I Need to Own the Name of My Blog!

I am nomadic by nature, which is the part of the blog’s name that rings true.

The other name of the blog name that rings true is that I LOVE all things literary (literature).

I have traveled far and wide in recent years, but I have failed to share the literary part of my writings on the cruises I have gone on, my trip to France, my incredible journey to Israel, and my journeys into (not through; those do not count) 20 of the 50 states in these United States.

I aim to visit all 50 states!

I have much catching up to do with the rest of the world as well, and I aim to discover more places through air, land, rail, and sea.

I have joined several travel groups to ensure that I keep traveling, but some of them are unnecessarily expensive.

Solution? I formed my own travel agency, but I have not given it its due time, financial investment, and attention.

I will commit to the name of my blog: LiteraryNomad11.

After all, I am nomadic and literary!

Timed Writing Evidence After the Zoom Doctorate Application Interview

Several Elimination Steps:

I had applied for my doctorate degree during fall of 2019. By the time the department processed my application, the world was thrust into the COVID pandemic during spring of 2020. The doctorate admission committee invited me to a Zoom interview with other candidates who went through the first weeding process. We were asked questions individually and were given time to respond. After the initial interview, the department broke up the candidates into Zoom rooms with 3-4 faculty members interviewing each of us. At the end of the two online interviews, we were notified to anticipate an e-mail inviting us to a timed follow-up writing sample (even though we had submitted a writing sample as required with our doctoral application).

Instead of scheduling a third interview on another day, the doctorate admission committee decided to invite the candidates who had the most potential to compose a timed essay with a provided prompt. I sat in anxiety watching my email for the message to drop. It dropped! I am in the final running for admission!

The e-mail message was only about four lines long. We had one hour to compose a three-page essay explaining the strengths and weaknesses we are bringing to the program and our motivation for seeking a doctorate degree from the department. Thank God for giving me the speed to type which I gathered from high school typing classes decades ago and for endowing me with the love of writing. I cranked out the post-interview essay and tried to organize my thoughts as decently as I could. I had enough time to read the essay only one time. I knew there were some errors, but I hoped the errors were not egregious enough to cost me the final offer.

I was offered a full ride! The university would pay my tuition for the six years of the program. My excitement was boundless!

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(Even after obtaining three degrees in the United States, there are situations in the American English that my brain fights to comply with. One of them is PhD. These are two words. The British English demands that when two words are abbreviated, each one earns its own period: Ph. D., which makes more sense.)

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Interview Day Writing

Strengths and Challenges (PhD in Curriculum and Instruction):

As a student who has completed degrees through face-to-face and online learning platforms, I find myself gravitating toward online learning. I am an eternal student, a lifelong learner. I will do anything for education (mine and students’ education), go anywhere for education (to learn lifelong and to teach), and keep my options open for any opportunities that will come my way in this profession. Years of teaching and learning exposed me to both ends of the classroom, as a learner and as a teacher/instructor. The numerous strengths I possess will fortify me as I pursue my doctorate degree. In response to this discussion, I will divide the strengths and challenges into human and technology.

All my life, I have been blind to color, race, national origin, and so on. All my life, I have made friends from every country whose citizens want to be friends. I have had friends from Iran, China, Ghana, Cameroun, France, Britain, the United States, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Virgin Islands, and Jamaica, to name a few. I love humanity. Also, years of professional, on-the-job experience have equipped me with the ability to work with other professionals, and the years have made me personable. I relate easily to people. As a decent human being, I believe in the Golden Rule, which is the height of compassion and empathy. Therefore, at any moment, and in any given situation, I place myself in other people’s shoes and see if I can walk a mile in those shoes. Years of being a single parent to my daughter from her birth until she married at age 23 fortified me with survival skills. My personality is an additional strength. I have persevered, thrived, cooperated with others, and achieved common goals with others. I believe in human decency and honor and reciprocate these feelings towards others.

My other skill/strength is technology. I am conversant with technological software programs and other learning management systems. I feel that I can control many aspects of the internet. I completed my second Master of Arts degree entirely online. I bring all these strengths on my journey at the University of Houston. As much as I love humanity, I know there are situations I cannot control when dealing with humans. These will be my challenges, the inability to control what others will do to me and with me as I plunge headlong into accomplishing my goals toward my doctoral degree. Part of that inability is the traffic in Houston that snakes and furls. Coming from Katy, I foresee this as a challenge, hence I plan to be on campus as early as I can. On the same level, as much as I am conversant with technology, there are aspects of technology that will be out of my control, but I will endeavor to overcome with all my faculties and abilities due to my resilience. Giving up is not an option. Other than these, I do not foresee any other challenges.

Motivations (for Applying to the CUIN PhD Program)

The world needs so much that must be righted for our youth. I had planned on going headlong into my doctorate after I completed my first Master’s of Arts degree and accomplishing so much that would help our youth after I taught second grade. However, I fell in love, got married, and started a family. This situation was the fulfillment of Langston Hughes’ “What Happens to a Dream Deferred?” I may have deferred my dream because of family, but my dream had not left me. After years of helping my daughter achieve her educational goals and get married to the man of her dreams, I had to recall that deferred dream and attempt to make it real.

My motivations for applying for my doctorate degree in Curriculum and Instruction are numerous. The first one is that I have seen firsthand what needs to be done for our youth. I have been in the “trenches” for over 25 years. I have written grants, shifted teaching into a paradigm, and helped struggling students. Still, I know I have not contributed all that I must. I need the mental enrichment, the titular awards, and the confidence that a doctorate degree will confer on me to tackle what must be done in reading, literacy, technology, English for Second Learners, and Special Education. Fortunately, I have taught and have experience in all four. However, there is a whole lot more that I can do. I would like to use my degree to work with school systems in any capacity that will enable me to design curricula. I would like to equip future teachers/leaders and give them alternative and far-reaching means of helping our youth. I would like to work with other non-profit organizations that mentor or teach the youth. Putting it simply, our youth is the reason I am applying to begin and finish my doctoral so that we can improve literacy rates and student success rates.    

Are there faculty member(s) you would want to work with on their research? 

I have scrolled through the University of Houston website for weeks after I submitted my application to acquaint myself with the faculty should I be honored enough to be accepted into the program. I sent an e-mail to Dr. Hale, Dr. Hutchison, Dr. Wong, and a few more with questions about the program and expressing my interest in working with them. I am open to working with any faculty who will take me under his or her wing and help me to achieve my lifelong goal of obtaining a doctorate degree.

I thank you for the interview today and for the opportunity to meet about 14 faculty members during the Zoom session. Thank you.

Doctorate Degree Application 2: Statement of Intent

As anyone who has applied for admission into a college or university can attest, the ordeal is protracted and harrowing.

After years of searching for the perfect place to obtain my doctorate degree, I have settled into “the place” or “the one:” My doctorate at Saint Leo University.

I did not complete my application to the University of Texas in San Antonio because I would have had to relinquish my full-time job as an embedded professor, relocate to San Antonio, try to find another full-time position with the same trappings, and failing that, I would have had to subsist on whatever fellowship or scholarship or loan I would find.

I shared one of the writing pieces I composed as required by graduate admissions programs. Each university uses a different name for the requirement: Statement of intent, letter of intention, plan of study, writing sample, philosophy of study, and so on. This is the second piece I have dug out and shared here. After I share the doctorate admissions pieces, I will move to the type of writing which potential employers require.

Happy reading!

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Statement of Intent: A Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Creative Writing

Frances Ohanenye

University of Texas, San Antonio (Fondly known as UTSA)

My exposure to the teaching of rhetoric as an adjunct instructor at Houston Community College in Houston has intensified my desire to hasten my desire to complete my doctorate degree in English. I have been searching for a world-renowned program and believe I have found it at the University of Texas, San Antonio. I intend to channel my boundless love of rhetoric into wholesome literary gratification. While I am enrolled in the doctorate program at UTSA, I will propel my natural curiosity beyond perceived and/or self-imposed boundaries so that my intellectual creations will surpass my present level of creativity and sophistication so that my intellectual creations will cause ripples in my own evolutionary scholarship and in current innovative paradigms, and so that my University of Texas doctorate degree will crystallize that natural curiosity in rhetoric into research projects and into literary outlets that will transform the world. 

All my life, passion and hunger have burned for the acquisition of the most profound knowledge. My boundless love and hunger caused me to read 130 novels in one year. My passion, curiosity, and hunger caused me to complete all the requirements for my undergraduate degree in two years and seven months with a greater than 3.0 grade point average, with dual majors in advertising and public relations, and with dual minors in marketing and psychology. The rigor and challenges of my Master of Arts degrees in journalism and in Creative Writing suffused me with the confidence to exceed the expectations in the programs at two different universities at different times.

Because writing has been a lifelong passion and a cathartic process, I create constantly and endeavor to make my voice heard. My creations have appeared in Red & Black (University of Georgia), Sidelines and Collage (Middle Tennessee State University), Atlanta Parent Magazine as a columnist, Kings Springs Newsletter, Georgia Poetry Society’s Reach of Songs anthology and Newsletter, Guardian Newspaper (Lagos, Nigeria) as a contributor, and on online freelance media outlets such as Textbroker, Yahoo! Voices, With Many Kind Regards, and blogs.

I have juggled teaching at the K-12 level with teaching at the college level while engaged in volunteer work in Georgia or Texas and while enrolled in a post-graduate course or program at one time or another. I teach English and literature to 12th grade students at a high school who take Dual Credit English courses at the college. Embracing my responsibilities at the high school and college has caused me to conquer such abstract difficulties as time management. Regardless of my location, I seek to cause ripples in my job performance and to evolve in my own scholarship through staff development courses that rejuvenate me and my job performance. I also cause ripples in current educational innovative paradigms as I perform my teaching jobs. For that main reason and for my dedication, I was conferred with awards as an exceptional educator and for piloting progressive curricula at the K-12 level for two school districts. 

My overall plans for pursuing doctorate studies at UTSA are to surpass my current sustainable system of writing poetry and prose, to augment my critical reading and publishing­ skills, and to position my work to leap over the edge of contemporary moment and have my work outlive contemporary literary publishing outlets long after I am gone to the great beyond. By the end of my degree program at the University of Texas, I hope to elevate my level of independent thinking and my sophistication in creative writing. For that reason, I would like to add the Creative Writing certificate to my doctorate program at UTSA so that at the completion of my doctorate program, I would have strengthened my backbone and would have become a published novelist with off-the-beaten-path creations, a prolific poet whose words pulsate, a progressive professor of rhetoric, a proficient conference presenter, an avid advocate of English language, a distinguished researcher, and a writer whose articles appear cyclically in peer-reviewed/ scholarly publications. I hope to embody other uncountable possibilities. I hope to serve my community and the world much better.

Doctorate Degree Application 1: Letter of Intention

I apologize for my absence from this creative place that gives me joy. Over the last few months, I have been in a whirl of rejecting some doctorate degree programs and being rejected by one doctorate degree program.

As anyone who has applied for admission into a college or university can attest, the ordeal is protracted and harrowing. I have settled into what I surmise is “the place” or “the one:” My doctorate at Saint Leo University.

From this post and moving forward, I will share the writing pieces I composed as required by graduate admissions offices. Each university uses a different name for the requirement: Letter of intention, plan of study, writing sample, philosophy of study, and so on. I will dig them out and will share them here. After that, I will move on to the required writing for potential employers.

Happy reading!

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My Plan of Study: A Doctor of Philosophy Degree in English

Frances Eucharia Ohanenye

            My production of texts began at age eight when I wrote my first story largely because of my fascination with the words my father regaled us with as captivating tales at night. Thus began my infatuation with words, and it has not slowed itself down. In my teaching career and through my education, I have explored many of the areas listed among Old Dominion University’s English fields (left as ODU capitalized them): I teach Composition and Rhetoric for Houston Community College and Lone Star College simultaneously. I obtained my second Master of Arts in Creative Writing. I obtained my first Master of Arts in Journalism. I have invested in teaching Literature, Technical Writing, and the Teaching of English at the K-12 level. My motivations for applying for my doctorate degree in English at ODU are numerous. In the succeeding paragraphs, I share my academic and professional journeys and my hopes that the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English from ODU will be instrumental in the achievement of my multi-faceted goals.

            My previous areas of study (advertising and public relations for my undergraduate degree and journalism and creative writing for my two graduate degrees) have equipped me with strategies on how I plan to succeed in the program ODU designed for its doctoral students. I will be in my element at ODU because technology has been another strength since high school when I took a formal course in typing, and the skills and speed from that typing course multiply and continue to serve me well. I am conversant with technological software programs (Web 2.0 and Web 3.0) and several learning management systems. I completed my second Master of Arts degree entirely online. These strengths equip me as I journey through ODU. Because I am always learning, I get better at teaching and at giving students what they need. In 2020, during the first nationwide COVID-19 quarantine, I completed over 70 self-imposed professional development and self-actualization course hours online within three months. The intensity and the rapidity of my engagement pivoted the trajectory of my ability to digest and process information at a breakneck speed.

            My rate of information assimilation and re-creation of data forced me to change my role from a passive receiver (as was my position through my undergraduate and graduate courses) to one of automaticity. Instinctively and swiftly, and as new materials came at me, I guided them into different compartments in my brain for use at different future times, for different diverse purposes, and to create outlets/outputs. My brain began the refreshing system of categorizing new information into different literature genres so that now I find myself interested in writing children’s picture books, middle grades fiction, poetry, young adult fiction, “textbooks,” test preparation manuals, women’s/chick lit fiction, general realistic fiction, mystery/crime fiction, essays, and so on. For the post-graduate program ODU has designed for its prospective doctoral students, my previous areas of study (advertising and public relations for my undergraduate degree and journalism and creative writing for my two graduate degrees) prepared me with a deeper sense of word-knowledge strategies on how to excel in educational programs, so I am equipped to hold my place in competition with my previous self.

            When it comes to “form, purpose, technology, audience, cultural location, and communities,” I will be in my element at ODU. All my life, I have been enamored with words: Their multidimensional and intricate forms and purposes, their ease in being embedded and coded in technology programs, their fluidity in being tailored to different audiences, and their chameleon-like infiltration of diverse cultures/locations and in different communities of the world. I love word origin and molding words in myriad ways no matter how they are packaged and rebranded. I study words and take advantage of invaluable courses that allow me opportunities to expand my repertoire of etymology. I am most interested in completing my English courses at ODU as a part-time online student. I will attend the two Summer Doctoral Institutes at the main campus if I am granted admission. My outlook on education is to always be at both ends of it: A lifelong learner and an eternal teacher. I fully commit myself to giving and obtaining the best out of my ODU professors. I will continue to create innovative activities and seek extraordinary opportunities for my success regardless of the challenges I encounter with my fellow humans or through technology.

            One challenge I encountered with my fellow human beings was that I began a doctorate degree elsewhere during the fall semester of 2020. After two semesters, and as I endeavored to take reading courses in the program called Reading, Language Arts, and Literacy Education, I was steered away from courses in reading, language arts, and literacy. I was asked to drop the reading courses for which I had registered. I knew I had to find a doctoral program with an emphasis on English. The doctorate degree in English at ODU will afford me a broader base through which to enter careers within and outside the academic arena since the English curriculum at ODU “integrates writing, rhetoric, discourse, technology, and textual studies. The course work and research opportunities appeal to those pursuing an academic career as well as professionals with careers outside the classroom.” I could not have found a more appropriate program because I yearn for the duality of a doctorate in English: Teaching and working with English in as uncountable ways as possible. 

            In my professional endeavors, I wrote and won grants, shifted teaching into a paradigm, and helped struggling students at different grade levels to ace difficult courses and exams using methods and programs I designed and piloted. I motivated and challenged students to give more than they thought/knew they could give. I wrote grants to purchase technology hardware, software, peripherals, books, and other instructional materials students needed to help them ascend to the next rung in achievement. Teaching English necessitates the exploration of a variety of texts and media. In working with struggling learners through the years, I realized that the world needs to right many wrongs done to our youth due to our failure to allow them to create text. We have trained them well in consuming text. We need to rescue our youth and equip them with proper and formal communication skills. Tomorrow brings a new page for students to write a new narrative of who they would like to be. Life is a struggle for the marginalized. I burn with unshakeable dispositions rooted in my resolution to educate students better each day with the essential skills and technological tools they need to compete in a global communication market.

            Because my dissertation will focus on the effects of culture (among other variables) on the lack of access to digital literacy for the marginalized, I will capitalize on the opportunities at ODU that will allow me to explore courses in Literary and Cultural studies, in Technology and Media Studies, and will allow me a self-designed emphasis to chart a path in my endeavor to uplift the marginalized. My doctorate in English from ODU will elevate my expertise and equip me with new methodologies on how to empower our youths more than I have been doing in the last two to three decades. I have seen firsthand what needs to be done for our youth. Engaging in rigorous, intellectual, and creative inquiries at ODU will energize me with inventive avenues of impacting humanity in ways I had not done. After obtaining my doctorate degree from ODU, my paramount goal will be to explore ingenious and resourceful ways to make literacy accessible for the marginalized of our world through for-profit or not-for-profit avenues and through digital resources.

            As my new-found knowledge is guided, and as it expands, I hope to create programs for the marginalized, and I need to conduct robust and extensive research that will break new grounds in English, English education, literacy, reading, and literature. I need fresh preparation, mental enrichment, the titular recognition (Ph. D.), a new voice, a new narrative, and the confidence that a doctorate degree will confer on me to tackle what future students must know and do while using technology in reading, English, literacy, literature, in programs for English for Second Language Learners, and Special Education. My professional experience in the aforementioned areas will help me to equip future teachers/leaders with alternative and far-reaching means of helping our marginalized youth, mostly females. I would like to work with non-profit organizations that mentor or reach our youth. Putting it simply, our youth is the reason I am applying to finish my doctoral degree so that I/we can improve global literacy rates and student success rates. I have arrived at the most perfect time at ODU, what with ODU being awarded a Research 1 classification just a couple of days ago (as announced on December 21, 2021).

How Do You Receive the “News” from Poems?

(This is a repeat of a previous post from my poetry blog. I resuscitated it because it evokes or conjures up the true spirit of poetry.)

“Getting the news” from poems means reading between the lines and noting every nuance, inflection, and sound. When reading a poem and when trying to determine what a poem conveys, it is imperative to examine where and how words are situated. Every vowel has weight; every consonant carries a message as semi-vowels and mutes. Every semi-vowel (l, m, n, and r) performs its own role as if on stage and contributes to the fluency of sounds. Even the mutes (b, d, k, p, q, t, c, and g) are very important as they can “stop the breath” if they are at the end of the syllable (Oliver 22).

As a writer and as a reader of poetry, I hone in on connotations and “feel” what the words are working very hard to convey. Every lilt of the tongue and every sound that forces the tongue to touch the roof of the mouth (or not) conveys a special message, even if the message is packaged in an alliterative container, hidden in similar beginning consonant sounds or assonance—repeated vowel sounds. There is immense beauty in both.

Not necessarily in any order, and not necessarily conscious of the process, but after or before the tongue separates the vowels and the consonants, my voice pays tribute to all the efforts I put in by enlivening the performance: the reading of poetry. The eyes, the ears, and the lips work collaboratively for effortless flow so that I and/or readers of my poems will/can enunciate words correctly. This is the process of poetry reading for me. My heart quickens in anticipation of the joy in beauty or The Beauty in My Joy (the title of one of my books of poetry). Each word, syllable, or letter (vowel and/or consonant) is not a quick study but a deliberate devotion to determine what a poem conveys about the human condition.

Sadness, happiness, elation, melancholy, achievement, deprivation, celebration, poverty, infidelity, and other emotions and conditions line up and vie for places in my poems marching in time and in tune with how I chose to arrange them. The gravity of the depth or the height of the ascension of my mood depends on how I choose to arrange poetic elements with craftiness, creativity, and surprises strewn all over the lines and in-between, unseen but felt.

Mary Oliver says that the reason contemporary people write poems (whether they know it or not) is out of a desire to be liked (Oliver 11). I am split on this opinion. Most of the time, I write poetry for me and play with words and aim to surprise myself even with discordant words and/or incongruous words. I do this on purpose like throwing in this line, “To womb much is given, much is required,” not to bait any reader, but that is the type of surprise I insert as a stroke of ingenuity and craftiness.

Even when I am reading poetry for sheer pleasure, my mind cannot seem to take a break; it works for 24 hours. Therefore, I continually analyze poetry for style and select words for the perfect sound and the perfect shade of meaning. This is a lesson I learned from Les Edgerton: “Fetch synonyms for sound” (20).  

I am continuously studying other poets and writers. I study style and emulate the greats. In my collection are poems that resonate with the distinct style and voices of Maya Angelou in “And Still I Rise,” Robert Frost in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and Langston Hughes in “Mother to Son,” and others.

I read extensively. When I took a poetry course, and I saw the list of books, I was concerned, but I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw Mary Oliver’s name. I own at least one of the craft books in the pile and guidebooks from these renowned authors: Oliver, Edgerton, Laraine Herring, Henry James, Don Murray, Gregory Fraser, Jane Yolen, Heather Sellers, and others. After reading each seasoned author, I resolve to take away something that will alter my writing life as I know it.  

Every poet writes hope into the lines: hope that the reader will take away a valuable lesson, hope that the reader will experience some sort of a paradigm shift, and hope that the reader will cry or laugh while or after reading the poem. Although most of my poems are thematic poems, I am on a new path toward “tone” poetry that will cause some sort of mood change, a change like the traffic light, switching from emotion to emotion on cue as if programmed like the traffic light.

As boring as this topic sounds, I have been hooked on tea (the hot version and the culture) all my life and saw it as a passionate art with its tradition and class and etiquette and virtue (patience and practice). It took a while before I forced myself to move on to other subjects. The ocean seems to be a recurring theme because it holds my muse on its undulating surface.

I grew up about 30 miles from the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. If I can be near an ocean, I tend to write my heart out. My childhood does not have a whole lot to do with this muse-by-the-ocean phenomenon. I blame the fixation on the movie, “Something’s Gotta Give,” the laissez-faire writing lifestyle of the main character, and the impressive oceanfront haven located in the Hamptons.

Maybe I will find my muse and a better tone in the oceanfront house. My tone used to be strident and preachy (two horrible mixtures). I aimed to let the world know that it and its teeming eight billion people needed me to “fix and repair” their wayward ways. Again, like my fixation on poetry on tea, I had to let it go and realize that preaching is the nail that will seal my poetry career permanently. My tone is softening, a work in progress.

Ultimately, I would like the readers of my poems to find themselves in the lines, to discover something relatable, something they need, a link to themselves. While they are on that self-discovery, I hope they will have fun and get lost in the creative surprises in the lines in my poems and remember some of those lines and quote them willy-nilly.

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Work Cited

Edgerton, Les. Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 2003. Print.

Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 1994. Print.

The Thorny Comma Issue, Part 2

Thirteen Basic Rules of Using Commas (Ohanenye)

  1.  Before a conjunction (FANBOYS—for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to separate two independent sentences/clauses: Angela received a pay raise, so she did her famous happy dance.
  2. To separate items in a series of three or more words: The snacks included soda, pretzels, and chips. (The Oxford Comma comes before the “and”.)
  3. To separate adjectives of equal rank: You have made a simple, polite request.
  4. To separate a series of adjectives before the noun it modifies (except the last adjective): An efficient, helpful, and interesting guide led our party on the tour.
  5. After an introductory word, phrase, or clause: Well, I need a minute to decide. Yes, my brother can play the harmonica very well.
  6. To set off parenthetical expressions, which is a word or phrase not essential to the rest of the sentence: Therefore, I believe, however, on the other hand. Consequently, but fearing retribution, James notified us of his decision.
  7. To set off nonessential expressions or appositives: Confucius, a Chinese thinker, taught the importance of tradition. The teacher, a rebel with a cause, decided to challenge the status quo.
  8. To set off dates and geographic names: Tom was born in Marietta, Georgia.  He will graduate from college on May 12, 2024.
  9. After each item in an address after the name, street, and city: She is writing her friend, Suze Jones of 32 Happy Trail, Jubilant, Mississippi 30127. (Notice that no comma separates the state from the zip code.)
  10. When an address is written on an envelope, only use a comma after the city:

Suze Jones

32 Happy Trail

Jubilant, Mississippi 30127

11. In a salutation in a personal letter and after the closing in all letters: Salutation–Dear Ann,

Closing:

Love,

Mom

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Sincerely,

Edgar

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12. With numbers of more than three digits and adding a comma after every 3rd digit counting from the right to the left: 103,908 or 990,973,873 or 98,771

13. To set off a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence: Gordon murmured with a yawn, “This is a dull movie.”

©ohanenye2013

For additional comma rules, please visit https://literarynomad11.com/2021/11/23/the-thorny-comma-issue-part-1/

Yahoo! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/comma-sutra-13-rules-using-153949388.html

The Thorny Comma Issue: Part 1

Don’t you just hate it when people who have no idea how to use commas correct you?

This happens a few times, and I am always annoyed. I teach writing. I am a writing coach; therefore, it behooves me to know punctuation marks.

What appears below are the functions of commas I have known since time immemorial. For the benefit of sounding objective, I borrowed the clamoring of the correct uses of commas from an outside source: https://www.wordgenius.com/5-of-the-most-common-comma-mistakes/YSalxeOzbAAGYTBi?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1377008186

Five of the Most Common Comma Uses

Introductory Words

Let’s start at the very beginning. When starting a sentence with a dependent clause or introductory word, use a comma.

No, I don’t want any pie.

On Tuesday, Mark is coming over.

Depending on the weather, we’re going to the beach.

Commas can often indicate a short pause, and that’s what’s happening here. The comma also subtly signals to the reader that the introductory part of the sentence is over.

A comma here also helps avoid confusion. Take the sentence, “After eating, my brother went home.” Without the comma, the sentence has an awkward start with “After eating my brother…” Luckily, the comma indicates the brother left.

Comma Splice

When a comma connects two independent clauses with no coordinating conjunction in between, it’s called a “comma splice.”

Diana went to the movies, she bought popcorn.

The comma separates the two halves of the sentence, but each of these halves could stand independently. For example, “Diana went to the movies” and “She bought popcorn;” each makes grammatical sense as a statement by itself. That means they don’t need to be linked together by the comma.

There are several ways to fix a comma splice. The first way is by adding a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so):

Diana went to the movies, and she bought popcorn.

The comma could be changed to a semicolon:

Diana went to the movies; she bought popcorn.

Finally, each independent clause could be its own sentence:

Diana went to the moviesShe bought popcorn.

Oxford Comma

Also known as the “serial comma,” the Oxford comma is the sometimes-optional final comma in a list of things. For example, the comma after “milk” in the below sentence:

Gordon bought bread, milk, and eggs at the grocery store.

Some style guides insist on the Oxford comma, and others think it’s no big deal. But, neglecting to use it can lead to some serious misunderstandings.

I’m having breakfast with my parents, Beyonce and Jay-Z.

The lack of an Oxford comma in this sentence makes its meaning ambiguous. Is the speaker having breakfast with four people — Mom, Dad, Beyonce, and Jay-Z? Or are their parents actually Beyonce and Jay-Z? Inquiring minds want to know. A final comma in the series would clear up the confusion.

FANBOYS

No, this rule doesn’t have anything to do with Star Wars or Marvel fandoms. “FANBOYS” is a mnemonic device. It stands for For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So. These are the seven coordinating conjunctions. When joining two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction, use a comma.

I played basketball, but I could never win a gold medal.

The trap door opened, and I fell to the ground.

That snake is creepy, so I don’t want to hold it.

Remember, the comma comes between two independent clauses. That means these two parts of the sentence could stand on their own. “I played basketball” and “I could never win a gold medal” could make sense as independent statements. The coordinating conjunction “but” along with the comma helps glue them together into one streamlined thought.

Be on the lookout for fake FANBOYS like “however,” “therefore,” and “moreover.” These conjunctions usually require a semicolon when they join two independent clauses.

Quotation Marks

Whether quoting the President of the United States or your next-door neighbor, commas and quotation marks can be confusing. The rule here is straightforward. In American English, commas go inside the quotation mark:

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” said John Lennon.

The rule is slightly different in British English — put commas outside the quotation marks across the pond. And don’t forget to drive on the left side of the road.

Featured photo credit: fizkes/ iStock

Reasons Writing a Book Makes You Awesome


by BRIAN A. KLEMS

Actually, Brian’s exact title is “Reasons Writing a Book Makes You a Badass”

I borrowed the heading and subheadings (1 – 7 below) of this post from Brian A. Klems of “Writer’s Digest” whom I have admired and followed for years.

Like him, I have always been a nerd. Those who went to high school with me will attest that I always buried my face inside any book I carried with me. I read up to 130+ books in one year. I also read the dictionary at that time.

During those high school days, I read Chinua Achebe (and he influenced my writing), Wole Soyinka (loved his use of impressive vocabulary in his poems), Obi Egbuna, Buchi Emecheta (she made me realize that a Nigerian woman could be an author), Ben Okri, Flora Nwakpa (the first Nigerian novelist, influenced my writing and made me realize that a Nigerian woman could be an author), Ken Saro-Wiwa (loved his style), Ekwechi Amadi, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chris Unabi, Uwem Akpan, Elechi Amadi, J.P. Clark, Remi Adedeji, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Dan Fulani, Duro Ladipo, Nkem Nwankwo, Kofi Awoonor, Nadine Gordimer, and many other Nigerians and Africans.

Out of that love of reading came the love of writing. I have been working on several genres of literature for what seems like decades. Hope has never left me to release them one day soon. From Mr. Klems’ experience (and I think most authors will agree with him) that–
1. Writing a book is hard.
2. Editing is painful.
3. Knowing when you are “finished” is impossible
4. Cold-querying of agents is scary.
5. Rejection is everywhere (and yet you still carry on).
6. Getting paid for your work is harder than ever.
7. Accomplishing a dream is rare—and awesome.

Some of the attributes of being a writer/an author are discouraging; others are invigorating. One important aspect is that passion must move me and you to create.

We all have a book inside of us. Finding the time to write is impossible, but we need to find that time. Make the sacrifice, forge ahead despite the frustration and the lack of support from people, but you should never give up.

https://www.writersdigest.com/…/7-reasons-writing-a-book-ma…

What Teachers Need to Know About Language

Lilly Wong Fillmore lists the five roles a teacher must play when instructing the English language learners in her classroom. Of the five roles (communicator, educator, evaluator, educated human being, and social agent) a teacher plays in a student’s academic life, the two that struck a chord in me are the teacher as an educator and as an evaluator.

This statement grabbed my attention: “A serious worry about global tracking decisions is the questionable validity of the original assessments on which these placement decisions were made.” The assessment my daughter was given in K-3 did not ask her the generic questions listed in the section of the book.

By the time my daughter was 18 months, she could count to 25 because there were 25 steps from the bottom landing to the top landing in front of the door to our apartment. She could identify most colors because I labeled the items in our house by name and by color. She could recite the alphabets, all 26. By the time she was three years old, she was more than ready for regular kindergarten (K-5 or simply kindergarten).

She knew her first name and her last name, could follow simple instructions, asked so many questions that I had to take a breath sometimes to prevent chastising her, answered the questions I asked her, knew the colors in the crayon boxes since she was eighteen months old, could tell me stories at three years old, knew my name, and could count to twenty-five.

I am a teacher, and I made “such abilities and skills” universal for her because I understood that they are “indicative of learning ability”. I reveled in the knowledge that my daughter was ahead of her K-3 classmates by two years at least. No one can imagine my shock when the private school she was attending sent home a note declaring that my daughter was a “slow learner” (Oakes, 1985) and that the school would like for me to sign a document agreeing that she would be held back in K-3.

This aspect of my analysis amplifies that the teacher failed as an educator and as evaluator.

The Teacher as an Educator: Fillmore observes that “Too few teachers share or know about their students’ cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, or understand the challenges inherent in learning to speak and read Standard English. We argue in this paper that teachers lack this knowledge because most have not had well-designed professional preparation for their current challenges.” I second this argument. I also add that English was the first language in my house. This is not a thing of pride (because it became a cause for regret when my daughter grew into an adult), but it is to clarify that my daughter did not have any linguistic handicap, nor was she placed into an ELL/ESL course.

AS an educator, it is the teacher’s duty to select “educational materials and activities at the right level and of the right type for all of the children in their classes. This requires a reasonable basis for assessment of student accomplishments and the capacity to distinguish between imperfect knowledge of English and cognitive obstacles to learning. In order to teach effectively, teachers need to know which language problems will resolve themselves with time and which need attention and intervention. In other words, they need to know a great deal about language development.”

The Teacher as an Evaluator: “It is imperative to recognize that young children may differ considerably in their inventory of skills and abilities, and these differences should not be treated as reflecting deficiencies in ability,” (Adger, Snow, & Christian, 2018). My child differed in the inventory of skills and abilities the school administered to her. I wrote the school a lengthy letter about the subjective nature and the socio-economic bias inherent in their assessment.

I have been an avid tea drinker since childhood because it is part of the morning cultural ritual in Nigeria. I upped it when I became an adult and could afford the trappings to call myself a tea aficionado. My collection of teacups and saucers attested to this near obsession. We drank tea every day, so the tradition continued in my home in the United States.

We used to go to Disney World in Orlando every Christmas because I owned a time-share. It never crossed my mind that a school would want to hold my daughter back because she could not say “saucer” and could not name one of Disney’s numerous princesses.

Of what benefit is a saucer to a three-year old’s education or life? Is this the comprehensive assessment and the best determinant of her intellectual growth and success in life or even in the next rung of education? How does Disney World factor into a school’s curriculum? Did Disney World design the curriculum because the school is located inside Disney World? Was this Christian school (located in Smyrna, Georgia) somehow associated with Disney World (located in Orlando, Florida) as part of a financial payment/repayment to/from the school? Is this not an example of socio-economic bias? Of harrowing injustice on a three-year old? Was this the sum of the assessment on which the school based its decision to retain her for another year in K-3?

I glared at the woman, prayed for her and for the Christian school that would do such a grievous intellectual injustice to a child, withdrew my daughter, and collected myself with the dignity of the wronged.

======================

Sources:

Fillmore, W. L. & Snow, C. E. (2000). What teachers need to know about language. ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Special Report. 5 Week 2 – 09/01: L1 and  L2 Reading (Online Meeting)

Oh, My Goodness! A Literary Find!

I teach English composition/rhetoric to college freshmen and sophomores (and to upper level students who delay taking the course(s): English 1301/101 and/or English 1302/102).

One of the short stories we read and analyze is “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples. I love, love the anxiety Staples raises in the reader with his first sentence. I have taught this personal narrative so many times that every word, word order, and phrase are ingrained in me.

I was going through “Poem-a-Day” sent to me by Poets.org. As I read June Jordan’s poem, the two literary texts collided in the most profound way. Before responding to the questions below, consider the different perspectives of the writers, linear or nonlinear (parallel or divergent).

One is a poem; the other is a short story. One is written by a woman; the other is written by a male. One speaker was born in 1936, and the other was born a generation later in 1951. One wrote the piece in 1986 (and refitted it to the current title in 1987), and the other wrote and dedicated the piece in 1976. One is still alive, but the other passed away in 2002. Both lived in New York City at one time or another. Both were college professors. One married early and was divorced; the other married late and still married. Both were impacted by trauma during childhood.

In the meantime, please read both of them and share thoughts and interpretation.

  • Which of the two pieces mirrors the other?
  • What is the tone of the one written by Staples?
  • Is this surprising? Unnerving?
  • What is the tone of the one written by Jordan?
  • Is this surprising? Unnerving?
  • Are there any expectations of tonal association for a male as opposed to a female? What are they?
  • Whose vocabulary causes empathy? (The presumption is that there is empathy.)
  • What are the effects of each piece of writing? What reactions does it elicit?
  • How does each speaker react to those who see him/her as a danger to their safety and alter their behavior?
  • How does each speaker resolve the situation of fear coming from/perceived by people of the other race?
  • Are the speakers affronted by the unsavory behavior?
  • Do the speakers have any right to react?
  • How should the speakers react to societal rejection/perception?
  • Is the anger/reaction of each speaker justified?

These are generic but in-depth questions. I leave the rest of deeper and challenging questions for in-class conversations.

Please read “Black Men and Public Spaces“.

“I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies”

June Jordan

1
I will no longer lightly walk behind
a one of you who fear me:
                                     Be afraid.
I plan to give you reasons for your jumpy fits
and facial tics
I will not walk politely on the pavements anymore
and this is dedicated in particular
to those who hear my footsteps
or the insubstantial rattling of my grocery
cart
then turn around
see me
and hurry on
away from this impressive terror I must be:
I plan to blossom bloody on an afternoon
surrounded by my comrades singing
terrible revenge in merciless
accelerating
rhythms
But
I have watched a blind man studying his face.
I have set the table in the evening and sat down
to eat the news.
Regularly
I have gone to sleep.
There is no one to forgive me.
The dead do not give a damn.
I live like a lover
who drops her dime into the phone
just as the subway shakes into the station
wasting her message
canceling the question of her call:
fulminating or forgetful but late
and always after the fact that could save or 
condemn me

I must become the action of my fate.

2
How many of my brothers and my sisters
will they kill
before I teach myself
retaliation?
Shall we pick a number? 
South Africa for instance:
do we agree that more than ten thousand
in less than a year but that less than
five thousand slaughtered in more than six
months will
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME?

I must become a menace to my enemies.

3
And if I 
if I ever let you slide
who should be extirpated from my universe
who should be cauterized from earth
completely
(lawandorder jerkoffs of the first the
                   terrorist degree)
then let my body fail my soul
in its bedeviled lecheries

And if I 
if I ever let love go
because the hatred and the whisperings
become a phantom dictate I o-
bey in lieu of impulse and realities
(the blossoming flamingos of my
                   wild mimosa trees)
then let love freeze me
out.
I must become
I must become a menace to my enemies.

Copyright © 2017 by the June M. Jordan Literary Estate. Used with the permission of the June M. Jordan Literary Estate, www.junejordan.com.

June Jordan