1). This article (though somewhat old) mentions Facebook posts as a kind of genre. Can you briefly describe how comfortable you feel composing a piece of writing in this genre? Do you feel more comfortable than someone much older than you — your Grandmother, for instance? Why do you think this older person might not write as well in Facebook as you do? What are some of the mistakes they might make?
I post to Facebook (FB) all the time and I am very comfortable doing so. I also write blogs and comments very regularly.
I wouldn’t say that I feel more comfortable than someone older than me, as I encounter many people much older than me on FB all the time – I actually find them to be much more clever, witty and very funny with their comments.
2) Dirk gives a few examples of titles in The Onion (a newspaper that was founded in 1988 at a college, btw). What was your favorite title?
My favorite title from the examples that Dirk gave from the list of titles from The Onion is: “Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race of Skeleton People”.
3) On page 258, Dirk describes the rules we carry around in our head before we start writing in a particular genre. What are some of the rules you carry around in your head? Is there a particular genre in which you struggle to write?
Some of the rules I carry around in my head are: commas are meant to be used to fragment run-on sentences or to give readers a chance to breath when reading out loud, a paragraph doesn’t need to be indented anymore, writing must have good structures – a beginning, middle and an end, and the conclusion should sum-up what you just wrote about; to name a few.
I find that I am having a rough time writing my scientific papers. I tend to write narratively and research papers are meant to be written by stating the facts and being very objective – straight to the point with as few words possible.
