Summary: The reading on Dawkins talked about how to use punctuation for your intended meaning or emphasis, the only rule you should be comfortable with would be independent clauses. This reading also talked about the rules in punctuation handbooks should show students what to do and how to do it rather than the other way around. The Bryson reading talks about how he challenges English grammar and how complex we make it and how we need to adapt to the change of language over time.

Synthesis: From these reading I have learned alot, such as using punctuation to my intended emphasis and not to over think punctuation because it can take over your paper. Also, I learned the difference between prescriptive and descriptive and how complex the English language could be.

WAW:Dawkins (139-155)

Questions for Discussing and Journaling:

1: Dawkins is challenging the rules of punctuation more specifically Dawkins states that in handbooks students are told what not to do and how not to do it; better instruction-in any skill is to tell students what to do and how to do it. I agree with Dawkins, I have had one or two of the student handbooks and their all negative, almost like we the students are already guilty of making mistakes

5: The most important idea I learned was that you have to punctuate to your intended meaning or emphasis. This approach allows you to follow "principles" rather than "rules", but in order to do that I have to learn one grammatical element the "independent clause". I also have to learn to not let punctuation take over my paper. I could lose track of what I'm writing about just because I'm too hung up on punctuation.

Applying and Exploring

4: Dear Mr. Fitch,
       One subject that we spent an enormous amount of time was on prepositions. Now I remember having to remember these prepositions but I didn't know why we had to. I really haven't had any use for memorizing these prepositions since the test we took over them. I thought it would be better     if we spent more time on essay structure, stuff that we would use in the future.

ROW:Bryson (61-67)

Before you Read

1: When I think of good english vs bad english I look at the choice of vocabulary. When you read a students paper vs a professional author I can always tell one big difference and that is the choice of words. Im not the best writer and when I would do peer edits last year for some of my friends what always stuck out to me was their word choice. It can make your paper look more cleaner and most importantly keep the reader reading.

Questions for Discussing and Journaling

1: I think Bryson is challenging English grammar and how complex we can make it. It can be so complex to people that are trying to learn English or even native English speakers to learn the more complex parts of English. Bryson said making English grammar conform to Latin rules is like asking people to play baseball using football rules. For example in English it is possible to split up infinitives unlike in Latin where you cant.

3: Descriptive should be defined as a structure of our english as it is used by speakers and writiers. Prescriptive can be defined as the structure of our language and how it is viewed. I have learned tons of grammar structure through my years of high school. How to use commas,semi colons,quotations, the list can go on and on. I think the rule that we learned the most would be when to use a comma and when to not use one. Day after day we would get worksheets where we would have to correct sentences and their comma placement. It wasn't very effective because it was so repetitive.  

Applying and Exploring

1: One example that Bryson saw change over time was ending a sentence with a preposition. He saw that over time it was idiomatic and common in both speech and informal writing. One rule that I saw change over time was the rule "i" before "e" except after "c". I learned that rule has kind of gone by the wayside and that it doesn't work alot of the times. Bryson would be fine with language changing over time because he said "change is both continuous and inevitable".