Language Corner

Evan Jenkins's straight forward advice on language rules, from Columbia Journalism Review. Link leads to current article and alphabetical archive list.

An Excerpt from Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Lynne Truss's book on punctilious punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, was a surprise success in Britain last year. (Who thought people would want to read about punctuation for stickers?) So the book hit the American book sellers' stalls this Spring. The link in the title will lead you to the book's "Introduction," where you can decide for yourself if the book is a painless introduction to punctuation. Personally, I'm charmed by phrases such as "satanic sprinkling of redundant apostrophes," but I'm waiting for the paperback release.

If you haven't yet heard the mild joke which gives the book its title, you might wish to visit raelity bytes.

Writing Tool #5: Observe Word Territory

Here's Roy Peter Clark's fifth writing tool--word territory:

I coined the phrase "word territory" to describe a tendency I notice in my own writing. When I read a story I wrote months or years ago, I am surprised by how often I repeat words without care.

Writers may choose to repeat words or phrases for emphasis or rhythm. Abraham Lincoln was not redundant in his hope that a "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Only a mischievous or tone-deaf editor would delete the repetition of "people."

To observe word territory you must recognize the difference between intended and unintended repetition.

Advice from a Prize-Winning Journalist

"You can't write clearly unless you think clearly . . . Think long. Think hard."

— N. Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune

Texts for Students New to the Field of Rhetoric and Composition | writingfly

A useful list of books for people who want to learn more about teaching composition and rhetoric, originally from Elizabeth VanderLei at Calvin College:

Agar, Michael H., Language Shock: Understanding The Culture Of Conversation
Aristotle, On Rhetoric (Kennedy version)
Berlin, James, Rhetoric and Reality
Berthoff, Anne, Forming/Thinking/Writing
---, Reclaiming the Imagination
---, The Making of Meaning
Burke, Kenneth, Language As Symbolic Action
Bizzell, Patricia, and Bruce Hertzberg, The Rhetorical Tradition
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
Booth, Wayne, The Vocation of a Teacher
Bruner, Jermoe, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds
Connors, Robert, Composition-Rhetoric
Corbett, Edward P., and Robert Connors, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student
Covino, William, The Art of Wondering
---, and David Jolliffe, Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries
Crosswhite, James, The Rhetoric of Reason: Writing and the Attractions of Argument (1997)
Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students
Elbow, Peter, Everyone Can Write
---, What is English?
Faigley, Lester, Fragments of Rationality
Flower, Linda, The Construction of Negotiated Meaning: A Social Cognitive Theory of Writing
Fox, Thomas, Defending Access
Grassi, Ernesto, Rhetoric as Philosophy
Harris, Joseph, A Teaching Subject
Haswell, Richard, Gaining Ground in College Composition
Heilker, Paul, and Peter Vandenberg, Keywords in Composition Studies
Hooks, bell, Teaching to Transgress
Huot, Brian, and Takayoshi, Teaching Writing with Computers
Jarrett, Susan, Rereading the Sophists
Kennedy, George, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition
Leamnson, Robert, Thinking About Teaching and Learning: Developing Habits of Learning With First Year College and University Students
Lindemann, Erika, A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers
---, and Gary Tate, An Introduction to Composition Studies
Macrorie, Ken, Telling Writing
Mayher, John S., Uncommon Sense
Murray, Donald, A Writer Teaches Writing
Paley, Vivian Gussin, The Boy Who Would Be A Helicopter
Persig, Robert, Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Plato, Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII (Penguin Classic)
Postman, Neil, The End of Education
Reynolds, Nedra, Patricia Bizzell, and Bruce Herzberg, The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing, 6th ed.
Roen, Duane, Stuart Brown, and Theresa Enos, Living Rhetoric and Composition: Stories of the Discipline
Rose, Mike, Lives on the Boundary
Schell, Eileen, Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers
Seitz, James, Motives for Metaphor: Literacy, Curriculum Reform and the Teaching of English ( 1999)
Villanueva, Victor, Bootstraps, From an American Academic of Color
---, Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader
Wiley, Mark, Barbara Gleason, and Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Composition in Four Keys: Inquiring Into the Field
Williams, Joseph, Style: Ten Lessons In Clarity and Grace

Calvin College - Writing Resources

The English Department at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan) provides a page of Writing Resources--links that give students access to some of the high quality writing aids on the Internet. Check it out!

Poynter Online - Fifty Writing Tools

Here is a series worth watching. Dr. Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute is writing a year-long series called Fifty Writing Tools, and he's up to Tool #4:

• Branch to the Right


• Use Strong Verbs


• Beware of Adverbs


• Period As a Stop Sign

This series promises to be a excellent short course is writing well. I'm glad we're catching it in week four.

Text analysis tool

Textalyser is an online text analyzing tool. You cut 'n' paste your text into a dialogue box on the site (or enter the URL for your web site), and the tool will provide detailed statistics about your text--stats on word count, number of different words, sentence length, frequency of word use, and so on.

While this information won't make you a better writer, it might provide you with some information to mull over. For example, I found out I used the word online 34 times in a 1082-word document. Too often? Maybe.