Grammar Post

So I am getting a early jump on my grammar post this week so I don't forget to do it. My issue this week is rather and easy one. It has to do with when you use than rather than then. If then is required then when do you it? When comparing two objectives then you use than, but like the then in the last statement,  then you use then when comparing time.

To make that a little less confusing, use then when time is involved. 

EX: I went to the store, then I went home.

You use than when you are comparing two things.

EX: I rather eat chocolate ice cream than vanilla.

A challenge for anyone who leaves a comment. Try to come up with a more confusing way to explain than and then. You must use then and than correctly when stating when then would be used and when than would be used!

My Concern

My biggest concern is really simple. I just am afraid that I am not writing this paper in the right format. I feel like my essay might be more of just a report on an interview I had with a illegal immigrant. What is the difference between a interview paper and an ethnographic report? Need some good responses.

Ok so for my grammar post I am going to just expound more on my last one. I actually found away simpler way to explain it from another resource. Last week I was talking about clarity in writing through word order and choice. To put my definition in simpler terms I said put the kick in the action verb. I think a better explanation to that would be as follows.

Rearrange your sentence so what ever is doing the action is stated before you state what they are doing. EX: The truck was ran into by the car. 

The car is doing the action, yet we put it behind what it was doing. This is making the truck the subject instead of the car.

If we arrange to make the acting noun the subject the sentence becomes more precise. EX: The car ran into the truck.

The sentence is simper, and the train of thought flows with what is happening in the sentence. I hope this is a better description and explanation than last weeks.

I am going to have a hard time getting this blog to be the required length this week. That is because the research I am doing right now for my personal grammar study, not only will be on this post, but will be part of my presentation on Friday. So in the form of a clique, like we aren't suppose to use, "I don't want to let the cat out of the bag." 

The grammar issue I am working on right now is that of clarity in writing. I have found some great resources that have given me a wide range of tips on different ways to clarify the point that I as a write would be trying to make. A common theme I am finding in that of word choice and placement. One very specific example of this is what the author of the article said "put the kicking action in front of the simple verb from."  So put into lame mans terms, let the reader know the action before you explain its effect. If that is unclear it might be better understood in an example.

"After all the student failed the assignment the teacher decided not to fail them."

"The teacher did not fail the class after she found they all failed the test."

A way this could of been written more precise and clearer is by moving the verb "after" to a point after the nouns.

Grammar Post 2

While doing the in class revision, a question came up on a grammatical issue. It concerned my paper, where I had to many commas in a sentence and they didn't seem to fit right. I wondered if the use of a semi-colon would have been more acceptable. The statement was," The song had always made me think of her, it played during our first kiss." The comma just didn't seem to fit right. So after looking up the rules of semi-colons on the site on ehow.com I learned that semi-colons can be used when the second part of a sentence is connected to the first, but is used to amplify the first. So I revised my sentence to read as follows: "The song has always made me think of her; it played during our first kiss."

Ehow.com(http://www.ehow.com/how_5954_colon.html)

Life is a game!

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you will find you get what you need.

What do we actually need in life to survive? Science would tell you that it only takes protection, energy source, and a stable enviorment. But if that is it then where does the progress and joy in life that humans strive for, come from?

Science has a vary hard time describing love. There really is no scientific explanation for it, you can't truly break it down, you can't dissect it, you can't label its parts, or catalog its different sections. You can't view it using any kind of instrument, you can't measure it with any type of tool. It has no value, it can't be graphed or compared. Love is something that has completely avoided explanation all together. 

For something so elusive, love is prevalent in every one of our lives. It is everywhere, all the time, in diffrent degrees and diffrent purpouses, but it is always there. It effects everyone of us no matter how much we try to disprove it in our own lives. It's there baby no matter what you say. 

So this song, in a indirect way, reminds me that love is something we all want. It's true that at some level we all want love. This song reveals to me that love is so much more than a want. I believe it is something all we need. That's why we have to 'try some times,' because in the end its more than a want to be loved, it's a need. So if we search hard enough and try long enough we finally all "find what we need." We need love baby.

The next song is one I think I interpret different then some others would. The artist is singing about how he still acts as he was still a kid. He talks about how it takes a toll on his body, how it drags him down, how everyone criticizes him for it. Yet he sings about how he doesn't mind at all and how he loves the way his life is. It just really speaks to me that he knows is life isn't perfect, but yet he enjoys it because if things get to bad he knows he can change. Lets be young as long as we can, because there is all ways next year to wise up. If we die before then it will all be alright because we will die happy as long as we our happy with our lives at the time of death.

The Teacher who just watched a kid die!

So as I look back on defining moments of my life, I find it hard to pick out which ones were the most influential in my growing. So instead of picking one that has shaped me to who I am today, I rather picked one that is the most memorable to this date.

It was in a time of my life where few things were of GREAT importance. A few of the greatest things being Oreo cookies, show and tell, not having to share your toys, winning at four square, and nap time. I am not completely certain of the exact age of that younger version of myself. Just young enough to spend a lot of face to face time with adult's knees. Young enough to defy all the meaningless rules adults gave, and old enough to be the perfect tantrum throwers, when it came to getting your way, be it getting any thing you could ever want or something just as simple as an extra Oreo!

So there I was coming in for another successful recess. Like usual, I was the sole conqueror of the sacred #1 square. I'm sure my pride was greater than Napoleon's that day. No one throught the whole recess could overtake me in my #1 square. But soon after recess we were called in. As most little ones due, I needed hydration to requench me after such a fierce battle. As the teacher came around with the glasses full of water I refused to take the cup from the teacher. It wasn't that I didn't want it, but rather that I wanted to go without it and prove to here that I was really the boss. After all, I did hold the #1 square the whole recess. But after threats of a visit to the torturous time out chair, I gave in to her demands. Seeking for a way to show my disapproval of her "rule", I angerly tried to gulp the glass in a single gulp. But after only a split second of time my display of tantrum was foiled. Because of my inexperience in the art of throwing fits, I forgot to account for the ice cube that was placed in my cup. My frantic drinking method was meant to show anger! It wasn't built for efficiency. So there the ice cube was. Lodged in a wind pipe that just didn't seem like it was made for ice cubes to be in.

So there I was grabbing my throat. Gasping for the breath of life. Instant panic had taken over my body. I don't ever remember choking before those moments, but from some natural instinct I KNEW I was going to die. This was it. This was death. This was all that my life was going to amount to, champion of the four square. I wasn't sure at that young age what else life had to offer, but I was sure there was more then just four square. I looked at my teacher right in the eyes as I grasped, holding onto the last few seconds of my life. 

I tried with all my might to beam from my mind to hers all my last words and thoughts. Maybe if I stared hard enough into her eyes she could tell I was trying to say, "Tell my mother that I loved her, tell my dog I will miss her, tell my sister I'm sorry for pulling at her hair." As I concentrated on my teachers eyes, trying to suggest my last words to her. I gave her the purest look eyes can give, a look they can only give seconds before one's life slips away. But there I saw something that I had never expected, the most evil thing I have witnessed. I saw a gleam in her eye. Not a gleam of care, or a gleam of sympathy, or of even  "I'm sorry your dieing" gleam.  It was a gleam of HUMOR!!!! She was actually laughing at me. She was laughing at a, single digit aged, boy who was obviously choking in front of her eyes. What horror. Even what disgust. How is this in any way funny. Yes! I understand that I was defiant! Some times I didn't want to follow the rules! OK! so I tried to throw a fit and that is what was put me in this situation! But does throwing a tantrum really deserve death?! I heard the saying from my mother a 1000 times "that's what you get" but surely that didn't apply to situations of death! Death shouldn't be what I get! this is it! I'm dieing! These are my last seconds of life and she is laughing at me! As I DIE!

She looked at me and after a few laughs, she finally cracked out the words, "just relax the ice cube will melt and then you will be able to breath." Sure enough after about 5 seconds later the ice cube had melted to water, and after a few coughs of water, a few pats on the back, and then an extra Oreo, I layed down to take my nap.

Grammer Post

So my grammar topic for this week is one that I have actually had A LOT of trouble with. It is a major goal of mine to learn how to clearly and precisely communicate what I am trying to say. I actually found in the back of the book a whole section in the hand book dedicated to just this.

One important tool of concise sentencing is to, "(1)eliminate unnecessary intensifiers." In most of my writing I try to emphasise my point by adding these. So in future writing I am going to look for ways to eliminate the over use of emphasis intensifiers, while trying to convey my point. They make sentencing hard to follow and even some times distracting from what I am trying to say. Both reasons will affect the clarity of my point, rather than adding to it.

(1) Axelrod, Rise B., and Charles R. Cooper. The Saint Martin's Guide to Writing. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2008.

On a litteral level, the two stories share the same general plot and same rembered-event template.

They both also share veary colorfull and discriptive imagary that allows the reader to visualize, or put themselves in the story.

In American Childhood the author is sharing a remebered event from his child hood. He is younge, of the age of 7. He describes his friends giving just a bit of information on each present. He describes the weather and a suburban surrounding. He also makes references to the year and season. While engaging in a childish activity of throwing snowballs at cars, he finds himself in trouble with the target. He takes flight and describes the path he uses to loose the angry man. He describes the man's surprising willingness to catch him. At the end of the story, the author makes an comparison with the mans leap to tackle him with the same type of leap the boy uses in football.

In the story A Call Home a younge girl is shopping with her grandma and sister right before Christmas. She describes her excitement and the excitement in the entire mall. She then describes how she discovers a button she desperately wants, but she toils within herself whether or not she should spend her money on it. She decides to slip it into her pocket and walk out. She describes the mixed feeling she has. She then gets caught and turned into the police. She describes again her mixed feelings about he being arrested, but then the sole feeling of remorse and fear overtakes her when she has to call home.

I do believe naming takes place in A american childhood without always detailing. It uslually happens after the second mention of that noun thought. In her introduction to a new object or person she does use discription to introduce them to the story. The detail helps you not only picture the story better, but really allows you, the reader, to put yourself in the middle of the story. To almost invelope you as the kid running, or maybe the man chasing, or maybe running through the streets of your own town, or maybe it is all together a new experince for you as you read.

A sad ending.

My biggest fear of publishing my open voice on an on-line blog, would have to be the fear of intrusion.

I do not fear failing this assignment. But rather the mistake of miss leading peers to a side of me that is not really there. Even more so I feer keeping my peers stuck outside my tent. One of humans greatest social hurdles is to over come there safety zone. I am a light hearted guy, but society seems to miss-interpret light-heartiness for unintelligence.

I feel that I have a well achieved balance of both. But, knowing myself, I would rather substitute humor, in a nervous situation, rather then that of intelligence. So being on this blog I hope to show my true colors, maybe give some meaningful insight to some one who might be mistaken for as just a jester.

In the real world where we have our security zone, just like the arrow maker did in his tee pee. We try to protect our selves from those who intrude.  We shoot with arrows blindly into the night, to protect our zone, just as the arromaker did that night.

But in modern age we have ousted tee pees because we have found them ineffective. So maybe as a class, in this modern age, we can rather invite our inquisitors into our tent and teach each other without fear, rather then protect our security zone. 

Wouldn't the story have a much happier ending if the arrow maker, instead of using language to protect himself and kill his enemy, used his language to teach and befriend the intruder.