Elements of Style Writing Activity

Directions: Write an essay of 500+ words on any topic – can even be a creative piece. The essay must reflect the information we learned from the chapters of Elements of Style. It must include at least half of the confused/misused words from chapter 4 and must follow the style rules given in chapters 1-3. Do not use a heading and put your name on the back of the essay in pencil. Be sure to follow all of the directions. You will also be required to turn this essay in to turnitin.com. (Total words from chapter 4: 120, 33 to be removed (see list below) leaves 87 to draw from. You need to use about 43 words/phrases from the chapter within your assignment,)

Words to exclude from the chapter 4 list: -ize And/or Meaningful As to whether Most As yet Offputting Case Ongoing Character One of the most Contact Personalize Currently Personally Each and every one So Enthuse The foreseeable future Factor The truth is … Feature Very Finalize Worthwhile Get He is a man who … Words that can be included with the Importantly correct definition: In the last analysis Facility Insightful Literal In terms of Literally Interesting Transpire Type Mrs. Beaven’s Essay for the writing assignment: Elements of Style

Thursday started weirdly and I couldn’t help but wonder why. We had gotten the day off due to the extreme temperatures, but I still went to school. I had grading to do and I needed to quickly enter them into the grade program.

When I arrived, all of the students were wandering the hallways, talking as though it were a normal school day. But, they weren’t supposed to be there! Last night the superintendent called my house phone, told me through his robo-voice that the district was closed. I knew that all of my students had to have gotten the same phone call. I was literally stunned by what I was seeing. Each and every one of the student body was there – no absences as far as I could see.

Feeling a little awkward, I walked into the office and spoke briefly with the secretaries and Mrs. Walls. I asked, “What is going on? Didn’t the administration call school off? Why are all these kids here?”

“Well, what I understand is that they all got a phone call that said the teachers were excused from the day, but if students had a report or an assignment due they had to come to school to turn it in. Isn’t that crazy? So, they are all just wandering around trying to figure out how to turn in assignments; they can’t find the teachers or the rooms. Usually they don’t even do their homework. Why would they do it when school was closed?” said Mrs. Walls.

I responded, “Personally, I have no idea why they are here. I was totally shocked. After none of them turned in work yesterday, I figured I would know the rate of homework return to be zero for the foreseeable future. Maybe you should go talk to them to see what the real story is. Hopefully you will be filled in. Most importantly, make contact with them. They could just be in a zombie trance.” However, after some insightful conversation she and I agreed that that conversation would be tortuous, and we decided to let them be. We both found it interesting that this type of craziness would transpire in our school. We both headed to our offices to get some work done, trying to ignore the meandering teenagers.

As I walked through the halls, I heard all kinds of topics of conversation, yesterday’s lunch, tv shows, movies, the basketball game score, the snow storm’s path. No one was even talking about assignments. One girl walked with a friend and commented, “I feel nauseous. Maybe I should head for the bathroom.” Her friend looked at her pale face and quickly agreed. Two boys ran through the hallways, headphones on their ears, singing, “Baby, you’re a firework. Come on baby show your worth.” I kept my eyes down after that show, figured none are in their right mind, continued on to my office, and got right to work.

I worked on my grading for a while. Later I decided to see if the student body had dispersed. I open the office door with much hesitation and anticipation of what I might find beyond its brown exterior. Slowly walking down the long brown hallway, I hope that no students are there. To my delight, the students were gone; but, they had left all their assignments! Ugh! I screamed, “Why did you do this work? I don’t want to grade all of this work on my snow day. Why are you being responsible now?” In a split second I woke up. It was all a miserable dream. We didn’t have school. I didn’t get any grading done. Students weren’t in the building. I was at home on my couch, asleep after having read about a chapter in my current novel. I really do love snow days.