Mark Twain on Writing

"We write frankly and fearlessly but then we 'modify' before we print."

This is almost just a different way of stating to think what you want but watch what you say. Everybody has their own thoughts and judgements of other ideas or other people, however we watch what we say so we don't sound inconsiderate or rude. For example, if I think somebody's clothes are hideous, I'm obviously not going to verbalize that. If I did, I may say something like "oh, that's...different". It's an example of how I would "modify".

When writing papers, we "modify" what we've created by proofreading; making sure evry sentence appears as it should. When blogging we might feel more comfortable putting down what's on our minds but knowing it or not, we subconsciously censor what we say.

"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English-it is the modern way and the best way. stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly ,but kill most of them-the the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of it as any other vice."

Mark Twain suggests that writing should be in its simplest form. According to him, it's the best way to write. It is a good thing to keep writing simple; it allows the reader to understand what the writer has to say the first time, as opposed to having to read it over and over again. By the time the reader understands what the writer has to say, he or she would have lost interest. The point of writing is to get a point across, or some kind of idea. There's no point in burying meaning under layers of useless adjectives and excess words.

Adjectives are used in description, and of course it's more striking when there are only a few, as opposed to having one adjective on top of another. Applying the theory to blogging, it would make people's blogs so much easier to read.

Commercial Analysis

I think the commercial's a pretty depressing insight to what life has become using technology. Traditionally, like Hansel and Gretel, kids of that age would be with their parents, or on a playdate supervised by parents. However today's technology has pushed independence in the youngest children, such as the two kids in the commercial. They look about 8 or 9 and already have a cell phone. The main question I had about the commercial is why the two were out and about in the city, especially at the end when it was night time. Although the commercial shows that the phone is easy to use (because the kids can use it effectively), it also shows that they do not need to be with their parents, or the parents are so absent that they need to be able to get to places by themselves at such a young age. The commercial shows that using the GPS, the kids were able to find their way. The commercial suggests that parents can trust AT&T with their kids because the navigation is so easy to use. That would be a plus and something that would interest busy parents.

So here I am at Hofstra, and I am blogging...

Writing online makes me feel like I need to censor what I have to say because it is not a private form of expression. Papers written in class will stay in the class and with the teacher, however blogs are open for anyone to read anywhere. Blogging is not something I normally would do; I don't really feel the need to post details of my thoughts and my day online for all to read. I feel that when people write things in a blog, there is a need to write something that will be accepted by everyone, which causes people to rethink what they want to say and possibly change it in to something that won't upset anyone. This need for acceptance doesn't really play a part in private journals or anything else; not as much anyway.

The honesty in writing goes down too I would think, again because of the acceptance issue. Things that I don't want the whole world to know definitely would not be disclosed on an online blog.

Despite the fact that typing is much faster than writing with pen and paper, I personally don't see the point in blogs. If somebody wanted to know something about me or my opinions, then simply ask.