. I have not decided on a specific construct yet however I am leaning towards possibly plagiarism or originality in writing. Based on my investigations so far I’ve learned that plagiarism is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly. Originality seems to be harder than ever to achieve and I am going to learn why this is. My audience I will reach out to will be online blog readers of a teaching website who are seeking information on plagiarism/originality. I will be using the blog format mainly because I have yet to try that style out and am eager to learn about it and evolve into a better writer. My purpose will be to shed light on previously unknown aspects of originality and uniqueness in writing.
Part 3 0119
ReplyDeleteMy construct essay is extremely rough drafted right now. By rough draft I mean it is kinda being brain stormed at the moment. I know I want to write around 5-7 paragraphs but I am not too sure what exactly I want to write about. I want to reach a younger audience (Ages 13-37). I will use humor, dry sarcasm, and bluntness to get my point across to the reader. The purpose in my mind is to change the reader's opinion heavily and make them feel stupid for not having the opinion of that on the paper.
0037
ReplyDeleteWhile sitting next to each other at a bar: William Zinsser and Joseph Williams begin to discuss errors in texts.
Zinsser: “Hey Williams! I read your article, ‘The Phenomenology of Error.”
Williams: “Oh, really? What did you think of it?”
Zinsser: “I couldn’t disagree more with it, you begin saying that everyone has different perceptions of error. Who do you think you are? Then you go on talking about how it’s alright to have error in writing. You are a horrible writer and should be condemned for your thoughts.
Williams: “If you were to only take a different perspective, read my article for the content and knowledge it brings, rather than the errors and you will have a different outtake. ‘When we read for typos, letters constitute the field of attention; content becomes virtually inaccessible. But, when we read for content, semantic structures constitute the field of attention; letters - for the most part - recede from our consciousness.”
Williams: “If you read a text for the sole purpose of grading it, you will find more errors than when reading “unreflexively” for the purpose of content.”
Zinsser: “I hardly believe that is the case, surely you can be critical on their errors as well as their content! Errors lead to less successful writing and not as effective content.”
Williams: “Clearly not the case Zinsser. My article had 100 errors within it; however, most would go unnoticed by readers. These errors did not detract from my writing and the point I was trying to prove, instead it reinforced my ideas by showing the readers first hand.”
Zinsser: “Meh, you keep continuing your conspiracy writing Williams. My papers have less errors and flaws so are therefor better.”
Zinsser begins to leave the bar….
Williams: “Whatever you say Zinsser, one day you’ll be driven mad trying to find and correct all the errors of text while the content whizzes over your head.”
(cont.)
ReplyDeleteRight along the same lines as the Urban Outfitters situation was the statement by Chick-Fil-A’s President announcing his opposition towards Gay marriage and his support for “Biblical Families.” After this statement, many people went to Twitter and Facebook and posted statuses and tweets about how wrong this was. They encouraged the customers of the restaurant to boycott the food. I was not part of this movement, nor am I the part of any current social media movements. After a short period of time, the movement was quieting down and the boycott ceased as it’s plethora of customers began to enjoy their delectable chicken sandwiches.
I have not begun my construct essay; however, I plan on writing it on the writing process and how it is instructed to be an individual venture without collaborators or partners. This individualistic writing process in school varies widely from the collective writing that occurs in many business places with multiple composers and a collaboration of ideas. These two differences can create a barrier between what may be needed and what is learned. I want to reach teachers because this topic mainly focuses around the instruction that writing is supposed to be done on your own; the students are taught this construct from their instructors. I think I will use a letter as my medium, written to one of my old teachers, in an effort to convince them to give a writing assignment that may be collaborative to see its effects and what the students can achieve.
OMO8
ReplyDeleteZinsser: Hey Joe, thanks for meeting me here. So i just finished reading your essay "The Phenomenology of Error."
Williams: "And..?"
Zinsser: "You had some good ideas but I don't fully agree with you on some. Why did you make th errors and then point them out?"
Williams: "Because most errors are not as noticeable as some."
Zinsser: "Okay well I get that."
Williams: "Was that all that you disliked?"
Zinsser: "I didn't dislike that as much as it confused me."
Williams: "How so"
Zinsser: "Well how can you point out errors that are unnoticed? Doesn't that make this article a bit ironic?"
Williams:"I got you, but i don't know why you have to overanalyze. My point is simply in common talk there are many errors that we don't correct. If we let it be it will show up in our writing. I just want people to start thinking and clearly you are now. But it's just an article, don't get too caught up."
Zinsser:"Well it makes a bit more sense now, so anyways how about that beer?"
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Other situations where a social media mediated a kind of change could be in those emails that say "Forward to keep the movement going." Those are ones about children with cancer, and other miscellaneous problems in our world. One of the biggest was the Casey Anthony case. Everyone around me was motivated to find little Caylee and make things right. All over Facebook people were posting for everyone not to give up, pray, and help in the search. The new media was all over this story spreading it all over America. Another major event mediating change would be the presidential election. They're advertisements are on all kinds of media sites. The internet, Facebook, television commercials, vehicles, and many more. This would probably be the largest "Search for change."
I cannot recall a time I got involved. The smallest involvement I took part in was about trying to spread the word of God with the homeless downtown by passing out food and spending time talking to them and listening to their stories. It feels good to give rather than receive.
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For my construct I will write about the five-paragraph essay. This topic is the largest one we delay with through our writing development over the years. I've lean red that this is not true, an essay isn't limited by the amount of paragraphs, you write however many you ned to get your point across. I will write this to the students in 5th grade english classes. I will prove this with well written essays that do not consist of 5 paragraphs but focus on making their point. My purpose is to let them understand they can write freely without having limitations.
Kara Alongi, a sixteen year old, tweeted the other day that there was an intruder in her house and for someone to call 911. After several people saw this it became a trending topic on twitter and Kara soon had over 10,000 followers. As it turned out, the girl had not really been kidnapped and see had just ran away. She faked her own kidnapping so she could gain more followers on twitter. That only sparked more controversy and eventually everyone on twitter knew who Kara was and what she had done. It almost seemed like if you didn’t voice your opinion about this girl you were the odd man out. Kara was eventually found and returned home safe. Several hours after, the story became old news and no one remembered who Kara Alongi was.
ReplyDelete0119 Part 1:
ReplyDelete*William Zinsser notices an acquaintance, Joseph Williams, sitting in the same bar, a couple seats away. Zinsser scribbles something on a napkin and asks the bartender to give Williams along with whatever Williams is drinking. The bartender proceeds to do as Zinsser requested, and mutters to Williams "This is from the man four seats over."
The napkin says "You looked thirsty. Your welcome"
Williams relocates to the seat next to Zinsser.
Williams: Your? Y O U R? You of all people should know the proper word is "you're" and not…
Zinsser: Calm down ol' chap. It was a joke… But now that we are on the topic of errors, I'd like to speak with you about this disastrous piece you wrote… "The Phenomenology of Error"
Williams: What of it? I mentioned you in it and not once did I hint to your drinking problem
Zinsser: My drinking problem? You're sitting here in a bar on a Tuesday night just like I am. But thats not the point… and I'll save my rant about the "mention" for later on.
Williams (in a sarcastic voice): What is it then? Did you find an error?
Zinsser: No, not one error. One HUNDRED errors…
Williams: In that case, I see you didn't finish reading
Zinsser: Oh no, I finished reading, alright. I just think its extremely unprofessional of you to include a stunt like that in your writing
Williams: It was a creative liberty taken to prove a point
Zinsser: I couldn't concentrate! The errors were like flies droning around my ears… or spiders crawling all down my back! No matter how I tried to clear my mind and concentrate, I couldn't focus! Every little error frustrated me to the point where I could no longer comprehend what I was reading. I became paranoid… expecting there to be a catastrophic grammatical error hiding in the next sentence… waiting to jump out and scare me
Williams: Calm down, you old fart, before you give yourself a heart attack. Let me explain. I put the errors in my work to make a point. The point is, that if an error is made, but does not detract from the point being made in the writing, then it's no big deal. Errors such as double negatives, the wrong use of "was" and "were", or even switching "your" for "you're" are unacceptable and stupid mistakes. But messing up the finer details in writing can be overlooked.
Zinsser: They are RULES of writing! Laws which keep people from trying to pass of gibberish as real writing. Writing is a form of communication, and without rules, all written languages will become chaos and no one will be able to understand anything besides their own work!
Williams: In part, yes! But if the audience being addressed doesn't understand these rules being used, then the rules are actually doing more harm than good. Sure, that statement is an extreme, but we need to operate somewhere in the middle of the two. We need to write at the level of our audience. Impeccable, complex, and elaborate writing may be above the heads of some audiences. So what if a writer makes an error every once in a while… Hell! Even E.B. White broke the rules every once in a while… Most audiences won't catch, much less remember, a minuscule error. They will, on the other hand, remember the overall point made in the piece of writing and how it influenced their thoughts.
*Williams then stands up, leave his money on the counter, and stumbles off*
Zinsser: *sigh* I need a drink
Brittan Petty
ReplyDeleteOM08
Part 1
William Zinsser and Joseph Williams are sitting in a coffee shop in Manhattan, New York on a cold winter evening drinking coffee and hot chocolate.
Zinsser: Joseph! So nice to see you again! Please have a seat. How are you?
Williams: William, it’s always a pleasure. I am doing just fine. And how are you?
Zinsser: I’m doing just fine. I just finished reading a very interesting book.
(Waiter comes by)
Waiter: What can I get for you sir?
Williams: I’ll have a coffee, two creams, and one sugar. Thank you.
Zinsser: I’ll have a medium hot cocoa. Hold the whip. And a chocolate chip muffin.
Waiter: All right, I’ll have that out as soon as possible.
(Waiter walks away)
Williams: So, about that book you just read. What was it about?
Zinsser: Well I believe you are very familiar with the book. Does The Phenomenology of Error ring a bell?
Williams: It certainly does. How did you like the book? I am very sorry about referencing you in it.
Zinsser: Oh no, please don’t be. But off the record, I didn’t enjoy myself while I was reading the book.
Williams: What did you not like about the book?
Zinsser: I was not very fond of the nature and content of the book. I disagreed with most of it. When something is wrong with grammar, then it’s wrong. There is no in between, halfway, or semi-correct.
Williams: Well as you can see, I believe you are wrong. There are many great pieces in literature that have common grammatical errors, but we tend to overlook them because a very profound author writes the book. We aren’t looking for mistakes therefore we overlook them.
Zinsser: While I was reading your book I found numerous mistakes.
Williams: That’s because I was writing about them, making you focus in on the mistakes. I bet if I had never pointed them out, they wouldn’t have been found, but that’s okay. A good author follows correct grammar rules, but a great author breaks them and turns them into new rules.
Zinsser: I still think you are wrong. Grammar is everything. If its wrong, then the meaning of a certain topic comes out wrong or makes you look stupid. Bad grammar breaks an author.
Williams: So you’re saying that you’re a bad author since you broke the grammar rules? I remember directly quoting you.
Zinsser: Why don’t we just drop this subject? Talk about a more trending topic, like who are you voting for?
Williams: Well I certainly agree that we should change topics. But I want to leave you with a food for thought. Why does grammar have to be everything when writing? We can break common grammar rules if it is called for. We need to stop looking for mistakes. When we do, we find them. Then we aren’t looking for content, but rather for materialistic issues. Once we start looking at content, the better we will be. To change the subject, I am not sure whom I’m voting for. The debate was not very successful in swaying my opinions.
(Scene ends with them debating on whom to vote for)
Brittan Petty
ReplyDeleteOM08
Part 2
I know many situations that have been aided by social media websites. Examples such as the Chick-Fil-A controvery, Taylor Swift asking a kid to go to an awards show, and a little girl getting a visit from Justin Beiber because she turned in $5,000. I have been apart of a small movement. A movement that hits close to home, and still does today. Rachel’s Challenge is known all over the world. My junior year two of my friends died: one in a car crash and one because he purposely overdosed on pills. The kid did this because he was depressed. He didn’t feel like he fit in at school and was always bullied. Just last week, from the same high school, another kid killed himself for the same reason. He overdosed on pain pills and his depression pills. Now at school, everyone wears pink on Wednesdays for these people. It made the local newspaper and now almost every school in Brevard County does it. This simple change started on Instagram. It’s a way for everyone to cope and connect. It also brings bullying to attention.
Since beginning the construct essay, I have learned a lot about the five-paragraph essay and its components. A five-paragraph essay consists of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Within the introduction, there should be a catchy hook, a thesis statement with three points, and a quote, In the body paragraph there should be textual evidence, quotes, and the three points and thesis should be answered. In the concluding paragraph, the thesis should be restated, there needs to be a statistic, and also a conclusion about the paragraphs. I am going to use a flyer or power point presentation to get my point across. I plan to reach an audience that is tired of teaching and using the five-paragraph essay. This could include, but no limited too, teachers, principals, students, parents, and educational specialists. I want these people to see and understand that a paper/essay does not need to follow a five-paragraph essay format to be considered correct. There are many essays with either few or many paragraphs.
0119 Part 2:
ReplyDeleteAlthough nothing beneficial to society came out of it, internet users recently came together to accomplish a goal: send the singer Pitbull far away. As a promotional stunt, Pitbull partnered up with Wal-mart and said he would visit whichever Wal-mart Facebook fan page got the most likes by July, 15 2012. This stunt was intended to promote "Energy Sheets", a brand of caffeine-laced breath strips. (I wasn't aware of that part until just now when I started doing research. That goes to show how much the advertising idea failed). When online bloggers and social network users found out about this, word quickly spread about the plan to send Pitbull to the farthest United States based Wal-mart store, which is all the way in Kodiak, Alaska. By the deadline, by July 15th, the Kodiak Wal-mart page had over 65,000 likes and Pitbull did honor his side of the agreement by visiting the frigid store.
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The topic of my construct essay that I'm planning for right now is that students MUST have 6 to 8 sentences in each paragraph. I'm looking to reach teachers as my audience, as they are the ones forcing students to do this. The students don't need convincing in this situation… they already wan't to write less. I will most likely write it in the format of a letter which asks teachers to reflect on their own writing style and not the standardized crap they teach their students. Hopefully I can change the cookie cutter writing style being taught by writing this letter for a fictitious teacher.
I haven’t started my construct essay yet but I plan on writing to children in seventh and eighth grade. This is when you learn all the rules about the five-paragraph essay and the necessity of a strong opening. I don’t know what I am going to focus on but I am starting to lean toward the fact that you need a clear and precise thesis statement. That always through me of when I was writing and I don’t want other kids to have to go through what I went through too.
ReplyDelete0M08
ReplyDelete**Zinsser and Williams meet at a bar in New York City. **
Zinsser: Hi, Joe. It’s nice to see you.
Williams: And you to William. I heard that you were reading my book, “The Phenomenology of Error.”
Zinsser: Yes. I actually just finished reading it and I must say that there are some points I don’t agree on.
Williams: Enlighten me.
Zinsser: Well, I do not agree on your usage of errors throughout the piece. Writing should be about getting your point across correctly and effectively without extras.
Williams: But part of my point was to include the errors. I wanted to see if people would only be concerned with the errors or if they would also look at the content of my writing.
Zinsser: I understand but the included errors are unnecessary in your writing. You could have discussed your ideas on errors in writing without including the errors. However, I do agree with you about the content of writing; I think people should be more worried about what authors are trying to say then the way they are writing.
Williams: Yes, content does matter immensely. But why treat some errors with a ore serious tone than other errors?
Zinsser: I think it is because, in our minds, some errors I tend to bypass automatically while others stand out and are slightly offensive.
Williams: I see, I see. This was a nice talk on the examination of errors in papers or writing in general.
**Exit Williams and Zinsser onto busy New York City streets. **
A major social media event that happened earlier this year was that of Kony 2012. This campaign was launched in order to show the world about a man named Joseph Kony who was a war criminal in Uganda. The group called Invisible Children launched this campaign in order to educate people about this man because he liked to recruit young boys to join his regime. At first these posting were mainly on Facebook and posted by only a couple random people, but soon the topic became more popular – not only on Facebook. Although Kony was a dated topic, at least the atrocities he committed, students were going crazy talking about him, debating about him, and posting pictures about him; this shows that when many people – the whole – come together, even old topics can spark new arguments. My debate even used Kony 2012 as one of our practice debates. People began to donate many to the Invisible Children charity and they helped promote their cause further by providing it attention. The social media allowed for the topic of stopping tyranny, oppression, and genocide to spread like wild fire; it was something that we had the liberty not to experience everyday.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGille, 0037
ReplyDeleteZinsser: “Excuse me, Joseph, do you remember me?”
Williams: “Well of course I do! You’re William Zinsser, the guy who constantly overlooks grammatical errors…I used you in one of my writings!”
Zinsser: “Yes, so you do remember me…why am I always known for being a grammatical Nazi? I don’t think I’m that bad off...”
Williams: “William, you emailed me all your criticisms once my story got published…you threw a fit!”
Zinsser: “That’s only because you made obvious mistakes and pointed them out to the reader!! Why would you do that?!”
Williams: “I did it because people like you need to realize that grammatical errors shouldn’t be the main focus of reading a story. I bet my readers didn’t even notice any of my errors until after I pointed them out.”
Zinsser: “True…I guess you’re right Joseph…for once.”
Williams: “Thatta boy.”
There are constant trends, campaigns, and news remarks, informing people of what may be happening in the community or world and that their “comments, likes, and shares could help save a life”. Just like those spam emails that you get, saying “please forward to all of your friends to help raise money for my daughter with cancer”. I find it hard to believe that it is all that real, and slightly ridiculous. I remember a huge trend that came about on Facebook called “Kony 2012” talking about Joseph Kony, who is the Leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army or LRA, formerly in Uganda. He kidnaps children from their families, taking the girls to become sex slaves and giving the boys a gun with which to shoot their parents/become child soldiers. Everyone passed along the video and continued to argue whether it was right or wrong, and whether it was even real or not. I’m still not sure whether it was a legitimate cause to help bring this man to justice, but either way, it soon faded out and no one has brought it up in a long time.
In my construct essay, I have brainstormed ideas such as along the lines of how FCAT has messed up the children’s creative minds of our society, including mine. The idea came along in class when everyone had the exact same anger towards the FCAT; it seems to be a powerful subject to talk about. I’m planning on viewing the positive and negative aspects of using the FCAT in public schools and whether it’s effective or not. I have deeply analyzed my own experiences throughout the years of taking FCAT and how I think it has put forth a negative output of my writing skills. I would like to go into detail about how it teaches student to organize their thoughts into a formal 5 paragraph essay, all of that bull crap that schools base their academics around. My audience will most likely be to school administrators, teachers, and even students.
0M08
ReplyDeleteAs a personal experience, I remember two years ago when two suicides took place in my high school. One suicide was from painkillers and the other was committed by means of a gun. These two suicides were caused by the constant bullying they experienced daily in every aspect whether it was on the bus, in school, or over the Internet. After the students at my school found out what was going on we started Facebook pages, Twitter posts, and YouTube videos about our feelings and thoughts on bullying; I don’t think there was one kid at my school that did not participate in social media on this topic. This showed are community that a bunch of high school students could get together and make a change in the community in regards to bullying; we could show support for others.
The construct I plan on investigating for my paper is the notion of a five-paragraph, five-sentence essay that was engrained in our minds as students from a very young age. From the age of seven, I have been taught only to write in this format or the format of a thesis paper. I want my audience to be younger students and even teachers in primary school. I wish to explain that not all topics or papers can be written or summed up in five paragraphs or that each point can be summed up in five sentences. Also, I think that some can be even shorter than five paragraphs or five sentences. So if this is true, then why must we add these constraints to our writing styles? Because I am trying to reach an audience in younger schools I think it would be a good idea to make a presentation showing the differences in writing styles, how different topics can illicit multiple forms of writing, and how writing differs in school systems around the world.
0037
ReplyDeleteWilliams: Hey you! I know you’ve had a chance to read my latest essay “The Phenomenology of Error,” so let me know what you think.
Zinsser: I don’t think you really want to hear what I have to say about that and the “impact” it had on me.
Williams: What is that supposed to mean? And it obviously had some impact on you because you used that word well in a sentence as a verb.
Zinsser: And you obviously really believe that load of crap you wrote about grammar and impact being a verb because I was clearly mocking you. How can someone of your educational background truly believe the verb uses you expressed in your essay?
Williams: Well if someone read the essay between the lines in true detail, they would know that that word and all of the errors were to teach a lesson about how we’ve been trained and been blinded.
Zinsser: I understand trying to make a point but when it’s being made in a contradictory way it’s hard for the reader to focus. Well I guess that was your point when you pointed out all of the errors and made your reader feel stupid.
Williams: Well it takes one to know one so I’m glad you caught on. I had to bring to the reader’s attention that they have clearly been misled by their teaching and you were the perfect example for this study.
Zinsser: I can agree with the fact that myself and millions of others in the world have been misled in our teaching and I did feel a tad bit stupid when I missed all of those errors but I still do not agree with the way you went about trying to teach us all a lesson.
Williams: The lesson has to start somewhere. Now good day and go study a grammar book or better yet my essay in between the lines.
Pt. 2
During March of this year, a huge topic went viral and nationwide with the news and all other sorts of media. Kony 2012 became the trending topic everywhere when the Invisible Children put out a youtube video about a man named Kony in Africa. This man is/was making boys become soldiers at a young age to rape women and kill their parents. The purpose of the video was to make his face known so that he could be caught and stopped. The video also had a plan in the end which was to make April 20th the day where people were to go out and cover the streets with his face to make everyone aware of this man and his actions. Included in the video was the background information of this man, information on the Invisible Children foundation, a plan to stop him, and the advertisement for kits and items to buy to support the cause. Naturally, after this video was released people held meetings all over the place to get teams together to support this new cause. One of the clubs that I was a part of in high school even held an information meeting, where they showed the video then had a discussion and decided to start collecting donations. Within a week of this video being released there seemed to be a 50/50 split in the opinions around the world. Half of the people were all for it and ready to hit the pavement running spreading the word, whereas others were skeptical about the situation and wanted more information. There were also people actually from Africa who said Kony was dead and had been for years so this cause was false and pointless. Within three weeks the hype of Kony died down. No one talked about it anymore or held any more meetings and I don’t ever remember seeming a donation jar going up. I personally never got involved because I didn’t believe I could make a change in that cause and I wasn’t fully sure about it because of the people who said Kony was dead. The most I did was watch the youtube video with divided attention, attend the meeting that my club held (only because my best friend was leading it), and joined the facebook group, but never posted in it. So, when something goes viral for change it doesn’t always have a positive outcome or change at all.
contd 0037
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Although I am still not sure about the meaning behind the assignment I am sticking to how writers research and use outside sources to write a paper or essay. I want to reach undergraduate college students in first and second level English classes because their writing can still be developing and they aren’t comfortable with their assignments. I was thinking of using the gene of a podcast so I can talk it out with students because everything is best understood when talking out loud about it. I want to know how students transition from high school to college level writing and why students aren’t prepared when they leave high school.
0119
ReplyDeleteIf Joseph Williams and William Zinsser were to meet in a bar and have a conversation, part of it would go something like this.
Zinsser: Joseph I read your essay “the phenomenology of error”, and I have a few questions for you.
Williams: I’m glad you read it, what did you think?
Zinsser: I would like to know why you insisted on making sentences of the words I disapprove of. We both believe different things but you didn’t have to do that.
Williams: I used the sentences to show how rules have exceptions. In your case I wanted to show ways that even you would be fine with because of the situations I used them in. It fit perfectly in to my essay because I was trying to demonstrate how there seems to be exceptions to every rule.
Zinsser: I understand what you were trying to do but I did not appreciate how you make me look like someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The way you included me in your article makes it look like we have a very negative past together and you did not have to include the fact that I don’t see impact as a verb because it’s not!
Williams: You might not see it as a verb but just everyone else in the world does. Like I said it has been classified as one since 1601.
Zinsser: I really did not appreciate you picking apart what I believe in you essay.
Williams: I realize this but I needed to because it illustrated the point I was trying to get across perfectly.
I believe that Williams and Zinsser would disagree on everything they talked about; and Zinsser would approach him with a negative attitude to start with because of how Williams seems to put him down because they have such different views on words and the uses of them.
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Pt.2
The only time I can really remember something going viral and I took notice to it was just a few weeks ago after the Packers-Seahawks game. I am a huge Green Bay Packer fan and of course I was watching the game and the call on the last play was not the only bad call of the game. This is important to know because I went on facebook and literally everyone I knew had posted something about it. It was easy to tell the people who actually watched the game, versus the people who heard about it and acted like they saw it. The people who watched made references to the other blown calls in the game and the people who didn’t acted like it was the first bad call of the game. I personally did not post anything because I was so frustrated at the time and I didn’t want to post something I would later regret when the heat of the moment was over. I also didn’t see a point to it because I would have accomplished nothing by telling the world how I felt about the call. The NFL couldn’t care less about what I thought, and posting something would not reverse the call.
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Pt. 3
For my construct essay I am considering a few topics. One of them, and the one I am leaning towards is the fact that in school we were taught within such strict guidelines because of how were to write because we needed to pass on the FCAT and AP exams, but when we get to college we are instructed to write a complete different way. We are not supposed to write little 5 paragraph essays with a clear introduction and closing paragraph. I believe that high school did not do a very good job of preparing me for college writing and I want to explore more why this is and what could be done about it.
0119
ReplyDeleteZinsser walks into a bar where Williams is already sitting...
Zinsser: Hey man, I just finished reading your article "The Phenomenology of Error."
Williams: That's cool man, what did you think of it?
Zinnser: I completely disagreed with everything you said.
Williams: Everything?
Zinnser: Everything!
Williams: Why is that?
Zinnser: Because it's full of errors. Including my own errors! Everything in your essay is grammatically ruined.
Williams: That's my point. That even though everyone writes differently, everyone still has an ability to get their point across.
Zinnser: How so? If there's enough grammatical errors any piece of writing becomes impossible to understand.
Williams: I agree, but my article was written with grammatical errors that constantly go unseen not only in writing but conversation as well. Many times a lot of people don't even realize a grammatical error in the middle of a conversation, yet it still get's the point across.
Zinnser: Okay, I see what you're saying.
Williams: Thank you. Want a drink? I'm buying.
Zinnser: Sure. *Grabs drink and raises glass.* Cheers.
WIlliams: Cheers.
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An example that I can think of where social media helped push for change was what happened with Chick-fil-a this year. When the world had found out they opposed gay marriage everyone on facebook and twitter went crazy about it, proposing boycotts and ways to get Chick-fil-a to change their ideology. One of the main things that sticks out in my memory from this situation was when the Mayor of Boston, MA sent a letter to Chick-fil-a saying that they would no longer allow Chick-fil-a's in Boston because of how open they were with their ideology of anti-gay marriage. I have not been a part of a major viral movement or any viral movement at all but I have witnessed many since I have started using social media.
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As of now I honestly have no idea what I am going to write for my construct essay. I am still investigating different topics that I could use. But as of now if I had to choose something to write about it would be the 5 paragraph essay and how in high school we were formatted to write in a way that made it easier for standardized testing rather than writing in the working world. My audience will be my peers and maybe teachers who are thinking about teaching the 5 paragraph essay format.
I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account, but I remember when the Trayvon Martin case broke out all of my friends told me how many posts they had about it. Since the shooting happened in Florida, the news had nowhere to go but up. Next thing I knew the story was on the national news. Protesters would show up outside of the courthouse where George Zimmerman's trial was being held. People would give him threats so that eventually he and his wife had to go into "hiding". The point is, things of significance can go unnoticed and social media can either help or hurt the story.
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I'm doing my construct essay on paragraphs. I had never even thought of how or why paragraphs came about. All I have gotten so far is that there are specific guidelines. I'm also trying to find out if those guidelines are used in other countries as well.
0M08
DeleteI think you bring up a very valid argument that as much as people want to argue social media can help a situation it can also hurt a situation. There are many news stories today that wouldn't escalate to the level they did if it weren't for social media. I am not saying that certain stories don't deserve the attention, but social media also sheds light on things that are better left quiet and that ultimately in the end hurt the people involved. The idea you have for your construct essay is very interesting, that is a question that I would of never thought to ask myself, writing paragraphs is just so ingrained in writing that it would be interesting to see how they came about.
0119
ReplyDeleteBartender: what can I get you gentlemen to drink this evening?
Williams: is scotch ok with you William?
Zinsser: don't use that atrocious word!
Williams: "OK!" I won’t use "OOOOK" again! It is not that big of a deal, you know exactly what I am trying to say.
Zinsser: yes but I think it makes all the difference in the world if you are able to utilize grammar correctly. This is something you didn’t say in "The Phenomenology of Error".
Williams: Ohh you read my piece?!
Zinsser: yes but don’t get too excited because I really didn’t like you quoting me and making me look bad.
Williams: look I had to use you to get my point across.
Zinsser: above all I didn’t like how you said that a writer's content is more important that grammar itself, how can you say such a thing!
Williams: look Will I believe what separates a good writer from a great writer is the content of his writing not his grammar.
Zinsser: you see my friend that is where you are wrong, grammar is what determines your credibility and knowledge.
Williams: look Will, at the end of the day people care about your thoughts and your message that you get across not on how well you use the English language.
Zinsser: whatever, I’m never going to be able to get make you see otherwise.
Bartender: sooooo two scotches?
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I have never been a part of a viral network but one that i do remember was when the video of Kony went viral. The YouTube video "Kony 2012" got over 90 million views and many people were giving donations in order to try and catch this international criminal. a huge uproar rose up and the way people were going to get their point across was by spreading the word through posters and social media. However this who movement became almost silent went the narrator and maker of this video had a nervous/mental breakdown and was all over the news, because of this many people just never really talked about Kony again i feel because no one want to follow someone who is "crazy".
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in my process essay i wish to research the need for standardization and why it has become a crucial factor in society and how it impacts both negatively and positively our lives. It is still a work in progress. The audiences I wish to reach are mainly my peers, students, and education instructors. This essay is really to be a more informative essay.
0M08
ReplyDeleteWILLIAMS: So?
ZINNSER: I beg your pardon?
WILLIAMS: So, how did you like the article?
ZINNSER: Ugh! Please speak in complete sentences. I find it very detestable when people fail to practice correct grammar. To answer your question, I found a number of errors in your piece.
WILLIAMS: How do you mean? Were they contextual errors? Grammatical errors?
ZINSSER: Again, I would highly suggest you look into correcting yourself when you speak. I saw several grammatical errors, no doubt. However, I found your point made between the reader’s intent and notice of error very fascinating. Are you saying that the reader may decide whether there is an error? I can tell you, then, I make note of many errors.
WILLIAMS: Well, not exactly. See, in my article I provided a section discussing some of the theoretical outcomes in noticing and reacting to error. Do you remember the chart?
ZINSSER: Yes, I do. Were you sure to format it correctly?
WILLIAMS: What of its content do you remember? Nothing? Well, that’s one of the points I try to make in my article. The reader’s note of error differs significantly in the way they read. When reading for content rather than grammatical error, we are less susceptible to notice an error, and therefore will probably not respond.
ZINSSER: But where is your order? What of the rules?
WILLIAMS: Well judging by use of a conjunction at the start of the sentence, I’d say you’re beginning to not worry about them. Again, it all depends on how we react to these errors. Yes, there may be grammatical rule, but whether you find a mistake to be “atrocious” and I take no notice of the error whatsoever depends on the point of view from which we read.
ZINSSER: I assure you my syntactical error is mostly due to the drinks.
WILLIAMS: Sure…
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While I have never taken part of a viral social media situation (I rarely check my own Facebook, let alone make posts or blogs for the entire world to see) I do remember a few events that were significantly affected by social media. Many of us may have remembered the “Occupy Wall Street” situation that stretched out for weeks. Many believe that it was not really these social media sites themselves that directly caused social change, but the users and how they chose to apply them other social issues. In much the same way that the blogger of “Anatomy of a Trending Topic: How Twitter and the Crafting Community Put the Smackdown on Urban Outfitters,” all it took was a very small group of passionate individuals (a “niche” as the blogger refers to it) to grab the attention of others and a domino-effect took place, with information spreading from one group to the other.
0M08
ReplyDeleteAs of now, I am beginning to realize that I may have chosen a topic to broad to cover. I initially chose to do my essay on creative writing and the rules that accompany it (much like those taught in elementary school in preparation for FCAT). However, I don’t think I can sufficiently cover it all. I may choose to narrow it down to a specific rule (like the rule that we always had to use lively vocabulary and “at least three similes using lie or as”; yes this really was taught to me in fourth and fifth grade. I debating on whether I want my audience to actually be children that are the age I was then or something along the lines of a Board of Education or a teacher.
Brandon Jones 0037
ReplyDeleteZinsser: I just read your “The Phenomenology of Error” how dare you basically call us hypocritical of our own rules we are trying to convey.
Williams: The proof is in the pudding; even great minds don’t notice their so called interpretations of “errors.” If errors are objective rather than subjective, what is the real definition of an error?
Zinsser: …
Zinsser: Bottom line is, I think you make no point in your essay. Blatantly inserting errors in your work discussing errors does not make you smart. It really just displays a small hint of ignorance.
Williams: Ahh, but you do not understand, I take it you did not catch these errors until the last paragraph. The point is your hate for these so called “horrible atrocities” has no basis. Errors for the most part are subjective and those that are perceived flawed by one might be perceived excellent by another.
Zinsser: That’s preposterous! Writing has a standard and rules that should and will be followed!
Williams: I do not doubt that, but take this into consideration. Have you ever heard the saying, “There’s a fine line between brilliance and insanity?”
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One instance where I have witnessed social media mediating a change was recently a couple of weeks ago when the replacement referees used to call NFL games were scrutinized heavily on Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter. These often harsh status updates and tweets from ordinary people and even celebrities made sure everyone knew something about the situation and even made the local news! Outlets like ESPN would air certain tweets from athletes and celebrities and their criticisms against these replacement referees. This resulted in the referees becoming internet memes and the laughing stock in various internet cults. Maybe a day of two after all these events, the NFL announced that they were in negotiation with the referees union. This jolt in negotiating with two sides that weren’t even talking before were definitely affected by all the controversy happening on the internet.
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My construct deals with finding out why we are told that we cannot use conjunctions like “can’t, isn’t, and haven’t.” I am trying to reach teachers particularly on the middle to high school level as this is where I was taught this unwritten rule and I am also trying to reach my fellow students. This is a rule that I’ve never understood and I have since abandoned in even following because getting into the later years of my high school career it seems as my teachers didn’t care whether I used didn’t or did not. My purpose is to show my fellow students they do not have to conform or worry much about these so-called rules of writing when they write, that writing is really just and extension of themselves and their own personal thoughts.
0119
ReplyDeleteZinsser: Hey, you’re Joseph Williams, author of that elaborate, incorrect, incompetent essay: The Phenomenology of Error.
Williams: No, I am the author of the great essay The Phenomenology of Error. And there is your error right there.
Zinsser: Speaking of errors, I feel as though you accused me, along with many authors of errors that are completely right. An error is an error, which makes a whole piece not credible.
Williams: There’s where you are wrong. A paper can have many technical errors, but once the paper as a whole is focused, detailed, and supportive, then the paper is completely credible.
Zinsser: No. You’re wrong.
Williams: No my friend, you are wrong. You need to take a new insight into writing and stop focusing on the rules, I mean errors, that are prominent in writing, but on the actual writing.
A social media movement that went viral that I can think of is the Kony 2012 campaign. A video went viral that displayed a dictator in Africa who were subjecting people to horrid conditions. People made and bought shirts to support this campaign to raise awareness of Joseph Kony and have him stopped. Even though people did not know whether this was true or not, they hopped on board simply because of the evidence prevented in the videos and other blogs, facebook statuses, and tweets.
0119
ReplyDeleteZinsser: Hey Joe, can I talk to you about some things that you mentioned in your article?
Williams: Yea of course, shoot.
Zinsser: Okay, first off I was just wondering why you made me look like the bad guy right off the bat in your FIRST paragraph and try to cover it up a little by saying I’m an “otherwise amiable man I’m sure”.
Williams: Well Will I was trying to make a point that your word choice to describe those certain usages was too harsh because those small errors should not make people so furious.
Zinsser: You still could have gone about that in a less hostile way because it seemed that your aim was to attack me and make me look like an idiot. I feel like you wanted to use me as the primary example, and that’s fine but maybe you should have let me know first.
Williams: I understand where you are coming from but my intent wasn’t to attack you, like you said I used you as a valuable example to support my claim about errors in my article.
Zinsser: So why am I in your first paragraph? Because you haven’t mentioned that yet.
Williams: Honestly, I felt like it was good attention grabber and showed how I felt about what some people call errors right in my introduction. And I was baffled.
Zinsser: Alright I guess I understand you now. I’m not going to lie by the end of reading your article I started to think critically about the points you made.
Williams: Like what?
Zinsser: Well I realized I do sometimes react more negatively than I should to certain errors. Oh yea, and at the end it made me laugh when you mentioned the error thing because I really was scoping out your article the first time through very meticulously to find errors.
*Share laughter.
Williams: I knew people would do that. But yea I’m really glad it made you think critically about those things. You know what, next round is on me.
Zinsser: Wow thanks, I take back most of things I said. (*Laughs) Now let’s drink!
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I have witnessed and taken part in a movement not so long ago in the social media. Planking was huge in Facebook and You Tube about a year ago. Planking is when someone lays flat on their stomach in random places for humorous purposes. The first time I saw what it was, was when my friend showed me a video and I thought it was hilarious. After that it seemed like everyone one of my friends on Facebook had a picture of themselves planking and it was even on the news. People got ideas from this and made up other things like cone-ing, cup-ing, and fall-ing which also got many views on YouTube. After a while, it all died down but it shows how dumb things like this can spread like wildfire through social media.
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I do not currently have a construct. I am thinking of writing about the rule of transitions in the beginning of paragraphs. This rule really stuck to me throughout high school, but now I see that it is pointless. What that rule did in the past was make my essays look less professional and it slowed me down because I had to think of the correct transition to use. I will also consider the five paragraph rule and the attention grabber rule. I feel like these rules are very relevant to many students from middle school to college. The medium I will use is writing to a teacher from the past. I want to state how certain constructs constrain students from producing better essays. This will hopefully encourage her to take action and show her current students that not all constructs are beneficial in writing.
0M08
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how you were able to make this a friendly conversation where they came to somewhat of an agreement in the end.You mentioned good points in there but I feel like you could have expressed their own personal opinions about errors more in depth. As for the second part of your posting I actually remember when planking spread around the social media so I found this to be a good example. I like your idea of using several constructs to do your paper and it's good that they can also be tied in to one construct in general.
0M08
ReplyDeleteJoseph: *Sits next to Zinsser* "Hey, thanks for the invite. I needed some downtime."
William: "Forget the pleasantries Williams. I'm not here to be all buddy buddy with you."
Joseph: "I see you started drinking without me."
William: "That's beside the point." *Holds up paper* "Interesting piece of yours."
Joseph: "I think I understand now."
William: "How can you take such a lazy stance on something so fundamental as grammar?"
Joseph: "I wouldn't call it lazy."
William: "Of course it's lazy. It's our jobs to push for correct usage, and furthermore we should get upset when grammar is used improperly and hold ourselves to high standards."
Joseph: "That may bear truth, but I think we educators should stop being so sensitive to error. It clouds our judgement when reviewing someone's work, especially if our only goal is to find error.
William: "The way you demean grammar really ticks me off."
Joseph: "I'm not trying to demean grammar. I want to re-define error because grammatical error is not as concrete as many of us think it is. How we perceive error is always changing, and we should be consider this while we educate and do research."
William: "I will forever be irritated by grammatical mistakes and misusage, but perhaps my description of such errors was a little... over the top."
Joseph: 'Ha.. a little?"
William: *serious look* "A little."
Joseph: "Fine fine. Can we drink now?"
William: "Absolutely. By the way, was it really necessary to riddle your paper with errors? I could hardly read the damned thing"
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One of my favorite websites is Reddit. I lose many hours of my day browsing the different subreddits this website has to offer. I think Reddit has proved itself to be very influential and gives many examples of provoking change. One of these changes I have noticed in recent years is an interaction between the internet and social media sites and famous people or political figures. One of Reddit's subreddits is IAmA. Here, anyone of prominence or importance can host a question and answer session in the format of comments and responses. This subreddit has become very popular and has been the host of many important figures, most notably, President Obama. I think this showed that social media has become new territory for political figures and is quickly becoming important territory.
I totally forgot about the Kony craze. That was one of this biggest movements across social media. They had that posted on Facebook, twitter, television, and on billboards. By doing this everyone knew about this problem and created interest amount several audiences. I know when the Kony movement became popular students in my school wrote on walls, made posters, and wore shirts to promote kONY 2012. I'd have to say using the media is a huge advantage in getting other people's interest.
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