Not So Far Apart?

The first essay in the textual analyses section, "Parallel Worlds: The Surprising Similarities (and Differences) of Country-and-Western and Rap", really struck me. The author, Denise Noe, really made me think of both of those genres in a different way. I am not a huge fan of rap, there are some songs that I like to dance to though, because of how graphic most of the songs are. There is one Eminem song, "Stan", that graphically depicted a crazed fan tying his girlfriend up and sticking her in the trunk of his car, then drives it off a bridge. After hearing that song for the first time, I swear I heard the girlfriend's screams of terror in my sleep. Rap songs no longer speak the minority blacks and their triumphs despite being born on the streets, like they used to. Now it is all about who has the best car or who can have sex with the most women. But, as Noe pointed out, country can be that way too. The men of country too speak of themselves as superior to women. Although country songs aren't as graphic, there are some songs that don't put women in the best light. On the other hand though, I have never heard a rap song put a woman as high up on a pedestool as almost every country song ever made does. Most country songs involve the woman leaving the man, and it is always the man's fault, and the men aren't afraid to admit that. But let me tell you right now, we women make some mistakes too.

Revising

I have always dreaded peer editing days at school. I am not the best at revising my friends' writing pieces for a couple of reasons. First of all I'm not very good at judging their stuff on an english basis. I always take their work for what it is, without questioning it. Questioning is the basis of good editing though. It is my job to tell them what confused me and what I didn't like about it. I am also the worst when it comes to things like spelling and grammer. The second reason I am bad at peer editing is because I hate telling my friends that there is something I don't like about something they spent all night working on. It feels like I'm critiquing them instead of their paper. That is something that I have gotten over through the years because I love getting my papers edited because my editor is making it better. If I appreciate it, then I know my peers will as well

"Punctuation then quotation. P then Q"

When i was in the fifth grade, my teacher Mrs. Brown, came up with a witty rhyme to help us remember how to punctuate quotations. It went "Punctuation then quotation. P then Q." My whole entire writing life I have followed that rule without fail. After reading the dialogue chapter in the Nortom Field Guide to Writing, I learned that the punctuation actually does not always go inside the quotations. In situations where you are putting a singular word inside quotations, as in "the so-called 'users'," you put the punctuation outside the quotes.

Sally sold sea...uhg!

The connection between all of these stories is obvious. Each story tells the tale of the struggles to learn. They are life changing events that for us, came quite easily, but for these writers it was an obstacle to be overcome. They struggled to learn to read and write and even how to speak the language without mistakes. As i read these stories, I tried to think of times in my life where I struggled to achieve something academically. Of course there were numerous occasions when I was given a task at school and I fell short of this goal. The one story I think best relates to the stories in our book is about how I finally overcame my lisp. When I was younger, my dad used to come up into my room and make me repeat over and over, "Sally sold sea shells by the sea shore." I am lisp free now, and I still say that that phrase is difficult to repeat. I guess I don't remember the specific moment when I stopped replacing my "s's" with the "th" sound, but it used to be so hard for me as a child that even to this day, I give myself a little pat on the back every time I come across a sentence full of s's and it doesn't trip me up.

I've Never Thought About That

The Retorical Situations chapters provoked me to think on different levels when preparing to write a paper. I have never thought about how the genre or the medium could affect my assignment. I have never had to think about my audience though, since my audience has always been my instructor. I know that my writings need to be formal in order to please my instructors.
Reading about the literacy narratives made me think about the upcoming technology narrative we will have to write in class. The narratives in this text book are so detailed. I can't think of a story to write about, let alone be able to drage it out to four pages while still keeping it entertaining for my audience.

First blog for english class

I am sitting in english class, just making sure i know how to use this thing.