Learning So Far

We have not covered many grammatical concepts in class as of yet, but my favorite so far has been our discussion of the many uses of apostrophes. I’ve always felt as though I had a fairly solid grasp on the use of the apostrophe, and after hearing that there were no mistakes made in our first set of blogs, I feel that it is safe to assume that many of my peers do too.

Before our discussion, I never realized there were so many gray areas regarding apostrophes. This explains why there is no cute rhyme or saying to remember apostrophe usage like the “i before e except after c” rule. Perhaps the most interesting gray area for me was using an apostrophe to denote a pluralized letter such as “the M’s” as a nickname for the Seattle Mariners. While an apostrophe in this situation would normally suggest that the M is in possession of something, in this case, it differentiates the pronunciation as “emms” as opposed to the title for an unmarried woman. This breaking of the rules on purpose defies the standard logic for apostrophe usage, but is used for clarity.

The least favorite thing I have learned is that a list does not always require a conjunction to conclude it. The example given in class is “You are kind, generous, thoughtful”. My instinct is to insert an “and” between generous and thoughtful. While the list without “and” is technically proper, I dislike it for several reasons. The first of which is that it does not sound proper. People do not speak this way and as such, it throws of the rhythm of reading. Secondly, it is vague and unspecific. The example comes from a love letter in which the mood is supposed to be wistful and longing, but if this were any other piece of writing, I would find it vague and unspecific. When I write, I write to communicate clearly and effectively. This format leaves too much interpretation up to the audience and I feel like I have failed the reader. ULTIMATELY, I FEEL THAT IT IS LAZY, GENERIC, UNSPECIFIC. Just because this format is correct, doesn’t mean I will be able to accept and use it in my own personal writings.

Of everything we’ve learned so far, my biggest questions still lie in the differences between lay and lie. With the present tense forms, I can usually figure out which one to use, but getting into “lain” and “laid” threw me off a bit. Any suggestions?