Blog Post 6

“Punctuation is to typography what perspective is to painting. It introduces the illusion of visual and audible dimension, giving words vitality. Whether prominent or subtle, punctuation marks are the heartbeat of typography, moving words along in proper timing and with proper emphasis.” (Solomon 289)

I like the comparison between punctuation and painting because I agree punctuation in typography is vital to communicating an image through writing; just as perspective is necessary in painting to properly transmit an image to another as the artist intended. In other words, if writing is the paintbrush then punctuation is the context of what the artist is painting. Punctuation acts as an extension of writing and helps a writer shape their text in ways words alone could not.

For those reasons, I hope college can help me use punctuation to its full potential. I have felt a bit unsure at times if I’m using the correct punctuation. The hard part, I believe, is in some cases there really is no “correct” use of certain punctuations, such as the semi-colon or even a comma at times. I have had professors tell me multiple times that sometimes the usage of certain punctuations, such as these, can be completely up to the author. Even with that in mind, I still believe college classes and my professors can help me nail-down punctuation, at least to the best of my ability.

Has anyone mastered punctuation yet? If so I’m envious.

SIDE NOTE. I have owned a PC and currently own a MAC; neither have a useful spell check for punctuation. It seems like both prefer you just use periods and the occasional comma. Whenever I try to break out of the mold, both systems just shoot me down. This does not help my case.

Blog Post 5

“Writing therefore remained exclusive, until cheap paper became available, and the printing press made mass production of written texts more affordable and less labor-intensive” (Baron 20).

The above quote speaks of Greece and the evolution of writing from exclusive and expensive in 7^th century BC, to inexpensive and widely available in 1440 thanks to the Holy Roman Empire.

Now, in 2011, 99% of United States citizens are considered literate. Impressive right?

                                             New York, United States

But, don’t forget about Guinea at 29.5%, Burkina Faso at 28.7%, Niger at 28.7%, South Sudan at 27% and Mali at 26.2% literacy rate, just to name a few.

In 2700 years these countries have become no more literate then the Greeks were in 7^th century BC. While countries such as the United States, Russia, Poland, Australia and Canada have near perfect literacy rates.

How is it possible that social animals such as humans, that are so connected and globalization is peaking like never before, let 2700 years go by and literally leave countries, like the ones listed above, in the dust?

                                            Douentza, Mali

Maybe, as a whole, we really aren’t all that advanced. And as the population of humans explodes like never before, will we ever be able to say 99% of the world is literate? I personally seriously doubt it.

What do you think? Could 99% of the world population read Harry Potter at some point in our future? 

Blog Post 4

McCloud, chapter 6, displayed the comic box shown above; this interested me, I never thought about the division that took place in painting and writing over the past. This comic juxtaposed both writing and painting and chronicled their ever-entangled past producing an interesting yet educational comic. The above comic depicts the divide between writing and painting through art and writing itself. Making it a wonderful example of the potential power sourced in combining these two art forms.

Beyond the face value message of this comic, I was able to connect on a deeper level as I find myself gravitating towards painting even though I chose to write awhile back. I look at writing as an art, just as much as painting so it really isn’t all that hard to combine the two for me. It will be interesting to watch these two art forms and see where they end up.

“The computer got us this far; the crayon might get us even further” (Clive Thompson on the power of Visual Thinking)

This article reminds me of my childhood and all the coloring books I scribbled through. But, that scribbling wasn’t child’s play, it was the future, Thompson believes.

‘“Using one of my son’s Crayolas, I drew doodles of all the laptops and covered them with little icons depicting the pros, cons, and cost of each. When I stood back and looked at the pictures, the answer leaped out. I could now ‘see’ at a glance which deal best fit my needs and pocketbook…” (Clive Thompson on the power of Visual Thinking).

I don’t know if he envisions the future filled with crayons and notebooks, like Blues Clues. But I can speculate he is envisioning a more artistic, rather than linguistic, society.  Where people communicate and work in an environment more shaped by the ‘’apple style” than the ever fading “dell style” we are currently working our way out of. He speaks of a poster sized iPad that will help us communicate and work in a new dimension, much more efficient than our current one. I wonder what other instances could be effected by shifting our focus from words to pictures, though I doubt words, in this sense, will ever become obsolete. 

Blog Post 3

About the Chronicle Review:

The title reads: “We can’t teach students to love reading”, at first I thought “no s**t” as I could have written books about how much I hated to read for school as a kid. And as I started to think more about it, I was pleasantly surprised by the notion that maybe there were other people out there that hated it as much as I did. It was never a question of whether or not I could read the material at hand; it was always the question of “why do I have to read this dry boring text that’s ultimately no fun? So I read on.

“But when you have access to thousands of articles, blogs, videos, and people with expertise on the topic, a good strategy is to skim first to get an overview.” (The Chronicle)

Their encouraging skimming now… WHAT? Skimming was the only tool I had in my possession to dig my way through 40 page essays, while looking for three quotes so I could write a two-page paper. Why didn’t old people have this epiphany back when I was in K-12?

“All this is to say that the idea that many teachers hold today, that one of the purposes of education is to teach students to love reading—or at least to appreciate and enjoy whole books—is largely alien to the history of education” (The Chronicle)

And I quote, “largely alien to the history of education”… Again, WHAT? How are teachers so good at convincing you that if you don’t love reading you won’t amount to anything?  Maybe they thought if they told us the majority of people actually don’t like to read, then nearly every student would just stop reading. Either way they kept the secret well. 

“Education is and should be primarily about intellectual navigation, about—I scruple not to say it—skimming well, and reading carefully for information in order to upload content. Slow and patient reading, by contrast, properly belongs to our leisure hours.” (The Chronicle)

This segment has abolished all my worries dealing with reading as an adolescent. I knew I was a smart kid, I just never could understand why I didn’t want to just sit down, grab a text book and educate myself. Now I get it, reading in school is supposed to be no fun.  Funny thing is I read this article from first to last word and didn’t skim once, I wonder what that means?

Blog Post 2

“Among its more appealing features are the interviews with writers and historians like Shelby Foote and Barbara Fields, who provide the background information and interpretation necessary to transform battles, speeches, and letters from dry historical data into a human drama of characters, intentions, and limitations.” (Keith Grant-Davie 1) The ability to turn dry historical data into a vivid and colorful depiction, through writing, is an art form in-itself. Shelby Foote and Barbara Fields were able to explain these rhetorical situations brilliantly and made it possible to explain these events to an even deeper extent. I believe its safe to say this is a desired ability among many writers, including myself. This form of rhetoric does not persuade through argument but through being able to connect the reader on different levels that in turn makes a dry, fact based analysis, turn into a rich story that any reader can emerge themselves in and understand the text on a deeper level.  

“Philosophical rhetoric is primarily concerned with the exploratory construction of knowledge. The philosophical rhetor is less concerned with the composition of a particular text than with exploring ways of knowing and defining a subject.” (Covino & Jolliffe 7). This sheds light on Philosophical rhetoric because instead of looking at the composition of the text this style of rhetoric goes deeper and looks at the composition in a different way, philosophically.  It would be interesting to go further into this philosophical rhetoric and explore the different possibilities that could arise from looking through this lens.

Both these styles, Shelby Foote/Barbara Fields style and the Philosophical rhetoric style, take a typical text that has a normal face value and turns them inside out. Also, producing a more lively and energetic feel that conveys points across differently then if the text were stated more simply. In other words, rhetoric: “Its most well-known definition came from Aristotle, who called it "the art of finding [seeing] the available means of persuasion. More simply, rhetoric includes the study and the use of language with persuasive effect, but definitions abound.” (Wikipedia). This is obviously a strong tool to learn and every writer should strive for the ability to be able to do this, as it truly separates great writers from average writers. 

Intro Post

My name is Matt Rule, I’m turning 21 this weekend and I’m from Seattle! That’s what I tell everyone that I meet in Montana, as my true home is located in Bellevue (5 miles outside of Seattle).  Saying I’m from Seattle prevents confused faces and the necessity of a deeper explanation of where I’m actually from.

I’m writing this on my messy bed because my desk is too small and is currently being dominated by an oversized T.V. that for some reason cannot be moved. Luckily, a benefit of being a Writing major is the ability to do the majority of your schoolwork virtually anywhere.  At least until your battery dies. 

I look forward to writing for this blog, I think it will be a fun and exciting alternative to the majority of academic writing I have done while going to college! I also look forward to reading everyone else's blogs as well!