WHEN PEOPLE COME TO OUR LIT REVIEW WORKSHOP EXPECTING TO LEARN HOW TO REVIEW A BOOK:
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We hope you busted through your first round of essays and tests like this guy punking his pong opponent!
![Cheeseball as it is, Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion to brush up on the skills needed to write poems, letters, Facebook statuses, and tweets more profound than “OMG I <3 MY HONEY BOO BOO,” or conversely, “love stinks, brah.” We encourage you to write out both your bitter hate rants and smushy love gushes with equal fervor and join the ranks of Michael Jordan, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Johnny Cash (among many others!).
If an 18 year old MJ can do it, you can, too:
“I want you to know that my feeling for you has not change yet. ← (joke) I am finally getting use to going with a girl much smaller than I. I hope you [get] my hint. Well I have spent my time very wisely by write to you…See you next time around, which I hope comes soon.”
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669022/12-hand-written-love-letters-from-famous-people-from-henry-viii-to-michael-jordan](http://25.media.tumblr.com/3225d75012ba8cdb2fd7cb6807cf8c00/tumblr_mia1yqrw2Y1r416qro1_500.jpg)
Cheeseball as it is, Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion to brush up on the skills needed to write poems, letters, Facebook statuses, and tweets more profound than “OMG I <3 MY HONEY BOO BOO,” or conversely, “love stinks, brah.” We encourage you to write out both your bitter hate rants and smushy love gushes with equal fervor and join the ranks of Michael Jordan, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Johnny Cash (among many others!).
If an 18 year old MJ can do it, you can, too:
“I want you to know that my feeling for you has not change yet. ← (joke) I am finally getting use to going with a girl much smaller than I. I hope you [get] my hint. Well I have spent my time very wisely by write to you…See you next time around, which I hope comes soon.”
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669022/12-hand-written-love-letters-from-famous-people-from-henry-viii-to-michael-jordan
WHEN WE TRY TO WRITE OUR PAPERS THE FRIDAY BEFORE FALL BREAK STARTS:
Who needs a thesis statement anyway?
Fast, Cheap And Out of Control!
I just read this article on NPR with the hilarious title, “Political Memes: Fast, Cheap And Out of Control?” Memes, like rat-brain robots, are fast becoming self-aware. In fact, they’re taking over the way we communicate with one another. That’s why the Writing Center wants to help you make your own meme.
Step One:
Find (or create) a funny image. This is probably the hardest part. Most memes utilize a facial expression to encapsulate a complex idea. It also helps to use a recognizable person. Observe this meme image, Conspiracy Keanu:
Such a fantastic conspiracy face.
Step Two:
Name your meme. Your image is of something, right? Take that noun and describe it somehow. What’s the theme of your meme? Alliteration (the repetition of consonant sounds) is popular in the naming process, i.e, Conspiracy Keanu and Good Guy Greg. You can also turn it into a pun, like Philosoraptor, shown here:
Sometimes your image will have an already-attributed name, like The Most Interesting Man in the World. You want your name to be memorable and culturally relevant. First World Problems is a great example of a meme name or theme that doesn’t use alliteration; it’s all about the facial expression and the cultural relevance of the topic.
Step Three:
Now you have to add text. Many memes utilize a top text/bottom text structure. Concision is key. Top text often start with a verb because we assume the person/thing in the picture is the subject of the sentence. Here’s an example of text from a Bad Luck Brian meme:
Top text: Takes Shower.
Bottom Text: Drowns.
Here’s another meme that operates on the same principle of concision:
Step Four:
Let it go! The success of your meme depends on a combination of all the steps listed above, and timing. You can make your own memes at http://www.quickmeme.com/make/.
A similar kind of “gotcha!” moment happened here a month or so ago.
The dispute: When do you use I vs. Me or Them vs. They and how do you teach that distinction?
This link gives some explanation.
There is still much disagreement here about this issue. The Grammar Book (Celce-Murcia/Larsen-Freeman) says:
[In] verbless elliptical utterances, the object pronoun sometimes replaces the subject form, which would be expected in a complete sentence or in a partially reduced sentence with a verb form.
As mentioned previously, in full sentences with the copula be, personal pronouns functioning as subject noun predicates used to take the subject form in formal English[.]
This usage is now changing even in formal English, and in informal English, the object form of the pronoun is definitely preferred[.]
However, the desire to use formal English and be “correct” has led some native speakers to use I even as a conjoined direct object or a conjoined object of a preposition.
These forms are becoming colloquially acceptable, and they are occurring with ever-increasing frequency even though they are prescriptively incorrect (305).
So, sometimes it’s correct to use either I/Me or They/Them.
But is it ever correct to use “sneaked” vs. “snuck?” Or to never use “snuck” because you thought, like Jen Garner, that the word never existed?
Conan FTW.
About wcatcudenver
The lighter, sometimes foul-mouthed side of the Writing Center @ CU Denver.
