People Are Talking … Blog #11

I was going through the blog posts looking for comments I could discuss with (and ok, I admit it – looking for posts that might have quoted me because I am that shallow and it gives a certain kind of validation that I can not explain) and I ran across this passage in Laura’s blog:

A number of students mentioned Strunk and White’s rule to omit needless words. While I agree with that, I also see a need to write naturally. According to their directions and examples, I write sentences that are too damn wordy. I could probably edit my papers down to half their original size. But if I did that, would it sound like me? I feel like I would lose my voice, my uniqueness, the words that make me, me.

Amen with a side of word to your momma. I am drawn to certain authors because of their voice, their style. People who enjoy my writing like my voice, my style. And I agree with Laura when she posits that to abide by every rule that S&W and Williams put forth could, in the name of great writing!, cause us to lose our individuality and our own voice and style. I do think, though, that as we practice our writing and learn how to incorporate those rules into our voice, the rules will add something, instead of making our words indistinguishable from any other writer. On the other hand, there are those authors who do not abide by all of the rules (e.e. cummings, Mark Z. Danielewski) and are still regarded as great writers because of their eschewing of conventional writing and style rules and guidelines. The challenge is knowing your craft well enough that the rules become second nature and nothing that interferes with our voice, our style.

Laura made mention of Tracy’s blog in which Tracy talked about sexism in writing. Tracy wrote:

 Incorrect use of the plural in order to avoid a “sexist” slant. This one isn’t addressed by Williams until the final chapter. Even there, he seems to be unwilling to issue his opinion, other than to say that avoiding the issue is best. I really wish we could come up with a standard here that would offend neither grammarians nor feminists.

Again, a sentiment that I agree with. When I first went back to school, I started off with the University of Phoenix. My very first class with them was a class on college writing, which was a fantastic class for someone who had not been in a classroom or done any academic writing since the previous century. One of the things that has stuck with me was avoiding gender bias in writing. One of the examples being why the sentence “Please invite all of the city’s officers and their wives.” is gender biased. It is because in the sentence all of the city’s officers are male and the statement does not allow for a female city officer. In this instance, I have made a very concerted effort to reduce my use of gender bias in my writing. But come on – sometimes, there is no choice (I like the example of the lack of a gender neutral word for the animal which has lions and lionesses) and the use of “he” should not, in my opinion, have anything gender based read into it. However, the reference of large objects of transportation (cars, ships, planes) as “she” is gender biased and while it does not piss me off, I think that it should be avoided, if for no other reason than to avoid the personification of non-human things for purposes other than fictional narrative.

On an irreverent note, Silisa wrote:

Commas have always been tricky for me, something that I haven’t always been quite so sure of.

I hate commas. They are the Devil’s own grammatical tool. They have wonky rules for prose and then mean something else in poetry. They pop up wherever they damn well feel like it and screw with the flow of what we are reading and then screw us on points when it comes to papers because we’ve used them wrong. Again. And while all the grammarians and stylists and teachers say there are rules for commas, I think that’s a load of total bull hockey. Maybe not a total load, but at least a little load. Commas, in a word, suck.

All in all, I’ve agreed with most of what my classmates have written on S&W and Williams. I will use them both for very different reasons with an eye toward the same outcome: better papers and better writing.

And Angela? Hurry up with that combined book, alright? Millions of English and Writing students are depending upon you. I swear I’ll buy 500 copies for my students when I finally get out of school.