Lukeman Exercise 3 | Melissa Erickson

I know...I know. After what seems like forever, I finally got my blogger account to work. It really only cost a few hours of internal pain, frustration, and extreme homicidal feelings toward everything electronic or technical. So really; not a big deal. Again, thank you so much for your patience!

LUKEMAN EXCERCISE THREE

I am really glad I received the opportunity to read this book, and apply it to works I had already written. I've never been one for "correct" punctuation. I would always just cruise along, plopping commas in wherever I "felt like it." Reading Lukeman gave me a better understanding of the effect punctuation has on writing when used properly.

I have never realized the power that a colon could have when used correctly. It really made something of importance stand out from the rest of the text.
Using semi-colons helped my work too by making it flow alot better together, rather than have a whole bunch of short sentences. The semi-colon connected this sentences, and the piece flowed much more smoothly. Of course, these are only a few examples from what I learned in this section; there are so many more things that I've taken into account after my reading.

While I still tend to overuse commas, and sometimes forget there are other types of punctuation, I am beginning to judge my work more and more, and apply semi-colons, colons, quotations, and the various other marks we learned about in Lukeman's book.

Lukeman really made me see what my style with punctuation was, and how my work could be greatly improved by using the marks he explained very clearly in his book.

Lukeman Exercise 3 | Katrina Cox

I didn't see any exercises at the conclusion of part three of the book, but I thought I'd give writing with a colon another shot and using italics.

The ring around her neck almost seemed to mock her. She reached behind her neck and undid the clasp, letting the smooth metal pool together in her hand. She ran her fingertips around the ring, imitating the circle. She thought about what it used to mean. It meant that she was his, that they were in love, that nothing would get between them.

She slipped the ring on her finger and sighed. The day he had given her the ring was a day she would never forget. He had looked her in the eyes and opened the small case on one bended knee. She had teared up, throwing her arms around his neck and saying how much she loved him.

She set the ring down on the table, stopping the memories she had held so precious to her heart. How happy she had been was more than she could bear. She had to admit that what he had said didn't mean what she had thought it meant. It was merely a ring, no longer a symbol of the promises they had made to each other.

Tears ran down her cheeks. The heartache of his unfaithfulness was like a knife, mercilessly massacring what was left of her heart. The thought of him chosing another woman, or two others for that matter, plagued her mind. Not a night had gone by since she had found out where she had slept peacefully without nightmare or night terror.

The telephone rang, startling her out of her morose reverie. She looked down at the caller ID felt the world spin around her: it was him.

Lukeman Exercise Part Three | Kimberly Bennett

I didn’t see a third exercise listed, so I figured I’d take this opportunity to have a little fun with punctuation. I liked how the book said that punctuation should be used to enhance text, not clarify. I feel like we’ve been taught quite the opposite for most of our lives. So, I guess I’ll take this moment to play with some of my favorite punctuation and see if I can be affective.


An Extremely Brief Overview of the History of Music

FIRST: there was rhythm.

From the beginning of time (meaning somewhere between the creation and the whole apple incident) there has been a beat.
DUH, DU DU DU DU! DUH, DU DU DU DU!
The pulsation echoed through valleys and bounced off of mountainsides; frightening dinosaurs and small birds.
Then after rhythm, there was the melody. The Greeks used this to great effect at funerals. The Seikilos Epitaph is one of the oldest pieces of transcribed music in existence. It was found near Turkey written on the headstone of some dead Greek person.
Melody didn’t change much.
The melody for many years was dominated by the Christian churches. Monks were very fond of it. That is where we get Gregorian chant. Then one day someone said:
“Hey, what if I sing two different notes at the same time?”
And harmony was born.
Now the church had the market cornered on both melody and harmony. But songs of lasciviousness were starting to creep in. (I won’t tell if you won’t.)
Then there was the Renaissance. Enlightenment for all; Music for everybody!
The Renaissance brought wide changes in the way music was thought of. After the Renaissance, there was the Baroque – If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it – in which composers like Bach and Handle were very prominent.
If you hate opera, you should blame its existence on the Baroque period. You should also blame Claudio Monteverdi. He wrote madrigals until some guy criticized his style. To get back at his critic Monteverdi wrote Orpheo. The first opera was written out of vengeance. Take from that what you will.
Then there was the classical music period. Mozart and Beethoven were the men of the day. Rock me Amadeus.
Next came the Romantic period: the favorite themes of the day were death and unrequited love. That just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it?
At last we reach modernism. That would be from the turn of the century up till now. We won’t go into the more “interesting” styles of music (atonal) but will instead go right to Spirituals. From spirituals to gospel, from gospel to jazz and from jazz to rock and roll.
Elvis made us swoon and swing our hips in the 50’s. In the 60’s The Beatles made us Coo, Coo, Cachoo; The Who gave us Babba O’Reily with Teenage Wastelands.
Then there was the 70’s. Disco didn’t die. Rock and roll killed it.
In the 80’s we had hair bands and leg warmers. In spite of all its failings, most of us still love the 80’s. In the early 90’s we had rap music and in the later part of the decade, the invention of punk rock. Sadly, this was also a strong teeny bopper era.
Currently we have a diverse culture of music, consisting of everything from Opera to R and B. From Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to Simon and Garfunkle’s easy listening.
And that has been a brief overview of music.
Good day.

I hope that works. I’ve certainly enjoyed it. I’m mot concerned about my semicolon use. But I found it very interesting how I kept wondering if I should go with a period or a colon.