Week 6: cause and effect

Excellent posts again! It's like you're reading awesome stuff and finding awesome stuff and then posting awesome stuff. Love it.

This week as we begin cause and effect styled essays, see if your writer employs this method. Since many of you are following columnists, this technique shouldn't be too tricky to spot. Any overt examples? Subtle ones?

Maybe your writer doesn't use cause and effect, and that's ok, so instead look for how your writer employs examples to maker her claim and/or prove his argument.

Keep up the great work!

Week 5: let's get involved

Excellent posts last week. Loved the words you found in your pieces.

This week try to focus on how the writer involves the reader. Good narrative pieces (this is not to say all of your readings are narrative pieces) engage the reader on some level. How do your writers do it?

Paragraphs are made of .... sentences!

More of the fun stuff. A mistake may have been made my the typist, but maybe not.

1. When he laughs over the phone I can just see his million dollar smile in my head.
2. When he sits down at a drum set and picks up a pair of his signature extra-thin mahogany sticks, its as if even the birds know to stop chirping and listen.
3. It's weird to think about how something so simple can bring so much pleasure. Some of my favorite toys were wood blocks.
4. Despite this fact, I don't think I would have my room any different. Even though it looks like a rainbow exploded on everything ...
5. It's the little things that bring me back to that spot, that one desolate town in the middle of nowhere Vermont.
6. My iPod is very cultured.
7. By the end of our stay, however, my grandmother was alive and full of energy.
8. I can still remember the strong wind blowing against the purple and magenta windbreaker my parents forced me to wear as I stared up and could barely see the red bridge because of all the gray swirls in the cold air.
9. I feel as though the tiniest breath of wind could gather me up and turn me into a alfalfa seed and tuck me away in the field's depths, and the world would never know the difference.
10. ... I submerse myself in water and suddenly the only thing I hear is the sound of blurred evidence of the outside world.
11. Before I leave I watch how the pond moves so gracefully onto the edges, how the pickle weeds move with the water, and how the entire pond moves together.
12. Punta Mia is blessed with beautiful women, an athletic paradise, and Mother Nature's best qualities.
13. Press the button and a little jingle radiates from the front of the car to the delight of the passenger who screams with joy.
14. My 15-year-old brother is my rock, my source of endless affection, my idolizer and my idol.
15. In a way the women's movement in American owes Cleopatra a lot.
16. The breeze gives you the feeling of relief and makes you want to sit on the comfy reclining chair.
17. His hair is black as night, shiny like chrome; he braids his cornrows that hang to his waist.

Week 4: words

Ok, we looked at some sentences, now find some something in the diction that stands out. Maybe it's a word combination, the use of simple words, a word bomb that makes you reach for the dictionary.

Keep sharing your great ideas. LOVE the posts so far. Excellent work.

ps: a reminder — post by Sunday at 11:59.59 (please don't stay up that late, but that is technically the end of Sunday and the end of the week and the deadline for a timely post.).

pps: a sentence I just had to share. From the NYT and Mark Bittman: The food processor replaces the whisk; the pastry cutter; the standing mixer (for which there are still some uses, but only if you’re a dedicated baker); the mandoline (which, to me, remains a fine alternative to the food processor for small quantities); the mortar and pestle, which, no matter how lovely, quaint and authentic, is perhaps the most labor-intensive, primitive and damnable set of tools in the kitchen; and, perhaps most importantly, the grater.

Why I write ... sentences

Any gross errors in spelling or grammar may be that of the typist not the writer. =-)

1. We don't talk about things that happen in our days at school, we don't discuss issues, we simply don't communicate on that level.
2. I don't write for recognition by others, but rather to better understand myself.
3. I write because it helps me to learn about myself.
4. So the reason I write is because I am forced to, however I CAN have fun with it as long as it is a subject I enjoy or some sort of creative writing.
5. It is this historical impulse that really drives me into wanting to go deeper into producing a research paper.
6. When it's not required to put pen to paper, I stray away from the terrifying task.
7. I do not fully understand how journal writing allows me to condense my thoughts into essential truths, but for years this has been a compelling reason for me to write.
8. Writing does not work like math where I can find a solution and feel satisfied for a short time being; instead I am left to try to expose my soul and turn in an essay to be judged in a very thoughtful, complicated manner.
9. Some may say that there is a hint of egotism in the enjoyment of writing about oneself, and there is, but by abandoning the models and structures of formal, strategic, and impersonal writing, I can begin to explore the different ways that I enjoy writing.
10. With the help of all of my teachers, I have been able to catch up with the rest of my class and finally appreciate my writing, even though there is still work to be done.
11. Having a grade put on every piece of writing has completely altered what writing is for me.
12. The curiosity in her eyes always touches my heart.
13. Free writing is my favorite kinf of writing because I am not limited to a specific topic.
14. I don't hate writing; I just find it more of a chore than a pleasurable pastime.
15. I will admit that I did at one time fancy myself a great poet (but so does every other "tortured" and angry teenage soul who "hates the world").
16. Words have their limits, as does each creative form, but they have the unique ability to combine logic and emotion.
17. In a sense, I am a selfish writer: everything I write always has an aspect that is solely for my own enjoyment or improvement.

Week 3

You all posted some awesome lines and some great comments on why those lines stood out. Now, I want you to focus on sentence structure. Look for a sentence that moves beyond, way beyond, the subject-verb creation and dazzles you with either a fun piece of punctuation or an interesting structure. Then again, maybe your writer has a case of subject-verb-itis and repeats the same pattern so many times it makes you want to scream. Share and amaze .... and remember to post by Sunday.

In other news -- here's a good read about the precision of words. Maybe you're a little obsessed with the English language, too, and would like to learn more. After Deadline, a NYTimes blog, is a great place to start.

Week 2

What amazing sentence, phrase, moment would you like to share from your writer/blog? Wow us with your selection and tell us why you think your selection is wow inducing. And, wow inducing can be good, bad or ugly.

Since it's Labor Day weekend, you can post up until Monday night.