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Purdue OWL News for September 1, 2004
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The Purdue OWL Staff
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Sep 01, 2004 11:36 PDT
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The Purdue OWL News
September 1, 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
[I need help] identifying collective nouns in sentences as well as
proper and common nouns. Can you help in the identification of
collective nouns (singular and plural)? The more I sit and think about
the sentences, the more confused I get.
Example sentence:
The ancient Greeks used the games to salute their god Zeus and to honor
their cities.
Is "games" in the above sentence a plural collective noun?
They include competition in music, oratory, and theater as well as
sport.
Is competition or sport collective?
--Tom Silver
Answer
I will try to help you in the following way: give you the definitions
of collective, common, and proper nouns [using] examples.
1. A collective noun refers to a group acting as a unit, such as a
committee, a herd, or a jury. Example: My FAMILY (collective noun) is
moving to Colorado.
2. A common noun refers to thinks, objects, phenomena, relationships,
animals, activities... Example: This DOG, PICTURE, PENCIL, SON (all
common nouns) is mine.
3. A proper noun refers to particular persons, places, peoples and
their languages, religions and their followers, members of national,
political, racial, social institutions, trademarks, historical
documents, days, months, ... Example: The SPANISH (proper noun) are a
European people.
The definitions come from Muriel Harris' grammar guide, Prentice Hall
Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage.
Oana, Purdue Writing Lab tutor
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.
Last Week's Question
I would like to ask about "storyboarding". To be more precise: how does
this technique (which is universally used by film-makers, many
writers...) promote creativity? Did anyone study this technique? What
would be the best way to use it? Who could give me more information
about it?
Answer:
Storyboarding is used in the film industry for two main goals:
organization and persuasion. Since each of these goals are shared with
writing practice and pedagogy, it’s only natural that we might want to
use storyboard techniques in our own classes. Essentially a storyboard
is a visual picture of a narrative sequence which should capture a
dramatic or effective point of communication; think of them as visual
outlines.
Why might we want to explore storyboarding in our writing classes or in
our own writing projects? Visual learners in your writing classes might
benefit greatly from the use of storyboards for organization of their
papers. Storyboards also lend an aura of “comic books” or “movies” to
an organizational outline, which might inspire creativity and the
exploration of other related themes through visual brainstorming – look
at an individual storyboard and ask, “What else does this bring to
mind?” Students who are unwilling to make or use outlines might embrace
the storyboard as an alternative principle of organization. Finally,
for instructors who are embracing visual rhetoric and attempting to
incorporate visual elements into writing, composing, or learning,
storyboarding can be used to teach traditional rhetorical persuasion
strategies through the visual medium.
Links or books that might get you started
Straczynski, J. Michael. The Complete Book of Scriptwriting. Writer’s
Digest Books, 2002.
Excellent book on scriptwriting that covers the hows and whys of
storyboarding (in addition to many other topics).
<http://www.storycenter.org/memvoice/pages/tutorial_3.html>
This is a general introduction into how to create a traditional
film or narrative storyboard.
<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/adrian_mallon_multimedia/story.htm>
Using storyboarding in multimedia projects
--Chris
Next Week's Questions
Question #1:
I have helped many people get through the English course at the local
community college here, and my question is when you are writing a paper
and you say "In our society we do this because, ..." what is a better
term or construction than "In our society..."? I know a lot of the
English professors don't like students to use that term.
--Jayne Schubert
Question #2:
A question about adverbs: Is it, "I don't want him to feel bad", or, "I
don't want him to feel badly"?
--Dolores Croth
Question #3:
My students and I are wondering if there is a hard-and-fast rule
regarding comma usage with mid-sentence place names like in the
following example: "The most humid season in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is
spring." Is the second comma necessary? The handbooks I've consulted
are either inconsistent or silent on this rule.
--Maradee Kern
What's Happening on OWL
OWL Eye on...How would you organize the OWL?
A major part of our ongoing redesign involves organizing the materials
on OWL so they are much easier to find. If you have any suggestions
regarding organization and navigation, please send them along to Karl at
web-@owl.english.purdue.edu.
OWL Eye on...Multimedia content
In the coming months, we'll be designing and adding more multimedia
content to our OWL. We'd like to get your feedback about what kinds of
multimedia content would be most useful to you as a user of our website.
Send your multimedia ideas to Chris at coor-@owl.english.purdue.edu
What's Happening in the Writing Lab
OWL Eye on...Fall Schedule
The Writing Lab at Purdue University will be available during its
regular hours. It offers one-on-one tutorials, in-lab and in-class
workshops, lab tours, conversation groups, and a multitude of other
Writing Lab resources every weekday.
Fall 2004 Writing Lab Hours:
Tutoring Hours: M-Th 9-4; F 9-1
ESL Conversation Groups: M 1:30-2:30, Tu/Th: 4:30-5:30, W: 11:00-noon,
F: 11:30-12:30
OWL Eye on....Fall Semester In-Lab Workshops
Wed. Sept 1 from 3:30-4:30 Cover Letters
Tues. Sept 7 from 12:30-1:30 Scannable Resumes
Wed. Sept 8 from 3:30-4:30 Email Etiquette
Tues. Sept 14 from 12:30-1:30 Rhetorical Situations
Wed. Sept 15 from 3:30-4:30 ESL orientation
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,
Chris Berry, at coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster,
Karl Stolley, at webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Chris 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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