Another semester at VMI and another class with MAJ Joshua G. Iddings. Although I don’t think Language and Style will quite be the excitement that Appalachian Rhetoric was, I know that being able to use language and style effectively will only help me with the rest of my ERH endeavors. No matter what you write, whether it is a formal paper or a thank-you note for a Christmas gift, being able to  properly use your style to convey a feeling is extremely important. I promise not to use any colorful 4-letter words, as long as you promise to deal with me stopping by 10 times a day to discuss the week’s readings.

I took a look a Crying Baby by Susan Eggins, and I have to admit, I was confused almost from the beginning. Although I understood the idea of the article, I was thoroughly confused by the numbers after every sentence. I thought at first that Ms. Eggins was just an overzealous citer at first, but after some careful reading I found that these were all of the “language events” happening during the narrative. Unable to figure out what a language event was, I looked to Mary Macken-Horarik for help, but that only led to more questions. Although I was fascinated at Ms. Macken-Horarik’s theory for teaching in secondary schools, I only had one question: What does Genre mean in this context? I thought genre was the theme of some book: comedy, romance, action. Now, it has something to do with language? Needless to say, I have a lot to learn, but if it is anything like Appalachian Rhetoric I’ll have a great time learning about a subject that I had never thought of before.