Apostrophes

Today's topic: The apostrophe

This little guy tends to be a bit overworked these days, as in the following sentence: 

All student's must register for the workshop by October 16.

Can you spot the mistake?  The word "students" should not contain an apostrophe. 
Why not?  Let's examine the purpose and proper use of this little tadpole-like punctuation mark.

Apostrophes have two uses:

1.) To indicate ownership/possession, as in:

That is Sarah's car.

That guy ate all the kids' desserts!  (Note: In this sentence, the noun is plural--kids--so the  apostrophe goes after the s.  In the first sentence, "Sarah" is singular, so the apostrophe goes before the s.)

2.) To replace the missing letter or letters in a contraction, as in:

That's my notebook.  (The apostrophe helps us turn the phrase "that is" into the contraction that's.)

Oh no, it's raining.  (The phrase "it is" becomes "it's.")

I should take this opportunity to point out that the ONLY TIME an apostrophe is okay in the word "it's" is when you mean to say "it is."  Never use it like this: "The panda cuddled it's cub."  This is correct: "The panda cuddled its cub."

Apostrophes should not be used to form a plural noun.  

INCORRECT: I love cat's. (Your reader might wonder, "You love Cat's what?  Cat's blue sweater?  Cat's new house?")
CORRECT:  I love cats.

INCORRECT:  All participant's signed a waiver form. 
CORRECT:  All participants signed a waiver form.

INCORRECT:  Could you get us some soda's?
CORRECT:  Could you get us some sodas?

INCORRECT:  I saw twelve patient's today. 
CORRECT:  I saw twelve patients today.

There are (of course) a few little tricky situations in which these rules might not be so clear-cut--for example, how do you indicate possession with a noun that ends in s?  Is it Mr. Jones's car, or Mr. Jones'?  For the answer to that and several more tricky apostrophe questions, click here for "Grammar Girl" Mignon Fogerty's apostrophe tutorial:  http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/apostrophe-plural-grammar-rules.aspx

I hope you found this post useful.  Have a great day!

Whitney Kurtz-Ogilvie, MFAW

The Dreaded Semicolon, Pink Plastic Flamingo of the Punctuation World

Today's Topic: The Dreaded Semicolon
Semicolons are a little like pink plastic flamingos.  Nobody really knows what they're for, and they tend to be overused. 

The good news is, there are only a few rules for semicolon usage, and once you learn them, you're fine (unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules governing the use of pink plastic flamingos--you're on your own there).

1.) Use semicolons to separate two phrases that could each stand alone as a complete sentence.

Use semicolons to separate two independent clauses (ICs).  This is a fancy term for a phrase that contains a subject and a verb and could stand alone as a complete sentence. 

Use a semicolon only when the two ICs are closely related, either because the 2nd clause expands upon or restates the first, OR because the 2nd clause is in contrast to the first. 

Examples:
Heart disease is an increasingly common problem for American women; in 2008, heart disease was the leading cause of death for women in the U.S.

Many writing teachers reject the traditional five paragraph essay model, arguing that it is too rigid and discourages analytical thinking; some teachers like the model for its clarity and simplicity.

Use semicolons to separate ICs when the second IC begins with a conjunctive adverb (however, thus, moreover, furthermore, therefore, indeed, nonetheless, meanwhile, etc.) OR a transition (for example, for instance, in fact, in addition, also, in other words, etc.). 

Example:

It is always jarring when summer's balmy temperatures give way to fall's crisp chill; however, I love the gorgeous colors of the turning leaves.
You can also separate ICs with a period, of course, OR with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so, nor, for). 

Examples:
It is always jarring when summer's balmy temperatures give way to fall's crisp chill, but I love the gorgeous colors of the turning leaves.

Many writing teachers reject the traditional five paragraph essay model, arguing that it is too rigid and discourages analytical thinking.  Some teachers like the five-paragraph model for its clarity and simplicity.
When should you use a semicolon to separate ICs, and when should you use a period, or a comma + a conjunction?  Well, it's a style choice.  Pay attention to the rhythm of your paragraph.  Semicolons and commas + conjunctions are good for adding variety to a paragraph that's full of short, choppy sentences.  Periods are good when you want to give your reader a moment to pause and let an idea sink in.  Also, periods are most appropriate for two ICs that are not closely related. 

Example: 

It was freezing cold last night.  We ordered pizza. 

2.) Semicolons may be used to separate items in a list, IF one or more of the list items has its own comma. 

Examples:

We bought pansies, which remind Sophie of Mickey Mouse ears; gorgeous deep red mums; and some pumpkins, which we'll carve into jack o' lanterns before Halloween.

Janelle is from Akron, Ohio; Melania is from Jaipur, India; and Rachel is from Honolulu, Hawaii.

For more on the pink plastic flamingos of the punctuation world (such as differences between the semicolon and the colon, and a more comprehensive list of conjunctive adverbs), check out Grammar Girl Mignon  Fogerty's terrific semicolon tutorial here:  http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/semicolons.aspx

I hope you've enjoyed this week's writing tip! 

Whitney Kurtz-Ogilvie, MFAW

Using Source Material

Today's topic: Using Sources Effectively

This is a massive topic, and I couldn't possibly cover it all in one post (or even two or three).  This will probably not be my last post on this topic, so why don't we think of it as part I in a series?

First of all, a lot of writers struggle to find the best and most effective ways to incorporate source material.  It's something that takes practice and careful thought, and it goes far deeper than simply picking out a few choice quotations, or a few interesting passages to paraphrase.  Here are a few things to keep in mind when using outside sources:

I.  Let YOUR ideas drive the bus, not those of your source authors.

This is probably the Golden Rule.  It is crucial to ensure that your own assertions and ideas are the primary focus of your paper, and that you are using the source material to support those points, not to make them for you.  Many writers make the mistake of "putting the cart before the horse" in that they let their source material be the driving force of the paper. This is backwards.

So what role should source material play in a well-written paper?  Here are just a few examples of what source material can do:

    *Support your ideas with evidence (e.g., See?  I'm not the only one who believes this.  In   their article "Blah blah blah," Jones and Doe (2012) argued that...)

    *Provide an example to illustrate your idea (particularly effective when you need to express a difficult or complex idea)

    *Help you to develop your idea more thoroughly/add a new dimension to your idea

What you can't and shouldn't do is simply string together a series of quotations or paraphrased/summarized ideas from other sources, intersperse them with a few sentences of your own, and let that stand as your paper.  Why not?  Because that isn't writing; it's like making a quilt in which the squares are your quotes and paraphrases and the stitches are your handful of original sentences (usually tossed in to introduce or link together the source material).  Using sources in this way robs you of the opportunity to really engage with what you've read, and use it to meaningfully enhance your reader's understanding of your topic.  It also almost always results in a boring piece of writing.

What do I mean by "engage with what you've read?"  It means making sure that your source material contributes more than information.  It means making sure to comment on/react to/develop your source material; don't just plunk it down and move on to the next thing.  It means asking questions about what you have read, thinking about its implications--for practice, for further research, etc.  It means addressing the "so what?" question: Why is this important?  Why are you telling us this?  What can we learn from this?  Why do we need to learn it?  What more do we need to know?  What, if anything, might be missing from this information?  It means comparing and contrasting your source material with other source material, and with your own experience and ideas:  How does this author's view compare with the views of other authors I have read?  How does this information jibe with the other things we know about this topic?

It also means getting a "bird's eye view."  For example, this is pretty much the main purpose of a literature review; you gather the most relevant and interesting articles on a particular topic, you read and evaluate them individually, and then you synthesize what you've learned by considering what we can learn from taking ALL these articles into consideration, rather than just reading one or two.  You consider how the conclusions drawn by all these authors relate to one another.  Have you ever seen those amazing pointilist paintings, made up of thousands of tiny dots?  If you look at those paintings up close, you just see dots.  However, if you stand back you see the picture emerge.  That is a good analogy for synthesis.  The individual articles you read for a lit review are like those dots.  The picture you get when you stand back far enough from the canvas is your synthesis, the conclusions you draw from a bird's eye view.

To an extent, this kind of critical thinking is necessary any time you use outside source material.  Remember that each quotation or paraphrased idea you incorporate is only one small piece of the whole puzzle.  It is your job to show readers how all this source material relates to the purpose of your paper, how everything you chose to include helps you to make your point.

This is one good reason to make an outline before you sit down to write.  In an outline, you can make a list of your main points, the main ideas you want to express.  Then you can decide which quotations or paraphrased ideas from your sources will work best to support, illustrate, or develop those ideas.  You can also build your analysis of your source material, and your transitions from idea to idea, into your outline.  Most importantly, make sure that every section of your outline contains a topic sentence that expresses one of your own original ideas, and that ultimately those topic sentences (and the source material you use to support them) will form the "big picture" of your paper--your purpose statement or thesis, the main point you wish to make.

A good general outline for a paper might look something like this:

• Introduction: Establishes your topic, establishes that the topic is important, and includes a clear, specific purpose or thesis statement that tells readers what your main points are.
• Body of paper.  Uses topic sentences and transition sentences to guide readers logically from idea to idea.  Here is an example to show the structure of a well put-together paragraph:
  •  Main idea (topic sentence)
    • Supporting detail #1 (could be a quote from one of your sources that backs up your main idea, could be a paraphrased example from one of the articles you read that illustrates how another nurse implemented an idea like yours, etc.)
      • Your response to/commentary on supporting detail #1--as I said above, it's not enough to simply drop in a quote or example from one of your sources.  You have to then engage with that example, use it to help you develop your idea.  You can do this in a number of ways depending on the specifics of the situation. You might also have a supporting detail #2, and then you'd respond to it as you did with supporting detail #1.  You might even have three supporting details--it just depends on the subject.  There is no hard and fast rule for how much support you need for each point, but one good thing to keep in mind is that controversial or complex ideas often need the most support.
  • Lastly, you'd include a transition sentence to lead us from the idea in this paragraph to the idea you'll express in the next paragraph.  This ensures a smooth and logical flow to your paper.  In an outline you should go paragraph by paragraph (I'm just showing you one paragraph as an example--you would of course have many more).  Once you have completed the body of your paragraph, you need a...
• Conclusion: Provides a concise review of the paper's main points, and leaves us with something more to ponder.  This is often a good place to pose a few more questions, to look to the future.  Now that we know all this, what should we do about it?  What is the next step?  The conclusion is also a good place to discuss the implications of your subject, to wrap up the "so what?" question I mentioned earlier.

II.  Definitely make sure to back up your claims/assertions/main points with plenty of support, but go easy on the direct quotations.

You absolutely do have to use source material to do this (you'll almost always have to offer an evidence-based discussion).  That doesn't mean you have to use direct quotes, though.  Most writing manuals say to rely more on paraphrase and summary than quotations.  This is true for a couple of reasons, the main reason being that quotations tend to interrupt the flow of a paper.  It's okay to use quotes if you use them sparingly.  Use a quotation if you feel that the original author's wording is particularly elegant or persuasive, or if you just can't manage to paraphrase it successfully. 

III.  Paraphrase appropriately. 

In case you aren't familiar with the term, paraphrasing involves putting another author's idea into your own words.  There is an art to paraphrasing; in fact, I could make an entire post on this topic alone.  For now, since I have limited space, suffice it to say that paraphrasing is NOT simply changing around a few words from your original source.  If you use this method, you will almost certainly be guilty of plagiarism.  Instead, try this method:

1.) MAKE SURE YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND THE PASSAGE YOU PLAN TO PARAPHRASE.  I put that in all caps because, in my experience, this is the #1 reason why writers commit unintentional plagiarism; they try to paraphrase something they don't fully understand.  If you don't have a firm grasp of the idea you're trying to paraphrase, there is simply no way that you will be able to express that idea in your own words.  So. Read the passage carefully.  Read it a few times.  Then put the original source away.  Close the book, close the window on the computer, put the article underneath a notebook where you can't see it.  Now you're ready to move on to step 2.

2.) Talk to yourself.  Now that you've put the original source away where you can't see it, tell yourself what the author was trying to say.  I like to do this out loud, but if you really don't want to talk to yourself, just write it down.  The wording doesn't have to be perfect here; you are just telling yourself what the original author was saying, working it out for yourself to make sure that you understand what you've read. 

3.) Try paraphrasing.  Now that you are absolutely sure you understand the author's idea, try paraphrasing the passage.  Again, DON'T LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S WORDING.  If you look, you'll be a hundred times more likely to stick too closely to the wording of the original source.  Express the author's idea in your own words. 

4.) Check yourself.  Now you can look at the original source.  Compare what you've written to the original passage.  First make sure that you have expressed the original author's idea accurately, without missing any nuances of meaning.  Then make sure that your wording isn't too close to the original author's.  If it is, you'll need to repeat steps 2-4.  If you go through this process twice and you still end up sticking too closely to the original text, then you might just want to quote the author directly. 

I hope this has been helpful.  Please feel free to get in touch with any questions.  Happy scribbling! 

Whitney Kurtz-Ogilvie, MFAW

 

Amazing New Resource for People With Dyslexia

Today's topic: New resource for people with dyslexia

 

Revolutionary new "Dyslexie" font:

 

I first heard about this amazing new resource while listening to NPR's The Story.  Christian Boer, who suffers from dyslexia, was studying graphic design at Twente University in the Netherlands when he hit upon the inspiration to create a font for dyslexics. 

 

The font makes simple changes to letters--lengthening the vertical line in the letter "h," slightly tilting the letter "j," putting capital letters and punctuation in boldface, etc.--to prevent them from being rotated or changed into other letters in the dyslexic reader's mind.  The results have been astonishing, according to the NPR story.  People who have struggled their whole lives with reading and writing are suddenly able to work with ease and enjoyment.  The font is surprisingly pleasing to read, not at all strange-looking or difficult for non-dyslexics to process.

 

Fortunately, you can order the Dyslexie font for your own computer.  The price for an individual is $69; the font is also available for purchase by schools, workplaces, and other institutions.  For more information, and to see sample texts in Dyslexie, go to Christian Boer's website:  http://www.studiostudio.nl/en/

 

To read or listen to the NPR story, go here: http://www.thestory.org/stories/2013-04/new-font-old-problem

 

Other Resources:

 

There are many other resources available for people with dyslexia.  A quick Google search brought up a host of websites, including the following, which all look promising:

 

http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu/

 

http://www.dyslexia.com/

 

http://www.whatisdyslexia.org/resources.html

 

These sites offer information on dyslexia (including how to tell if you or someone you care about may have it), treatment regimens, helpful books and articles on dyslexia, and tips for reading and writing.  The first two sites also offer intriguing perspectives on the positive side of dyslexia--a tendency toward creative, "outside the box" thinking, for example.  Many, many people with dyslexia have become hugely successful, including actors Whoopi Goldberg and Jay Leno; writers Agatha Christie, Terry Goodkind, Fannie Flagg (who wrote one of my favorite books, Fried Green Tomatoes), Octavia Butler and John Irving; filmmaker Steven Spielberg; investment banking giant Charles Schwab; scientists Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Carol Greider; and many more.  Note the bestselling writers on that list!

 

I know this week's post is aimed at a very specific audience, but a surprising number of people struggle with dyslexia, and few things make writing and reading more daunting.  These resources could be life-changing.  If you do not have dyslexia but know someone who does, please feel free to share this email. 

 

I hope you found this week's post helpful.  Happy scribbling!

 

Whitney Kurtz-Ogilvie, MFAW

whitney.ko@uky.edu