Lesson 2 Work

I started off by correcting the alterations made to the love letter that I wrote last week and saw edited by the very few peers that made it to class on Thursday. Because of the weather, we only had seven people show up and only one of those people was from out of town; the rest were from Lethbridge.

This week's grammar lesson pertains to run-on sentences and it will be very interesting to see what I can learn about them. First, I read a handout on run-on sentences and then, I watched a Writing Center video that talked about run-on sentences. I also reviewed comma splices and fused-on sentences before reviewing practice exercises.

In the first practice exercise, I got 100% and in the second practice exercise, I got 90%

I then did the run-ons grammar quiz and got 100% on the very first try!

After the quiz, I turned my attention to the readings for the week.

Discussion Board Post:

The passage I chose as my favorite comes from the excerpt Dandelions by Robert Fulghum and that passage reads, "...The young leaves make a spicy salad. The flowers add fine flavor and elegant color to a classic light wine. Toast the roots, grind and brew, and you have a palatable coffee. The tenderest shoots make a tonic tea. The dried mature leaves are high in iron, vitamins A and C, and make a good laxative. Bees favor dandelions, and the cooperative result is high-class honey."

This passage contains very descriptive writing that allows readers to create images in their minds about people using parts of the dandelions for various purposes. The way the passage is written also sends a message to the reader and that message is that everyone and everything has value to to someone and a valuable purpose in life. Each part of the dandelion is said to have a very unique purpose that proves beneficial to the pleasure of those who see the dandelion as being more than just a pesky weed that needs to be exterminated; it also tells us that we are worth more than what we may see in the mirror. When a reader can apply a passage of writing to themselves and find value in themselves as a result of what is being said about a simple object, it gives said reader confidence and motivation to love themselves.

If purpose and beauty can be found in a simple object by the writer, the reader will look at themselves and realize that they also have purpose and beauty. A writer's job in writing is to bring a sense of imagery to a reader through their writing and if the writing creates enough imagery, the reader can and probably will imagine themselves within the realm of possibilities that they are reading about. If something is written well enough, it can give a reader power and courage to live beyond their comfort zone because the writing makes them believe that all things are possible, even for them.

I also watched some videos on Paragraph and Essay Development.