Research Papers and Punctuation

Many of us are busy finishing up research papers, dissertations, and other written documents as the school term ends. Learning several hundred pages of grammar and writing rules is no easy task, even if we have been doing it off and on for years. So, I thought I'd dedicate this blog to some of the common rules associated with major internal sentence punctuation. If you're like me, learning by example is the most useful, so I've provided a bullet list of properly punctuated sentence examples. Hope they help you with your writing.

These all are modified from examples included in H. Ramsey Fowler's The Little, Brown Handbook, third edition. This is a pretty old version of this book, which is now in its ninth edition, but many concepts of punctuation have not changed.

If you are interested, the publishers of The Little, Brown Handbook, ninth edition, Pearson Longman, have a Website that is a companion to the ninth edition. Here's the link:

http://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_9

• The car stopped, but no one got out.


• The car stopped; no one got out.


• The car stopped; however, no one got out.


• The car stopped; no one, however, got out.


• The car stopped; no one got out however.


• The car stopped, spun, rolled, and landed on its wheels; but no one got out.


• After the car stopped, no one got out.


• Suddenly, the car stopped. No one got out.


• The car that hit the truck went over the side of the road.


• Badly damaged, the car rolled to a stop.


• The car, which flipped three times, rolled to a stop.


• The car couldn't be salvaged: its body was crushed beyond repair.


• The car's body was crushed, ripped, and distorted--a total loss.


• Crushed, torn pieces of the car littered the highway.

C. Michael Curtis

The Atlantic Monthly has been in business for 150 years. The magazine was launched in 1857, has been through a succession of owners, and has changed its size, appearance, and number of its readers (nearly 1.5 million now), but not its basic premise: "that breaking news was not always worth paying attention to, and in fact could distract the public from important stories that needed to be told—and that took more time to tell." [http://www.theatlantic.com/ideastour/] For many of this publication's prestigious and award-winning years, C. Michael Curtis has been part of what has made this magazine so admired by its readers and sought by authors.

C. Michael Curtis and Elizabeth Cox were recent guests at the University of Central Oklahoma. They shared their knowledge and insight openly and genuinely with those of us who came to listen. Mr. Curtis told us that The Atlantic Monthly receives approximately 12,000 stories a year, of which 600 to 700 are publishable. But the magazine is limited to only publishing a few.

If you're an author hoping for publication in this magazine, don't let the numbers chase you away. According to Curtis, one thing and editor does first when reading a submission is to, "attend to dialogue. It's a quick test for quality." Dialogue must sound like real dialogue. The author must be able to turn a good phrase, and know how to punctuate properly, and that includes the use of the semi-colon.

Mr. Curtis is a gracious man, and advises any author who submits his or her work, no matter the publication, to show civility and true interest in being a good writer.

If you'd like to learn more about C. Michael Curtis and The Atlantic Monthly, check out some of these Web pages:

http://www.theatlantic.com/
http://www.theatlantic.com/about/people/cmcbio.htm
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=18617
http://creativenonfiction.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=67296

Flash Fiction

According to Wikipedia, Flash fiction is fiction characterized by its extreme brevity . . . and most flash-fiction pieces are between 250 and 1,000 words long (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_fiction). Flash fiction has a beginning, a middle, and an end, just like most stories. But it's not the easiest thing to write. It's also not the hardest.

Flash fiction has come back into fashion. It used to be referred to as short fiction, and was popular back when radio mysteries and the Saturday Evening Post were common and loved. Perhaps its revived popularity is due to today's fast paced, little-time-to-spare world. Or maybe it's because there are so many baby boomers finding more and more time on their hands as they retire that today's flash fiction reminds them of their simpler days.

For me, flash fiction is a little bit of all of these. While I don't yet have a lot of time on my hands, I've always loved the old radio shows, and my favorite art ever was published in the Saturday Evening Post.

As author, Terry Burns says, "So, writing short fiction is great for our writing technique. A substantial market for it exists. It can be a quick way to build a good writing resume. It can be a nice, steady income, but one last thing, it is very time effective."

If you love to write or you enjoy reading, but have little time, or even if you'd just like to earn a few extra dollars, flash fiction could be the way to go. Below is a list of links where you'll find more information about flash fiction, both about writing it and some for you to read. Enjoy!

• Vestal Review is an online magazine that accepts flash fiction. (http://www.vestalreview.net/)
• Jason Gurley writes about flash fiction at Writingworld.com. (http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/flash.shtml)
• Flashquake is an online journal dedicated to flash fiction. It pays for submissions. You can read its posted stories as well as get submission guidelines at its Website. (http://www.flashquake.org/editorial/about.html)
• This Website contains several flash fiction stories by the owner, Debi Orton, of the Website. (http://www.consideration.org/flash/)
• Pamelyn Casto has an interesting article on flash fiction, and a list of resources, some of which you might be interested in taking a look at. (http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/meansarticle1.html)
• According to her article titled, "Flashing Your Setting," "S. Joan Popek is an award winning author and past editor for several magazines." Take a look at her article, and you won't be surprised by her bio. (http://www.sjoanpopek.com/writeflash.html)
• David B. Dale posts short fiction of 299 words maximum because, "Anything more is a waste." (http://davidbdale.wordpress.com/)
  
  

Elizabeth Cox

Elizabeth Cox, author of The Slow Moon, one of the books that was required reading for the Spring 2007 Beginning Novel Writing course with Professor Garrison, spoke at UCO in March of 2007. Her husband, C. Michael Curtis, also spoke. In another blog, I'll give you some of the tips and comments that Mr. Curtis shared with us. This blog, however, is about Elizabeth Cox.

There's no doubt about it; Elizabeth Cox is a terrific writer and a wonderful person. Not only is she the author of several books (visit her Website for details), but she also is a writing professor at , and has taught writing at Duke University, Bennington College, MIT, and currently shares an endowed chair at Wofford College with her husband, C. Michael Curtis. She visits and speaks when she can, but seems to make every effort to be there for the students that look up to her.

My husband and I attended Ms. Cox's reading at UCO of the first chapter of her latest book, The Slow Moon, and were fortunate enough to sit beside her and her husband at one of the tables. Both individuals are truly humble, kind, and generous with their presence and their knowledge. I highly recommend Ms. Cox's written works, which you can find on Amazon.com as well as many other book sites.

If you'd like to know more about Ms. Cox and her work, here are a couple of links you'll enjoy:

• Elizabeth Cox has done a First Person Book Page interview, which you can read at the following Web address, or by clicking the above link: http://www.bookpage.com/0608bp/elizabeth_cox.html
• In 1999, Elizabeth Cox was interviewed for Chicago public radio. Here's a link to her interview on her novel, Night Talks. It's an audio file and part of an entire program, so to hear her interview, go to 47 minutes 30 seconds into the show. It starts with music followed by the introduction of Ms. Cox. It's worth listening to. Click this Interview with Elizabeth Cox link, or go to: http://chicagopublicradio.org/audio_library/ram/848/848-990716.ram

So You Want to Have a Writers' Blog

Blogs are a great outlet for writers, but serve other purposes as well. Many writers are turning to blogs to help promote their books, to let potential associations and organizations know of their availability for and skill at speaking, and to keep in touch with their reader base. Regardless of the reason for creating and maintaining a writer’s blog, the one thing a writer must do to be successful with their blog is to attract new readers and keep the regulars coming back. So if you’re an author with a blog, how do you keep people interested?

First you consider why they came to your blog in the first place. Most readers who come to your blog on purpose do so because they want to know about you, the author, and about your books. They want information that is useful. They want to associate with you, much in the same way that your readers want to associate with the characters you create. If you’re a non-fiction writer, they want to know about you and get more information on the topics about which you’ve written your books.

Now that you know what your readers are seeking when they visit your blog, it’s important also to know what they don’t want. For the most part, they don’t want you to go off topic. If they come to your blog expecting to learn a little more about you or your books or the topics about which you write, they don’t want to be surprised by a political rant (unless that’s what your books are all about) or disappointed because they didn’t get what they came for. Your blog readers want content. Content can include links to other useful information as well.

For example, my husband is a Greg Bear fan. If he was a writer and if he had a blog, he might want to include a link to an interview with Greg Bear. And I do a great deal of technical writing in addition to my other writing, so on my blog, I might want to offer my readers a link to the Society for Technical Communication.

If you are an author with a blog and you want to attract more attention and keep your readers coming back, then remember that such blogs are about people (you and your characters) and content. Give your blog readers what they want and expect, and you can expect to keep them coming back for more.

The Public Domain

Using Public Domain and Copyrighted Materials in WebsitesBy Dorothy Cady
The public domain is a collection of knowledge and innovations to which no copyright has been legally established or retained. According to Wikipedia, public domain “…is considered to be part of a common cultural and intellectual heritage, which, in general, anyone may use or exploit, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.” Those of us who write and publish can benefit from the use of such public and readily-available information. Yes, we even can use an entire work within our own work, including music and graphics, without violating the law if the work is in the public domain. We writers need to keep in mind, however, that works can sometimes appear to be in the public domain when they are protected by copyright.

For example, it is a common belief that if you find something on the Internet, you can use it without permission. But is it a true belief? The answer is, as you probably suspected, both yes and no. Copyright law does not protect an actual HTML address, so in most cases, you can link to another Website or Web page. However, you risk violating copyright if you imbed the content of that page or a single item from it, such as a picture, into your Web page using the IMG hypertext markup tag. You also risk the wrath of the law if you use a link to a Website in a way that is a libelous, misleading, or framed within your own Web page giving the impression that the original work is yours. (See http://www.oppedahl.com/weblaw/ for more information).

Before using any content in any written materials, whether it is posted to a Website or not, it is always prudent to request permission from the copyright holder for its use. When permission is granted, it may come with restrictions. You must abide by those restrictions because, if you do not, you may be in violation of copyright law.

If you would like additional information about copyright and the Internet, you can read Thomas J. Field, Jr.’s Web page titled, “Copyright on the Internet,” at the following Web address: http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/copynet.htm. (Permission was obtained from Mr. Field for the use of this link. Thank you.)

And of course, if you are unsure, it's always best to seek legal advice, as this post is not intended to provide legal advice and the author is not an attorney.