queJimenez...a pieced and quilted writing life

Can you write a beautiful sentence?

                 

I'm not talking a string of words pasted and glued together with capitalization, random commas, and a period. Nope, I'm talking beautiful sentences that are rich and complex, yet simple and clear. Thought provoking sentences that readers like me go back and re-read, fawning over word choice, punctuation, rhythm, etc.

Sentence construction is much more complicated and simple than most people think. Yeah, I said complicated and simple at the same time. Hello oxymoron. There are infinite possibilities constrained and funneled down through a small set of "rules." Let's equate sentences to chocolate chip cookies. There is a million different ways to make them--chewy or crispy, chopped nuts or toffee chips, kitchen-sink mixes or classic Toll House varieties. And dare I ask warm out of the oven or cookie-dough ice cream? 

But all of these variations on the classic chocolate chip cookie have two things in common: they have a vanilla, brown sugar dough base, and some sort of chipped bits of chocolate. Whether the dough has subtle notes of almond or orange, or the bits of chocolate are chunks of bittersweet or mini vegan chocolate chips, a chocolate chip cookie has two "base" elements.

Guess what? A sentence is no different than a chocolate chip cookie. It has two base elements and an infinite number of possibilities. See simple.

Subject and Predicate = Chocolate bits and Cookie Dough

Quick review: Subject is the who, what (topic) of the sentence and predicate is the action s/he, it, they are doing, or is being said about s/he, it, they.

See, simple again.

But notice something before I move on. In my rough equation I paralleled chocolate bits to the subject and cookie dough to the predicate. That was purposeful to further illustrate the roles subjects and predicates take on in a sentence.

If I would have named cookie dough as the subject it would not have got you very far in identifying the necessary information of what type of cookie, i.e. the "subject" or topic of the cookie. Follow me? Think about this, if I told you I just made the most wonderful cookie in the world and you asked me what was in it, we wouldn't get very far if I said "cookie dough," right? But if I said chocolate chips or chunks....ahhh...you'd know I must be talking about a chocolate chip cookie. 

The point is that the subject identifies. The predicate carries the action just like our cookie dough carries (and holds together) the chocolate bits.

All of that explaining to illustrate what I've learned is the key to understanding sentence construction: every "slot" in the sentence plays a role. We'll talk further about slots in a second.

Know your sentence role(s) and you will surely construct beautiful sentences.

Now that we've tackled the simple part, let's get to the "infinite possibilities constrained and funneled down through a small set of rules" complicated part.

This is the deal--sentences come in a limited array of patterns. Patterns meaning rules or guidelines of most of the possibilities grammatically correct sentences follow. Before we go on please know that this is not saying these are all of the possibilities, just the most common ones used in grammatically correct sentences.

So how many patterns? Well that depends who you're asking or what book you're reading. The general consensus seems to be anywhere from 6 to 10. The books that I study have seven, which have been broken down further for nerdy people like me who like to categorize and know more than I'll ever need to know into ten, which is basically taking the original seven and expanding a few of them into other variations.

But let's not get caught up in the details just yet.

Learning these sentence patterns unlocks the secret garden gate of grammar. It also unlocks pandora's box, but hey, I did say simple and complex early on. Behind the gatekeeper is the key to punctuation, rhythmic writing, grammar do's and don'ts, and of course beautiful sentences. 

Why? because contained within those neat and cute patterns are slots. Remember my advice: know your sentence role? Well once you learn the patterns you learn the roles. And, the roles are contained in those slots that make-up the sentence patterns.

So it goes like this:

Sentence Patterns

are made up of

Slots

that play

Grammatical Roles

that together build 

Beautiful Sentences 

I promise, understanding this sentence breakdown is truly the viscera of good writing. There's other rules, tips, tricks we can adorn this breakdown with but it truly comes down to this--the bones of good writing is knowing how grammatical sentences are constructed.

Again, simple and complex. 

Although it disturbs me to think this, I know that a great many may be wondering why this is important. "I'm not a writer, English major, or Grammar nerd," they say. Or better yet, "I'm a blogger, creative writer," or of course, "the only time I really write sentences is on facebook." Those are the ones saying "who cares about grammar" as they write with no caution. Sigh. Please cease and desist.

Oh it matters. All of us communicate through the written word and spoken word. Grammar helps you effectively communicate your thoughts, and in this day and age of facebook, twitter, and text messages, grammar helps you to not sound ignorant when you really need and want to sound intelligent. And I hope that is all of the time, not just cover letter writing.

Don't think I'm not talking to you creative writers? Don't trip. I'm a creative writer too, and please let me tell you that I've work-shopped many of creative writing pieces that excelled in content but was laid out like a beetle on its back trying to turn over and recover from bad grammar or punctuation. Wanna mess up your plot? Mess up your grammar. Care to destroy that image? Mess up your punctuation. Not interested in authentic characters? Go ahead, mess up your diction. 

Poets, I'm looking at you too. You cannot effectively break the rules unless you understand and know them. An arbitrary and careless grammar mistake means nothing compared to one done with purpose to illustrate a point. 

All of this gets us to two important words, rhetorical grammar. You may not know what it is now, but I bet you chocolate chip cookies once you do know, you'll know why grammar is important. Even if you are out of school and hate writing.

Nope, I don't care, grammar is for everybody.

In the spirit of giving, knowing my purpose, sharing, facilitating my learning process, and my general English nerdiness--I will be covering basic sentence construction in a series of posts.

I promise to:

1. Try and do my best to educate you,

2. Be honest when I don't understand or know something fully, 

3. Relate these nerdy grammar terms and ideas into something you can understand,

4. Be as forthcoming and transparent as possible with where I gathered and learned my information, and finally,

5. Be patient with you and me as we both dive into something 99% of people either hate, fear, dread, or have some other sort of emotional/traumatic baggage attached to. Who has not gotten a paper back without cryptic red symbols all over it? If your raising your hand than you just volunteered to write your own series of post.

Finally, I have been tutoring College English/Writing for a semester now. I have had graduate students and freshman students, ELL (English Language Learners) and native English speakers. Let me tell you the number one thing they all have in common--dysfunctional sentence construction. Yes, they have other issues concerning essay writing in general (which I will cover in another series of posts), but across the spectrum I see dysfunctional sentences that need work. Some a little, some a lot.

I love working with their writing. I love it when they come back and have gotten a B+ on a paper when they first came to me the teacher was generous with a D+ or C-. I don't write their papers, but I do show them what their writing issues are and try to teach them how to correct those issues. 

Nothing makes me happier than taking the fear out of writing and empowering others to take reign of their thoughts and ideas.

Stay tuned.

♥, Nerdy Ki.

Thankful.

Me and various fall scenes in my overgrown, neglected but loved garden.

I hope you are as thankful as I. My heart is full, my spirits are high, and my mind is clear.

Love and Blessings.

Ki

24lbs of words

 

Delicious words on my dining room table.

Reviews coming soon!

From my Instagram stream...and some keys to Iphoneography Editing for Instagram

 

                   

                                                 "Cloud Bowl"

Taken Sunday morning after a rainy Saturday. Taken with my iPhone4 and edited with tiltshiftgenerator (iPhone), filterstorm (iPad) and possibly Iris (iPad) then finally taken into instagram (iPhone).

                  

                                          "Little cartoonist"

Taken last week, while the little guy was drawing...his new favorite hobby. Taken with my iPhone4, no editing before taken into instagram

                 

                               "An 8-yr old's Favorite Things"

Taken Sunday, we were heading out to do our grocery shopping. I loved how she dressed herself; she layered a favorite tank over an old shirt that has to be a size 4T, then layered a balloon skirt over some new Hanna leggings (we found at Costco!). She's wearing her 1st pair of Tom's, which she wanted because "They give another kid shoes" and she liked that. Accesorized with a favorite necklace and of course her lovey "Elephant" freshly laundered the night before.

The picture on the right was taken with my iPhone4 and edited in Tiltshiftgenerator and (I think) Filterstorm (iPad), before all three were taken into PicFrame (iPad) and finally processed in Instagram (iPhone)

 

                   

                                "Molassess-Spiced Sugar Cookies"

Taken last Friday with E's iPhone 4s, then each picture was lightly edited on my iPad with either Iris (iPad) or Filterstorm (iPad) to try and get the same color tones. The bottom left one didn't behave very well. They were then taken into PicFrame (iPad) before finally landing in Instagram (iPhone).

My iPhoneography Editing Process (Instagramers Slant)

I'm very new to iPhoneography, though I have been using my iPhone for "photography" for years now. I recently saved up and purchased an iPad and was looking for different ways, outside of school, to use it and incorporate it into my life. That's how I stumbled on iPhoneography.

My editing process is very simple. I take the photos and then try to improve them in various apps before I finally dump them into my Instagram stream. I'm still very new to the process, so I don't have many favorite apps, but I do love Tiltshiftgen and PicFrame. I get the most effect out of those so far. I still have a lot to learn with the photo processing apps; they can be fairly complicated and frustrating if you don't know what your doing.

In the short time that I have been seriously trying to edit my iPhone pics I have learned to work with multiple apps in layers. Sometimes the best effect is gained by taking a picture through multiple apps and editing in "layers." 

Here's a typical run down of my process:

1. Take picture and if need be transfer it to my iPad through Photo transfer app. I find that though the iPad has a camera, the iPhone is much more practical and easy to use. Not to mention the iPad picture quality is not as good as the iPhone's quality. Pics taken with the iPad have a lot more noise and graininess, fyi. Sometimes that's good.

2. Once I take the picture I usually enhance it in the iPhone/iPad camera/photo app. With the new ios you can now enhance, crop, and do other minor processing things with your photos. I always try and do a square crop at this stage so that I don't end up processing something I'll eventually have to crop out later. But, if I love all aspects of a picture I don't crop it and take it into another app, see # 5.

3. Once I have my picture, I take it into either Iris or Filterstorm (both on iPad) to try and lighten or darken it, or deal with other issues like colors/tone. I'm no pro here so this is usually where I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it "better" without overly processing the orignal. This is my learning curve area. If it is yours too, search for tutorials on YouTube and the likes. I'm sure there are many tuts. (For me, time is an issue, so it'll have to wait till this Uni semester is over.)

4. If I think the picture will lend itself to tiltshift editing I take it into the Tiltshiftgen app and try and get some great effects there. 

This is also the stage where I would use Juxtapose (iPad) or a merge app (if I had one) to get different effects/layers. I like Juxatopose, and have played with it a bit, but I really want a merge app so I'm on the look out for one of those. A merge app would allow layering or blending two photographs together, while Jutapose does that, it creates a clean, lined definition down the middle so it doesn't give the layered look you'd get if you merged two photos into one. Sounds confusing? I know, sorry.

5. After all of that editing is done to the picture or pictures if I am doing a collage, I take it through the final step before getting processed in Instagram. This could be using PicFrame (iPad) to build a collage, or PhotoShake (iPad), or even ComicBook or Halftone (both iPad). 

If the picture wasn't cropped in step #2, then I take it into Squaready and get it ready for Instagram.

6. Finally, processed and ready my picture will either be taken directly into Instagram for sharing, or it will sit on my photo app ready for it's moment to shine in Instagram.

It is key to not load all your pictures into Instagram at once, save some for times you can't upload pics, and slowly roll them into your feed. The key to Instagram is good pictures, regular updates, and did I say good pictures? That's if you want a following. Some of us do, some of us could care less (ahem, E). 

So that's my beginner's iphoneography editing process (bent towards Instagramers). I have learned to edit before dumping into Instagram if the picture is subpar, but I know there are some purist who believe in minimal processing. And hey, that's okay...some pics I want to leave alone too. But in the end, to me the whole fun of iPhoneography is to manipulate the pictures creatively. Of course not every picture, but hey...why not have some fun. 

And let me reiterate here...I'm by no means a photographer. I'm a nerdy homeschooling mom by day and a nerdy English major by night tutoring freshman comp papers. On weekends I moonlight as a vegan baker and quilting artist. There are lots of resources out on the 'nets to get real tutorials on iPhone photo editing. This is just one woman's process. Take what you can use...leave behind what you can't.

Peace & ♥

Ki

Hello Logophiles.

Well I hope you are a fellow logophile or at least you are interested in lexophilia or more accurately etymology because lexophilia is a neologism. Though technically etymology may not accurately describe what I'm getting at. So let's use lexicology. But, that would suggest that you may be a lexigographer, and that is more than likely not the case.

Are you confused?

Don't be, your amongst friends and I'm here to explain it all.

Logophiles are people who love words. See, simple. Etymology is the study of word origins, you know, how words begin. Which brings us to lexophilia, which is a neologism (a fancy word for a new word not yet recognized or vetted to be worthy of inclusion into our big fancy lexicon). Lexophilia is the "new" word for "the love of words." Lexophilia is derived from two Greek words lexis a Greek derivitive of logo, meaning "word" and philia, which means "fondness" or "friendship." Lexicology is "the study of the formation, meaning, and use of words and idiomatic comibinations of words." However, to be a lexigographer is to be a person who "writes, edits, or compiles a dictionary."

Whew!

That's a lot of explaining. But why am I explaining all of this? Simple.

I decided some time ago that I needed a "professional" dictionary. Something worthy of ample desk and bookshelf real estate, which I currently don't boast, but that I could refer to, study, read, and cheat with when playing words with friends. I can't be a writer with out a serious dictionary, can I? My current Rhetorical Grammar professor agrees with me. He clearly and declaritively stated that as English majors we needed a great big 'ole unabriged dictionary. So there is my excuse.

I needed an excuse. How else could I justify mentioning a $1000 dictionary to E. Who buys $1000 dictionaries? (Me if I had the money.)

I've been a lover of dictionaries since the 2nd grade in Mrs. Kikut's class, but I have never ventured to invest, seriously invest and research a dictionary. I knew, but I didn't know that there is a world of dictionaries. I know, it makes sense that there would be, but really, who knew? I quickly got sucked into the world of dictionary acroynyms and lost in indecision. 

So here were my, and yours if your looking to buy one, choices:

                          

1. The Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 (OED) $995 via amazon. It is 20 volumes long; 22,000 pages; over half a million words; and includes histories, cross-references, illustrations, English words from every English speaking country. 

                           

2. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 2007 (SOED) $102 via Amazon. It is two volumes long; 3,472 pages; over half a million words (like OED but fewer etymologies and cross-references); and also includes its share of histories, cross-references, illustrations, and English words from every English speaking country.

                            

3. The New Oxford American Dictionary, 2010 (NOAD) $35.33 via Amazon. It is one volume long; 2,096 pages; more than 100,000 words, and includes definitions, encyclopedic information, illustrations, biographies, and English words used from America.

                            

4. The American Heritage Dictionary, 11/2011 (AHD) $37.80 via Amazon. It is one volume long; 2,212 pages; more than "10,000 new words" (I could not find how many actual enteries are included), and includes color illustrations, definitions, usuage guidelines, and an iphone/ipad/android app that contains the entire collection for mobile use.

                          

5. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 2005 (WUD) $42.74 via Amazon. It is one volume long; 2,256 pages; more than 300,000 entries; and includes illustrations, usuage guidelines, and supplements on synonyms, antonyms, and other manual info.

 ---

Those are the five dictionaries I narrowed my selection down to. First off, I was able to easily eliminate two: OED and WUD. OED is way too rich for my blood, even if I do bleed words. And the WUD, from what I read, does not contain any "new" words as the publisher got rid of their lexigographers. So those two choices were easily eliminated, but the remaining three had my head spinning.

I knew early on that I wanted the SOED, but the price pushed me into indecision. I have an old edition of AHD and I like it so a newer version (literally 15 days old) seemed exciting. But, there was something about the scholarship of OED that kept me coming back, so I thought about the NOAD. Can you tell by now that I needed an intervention? As E said, only I would need an intervention on dictionary selection. 

In the end I considered what I need a dictionary for: writing and literature. I wanted something current so that put the AHD at the top of my list (I'm guessing it will be a great writing reference), but that still left me doubting whether I would have a dependable reference once I started my heavy rotation of World and British Litearture (set to begin in the new year). Once I considered that the decision was easy, though expensive. 

I chose the SOED and the AHD. E agreed to buy the cheaper, the AHD, if I ponied-up my own money for the SOED. 

And so now I wait my almost 20lb shipment of dictionaries. I won't lie, I'm excited as all get out. I'm imagining laying in bed on a rainy day, a cup of tea, and hours to search for new word crushes.

Am I the only one who loves dictionaries? I know I'm not, but I wonder who in my "life circle" finds dictionaries fascinating. I know my sis does, but we are virtually twins so I don't count her fascination. In the end it gets me wondering about the quirks that make us all unique. I'm wondering what sort of "nerdy" book fascinations do others have. I know there are tons of bibliophiles, in fact most of my friends are bibliophiles, but outside of that I'm wondering about the nerdy things people like and find fascinating.

I'm sure I lost a few of you with my dictionary roundup, but I hope it may peak someone's interest in words, dictionaries, or reference books. If not, I hope it at least got some of you thinking about the nerdy passions you hold secret. I don't think there is anything better than embracing your nerdy side, what ever that may be.

When I boil it all down I know most people don't care. But me? I talk dictionaries. Nothing more to it. I love literature, researching literature and litary critiques, and I love writing. All kinds of writing. If my bank account had one extra zero on the end I would be waiting the 20 book volume, but in the interest of my family eating for the next few months and Christmas giving I narrowed it down to a $150 purchase. Honestly, most important is that I am happy, excited, and anxious. 

Come the weekend I hope to have a juicy review of my new reference additions. But until then, enough about reference materials...get out there and enjoy your day!

♥ Ki

A pieced and quilted writing life.

            

Sunday morning grocery shopping...I still head out with my favorite grammar book, my favorite new jacket, and a "vintage" quejimenez leather bag. Taken by E with his cool, new iphone 4gs and processed in a couple of apps before finally landing in instagram, my wicked obsession.

"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." -Conficious

After careful and long consideration I have decided not to stop blogging, change platforms, or get rid of quejimenez here at typepad. My life has undergone so many changes within the past year and a half, and more particularly during the past ten months, that I have had to take stock of where I am, what I can accomplish, and what I should spend my time trying to accomplish.

One thing kept bringing me back here: This is where it all started. It has been this blog, this ritual of sharing my thoughts, my creativity, my upsets and successes that has directed me down my current path. Although the signs were present throughout my k12 education, I never knew my passion and talent lay in writing, it simply never dawned on me until I started writing here. 

But, I have decided to move in different directions in some ways while also maintaing other aspects of what has come to be known as quejimenez the blog. Most of you who have been a part of my life through online and personal connections already know that I am a full-time Uni student majoring in English. You may even know that I tutor English now. This means virtually no time for crafting, painting, quilting and the likes but more time spent researching, writing, and studying the mechanics of writing and literature. This means less DSLR photography and more time snapping moments on my iphone, ipad, or both. 

This all boils down to one thing, I will now be blogging a lot about writing, grammar, literature, and the stuff that makes us English majors' hearts race. I am that grammar, writing nerd. You know that fleeting feeling of your heart skipping a beat or racing when you realize your falling in love? I get those sort of moments when reading grammar books, stumbling onto great literature, or finding a great critical review while researching.

I know, I know, it's sickening. Who does that? Who falls in love with rhetorical grammar books, and takes copious notes on gerunds? Who else loves punctuation? Anyone? And should I even ask who would like to raise their hands and volunteer to write an essay? 

It's okay. No one has to stand up or raise their hands. (I have a few fellow grammar nerd pals at Uni.) E  informed me last night that he does not care to know about appositives. He said, "not even a little" when I prodded him again and again. It doesn't matter to him that it would improve his writing and help prevent dangling gerunds, he still cares not to know. 

That may sound familiar and normal to you, but to me that sounds like blasphemy of my grammar and writing religion. It offends my grammar and writing sensibilities. 

So here's the deal--my goal is to share my passion, my knowledge, and my experience. Got a question about grammar? Ask me. Need advice on writing a paper? Go ahead ask me. Want to know if you should end a sentence with a preposition? Yeap, ask that too. And by any means if you have a sentence that just doesn't "sound right," I would be offended if you didn't ask me. Sentences are the gardens of thoughts. Were else could we plant beautiful words, raise wonderful ideas, and nurture the thoughts that make us bloom.

            
One of the reasons I love iphoneography...this is a composite of the first picture I took with my first iphone (3g) and a recent (about 2 months old) picture taken with my current iphone (4g) taken through one or two editing apps. These photos are about 3.5 years apart, btw.

With all that grammar stuff said, I do hope and expect to include what few crafty projects I manage, the pictures I take (you are familiar with iphoneography right?), and the creative meals and decorating ideas I come up with between grammar, literature, and word crushes. As much as I love this stuff called English and frequently acquire new word and grammar rule crushes, no one can take English all the time with no colorful, creative breaks. Well, let me just own up to that and say I can't live void of colorful, creative breaks. That is not because my love is not there, but because the heart of me is colorful and creative. (Hince my new obsessions with iphoneography, cross stitching, stlyistically plating the food I cook/bake, and redecorating my humble abode.)

As I get things settled around the blog expect changes to pop up here and there. (You did notice the new blog header, right?) I intend to include some helpful links to websites that encourage good writing skills and that I often refer to when writing (or being a nerd and searching grammr rules for kicks). I'm also planning to update my booklist to include books that I turn to while tutoring, writing, pleasure reading, etc. 

My hope is that through sharing my passion I can help others write better, understand why punctuation and diction matter, and ultimately free those thoughts and ideas growing in your mind's garden waiting to bloom. Writing is complicated, but it is not impossible. I don't know it all, but I do know where to find answers and how to spot problems. In fact, I still have spelling issues of my own; however, I have learned to recognize my mistakes so that I can correct them. Knowledge is power, remember?  

Finally, although the archives are not listed here anymore they are still archived and housed here. So if you had a favorite past post of mines, or wonder if I have any blogging cred (if your new to the world of quejimenez), or are just plain interested in how I got to this point in my life, don't worry it is all still here. I'm working on updating links, etc. It will be listed under the banner in archives and/or "life." 

As always, I welcome your company and look forward to sharing my passion with you all. I hope you'll join me and I can be of some English benefit in your lives.

This is my life--a pieced and quilted writing life.

<3 Ki