Grammar Post

Disruptive & Misplaced Modifiers
Limiting Modifiers include words such as almost, hardly, even, just, merely, not, only, and simply.
Limiting modifiers should always go before the word or words they modify in a work

Be careful of modifiers that seem to modify two things.
For example notice how many times the word "just" is used in this sentence
Just twenty new people just volunteered just for the sea turtle rescue program just for the spring.
When we write we sometimes don't realize that we use disruptive and misplaced modifiers, to help with this is to re read your essay and catch them.

http://wire.rutgers.edu/p_grammar_top10.html#apostrophe

America the Beautiful

Dinesh D'souza story America the Beautiful I thought was interesting. I did notice that the essay was all in his opinion and he didn't use many sources. I am not an expert at what he talks about, but it would be nice to have sources to where I could look up and figure out exactly what he is talking about. He did have good sources when he put in examples of Rodney King and the Spanish Inquisition. I don't necessarily think that the solution he presents will work, because everyone has a different idea about what would and wouldn't work.

I and Me

When I write my a paper I always have to make sure I am using I and me in the right way. Many people think that it is classier to use I, and they end up getting it wrong half of the time. The best way to know which is right is to eliminate the other person in the sentence, and see what you have left.
Examples:
Cindy and I went to the store. I went to the store. (correct)
Mom gave Travis and I cookies. Mom gave I cookies. (wrong)
Mom gave me cookies. (correct)
http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/

Unbiased writing

I have found myself reading books or papers where the writer will have a biased voice.
example: A student planning on attending college needs to talk to his advisor.

An occasional he or she is all right, but after a while it becomes too demanding, and the device becomes more important than the message. When a singular pronoun is necessary, use either the masculine or feminine consistently enough to avoid confusion.
To avoid your paper from being biased you can substitute the word.
Examples:
use actor instead of actress
businessperson instead of businessman
anchor instead of anchorman
ancestors instead of forefathers

By using this way of writing your paper is more attractive to your readers and not so biased.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/unbiased.htm

Media Group Breather Rough Draft

Kirstin Diroll
English 2010 M&W
Breather Assignment
300 Brave Spartans
King Leonidas a 5th century B.C. king who lead 300 hundred Spartan soldiers to war against 150, 000 Persians. They fought in the battle known as the Thermopylae. A movie was made in remembrance of this famous war. A movie starring Gerard Butler as King Leonidas called “300” came out in 2006. This movie describes the fall of the Spartans against the “God King” king Xerxes. Seeing that movies are made to entertain, they leave out certain facts, but will sometimes make the movie as real as possible.
The movie “300” is no exception, geared toward a male audience, because of violence. Viewers watch this movie expecting a phenomenal show, but also to learn a little about the history of Greece. This movie does an amazing job at pin pointing most of what happened in the battle. With the movie not entirely in color, but more of a grayish makes the color red stand out completely. The battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 B.C. when King Xerxes decided he wanted to take over Sparta.
King Leonidas was aware of this and decided to block them for the Thermopylae trial, aka “hot gates”. His warriors were more than men they are Spartans (Miller). The movie shows a great example of this when King Leonidas asks of an Arcadian soldier, “you there what is your profession?” and the soldier replies, “I am a potter-sir.” Then he turns to his warriors and yells “Spartans what is your profession?” and they answer back, “Hoo-Ah, Hoo-Ah.” Finally King Leonidas looks at the Arcadian leader and says “You see old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did.” The makers of this movie did exactly what they need to, they are keeping the movie as close to history as possible, but without boring viewers.
People engulf themselves in the media it can take over lives. Frank Miller originally made a comic book of 300, and that is the reason for the movie make.

I'm black you're white, who's innocent

I'm Black, You're White, Who's Innocent by Shelby Steele I thought was well written, but over written. I am a person who looks back on racism and I do not agree with it. Yes, I understand how bad it was, but we have come so far that racism is not as huge of an issue as it use to be. Personally I do not look at someone and judge them by what color they are. Skin is skin it does not change the person that they are.
If a African American man were to rob a bank, get caught and charged it was not because they were black it is because they committed a crime, and the same goes for a Caucasian. I know racism is still out there, and I do not think that people should be. It is not the color of your skin that makes you who you are. It is the person you are on the inside and how you treat other people.

"to be" verbs

The verbs am, is, are, was, and were, be, being, been are known as "to be" verbs. The use of these verbs can result in weak or passive writing. It is better to use strong and colorful verbs.
Examples
weak: That coffee is soothing.
Strong: That coffee soothes me.

weak: My bike was run over by a elderly lady driving a sedan
strong: An elderly lady ran my bike over with her sedan
http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-To-Be-Verbs-and-Their-Contribution-to-Passive-Writing&id=1150297

Two ways to hurt a woman

In the essay by Jean Killbourne, she talks a lot about how companies are using sexual mannerisms to get us to buy their brand. She thinks that these companies are using sexual material, and she calls it pornography. She uses the Calvin Klein add as an example where they asked a teenage boy to take off his shirt in a basement and pose for them. I don't agree with the fact that all ads are pornography, but some may take it to an extreme. I think a huge reason why companies do this is because it sells, because if it didn't work they wouldn't do it. I am not saying that it is the right way to sell clothes and merchandise, but companies will do anything they can to sell their products.

Killer Culture

In David Kupelian story Killer Culture I liked reading, but also had a hard time following. He uses such a variety of big words at points it was hard to understand him. It seemed to me like he was trying to impress his readers with his large vocabulary that you don't understand what he is trying to say. I noticed he also used quite a bit of sources that at points it feels like a psychophrenic ( not entirely his voice).
I did agree with him on points where children get lost in the media, and are influenced by media and other people. When he talks about the Scouts I agree to a point to were we should all try to be good people, but there are people who do everything "good people" do, but who are not technically good people.

when to use exclamation marks

Exclamation marks are used at the end of a sentence or a short phrase which expresses a very strong feeling
Some examples would be:
John get out of there!
George that is not a toy!
Help!

However, exclamation marks are usually out of place in a formal writing piece if you use them too much they can give your work a breathless, almost childish, quality.
It is normal for an exclamation to be at the end of a sentence that begins with "what" or "How"
"What an outspoken child!"
"How well we played today!"
Not that these are exclamations and not statements
http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node06.html

Framing Class

Framing Class by Diana Kendall is a story I enjoyed reading. I liked reading about how the media can portray celebrities and how we the average public look up to them and think what great lives they have.
When she talks about Paris Hilton's jewelry line and how people go out and by this jewelry and just thinking that they are wearing something that Paris would wear. I remember when I was little I loved watching TV shows that showed how wonderful celebs lives were, because they had it all it seemed like. I wanted all of that, because the media made it look so great to be famous. When in reality there are people in the world who are not famous and are not the richest people, but they are happy with what they have!

Serving in Florida

Barbara Ehrenreich's story Serving in Florida I found to be a very interesting read. It was amazing to for me to read about all of the things not only Barbara, but her coworkers also had to go through. The one that got to me was the woman Gail who lived in her truck. For me just to read about people having to work all day, and have different jobs just makes me appreciate everything I have. How I am lucky to not be in situation like that. I have so much respect for anyone who goes through obstacles such as Barbara did and make it.

Complement/Compliment

Complement and compliment were originally interchangeable, but now they are supposed to be used for different things.
Compliment is the word that people are usually meaning to use. It means nice things said about someone.
ex. She gave me a compliment on how well my outfit matched.
Complement is the word that is not used so often, and is used supplement each other, adding something the others lacks.
ex. Mary's love for cooking and Alex's love of a clean house complement each other.
http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/complement.html

I just want to be average

In Mike Rose's story I just want to be average it was a story I could in a way relate to. I have always had a problem in math classes, and I would just sit there and say if I can just pass I would be okay. I had to have help by my friend who could do math as easy as 1,2,3. So she taught me to buckle down, and showed me that I didn't have to settle for average.
One thing I noticed in Rose's story is that when he is talking about his classes that the students, nor the teachers really want to be there. It took me back to what Gatto talked about in his story Against School. The students were wild, and did not care about learning. Also, the teachers would sit there, or not be into the subject they were teaching. An example I noticed was when Rose was talking about his English teacher how he would just have the read the same book over and over again until the end of the semester. So I can see how hard it could be to not do well in school, and not try to be more than average.

Idiot Nation

In Michael Moore's story of Idiot nation it is a story that I necessarily agree with, but it was an interesting story to read. Moore has absolutely no problem with saying what is on his mind, which is not always a bad thing, but not necessarily good.
He had quite a few negative things to say about schools and even the leader of our country. I did like the pole that he took of the graduated college students taking a high school level test and only averaging about 50%. His reading was interesting because he seemed to have all of these facts. What I am wondering though is where he got them? He doesn't exactly say where he got all of his information.
Micheal Moore did have a lot to say and most of it was not always on a bright note. To me it seems like he tends to most always have his foot in his mouth.

Is it to or too?

I have always had a problem in English when I just get writing and don't really pay attention and make sure that I am using proper grammar. One of my biggest mistakes is to vs. too. The website Common mistakes in English gave me very helpful way to remember which one to use. http://esl.about.com/od/grammarintermediate/a/cm_to.htm
The word to.. is mostly used as a preposition, and is used as a part of infinitive form of verbs
where as..
the word too... is basically another way to say "also" or that there is too much of a particular quantity, and is mostly seen at the end of sentences.

Do we really miss the 1950's?

Stephanie Coontz is the author of What we really miss about the 1950's. When reading this story I found that she had many good points with what was good about the 1950's. She states that it was the best time for children to grow up, because times were safer then.
I can't say that I miss the 1950's, because I was not alive then. However, I do remember watching old shows like I love Lucy and the Donna Reed show. I remember thinking as a girl that these women look like they have really amazing lives, but as I got older I realized that not all women enjoy being homemakers. Women did not have the rights that we do today, and most women just assumed that they were destined to be homemakers and that was it.
One thing that Coontz wrote that caught my attention was how much the tv shows could influence on the families life. In I love Lucy the show was more forcused on reminding women that wanting a career or " hatching a hare-brained scheme" behind her husband's back would get them into trouble.

Getting to know me

Hi, my name is Kirstin Diroll I grew up in Sandy Utah. I have lived in St. George for almost two years now. I am working towards my degree of science in business. I originally was going for my biology degree, but changed it when I decided I wanted to own a assisted living. Besides school I have some hobbies I like playing outside (i.e. soccer, rollerblading, tanning, etc). I also like to shop just like any other girl, and I read when I get the chance. I work part time as a C.N.A. for a home health and hospice company. I have worked there for a year and a half and really enjoy it. Well that is a brief summary of me.