Wednesday, August 14, 2013

August 14*

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: Mozart's Symphony #25 in G Minor]

There is a story about Thomas Edison in which one of his assistants said something like, "We've tried this a thousand ways and it doesn't work! We've accomplished nothing!" Edison reportedly replied, "Nonsense. We've learned a thousand ways it doesn't work." What's the moral of the story, and what is your perspective on the idea?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Early adopters and the hockey stick
3. Big Questions & senior projects
4. Treasure hunt
5. What the $%&@! is "Expository Composition"? (extra credit for anyone who explains why the closing quotation mark goes inside the question mark-- you can't fudge that sort of thing when you type... comment to this post and make your claim)


HW:
1. Read "What's your Big Question?" and post yours (title: MY BIG QUESTION) to your course blog
2. Answer agenda item #5 in a post to your course blog (title: WHAT IS EXPOSITORY COMPOSITION?)
2. Begin reading "The Right to Your Opinion" for discussion on Friday 8/16

8 comments:

  1. The question mark goes on the outside of the quotations because the quote isn't a question, but the sentence it is included in, is.

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  2. Explaining it in a way that doesn't seem like I'm only rewording Taylor's post is impossible, unless delivering the same answer in a different context is considered fair game lol.

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  3. Or is it because the quotes are being used to isolate a key phrase, rather than actually procuring a quote? It is interesting how basic mechanics become infinitely more complex when asking "why" instead of "what".

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  4. I'm not sure if this will count since I'm not officially in the class but I think the question mark goes outside because the quotation mark belongs to "expository Composition" (title of the class) and since the quataion itself is not the question, it doesn't belong inside as in -Mary asked, "what time is this class over?"-

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  5. I have always wanted to know how people invented things!

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  6. i think the quotations go before the question mark because the sentence didn't end yet. so the quotation marks have to be on the inside.

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  7. The question is about the phrase, not a specific word.

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  8. According to WORKING WITH WORDS: A CONCISE HANDBOOK FOR MEDIA WRITERS AND EDITORS (p.89-90), "Question marks and exclamation points go inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quotation, outside if they are not." [Example 1: Have you read Ezra Pound's "Cantos"? (The question mark is outside the quotation mark because it is not part of the title.)] [Example 2: "Darn it!" she yelled. (The exclamation point is inside the quotes because it is part of the quotation; the person said the statement with strong emotion.)] And, here is a bonus for paying attention to the blog; next week's vocabulary quiz will also include a few questions about the proper use of quotation marks. :)

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