Week 3 - Jeffrey Herbert

I have come to realize as a reader and a writer, my 11^th secret to writing well is the idea that writing is like a muscle. What I mean by that is if we don’t practice our writing techniques or keep up on our AP style (whatever the case may be), we are going to lose it. I found this secret rule to be true as we started up school this fall. I hadn’t written anything or uses AP style over the entire summer, then I began my internship which revolves heavily around AP style writing. I am reading a book for one of my classes this semester titled “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley. She pointed this secret out in her book and it clicked for me.

The more we use our muscles, the stronger they become. The sample principle goes for our use of proper grammar and writing techniques. If we become relaxed or simply don’t write at all, then the skills will be forgotten. By writing every day, our skills will be fresh in our minds and ready when we need them. It’s quite a pain to pull out my AP stylebook for every little question I have when, instead, I could have used my writing skills over the break to keep them fresh in my mind.

For my first example of poor grammar, I have this section of an article in the newspaper. There are several mistakes in this paragraph, but I'll point out the subjects and pronouns that don't agree example. "Patient" and "they" do not add up. "Patient" is singular and "they" is plural.

The next example was found in a beauty store. The sentence should read, "No thanks, I don't need gorgeous, healthy hair," said NO ONE EVER! (I'm sure the company is ok to keep the all-caps. Thoughts?) I think adding the comma would have been a wiser choice instead of a period.

My third example comes from the same store. I think this sign could eliminate the unnecessary comma and place "and" in its place. Also, tacking on a period at the end of that second sentence would be awesome!