Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Writing on Steroids
Like baseball sluggers who juice themselves up to hit more home runs, we did an in-class “writing on steroids” exercise to artificially pump up our writing. Now that we know what it feels like to be bulked up, let’s go back to our “weight room” (or our dorm rooms) and strengthen our writing muscles for real!
Here was the most juiced-up page from the bulkiest group:
While language began as an oral tradition—starting anciently [editor’s note: I didn’t think this was a word until I looked it up] and continuing through the 15th century—literacy changed communication with its invention. [+2 for a complex sentence] As Ong states in his many works on the theory of literature, written communication established a sense of eloquence in our culture; it made us appear more educated. [+2 for a complex sentence, +2 for semicolon]