Dawkins Responses

Summary
In his article "Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool", John Dawkins attempts to explain to the reader that although it may not always change the meaning of a sentence, the choice of punctuation that is used can have a great impact on the tone of the sentence and how the reader interprets it. He argues that the mainstream rules on punctuation can be broken and that writers have many choices when using punctuation and forming sentences.

Synthesis
This reading is similar to the Bryson reading because they are both discussing the use of grammar and how the rules that we are taught throughout our education are not always set in stone, but rather open for interpretation and experimentation. The difference is that Dawkins talks strictly about punctuation, while Bryson discusses more about sentences themselves.

Pre-Reading
3. In my mind, grammar is anything that has to do with the uses of words and their structure. That means I consider grammar to be anything from punctuation to word choice and placement.

QD
6. When I write, I wouldn't really say that I fixate on it or anything like that, but I do pay attention to it, especially when I am trying to make a point or create a mood for a sentence. In my free time when I write, which is mostly short stories, poetry, etc., I think about punctuation in terms of the situation in the story or the characters thoughts. For instance, if I was writing about a scene that is very dramatic or action packed, I would use more of the maximum and medium punctuation than I would if I was writing a scene about something more laid back, which is when I would use more medium and minimum punctuation.

AE
2. In the obituary the sentences were fairly long, but used lots of commas. The editorial used many commas as well, however used many dashes and parentheses in their sentences as well. The set of directions used many periods, with some commas here and there. I think that it is like this because the directions are like a set of commands, while the editorial is from an opinion standpoint and the obituary is describing the life of the person who died.

MM
I think that I am reading an article about punctuation rather than the teacher just explaining it because It is easier to understand something like this when you can see it and read it a few times. By reading the article, I learned that punctuation can have a huge impact on a sentence.

My thoughts
I thought this article was quite interesting. I learned a lot of new techniques that I can use when it comes to punctuation that can be useful for both my creative and my class writing, which I really found interesting.