Style Academy's Got Style!

Introduction to Sentence Combining

Well, the first exercise led me to write something like this:

            In order to join the category of people who become highly creative and productive, we must learn to acknowledge, embrace, and even explore and derive educational enrichment from our failures.

In the second exercise, I produced t­his series of sentences:

            My feet went out of sight in the late 1990's due to my failing vision, which predicament led me to set an appointment with an eye doctor in Paris; he sent me off to buy some glasses following a series of affirmative tests.  At the store, I still couldn't see completely clearly, which fact I'd like to blame my choice of frames on.  Although neither excuse holds truth or validity, I'd like to say they were forced upon me.  In the end, I personally selected a pair that I believed increased my intellectual and international appearance.  The frames were constructed with dark plastic and rectangular lenses that weren't much larger that weren't much larger than my eyes.  I felt a strange sense of familiarity about the glasses, but I failed to exactly pinpoint its source.  After I picked them up, I spent a great deal of time in front of the mirror, pretending to share intelligent comments in regards to the state of Europe.

Introduction to Sentence Imitation

For this tutorial's first exercise, they had me copy their sentence verbatim:

            Sometimes, according to Edwin Teale, a gall gnat larva, which does not resemble the adult in the least, and which has certainly not mated, nevertheless produces within its body eggs, live eggs, which then hatch within its soft tissue.

Then the next exercise required my own sentence, but structurally identical to theirs:

            Occasionally, according to the scriptures, a faithful sheep, which resembles a member of the Church, and which is not likely to fall away from the faith, nevertheless suffers a plethora of temptation of the flesh, strong temptations, which can be overcome through the power of Christ.

Lastly, there was a suggested paragraph that we were told to imitate in our own original way:

            [Original]  There's nothing better that students can take home over summer vacation than a sense that what they have learned last year has meant they were able, with the help of lots of other people, including the alienated girl with the green hair and that kid who counts on his fingers, and lots and lots of people beyond the walls of the school, to make something important happen, to meet a challenge.

            [Revised by me]  Nothing is quite as enjoyable that runners can take home from a cross country race over the rest of the Saturday than a sense that what they achieved in an intense, 18-minute course has meant that they were able, with encouragement from every direction, including the long-haired friendly runner and the fierce green-jersey runner, and hordes of jeering spectators lining the avenue of the 5K track, to achieve something fantastically rigorous, to triumph over this physical challenge.

Reflection

            I really feel that the Style Academy website is very fantastic, and beneficially useful for improving and developing as a writer, and my writing style.  I appreciate the numerous available tutorial videos posted on the site, wherein are clear, comprehendible explanations of the different aspects of writing.  Embedded within these videos are awesome moments to pause the streaming and work on our own exercises.  This keeps me engaged and more focused on the content of the video; I'm compelled to learn from what is being taught.  I found it interesting also the different categorized techniques employed by the site's authors, which they believe are the most advantageous for this concept of learning to write better.  They talked about imitating those authors and devices used which we highly favor to better our own voice; we are influenced by the writing we invest our time and minds in.  And sentence combining is very thought provoking and mind expanding in that it forces me to consider the multiple ways I could possibly phrase something.

            The exercises and assignments are great sources for practicing, re-working and growing as a writer; some of the examples given that we are to combine or imitate or easier, while others are more abstruse and suggest stepping back from an initial approach and tackling the combining, imitating goal from a new variant angle or perspective.