Moments in style

Some sentences I admire

• According to my favorite source of information – Wikipedia, The McDonald’s of encyclopedias – Drive has already gained a “large cult following.” [Daniel Campos, e2.d1]
• It takes Woolf pages to get to her point, because she likes to ramble. Or rather, she likes to put on the facade of a rambler. The writer sequences calculated preludes to each of her points, placing a traditional topic sentence anywhere other than at the beginning of her proof. [Lia Cromwell, x9]
• Rather than forcing a style upon us, Woolf invites us to throw the small fish back in the water to allow for contemplation, to allow our ideas to thrive, as we craft a style of our own. [Rebecca Dickerson, x9]
• Subordinate, or Hypotactic, vs. Additive and Conversational Writing [Becca Gil, x8]
• I view him as a cryptomnesia-afflicted, mentally-unbalanced pity case, perhaps less blameworthy of his gutless conformity by reason of insanity. Perhaps. [John Hosey, x3]
• And it is in these moments when we hate Don, and Don hates himself, and we hate Don for dealing with his self-hatred like this, and then we hate ourselves for loving him at the same time. [Alex Kreger, e2.d1]
• Frost misinterprets Kellogg’s poem in a way that makes George feel even more lost than before; Rand only sees herself in Jeff’s story and tries to force her ideologies upon her audience; the narrator is left unsatisfied after his meeting with Friedman because he cannot identify with her as a writer any longer because “the problem was how she looked at things” (162). [Anna Lamb, x2]
• If Ryan sat down and wrote out a full account of his wife’s state of health, would I respect him more for it? Certainly not. It’s the constancy of his updates, which bring us straight to Jill’s bedside, which moves me to tears. [Avery Lennard, e2.d1]
• My biggest complaint with their book, and its impact on society, is that it’s managed to standardize “good” writing to the point where the majority of nonfiction prose—at least the nonfiction written with professional intent—is at risk of blending together stylistically, with only content to distinguish it. [Kate Lyons, x7]
• One day Deb will be content, I hope that she chooses to be more Debs then Deborah. . . . As for now I am just stuck betwINeen. [Deb Mayers, e2.d1]
• Having begun to understand the individual parts of cummings’ poem, we witness their inherent contrast. Clear introspection (composed though it may be of contradicting words, the concept there is something we can basically understand) held against nonsensical observation, interspersed with bursts of dynamic feeling—the three varying segments of the work. [Shannon Potter, e2.d1]
• The additive style is at heart colloquial—an unplanned splattering of thought, ebbing, slowly waiting, until gravity is switched on and the sentence accelerates like a heron swooping down for its prey—and then—a conclusion, oftentimes sticking out like an asparagus in a candy shop. [Ben Schwab, x8]

Closing thoughts

Please fastwrite a response to the following two questions. You don’t need to sign your name, and I won’t read your responses until after I turn in grades next week.

• This was a course in “academic writing.” But we approached the subject obliquely, through discussions of plagiarism, remixing, and style. So, as we come to the end of the term, what would you say you’ve learned about academic writing? How did you learn it?
• Describe a “snapshot” of experience—a particular moment, in class or out of it—that you will use to remember this course.

And, finally, a true moment of zen

Good luck! I’ve enjoyed working with you, and hope to have the chance to do so again!

~jh