Friday, August 24, 2012

Blog 1

For this semester in English 326, I hope to greatly improve my grammar in writing, as well as my everyday speaking grammar. I know I need to speak professionally and correctly everyday as this will affect others impressions of me. Speaking everyday with strong grammar will make me seem more professional, educated, motivated, articulate...
There are a couple places in my grammar where I really need improvement. Comma splices have always brought my papers down.
"The sun is hot, put on some sunblock."
This is an example of a comma splice. This sentence should be broken up into two, as there are two separate things being said.  I think the reason I really have a problem with comma splices is because I type like I speak. I pretty much type what I am saying in my head when working on the assignment. My everyday language is not as academic as academic papers should sound. So the first draft could be written using this method, but I really need to go back and  check my work and make sure I don't have too much informal language.
Another big problem for me in grammar is deciding when to begin a new paragraph or continue onto the old. For the longest time I would simply start a new paragraph when it "seemed" appropriate. I really hope this course teaches me some proper techniques in exactly when to begin a new paragraph. This doesn't apply to my speaking grammar, as we don't speak in paragraphs, but it will help my writing. Whether it is academic, informal, prose, email....

1 comment:

  1. great job on Pattern of the Week, Taylor! Your two examples fit so nicely into what you're saying.

    As for your goals in the course:
    'Fraid the course won't help you become a better speaker or better at paragraphing. But one thing you will learn is that generally we DON'T write like talk. Or at least we shouldn't most of the time. [Notice I'm writing like I talk now, in commenting on your blog. But this isn't how I write academically.] Your analysis about why you use comma splices is spot-on, and you show that you already know that there's more to comma splices than just citing a rule. So you're already half-way to mastering this goal, which you should make some more progress on by December.

    Hope you have fun along the way!

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