Eruantale http://eruantale.net Words, words, words Tue, 29 May 2012 01:04:42 +0000 en hourly 1 46.365773-124.050224http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gifSome Rights Reservederuantalehttp://feedburner.google.com The Bookshelf: May 28 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/0rdHwe9Mi14/ http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-28/#comments Tue, 29 May 2012 01:04:42 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1899 The Bookshelf.A daily dose of books, movies and blog posts handpicked for your consumption.

Where Did Good Christian Fiction Go? – Finally, someone articulates the way I feel whenever someone asks me if I am going to write Christian fiction. I always experience the awkward moment of answering, “No.” I sincerely dislike most Christian fiction on the market. Much of it is absolutely terrible literature. I am not a writer of Christian fiction. I am a Christian who writes books, and I am also a person who believes in seeing the world as it actually is. Sanitized and didactic writing was for another era. I embrace my role as a post-modernism writer and will continue to explore Gilda Radner’s “delicious ambiguity.” Yum.

You Asked: Dedication to Medication – If you still store your medication in a medicine cabinet, it’s time to relocate it to another area of the house.

Finding Portland – This video of Portland, OR will take your breath away. I was awestruck when I watched it. “Wow,” I thought. “This is the place where I live.” A must see.

20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world – Sometimes English isn’t enough to express everything. “Mamihlapinatapei” is my favorite.

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]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-28/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-28/ How to Write a Great Term Paper http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/qgSB5A4-MY4/ http://eruantale.net/2012/term-paper/#comments Sun, 27 May 2012 22:23:54 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1900 In the great college debate over which assignment you would prefer to assess your learning at the end of the semester—a final exam or a term paper—I usually side with the term paper. I am, after all, an English major. However, a term paper can be a grade boosting opportunity for students of any major if they use good paper writing practices.

How to Write a Great Term Paper

Usually when my peers are having trouble, it’s because they’ve skipped a step in the process, and their grade suffers as a result. The same thing happens to me when I am pressed for time even though I know how to write papers very well. This is the process that I have used every time I have written a paper that has earned great marks. Beware! This is a long post—but I think it will be highly beneficial to anyone who dreads the paper writing process. And hopefully a little bit entertaining.

Follow Instructions

Before you do anything, review the instructions for your assignment. You need to know what your professor wants so that you don’t waste time or get docked points because you didn’t read the fine print. Make two checklists for your assignment. The first should be technical aspects. It might look like this:

  • 10-12 pages double-spaced
  • 8 sources
  • 6 of them peer-reviewed
  • MLA format
  • Annotated bibliography

Wuthering Heights Book CoverYour second checklist should consist of what your teacher is asking you to do in your paper. Does your literature professor want you to identify elements of the Gothic aesthetic in a novel? Does your writing professor want you to present both sides of a controversial issue? Does your biology instructor want you to explain how chickens reproduce? Does your philosophy professor want you to compare and contrast Plato and Kant? What questions is your professor asking you to answer?

Jot down a concise list of what you need to cover and then center your topic around these crucial questions. Do not write eight rambling pages about the life of Emily Brontë and then tack on a few pages that actually identify the Gothic aesthetic in Wuthering Heights. (Come on. You don’t want it to sound like Heathcliff wrote it.)

Know Your Primary Source

If you are supposed to write a paper about Macbeth, read the play. If you’re supposed to use your textbook in your paper, know the chapter very well. Your teacher expects you to at least know that material.

If you are not assigned or required to select a primary text, make sure you have a good topic that is neither too big (Czech culture) or too small (the Czech food card in Portland). Sometimes you may need to do some initial research to decide on a topic. Never get too fixed on an idea until you know that you can find appropriate sources to use in your paper. Usually I find that I have to adjust my focus based on available research.

Information Overload

The next step in the paper writing process is something I like to call information overload. This always involves a trip to the library or the library’s website. This does not usually involve a visit to Wikipedia or a mere Google search that leads me to websites maintained by a blogger named “memekitty.”

Search the library catalog for sources on your topic and then move onto library databases. I usually ask a librarian to help me construct my search terms in order to narrow down my results to what is truly relevant to my topic. You can filter searches by articles that are peer-reviewed or articles that have full text available online if you are in a hurry.

Don’t stop after finding the precise number of sources that you need. Keep going until you have either exhausted your possibilities or until you have about twice as many sources as necessary so that you have many options in case some turn out to be duds.

Photo of a library

Once you have gathered your research, find a good place to sit and read for a while. Read over each of your sources, preferably with a writing utensil or sticky tabs so that you can mark anything that seems important. You should look for connection points between sources and between your research and your primary source or topic. Your professors want to see you bounce sources off of each other and weave relevant research into your own ideas.

After reading and evaluating each source, determine which ones you will use in your paper. I will typically physically separate the sources I will use from those I will not and put them in alphabetical order. Compare your source list against the checklist you made earlier. Make sure that everything is there. If you need more, go back to the library.

If you’re set, then now is the time to make your Works Cited page or Bibliography. If it needs to be annotated, now is also the time to do that while the information is fresh. Doing this first accomplished two things: you feel as if you have at least completed part of the assignment and you can easily type your in text citations while you write.

Process

At this point you have a pile of good sources and a bunch of notes that sort of connect them, but probably only a vague sense of precisely what you will write. That’s okay. Now is the time to process all of the information you’ve collected. Ideally, you should allow yourself a few days to do this. Let your mind think over your topic throughout the day—while walking to class, taking a shower, etc. Talk over your research and ideas with others or even to yourself.

Almost every time I write anything of importance, I talk out my ideas while I’m taking a shower. I do this for a few reasons. Usually there are few external distractions while I’m in the shower. It’s also relaxing and it wakes me up if I am working late at night or early in the morning. I also find that when I think out loud, I don’t take wrong turns in my multitasking brain and end up in the land of I-should-really-clean-that or Crap-I-need-to-send-that-email.

Another good processing method that I employ is trying to capture all of my notes and ideas on paper. You can use simple lists or the classic bubble method that your teachers taught you in grade school. I will usually write out questions about my topic while I do this and try to answer them. Eventually, if you have done good research, a solid conception of what you will write about should begin to emerge out of this process. Your brain is designed to do do this—trust yourself and keep working on it. If you find that you’re having a lot of trouble, you might want to go to a writing tutor or a librarian to help guide you.

Thesis Statement

At this point, constructing a solid thesis statement should be quite simple. You may already have a partial thesis statement based on your initial topic choice, but now that you have conducted all of your research you have a better idea of the focus of your paper. Make sure your thesis statement is a dense sentence (or sometimes it’s several sentences) that encompasses your whole paper. It should usually make a specific claim rather than merely stating what you will be writing about. Ensure that your thesis statement is easy to identify for your professor. If your thesis is weak and indistinguishable from the rest of your introduction, you may get marked down.

Organize

Johann Heinrich Fussli 'The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth'Before I actually start writing, I always find it useful to do a little organizational work to help ensure that my paper will flow smoothly from one idea to the next. It’s not always necessary to create a detailed outline of your paper, but without something to guide you, good ideas can be butchered by a jumbled presentation. Minimally, I recommend taking a post-it note and writing a simple structure for your paper. Here is an example from a paper I wrote about three different approaches to Lady Macbeth:

  • Introduction
  • Unnatural view
  • Supernatural view
  • Natural view
  • Conclusion

This simple structure will help you in several ways. First, you can focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time. This is much less overwhelming than sitting down and trying to get the whole picture onto paper all at one. Second, it allows you to layer your ideas or build up your argument. For this paper, I examined the first two ways of viewing Lady Macbeth critically and then argued in favor of the third interpretation. I was able to build my argument upon the problems of interpretation presented by the other views.

You can take this basic structure and expand it as much as you want. I usually do not make a large outline, but I will often expand my list depending on a paper’s length requirement. If a paper must be eight pages, as my example was, I usually try to make an eight or nine point outline. For example:

  1. Introduction (half a page)
  2. Unnatural view (one page)
  3. Rejection of womanhood (one page)
  4. Supernatural view (one page)
  5. Demonic possession (one page)
  6. Natural view (one page)
  7. Complex humanity (one page)
  8. Contrast against Macbeth (one page)
  9. Conclusion (half a page)

This is even better than the outline above because now I also have a word count goal for each section. I can treat the paper as a series of nine short writing assignments rather than one overwhelming essay.

I find that this reduces the stress of writing a paper considerably. “How can I possibly write nine pages about that?” turns into “I only have to write one page about Tertullian’s view” followed by, “Okay, now I only have to write one page about Augustine’s view.”

This method also helps ensure that you have a well-balanced paper by forcing you to a.) avoid “Yay! This is my favorite part of the play!” rabbit trails and b.) write a solid chunk of text about the parts that make you groan.

Write

After doing so much prep work, you should be able to annihilate this paper. Focus on your outline and your research and you should be fine. Move through your ideas systematically. The trick is to get in the writing zone and then keep going.

If you are not sure how to word something, make it bold or highlight it so that you can come back and perfect it later. The same tip applies when you are not sure how you should bridge two paragraphs or connect ideas. Your mind may be making the connection but the words aren’t there. That’s okay. Mark it and keep going. Once you’re finished with the paper, go back to these trouble spots and fill in the blanks.

This is how I write everything—novels, blog posts, outlines, newsmagazine articles, poems, whatever. Never allow a momentary lapse to get in the way of your writing. The act of writing is not a one-time performance; it is something that can be perfected over time. Take advantage of this quirk of the medium. You don’t have to get it right the first time.

A few more tips for the writing process:

Type in citations as you go. It’s a waste of time to look up page numbers later.

While we’re talking about citations: always look up the quote before making any claims based upon it. Memory is a faulty thing. You might recall Aristotle saying something—it doesn’t mean that he did. Make sure you are quoting correctly.

Unless otherwise instructed, always (and I mean always) write in the third person.

State your claim and do not apologize for your ideas. Eliminate “it seems” from your writing.

Bad example of stating your claim:

“It seems that there may kindasortamaybe be some little teeny tiny inkling of support for the idea that Hamlet’s delay could theoretically be influenced by the clash of potentially hypothetical conflicting identities.”

Good example of stating your claim:

“Hamlet’s delay is influenced by the clash of conflicting identities.”

Wrap your paper up with a robust finale. Don’t just let it trail off. Endings are just as important as beginnings.

Review

Odysseus by WaterhousePhew! You just typed the final full stop in the conclusion of your paper and the printer is calling your name. Get your compatriots to tie you to the mast and resist the call.

Once you have finished your paper, you need to find someone who is a better writer than you to look over it. Maybe this is your roommate, your English major buddy, or a writing tutor at school. Ask them to ruthlessly peer review it. If they don’t like to carry around a red pen in their bag and ask you obnoxiously deep questions about your paper, they are not qualified for the job.

When they give you back their review, you are to actually incorporate as many of their suggestions as possible unless you are sure that they are wrong. Do this as a favor to the reviewer. If your friend spends an hour going over your paper in order to help you earn a better grade, you had better make the changes that they recommend or angry leprechauns are going to come and beat your backside with a Norton. Not really. But I wish.

After making the changes suggested by your reviewer, let the paper sit for 24 hours if you have the time. If you don’t have a night to sleep on it, wait at least an hour and then go through the paper systematically to check for spelling, punctuation, grammar and formatting errors. Read the paper out loud if you can. If you can’t, force yourself to read it word. by. word. It will be annoying, but it prevents your brain from automatically fixing any sentence errors while you scan the text.

All errors eliminated? Great. Now give your paper an awesome title. Print it out and scan over the printed copy one more time to make sure that you didn’t miss anything. This is absolutely vital.

Once, I stayed up late finishing an essay and printed it out without realizing that my printer was running out of paper. I turned in the paper the next morning and came home that afternoon to print out something else. My computer told me to load paper in the printer. No big deal. I loaded the paper and the printer spat out three more pages of my essay. I almost had a heart attack when I realized what had happened. Luckily, I was able to turn in the rest of the paper without incident. However, another professor may have assumed I was just trying to get an excuse to turn in my essay late.

Moral of the story: always check your final printed copy.

Final Thoughts

Although I find this process to be highly effective, it may not work for everyone. Don’t be discouraged if you try it and find that it is not very helpful for you. Many of us learn, work, and think differently. Furthermore, this process does not guarantee that you will get an A grade on a paper. It does, however, guarantee that you will engage in intense and thoughtful scholarship. Did I just trick you into being a real scholar to make the grade? Oh snap.

Title photo credit: readerwalker at Flickr. Licensed by Creative Commons.

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]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/term-paper/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/term-paper/ Write What You Don’t Know http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/2evvCe_KL_8/ http://eruantale.net/2012/write-what-you-dont-know/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 18:07:31 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1889 Related posts:

  • How to Write a Great Term Paper
    • ]]> A photo of a woman looking up.The classic writing advice given to every beginning writer is: write what you know. In the simplest sense, this means don’t start out by writing a story about a character who lives in first-century Rome unless you happen to know a whole lot about living in first-century Rome. In a broader sense, this means write about situations and emotions that you have actually experienced first-hand. Be real. Dredge up the bits and pieces of your life that are unique to you. Some of these experiences may be uncomfortable, but they are true. Write what you know.

    But also write what you don’t know. Write about the things that don’t make sense to you. Don’t limit yourself to the things you have sorted out inside of your head. Write about the questions you can’t always answer. Why did she have to die? How can human beings do this to each other? Why do we do things that don’t make us happy? Should I be laughing at this? What am I going to do next year? What would have happened if it had not turned out this way?

    Write about the things that make you grossly uncomfortable. Write about what you don’t understand. You wrestle with huge questions on a day to day basis—your characters should wrestle with them too. The fascinating thing about literature is that it helps us find answers for ourselves even without giving us the answers. And more importantly: it reminds us that others are asking the same questions.

    Photo Credit: white ribbons on Flickr.

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    • ]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/write-what-you-dont-know/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/write-what-you-dont-know/ Bridal Shower Games http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/6gUJKv_q7po/ http://eruantale.net/2012/bridal-shower-games/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 20:06:08 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1880 Related posts:

  • Lovebirds Bridal Shower
    • ]]> My favorite bridal shower game is always the one where you ask the groom questions and the bride has to try to guess how he would answer. We did this at my cousin’s bridal shower on Saturday and it was a big hit. I also had the guests guess which questions the bride would get right. If I had more time before the shower, I would have recorded the groom’s answers so that she could have seen him answer on video.

    Here’s what we asked the groom:

    1. What color are your eyes?
    2. What is your birthday?
    3. What is your favorite color?
    4. What TV show do you think should be cancelled?
    5. What is your most commonly used phrase?
    6. Where would you go on your dream vacation?
    7. What was your favorite pet growing up?
    8. Where was your first kiss together?
    9. What do you prefer calling her?
    10. What is your favorite sports team?
    11. What exact words did you say when you asked her to marry you?
    12. What do you like on your pizza?
    13. What superpower do you want?
    14. What is your favorite song that reminds you of her?
    15. What color was your first car?
    16. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
    17. What ridiculous invention do you want in your dream home?
    18. What do you think is her favorite thing about you?
    19. What does she do that you think is cute?
    20. Would you ever participate in No Shave November?


    The other classic game that we played was of course making wedding dresses out of toilet paper. In keeping with our bird theme, we also played “Put a bird on it!” bingo with homemade bingo chips that had little birds on them. Every guest wrote a piece of advice for the bride and groom on a Jenga game piece instead of on slips of paper that are bound to get lost. We had a lot of fun. I can’t wait to be in their wedding in late June.

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    • ]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/bridal-shower-games/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/bridal-shower-games/ Lovebirds Bridal Shower http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/JfLfLN4fmJ4/ http://eruantale.net/2012/lovebirds-bridal-shower/#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 12:00:10 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1872 Related posts:

  • Bridal Shower Games
    • ]]> Today I am hosting a bridal shower for my cousin (aka best friend)! More on it later. Here’s a sneak peek:

    Tweet Tweet! Treats for the flight home

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    • ]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/lovebirds-bridal-shower/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/lovebirds-bridal-shower/ The Bookshelf: May 18 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/3Y1u7dg7HJ0/ http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-18/#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:56 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1867 The Bookshelf.A daily dose of books, movies and blog posts handpicked for your consumption.

    Organizers of TED, Which Costs Thousands to Attend, Deem Talk on Income Inequality Too “Politically Controversial” to Share – I never knew TED cost so much to attend. $7,500? I guess I’m never going.

    Portland artist’s ‘numberism’ technique is part art, part math – My husband and I went to the Sunday Market downtown in Portland this weekend and saw this artist’s work in person. It was phenomenal. We want to buy a print for our living room someday when we can actually afford to purchase artwork.

    Talking to Yourself Can Give You a Temporary Cognitive Boost – This is interesting. I always talk to myself before doing writing work. I frequently talk through ideas in the shower and then shout out for my husband to write down random keywords like “Nick bologna!” so I don’t forget.

    I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How – I want to start learning French and this sounds like a great way to do it. My husband is a language guru and this sounds similar to what he does.

    xkcd: Skynet – I love this comic from xkcd. This happens to me all the time.

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    ]]>     http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-18/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-18/     What I’ve Learned from Pinterest (So Far) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/Awf9jPqQTEA/ http://eruantale.net/2012/pinterest/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:13 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1846 Pinterest is the newest social media phenomenon to sweep the web. It’s essentially a set of virtual pin boards to which you can save/pin practically anything. Each pin consists of a photo and a description, often with a link back to the site where the content originated. This means you can pin products, blog posts, inspiring photos, art, memes—anything.

    What I've Learned From Pinterest (So Far)

    Your ten-minute exploration of what-the-heck-is-Pinterest is likely to turn into a major obsession, so beware. You may soon have twenty pin boards full of LOL cats, dream homes, drool-worthy recipes and DIY projects you’ll probably never try. But it has its uses, whether it’s entertainment value, finding great tips and DIY ideas you actually will use, or creative inspiration. I have also used Pinterest to collaborate with people who were in different cities in collecting ideas for a bridal shower. Like any social media platform, it could be totally useless or it could be a powerful tool. It depends on the user.

    That said, here are some tongue-in-cheek (sort of) observations I’ve made about Pinterest so far:

    1. There are solutions to every problem, even the silly ones.
    2. Eye-catching photos are the most important element of a blog post.
    3. Way too much about the strange obsessions of my friends.
    4. Single people can have Wedding boards.
    5. Every meme in existence.
    6. All websites need block buttons.
    7. You pinned 100 things to a baby board? Unfollow.
    8. We need more English major pinners.
    9. This. And this. And definitely this.
    10. It’s possible to be overwhelmed with the desire to eat brownies and work out for six hours at the same time.

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    ]]>     http://eruantale.net/2012/pinterest/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/pinterest/     The Bookshelf: May 17 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/_0hRF-ZG5T0/ http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-17/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:21 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1795 The Bookshelf.A daily dose of books, movies and blog posts handpicked for your consumption.

    Horton Hears a Heart – Dr. Seuss meets Edgar Allen Poe in this hilarious short tale.

    The History of Cardenio – A lost Shakespeare play has been recreated by Shakespeare scholar Gary Taylor. Check out my write up on my library’s blog.

    Writer’s Cramp: In the E-Reader Era, a Book a Year Is Slacking – eReaders are affecting more than just the way books are distributed—they are actually affecting the speed at which popular fiction writers must produce fiction to remain at the top of the market.

    MFA Done! & Camp NaNoWriMo – Emily just finished her MFA and now she’s on to Camp NaNoWriMo. She quotes some very good writing advice from James Thurber: “Don’t get it right, just get it written.”

    What Speed Do You Read? – Test your reading speed and compare it to others. My speed is 670 words per minute, which is close to that of a college professor. Of course, the text that you must read is relatively easy. It would be dramatically different if the sample was from a peer-reviewed journal.

    Wit – An incredible TV movie based on the Pulitzer prize winning play by Margaret Edson starring Emma Thompson. If you like literature at all, watch this movie.

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    ]]>     http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-17/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-17/     57 Moments to Savor http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/K-gEpKyYTW4/ http://eruantale.net/2012/moments-to-savor/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:45 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1820 It’s almost impossible to believe that I have been in college for four years now. Next year I will be a Super Senior (as my friends and I like to call it) in order to finish up a minor. Even though the semesters sometimes seem like they will never end, my years in college have truly been fleeting. They have also been some of the best years of my life.

    As the end of the semester approached, I was swamped with homework and housework but also acutely aware of the fact that a number of my friends were graduating, never to return, while others would be gone for the entire summer or for the summer plus a semester. Despite the fact that many of my peers will return next year, it will not be the same as this year. It won’t be better or worse; it will just be different, and perhaps more painful to say goodbye at the end since it will be me leaving.

    While sitting in a local coffee shop, procrastinating on taking a break from my homework, I decided to write down a list of my favorite moments from 2011-2012 because I never want to forget the experiences I had or the wonderful people with whom I shared them.
    The combined casts of 'A Roz by Any Other Name' and 'Weird' by B.T. Ryback

    • Acting on stage for the first time ever with some of my favorite people in “Weird” by B.T. Ryback
    • Going out for a drink with my nerd friends after seeing Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline and talking until 1am
    • Philosophical debates in my living room
    • The moment I realized that now my friend and I have at least three plays to write this summer
    • Discovering that I can write poetry
    • Meeting the coolest Freshman I have ever known
    • Crying at my incredibly talent friend Sarah’s recital because her voice is just that beautiful
    • Arguing with books and winning
    • Dressing up as “Doctor Who” characters for Banquet, our school dance
    • Meeting strangers who become friends within three hours at coffee shops
    • Watching my neighbor’s son, Aiden, move through the stages of language acquisition
    • The catharsis of attending every night (eight shows) of my college’s production of Romeo & Juliet
    • Coming home to a clean house on my birthday
    • Matthew surprising me with books for Valentine’s Day

    Me and my husband at Banquet as River Song and The Doctor

    • Worship at the Religion & Christian Ministries department retreat
    • Witnessing a monkey tackle a banana in Admissions
    • Snow and no power… College students: let’s build a fort!
    • Naming my laptop Sherlock and my cell phone Watson
    • Winning some scholarships and losing others, but trying anyway
    • Writing lyrics to “Doctor Who” songs with my friend Rosemary when we should be writing papers (What is this button? Where’d that go? / Try to reverse the neutron flow)
    • Shakespeare coming to play in every class, including ministry classes
    • The day my professor coined the phrase “Branagh Bombast” and I almost died
    • Dinner for eight at my house every day of Spring Break
    • Spontaneous group prayer
    • Acquiring a real leather journal for my writing
    • Discovering a poet after my own heart, Denise Levertov
    • The New Year’s Eve conversation about J.K. Rowling with Felicia, my friend who passed away this year
    • The moment when my actors foreshadowed something which they had no idea was about to occur during Improv and I almost died in my seat from absolute excitement

    Matthew and me at New Year's

    • Discovering my gift of hospitality
    • The most beautiful issue of Rocinante ever
    • Friends who drop everything to go to the hospital with friends
    • The moments when worship at church felt like it did in Asia
    • Becoming a godparent
    • Friends who are there for the breakdowns even if it means sitting in a stairwell for an hour or answering the door half-dressed
    • Best birthday song ever at my friend Zechariah’s birthday party—we improvised an absurdly long song using one of my husband’s guitars and a flour canister as a drum
    • My cousin calling me to tell me she’s engaged (I’m their Matron of Honor on June 24th!)
    • Going back to pick up my friend Rosemary for Richard III and turning it into a kidnapping with my English professor as our getaway driver
    • Processing death through Humanities professors, John Donne, and Shakespeare because art is sometimes necessary to remind us of the hope of Christ
    • The craziest paint war ever
    • Coming up with a paradox for my HUM 410—basically a senior thesis paper at my school
    • Readings in multiple classes begin to intersect even though they are completely unrelated
    • Going on a nerdy rabbit tail that results in me arguing with the Oxford English Dictionary

    This year's staff of the literary journal Rocinante

    • Netflix is out? Dramatic reading of a Shakespeare play
    • Bible studies that sneak to the neighbor’s and clean their house
    • Taking the standardized test for Literature in English and discovering that I have learned something
    • Realizing that Matthew and I have become Portlanders and we’re cool with that
    • One more year of classes with my nerdmates (definition: nerd+soulmate) Amy and Sarah
    • Watching my cousin dance at her State Dance Championship and marking the end of an era
    • Going on dates with my husband
    • That moment when we discovered we could do fight choreography for Improv and the most epic fight ever was staged by Matthew and my friend Zechariah
    • Realizing Lady Macbeth is probably an ENFJ
    • Playing Halo and reading poetry at the same time
    • Laying on the floor of the stage sobbing with four other people and finding that crying was never so healing
    • Matthew directing hilarious Improv nights
    • Dramatic readings of Hamlet that begin with a Ninja battle over who will read for Hamlet
    • Singing in a choir again
    • Not ever wanting this semester to end because I am going to miss so many people this summer and next year

    Students after the paint war at my college.

    Note: the strangest thing is happening to this post… a bunch of instances of the letter ‘o’ were changed to ‘u’ for no apparent reason. Please excuse any very strange typos. I tried to fix them all.

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    ]]>     http://eruantale.net/2012/moments-to-savor/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/moments-to-savor/     The Bookshelf: May 16 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/3wWoYmW309g/ http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-16/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:47 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1796 Related posts:

  • The Bookshelf: May 17
  • Introducing: The Bookshelf
  • 5 Fantastic Free Fonts
    • ]]> The Bookshelf.A daily dose of books, movies and blog posts handpicked for your consumption.

    Worst Analogies Ever Written in a High School Essay – “The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.”

    Clean or Replace These Things Regularly, Because If You Haven’t Noticed, They’re Absolutely Vile – For keyboards, I recommend detail cleaning with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol.

    Stay Undistracted with Instapaper – Everyone needs a good system for saving articles to read later.

    Three Little Habits to Find Focus – I regularly use a timer when I am doing my homework. Without it, sometimes I slog through at a snail’s pace. Working within the constraints of a timer can help me complete it lighting fast.

    Bulletproof @font-face Syntax – Web designers: if you’re not already using @font-face to use custom fonts on your website, you should be. This syntax is a good workaround to the fact that the top four web browsers don’t like to play nice on which file times they support.

    The 3 A.M. Epiphany – Brian Kiteley’s writing prompt books are the best I have ever picked up. I am usually unimpressed with writing prompts. They are often vague and dull reflections that are meant to be encouraging, or an actual prompt that is either too absurd, too specific, or too banal. Kiteley’s prompts are brilliant and they give you the desperate itch to write.

    Related posts:

  • The Bookshelf: May 17
  • Introducing: The Bookshelf
  • 5 Fantastic Free Fonts

    • ]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-16/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/bookshelf-may-16/ 5 Fantastic Free Fonts http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/8GdyN5tOG9M/ http://eruantale.net/2012/fantastic-free-fonts/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:44 +0000 Shawna Marie http://eruantale.net/?p=1801 Related posts:

  • Version 4.0
    • ]]> Today’s font designers are producing some gorgeous work, and much of it is in my favorite price range, too: free. Fonts are one of the most versatile ways to spice up graphics, posters and publications. I’ve been collecting fonts for nearly nine years, but I always like to find something new. Two of my favorite font foundries right now are The League of Movable Type and LostType. The former offers free open-source fonts and the latter offers fonts on a pay-what-you-want model. Here are five of my top picks.

    A sample of the Fanwood font.

    This is one of my favorite fonts for writing at the moment. It’s particularly slick in italics.

    A sample of the Homestead font.

    Set up to three different colors to appear patterned on one word. The cross hatching of this font is simply breathtaking.

    A sample of the Junction font.

    Junction is a beautiful unique sans-serif font. It looks lovely as a headline and as copy. I happen to use it for the copy on this website.

    A sample of the Tommaso font.

    A sharp modernist font that makes a great impression in print.

    A sample of the Linden Hill font.

    I recently used this font as the primary copy font in a book layout and it turned out wonderful.

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  • Version 4.0

    • ]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/fantastic-free-fonts/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/fantastic-free-fonts/ The Bookshelf: May 15 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/4jTiHyG7csk/ http://eruantale.net/2012/the-bookshelf-may-15/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:41 +0000 Shawna Marie http://www.eruantale.net/?p=1781 The Bookshelf.A daily dose of books, movies and blog posts handpicked for your consumption.

    3 Tips to Help You Get Smart About Your Studies – My favorite tip was “Get a Bit Weird.” This semester, about 50 students at my college participated in an epic paint war on the lawn during Finals Week, followed by a dance party. I’m not sure if it helped any of us get our homework done that evening, but it definitely alleviated some stress.

    Reinterpreting Disney Princess Costumes Through a Historical Lens – Disney movies have never been known for this historical accuracy, but illustrator Claire Hummel decided to explore how each princess might have looked if they were accurate. Every nerd will appreciate her research and everyone will enjoy looking at this fascinating eye candy.

    The Stupid Things You Do Online (and How to Fix Them) – Despite our love of and reliance on the internet, it remains an unpredictable wildcard that can cause us trouble if we are not careful. I am guilty of several of these “stupid things” myself.

    Facebook Timeline Cover: 40 (Really) Creative Examples – Over the past six months or so, Facebook has been rolling out their new timeline feature. While this has inspired some users to bemoan the change (as they have done with every other modification ever made to the site, it seems), other users decided to use this new feature as a creative opportunity. The results are pretty cool.

    Khan Academy – Not sure what to do with yourself now that the semester is over? Now is the perfect time to study the things you wanted to learn on your own but lacked the time to do so during the school year. Khan Academy is a free resource with thousands of free educational videos at your disposal.

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    ]]>     http://eruantale.net/2012/the-bookshelf-may-15/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/the-bookshelf-may-15/     10 Common Writing Mistakes to Avoid http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/4qwO8kWf8hU/ http://eruantale.net/2012/common-writing-mistakes/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 12:00:31 +0000 Shawna Marie http://www.eruantale.net/?p=1635 A photo of a student writing.“We can’t publish this,” I say to myself as I look at an article that is supposed to go into the next issue of my college’s newsmagazine. The writing is stilted, the facts are wrong and the document is riddled with typographical errors. Even worse, it’s in first person, and in this case it’s definitely not working. I am the editor of the newsmagazine and I determine that this story needs to go on the shelf for a little while. It needs a total rewrite and that is not what I am supposed to be doing at the production stage.

    Most of the stories I edit are not nearly this bad, but it seems that several errors are common in student-written articles. Many of these are also relevant to fiction writers. Eliminate these errors from your writing and your prose will sing and maybe your editor will too.

    Prose Pitfalls

    Check your writing for these mistakes before finalizing your article or paper.

    Always writing in first person.

    This is a problem in journalism and in academic writing. One of my English professors says that, unless you already have a huge reputation in your field, write in third person. Your reader will take you more seriously. No article should ever start with: I started taking this stupid journalism class and my teacher told me to pick a topic.

    Forgetting the who, what, when, where, why and how.

    All of this vital information should be stated in a paragraph close to the beginning of your article. This is the journalistic equivalent of a thesis statement. Without it, it may sound like you’re rambling.

    Lame or unclear headlines.

    No one wants to read an article with a vague title. The title has to sell the article. “Work Hard, Play Hard” does not tell you what the article is actually about. If necessary, use a two part title with a colon in between the headline and the descriptor.

    Dull first sentences.

    Once your reader decides to give the article a chance, give them something good into which to bite. Don’t say, “There are many food carts in Portland. One of those food carts is…”

    Repetition and wordiness.

    Journalism articles are not meant to be Dickens novels, so be concise.

    Double spaces.

    The convention of hitting the spacebar twice at the end of a sentence has long been outdated. If you can’t break the habit, do a simple find and replace search within your word processor to get rid of the extraneous spaces.

    Clunky phrases.

    Read your prose out loud and rework awkward sentences. The reason for this is because a lack of checking your prose by reading it out loud can make it sound weird sometimes. (I pray to God you did not take that previous sentence seriously.)

    Trailing off.

    The ending of your story is just as important as the beginning. Give the reader something to remember and make sure you tie up all loose ends.

    Omitting attribution.

    Your editor will throw a fit if you include a good quote and forget to state who said it. Incorporate your sources smoothly into your prose so that the attribution is unobtrusive but easy to find if your reader wants to know where you got your information.

    Punctuation like e.e. cummings.

    Please learn to type. That is all.

    Photo Credit: Allie Holzman on Flickr.

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    ]]>     http://eruantale.net/2012/common-writing-mistakes/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/common-writing-mistakes/     Introducing: The Bookshelf http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/VVAGs0Lwavs/ http://eruantale.net/2012/introducing-the-bookshelf/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 19:00:29 +0000 Shawna Marie http://www.eruantale.net/?p=1660 Related posts:

  • The Bookshelf: May 16
  • The Bookshelf: May 15
    • ]]> The Bookshelf.Today I am introducing a new daily feature to my blog: The Bookshelf. I am a feed reader addict, and I probably pour over hundreds of blog posts during any given week. In addition to that, I happen to work in a library where I get to play with periodicals, movies, documentaries, and books of every genre. Needless to say: I suffer from information overload.

    With my Learner and Maven tendencies, I have virtual mountains of information stored up in various notebooks, Word documents, delicious, my iPhone notes and Evernote and a steady stream of new sources to keep me busy. The Bookshelf will consist of a handpicked selection of interesting blog posts, news articles, or tidbits from books that will be posted daily here on Eruantale.net.

    How to Search for Jobs Out of College – Graduation just passed for many of my friends and next year I will be in the same boat. The #1 tip for job hunting? Networking.

    10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won’t Tell You – Commencement speeches are always full of over-ambitious advice. “Don’t make the world worse” sounds like a good mantra by which to live.

    13 Simple Steps to Get You Through a Rough Day – Save this one for when everything seems to be going wrong. It will definitely brighten up your day.

    12 Things Highly Productive People Do Differently - Great advice for students and professionals alike. I need to create a To Don’t list.

    Why We Overplan – I am so guilty of overplanning almost every single day. Leo’s description of his overplanned vacation made me laugh because it looks a lot like my own ambitious lists.

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  • The Bookshelf: May 16
  • The Bookshelf: May 15

    • ]]> http://eruantale.net/2012/introducing-the-bookshelf/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/http://eruantale.net/2012/introducing-the-bookshelf/ QR Code Makeover http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eruantale/~3/I5TPw0uGLQE/ http://eruantale.net/2012/qr-code-makeover/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:15:52 +0000 Shawna Marie http://www.eruantale.net/?p=1614 QR codes—those enigmatic white squares with black pixelated boxes that appear on products, signs, and websites—seem to be here to stay, at least for now. They are simple, compact ways to store and share data that would usually be forgotten: websites, phone numbers, etc. Just scan the code with a free app on your smartphone and you have instant, easy access to exactly what you were looking for. Unfortunately, they are also incredibly ugly. So when I decided to get a QR code for Eruantale, I decided to get creative.

    I followed the advice of Hamilton Chan over at Mashable and generated my QR code with 30% error correction. That means that the margin of error is increased to allow the code to remain scannable even if some parts of it are obstructed by a branding element. I opened my ugly black and white QR code in PhotoShop and used it as a base to draw my own custom design.

    Above: My QR code before and after its makeover.

    It took me a few tries to get a code that worked well when I attempted to put some branding information on it. At first I had “eru” written in the center of the code, but that made it difficult to scan unless it was tiny. Then I tried a simple “e.” That was too simple, and it didn’t seem interesting. Finally I decided to put the name of the website below the QR code itself and added a heart for a small pop of color that would not affect usability.

    I tested the code with three different scanners on my iPhone. It worked perfectly. I think this is a great idea for business cards or event posters and I will probably try it again for other projects.

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