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Purdue OWL News for April 28, 2004
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The Purdue OWL Staff
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Apr 27, 2004 11:23 PDT
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The Purdue OWL News
April 28, 2004
Welcome to the Purdue OWL News!
The Purdue OWL News is an online newsletter about happenings in the
Purdue University Writing Lab and the Purdue University Online Writing
Lab (OWL). You can visit our website at
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit
<http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/>. To unsubscribe
from the newsletter, click on the link at the bottom of this email.
Writing Question of the Week
Every time I think I have the difference between wake/woke etc. and
awake etc. straight, something comes up to confuse me all over again.
What is the difference in their usages? Is there an easy way to
remember the difference?
Answer
This is one of the more thorny irregular verbs in the English language.
Bryan Garner suggests the following "preferred declensions":
wake > woke > waked (or woke)
awake > awoke > awaked (or awoken)
awaken > awakened > awakened
wake up > woke up > waked up
That's handy, but what your question asks is when to use which form.
"Awaken" and "wake" have both transitive (I awaken/wake her each
morning) and intransitive (I awaken/wake each morning) uses. Some
authorities claim that "awaken" only be used in the intransitive case,
and "wake" in the transitive. However, both will work (though some may
see a certain gentleness with "awake," e.g. ('I awoke her with kisses'
versus 'I woke her with Black Sabbath').
Finally, the "wake up" usage tends to be more colloquial, but note that
it is rare to hear someone say "I awoke up." It's also unhelpful in most
transitive cases, like the clumsy "I woke her up in the morning."--KS
The OWL Help Nest
Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you wish
to contribute a response to the topic, please write to us at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to
include your name and/or your email address when we publish your
response. The following week, we'll publish the best information and
advice that we receive in the newsletter. If you have a question for our
readers, please send it to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
This Week's Question
I've consulted several people and dictionaries but have not found a
satisfactory answer. Please tell me: How did the dot at the end of the
sentence (the period) get its name? I have a British education and
learned that the dot at the end of the sentence is called a "full stop"
which makes sense as the sentence comes to an end or a stop. Doesn't the
word "period" denote a portion/period of time? Don't laugh, but this
punctuation has plagued me for years!
Answer:
Interestingly, most of our punctuation marks are derived from the
vocabulary of oratical delivery and poetry. The period is no exception;
neither is the comma (also known as caesura) or the colon. The first
uses of punctuation were to clarify a text for oratory; the name of the
cues simply stuck (this should be indicated in a good dictionary). The
British usage of "full stop" is just a variation of this (and is often
repeated in journalism, or even telegrams, where just "stop" prevails).
See Martha Kolln's _Rhetorical Grammar_ for a lively discussion of these
matters.
Next Week's Questions
What is it? "I didn't like him sending me a message", or "I didn't like
his sending me a message". Why?
What's Happening on OWL
OWL Eye on...Congratulations, Erin!
Our OWL Webmaster, Erin Karper, successfully defended her dissertation
last Friday. Congratulations to Dr. Karper!
What's Happening in the Writing Lab
OWL Eye on...Maymester Schedule
The Writing Lab will continue to offer services for students and
teachers in Maymester courses. One-on-one tutorials, in-lab and in-class
workshops, lab tours, conversation groups, and Writing Lab resources
will all be available.
Maymester 2004 Writing Lab Hours:
Tutoring Hours: M-Th 9-4; F 9-1
ESL Conversation Groups: M & Tu 3-4; W & Th 11-12.
OWL Eye on....Maymester In-Lab Workshops
Thurs. May 20: Sentence Clarity and Combining
Tues. May 25: Writing for an American Academic Audience
Thurs. May 27: Research and the Internet
Tues. June 1: Literary Analysis
Thurs. June 3: APA Style
Tues. June 8: MLA Style
Thurs June 10: Proofreading in ESL
**All in-lab workshops run from 10-11am.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading our newsletter. You can email us at any time at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator,
Karl Stolley, at coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster,
Erin Karper, at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Erin and Karl take
turns writing the newsletter.)
If you received this newsletter as a forward and would like to get your
own subscription, visit
http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/ to subscribe.
This newsletter is copyright (C) 2004 the Purdue University Writing Lab
and Purdue University. Purdue's OWL is located at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu.
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