Oh House Style, Oh apostrophes, Oh Word Classes!

What have I learned this past week from English 326? I agree with Samantha that the magazine we had to use for House Style was pretty difficult to work with. There was little there besides just recipes and travel information. However, we were able to learn about the magazine’s use of commas and numbers. The single possessive noun ending in an s we never really found, though we hunted for it for a very long time. I wonder why we were so crazy about finding that one. I suppose because it helps us to sort out the correct way to use the apostrophe. Hunting for it used in different ways for so long really helped to put it in my brain the correct ways to use an apostrophe, especially single versus plural possessive. How the magazine treated numbers also gave us some trouble. It appeared there was no set rule. Sometimes numbers were spelled out but more often a digit was used. It was annoying because every time we thought we understood the rule, another number would be found to make us throw the rule out the window. It would have been way easier if the magazine had just set a limit but they did not. We ended up deciding that when numbers are used as some type of measurement they usually appear as a digit, otherwise they are spelled out. By the end though, I was a little tired of reading Sunset magazine to be honest. I was happy for what I had learned but there truly and honestly was not much there to work with.

I have to say that the workshops we do in class really do help me learn. Learning the word classes this week, or reviewing them was much easier to work through with the headlines exercise. When it comes to word classes I believe that I understand what all of them are clearer now. The adverb was really the only one that could at times be difficult for me to identify. At least now I have a few ways to identify them such as looking for a ly or asking who, what, where when, why, how. I am sure there are more word classes that we have not discussed yet that will also give me some trouble such as preposition. Unlike others I do not remember going over the word classes for a long period of time. I do not remember it being drilled into my head and discussed over and over again. I am sure I must have learned the basics at some point such as a noun, verb, and adjective but there is no memory in my mind of long days filled with grammar. I think this is why I am so interested in the subject because I do not remember actually discussing the different functions of the classes. I know what they are but it sometimes is difficult to identify them in a sentence. I am really looking forward to learning more about grammar and applying it in other places outside of English 326.



When do you use “that” versus “which” or who? “I really do not like the adverb that/ which has given me trouble before.”