Comparing Strunk and White with Williams

The major difference between Strunk and White and Williams is the emphasis on what is more important. Strunk and White concentrate more on Grammar rules while Williams is mainly concerned with Style.

Strunk and White are much more authoratative in their presentation of rules. They provide you with the rules and occasionally an example and leave it at that. "These are the rules; there is no debating them."

Williams provides much more explanation and many more examples of why certain rules or techniques are important. The rules and examples which Williams provide seem to be for a slightly more advanced crowd. He assumes that the reader is already familiar with basic grammar conventions and concentrates more on how to revise a reasonably well-written piece into an exceptionally clear and concise one.

Overall I'm more impressed and feel that I could get more out of Williams at this stage of my study of writing. Strunk and White provide a useful reference for when a writer is unsure of an exact grammar rule, while Williams provides new and useful lessons for those trying to further improve their writing and revision skills.

Revising With Williams

I feel as if I can’t quite grasp all of the rules that Williams provides. I’m also having a hard time writing sentences without feeling that they can’t possibly be clear. There are too many new rules to take in at one time. The textbook version of this book may have been a better idea.

This example isn’t that bad, but it was rather difficult to find any group of sentences that were horrible, so I’ll just take a look at this one anyways:

(I’ve split the sentences up to make them easier to distinguish.)

“Failure to meet the application deadline will result in the candidate’s graduation being delayed until the following graduation period.

Failure to satisfy degree requirements, including the removal of incompletes in required courses or providing official transcripts for course work taken at other colleges or universities, will necessitate that the student file a new application for graduation for the subsequent graduation period.

However, only one application fee is required.”


Revision:

Those who do not apply by the deadline will not graduate until the next graduation period.

Any student who fails to remove incompletes in required courses or provide official transcripts for course work taken at other colleges must file a new application for graduation.

However, only one application fee is required.

Explanation:

I started by attempting to find an abstract noun in sentence #1. Application deadline seemed abstract… Though deadline is abstract too. Whatever the case it lead me to attempt to use the word you as the character, but I finally decided on “Those who”.


In sentence two I felt that the important information was in the middle (in orange), so I chose to use the EXTRACT AND ISOLATE rule. I also felt that Failure might be an abstract noun (I’m paranoid of them now) so I replaced it. Also, the “old information” was the “new information” of the previous sentence so I switched the order.

Also, failure to satisfy degree requirements and the actual failures (removal of incompletes, providing transcripts) seemed like “redundant categories” so I felt that “degree requirements” could be removed.

The removal seemed like an abstract noun so I changed it, “to remove”.

The third sentence seemed fine.

Strunk and White: First Impressions

$6.00 is a pretty good price for this helpful little book... Though I've bought and sold it at least three or four times in my college career thus far. I believe I'll hang onto it this time... It seems to be pretty well respected.

Actually, on second thought... I don't like it very much. It's too small and I have a book that I prefer a little bit more called "Woe is I".

Reading through any book of this sort will provide a nice refresher for one's grammar. Most of the rules and suggestions in the book seem pretty fundamental. Of course, even after reading little grammar helpers for a whole lifetime someone could probably still open one up and find something they could use a little refresher on.

For example, I was reading the correct usage of that and which a little while ago. Though I probably use the right one in most cases, I only do so because it sounds right. It's nice to know the difference now.

The teacher that assigned this book is a great teacher.
The teacher, which assigns this book, is a great teacher.

That is defining, while which isn't. So the first sentence describes a specific teacher while the second describes any teacher who assigns this book.

I can't disagree whole heartedly with any specific rules. It's a good idea to stick to the rules if you want to be sure that people will have an easier time making their way through your text. Of course, sometimes the rules need to be broken to make something sound the way you want it to sound, and that's ok too. It's nice to have a reference around though to make sure that, most of the time, you know the rules whether you are breaking them or not.

Peer Review Recap, Part 1

I've created a wiki with a group of friends before to collaborate on ideas for a project we were working on.

Google Docs was not much different and is slightly easier to use (though I'm not sure as much can be done with it.)

It is more convenient to have a document sahred at google docs to review at any time and have corrections and suggestions instantly available to the other group members, but it will take some getting used to and some practice. I still would rather have a hard copy of someone's paper to look over with a good old-fashioned pen.

If you can't meet with someone in person, or using google docs is an absolute requirement then it is a nice tool to collaborate on a writing project. Making comments or corrections is not as easy online and all in the same computer text as discussing a paper in person is. I may have left out some comments that I would normally have made because it's much harder to list some ideas or corrections when you don't have a person there to discuss it with.

I would much rather have a friendly person explain to me in person what sounds unclear in my writing, or visa versa, than have to read a comment on a paper that might not only make me feel bad about my writing but it will do so with nobody around to discuss a solution with.

So yeah, GoogleDocs works fine and has its uses but I won't be using it more often than I must.

My Writing Technologies

The technology I use for writing is similar to what most other people use. Pens, Pencils, Paper are obviously used by pretty much everyone at least occasionally. I've come to use computers for about 90% of everything I write. Microsoft Word is my program of choice, though obviously I'm using something else for this blog. I haven't always used a computer for most of my writing, but over the past ten years I have steadily increased and eventually I will probably use a computer for everything except my signature (which might become obsolete if I can just digitally sign things with pins numbers or something.)

What is Style?

Style in writing is much like style in clothing. Just as a person may choose to wear a specific outfit to help mold the way people view them, a writer may choose to fashion their writing to help mold the way readers will interpret their writing. A person might wear a business suit for a job interview or a tuxedo for a wedding, but they probably wouldn't wear either to roast marshmallows around a campfire with friends (they might find themselves getting laughed at for such attire.) Choosing a style in writing is quite similar; A writer may use a casual and friendly tone and humor as they write a letter to a good friend, but it would not be smart to use that same casual writing style if they were writing a memo at work or making a resume.

Getting Started

I'm messing around with font and size and color.