Re: Literacy in the USA -- not so very good

Chess One wrote:

> Maria Conlon wrote:

(not snipped - worth a second read)

> > Take a poll. Or ask a teacher who has earned your respect in expository or
> > informational writing. Or look it up in a reference book or even a style
> > manual. Or take a survey right here in aue.

> but if substantial writers of our age say you should put a comma anywhere
> you want, but significantly to indicate a pause, the rest is silence, no?

> i understand grammatical rules and respect them to the degree that they
> provide a basis for the reader's general apprehension of any specific text;
> but i understand /writer's/ perceptions of them, the people who actually
> provide the work for others to comment upon, why should anyone notice other
> people's opinion?

> there is a famous commentary on the koran which says "God is Merciful, the
> rest is commentary"

> who will kick the spirit in the teeth first? to demand such and such a form
> and formula to convey a spirit they never again address? not even checking
> to see if anything got through?

> people do not write very much because english is a profoundly awkward and
> illogical language, and punctuation is a minor and indeed an electional
> aspect of individual expression

> > Well, we're even then. I don't like know-it-alls who don't, and I am
> > annoyed by people who think that breaking the rules is the way to go *when
> > they don't even know what the rules are*.

> but you are making an objection about a point you wish to be observed in a
> way which is irrational - if people don't know what the rules are, how can
> they know what rules to break? that cannot be the real essence of your
> critique

> your own example provides the demonstration that an overconcentration on one
> aspect of language does /not/ make it any more comprehensible, since you
> sacrifice sense to rightful comma placement as the generic reader will
> comprehend it

> q.e.d.

> > Learn what you're talking about, PG, then break the rules and bend the
> > standards all you want. Be creative about it. Do it with style. Earn a
> > living doing it.

> tell me something, maria, from your own experience with people who write -
> what motivates them? having expressed themselves, are they generally content
> with having made their expression? are they only polite and dutiful to any
> grammatical correction?

> it is perhaps only professional writers who contain all 3 aspects of self
> expression in their consciousness in some objective way - an imagination or
> appreciation of a subject hand in hand with properly disciplined expression
> therof

> most people, that is, almost all people together, seem to care only to get
> something off their chest, and if it is pretty well said and understood this
> IS informational writing to the degree that they choose to engage in it. and
> use is master, madam.

Boy howdy! You are a really great writer. Quite the critical thinker as well.
Articles such as yours delight my eyes and excite my mind. Well done!

Would you like to discuss boogers?

While attending college classes, going on twenty years now, I have learned
many who are a doctorate, do not have a lick of sense. Personally, I shy
away from hard nose academics. My opinion is most Ph.D types are stuffy,
boring and full of it. Very bright people, mind you, but not my type of people.
There are, of course, wonderful exceptions. Some eggheads prove to be the
life of the party! Very humorous, very off-the-wall. Those are my type of people.

I am a doctorate. In ways, I am proud. In other ways, I am ashamed.
Along the way, I am fearful I lost some of my humanity, lost some of
my wit, lost some of my compassion. I worry being well educated might
be a bane rather than a benefit. I miss my childhood, I miss my ignorant
Okie friends, whom I love so dearly. This Ph.D of mine, has cast me into
a different life, a different social circle. I like this, yet dislike it as well.

You personally, Phil, will understand this, "I want to go home."

Mark Twain, certainly my type of man. Lily Tomlin, an idol of mine!
Three Stooges, though, those three are my most worshipped.

During life, we learn so many hard lessons, suffer so much tragedy,
become so anxiety ridden, just as we enjoy love, family and fun.
Life is rough. Being at the top, I am not so sure standing up there
is the best goal in life. Often I think I would rather be sitting out
front of Hendon's General Store playing checkers with old men
who dip snuff and spit a lot.

So long ago, so tired of being cold, hungry, sore from work, so
very poor, like my "others" I made a decision to escape through
hard work and education. It may prove, upon my death bed, I have
only exchanged one prison for another.

Until that moment, until God switches off my stage lights, my best
effort is to be wild, to be fun, to be entertaining and to be all things
to all people. I love character roles, and there are so many in my
mind now, I am lost. I am no longer certain who I am. I am in here
somewhere, I know, but I cannot reach out and touch myself.

This is the bane of education. This is a heavy albatross which weighs
on our minds through too much thinking, too much awareness. Life
becomes so very painful knowing of so much. We see what could be,
we see the waste, we see the tragedy, we know all could be so much
better with so little effort, and a little friendship. We know too much.

A blessing of education is we are unbridled. We no longer wear those
bits and reins of another. We become free to wander about life, free
to become as we will. An education provides knowledge, and teaches
us how to teach ourselves, which is most important. An education also
frees us of these constraints of conformity. Becoming educated dulls
this razor sharp edge of narrow mindedness.

For my life, my personal focus is upon creativity and imagination.
This may prove a key to open my prison cell door. I have an ability
to be so many, to speak in so many voices. I can be any of millions
of characters in my mind, and slide smoothly from one character
to the next, to another. This is disturbing to those outside my mind.

Yes, I bend rules, and yes I break rules, just as I make rules. For
readers who are exasperated, I am a role player, a character in
search of the perfect character. You are my audience, you make
me what I am to you, liked or disliked. You are the quill, and I,
the parchment.

Either way, I am free to romp and play, as I am confined to my
personal prison in my mind.

I really do want to go home, but home for all of us, is long gone.


Maria, have I passed your comma test?


Purl Gurl
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Literacy in the USA -- not so very good
    ... sort of bastion in NY City of people who were investigating life, ... I love character roles, and there are so many in my ... > mind now, I am lost. ... > This is the bane of education. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Who did overage magic
    ... scribed into the ether: ... She changed her mind back in book 3, ... And agin with this "late in life" buisness. ... character is going to do magic late in life, but then announces after book 7 ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Who did overage magic
    ... And agin with this "late in life" buisness. ... character is going to do magic late in life, but then announces after book 7 ... C'mon Jo, that isn't "changing your mind", that's telling us a bold-faced LIE ... Yeah, Lyle Francis Delp! ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: The Glorious Anas Life
    ... Keep in mind that this has been going on for a long time now. ... us what this life is like for her. ... "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.", Albert Einstein ...
    (rec.music.classical.guitar)
  • Re: Against Molecular Evolution, a Process of Abiogenesis
    ... Abiogenesis or The Abiotic Origin of Life on Earth ... Matter to aether shall have faded; ... mind than the statical distance-action developed by Poisson. ... of geometrical construction, but by the introduction of the symbol b gave it ...
    (sci.physics)
Loading