My Smart

I love that I am able to write well.  A lot of people talk about how much they love to read – and I do love that too – but there is no better feeling than being able to craft effective sentences and to insert your own sense of style.

 I wrote an email to the English department today during my break period, and I got to use a whole mess of fifty-cent words:

 preclude

endeavor

inclusion

antithetical

capacity

procrastinators (why dies this end in –ors when other words <such as thinkers and doers and writers> end in –ers?  What came up with the rules for this screwy language anyhow?)

discretion

ideally

maddening

ramblings

legacy

 

I mean, I know others know these words and use them, but it just EXCITES ME to be able to put sentences together so well.

 I know, it’s silly.

But as I was writing this email, I kept thinking that teachers could use it as a great example of style and voice: 

 I merged big words with a casual style. 

I threw in the odd phrasing to offset the big words. (Example, I suggested that teachers “back-burner” an idea.) 

I used red and bold to be sure my important ideas stood out. 

I used intentional sentence fragments.

I used dashes as hyper-commas, to set off a non-essential clause

I used semicolons in a series because I also used parenthetic asides within that list

I used parentheses effectively to add information that was needed but not vital

I used sentence fragment to reinforce an idea.  Two in a row, actually.

I wrote a sentence that was 40 words long.  You’d never know unless you counted

I used ellipses to determine pacing and set up a sense of irony.

I used a question to indicate dismay.

I used a numbered list to outline what I needed my readers to do.

I used brackets to offset a parenthetical comment within a parenthetical comment

I varied short sentences with long sentences to please the mental ear

I used a beautifully-placed colon to show that my second sentence clearly reinforced and developed the one that came before

I ended with a pun

 

As I said, I know it’s silly.  But to me, this is like posting a picture of myself being pretty and making duck lips at the camera.  But instead of showing you my pretty, I am showing you my smart.