It Was A Dark And Stormy Night ....

Have you been (counter) arguing again? Be nice!
Post#100, a thanks? Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead!

 

Rubrics are like training wheels. It's OK to start with them to instill/achieve a minimal proficiency in writing (for example, the "Five Paragraph Essay" that is a staple of American middle/high school composition courses). However, writing and grading within a rigid framework can indeed be stifling, even for expository (as opposed to creative) writing. (We have discussed this before, in the context of automated grading by computer, so my bias should be familiar! ).

Indian students, including those with graduate degrees (from India), excepting graduates of some leading institutions, are often atrocious writers; they drive me crazy, writing as they do with a causal insousiance even in high stakes situations, such as when they are applying for a job. I am exasperated by the laxity. The question that runs through my mind when I see that kind of sloppiness is: if this fellow cannot have someone give him feedback on his letter, then what sort of initiative can I expect from him in his research? For such people rubrics can be enormously useful, to get them from (near) zero to fifty. That is a start, but it is not enough!

For creative writing, I prefer the 'provocative-writing-prompt' strategy. Here's one I liked, courtesy of Reddit: "You sold your soul to the Devil some years ago. Today, he gives it back and says "I need a favor."

 

Let's start 2018 with a bang, by stressing the very real costs of ambiguous writing. Here is a story, about a court settlement last week, that ought to excite the somnolent visitors of this thread - a comma or the lack thereof may be worth $5 million!!! Pay attention!

Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute
Oxford Comma Dispute Is Settled as Maine Drivers Get $5 Million

 

Ahoy Dr. G! My friend, who tends to notice such things, would like to point out that after an em-dash, the convention is to use the lower-case for the first word. Had it been a semi-colon, you would have had greater leeway to make a stylistic choice between lower and upper-case.
These pedants are annoying, aren't they?

 

Well, you used em-dashes multiple times!

Easy rule is to stick with the lower-case – be it after a comma, a semi-colon or an em-dash, except in cases where the word following is a proper noun.

I did, I did! That friendly abuse was both acknowledgement and feedback. Men tend not to gush. Apparently stems from aeons of hunting sabre-toothed tigers on the open savannah, fighting wars to protect home and hearth and whatnot, while women kept busy tending to tomatoes in the garden.

 

Switching within a sentence or succeeding sentences within the same thought is indeed a no-no. Transitioning across time over the course of a piece is allowed – would have to be n'cest pas? You started in the past (last year), you looked to the future (coming round of gardening), and then closed with the run that morning. That could work as 'technique' – of the sort one tortures schoolchildren with (note preposition at the end of a sentence!).

We Real Cool
Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917 - 2000

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.