When I was in middle school, we were taught to proofread assignments as well as running them through spell check in Word. At the time, I had no idea that spell check was not a proper fix for determining spelling or grammatical errors, homophonic errors, sentence fragments, as well as the suggestions provided, are not always as helpful to the piece overall. I remember submitting an English assignment where we were to choose a nursery rhyme, research the history behind it, and create a fictional essay based off the song. The nursery rhyme I had chosen was “London Bridge”, and my essay was about a family who lived in a bakery and their stories as their local bridge burnt down. Towards the end of the essay there was a glimmer of hope among the
city as the children joined hands laughing and dancing in circles as they sang “London Bridge”. Well, after reading it over myself and running it through spell-check, I deemed it fit for grading and sent it in. When I got the paper back, it was marked up rather well with grammatical errors, confused as I was, I asked my teacher why there were errors when I had ran it through spell-check prior to submission. She explained to me that spell-check is not foolproof, that sometimes even a computer can make mistakes too. She suggested to sit down and go over the error so that I would understand the mistakes I had made and how I could refrain from making similar ones in the future. In closing, spell-check is a handy tool for generic use but should not be considered a proper way to proof read or revise a piece. With spell-check, it might not catch all of the errors in the text, as well as educating you on those errors in development of your skills as a writer. It is recommended to revise your papers aloud, having another or multiple people look over the paper and researching the errors you have made to understand why you have made them and how you can avoid them next time.
Perfection is not always the answer. I found myself wishing that I had Murray as a teacher. It would be interesting to see if writing badly actually makes ones writing experience different. Instead of policing the writing, Murray actually cares about what is actually being said and that shows that his students are important and that he cares about their voice. Readers can feel satisfied that there is at least one teacher who tries to understand and is actually doing something to change writing in his classroom. Murray finished his essay by saying, “What matters in the journey – at least initially – is not what kind of car you’re driving but where you end up.” This leaves the reader knowing that it is okay if you choose to write with perfect grammar the first time or write badly then go back and fix mistakes if you desire to do so. The readers leave with an extra tool to use when
"Two windmills", a simple poem by Geoffrey Dutton, which records the poet's memory, of living on a sheep ranch is his childhood. In depth he paints a vivid picture in the reader’s mind of the conditions in the Australian outback. This is portrayed through the use of visual and aural imagery.
In the song “Church Bells” by Carrie Underwood the meaning truly hits home. The meaning of the song is money is not worth sacrificing happiness. In the song Jenny grows up poor. She then marries a rich man but he ends up abusing her and stealing her happiness. She married for money but ended up regretting it. In her song, Carrie Underwood describes Jenny, “Jenny grew up wild, like a blackfoot daisy” (1) and “broke as hell” (3). These are both examples of similes. These help to portray the meaning of the poem by explaining how Jenny grew up as a rough and tumble country girl. A blackfoot daisy is a type of wildflower and by comparing Jenny to this it shows she was wild. The other simile compares Jenny's family's finances to something terrible.
Many people can relate to receiving an essay paper back in which they believe that the grading is unfair. Grammatical errors, style, and subject are areas that receive the most attention. However, it may not be the writers’ work that is ineffective, maybe it 's the English language itself that is lacking in quality. Similarly, George Orwell in " Politics and the English Language" convinces the audience that the causes of the decline in the English language are the vagueness and meaningless of prose that is receiving impact from political jargon. Orwell effectively persuades the readers by addressing opposing views, providing examples that offer support to sub-claims, and creating reader connections while simultaneously
Prior to taking English 1301 my method of writing simply involved writing the first thing that I felt made sense, this unorganized strategy resulted in essays with multiple grammatical errors that made absolutely no sense. As an English 1301 student, I am fortunate to have a professor who has mastered the art of writing. In assigning group work activities and the literary analysis of songs, I was able to learn from my professor, that writing is a process not a product. Working in a group divided the workload and gave us more time to observe each other 's paragraph, in doing so we were able to revise, edit and rewrite, this process taught me that a terrific paper is not an overnight miracle. Analyzing a musical selection was tremendously difficult for me; as a mediocre writer it took me a long time to grasp the concept; after continuously rereading and analyzing different lyrics for multiple meaning, I acquired the skill of reading between the lines, by simply taking the time out to ask questions and research information. Participating in these activities helped me understand writing as a process, and also encouraged me to work on my critical thinking
In the novel, The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, the author capitalizes upon society’s expectation of a character to emphasize the struggle to achieving his goals. Ian, one of the central characters in the plot line, is heavily impacted by these expectations, which hold a substantial influence upon his decision’s regarding his future. To teenagers an expectation: a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future, is nothing but a restriction upon them. Ian believes he is contained within these expectations; to the point where he does not wish to follow this given path. In a time of adolescence, teenagers are compelled by the strong desire to denounce that which is expected of them; Ian is no exception to this. Societies expectations create a negative influence upon Ian’s struggles to achieve his goals. These effects are due to the following expectations: to leave Struan for a superior education, to obtain the opportunity to become successful; to strive for a medical career, since he excels at the trade already; and to settle into a happy relationship, to raise a family.
Christopher Morley’s poem “Nursery Rhymes for The Tender-Hearted” is a simple poem it is a parody to the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. This poem is about a roach that is in the house. The speaker is the roach he is telling everything that happened while he was running and everything in the pantry. In “Nursery Rhymes for The Tender-Hearted” there was a roach who was very sneaky, fast and smart.
The poem should actually be called ‘The Importance of Proofreading’, but Mali uses sarcasm and makes some deliberate mistakes through out the whole poem and so in the title as well. With this poem, Taylor wants to tells us how important spelling and proofreading are. Many people often submit papers, essays without checking and proofreading them first. Nowadays, the problem with misspelling is getting worse, since people depend on a computer’s spellcheck. But even a spell checker will not catch all the mistakes in a text. More specifically, it will not add words if you forget to add them or it will not catch misspelings that form other valid words. And that is the reason why proofreading is very important. The simple act of proofreading can have a great effect on the quality of your material and of course it will also prevent people to think that you do not know how to
Childe Hassam was an American impressionist born on October 17, 1859 in Dorchester, Massachusetts right outside of Boston (Weinberg & Barker, 2004). Hassam lived until 1935 and during his lifetime he created a plethora of renowned works. One of his famous works, Bridge at Old Lyme, can be found in the Georgia Museum of Art here in Athens. This beautiful oil on canvas landscape was created in 1908. Although this piece is not very large, it caught my eye as soon as I entered that part of the gallery and I was immediately intrigued.
However, these techniques that I fostered as a child proved lacking when I entered middle school. It turns out that in comparison to my previous writing, I was no longer writing for my own self-improvement or joy; I was now writing to please someone who was grading the work. After many dissatisfying remarks about my writing, the self-conscious feelings I had as a child crept up on me once again. I felt the need to impress and be perfect. For every paper I wrote from then on, there was that little voice in the back of my head telling me that I had to try twice as hard because English was my second language. For a very long time, I was not able to write a paper without scrutinizing it harshly. “The oppressor,” as Anne Lammot states in “Bird by Bird,” kept me from what I truly wanted to write and made me focus on the unattainable goal of being perfect. Perfection is something that “… limit[s] us…[and] keep[s] us from experiencing life” (Lammott 30). The purpose was not to write for me, but for others, and that was my flaw; I was just writing to please. Technicality was my only worry and I did not worry if what I was writing actually had
Rationale: This is Written task 1 in Language and Mass communication, focusing on language and identity. The source text is Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. Horton Hears a Who is a children’s book that relay’s a powerful message about the importance of a person’s identity. Horton states multiple times in the book that "a person’s a person, no matter how small." Horton Hears a Who, along with most other Dr. Seuss books, explain something that is a big issue in the world. In Horton Hears a Who, the story is focused on how people are all important no matter what background they come from and/or what physical limitations they have. The genre long poem will explain the discrimination against physical and racial limitations in more advanced terms
The first essay given in this course was about our whole composing process. This essay was hard to write about and I remember having several grammar mistakes. Sitting down and writing my process on paper,
Nourozian, R., & Farahani, A. A. K. (2012). Written error feedback from perception to practice: a feedback on feedback. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3, 11-22
Owston, R. D, Murphy, S, & Wideman, H. H, (1992). [pdf]. The Effect of Word Processing on Students’ Writing Quality and Revision Strategies. Research in the teaching of English, 26(3). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40171308
First, upon completing my essay, I utilized Word’s grammar and spelling proofing, correcting a few tiny errors such as typos and removing extra spaces after punctuation. Then I used the free online version of Grammarly as my next line of correction. Here I revised my essay by changing