Trip Inside Your Head

My brother had an unusual friend. His friend was always doing bizarre things. Once he flew to New York City, dressed up in a bunny outfit and stood prominently in the crowd outside behind the Today show hosts. He was a bunny on national television. My brother remarked that he would love to spend the day in his friend’s mind, but only if he could be absolutely certain he could get out. U2 has a more pleasant version of strolling around someone’s brain. In the song Miracle Drug by U2 Bono sings:

I wanna trip inside your head
Spend the day there
To hear the things you haven't said
And see what you might see
I wanna hear you when you call
Do you feel anything at all
I wanna see your thoughts take shape and work right out

There seems to be a secret desire in most people to spend time in another person’s mind. I believe we are all fascinated by what others think. This is especially true of the essayist and the reader of essays. Phillip Lopate quoted Elizabeth Hardwick writing about the essayist that, “We consent to watch a mind at work…” when we study the essay. We want to see “thoughts take shape” and to see how those thoughts might work things out. It is the process, the thinking, the mind at work that is fascinating, not just the thoughts themselves. How often have mothers asked their teenagers, “I want to know what were you thinking!” And most teenagers are thinking, “Yeah me too, how do we do that?”

Certainly there are some minds at work that are more intriguing than others. The offer has often been a penny for your thoughts, but in reality, we are willing to pay much more for that for some thoughts. It is more than just the thoughts that attract us to the essayist. Lopate refers to Montaigne that with the essayists we “track the person’s thoughts struggling to achieve some understanding of a problem.” One of the reasons essays appeal to me is when I read an essay and see someone struggling for meaning or just see how the thoughts take shape, I feel I have been invited to join them. People who have everything all figured out, or at least suppose they do aren’t as interesting as those who are struggling to figure things out and allow you to join them in the journey.

A classmate remarked recently their reticence for talking about themselves in their essays. They felt they might border on the confessional if they speak too much of themselves. Yes I believe that confessional writing has its place, and as long as that place is far from me that is fine, but it is the very thing, talking about ones thinking, not necessarily oneself, that is attractive. It is though the trip inside the head is both for the reader and the writer. And they can examine the experience together.

[This was a weekly essay I wrote for a graduate class]

© 2008 Shayne Clarke

Web site or website or Fire and Ice?

In class, yesterday we had a violent discussion about how to spell Web site. Being the Lord of the Class, I fought valiantly and won. I then went home to make sure folks hadn’t changed their opinion on the matter while we were battling. So I quote the bowtie crowd below as they continue to evangelize the spelling of Web site.

The fight is amusing and in the end the common folk usually win. Will we call the darn thing a “website” in formal communication any time soon? Probably. But the real question is whether the world will end in fire or in ice? And which will really suffice?


AP StyleBook 2008

Q. I'm just curious as to whether or not AP is considering changing Web site to website. I've read some great arguments for it--namely that Internet, or Web, is a specific place and therefore a proper noun, whereas there are a number of websites ... it's simply noun. In your response to my question, can you please explain why AP chooses Web site? – from Montana on Mon, Jan 07, 2008
A. AP decided early on that Web site was a component of the World Wide Web -- two words, capital W. However, we lowercase compound nouns based on it (such as webcam). There are no plans to change this.

Q. Why does AP insist on using the outdated "Web site" instead of the more common (at least in venues that do not follow AP style) "website"? Are there instances in which writing it as "Web site" is less confusing than "website," or is there some other reason? – from Columbus, Ohio on Wed, Jan 16, 2008
A. Actually, Web site (two words) is quite widely used by news organizations, including those with their own style guides. In any case, AP usage isn't imposed outside.

Q. We follow AP Style at our agency%3B however, it's starting to feel a bit 'old school' to continue using the word Web site (official AP Style) instead of website. I want to follow your guidelines and was wondering if you guys are making a change with regard to how you reference the word. Is it in proper in your book to use 'website' instead of 'Web site?' – from Sacramento, CA on Tue, May 22, 2007
A. We have no plans at the present to change our style on Web site.

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Chicago Manual of Style

Internet, Web, and Other Post-Watergate Concerns

Q. Which is currently accepted: Web site, web site, website, or Website?

A. A lot of people are writing “website.” A lot of people have come to prefer “website.” But formal usage still calls for “Web site,” in recognition of the initiatives of the World Wide Web Consortium (write “Web-site” as an adjective). The most elaborately formal modern American publication I can think of, the New Yorker, still writes “Web site,” but then again, they also write “E-mail,” “coördinate,” and “reëxamine”—they are very particular. We at Chicago are very particular too, and we recommend “Web site.” But our press as a whole is not in the position of publishing a single, unified publication—such as a magazine. It is easier to apply a set of standard rules and never vary from them for one publication, but rules applying to all sorts of books, articles, and other writing must be a little more flexible. Moreover, when a word gets used a lot it tends to lose any awkward edges (and what could be more awkward than a compound formed of one capitalized word and one lowercased word?). Each new book that appears on the scene presents an opportunity for an author to express a usage preference or to demonstrate a familiarity with changing usage.

But generally, I would recommend “Web site” for formal writing, but “website” for informal writing or friendly writing. Unless, of course, you prefer “Web site” even when you’re being friendly.”

Soft People

"Soft people are easy targets." Renee who cuts my hair said this in consoling fashion to her daughter on the phone. Not that I was eavesdropping.

Eating Your Own Dog Food

There’s a great phrase in business described as “Eating your own dog food,” which is loosely related to “Putting your money where your mouth is,” and has cousins eating chips and drinking ice tea all about the cliché reunion. It means if you are serious about your product, you will use it. I’m teaching English 316 (Technical Communications) at BYU, one of the local universities here in Orem, and am making my good students create and maintain a blog.

Yes this is cruel and unusual, but that’s what teachers are—it is part of the code. The code also includes wearing a sports coat and never combing your hair. But I digress (which is also part of the code) so I will return to the blog discussion and eating my own dog food. I figured the only fair thing to do as I challenged my students to a blog was to expose my little blog as well.

My blog here is a rough draft effort, to be sure, and will probably always be so, but what the hey. If I can do it, they can do it. And they will do it, because they have to, and I will fail them miserably if they don’t, and they will never amount to anything if they don’t… just joshing with you, my beloved students—blogging is still only worth 40/1000 points.

Actually, by exposing myself here and eating my own dog food, I will share the joy and pain of blogging and my students will become worthy citizens in the world of words, as Neal A. Maxwell stated once. And further, as a side benefit to me, they might be inclined to not use as many swear words in their teacher evaluation at the end of the semester.

So welcome English 316 Section 07. May we go forward with our heads held high, ours blogs filled with frivolity and fervor, purpose and pain, alliteration and assonance, Bono and Edge, Dwight and Michael, Fred and Ginger (Flintstone and Grant (Ginger’s last name from Gilligan’s’ Island)) Barry and Regan, chocolate and …more chocolate—European of course. Blog On!