Usability Test of Plain Language in Credit Card Agreement

I received this request via email - thought some of you might be interested.


***********************
I’m working with a team of plain language experts to test and simplify a credit card agreement, and we need your help.

We’re looking for people to participate in a usability test of the document: a 3-page credit card disclosure.
To take part, all you have to do is download it, then use it to answer a few questions.

It should take about 10 minutes.

Everyone who completes the survey will have a chance to win a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate.

The results of the test will be presented at Clarity2010,
an international conference about plain legal and administrative language, taking place in Lisbon in mid-October.

Take the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6X3YTR6

Thank you all so much for your help. 


Dr. Deborah S. Bosley 
Assoc Prof of English
UNC Charlotte

Matador Ethics Video Challenge

The TTU Ethics Center, part of the Office of the Provost, is once again sponsoring the Matador Ethics Video Challenge. Last year, TTU students submitted some great videos covering the different principles found in the Statement of Ethical Principles and the Statement over Academic Integrity. You can see last year’s videos here.

This fall, the theme for the challenge is Community Service and Leadership, one of the principles from the Statement of Ethical Principles. We need your help in promoting this fun challenge! The videos turned in by October 31, 2010 will be judged by a five judge panel. All entries will receive a certificate of recognition for participating in the challenge and will be eligible for the grand prize. 

These ultra short videos (max of 30 seconds in length) allow students to showcase their video skills and increase campus wide knowledge of and commitment to our Campus Conversation on Ethics. 

I would be happy to provide any additional information you may need. You can also go to the Matador Ethics Video Challenge Website for more information on this challenge.

Justin Louder, MA
Senior Program Administrator
justin.louder@ttu.edu
806.742.1505

cfp for TTU Women's Studies' Fall Colloquium

(follow this link for full details)

The Women's Studies Program and the Conference Program Committee at Texas Tech University proudly announces a public colloquium, which will take place on the campus of Texas Tech University, Friday, October 29th, 2010.

• We invite papers and full panel proposals highlighting feminist research, in progress or completed, on gender and gender identity exploring meanings of movement and change as connected to, created by, and/or caught up in the presence of women's, gender, and identity issues, in both contemporary and historical frameworks. Undergraduates, graduate students, staff and faculty from all disciplines are invited to participate and to attend. We especially welcome feminist research on:

* gender and media (literatures, the press, and printing of all kinds)

* regional feminist issues and concerns on the South Plains

* gender and the environment (e.g., ecofeminism, indigenista, urban planning, architecture)

* gender and political activism (e.g., government, war/peace)

* gender in sports

* embodiment (e.g., ability, genetics, inscribing)

* cultural constructions of gender

* psychology of sex roles

* social constructs of gender relations

* gender in science and cyberspace

* gender in art, art criticism, art instruction and learning

Deadline for submissions Friday, October 15, 2010
Please send submissions to: patricia.a.earl@ttu.edu

Note: include the words "2010-Gender Colloquium Submission" in the subject line for easy identification.

Literacy Autobiography

The earliest writing memory I carry is in second grade. Around Halloween time we were in the second grade for about two months when we were given an assignment to create/ color, cut out a pumpkin and write a short story on it. These short paragraphs that were created by my class were then placed on the board outside of the classroom so that when parents came to the Halloween party they would be able to read them. These paragraphs were short choppy sentences with misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, and fragments.

Throughout my childhood I kept a diary, which only contained personal information. Having a diary helped me with writing because I would ask my grandmother how to spell certain words and would go back and correct sentences just in case someone else read my diary. My writing changed though out my years mostly because of different writing topics and dedicated teachers. Having different topics in high school was tough, not only were they new, but I found it difficult to follow rules and stay on topic. Since the school I attended was in a town of a population of 1,200 my class was only 34 students. The teachers had a lot of time to devote to each student individually. Giving me good direction and freedom.

Patterns I’ve noticed in my writing is the style. I write most of my story’s with the same style which is past voice. I have trouble writing in detail and whenever papers have to be in great detail my grade usually suffers. Detail writing is complicated, as I write I forget to go into dept and then have to go back and edit the whole paper. This makes the paper take twice as long. I’ve been in college for 3 to 4 years now and in that time I’ve have one discouraging teacher. I was having trouble writing explications and she gave me the same information repeatedly instead of explaining in a different point of view. Teachers can be great people, but a great teacher is a teacher who is informal about each topic.

When I was younger I was not informed of all the types of writings. So I didn’t see English to its full potential. As of right now I enjoy writing and recently have changed my major to English so that someday I can teach students to love and understand writing as well. I’d want them to embrace writing, and understand that if they don’t like writing one paper they might like the next.

"Boxed In" - Jenna, Jennifer & Michael

I wake up every morning
in this adequate box
and gather my sack
of belongings.

As I wander
with a single purpose,
I think about being
far from home
and how I even
ended up here.

The mediocre food;
the raw surroundings;
tending to the
one in the
next box over.

The mound
of dirty clothes.
Once attended to,
now pile up
in the corner
of my box.

These four walls
are all I have now.
Day after day,
the corners pull back,
Exposing me
to the elements.

The street is not
a welcome place,
but for now...

it is my home.

The Moon Also Rises (Hemingway Style)

He walked into the bar, sat down and ordered a drink. Then, he noticed her sitting next to him.
"It's a nice band," he said.
"Better than the house music," she stuttered.
"There's something nice about live music," he said.
She smiled, took a sip of her drink, then agreed. The music played on and he asked her what she is having to drink.
"What are you drinking?" he inquired.
"Long island iced tea, double," she replied confidently.
He asked the bartender for another long island double and closed out his tab. She chugged it down in one gulp and exclaimed, "Let's get out of this joint, I'm driving!"
"Shouldn't we call 1-800-Safe-Ride?" he asked.
"Nahh, I got this!" she mumbled while fumbling for her car keys.

The autumn air was ruined by the foul smell of cows in the distance and vodka. Cigarrette smoke lingered out the bar door as they left. The car was parked in the farthest spot from the entrance. As she approached the car, she forcefully jammed the key into the door. Only then did she realize this wasn't her car. Upon realizing this, she shouted "To hell with this!" and kicked the door, leaving a rather large dent for the car's true owner.

He then replied, "to hell with you," and slowly stumbled down the street back to his apartment, for he only lived a few blocks away. He never knew what became of her that night, but he knew that he never wanted to meet a girl like that ever again.


Written by Amanda Dobbs
Brian Gilmore, And Tannah Ijoma

I Never Thought it would End this Way.

I never thought it would end this way,

The dead silence of the night is reassuring because I'm alone.

A bright light shines in my face, just like the bright lights of my favorite bar.

The night began just like every other friday night, out with my friends.

Laughter, joy, and plenty of drinks celebrating the birthday of my buddy Matt.

We stayed there for hours, making sure Matt throughly enjoyed his night.

It was perfect,

The perfect night, the perfect life-style, that we had come to love.

It abruptly came to an end, prematurely as the last call was called

and it was time to go home.

I got out to look at the damage of my truck,

The interior was fine, the exterior was totaled.

The silence was then broken by a deafening scream, by a familiar voice.

I knew it was Matt, I knew if he was screaming,

it was serious.

With no-one around, and my truck a wreck,

help was in question.

I rushed to him, and he took his last breath,

in my arms.

A night suppose to be a celebration,

turned out to be a nightmare.

I never thought it would end this way.

Jeremy Hamilton, Meagan Cortez, Micah Pardo

(Style: Margaret Atwood)

The Game (writings like Poe)

It's not so impossible to say how these ideas entered our brains. It's spirit, school spirit, it's tradition. It's the desire for adrenaline. From the moment we enrolled at Texas Tech we knew our Saturdays would be filled with red and black, guns up and yelling.

Everyday closer to Saturday the atmosphere is more on edge. On the way to the stadium the wind continually blows. Chills overcome the bodies of students everywhere. Upon the arrival of the football stadium the suspense fills our minds. Will we have enough power and strength to pull through and get this job done or will we be demolished?

Insanely hot today, the sun beats down like an evil eye. Students dropping like cattle in a drought. A fist full of dollars for water they can't find. The low hum of crowds begins to rise; the chant begins..."RAIDER - POWER, RAIDER - POWER."

Angeleyna Epperly
Jessica Welborn
Marlene Alvarado
Ron Macdon

Anecdote

As far as my memory goes, I find it difficult to remember things before a certain age and the older I get the more I seem to have trouble remembering. I do remember though my time spent practicing my writing. My brother and I had those notebooks of paper that were lined with the giant spaces so as to correctly draw our letters, making sure they met the halfway point. I remember following the same style of paper in Germany in second grade, using big colored crayons to write and trace. This is the earliest I know of concerning my writing habits, with my experiences becoming more detailed the older I got. I had a Harry Potter writing journal that I received for Christmas one year that I wrote all of my 'secrets' and thoughts in. It had a red fuzzy cover that I decorated with gold paint and pastic gemstones and a lock with a key to keep my nosy brother out, despite me hiding it under my bed so no one could find it. Ingenious I know. The best part of all was that when you opened it, it let out a loud scream for about thirty seconds letting you know when it was opened, just like a book from the Harry Potter series. I wrote all of my secrets here thinking them msot important, what I wanted/got for Christmas, who was cute at school, the dreams I was having. It wasn't important to me that my writing be good or neat, but that I was doing it by myself and protecting my most prized thoughts.

Edgar Allan Poe

Although I loved the other author's works, I had to choose Edgar Allan Poe almost instantly. Especially because I've loved Tell-Tale Heart ever since I first read it in high school. I love Poe's creepy genre because, to me, it is so easily visualized while he tells the story, which makes it even scarier. It was likely to give me nightmares when I first read it too! I just loved how he describes the eye as being this representation of evil and the point of view from a mad man. It is all so interesting to me because Poe puts you directly into it. I might also be a little prejudice because I particularly like Poe's work above many others. It is just something that I have personally chosen to read over and over again. I bought a huge book with his collection of poems and short stories and it's one of my favorite things on my book shelf! The dark, eeriness of his writing is what grabs me. Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher will always be my all-time favorites!

Literacy Autobiography Anecdote

Ever since I can remember, I've loved to write. Even before I ever knew what I was even writing, I loved writing letters all over the place and practicing how pretty and straight I could make them on paper. My earliest memory of someone teaching me how to correctly write my letters on lines was with my dad. He used to pull out the lined/dotted lined paper and write all of the uppercase letters on one, and lowercase letters on the other. Then, I spent time writing my own version right next to his, trying to make it as much of a replica as possible. I never once had trouble with it and always had some of the neatest handwriting in my pre-k and kindergarden classes. Also, throughout elementary school I would always receive the award for best penmanship at the end of the semester or year. I never was able to get awards that dealt with math equations or problem solving but was very pleased that I had the best looking handwriting in the class! It wasn't long before I was receiving little awards for the most creative writer, too. It soon became something I loved to do and I began making hand-written chapter books at home as a hobby. I would get a bunch of computer paper and staple it together and begin breaking my book down by chapters. I remember it had to do with animals who got along as friends on a farm, but I can't remember the name! Ha! As far as writing today, I still love doing it as a hobby and enjoy writing just in general even if it is little notes to myself. I type very fast on the keyboard but would choose to handwrite something any day! I just love it!

When it comes to reading, I had a different story growing up. Reading vocabulary and learning definitions came very easy to me (I loved spelling and vocab tests!!) but I always remember struggling with comprehension. I always had a hard time focusing on what was in front of me and would find myself finishing reading a page but then not being able to recall what I just read. I believe a lot of it had to do with my focus and for some reason I just couldn't. I would sometimes find myself reading over a sentence multiple times until finally knowing in my mind what I just read. I was never sure why. One of the earliest chapter books I remember reading in school was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 3rd grade. No matter how easy a book was, my mind could never focus in on the story. I never had trouble reading words or making out anything, I read just fine, I just couldn't comprehend very well. Today, with all of the experiences I have had from reading, I am not as bad as I used to be. I enjoy reading so much! However, sometimes I do find myself briefly coming across some of the same focus problems when it comes to really understanding what I am reading. But other than that, I've overcome a lot of it! :)

The young'n days...

I can remember when I was about 4, Sundays after church picking up the comic strips only because of their colors and pictures. Despite the fact that I couldn’t read, I recall laughing aloud and slapping my knee at the comics I did not understand, only to be scolded by my brother and parents. This is when it hit me, I didn’t want to be a clown when I grew up, but a comic strip writer. I used to write short stories with pictures about a basset hound named Jed. I had to ask my mom how to spell word for word, letter for letter until she’d finally get fed up and yell, “Micah! Are you ever going to learn to write?!” It was also a bit discouraging after I realized I could not slyly slip my comics into every newspaper in town in hopes of being discovered.

After I learned to write in kindergarten, tracing letters and small words, I lost my passion to write because it was out of force, rather than enjoyment. My excitement to write flared up again when my third grade teacher introduced me to free writing for the first time. In a small journal we were free to write about anything we wanted to for 5 minutes. Slowly she began grading our compositions which lead us to be better writers by the end of the year. From here I began to keep a diary exactly like a written book of my life. In my preteen years I’d pour out in detail about my crush on the pastor’s son or the fact that my friends problems were insignificant to mine. Every time my friends did read my diary, they always encouraged me about my writing skills and how I somehow made my life appear way more interesting than it actually was.

On the writing portions of every one of my Taas and Taks test throughout my younger years I made perfect fours. As I grew up in high school my grades in English and writing were exceptionally well but I never had another teacher challenge or critique my writing again. I just put my pencil to the paper without putting any prior thought into my writing. Of course this did not flow over well in college when I got my very first C on a written paper, and many more after that.

I still truly enjoy writing. I like being challenged to write about the boring biography of a past president, or complicated topics that do not involve creative writing. Creative is writing is definitely my favorite though. Every once in awhile I’ll get a thought or a book idea and just jot a few pages down about it in my journal, just like I was taught in the third grade.

Auto.

I think as writers we find ourselves more in tune with our emotions, desires, and needs when that certain age of maturity, grace, and confidence is found. I’m of course referring to the superb age of thirteen. Not only did I understand how my emotions played and interacted with one another at this point in my life, but I could express myself with beauty and elegance through awful scribbled poetry. Back when passion in poetry meant something about hearts and love; where every line rhymed with next. When most poems were handwritten and doodled upon with swirls and smiley faces. The phase of gushy and just plain terrible poetry dragged on for two years until my lovely brother said, and I quote, “This sucks”. However terrible my rhythm and rhyme was, I did learn a few things about writing during this time. First, proofread, proofread, and just in case you forget, proofread your work. There is nothing funnier to a critic than spelling “time” without the “e” or thinking that there are at least twenty syllables in a haiku. Also, when ever inspiration is needed, look to the Greats. Even though my poetry was dreadful, reading authors like Robert Frost, Emily Dickenson, Ezra Pound, and (but of course) Shakespeare helped my knowledge of writers and their formatted styles grow.

Anecdote

When I was much younger I would write in a pink diary that my Mom had bought for me. It was bubble gum pink with bright pink hearts all over the intire book. To keep it safely away from my brother's suspicious eyes it had a huge pink heart-shaped lock with a combination that only I knew. I filled the pages with the type of things that young girls are concerned with; who I was going to invite to my birthday party, who was the cute boy at recess, what movie I was going to go see with my girlfriends that weekend, how cute Leonardo Dicaprio looked in Titanic, etc. This is one of my first memories of writing down personal thoughts and ideas. I have always shown a deep interest in reading and writing. Throughout elementry school I would speed through American Girl books and spend much time during class writing creative stories to read to my classmates. Once I starting getting older and more in touch with my feelings and what was going on with my friend's lives is when I started keeping a diary. This memory not only serves as a humorous story about all the silly things I wrote about, but it also is a sentimental memory of my youth. A diary shows you how to be more reflective on yourself as well as provides entertainment years down the road.

The Early Years

My most memorable experience learning how to write took place when I was in second grade. My dad was in the Army so I went to the elementary schools on the military bases. We usually lived in one place for about three years. During the time that we were between bases we would move back home to Fort Worth for about two months, while my dad settled in the the new base. When I was in second grade my family was going through one of these transitions. Second grade I basically knew how to put simple sentences together. My second day in class my teacher pulled me aside and told me that she was going to give me a tutor to help me with my writing twenty minutes a day. I really did not understand what was wrong with my writing, so I agreed to have a tutor. The first day with my tutor I found out what was wrong with my writing, when I wrote I turned my paper sideways making my letters crooked. At the time I was seven so it did not bother me she was the teacher, teachers are never wrong. That memory has always been with me and I had never really thought about why I always remembered it. Now I realize that it bothers me because why does it matter if my letters are crooked, I was seven she's lucky I didn't eat my boogers. It's a shame that this memory is my most memorable about learning how to write. I just hope when I'm a teacher that I care about the quality of a students essay, intead of if their letter are straight.

Literacy Autobiography Anecdote

When my sisters and I were young we had a blue plastic Fisher-Price easel with a green chalkboard on one side and a giant notepad for painting on the other. My older sister was seven years older than my twin and me, so in our play she would be the "teacher" and us her students. One of my earliest memories of writing comes from her teaching us to write our names on that chalkboard before we even knew the alphabet. This did not teach me how to spell or read or even the alphabet; this taught me the concept that a word, as a whole, could be symbolic of a physical thing, in this case, me. It helped establish the idea that the black scribbles in books and papers each had a meaning in language. I think this formation of a connection between words and their representations is an important starting point in the development of both reading and writing.

Literacy Autobiography

My first experience (and memory) of writing was when I was four or five years old. I wrote my first letter to Santa Claus. My Aunt Amy had just started teaching high school English and so I was her guinea pig, naturally. I started reading and writing when I was about three. Maybe not complete words but at least some form of a word. My mom found my letter to Santa Claus this past summer when she cleaned out the boxes in the garage. I had pretty good handwriting for a four/five year old. (LOL!!!) I can remember asking how to spell words and if things should be with "a big letter or a small letter". I can remember that once I started writing I didn't want to stop. I still love to read and write fifteen years later.

Poe, Hemingway, and Atwood

After reading Poe, Hemingway and Atwood, I realized that two (Poe and Atwood) out of the three writers are some of the most dark/gothic and descriptive writers. After reading the selection by Poe I felt like I had just been in a horror movie. It was dark, gruesome and eerie. I felt the things that made the story dark was the sound of the words and the type of words he chose to place together. Poe also used super short sentences and then some long sentences to help build suspense. As for Atwood, she uses parenthetical writing, something I don't read every day, and that added a sort of suspense as well as the feeling of being in someone's head and hearing their "dark thoughts". I liked reading her poem because it was different from something I would normally read. She has a way of twisting her thoughts to make the reader surprised and scared (for lack of a better word).
As for Hemingway, I think of his writing as an American Classic. I have always loved reading his books. I find his writing to be very simplistic. Hemingway's writing, I feel, is made for everyone to read. There is not a set reading level that someone must have in order to read and comprehend what he's literally saying; although all of his stories have some serious underlying theme/story/argument. Unlike Poe, Hemingway uses simple descriptions, and characterizations, his writing can still be "seen". What I mean is that the reader can still in vision the things and people that Hemingway is describing.

Literacy Autobiography

My first memorable experience with writing actually wasn’t too long ago. When I was 14 years old my father was diagnosed with cancer and I remember that I almost immediately began keeping a diary. Initially I tried to keep I guess what you can call an “electronic diary” on my prehistoric laptop, but it wasn’t the same. Physically writing my thoughts and emotions down on paper seemed to have a different effect. Writing down on paper seems to take more thought and effort. At least to me it does. When I physically write it just feels more set in stone. Regardless of if the diary is lost, the words are still out there even if they aren’t read. I remember writing in my diary didn’t have a set schedule. There would be entries that were only a few days apart and then there were times I wouldn’t write for weeks and sometimes months. I wrote when I felt that writing was my only release. My father suffered from cancer for two years and it was really hard to cope with. Writing seemed to be my mechanism. This is my most memorable experience with writing in that it helped me through one of the hardest times to date. That I can never forget.

first the glasses, then the reading.

A pregnant mother doing laundry in the basement while her eighteen month old daughter plays in the cabinets that were recently removed from the kitchen suddenly realizes the cabinets are about to fall on her baby. Frightened, and huge, she moves the cabinets one by one to find her daughter trapped inside the one on the bottom. Completely unharmed and scared to death, the mother is so thankful. However, when she calls her daughter’s name she notices that her eyes don’t look at her. Upon meeting with an eye doctor and learning that her child has a severe stigmatism she is relieved and worried all at the same time. Not even able to read yet and prescribed bi-focals, what a sight (no pun intended)!

“So she has a weak eye, what can we do?”
“You could try patching her good eye to strengthen the weak one” the doctor tells the mother.

And that’s how it all started. I couldn’t even read yet and I was already wearing glasses. Every night for the next few years I was told to sit at the kitchen table, with a patch over my “good” eye, and color in all the loops in The Washington Post. Every “a”, “o” “d”, excreta was colored in. After a while the sessions became less strict and the tasks more complicated. When I learned the alphabet and how to write my name I was to circle all the letters in my name. Let me tell you, I have a lot of vowels in my name and a common letter “y”. That was a lot of circling, no doubt. The occasional eye checkups mentioned nothing just that my eye sight was not that great. But by the time I entered kindergarten, the eye doctor couldn’t even recognize which eye had been the weak one.

I may not have been reading at this point, at least not anything that I could remember. But part of literacy is having the knowledge of the alphabet and a starting point could be something as simple as knowing how to write your own name. This was my kick-off. Although my eyes were untraceable of any stigmatisms, my eye sight was still not so great. Unfortunately (I say this because my glasses were ridiculously hideous) I continued to wear glasses and still do.

literacy autobiography: anecdote

"... There was an old school desk that she had restored in one of the rooms in the house. it had been painted mint green all around, with the alphabet and the numbers 0-9 written in bright blue fabric paint across the top. Once a day for at least 30 minutes, we would receive individual 'tutoring,' so to speak, where we would learn how to first write all of the letters, then write our names, and later, how to write our names in a sentence. Once we were able to write, we would then learn how to read simple children's books with her. What helped us learn quicker, even though we despised it at the time, was that when we misbehaved, she had us go sit at that infernal mint green desk and perform some sort of writing exercise. Depending on how much we had learned with her, it would vary from writing ten words that begin with the most recent letter we learned, or ten sentences consisting of so many words each..."

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe's style of writing in The Tell Tale Heart is mysterious. This short story shows the dark side of Poe. How one can be mad without knowing. Poe uses a lot of symbols in his writing such as the eye of the vulture, the evil eye. The narrator feels that the old man is judging him. Even though the old man had never wronged him, the guilt of what he is about to do forces him to do the unethical. The narrator decides he must rid himself of the eye by killing the old man who loved him. This is ironic because he wants to kill someone who has done nothing wrong to him. By the end we are able to feel and hear the guilt within this character. Whenever the police are at the house he hears voices and the voices he hears appear to be his conscience. We can also argue that the author was taking a shot at society. What one is capable of and how easily one can get away with murder. Making the point that we can only help ourselves by making the right decisions. Perceived as dark, spooky, and unpredictable Poe’s writing goes a greater distance. Most think of Poe’s writing in those three aspects, but Poe redeems the darkness at the end by making his character tell the truth. The diction used in this short story lets the reader know that it is taking place in another era. The voice in this short story is madness, which keeps the reader interested. He uses short choppy sentences that are capable of showing hostility.

This is A Photograph of Me Margaret Atwood

I chose this poem because of the vivid image that I had created in my mind once I got done reading it. Her style of writing is very distinct when it comes to her descriptive style of writing. Atwood’s writing style uses metaphors throughout. Her style of writing helps portray a very expressive image of what she is exactly writing about. This style of writing what makes a strong connection between the writer and the reader. The writing style is consumed by many different literary devices and by doing this she helps the reader relate to the poem. Her imagery goes into grave detail to depict the photograph

This Is a Photograph of Me

I was drawn to write about "This is a Photograph of Me" just by reading the title. I myself love to take photographs, it's an art form that not many appreciate. When thought and style are put into a photo, it becomes a form of art. I am not talking about your pictures from your last drunken debauchery, or something you snap from you 6 mega pixel digital camera, but real artful photos. Anyways, back to the story by Margaret Atwood and what she is trying to convey.

At first the reader gets taken in by immense imagery. The reader has a detail summery of what the photo itself looks like, then Margaret changes the image in the mind to what is actually in the photo. You start to think of a peaceful place, maybe even a place you have once been to before. The reader is enjoying this second of peace in their mind and then Margaret switches tones again. You are hit with a passionate yell of information about the subject at hand, an explanation of the photo itself, set off with parentheses. The parentheses explain that the subject is actually dead, voicing out from the departed. The subject, very calm in my opinion, explains that "the photograph was taken the day after I drowned." In a simple sentence, the image of that peaceful place in your head has now turned into a dark and gloomy area in which you wish not to see anymore. Margaret then explains that although you can not see the actual body of the deceased subject, "if you look long enough, eventually you will be able to see." Margaret has successfully changed the readers whole thought process with a couple of words. Now when you think of this photo, you will not think of that peaceful place, you will not think of only a dark gloomy place, but your mind will focus on the subject that is now deceased. The reader is now taken in and wants know more about the who, what, why, when, how aspects of the photo. The reader always wants more if left hanging on a question, especially one that is not asked in the message, but is thought of by themselves.

How does Margaret do this to us with only a 143 words? With the use of imagery and all its glory. Imagery is a very powerful tool when writing, it stimulates the senses and produces an powerful thought in the mind. It allows the reader to become part of the story, but a part that has no control. At this point the writer, in this case Margaret Atwood, can sway your mind in any direction, that is if her imagery worked on you.

Three Day Blow by Ernest Hemingway

I chose to write about Ernest Hemingway over the eccentricities associated with Edgar Allen Poe because while his style of writing isn't filled with the same dramatic flare as Poe's it is distinct in its own right. It's easy to see with Poe's work that he utilizes a very distinct style whereas Hemingway has a much more subtle way of proving himself to be unique.
He largely uses dialogue as the man focus of his work and does so in such a way that the paragraphs that aren't involving it have more meaning and depth to it. The dialogue between the two friends is so incredibly aloof and light there's no way to make assumptions about what they mean, there's no hidden thoughts behind what they say. It lends a different feel to the story as there doesn't appear to be and bias on the part of the author, he is just writing what he sees as the narrator which is not seen in many, as they try to intertwine hidden meanings and messages.
This clear and to the point style of Hemingway's writing allows him to create meaningful paragraphs containing the underlying situation where needed, without it being trumped by the character's talking. As shallow as it may seem Three Day Blow is still a story that has all the right parts without the confusion associated with them today.

Hemingway's The Three Day Blow

In this narrative Hemingway uses a dialog between two main characters to set and move his story. The discussion between the characters is mostly inconsequential small talk between two old friends. Bill and Nick's conversation until Marge is mentioned serves the purpose of setting up the reader's understanding of their characters and relationship. The dialog is pretty much without much emotion or force or meaning and then Hemingway throws in this one profound paragraph on Nick's feelings about what has happened between him and Marge.

Nick said nothing. The liquor had all died out of him and left him alone. Bill wasn't there. He wasn't sitting in front of the fire or going fishing tomorrow with Bill and his dad or any thing. He wasn't drunk. It was all gone. All he knew was that he had once had Marjorie and that he had lost her. She was gone and he had sent her away. That was all that mattered. He might never see her again. Probably he never would. It was all gone, finished.

Here Hemingway's sentence structure is in short, to the point sentences. This gives the feeling of abruptness and importance. To me, each sentence was like a separate thought metaphorically hitting the character. It conveyed to me the desperation and sudden hopelessness the character feels.
Then Bill continues to congratulate Nick on his escape from marriage. The way the dialog continues with short sentences and fades back into inconsequential conversation. By doing this, Hemingway is highlighting and emphasizing the few non-dialog paragraphs which, to me, contain the really meaningful content.

Edger Allen Poe

Out of the three pieces of work the on that I found the most interesting would be the Edger Allen Poe piece, "The Tell-Tale Heart". I felt as if I was in the narrator's mind that all of his crazy rants, were mine also. The progression of the narrator's insanity is my favorite part of the story, it makes you wonder if you are the one going crazy. Poe's style of dark and mysterious, I believe is what appeals to people the most. That's why most of Poe's pieces of work are so popular, readers love the unknown and the suspense. As a reader when I come to the part about the narrator hearing the beating heart, it's as if I can hear the beating heart also. Poe makes the reader feel as if they are in the story that they are one of the characters in the story. The police showing up right after the narrator had finished killing the old man adds to the suspense and appeal.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allen Poe often uses very dark and shadowy images to formulate his stories. “The Tell-Tale Heart” seems to be a sort of dialogue between the narrator and some unknown person. While the narrator continually tries to prove his sanity and innocence the story grows with a sense of disturbing images of watching an old man while he sleeps.

Poe writes with a bit of suspense as we watch the narrator describe the murder of the old man. The word choice and structure help shape the time frame in which the story was composed. For example, Poe uses words like hearken and mad instead of “listen” and “insane”. While the narrator persistently tries to prove his own innocence he in turn admits to having murdered the old man.

"The Tale-Tell Heart" also begins with a bit of forshadowing. "TRUE!" is presented as the first word in Poe's word to show the insanity of the narrator. As the officers inspect the home the mind of the narrator ran wild with terror of being blamed for the murder, so much so that her conscious eats at her and leads her to confess to the murder of the old man.

Other stories where I have seen Poe use these types of murky images are in “The Fall of Usher”. The strange and suspenseful techniques plainly demonstrate Poe’s writing styles.

the style of Edgar Allen Poe in "The Tell-Tale Heart"

Well...

First things first, Poe's writing seems to be a bit dated. It may be just me, but so of the words and phrases he uses, such as in the line "I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased," indicate a sign of his literary style. Poe could have simply written, "I shared small talk with the cops, with an eccentric tone and body movements, but the noise was getting louder." His language is more prescriptive as opposed to colloquial.

His word choices also seem to grant the piece, and his style overall, as having this intelligent and well-versed linguistic style. The line, "No doubt I now grew very pale; - but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice," is such a brilliant way for him to convey a feeling of anxiety in the narrator. His choices of words, however, also seem to date his writing; words such as hearken, deed & mad, used in their context, give an idea of the time frame in which his writing occurs. Further contributions also stem from occurrences in the writing, such as the narrator using a lantern at night or him disposing of the old man under the floorboards.

Finally, Poe's style has this sensation of suspense and fear throughout. As you read you can visualize it as being in a film that displays noir characteristics, like that found in films such as Brick and Dark City. There is this mysterious and suspenseful tone that is omnipresent throughout the writing, which clearly contributes to the specific style of Edgar Allen Poe.

Three Day Blow (Hemingway)

Anyone familiar with Hemingway's style of writing usually point to his usage of dialogue to drive the story. We see short bursts of full-on paragraphs to conceptualize the setting, and get a general feel of the atmosphere in the story, but the main content is found in the conversation between two friends, Nick and Bill.

Another aspect we see with Hemingway's style is that the narrative voice is aloof. The narrative voice does not try to intrude the story, if not that much; it does not try to be omniscient. While Bill comforts Nick by telling him that he's better off, Nick just gives distant one word responses. Even then the narrator does not relay, "Well, this is what Nick really thinks: blahblahblah..." Instead, we are just given only what the narrator sees. In other words, the narrator is simply there to report. This is a style reminiscent of the journalistic approach of newspapers.

One last interesting note to Hemingway's style (at least in this story) is how he uses the every day normal moments to overlay a deeper issue. This is often one of the key signifier for Modern writers like Joyce or Woolf. What is the every day normal event? Two bros having a couple of whiskeys and scotch shots, talking about literature, baseball, and fishing. What is the underlying issue? Broken relationships, and how to drink yourself to happiness. Or perhaps how a broken relationship does not mean it is the end of the world, but a start of a new one.

Margaret Atwoods, "This Is a Photograph of Me"

I orginally chose to blog about Poe's work due to his usual gruesome and unique writing style. But when I scanned over Margaret Atwood's, "This Is a Photograph of Me," I was immediately intrigued wirth her seven paragraph story.

She allows the reader to mentally illustrate the photo of a small, country home along with some land. Atwood is extremely descriptive in her writing. I felt as if I was holding the older, soiled photograph in my hand, dim and grey as if the camera had no flash. She then unfolds the story piece by piece. First, your looking at a blurred photo, next a tree branch comes into vision, then the frame of a house and finally some hills and a lake.

After describing a simple photo, Atwood throws in a cliffhanger, "The photograph was taken the day after I drowned". She puts it in parenthesis as if to say, this is just a simple side-note, nothing to take seriously. This gave a gruesome, mysterious twist to her writing style and left me wanting to read more of her other work.

Margaret Atwood- style

In Margaret Atwood’s short poem, “This is a Photograph of Me”, her style comes across clearly and distinctively as her own. The overall format of the poem seems to go from with the lesser details of the photo s, to the main focus of the picture, then back to another small detail. In the beginning she describes the trees and slope. As the poem goes on, Atwood works her way to the center of the picture, the lake. Then she finishes the piece by adding that the narrator body is under the lake. This makes her poem her own by treating the main point of photo as a small detail. (This seems to be emphasized by the use of the parenthesis around the writing.) There also seems to be a nonchalant and casual flow to the poem in terms of style. It may seem odd for such a heavy and serious subject like death, but Margret Atwood carries this style in her other works as well. Another point to be made about the style of the poem is that the work itself tries to carry detail without actually accomplishing it. For example, in the sentence “a thing that is like a branch” (8 Atwood) the word like show that the object is similar to a branch, but is not one. Also, in “It is difficult to say where precisely, or to say how large or small I am”(20-21) Atwood seems to try and convey details of the body, but the writing comes across as ambiguous. Margret Atwood’s style of writing is certainly one all her own. Though her style might be a bit difficult for a novice or even intermediate writer to achieve, elements of this style can be very useful in many types of papers once learned.

Atwood, Marget. “This is a Photograph of Me”. Academy of American Poets. Sep 05 2010.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16220