Fine Design

          First off I want to start by making note this is the only class in the history of my school career where I have actually needed the very expensive book I was required to purchase. So thank you for actually putting my money too use!

          Chapter 18 is all about the design elements and options you have for your paper. "The design decisions you make will play a critical role in how your readers understand, react to, and work with your document"(285). It has several very useful tips on how to best lay your paper out, such as, how to use font size and typeface to catch a readers attention. A lot of the tips come off as a little obvious to be fair, but they are really good tips. The most useful part in this chapter, at least for me, is near the end when they break down several articles into their design elements. I found it really helpful to see the things they discussed during the chapter put into play in actual magazine articles.

Chapter 15: How to Use People

   

Ok so how to use people sets a negative tone to this chapter so let’s use the phrase they use. Chapter 15: Using Sources Effectively. Ok so that title explains it all, this chapter is just about how to best implement your sources into your work. It discusses using relevant sources, how to present conflicting sources, as well as how to use sources to support your assertions. That is all covered in the first half of the chapter, the second half the focus shifts from how to best use a source to how to properly use the source. They talk about how to properly quote someone such as the correct way to do block quotes or partial quotes. This is good to know... correction, this is essential to know in order to avoid accidently plagiarizing someone when you simply meant to quote or present their ideas as theirs. It would be awful to fail a class or worse because of plagiarism, when you honestly thought you were giving your sources their due.

Sweet 16

            Chapter sixteen is all about jazzing up your writing. The main focus is on developing sentences into clear concise and entertaining paragraphs. you cant have a mundane paper or no one will want to read. It also gives a helpful hit on developing your voice that I couldn't agree with more and that is READ. The more books, articles, and journals you read the more different writing styles you'll encounter. This will help you find sentence structures you like and also find style you may think to avoid. I was happy to see that several of the tips for improving your style I already implement, or at least try to implement into my writing. I also made note that several of the things to avoid I seem to occasionally implement into my writing. Of coarse this is a good thing to have pointed out; why would I work on fixing it if I don't think its wrong.