In this blog post I will be exploring parallel ideas, shifts, appropriate language, and exact words. I will be writing about what I learned about them from the book after reading the topics on them. I also will be exploring how much I already knew about them.
Alosh Bennet "Parallel Worlds" January 19th, 2009 via Flickr Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Parallel ideas is when ideas are "parallel" or the same, they are represented in the same grammatical form and are "parallel". This is something I have never actually thought of but it makes sense. It is something that I already do naturally. An example of how this works is "Children who study music also learn confidence, discipline, and they are creative" would be changed to "Children who study music also learn confidence, discipline, and creativity." The change is from "they are creative" to "creativity". This is because "creativity" sounds better and is more parallel with "confidence, discipline, and .." than "they are creative". I feel that this is something a writer does naturally because it is what flows better.
It is easy to accidentally put distracting shifts in a paper. For myself I have a hard time deciding which perspective to write from. This confusion can lead to distracting shifts. The solution to this would be to choose one perspective and stick with it. An example of this is "One needs a password and a credit card number to access the database. You will be billed at an hourly rate." needing to be changed to "You need a password and a credit card number to access the database. You will be billed at an hourly rate." The perspective stays at the point of view of "You". This is because it eliminates shifting from "One" to "You". It makes the piece of writing less confusing because the perspective is not changing on the reader as they are reading the writing.
Language is very important when writing. Sometimes a piece of writing will be informal, meaning the language will be informal. The same occurs when you have a formal piece of writing; it will call for formal language. A way of using the right language is to know the genre of your writing and what type of language that it calls for. In general, a writer should stay away from jargon if they are trying to use appropriate language. It is very likely that a reader won't know words if you write with jargon, It is also a good idea to avoid pretentious language, sexist language, or use slang. Typically, none of these forms of language will be appropriate language for a piece of writing, especially in a QRG.
In some cases, exact words will serve better than broad words. If you are trying to be specific, it would be advised to use specific, concrete nouns. An example of this would be going from team to football team to Denver Broncos. They express meaning more vividly and give the reader a better understanding what you are talking about. In most cases it would be better to use specific nouns than general nouns. Also, make sure to not misuse words because it would then ruin the point of using exact words. Exact words allow the reader to understand the piece of writing on a more detailed level.
In my QRG I already utilized appropriate language, exact words, parallel ideas, and shifts. I use exact words because the topic of my QRG(computer science) is specific so that calls for specific language. I use appropriate language in my QRG as well. A QRG is informal but it still calls for language that would be considered formal. An example of this would be "His comments were offensive to many because it came across that his comments were inferring that women were weak and inferior." I used words such as "inferring", "weak", and "inferior" to convey that the language is formal. I used adjectives that are formal rather than a word such as "weakling". In my QRG I also avoid using unnecessary shifts. I keep the perspective consistent throughout. Lastly, I use parallel ideas to help the flow of my paper. An example of using parallel ideas is "One of these reasons is because as history has shown, women choose lower-paying yet more fulfilling jobs." I used "fulfilling jobs" instead of "jobs that are more fulfilling".
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