Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies » November 30th: Words and Word Classes

November 30th: Words and Word Classes

Ch. 12: Words and Word Clauses

I think much of this chapter is review, so we’ll treat it as such. That’s nice because you have a cumulative Final Exam in two weeks (12/12)! I hope you’ve been paying attention and doing the reading. Then again, the final’s only 10% of your entire grade…

Types of Nouns

You probably know that nouns describe people, places, things, and ideas. I like Kolln & Gray’s definition based on form: “A noun is a word that can be made plural and/or possessive” (p. 197). Nouns are one of the parts of speech, and you use them without thinking about that. Let’s consider some types of nouns and rules, pet peeves, and good suggestions.

Countable/Non-countable Nouns

Pretty simple definition. If you can count individual items, you have a countable noun; if the noun is more conducive to a mass–a mass or abstract noun–it’s a non-countable noun. Non-countable nouns (pasta, homework, democracy, etc.) don’t sound right with an indefinite article in front of them (a or an) or in a plural form, such as pastas.*

*Of course, pasta comes from another language that does make the word plural (paste), but that refers to types of pasta: penne, spaghetti, linguine, macaroni, etc. In English, it is more standard to refer to multiple pasta forms as “types of pasta.” Then again, some people call marinara sauce gravy and the noodles spaghetti regardless of the exact type of pasta used…Even worse, Voldemort used to want bland sauce or–it pains me to mention this–butter and salt on her pasta.

The most important thing to remember about these nouns is when to use fewer/less, amount of/number of, and much/many. If you can count individual items, use fewer, number of, and many:

  • Light beer has fewer calories than regular beer.
  • If we reduce the number of cars on the road, we can cut down on pollution.
  • How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man? (Bob Dylan “Blowin in the Wind”)

If the noun doesn’t have discrete items to count, use less, amount of, and much:

  • Light beer has less taste than IPAs. {This is a fact, by the way.}
  • The amount of fat in buffalo wings is enormous.
  • How much (money) for that doggie in the window?
    • When taking specific currency, use “many”:
    • How many dollars did you make?

On currency, euro is singular and plural, but languages vary on this standard: see England’s and Italy’s usage. While we’re here, ever wonder about compound possessives? I’m sure you have. Notice the difference in the following:

  • Alison and Aaron’s cat is an adorable black kitten.
    • We share one cat, so you only make the second word possessive (‘s).
  • Alison’s and his cat is adorable.
    • If the compound possessive uses a pronoun (his in the case), the noun that comes first is possessive.
  • Alison’s and Aaron’s cars are Hondas.
    • This shows we have two different cars that happen to be Hondas.
    • Too bad they aren’t Lexus vehicles…
  • England’s and Italy’s usage is different.
  • Here, the usage is different in the different countries. English speakers often say “euros” for plural, but Italians use “euro” for singular and plural.

Revision needed: The number of pollutions individuals creates is far fewer than the number families generate; therefore, have less children to protect the environment.

Make sure you review the Group Discussion on pp. 195-196. Pay particular attention to #5.

  • We have less than ten dollars to last until payday.

Should you change it to “fewer than ten dollars” because ten, a number, is countable? In standard usage, we say less with money and distance, especially in these situations:

  • I have less than $5,000 saved.
  • This $19.99 price is less than $20!
  • The Flying Saucer is less than five miles from my house.

At this point in your college careers, you shouldn’t be blindly repeating rules; instead, you should be able to explain why some word or phrasing or punctuation is more standard than another. Check out this link for a brief discussion on the less vs fewer issue.

For Group Discussion (pp. 195-196)

Make sure to do this exercise on your own, but consider that when countable nouns are distances, sums of money, units of time, and statistical enumerations, we often think of them as amounts rather than numbers.

Collective Nouns

These nouns, “nam[ing] a group of individual members,” require context to decide if they should be singular or plural (Kolln & Gray 198). When you refer to the entity as a whole, use the singular; when you refer to the individual members, use the plural.

  • The faculty go their separate ways when the semester is over.
  • The faculty is revolting against upper-administration.

Remember, some, all, and enough will often use the singular form of the verb. But notice the subject-verb agreement of the following:

  • Some of the class is doing well.
  • Some of my students are doing well in class.

Do Exercise #38 on p. 200 to reinforce this material.

Adjectives

We’ve covered adjectives in general, but we haven’t had any fun or funner discussions. Consider the following chart with comparatives and superlatives:

PositiveComparativeSuperlative
bigbiggerbiggest
tinytiniertiniest
heavyheavierheaviest
randomrandomerrandomest
sarcasticmore sarcasticmost sarcastic

What’s the rule?

Now, turn to pp. 210-211 in Barrett’s Perfect English Grammar and think more about funner things…wait! Why is “funner” not a word? Doesn’t it follow the comparative rule above?

Adverbs

These verb modifiers are your friends. Identify the usage rules for the following adjectives and adverbs.

  • The slow driver drove slowly in the slowest Honda ever made.
  • My fast Acura gets me home fast; in fact, I’m home faster than my not-so-fast neighbor.
  • The graceful dancer twirled gracefully across the stage; she performed more gracefully than her fellow performers.

Speaking of “not-so-fast neighbor,” if you’re interested in learning more about when to hyphenate, here’s a great resource, particularly Rules 10-12. Barrett has a cleaner discussion of compound nouns on pp. 113-116 and a discussion of compound adjectives and written numbers needing hyphens (or not) on pp. 192-193.

Also, remember that language conventions change over time, and we tend to close compounds after a while. Also, as we learned (I think we did this) with “high-temperature oxidation” and “high-water mark,” conventions might be different based on different style guides. For instance, what about these words below?

  • video games
  • videogames
  • video gamer vs videogamer
  • video-game player

Wired magazine has a standard: “when in doubt, close it up” (very bottom of webpage). Just be consistent, and consult your specific style guide:

  • MLA Style for hyphens …this is the Modern Language Association
    • not to be confused with the Medical Library Association style
  • APA Style for hyphens
  • Chicago Manual of Style for hyphens
    • Take a look at 7.80: Terms like “web” and “internet”

One more thing…

  • webpage
  • web page
  • Web page

I know, I know…”just give us the $&*%#*@ answer!” It depends on your style guide or organization’s preference, but I’ve noticed a move to “webpage” as the standard.

Qualifiers

I mainly want us to focus on the rhetorical aspects of these words. If you read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, you may recall Newspeak, the campaign to reduce the number (or amount…) of words in the English language. Instead of excellent or close synonyms, they wanted doubleplusgood. Kolln & Gray tell us qualifiers “modif[y] an adjective or adverb…amplif[ying] or diminish[ing] the meaning of the word it precedes” (p. 205). I don’t want to tell you to eliminate qualifiers, but try to limit them by picking more precise verbs.

  • The manager very softly spoke to his lawyer.
  • The manager muttered to his lawyer.

Your turn. Change the underlined words to more precise verbs:

  • They very quickly ran across the field.
  • The cat very quietly walked across the couch. {Maybe keep one qualifier…but what do cats do quietly? Not sing, of course.}
    • My cat stalks across the couch.
    • Isn’t she adorable?!?

Do the few sentences from Exercise #40 on pp. 205-206. I have suggestions for #2 and #4 below:

  • #2: The foreman gives his orders in a very abrupt manner.
    • The foreman gives his orders in a blunt manner.
    • The foreman gives his orders in a brusque manner.
    • The foreman gives orders abruptly.
      {Does this lose any meaning?}
  • #4: The basketball players seemed really tired as they took the court for the second half.
    • The basketball players seemed exhausted as they took the court for the second half.

Phrasal Verbs

Ever heard not to end a sentence with a preposition? I’m sure it’s something you’ve heard about. Although you may still want to avoid that if you’re writing to someone with an old-school approach to grammar (meaning–outdated), don’t lose too much sleep over it. The following are easy fixes:

  • Where will you be at?
  • At where will you be?
  • Where will you be?

Sometimes using the 2nd approach sounds pretentious and out of place. Know your audience. Also, know what is and is not a preposition. Words can be in multiple parts of speech. Phrasal verbs consist of multiple (usually just two) words, a verb and what looks like a preposition. Verb particles don’t have to follow the verb, but prepositional phrasal verbs do. Consider the following:

  • I looked up your phone number. (particle)
  • I looked up the street. (preposition)
  • I looked up to you. ( particle )
  • I looked up at you. (preposition)

*Highlight the ( ) with your mouse to see the secret.

Notice how you can move the particle up in a different version of the 1st sentence:

  • I looked your phone number up.

If someone attempts to correct you, make them explain the rule. When they can’t, tell them this:

  • Your inability to use English correctly is something up with I’ll not put.

Tell them to “think about it,” and walk away. It’s your mic drop moment.

Pronouns

I only want to pause on two aspects of pronoun usage: 1) hypercorrections and 2) they as the gender-neutral pronouns.

Hypercorrections

  • Buy a beer for Rick and I. (for me)
  • If you have any questions, address them to myself or one of the staff members. (to whom?)
    • This one is particularly pretentious, and you hear it often in formal situations: politicians speaking to the press, business leaders addressing a conference, and managers who don’t really know correct usage.
    • The sentence should read, “If you have any questions, address them to me or one of the staff members.”
  • I glued myself to myself.

Below I don’t have a hypercorrection but an ellipsis. Which is correct and why?

  • You are taller than I.
  • You are taller than me.

Gender in Language

The English language is sexist, and I can easily prove that with one word, but that’s for another context. Kolln & Gray (p. 209) don’t recommend using they as a gender-neutral singular pronoun. However, Barrett claims there’s a 600-year tradition of using they or them as a gender-neutral singular pronoun (pp. 154-156). I advocate using “they” as a singular pronoun. However, be aware of the revision possibilities if you know your audience–possibly the group paying you–has an issue. Like most problems with sexism and racism, they lessen over time as people…expire.

I do recommend following Kolln & Gray’s advice for making subjects plural to avoid labeling gender. I highly advise not using his or her as in:

  • A reporter must leave out his or her personal opinions.

This phrasing has been an interesting 30-year or so experiment. However, while it’s better than using the masculine pronoun to stand for all genders, it still maintains a gender binary of masculine OR feminine, and we’re well beyond such a reductive concept. FULL DISCLOSURE: in work I’ve published and class materials, I’ve used his or her. And, when I’m not careful cutting and pasting, I let his or her back in. I’m fully committed to using they, them, their as both third-person singular and plural and will not apologize in the least. In fact, here’s what I wrote on this subject in the video game book:

It is past time for English to have non-gendered singular pronouns. I use they, their, them, and themselves for both plural and singular pronouns instead of maintaining the he/she binary.

Toscano, Aaron. Video Video Games and American Culture: How Ideology Influences Virtual Worlds. Lexington Books, 2020, note 14, p. 15.

Of course, there was slip…I wrote one chapter nearly ten years before the book was finished (it was an article that got rejected because the editors of the journal were unappreciative of the work) and still had that his or her style choice. Even after my thorough, no doubt impeccable, proofreading, this happened:

  • Once a player understands the grammar of the game, he or she is rewarded by pursuing the best strategy. (p. 87)

Ouch! I also wish I could say that that was the only error I found. It is much easier to proofread someone else’s work then [sic] your own.

Ch. 17: More Usage and Style

This was a quick chapter, so I’m not going to repeat what it tells us. I do have to address funner and funnest. These much-maligned words should be standard usage. I was floored that no one in the English Department understood why they were nonstandard even though they follow the superlative rules above.

Please heed Barrett’s advice to stop double spacing after your sentences (p. 215). Unless you’re using a typewriter–and I’m nearly certain none of you have ever even seen one outside of a museum or movie–you don’t need those double spaces. If you do find you have to edit a document where the author put two spaces after each period, there’s an easy solution. Using Find and Replace, put two spaces in the Find text box and a single space in the Replace text box. Issue solved.

Find and Replace command in Microsoft Word.
Please note that the underscores are supposed to be spaces. Don’t search for ‘_ _’ and replace with ‘-‘.

For my dissertation, which I wrote on a computer, I used two spaces after periods because my committee was still set on that standard, and you write to your audience. When I revised my dissertation into a book, removing those spaces was easy. By the way, reversing this–adding a second space after a period–isn’t an easy fix. Because you have, presumably, a single space between each word, so the universal Find and Replace won’t work. You’d need to Find period + space and Replace with period + two spaces. Of course, you might have periods that don’t just end sentences, so your editing strategy might be a bit more tedious.

Did anyone catch the mistake in Barrett’s Ch. 17? Well, look over p. 211. There will be a final exam bonus question on it. Remember, the page has four corners…

Also, he approves of funner and funnest! Even WordPress puts red squiggles under them, but don’t give in to techno-standardization!

Next Class

Well, there is no “next class,” but you do have your Portfolios due next week, December 7th. The ENGL 5183 students have their bonus Rhetorical Analysis Assignment and Presentation due on Canvas–but those are only for ENGL 5183 students.

Your Final Exam will be December 12th, but I hope to have it available on Friday, Dec. 9th. You’ll just have to finish that two and a half hour behemoth by 11:00 pm on Monday, December 12th.

Skip to toolbar
  • Log In