Avoiding Slang

When I'm writting I tend to use lame 0r dull words making my writting boring. I usually write how I would talk, which isn't appropriate in most writtings. When your texting, then yes, you can write how you would talk; but when writting an essay, resume, etc. then its no longer appropriate. In the St. Martins Guide to Writting it talks more about this, and how we need to avoid using slang. The following of some sentences that help us better understand what we are talking about.
Approriate use of Slang for talking about a remembered event:
"This weather is awesome for peeling out. You oughta try it sometime."

Inapproriate Slang when addressed to college professors:
"Parties are an excellent way to blow off steam and take a break from the presures of college."

There are some ideas you can use to help you fix your slang. Replace slang expressions with more formal words, or replace with more discriptive words. Here are some examples to help you get an idea of what I'm talking about.

We shouldn't dis these girls. (replace dis with criticize)

The cast of the movie was awesome. (replace awesome with impressive)

The cast of the move was awesome. (replace was awesome with vividly embodied the historical characters)

To put it simple use your judgement when going to use slang, and think about the context you are using it in.

Best Movie Review

A movie that deserves to receive an Oscar is Ladder 49. The whole time watching you can't help but think, what’s going to come next, what is going to happen to this person, etc. Good movies keep the audiences attention, keeping the audience captivated. Ladder 49 has a well written plot, great actors, and the quality of the movie itself was great.

An important factor that decides if a movie is actually good or not; is the plot. It’s important to keep the interest of the audience alive. While watching this movie, you are put right in the place of a fire fighter, allowing you to feel like you are experiencing exactly what they are. There are many emotions that unfold because of events going on, but that is what makes this movie so good.

The actors in the movie are not very well known, but they do an excellent job at portraying their character. One actor that you might recognize and that has drawn an audience is Joaquin Phoenix. His plays a strong role, and does a wonderful job really captivating the audience and keeping us intrigued the entire time.

The quality of this movie is great, it looked very real. It is obvious that this movie wasn't just put together quickly, it was well thought out and planned. You can also tell that there was money put into it as well. This is apparent because the scenery looks real. It doesn’t look like they just made a miniature scale, and called it good. There are scenes in the movie where you can see this; the time spent to make it look good. A new rookie was just hired onto the job and went to his first fire. You are taken into the fire with him, but the cool thing is that you get to actually see and almost feel just what the fire looks like from their perspective. Another time we are taken into an abandoned warehouse, where again it is a real warehouse, the fires and explosions look real. Ladder 49 is a well made movie with great plot, actors and fantastic production value.

SMGTR Essay Reading

Christine Romano and author of one of the reviews in the St. Martin Guides to Reading wrote a review on the following essay "Children Need to Play, Not Compete" by Jessica Statsky. I really liked how Romano was very specific when she would reference back to the essay. It made it for a 'true' review. It also helped us as the readers gain more insight. She would use examples or phrases that were mentioned in the essay, which helped get the message across and to make us as the readers question Statsky. For example, Statsky would quote heavily from the authorities, which would make us wonder, do we believe her or the quotes shes using, if so we will move on. However, no matter what any body writes, there is always somebody questioning your work, and ready to tell their opinion.

Hyphens

During writing I have often wondered if and where to insert a hyphen. It usually ends up in the wrong place, but most often I just don't add it. This is due to the fact hat I have know idea where it is suppose to go. In the STMGW it helps us better understand this objective. When using compound adjectives, use a hyphen to join parts that precedes the word not after. For example, after-school activities: Yes, activities after school: No; well-known athlete: Yes, athlete who is well known: No. Add a hyphen to clarify that the words function as a unit.

When two different prefixes or initial words are meant to go with the same second word, use a hyphen and a space at the end of the first prefix or word. Example: Over twenty people crowd the small trauma room, an army of green- and blue-hooded medical personnel.

Compound nouns: Hyphenate fractions, compound numbers (up to ninety-nine). An example would be, Almost two-thirds of women... or The twenty-two year old... You can use a hyphen that begins with self-, ex-, or great-, or ends with -elect, or -in law. Examples would be ex-husband, self-esteem, secretary-elect.

So now that we have an idea of where to insert hyphens, I hope we will be able to find the right place to put them. You can always check the dictionary if you have any doubts.

Ethnographic Problem

The problem I have been having while writing this essay is whether or not I am even writing it right. It seems that I keep writing random things, but I don't know if it even applies. Its hard to know what I am suppose to write. When we did the peer review my group said they thought it was right but then again we were all kind of confused. I'm writing my paper on cold stone. So I have been writing about things about cold stone, such as the tips, ice cream, employees, etc. I just hope what I am writing is correct!!!

Affect or Effect???

Which one do I use?? Affect or Effect?? I find myself asking this question a lot! I can distingush between other homonyms such as their, there, and they're but I just can seem to grasp this one.


When writing a paper I usually think I'm using the correct one when in reality I have just guessed in hopes it was right. However now I know the defintions and some examples to help me out because of this website.


Affect means:
To have an influence on or effect a change in
To act on the emotions of; touch or move
To attack or infect, as a disease


Effect means:
Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result.
The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence.



Some examples of theses words are as follows: Talking about a result, then use effect.

• Example: What effect did the loss have on the team?

Describing something that was caused or brought about, use effect.

• Example: The new manager effected some positive changes in the office.

Affect can be used as a noun to describe facial expression.

• Example: The young man with schizophrenia had a flat affect.
• Example: The woman took the news of her husband's sudden death with little affect.

Affect can also be used as a verb when describing how something has influenced someone, rather then causing it.

• Example: How does the crime rate affect hiring levels by local police forces?
• Example: The weather conditions will affect the number of people who come to the county fair this year.
  

Now that I have seen the examples and know the definition I can hopefully know which word to use, at least that is my goal!!

3 Elements To My Group

The founders of Cold Stone Creamery, was Donald and Susan Sutherlan. Their dream was to find the perfect ice cream. As they preceded to accomplish their dream in 1988 they started their dream by opening the first Cold Stone in Tempe, Arizona. This store became very popular and eventually the ball got rolling. Now Cold Stone is the most popular ice cream parlor.

There are many important tools at Cold Stone, but one that plays a major part is the granite stone counter. After the ice cream is selected and the mix-ins are chosen, a scooper dishes the ice cream onto a granite ledge, which is kept at 16 degrees to prevent melting.


When trying to get on the Cold Stone Crew you don't go in for an interview, but an audition. An audition is what determines if you get the job. You have to be able to entertain! If you are able to pass the audition, which entitles singing and having a good attitude then you are likely to get the job.

Ethnographic Essays

For my essay I chose to observe people at the Cold Stone. I love ice cream and love the atmosphere at Cold Stone. However I'm not sure of which angle to choose. I can't decide if I want find out more about the costumers or the employees. So I would like some imput on which way to go. I have been thinking of some questions...... why did you chose cold stone? Are you a regular customer? Whats your favorite combination? What time does cold stone get the most costemers? If there is anything else you can't think of please let me know...

The Use Of Italics

Have you ever been typing an essay or paper and have become stuck or lost because you don't know how or when to use italics, bold, or underline? I know I have, many of times, which tends to make my papers wrong and hard to follow. Sometimes I just can't help it, I have either forgotten the rules or just don't know how. However I have found some information at this site, that has been very helpful on italics. The following list is some ways or some "rules" you could say to help you know when to use italics.

• Naming ships or aircrafts
• Tittles of poems, books, articles, or newspapers
• Foreign words
• Introducing new terms
• Subjects of definition
• For emphasis
• Mathematical symbols
• Where a word is used as an example rather than for its meaning
  example: The word Kennedy is a proper noun.

Now don't forget there are other ways to put these words. This is just one way you can do it.