by Naomi L. | September 18, 2013 | Blog, Creative Writing, Writer's Toolkit |
Who among us writers hasn’t found themselves doubting at one time or another whether the grammar in our writing was correct? I myself have at least three doubts regarding the previous sentence in this paragraph! We’ve probably all been in this situation before, getting stuck during the editing process over a comma we weren’t sure was correctly placed or the appropriate formatting for a citation. That’s why today’s Writer’s Toolkit review features a nifty handbook designed to aid writers through the trials of editing and revision: The Hodges Harbrace Handbook by Cheryl Glenn and Loretta Gray.
Book Summary
This handbook was one of the required materials for the online creative writing course I took through UC Berkeley. I currently own the 17th edition, published in 2009 with an MLA update, though at the time of writing this review, an 18th edition has already been released (and you can be sure that more will follow).
Originally published in 1941 by English professor John Hodges as the Harbrace Handbook of English, this book has since evolved into one of the richest English writing resources available today. The contents are organized into seven parts:
- Grammar
- Mechanics
- Punctuation
- Spelling and Diction
- Effective Sentences
- Writing
- Research and Documentation
Parts are subdivided into chapters and color-coded for your convenience (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Also included are a preface by the authors outlining new features and revisions for the current edition, a glossary of usage, a glossary of frequently used terms, and an index.
Pros
The first thing one might notice upon opening The Hodges Harbrace Handbook is the table of contents printed right into the back of the front cover and the first pages. At a glance, it’s clear how thorough this manual is, covering as many topics as possible from grammar and mechanics to proper usage of English in college-level writing. The table provides a quick guide to different sections and chapters, which are colored and numbered for easy reference.
As for the actual content, I find the explanations easy to understand, bearing in mind that the book is geared toward college students and above. To add to the educational experience, practice exercises are included within chapters, as are checklists for certain cases that come up in the editing process. Other notable features are the special boxes interspersed throughout the book: “Thinking Rhetorically” invites writers to consider the impact of their writing choices on their target audience; “Multilingual Writers” notes common areas of confusion for English learners, especially those for whom English is not a first language; and “Tech Savvy” provides helpful tips for using word-processing software, a useful feature for writers of the digital age. The last pages of the handbook include indexes for “Multilingual Writers” boxes, checklists and revision symbols.
One of my favorite details about the most recent editions of The Hodges Harbrace Handbook is the update for writers of modern times. As of the 17th edition, a new chapter titled “Online Writing” is included in the “Writing” part of the guide, and revisions reflect updates to MLA and APA guidelines and an expansion to a chapter on using writing software for business. Because of these updates, I would strongly advise against purchasing any edition of this handbook earlier than the 17th, published in 2009.
Cons
Honestly, this list is pretty short. In fact, the first issue I found with this handbook may have been due to error on my part. There were a couple of questions for which I couldn’t find answers in the handbook, either because I was searching for them in the wrong chapters or because they simply weren’t there. Also, the preface mentions some supplemental materials that are only available when bundled with the handbook at an additional cost. Not exactly a downside, but just a point to keep in mind if you’re looking for a complete learning experience to go with this guide.
Oh, and of course there’s the matter of price. A new latest-edition hard copy goes for over $80 on Amazon, which may seem steep to a student who only plans on using it for a semester. On the other hand, a prolific writer who needs to constantly edit and revise their work would probably find any price under $100 quite reasonable. As with any product, it’s all a matter of whether or not you feel you’d be able to get your money’s worth out of it.
Summary
Pros
- Versatile and thorough guide to the English language
- Well-organized contents
- Easy to understand
- In-chapter practice exercises
- Special boxes for “Thinking Rhetorically”, “Multilingual Writers” and “Tech Savvy” tips
- Extra indexes for “Multilingual Writers”, checklists and revision symbols
- Updated edition for writing in the modern age
Cons
- Possible missing information
- Supplemental materials available at additional cost
- Price ($80+ new on Amazon)
Conclusion
I highly recommend this handbook to any writer who puts as much effort into editing as into writing, if not more. Though I purchased my copy as a requirement for a class two years ago, I have since found it quite helpful when revising my work, and continue to use it today. Whether you’re looking for a complete guide to basic grammar or a full learning experience in the English language, The Hodges Harbrace Handbook is a great resource to keep handy, as much for the student writing for college as for the creative individual writing for life.
by Naomi L. | September 16, 2013 | Blog, Word of the Week |
Word: conflagration
Pronunciation: kahn-flə-GRAY-shən
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: an extensive fire that destroys a great deal of land or property
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
So I was looking through a stack of old SAT vocabulary flashcards when a rather interesting word suddenly jumped out at me. The moment I saw it, I paused and stared at the noun on the front side. “Conflagration”? What is that? I decided it was worth a shot to try and guess the definition, so I resisted the urge to turn the card over while I thought about what this word could mean. The event of being caught in the act of a crime? An offense of some sort? The act of having property taken away? No, wait, that last one is “confiscation”… Anyway, turns out none of my guesses were correct, though that isn’t to say they weren’t close…
A “conflagration” is, in simple terms, a great fire. To name an example, the incident mentioned on the SAT flashcard is the huge fire that resulted from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The word comes from the Latin verb conflagrare (translated as “to be consumed by fire”), which is comprised of the roots con- (denoting intensive force) and flagrare (meaning “to blaze”). Notably, this last verb is also the root of the word “flagrant”, meaning “obviously offensive”, which you can see was one of my first guesses for the definition of “conflagration”.
To be honest, I have virtually no memories of reading this word in context until recently, though I’m sure it must have appeared somewhere in my literature and/or history textbooks in grade school. Even if it does come up in a story I’ve read before, it probably didn’t call enough of my attention for me to remember it. That being said, I do think “conflagration” has a certain formal appeal to it, which is why I would most likely use it in non-fiction writing and poetry (especially rhyming poems, as there are tons of other words that end in -tion). I’m sure it would also be a good word to keep in mind for a scene in a thriller that involves a large destructive fire, since synonyms that don’t include the word “fire” seem to be relatively scarce. Either way, you can never have too great an understanding of the forces of nature, so be creative in working this noun into the context of your choice. Whether factual or poetic, “conflagration” is certainly an unusual and interesting word! Have fun!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
by Naomi L. | September 13, 2013 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
I don’t know what’s wrong. They used to play with me all the time. They used to pat my head and talk to me. Now they don’t look at me at all. What did I do?
Mom looks down, the way I do when I’m sad. She sits in the chair and looks at a bone in her hands. My bone. She knows I like bones. It must be for me. Can I have it? She won’t give it to me. She just stares at it. She just looks sad.
I wag my tail. Please smile, Mom! Look at me! I can take the bone. You don’t have to be sad now. I put my head in her lap. She still won’t move.
Dad comes down the stairs. I walk to him, but he walks right by me. Dad, what did I do? Was I bad?
The girls walk in the room. They have a frame with them. It has small girls just like them in it, and a dog too. They’re all sad when they look at it now. They used to laugh when they saw that frame. Please laugh. I don’t like when you’re sad. I like when you smile and pat my head and scratch my side when I lay down. I like when we run and play and swim. But they don’t want to do that now. I must have been bad.
Wait, I hear my name. What do they say? They all sit on the floor. I walk to them and sit down to hear.
They say they miss me. How can they miss me when I’m right here? They talk of how I was sick and it was hard for me to walk. Was I sick? Now I can walk. Now they talk of when they took me to the vet. Yes, that’s right. My heart hurt, and Mom came to see me. I was still with the vet when it all went dark. So how did I get here?
I know now why they’re sad. I was bad, sort of. I left them when my heart hurt too much. But I came back.
My heart still hurts when I see them all sad. Please, talk of good things. I know I have to make them smile. I walk to the box Mom left on the stand. I try to push it with my nose, and it falls on the floor. The top falls off, and small frames spill out in front of Mom. She gets scared, but Dad picks one up, one with the dog and the girls in the pool. He starts to smile. He starts to laugh.
They all grab a frame. I can see them smile now. I hear them laugh. The frames make them think good things. That’s what I want. I wag my tail, the way I do each time they laugh. I know they’ll be fine. Now they’ll smile when they think of me.
I see a light. I know I have to go to it. Not yet, though. First, I look at them all one more time. Then I lift my head up and bark. I don’t bark much, but I feel I should now. I can tell they heard me. They look up from the frames, and they smile. I walk to each of them and lick their face. I know deep down they can feel me.
I don’t want to leave now, but I have to. Mom, Dad, girls, I will miss you too. Thank you for the life I had with you. I love you all!
This short piece is based on What If? Exercise 52: “Practice Writing Good, Clean Prose”. The exercise is to write a short story using only single-syllable words, the objective being to develop a consciousness of word choice and learn to avoid writing flowery prose. The story I wrote is told from the perspective of a dog who has passed on, but doesn’t realize it until she spends one last day in her family’s presence as a ghost. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Dedicated to our beloved family dog, a gentle and loving chocolate Labrador who literally had a big heart. Though she passed away a few years ago, her memory will stay with us forever. We love you, Hershey!
Back to the story
by Naomi L. | September 11, 2013 | Blog, Creative Writing |
Hello, and welcome to another Writers Reveal (formerly Secret Subject Swap) post, brought to you by Emily Morgan of Emily Morgan Writes. This month’s topic was sent to me by Melissa, who suggested the prompt “When I grow up… Water”. Based on that idea, I decided to write about my thoughts as a child on what else besides a writer I wanted to be when I grew up. Thanks for the topic, Melissa!
The Dreams of Children
Elementary school is an important time in every person’s development. It’s that time when we learn the basic knowledge that will get us through the rest of our lives, when our minds are always buzzing with hundreds of questions about the world around us (or at least, mine was). It’s also a time when many of us start to think about what career paths we’d like to follow in the future.
When we were still children, grown-ups started asking us what we wanted to be when we were older, and those of us who took the question seriously began to ponder the possibilities. Some of us chose to become doctors. Some of us chose to become lawyers. Some of us chose to become scientists, or journalists, or politicians. Some of us chose to become athletes. And some of us chose to become artists.
But how many of us stuck to the first plan that came to mind? How many of us had only one plan to begin with?
I didn’t.
My Other Dream
Writing about what I wanted to be when I grew up is easy, but I still had to think about the last part of Melissa’s prompt: “water”. What could I say about “water”? I could write a fictional story about a young girl with a dream to study the ocean, but it would still be based heavily on real facts, because the truth is… that’s my story.
The first time I knew I wanted to be a writer was in the fourth grade. Creative writing was my greatest passion at the time, and I knew in my heart it was a decision that I was going to stick to for the rest of my life. But writing wasn’t the only career I wanted to pursue when I was a kid, because I had another passion: science.
Ever since I was about six years old, my favorite animal has been the bottlenose dolphin, mostly for its incredible intelligence and playful nature. Having spent a large part of my childhood living in southern Florida, my parents used to take us to Orlando all the time, where we’d visit all the big theme parks, including Sea World. It was there that I really developed a major interest in marine mammals, and I loved the attractions with dolphins so much that I eventually decided I wanted to be a dolphin trainer.
Over time, my passion for dolphins grew into a passion for ocean life in general, so that by the time I was in high school, my original plan had evolved from pursuing dolphin training to studying marine science. Years later, I graduated from university, and I now have a Bachelor’s degree in Biology.
From Dreams to Reality
So now what? Now I’m pursuing both my chosen career paths: creative writing and marine biology. I’m still doing research at my university while I prepare to start working toward a Master’s degree in Ecology, specializing in marine environments. In the meantime, I’m working on this blog to develop my skills and my identity as a writer, and I’m writing stories to release the creative energy inside me.
But these two paths are certainly not mutually exclusive. As a writer, I plan to draw from my experiences in science to write sci-fi stories with as much accurate detail as possible. As a biologist, I need to be skillful at writing to turn out high-quality papers for scientific journals, not to mention I need to be a creative thinker. In short, being able to follow both these paths is a wonderful experience, a real dream come true. I’m a scientist by day, an artist by night, and a dreamer by always.
What about you? What else did you want to do in life besides writing?
This has been a special topic post in Emily Morgan’s Writers Reveal. To learn more, just follow the button below to her site, and be sure to check out the other blogs participating in the event. Thanks for reading!
Other bloggers in the Writers Reveal
Melissa Khalinsky: Melissa Writes
Jodi Gibson: JFGibson
Becky Fyfe: Imagine! Create! Write!
Josefa: Always Josefa
Rhianna: A Parenting Life
Ashley Howland: Ghostnapped
Zanni: My Little Sunshine House
by Naomi L. | September 9, 2013 | Blog, Word of the Week |
Word: loquacious
Pronunciation: loh-KWAY-shəs
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: talkative
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
Tulio: Any last words?
Miguel: I will cut you to ribbons!
Tulio: Fool! Such mediocrity! Let your sword do the talking!
Miguel: I will, it will be loquacious to a fault!
– The Road to El Dorado (2000)
Anyone who ever enjoyed animated films as much as my sisters and I did (and still do, at least in my case) probably remembers a rather entertaining Dreamworks film from 2000 titled The Road to El Dorado, which tells the story of two con artists from 16th-century Spain and the adventure that leads them to El Dorado, the lost city of gold, in the New World. Aside from countless laughs shared with my sisters and about half a dozen Elton John songs that I couldn’t get out of my head, this movie also brings back the memory of the first time I heard the word “loquacious” used in a sentence. Of course, it would still be a few years before I understood what Miguel was saying while pretending to duel with Tulio, for it wasn’t until I looked up the meaning of this word that I recognized his comment for the comically poetic retort it was intended to be.
Put simply, a “loquacious” person is someone who is naturally talkative. The word stems from the Latin adjective loquax, which basically means “talkative”. This word, in turn, has roots in the Latin verb loqui, meaning “to talk” or “to speak”. “Loquacious” is also believed to have originated in the mid 17th-century, which, when you think about it, makes its use in the setting of The Road to El Dorado an anachronism. But who really cares about such details when it comes to a children’s movie, right?
It should be noted that while “loquacious” is another word for “talkative”, the two adjectives aren’t exactly synonyms. A “talkative” person is usually ready and willing to engage in conversation, while a “loquacious” person is often considered excessively chatty, possibly to the point of being annoying. Therefore, one could read Miguel’s comment about his “talkative sword” as a little redundant, though I don’t believe it takes away from the hilarity of the show he and Tulio put on as a cover to escape from the authorities!
Tulio: Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve decided it’s a draw!
Miguel: Thank you all for coming! You’ve been great, see you soon!
Tulio: Adios!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
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