Study Skills

study techniques: how to spell, plan, and write more effectively

study techniques: how to spell, plan, and write more effectively

26 Golden Rules for Writing Well

September 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a checklist for professional writing skills

1. Don’t abbrev.

2. Check to see if you any words out.

3. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.

4. About sentence fragments.

5. When dangling, don’t use participles.

6. Don’t use no double negatives.

7. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.

8. Just between you and I, case is important.

9. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.

10. Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.

11. Its important to use apostrophe’s right.

12. It’s better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.

13. Never leave a transitive verb just lay there without an object.

14. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized. also a sentence should
begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop

15. Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.

16. In letters compositions reports and things like that we use commas
to keep a string of items apart.

17. Watch out for irregular verbs that have creeped into our language.

18. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

19. Avoid unnecessary redundancy.

20. A writer mustn’t shift your point of view.

21. Don’t write a run-on sentence you’ve got to punctuate it.

22. A preposition isn’t a good thing to end a sentence with.

23. Avoid cliches like the plague.

24. 1 final thing is to never start a sentence with a number.

25. Always check your work for accuracy and completeness.

[ANON.]

Writing well is often a matter of checking small details such as those illustrated by the notes above. Give yourself a bonus point if you spotted why the grammatically correct statement in number 25 is relevant. If you didn’t – look again at the page title.

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A First Class Essay

September 28, 2009 by Roy Johnson

this shows what a first class essay looks like

This first class essay is piece of work was produced on a third-year undergraduate course which considers Modern Literature and Literary Theory. Students are required to examine texts from different genres in the light of critical theory. In this case it is theories about the relationship between literature and history. As in many questions set at this level, the student is being asked to respond to a quotation from citical commentary on the topic. The essay is in full copyright of its author, to whom thanks for permission to reproduce it here are due.

Question
‘The poetic act both anticipates the future and speeds its coming’ (Czeslaw Milosz, ‘On Hope’ The Witness of Poetry, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1983).

In what ways could texts which deal with the past be said to be anticipating a future? Discuss with reference to at least one poetry text, and one text from a different genre.

Every literary text is both written and received in a particular historical context. In this sense all literary texts are historical. However some texts deliberately foreground history by explicitly engaging with a given period, or by referring to specific historical events. Anna Akhmatova and J.G. Ballard are writers who have consciously chosen to address the past, and yet, in doing so, have also prefigured the future.

In ‘Requiem’ (1) Akhmatova expresses her need to preserve the memories of the horror of life during the Stalinist reign of terror, as a way of issuing a warning about the future. She herself lived through the events depicted, and the poem represents her personal testimony, ‘I stand as witness to the common lot, / survivor of that time, that place.’ (p.54) Akhmatova also makes clear the fact that she faced opposition from those in authority, who attempted, through censorship, to prevent such remembrance. However her determination to commemorate the suffering that she and others like her endured, is explicit in the Epilogue:

I want to name the names of all that host,
but they snatched up the list, and now it’s lost.
I’ve woven them a garment that’s prepared
out of poor words, those that I overheard,
and will hold fast to every word and glance
all of my days, (p.61).

Her feelings are shared by many writers who have witnessed or experienced traumatic circumstances and feel that drawing attention to them is a way of trying to prevent their reoccurrence. Dennis Walder, in a paraphrase of the writing of Gunter Grass, explains it as ‘an urgency to recall a specific past in order to say something to the present – and to the future’.(2)

‘Requiem’ is a group of poems written over a period of years in which Akhmatova highlights various periods in her life and in the life of her country. She compares her situation to that of ‘the wives of Peter’s troopers’ whose soldier husbands were executed in 1698. One effect of referring to a comparable event over two hundred years earlier, is to demonstrate that the ‘Yezhov terror’ is far from being Russia’s first experience of tyranny. The implication is that it may not be the last. As Joseph Brodsky states, ‘She sensed that history, like its objects has very limited options’.(3) Hence the sense of desperation in her wish to communicate the horror of an event which, in the words of Primo Levi, ‘happened, therefore it can happen again’.(4)

As a poet, rather than a historian, Akhmatova is perhaps better able to express the suffering and emotions of her people, albeit subjectively. By concentrating on grief and affliction rather than clinical facts, she increases the memorability of her subject matter. As Joseph Brodsky states, ‘At certain periods in history it is only poetry that is capable of dealing with reality by condensing it into something graspable, something that otherwise couldn’t be retained by the mind’.(5) The poem’s imagery conveys the way in which suffering produces feelings of numbness. Its ability to ‘turn heart into a stone'(p.58), seems to be necessary for people to survive. The same imagery is used to portray the dehumanizing effect of oppression, with people metaphorically depicted as stone: ‘how suffering inscribes on cheeks / the hard lines of its cuneiform texts,'(p. 60). This theme continues in the epilogue when, in a proleptic reference, Akhmatova anticipates her own symbolical reification. She envisions a statue erected in her memory, ‘I should be proud to have my memory graced / but only if the monument be placed / …here, where I endured three hundred hours'(p.61). This prefiguration is also an anticipation of a possible end to the anguish, as symbolized by the image of ‘melting snow’.(p.61)

Despite the fact that the poem consists of a number of small segments, likened to the musical form of a requiem, the religious imagery forms a continuum. It also serves to set the poem in a wider context, and is another example of the way in which Akhmatova anticipates a better future. The section of the poem entitled ‘Crucifixion’, is particularly rich in religious imagery and contains a near quotation from the Russian Orthodox Easter service, ‘Do not weep for me, Mother, / When I am in my grave’ (p.59). Akhmatova’s direct comparison of her situation with the crucifixion and Easter, indirectly implies an anticipation of the resurrection, and thus expresses a glimmer of hope for the future. This is taken a step further with an apocalyptic prophesy ‘A choir of angels glorified the hour, / the vault of heaven was dissolved in fire.’ (p.59). As book of Revelation suggests that following the Apocalypse there will be no more suffering or death, the allusions to it are again a way of tentatively intimating a sense of optimism about the future. The poem ends with a reference to ‘a prison dove’, an image which fuses the Christian symbol of peace and freedom with persecution and imprisonment. This exemplifies the way in which, throughout the poem, Akhmatova balances the wish to commemorate horror, with a simultaneous attempt to anticipate peace.

Empire of the Sun is a novel based upon events in the past, witnessed by its author during his childhood. In the preface, Ballard explains the relationship between the narrative and known historical facts, ‘For the most part this novel is based on events I observed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and within the camp at Lunghua’.(6)

Like Akhmatova, Ballard is concerned with memory, and how memories of the past can affect the present and the future. As such, Empire of the Sun contains his personal testimony. Despite the fact that the novel is clearly a work of fiction, there is an obvious autobiographical feel about it; the main protagonist shares the name of the author and there are frequent references to verifiable events. As Laurence Lerner explains, ‘The world of fiction is not purely imaginary, but overlaps with the world of history; in the case of realistic fiction, the overlap is especially large, and welcomed.’ (7) This ‘overlap’, caused by the inclusion of a wealth of legitimate facts, gives a sense of credibility to the fictional events that occur. This is exemplified by a sentence from the beginning of the novel in which fictional and verifiable events are juxtaposed, ‘After morning service on Sunday, 7 December, the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the choirboys were…marched down to the crypt’ (p.11). The episode that the narrator relates may, or may not have actually happened, but is given an air of realism by its link with an established factual event.

In an interview, Ballard explained his gravitation towards the genre of science fiction, as being due to a desire to ‘write about the next five minutes and not the last thirty years’.(8) Empire of the Sun, is not a work of science fiction, and yet it is possible to see how, despite its engagement with the past, Ballard uses the narrative to speculate about the future. In particular the focus towards the end of the novel is concentrated on the possibility of a third world war. The narrative perspective of a young and somewhat traumatized boy, under the apprehension that the next war has already started, enables Ballard to heighten awareness of such a prospect. ‘If he saw his parents he would tell them that World War III had begun and they should return to their camp at Soochow’ (p.338).

Ballard’s preoccupation with the prospect of another war, reveals an ideology which relates to the prevailing political circumstances at the time in which the novel was written. The years preceding 1984 had been characterized by anxiety due to the events which surrounded the ‘Cold War’. Despite Jim’s limited perceptions and often simplistic interpretation of events, his prophetic remarks about future hostilities are lent credence by their feasibility and the conviction with which they are expressed, ‘these were trailers for a war that had already started. One day there would be no more newsreels.’ (p. 349); ‘One day China would punish the rest of the world, and take a frightening revenge’.(p.351) Although it is clear that these are Jim’s thoughts and opinions, they are reported by the narrator without elaboration or contradiction, which adds to their plausibility. Ballard’s choice of narrative mode, therefore contributes to the novel’s ability to arouse contemplation of future events.

By definition, the past is absent and yet language is able to make it accessible. Despite their differing emphasis and methodology, Akhmatova and Ballard have both produced texts which, in the words of Primo Levi ‘bear witness’.(9) In doing so they demonstrate the way in which recollections of specific past occurrences, can affect perceptions of the present and the future. In issuing warnings about the future and provoking its consideration, they are able, as Milozs suggests, to ‘anticipate the future’ and to ‘speed its coming’.(10)

Notes

1. Anna Akhmatova, ‘Requiem’, in The Poetry Anthology, The Open University (p.54). All subsequent references are to this edition.

2. Dennis Walder et al, Block 8 – Literature and History, The Open University (p.10).

3. Joseph Brodsky, ‘The Keening Muse’, Literature in the Modern World, The Open University (p.354). All subsequent references are to this edition.

4. Primo Levi, quoted by Dennis Walder, Block 8 – Literature and History, The Open University (p.10)

5. Joseph Brodsky (p.357).

6. J.G. Ballard, from the preface to Empire of the Sun, Flamingo (1994)
All subsequent references are to this edition.

7. Laurence Lerner, ‘History and Fiction’ from Literature in the Modern World, The Open University (p.337)

8. J.G. Ballard, taken from TV16, ‘The next five minutes : literature and history’, The Open University.

9. Primo Levi, quoted by Dennis Walder, Block 8 – Literature and History, The Open University (p.10)

10. Czeslaw Milosz, ‘On Hope’, Literature in the Modern World, The Open University (p.359.)

Bibliography

A319, Block 8 Literature and History.

A319, The Poetry Anthology.

TV16, ‘The Next Five Minutes: literature and history’.

Radio 16 ‘Poetry and History: Anna Akhmatova’.

Ballard J.G., Empire of the Sun, Flamingo (1994)

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Analysing fiction – a glossary

November 1, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a checklist of literary terms

Analysing fiction requires that you are able to name and describe the features of a story or a novel that you find interesting. This means having a clear understanding of language and grammar, plus the basic elements of narrative prose. The definitions below are just the beginning. This is where the complex process of analysing fiction starts.

Vocabulary
The author’s choice of individual words – which may be drawn from various registers such as colloquial, literary, technical, slang, journalism, and may vary from simple and direct to complex and sophisticated.

Grammar
The relationships of the words in sentences, which might include such items as the use of adjectives for description, of verbs to denote action, switching between tenses to move between present and past, or any use of unusual combinations of words or phrases to create special effects.

Syntax
The arrangement and logical coherence of words in a sentence. The possibilities for re-arrangement are often used for emphasis or dramatic effect.

Figures of speech
The rhetorical devices often used to give decorative and imaginative expression to literature. For example – simile, metaphor, puns, irony.

Literary devices
The devices commonly used in literature to give added depth to a work. For example, imagery, point of view, symbolism, allusions.

Tone
The author’s attitude to the subject as revealed in the style and the manner of the writing. This might be for instance serious, comic, or ironic.

Narrator
The person telling the story. This may be the author, assuming a full knowledge of characters and their feelings: this is an omniscient narrator. It might alternatively be a fictional character invented by the author. There may also be multiple narrators. You should always be prepared to make a clear distinction between Author, Narrator, and Character – even though in some texts these may be (or appear to be) the same.

Chris Baldick’s Dictionary of Literary Terms has entries which range from definitions of ‘the absurd’ to ‘zeugma’. It’s also a guide to grammatical terms, traditional drama, literary history, and textual criticism. It contains over 1000 of the most troublesome literary terms you are likely to encounter. Some of the longer entries and explanations become like short essays on their subject.

Buy the book from Amazon UK
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Narrative mode
This is usually either the first person singular (‘I am going to tell you a story about…’) or the third person singular (‘The duchess felt alarmed…’).

Narrative
The story which is being told: that is, the history of the events, characters, or whatever matters the narrator wishes to relate to the reader.

Characterisation
The means by which characters are depicted or created – commonly by accounts of their physical appearance, psychological characteristics, direct speech, and the opinions of the narrator or other characters about them.

Point of view
The literary strategy by which an author presents the events of a narrative from the perspective of a particular person – which may be the narrator or may be a fictional character. The point of view may be consistent, or it may switch between narrator and character(s). It should not be confused with the mere opinion of a character or the narrator.

Structure
The planned underlying framework or shape of a piece of work. The relationship between its parts in terms of arrangement or construction.

Theme
The underlying topic or issue, often of a general or abstract nature, as distinct from the overt subject with which the work deals. It should be possible to express theme in a single word or short phrase – such as ‘death’, ‘education’, or ‘coming of age’.

Genre
The literary category or type (for instance, short story, novella, or novel) to which the work belongs and with whose conventions it might be compared. We become aware of genre through cultural experience and know for instance that in detective stories murder mysteries are solved; in fairy stories beautiful girls marry the prince; and in some modern short stories not much happens.

Cultural context
The historical and cultural context and the circumstances in which the work was produced, which might have some bearing on its possible meanings. A text produced under conditions of strict censorship might conceal its meanings beneath symbolism or allegory.

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Analysis of a Shakespeare sonnet

October 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample answer to an examination question

This analysis of a shakespeare sonnet is an example of literary analysis at third year undergraduate level. It’s also an example of an answer to an essay question set for a final-year exam paper. It poses the fairly standard test of analysing one of the sonnets. This is one of three questions to be answered in three hours. So – allowing ten minutes for making notes and maybe an outline plan, this shows what can be done in fifty minutes!

Question
Write an essay on the following sonnet. Your answer should:

briefly summarize the argument of the sonnet
comment on the language Shakespeare employs and the way that language reflects the sonnet’s argument

You may wish to refer to other sonnets in your answer, but any references to other texts must be relevant to your broader argument.

Sonnet XXII
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me;
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary,
As I not for myself but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gav’st me thine, not to give back again.

Answer

In Sonnet 22, the speaker contemplates the difference in age between himself and his beloved, and asserts that he obtains youth through his relationship with the young man. In the second quatrain the speaker explains that the reason for this is the love between the himself and the young man which is portrayed as a mutual exchange of hearts, with the implication that the two have become one flesh. The speaker urges the young man to take care of himself and promises to be faithful to the young man. In the couplet, the motivating factor for the poem becomes clear, with the speaker acknowledging that he is afraid that his heart may be broken by the young man.

Although there are no personal pronouns which can confirm the sex of the addressee of the sonnet, the first 126 sonnets are assumed by critics to have been written to a young man. Sonnet 22 appears shortly after the early group of poems which urged the young man to have a child, and is one of the first sonnets to focus upon the speaker’s feelings.

The structure of the sonnet is 4-4-4-2, although there is a change of emphasis and tone after the 8th line which means that the sonnet has a distinguishable octave and sestet.

In the first quatrain, the speaker focuses upon youth and age and the disparity in age between himself and the young man. The opening line shows the speaker looking at himself in a mirror or ‘glass’ and is an echo of the opening line of sonnet 3 in which the young man was urged to look at himself in a mirror as a warning against growing old and remaining childless. The imagery of Q1 emphasises the disparity with ‘old’, ‘youth’, ‘date’, ‘death’ and the metaphor of ‘times furrows’ which effectively describes the wrinkles that the speaker has now and which the young man will have in the future’. The emphasis of this quatrain is on outward, physical appearance. The quatrain ends with the speaker looking forward to his own death which he hopes will be peaceful.

In the second quatrain, the emphasis changes and the poet uses an extended metaphor of the exchange of hearts to describe the mutual love between himself and the young man. The exchange of hearts was and still is a common motif of love poetry. However in this sonnet it is examined in a more literal way with the speaker suggesting that the two have actually exchanged hearts with the outward beauty of the young man being but ‘the seemly raiment of my heart’. Here the clothing imagery and the reference to the young man’s beauty link back to Q1 and the stress on external appearance.

Line 7, ‘which in thy breast doth live as thine in me’ is an allusion to the marriage service in which it is suggested that man and woman become one flesh. This, together with the opening lines which make the same suggestion, have convinced some critics that the relationship between the speaker and the young man is a consummated love affair. This however, is a contentious issue and one upon which critics remain divided.

The final line of Q2 links back to the opening line, with the speaker again referring to the age difference, this time asking the rhetorical question ‘How can I then be elder than thou art?’ again suggesting that the two have become one.

In the 3rd quatrain there is a change of tone, with the speaker making a direct exhortation to his beloved. ‘O therefore love, be of thyself so wary’. The heart imagery continues and the speaker uses similes of ‘nurse’ and ‘babe’ to describe himself and the young man’s heart. These similes have a two fold effect. Firstly, despite the speakers assertions to the contrary, they emphasis the difference in age between the speaker and the young man. However, they also change the imagery of the poems from those of old age such as ‘times furrows’ which was present in Q1, to ones of youth. In his way, the poem moves from age to youth. The structure of the sonnet therefore demonstrates the rejuvenation that the speaker is claiming to receive because of his relationship with the young man.

In the couplet, the motivation for the sonnet becomes clear. The poet is concerned that the young man will leave him and this will break his heart. He uses the word ‘slain’ which suggests murder and is in contrast to the peaceful death of old age that the speaker was wishing for in the first quatrain. The ‘heart’ is again the focus of the couplet, thus linking back to the 2nd and 3rd quatrains. Here however, there is the suggestion that the young man may want to take his heart back or leave the speaker. The poet warns him ‘presume not on thy heart when mine is slain’. The implication is that if the young man breaks the speaker’s heart, he will not get his own heart back – leaving him heartless – with the suggestion of cruelty.

In his sonnet, just as the imagery moves backwards from death to birth but with a final reference to death in the couplet, the quatrains take on new meanings in light of those that follow. Q1 is an assertion that the speaker is not old, Q2 explains the reasons for this assertion. Q3 is an exhortation to the speaker and the couplet explains the fear of being left broken hearted which is the underlying reason for the sonnet.

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Bleak House close reading

September 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

reading skills in the critical analysis of a text

What is close reading?

1. Close reading is the most important skill you need for any form of literary studies. It means paying especially close attention to what is printed on the page. It is a much more subtle and complex process than the term might suggest.

2. Close reading means not only reading and understanding the meanings of the individual printed words; it also involves making yourself sensitive to all the nuances and connotations of language as it is used by skilled writers.

3. This can mean anything from a work’s particular vocabulary, sentence construction, and imagery, to the themes that are being dealt with, the way in which the story is being told, and the view of the world that it offers. It involves almost everything from the smallest linguistic items to the largest issues of literary understanding and judgement.

4. Close reading can be seen as four separate levels of attention which we can bring to the text. Most normal people read without being aware of them, and employ all four simultaneously. The four levels or types of reading become progressively more complex.

Linguistic
You pay especially close attention to the surface linguistic elements of the text – that is, to aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. You might also note such things as figures of speech or any other features which contribute to the writer’s individual style.

Semantic
You take account at a deeper level of what the words mean – that is, what information they yield up, what meanings they denote and connote.

Structural
You note the possible relationships between words within the text – and this might include items from either the linguistic or semantic types of reading.

Cultural
You note the relationship of any elements of the text to things outside it. These might be other pieces of writing by the same author, or other writings of the same type by different writers. They might be items of social or cultural history, or even other academic disciplines which might seem relevant, such as philosophy or psychology.

5. Close reading is not a skill which can be developed to a sophisticated extent overnight. It requires a lot of practice in the various linguistic and literary disciplines involved – and it requires that you do a lot of reading. The good news is that most people already possess the skills required. They have acquired them automatically through being able to read – even though they havn’t been conscious of doing so. This is rather like many other things which we learn unconsciously. After all, you don’t need to know the names of your leg muscles in order to walk down the street.

6. The four types of reading also represent increasingly complex and sophisticated phases in our scrutiny of the text.

Linguistic reading is largely descriptive. We are noting what is in the text and naming its parts for possible use in the next stage of reading.

Semantic reading is cognitive. That is, we need to understand what the words are telling us – both at a surface and maybe at an implicit level.

Structural reading is analytic. We must assess, examine, sift, and judge a large number of items from within the text in their relationships to each other.

Cultural reading is interpretive. We offer judgements on the work in its general relationship to a large body of cultural material outside it.

7. The first and second of these stages are the sorts of activity designated as ‘Beginners’ level; the third takes us to ‘Intermediate’; and the fourth to ‘Advanced’ and beyond.

8. One of the first things you need to acquire for serious literary study is a knowledge of the vocabulary, the technical language, indeed the jargon in which literature is discussed. You need to acquaint yourself with the technical vocabulary of the discipline and then go on to study how its parts work.

9. What follows is a short list of features you might keep in mind whilst reading. They should give you ideas of what to look for. It is just a prompt to help you get under way.

Close reading – Checklist

Grammar
The relationships of the words in sentences
Examples

Vocabulary
The author’s choice of individual words
Examples

Figures of speech
The rhetorical devices used to give decoration and imaginative expression to literature, such as simile or metaphor
Examples

Literary devices
The devices commonly used in literature to give added depth to the work, such as imagery or symbolism
Examples

Tone
The author’s attitude to the subject as revealed in the manner of the writing
Examples

Style
The author’s particular choice and combination of all these features of writing which creates a recognisable and distinctive manner of writing.
Examples

10. Now here’s an example of close reading in action. The short passage which follows comes from the famous opening to Charles Dickens’ Bleak House.

London. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full grown snowflakes – gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun.

This is the sort of writing which many people, asked for their first impressions, would say was very ‘descriptive’. But if you looked at it closely enough you will have seen that it is imaginative rather than descriptive. It doesn’t ‘describe what is there’ – but it invents images and impressions. There is as much “it was as if …” material in the extract as there is anything descriptive. What follows is a close reading of the extract, with comments listed in the order that they appear in the extract.

London
This is an abrupt and astonishingly short ‘sentence’ with which to start a six hundred page novel. In fact technically, it is grammatically incomplete, because it does not have a verb or an object. It somehow implies the meaning ‘The scene is London.’

Sentence construction
In fact each of the first four sentences here are ‘incomplete’ in this sense. Dickens is taking liberties with conventional grammar – and obviously he is writing for a literate and fairly sophisticated readership.

Sentence length
These four sentences vary from one word to forty-three words in length. This helps to create entertaining variation and robust flexibility in his prose style.

Michaelmas Term
There are several names (proper nouns) in these sentences, all signalled by capital letters (London, Michaelmas Term, Lord Chancellor, Lincoln’s Inn Hall, November, Holborn Hill). This helps to create the very credible and realistic world Dickens presents in his fiction. We believe that this is the same London which we could visit today. The names also emphasise the very specific and concrete nature of the world he creates.

Michaelmas Term
This occurs in autumn. It comes from the language of the old universities (Oxford and Cambridge) which is shared by the legal profession and the Church.

Lord Chancellor sitting
Here ‘sitting’ is a present participle. The novel is being told in the present tense at this point, which is rather unusual. The effect is to give vividness and immediacy to the story. We are being persuaded that these events are taking place now.

Implacable
This is an unusual and very strong term to describe the weather. It means ‘that which cannot be appeased’. What it reflects is Dickens’s genius for making almost everything in his writing original, striking, and dramatic.

as if
This is the start of his extended simile comparing the muddy streets with the primeval world.

the waters
There is a slight Biblical echo here, which also fits neatly with the idea of an ancient world he is summoning up.

but newly and wonderful
These are slightly archaic expressions. We might normally expect ‘recently’ and ‘astonishing’ but Dickens is selecting his vocabulary to suit the subject – the prehistoric world. ‘Wonderful’ is being used in its original sense of – ‘something we wonder at’.

forty feet long or so
After the very specific ‘forty feet long’, the addition of ‘or so’ introduces a slightly conversational tone and a casual, almost comic effect.

waddling
This reinforces the humorous manner in which Dickens is presenting this Megalosaurus – and note the breadth of his vocabulary in naming the beast with such scientific precision.

like an elephantine lizard
This is another simile, announced by the word ‘like’. Here is Dickens’s skill with language yet again. He converts a ‘large’ noun (‘elephant’) into an adjective (‘elephantine’) and couples it to something which is usually small (‘lizard’) to describe, very appropriately it seems, his Megalosaurus.

up Holborn Hill
There is a distinct contrast, almost a shock here, in this abrupt transition from an imagined prehistoric world and its monsters to the ‘real’ world of Holborn in London.

lowering
This is another present participle, and an unusual verb. It means ‘to sink, descend, or slope downwards’. It comes from a rather ‘poetic’ verbal register, and it has a softness (there are no sharp or harsh sounds in it) which makes it very suitable for describing the movement of smoke.

soft black drizzle
He is comparing the dense smoke (from coal fires) with another form of particularly depressing atmosphere – a drizzle of rain. Notice how he goes on to elaborate the comparison.

as big as full grown snow flakes
The comparison becomes another simile: ‘as big as’. And then ‘full grown’ almost suggests that the snowflakes are human. This is a device much favoured by Dickens: it is called ‘anthropomorphism’ – attributing human qualities or characteristics to things which are themselves inanimate. Then ‘snowflakes’ is a well-observed comparison for an enlarged flake of soot, because they are of similar size and texture. Notice next how Dickens immediately goes on to play with the notion that whilst soot is black, snowflakes are white.

gone into mourning
This reinforces the anthropomorphism. The inanimate world is being brought to life. And of course ‘mourning’ reinforces the atmospheric gloom he is trying to evoke. It also introduces blackness (the colour of mourning) to explain how these snowflakes (actually flakes of soot) might have changed from white to black.

the death of the sun
This is why the flakes have changed colour. And if the sun has died the light and life it brings to earth have also been extinguished – which reinforces the atmosphere of pre-historic darkness he is creating.

We will stop at this point. It would in fact be possible to say even more about the extract if we were to relate it to the novel as a whole – but almost everything listed was accessible even if you were reading the passage for the first time.

Literary studies are not conducted in such detail all the time, but it is very important that you try to develop the skill of reading as closely as possible. It really is the foundation on which everything else is based.

The next point to make about such close reading is that it becomes easier if you get used to the idea of reading and re-reading. The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov (famous for Lolita) once observed that “Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only re-read it”.

What he meant by this apparently contradictory remark is that the first time we read a book we are busy absorbing information, and we cannot appreciate all the subtle connexions there may be between its parts – because we don’t yet have the complete picture before us. Only when we read it for a second time (or even better, a third or fourth) are we in a position to assemble and compare the nuances of meaning and the significance of its details in relation to each other.

Finally, let’s try to dispel a common misconception. Many people ask, when they first come into contact with close reading: “Doesn’t analysing a piece of work in such detail spoil your enjoyment of it?” The answer to this question is “No – on the contrary – it should enhance it.” The simple fact is that we get more out of a piece of writing if we can appreciate all the subtleties and the intricacies which exist within it. Nabokov also suggested that “In reading, one should notice and fondle the details”.

Studying Fiction is an introduction to the basic concepts and the language you will need for studying prose fiction. It explains the elements of literary analysis one at a time, then shows you how to apply them. The guidance starts off with simple issues of language, then progresses to more complex literary criticism.The volume contains stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Katherine Mansfield, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, and Charles Dickens. All of them are excellent tales in their own right. The guidance on this site was written by the same author.
Buy the book from Amazon UK
Buy the book from Amazon US

Bleak House (1852-53) is a powerful critique of the legal system. Characters waiting to gain their inheritance from a will which is the subject of a long-running court case are ruined when the delays and costs of the case swallow up the whole estate. At the same time, Ester Summerson, one of Dickens’ most saintly heroines, is surrounded by mystery regarding her parentage and pressure to marry a man she respects but does not love. Unraveling the mystery results in scandal and deaths. Many memorable characters, including ace sleuth Inspector Bucket; Horace Skimpole a criminally irresponsible house guest; and Krook – the ‘chancellor’ of the rag and bone department, who dies from spontaneous combustion – something which Dickens actually believed could happen.

Buy Bleak House at Amazon UK
Buy Bleak House at Amazon US

More on Charles Dickens
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Clear thinking

August 22, 2011 by Roy Johnson

analysis, logic, reasoning, and clear expression

What is clear thinking?

Clear thinking is the ability to express ideas in a simple and straightforward manner. It also involves the ability to analyse statements and follow logical arguments. Some people imagine it means being super-clever or having a high IQ. Others think it’s the ability to solve really difficult puzzles or unravel complex statements. But in fact it’s none of these things.

Clear thinking means that you have the ability to

express your own ideas simply
produce valid arguments
think in a logical manner
inspect and analyse ideas critically

Why is clear thinking important?

Clear thinking is a vital part of effective communication – in business, education, and all forms of intellectual life. It’s what’s called a ‘core skill’ which will enable you to think, speak, and write in an effective manner.

Clear thinking is required when you wish to –

persuade other people
develop powerful arguments
become more discerning and precise
reveal the flaws in someone else’s argument

What is required for clear thinking?

Clear thinking is a search for precision, clarity, and truthfulness. You can develop the skills required by breaking down what you say and write into small and simple units. Simplicity usually leads to greater clarity. You also need to analyse arguments and recognise their underlying logic.

Clear thinking requires –

mental effort and discipline
analysing, reasoning, and understanding
recognising logical arguments
patience and diligence

How to do it?

You need to pay very close attention to the small details of what you say, read, and write. The claims you make must be expressed in a clear and logical manner, and should be based on facts or evidence. The claims other people make should be inspected very closely and examined for their truthfulness, their logic, and their validity as arguments.

Clear thinking requires –

precision and clarity of language
using only valid forms of argument
avoiding over-simplifying and generalising
analysing everything in close detail

An example of clear thinking

What follows is an extract from a letter to a newspaper. It’s from a reader protesting about the reorganisation of secondary schools. And it is very typical of the sort of everyday argument you might hear in a pub or on a radio or TV discussion.

Read each paragraph carefully, and give some thought to every one of the separate statements made. Ask yourself – Is this really true? Is this a valid argument? And then compare your conclusions with the comments that follow.

Recently you said that our schools are failing, something that many parents have felt for years. Let this be the start of a campaign to restore educational standards in our schools.

We once had an educational system which was the envy of the world. Now our schools have been ‘kidnapped’ by theorists, reformers, and the political pirates of the far Left.

The first battle of this campaign is already being fought. Parents in Manchester are engaged in a fight against the Labour council’s plans to reorganise secondary schooling, involving the closure of ten of the best schools in the city. These are ones with excellent academic records and traditions which go back beyond the beginning of the last century.

schools are failing
Failing to do what, exactly? This is the sort of expression of complaint you will hear in any saloon bar conversation or read in a tabloid newspaper. Presumably the writer means a failure to educate children properly. But is there any hard evidence that schools in general are worse than they were in the past? After all, exam results seem to improve almost every year. And if you think about it for a moment, most people a hundred years ago were not educated at all, so the general level of education is likely to have risen rather than to have fallen.

restore educational standards
This is part of the same unsupported claim that the quality of education is falling. But it is just as difficult to obtain an ‘A’ level in maths today as it was twenty or fifty years ago – so that is one standard which has not fallen. And the total number of children achieving these qualifications is greater, not less than before – so that is another.

We once had an educational system which was the envy of the world
This is another claim made without any evidence to support it. It is a supposition, or a commonly held opinion which may or may not be true. After all, if it were true, why have so many countries created educational systems organised on lines completely different to ours? Moreover, the ‘system’ the writer refers to was one which only dealt with an extremely small proportion of children, all of whom came from the middle and upper classes.

theorists, reformers, and the political pirates of the far Left
This is what’s called very emotive language. The suggestion being made here is that people who theorise about something lack practical experience and only deal in opinion (though the writer is doing just the same thing). The term ‘reformers’ is being used to suggest making things worse. that politicians of the far Left are going to steal something (which is what pirates do).

traditions which go back beyond the beginning of the last century
The implication here is that anything which has lasted so long must be good and should be left unchanged. It’s true that the traditions may well exist, but that is not necessarily a reason for resisting educational reforms. Nor does it mean that they are necessarily good – just because they have lasted so long.

There are three general points to be made about this example, and which are closely bound up with the discipline of clear thinking.

One
Your first reaction might be that these are nit-picking objections to the arguments in the letter. After all, we don’t expect people who write to newspapers to be professional philosophers, do we? But this is an example of how we should challenge assumptions and arguments (even our own) if we are to develop the habit of clear thinking. The challenge of thinking clearly is to ask of everything Is this really true?. This might seem at first to be a negative attitude to take, and it will probably slow down the enquiry. But it is a necessary first step.

Two
Despite all the observations made above, it is still possible that the letter writer could be correct. It’s possible that the quality of educational provision in the Manchester area is falling. The problem is that the arguments used in the latter are badly flawed and not persuasive. This feature of clear thinking comes under the heading of valid and invalid arguments.

Three
You might notice that the weakness of these arguments are closely connected to a sloppy and imprecise use of language. Terms such as failing, standards, and traditions are too casual, vague, and ambiguous in this context. It’s for this reason that if we wish to develop the skills of clear thinking, we must pay close attention to the way we use words.

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Common essay problems

September 28, 2009 by Roy Johnson

… and how to overcome them

Essay problems – Relevance

1. Straying off the subject in question is one of the most common essay problem. There are several simple solutions.

2. Always write out the question accurately and in full on both your notes and your essay script.

3. Plan your essays carefully, consult the wording, and relate each part of your argument to the topic(s) in question.

4. At each stage of the argument, you should keep asking yourself ‘Is this relevant?’, ‘Am I answering the question?’, ‘Does this relate directly to the subject I have been asked to discuss?’

5. Each paragraph should contain just one idea or topic which is announced in its first sentence. This idea or topic should be directly related to the question or the subject you have been asked to discuss.

6. If you introduce a separate issue in order to illustrate some part of your argument, make sure that you return to the original subject as soon as possible. Part of your discussion should explain why and how this secondary issue is relevant.

Essay problems – Signposting

1. Unless you have been asked to do so, there is no need to signpost your argument.

2. That is, you do not need to use expressions such as:

‘Later in this essay I will be discussing…’

‘Let us now go on to consider…’

‘As I demonstrated earlier…’

‘We will now turn to evaluate another example…’

3. Just state clearly the point of your arguments and leave them to speak for themselves.

4. In a well-planned essay, this progression should be self-evident from the arrangement of your work.

5. A sound essay plan and a coherent structure will reveal the logic of your argument and the relationship of its parts.

6. Each new topic should be clearly identified or defined as soon as you begin dealing with it. This statement will provide all the indication needed of your intentions.

7. If you wish to some light indication of structure, it is perfectly acceptable to use formulations such as

‘The first reason … The second…’

‘On one hand … on the other…’

‘However, the main argument against this is…’

8. The conventions on signposting may vary slightly from one subject to another. In some of the sciences it is necessary to announce in advance what you will be writing about.

Essay problems – Commenting on the process

1. Your essay represents the results of your efforts. There is no need to comment on the manner in which you have worked.

2. Your tutor doesn’t need to know in what order you assembled your evidence, or what difficulties you encountered during its composition.

3. You might wish to argue that the question raises a certain number of difficulties or crucial issues. This is acceptable – so long as you say what they are.

4. You should then go on to discuss their relevance to the subject in question, and maybe even suggest some answers to them.

Essay problems – Posing questions

1. Do not present your argument in the form of questions.

2. Remember – you are supposed to be answering a question.

3. Avoid formulations such as:

Was she so overwhelmed at the thought of a ‘new brave’ husband that she shot him? In considering his cowardice, had Macomber removed his weapon – his weakness?

4. A common rule on this issue is as follows: “Never raise a question in an essay – unless you are going to answer it.”

Essay problems – Your own argument

1. Do not use quotation from the text as a substitute for your own argument.

2. That is, don’t present your answer to the question as a mixture of your own remarks, woven together with quotations.

3. Here is an example:

The poem describes a journey ‘from rich industrial shadows’ through crowded urban environments to a place of ‘loneliness’ where ‘silence stands/like heat’.

Essay problems – Referencing

1. Quotations from a text should be followed by page references – as in the following example:

These literary devices include simile, such as the description of the lion as ‘like some super-rhino’ (p.94) and the…

2. You should not include the reference as part of your text, as in the following example:

These literary devices include simile, such as the description of the lion on page ninety-four when it is described as ‘like some super-rhino’ and the other instance on page fifty-six when it is…

Essay problems – Creating structure

1. Essays should have a clear structure. This should be created in a firm essay plan.

2. Good structure is a persuasive or logical sequence of the parts in an essay.

3. The order of parts is often determined by the nature of the subject. This order might be created by:

logical progression
increasing significance
equal significance
chronological order
narrative sequence
category groupings

4. You can generate the parts of your essay by deciding which topics you will cover in your answer.

5. Each of these topics should be discussed separately – usually in at least one paragraph on its own.

6. If there is no natural order for your topics, you could deal with the smaller, less important items first. This leaves the larger, more important issues until the end of the essay.

See – How to structure an essay.

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Desktop publishing terms – a glossary

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

the language of word-processing and DTP

Desktop publishing terms

Attributes
Attributes are the stylistic properties of an object. Attributes of text include size, case, boldness. Attributes of graphics include line thickness, fill colour and line colour. A set of attributes applied to an object is called a style.

Backup
A duplicate of electronic files (programs. data or operating systems). It is available in place of the original in case of corruption/loss/availability problems. A wise person creates backups frequently.

Base line
The imaginary line that characters rest on in a line of text (see also line spacing).

Bit Map Image
A dot matrix image where each dot is represented by one bit in the digital memory. Complex images are built up using these dots. Resolution of about 300 dots per inch may require approximately I Mbyte for a complete A4 page.

Body text
The main text in a document, in distinction from headlines and captions.

Bold
In printing, a heavier version of a particular typeface. An enhancement of the text.

Bubble jet printer
Generically applied brand name for an Ink Jet Printer.

Bullet
In printing, a graphic symbol usually in the form of a large dot marking the commencement of a new paragraph. Used to attract the reader’s attention.

Byte
A byte is 8 bits. The storage capacity of computers (ROM and RAM) and disks is generally given in kilobytes, (1024 bytes), megabytes or gigabytes. Approximately one byte is required to store one character.

Caption
Text placed under an illustration to describe it.

CD-ROM
A way of distributing programs and data on a disk very like an audio CD which allows large amounts of storage and is very portable. ROM indicates data can be copied from the CD but that the contents cannot be changed or deleted. In DTP this media is particularly useful for Font and Clip-Art libraries.

Central Processing Unit [CPU]
This term is used variously to describe the base unit of the computer system or the main chip within it.

Character
A symbol used in a writing system. In most western languages the letters A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9 and punctuation characters such as : ; , ? etc.

Clip-Art
Pictures of general use which are provided in a library for easy inclusion in publications. Clip art libraries are usually provided without copyright restrictions.

Clipboard
A temporary storage area in computer memory to which objects are cut or copied and from which they can be posted directly into a position into a page or a DTP work area. The clipboard holds one object at a time.

Copy
(1) To reproduce an object by placing it into the clipboard then pasting it elsewhere in the same publication or into a document belonging to another program.
(2) To reproduce a file by renaming it or placing it on another drive or directory. Often done as a form of data security. [See Backup.]

Copyright
The exclusive rights to, and control of, the reproduction, sales, copying or distribution of creative works of art. music, literature or coded programs for computing.

Corruption
The inadvertent destruction of electronic data which causes data received or read to differ from that transmitted or originally recorded.

Crop
To cut the edges of an illustration to fit in a given space or to show a particular detail.

Cut
In electronic text or graphic production, the transfer of objects from one file to a temporary storage area in memory called the clipboard from where they can be pasted into a different page, file or into the DTP work area.

Default
An option that is used automatically unless an alternative is specified. For example a default font of Times New Roman 12 is very common.

Directory (or Folder)
A software division of a disk, usually used to keep similar files together, rather in the manner of a drawer in a filing cabinet. A disk may contain many directories. A directory often contains several other directories called sub-directories.

Digital camera
A camera which stores images as digital information rather than on photographic film. This allows images to be easily displayed and edited on computer.

Disk
In computing, a thin disk coated with magnet material, on which information can be recorded. Sometimes spelled disc.

Dot matrix
Usually applied to printer and screen output devices which make up character/images from a matrix of dots. Quality depends on dot density and size. (See also resolution). Historically a type of printer that used inky ribbons and mechanical contact.

Draft
(1) A rough layout of a page, document or publication.
(2) Used to describe print quality – particularly with respect to dot matrix printers, where draft quality is synonymous with poor quality but high speed output.

EPS
Encapsulated postscript, a very versatile file format used for sending files to commercial printers, and thus avoiding the cost of typesetting. [See postscript.]

File
An organised and structured collection of information. In computing it is the basic unit of stored or accessible user data held in auxiliary storage. Programs as well as data are held in file format.

File names
The names used by the Operating system to identify files. Two files cannot have the same name and occupy the same storage location on a disk.

File type (or extension)
The part of the filename which indicates which program created it, and therefore which system it is written in. This is essential information in DTP which is very concerned with file transfer. Typical file types are DOC (for a word processor document) and BMP (for Bitmap image). Some Operating Systems do not always display file types, but will have the facility to do so.

Floppy disk
A thin portable plastic disk usually 3.5″ in diameter on which electronic files can be recorded. Typically holds over I Megabyte of data.

Folder
See Directory.

Font
A complete collection of letters, punctuation marks, numbers, and special characters with a consistent and identical typeface, weight (Roman or bold), posture (upright or italic) and font size.

Technically, font still refers to one complete set of characters in a given typeface, weight, and size, such as Helvetica italic 12 – but the terms has come to be used interchangably for refering to typefaces or font families.

Footer
Information that appears at the bottom of every page (within the normal bottom margin) of a document – for instance, page number. (See also Header)

Format
(1) The system used for storing a file on disk. Different programs use different methods of recording identical information.
(2) The layout and arrangement of tracks and sectors on a disk.
(3) Sometimes also applied to the layout or arrangement of graphics and/or text on a page or screen.

Gigabyte
About a thousand megabytes.

Global
Relating to anything in computing that extends over the whole system. For example, a ‘global search and replace’ means that any occurrence of a specified word will be found, and replaced by another specified word.

Graphic
In computing, the presentation of information which is not in character form. Picture information as distinct from textual. Some characters may be constructed in graphic form, these are considered to be graphics.

Greeking
The use of dummy text that looks like Greek script and is used to give an impression of the appearance of the finished document. This is used to make it easy to judge the overall appearance of a document without being distracted by the meaning of the text.

Guide (in DTP)
A non-printing line used to aid the positioning of text or graphics.

Gutter
The space between columns of text on a page.

Hard disk
An auxiliary storage device able to store very large quantities of data that is usually mounted inside the System unit. Typically holds greater than I Gigabyte of data.

Header
Information that appears at the top of every page (within the normal top margin) of a document – for instance, the title of a report, or page number. (See also Footer)

Import
Bring an object (graphic or text) into a DTP page.

Indent
The position of text in from the margin.

Ink jet printer
A non-impact printer which prints by spraying a finely controlled jet of ink from a nozzle onto paper. The electrically charged ink droplets are moved by electrical fields to form the characters in dot matrix form.

Input device
A unit of hardware from which the computer reads data.

Inter-line spacing
Space between lines in a paragraph. (See also leading.)

Internet
A system of connecting computers together via telephone lines managed by network management computers. Enables transmission of data around the globe, and is a rich source of graphic material.

Intranet
A communicating system of computers that is theoretically confined to one place – in an organisation, or even a single office.

Italic
A typeface variation in which letters slope forward.

Justification
To format text so that lines are of equal length producing vertical columns of space at the left and right margins. Spaces between words are enlarged so that text characters always touch both left and right margins.

Kerning
The space between characters. Now used to define proportional spacing between characters which is dependent upon the character width.

Landscape
Describes the paper orientation – in this case the width is greater than the height and so often referred to as wide. (See Portrait.)

Laser printer
A non-impact printer which uses a laser beam and toner applied to paper to produce fast, quiet, high density (typically 75 to 1600 dpi or greater) dot matrix images.

Leading
The distance in points between lines of text – pronounced as in ‘ledd-ing’ (see also Inter-line spacing.)

Line spacing
(See Inter-line spacing.)

Logo
A visual image used as a company trade mark or instead of the company name.

Lowercase
The set of 26 characters ‘a’ to ‘z’. Not capital (uppercase) characters.

Master page
A page which contains objects (such as headers, page numbers or borders) which will be reproduced on every other page of a document.

Megabyte
About a thousand kilobytes (actually, 1,048,576 bytes)

Network
Computers connected together for the purpose of sharing resources and communication.

Non proportional spacing
Fonts in which letter spacing which does not vary for different width of character. Rarely used except in tables and text processing assessments where it gives the appearance of work produced on a manual typewriter.

Object
A graphic or piece of text treated as a single item. Word processing treats text as a set of characters. DTP usually treats text as an object.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
Software which converts pictures of, printed text (acquired by a scanner) into an text file for further editing or formatting.

Operating system (OS)
Programs which run the computer, and without which the computer would not work. The OS allows the programs we use to run. The various Windows, Mac System7 and its successors and the various OS2 products may all be considered operating systems.

Orphan
The first line of a paragraph appearing by itself at the bottom of a page as the last line of the page.

Output device
A device to which the computer writes data. Often converts the data into a human readable form. A printer is an output device.

Pagination
The process of defining where page breaks will occur. Involves setting page length, size or number of lines and, where required, the setting of page numbering.

Paragraph
A piece of text terminated by a hard return. Thus a title or a heading can be a paragraph.

Paste
A command which transfers an object from the clipboard into the DTP work area.

Pitch
The measure of horizontal character spacing. Now very rarely used outside of typing classes the word is a contraction of ‘per inch’ and assumes every character, be it a W or an 1. is of the same width.

Pixel
The smallest addressable point on a VDU. One pixel is one of the dots forming the dot matrix on the screen of a VDU. The commonest monitors use a 640 by 480 pixel grid.

Plotter
A mechanical device which produces printout using vector or co-ordinate graphics often by using a pen moved about on rails.

Point size
A measurement of the size of type; one point is equal to one-seventy-second of an inch. On systems that use millimetres 3 points to one rnillimetre is a useful approximation.

Portrait
A piece of paper, an image or page which is turned so that the height is greater than the width. Often simply called tall.

Postscript
A print description language used as a way of communicating with printers that is not dependent on program, operating system or model of computer. Desk Top Publishing can produce EPS (encapsulated postscript) files on disks which can then be sent to high volume print companies, thereby saving the expense of typesetting and allowing the small system user access to professional quality publication.

Property
The stylistic features of an object. (See also Attribute.)

Proof reading
Checking text in detail for errors.

Proportional spacing
Characters are allocated horizontal spacing in proportion to their size, thus an ‘m’ would have more space than an ‘i’. Most fonts are of this type. (See also non-proportional spacing.)

Publication
The product of a DTP program. That is, a completed work for sale or distribution. Also applied to a work in progress.

Overzoom
A zoom setting of greater than 100%. Used for accurate placement of objects and working with small details.

RAM (Random Access Memory.)
The part of a computer’s memory in which information is stored. RAM is volatile; its contents are lost when power is removed.

Resolution
The amount of detail visible in any display or copy. Most computer system output devices produce images from a matrix of small dots. Resolution then depends on the size and number of dots per unit length or area.

ROM (Read Only Memory)
Memory which can be read repeatedly, but cannot be changed. ROM is non-volatile, its contents are retained when power is switched off. (See CD-ROM)

Rulers
Guides on screen display to enable accurate measurements.

Sans serif
Characters which do not have serifs. (Sans is French for ‘without’).

Scale
The ratio between something real and the represented image of it. For example a scale of 1:4 represents something a quarter of its original size.

Scanner
A device which reads (in dot matrix form) a document and can reproduce it as a bit map on an electronic file. Scanners may be handheld, suitable for scanning small amounts of text or small graphics, or Flatbed, which usually take a single sheet of A4 paper. Monochrome and colour versions are available. Colour is more expensive. (See OCR)

Search and replace
A facility whereby a specified sequence of characters can be located and replaced by another sequence.

Serif
The short cross lines at the end of characters. These are intended to make letters more easily recognized and text easier to read.

Spellchecker
A facility that reads text and compares it with a word bank, querying any words it does not recognize. Very useful for the detection of typing errors.

Storage device
A device from which the computer reads data, and to which the computer writes data. Therefore an input/output device. Most often a disk drive, either local or on a network.

Stylesheet
A list of standard type styles which can be applied to paragraphs in a publication. This feature of DTP allows consistent layout and presentation.

System unit
The main unit of a computer system into which peripherals are connected. Sometimes called the CPU.

Text editor A simple word processor with limited facilities.

Text wrap
A feature whereby text flows round a graphic object. Wrap can be set off, so text flows over the object, square, so that it forms a rectangular frame, or set to follow the contours of the object.

Typeface
(See Font)

Typestyle
A defined and named set of attributes which can be applied to text objects.

Uppercase
The set of 26 characters ‘A’ to ‘Z’. THIS IS UPPERCASE (not lowercase).

VDU (Visual Display Unit)
Also called monitor or screen. An output device on which text or graphics is displayed in dot matrix form.

Zoom
The feature of a system which varies the size of the screen display of a publication. These setting between 400% (4 times actual size) and 10% (a tenth of actual size)

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Editing on screen and paper

November 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

an email discussion amongst professional writers

This discussion first took place on the WRICOM (Writing and Computers) mailing list, which is hosted by Mailbase (UK). Note that these are personal opinions, exchanged in the casual manner of email messaging. The language and style are deliberately informal. There is no guarantee that the email addresses of individual contributors will be up to date.

From: Roy Johnson <Roy@mantex.co.uk>

If you write using a word-processor, you may have noticed something rather odd. You can create a perfect document, check the spelling, and even check the grammar – but when you come to print out the document you notice things which you missed on screen.

These might be mistakes, or they might just be points of style or emphasis you want to change. If it’s a long document, you’ll feel like kicking yourself and you might feel guilty about all the paper you’re wasting.

For many writers, editing work on screen and on paper appear to be two different things. Why is this?

Maybe writers are reluctant to edit their work when it is in the ultimate form it will assume prior to being published. But perhaps not when it is still in its penultimate form?

That is, if my electronic text, on disk, is destined to become a printed book, I am reluctant to change the contents of the disk on which I have worked for hours and hours.

However, when I print out the pages, they seem to me a penultimate version which can still be chopped around with impunity.

This seems puzzling. Does anybody have the same experience, or observations on what’s happening?

================================

From: Jane Dorner <Jane@editor.net>

my theory is that you edit and edit on screen and the printout (long works) *becomes* the penultimate version that gets the final tweaks because it looks different.

I’m just editing a 200-page document and am extremely unwilling to print it out more than once for final tweaks. Its also far easier to edit for consistency using search & replace with the full document in memory.

======================================

From: Janet Atkinson-Grosjean <janag@whidbey.whidbey.com>

a laser printed page looks so *finished-product-ish*, I was trying to make the writing perfect, before it ever hit the page. Not surprisingly, my writing became constipated, for lack of a better word. I was on-screen editing instead of writing/drafting, because, in my mind, I wasn’t allowed to edit laser-printed copy because it was *finished.*

After driving myself nuts for a while, I decided to print all drafts in the yukkiest-looking Courier typeface I could find. This works. It tricks me enough. Only the ultimate, finished product uses a different font.

==================================

From: Austin Meredith <rchow@benfranklin.hnet.uci.edu>

the WYSIWIG technology is not adequately advanced at this point. Even in the very best of the current technology … the display of the material on the screen and the printing of the material across the printer does not result in precisely the same level of clarity.

my reluctance to edit heavily on phototypesetter page proofs can entirely be accounted for by the hard and unpleasant fact that the publisher is going to charge me money for each change I make which is not the publisher’s fault, and deduct that amount unilaterally from my royalty checks later!

I am editing on the screen _and_ on paper. Despite the excellence of my equipment, my print display is still superior to my screen display. But there are types of editing which are better done on screen. Spell-checking is an obvious instance of this, but there are other types of editing which are better done on screen.

==============================

From: Rich Berman <rich@interport.net>

I see things like puncutation and misspellings more easily in hard copy, but also sentence structure. Things like too many short sentences together, or too many compounds etc. I also find them easier to correct in hard copy, with pen and paper.

Is it possible that this is because with hard copy you can compare new with old. When you make a correction on the screen, you see only the new. When on hard copy on the other hand, both are there, the original typed, and the new in pen and ink, (and somewhat in the imagination.)

certain media allow us to see some things more clearly than others, although I have read advice to writers that suggested that saving all the material that we cut helps us experience it as not lost, and therefor feel no sense of loss. That might support your idea, Roy.

==============================

From: <Robert_P_KOLKER@umail.umd.edu>

Ive had similar experiences as Roy Johnson of written text on and off the page. Ive done a number of books which Ive edited entirely on screen, and which looked just fine when they got to print. However, in the instances when I do print out a text to edit, I see things–nuances of word patterns, mostly–that I miss on the screen. Whats happening I think, is a holdover from pre-computer days (yes, I’m a middle-aged early adopter, or is it adapter?). I still find the printed word of a different texture than the word on CRT. I find this neither good nor bad. While I cannot read large amounts of text on the screen, I can write them. And edit them. A different kind of fine tuning comes when I hold the words in my hand.

==================

From: Eric Johnson <johnsone@dsuvax.dsu.edu>

I write and edit on a computer screen, but when I think the document is in final form and print it, I want to make more revisions. The reason may simply be that it is much easier to see more of the document at one time when it is printed on paper.

Now, as graphic word processors attempt to present on the screen what will be printed (WYSIWYG), we may end up doing more — not less — editing on paper since a monitor that displays WYSIWYG type in reasonable size often cannot display a whole line at one time.

Regardless of whether WYSIWYG word processing will result in more editing on paper, it may be a step backward for careful writers: good writers want to focus on the words, the language, but WYSIWYG forces writers to pay more attention to the appearance of the letters and lines (not to mention the temptation the tool bars offer of fooling around with fonts, etc.)

========================

From: “R. Allan Reese” <R.A.Reese@gri.hull.ac.uk>

I agree with other contributors that, despite twenty years of writing on screens (yes, honest, I was using a single-user mini-computer in the mid 70s and previously used a mainframe editor), I still have to at some stage revise on a print-out. I suggest that having a small window on the screen tends to make one focus on micro-revision – getting the words right in each sentence. I can also read through and consider the linear logic on screen. However, with the print out I will look backwards and forwards, review the overall structure, and the “feel”. Since the “reader” will usually be given a paper copy, I need to see the same.

What I would say is that the number of printed-out drafts is considerably reduced, and the marks made on the paper copy are either minor points of appearance or notes to prompt major revisions. I do almost all my “writing” on a screen – as I’m doing at this instant.

===========================

From: Christopher G. Fox <cfox@unix.cc.emory.edu>

I don’t think we should neglect the brute, ergonomic factors here as well. My eyes may be somewhat over-sensitive to this kind of problem, but I simply cannot stare at the screen with the kind of intensity I need for visually editing a document. All of the possible combinations of backlighting, glare reduction, etc. don’t change the fact that its still a VDT I’m looking at. As LCD displays become more prevalent and more sophisticated, a fully on-screen writing process will most likely become more prevalent, but I don’t think the current state of interface technology (video display, keyboard, mouse) is quite up to the task. Although I do compose and do preliminary editing on screen I inevitably need to print out in order to make typos visible and and to notice more large scale grammatical and rhetorical mistakes/changes.

=================================

From: Mike Sharples <mike@cogs.susx.ac.uk>

For me, whether or not I edit on screen or on paper is not just a matter of choice – I seem to catch different errors and problems in the two media. On paper, not surprisingly, I get a better overview of a large document – its structure and narrative flow. I also seem to be able to spot niggly errors, such as repeated words, better on paper. On screen I can often read text more rapidly (by scrolling it past me) to scan for gist. &&

=================================

From: Barbara Diederichs <bdiederi@artsci.wustl.edu>

Electronic word processing tools and of course hypertext facilitate a way of writing that is not very concerned with linear structures. When I write a paper using the computer, I start with a handwritten outline and within that framework put down mythoughts and research results as more or less independent pieces and with little regard to logical order. I superimpose that in the printout, which in a way allows to combine the particularities of both media.

I am wondering, though, if the necessity to eventually cast (almost everything we want to say in the traditional paper form, cuts us off from a form of creativity that might become accessible in the electronic medium. The fragmented and associative way of not only expressing oneself, but thinking, that the electronic medium allows for, might open new directions for scholarship.

An example might be the idea of an ‘ultimate’ or ‘penultimate’ version that Roy Johnson mentions in the above quote: the openness of electronic systems that Landow (‘Hypertext. The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology’ 1992) claims as ‘a revolution in human thought’, abandons the very concept of final versions. What would that allow for in scholarship? Maybe bold hypotheses that would provoke dialogue, tests, verification or dismissal rather than having to be ‘right’. Coming straight to the point, rather than justifying the path from one point to another. Giving details that would be uneconomical in the printed medium but might help us develop the collective intelligence of the ‘giant compound’ that David Megginson mentions. Etc.

Has any of you written research in hypertext format? Would you accept a dissertation written in hypertext?

===============================

From: Jerome J. Mc Gann <jjm2f@lizzie.engl.virginia.edu>

1. ANY scholarly-critical edition is ‘research in hypertext format’. and here one wants to remind everyone that ‘research’ etc., and litcrit, is hardly confined to the setpiece essay — indeed, that form is one of the most constricting and restrictive we have evolved. not to make advertisements for myself, i would still suggest that the implicit and often explicit subject of both _The Textual Condition_ and _Black Riders. The Visible Language of Modernism_ is ‘hypertext’ (see in the latter the ‘Dialogue on Dialogue’ in particular).

2. look at the back issues of postmodern culture, especially the last couple (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/contents.all.html).

3. look at the ‘general publications’ of UVAs institute for advanced technology in the humanities

(http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/generalpubs.html).

4. finally, look at various online homepages for courses. aren’t courses ‘research projects’ (in my experience, courses are scenes where _everyone_ learns; ‘teaching’ is a topdown model of learning ive never been able to find very attractive. or much help.

=================================

From: ‘J. A. Holmes’ <starfyr@access.digex.net>

I find I still do a lot of editing on paper (for text or code) because watching the screen is not easy on my eyes. Initial creation I do lots of moving stuff around, but when I think Im getting close to done the need/desire to linger over each piece (keep/throw away/modify) while deciding its fate just has me staring too intently at the screen. Also Ive not ever used a editor with markup capability. I can make the changes or just move along. When doing an edit, particularly the final, (or hopefully final) version, I just want to mark problem spots/changes. If I actually stop to make the changes I lose the thread, and cant properly deal with how the local changes affect the document as a whole.

In a similar vein, the trend towards online documentation for programmers is beginning to be a problem to me, I just cant read 400+ pages onscreen.

===============================

From: Patrick TJ McPhee <ptjm@io.org>

For what they’re worth, here are a few thoughts.

1. its (measurably) easier to read text printed at even low (300dpi) resolutions than current screen resolutions

2. a paper version of a document displays more of the document at a time than an on-line version, even if you have a big monitor

3. you think differently with a pen in your hand.

These aside, I agree with you that its easier to make a change to a copy of a document than it is to the master. When you go back to change the original, you can rethink the changes you write on the paper, which effectively gives you two revisions for the effort of one. Its nice to keep an RCS copy of the document, so you can always go back to an earlier version if you change your mind.

=====================================

From: ‘J. Hartley’ <psa04@cc.keele.ac.uk>

1. Familiarity with the genre is important as well as length. Well practiced skills will require less editing. I write long letters, but rarely edit them – so who the text is for is important too.

2. The method one is using plays a part. I dont edit much on e-mail, as readers will discover if they read on, no doubt.

3. I used to write by hand and my secretary word-processed the script. I then copiously edited her paper versions. I now do all (well nearly all) my writing by machine. I now do a lot more editing on screen before making a print out – which I then edit by hand. For much the same reasons as other have expressed.

However, if I am starting an article I sometimes like to rough it out, and then print it out to see how it is shaping up. I then try and do as much as I can on screen, and then print out. But I always regard the print out as a cue to further editing by hand. Until I force myself to stop.

4. I wonder if people who write differently, edit differently? Do the planners, who think first and then write, with little corrections, do less editing than the thinkers who edit as they go along. Obviously they do, but I wonder how they balance screen and paper editing in each case?

5. The editing one does may vary if one is _co-authoring_. Here, how much use of screen and paper editing may depend on whether one is the main, equal or subordinate author? Currently with my research assistant, I often print out a paper version for him to read. I do not give him my disc. When he writes something for me to check, he hands me his disc as well. So I edit his text on screen, and he edits mine on paper! If I were co-authoring with another colleague in a different department I suspect we would both use screens.

6. I find screen editing good for re-jigging old articles for a fresh audience. One can scissors and paste away. But I then like to see the result on paper, and I then edit it with the fresh perspective of the new audience in mind.

7. I always find it helpful to leave something, and then come back to it to edit it. I find this with both paper and screen – but am inclined to make bigger changes when dealing with paper versions.

====================================

From: AM DUDLEY-EVANS <DUDLEYAM@novell1.bham.ac.uk>

But it has always seemed to me that there are two kinds of writer, the one who composes by getting down the ideas as quickly as possible without worrying too much about accuracy, coherence etc. This is followed by the crafting stage, in which it is all tidied up, made coherent etc. The second kind of writer seems to enjoy crafting as s/he writes and does the polishing along with the composing. I suspect that the former type of writer is more common, but I know of at least one of my colleagues who fits into the second category.

But I wonder how the second kind of writer writes with the word-processor. Does s/he craft on the screen?

==============================

From: Judy Madnick <judy.madnick@accessnt.com>

I currently edit court transcripts on-screen. I also have edited manuscripts on-screen. I must admit that its very easy to miss things, probably because our reading methods on-screen are not the same as those off-screen. Ive learned to force myself to slow down (which seems to be the big issue) and almost say the words to myself. (Remember how our teachers told us not to move our lips? Well, they wouldnt want to be watching me proof on-screen!)

So . . . yes, for many people seeing their work on paper seems to result in additional editing; however, I do believe that with careful analysis of the methods being used on-screen, editing CAN be done successfully either way.

=============================

From: Ellen Kessler <etk@panix.com>

Ive been a writer/editor for almost 30 years, and I have noticed a few curious and inexplicable things:

1. The way a piece looks affects the way it is read. I often think that Ive finished editing something in manuscript, for instance, only to see the typeset galleys and shudder. Ive never understood this phenomenon, but now that I think about it, I believe that when I read something back, I read it as a reader not the author, and react to it as new material, which, of course, I must improve. I also think it has something to do with the way the brain processes visual information.

I can work for a long time on my computer, but when I have various versions and want to compare them, I often print them out. I save discarded text at the bottom of the file, in case I want to use it later. Eventually, I always print the stuff out and read it away from my computer. I think a bit of distance, in the forms of time and space, are helpful. I believe everything I write can be better edited the day after I write it.

===============================

From Clare Macdonald <mead@nada.kth.se>

For me, a lot of the pleasure of revising on a printed copy comes from the fact that the text stays put. This creates an additional context(location on the page) that I can use to mentally navigate.

When working with a long document, remembering where on the page (and on which page) a particular passage is can help me locate it quickly. I could probably find it even faster by searching for the phrase with my word processor, but then I’d lose something of my mental image of the structure of the document – or at least my working memory would start to feel seriously overloaded. I’d probably get several matches for my search and have to spend some mental resources considering each and rejecting the ones I don’t want. With a printout, I don’t have to bother with instances that occur early in the text if I know that what I’m interested in is part of the Conclusion – just scan the last few pages.

Of course, each time I print the revised document the location of the text changes, so perhaps this is part of the reason I’ll notice different problems in different versions – the location-context supports slightly different comparisons.

========================

From Carol Buchanan <buchanan@sprynet.com>

I work as a technical writer, in the area of cabin electronics and computer systems, for the Boeing Company. (I also have a PhD in English.) Although my writing skills are excellent, I cannot edit my own work. I see what I expect to see. I find I cannot do without the help of an editor who scrutinizes the manuals for everything from grammar, punctuation, and spelling to format and logic. She edits online, and I make corrections online, but for really knowing what the document’s pages look like and for catching more errors, she prints every draft and subjects it to another scrutiny. Then, after we think we’ve got it right, we pass it to a proofreader who reads it closely on paper and catches still more errors.

The same thing occurs with the books I’ve written. I write the book online, print it, read it, fix the problems I see, and print the final copy which I send, along with the diskette, to the publisher. The editor there edits the typescript, then returns it for correction. I make the corrections, and back it goes. The editor sends the book to a copyeditor, who has other questions and sees other problems, which I respond to and return the typescript and diskette. Then the typesetter sets the book in final pages, which I read through for the last time while the proofreader reads the paper copy. Invariably, I find more mistakes. This time I do not make corrections in the files, but on the paper.

I offer this lengthy description of what happens in corporate technical editing and in commercial publishing in support of two points:

For some reason, we do not see quite the same online and on paper.It would take an expert in perception to explain it. I can’t.
To do a professional job of bringing writing to publication, several people have to collaborate in a team, each with his or her own skills. Even after that, mistakes will still occur.

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English language terms – a glossary

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

terms used in the study of English language

This glossary of English Language terms contains the vocabulary and the jargon you will need in any analysis of language and its use. These terms are needed in a number of different subjects: language and linguistics, communication skills, the analysis of prose and poetry, and even certain aspects of philosophy. Click on the links for further explanations and examples.

Abbreviations
letter(s) or shortened word used instead of a full word or phrase

Accent
the features of pronunciation which indicate the regional or the social identity of a speaker

Acquisition
the process by which language skills are developed – particularly in infancy

Adjectives
a word which modifies a noun or a pronoun

Adverbs
a word which modifies a verb, an adverb, or an adjective

Agreement
the grammatical logic and coherence between parts of a sentence

Alliteration
the repetition of consonant sounds – usually at the beginning of words

Apostrophes
a raised comma used to denote either possession or contraction

Articles
a word that specifies whether a noun is definite or indefinite

Assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds

Audience
the person or persons receiving a speech or piece of writing

Brackets
Curved or square punctuation marks enclosing words inserted into a text

Capitals
Upper-case letters used to indicate names, titles, and important words

Clauses
a structural unit of language which is smaller than the sentence but larger than phrases or words, and which contains a finite verb

Cliché
an over-used phrase or expression

Colons
a punctuation mark indicating a pause ranking between a semicolon and a full stop

Commas
a punctuation mark indicating a short pause in a sentence

Conjunction
a word which connects words or other constructions

Consonant
an alphabetic element other than a vowel

Dialect
a form of speech peculiar to a district, class, or person

Figure of speech
expressive use language in non-literal form to produce striking effect

Form
the outward appearance or structure of language, as opposed to its function, meaning, or social use

Full stop
a punctuation mark indicating the end of a sentence

Function
the role language plays to express ideas or attitudes

Grammar
the study of sentence structure, especially with reference to syntax and semantics

Graphology
the study of writing systems

Homonyms
words with the same spelling but with different meanings

Hyphen
a short horizontal mark used to connect words or syllables, or to divide words into parts

Idiom
a sequence of words which forms a whole unit of meaning

Irony
saying [or writing] one thing, whilst meaning the opposite

Jargon
the technical language of an occupation or group

Language change
the development and changes in a language

Lexis
the vocabulary of a language, especially in dictionary form

Metaphor
a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another

Metonymy
a figure of speech in which an attribute is substituted for the whole

Morphology
a branch of grammar which studies the structure of words

Noun
a word which names an object

Onomatopoeia
a word that sounds like the thing it describes

Oxymoron
a figure of speech which yokes two contradictory terms

Paradox
a figure of speech in which an apparent contradiction contains a truth

Paragraph
a distinct passage of writing which is unified by an idea or a topic

Participle
a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective or a noun

Phonetics
the study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds

Phrase
a group of words, smaller than a clause, which forms a grammatical unit

Point of view
a term from literary studies which describes the perspective or source of a piece of writing

Preposition
a word which governs and typically precedes a noun or a pronoun

Pronoun
a word that can substitute for a noun or a noun phrase

Punctuation
a system of marks used to introduce pauses and interruption into writing

Received pronunciation
the regionally neutral, prestige accent of British English

Semantics
the study of linguistic meaning

Semicolon
a punctuation mark which indicates a pause longer than a comma, but shorter than a colon

Sentence
a set of words which form a grammatically complete statement, usually containing a subject, verb, and object

Simile
a figure of speech in which one thing is directly likened to another

Slang
informal, non-standard vocabulary

Speech
the oral medium of transmission for language

Spelling
the convention governing the representation of words by letters in writing systems

Standard English
a dialect representing English speech and writing comprehensible to most users

Structure
the arrangement of parts or ideas in a piece of writing

Style
aspects of writing (or speech) which have an identifiable character generally used in a positive sense to indicate ‘pleasing effects’

Stylistic analysis
the study of stylistic effects in writing

Symbol
an object which represents something other than its self

Synonym
a word which means (almost) the same as another

Syntax
the arrangement of words to show relationships of meaning within a sentence

Tense
the form taken by a verb to indicate time (as in past-present-future)

Text
any piece of writing or object being studied

Tone
an author’s or speaker’s attitude, as revealed in ‘quality of voice’ or ‘selection of language’

Verb
a term expressing an action or a state of being

Vocabulary
the particular selection or types of words chosen in speech or writing

Writing
the use of visual symbols to represent words which act as a code for communication

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Study Skills

study techniques: how to spell, plan, and write more effectively

a checklist for professional writing skills

this shows what a first class essay looks like

a checklist of literary terms

sample answer to an examination question

reading skills in the critical analysis of a text

What is close reading?

Close reading – Checklist

analysis, logic, reasoning, and clear expression

What is clear thinking?

Why is clear thinking important?

What is required for clear thinking?

How to do it?

An example of clear thinking

… and how to overcome them

Essay problems – Relevance

Essay problems – Signposting

Essay problems – Commenting on the process

Essay problems – Posing questions

Essay problems – Your own argument

Essay problems – Referencing

Essay problems – Creating structure

the language of word-processing and DTP

Desktop publishing terms

an email discussion amongst professional writers

terms used in the study of English language

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