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Sunday, September 5, 2010

CW-Punctuation

So, the last section we read in the LeGuin book was about punctuation.
Really, if you want to write, you gotta do punctuation right. Though semi-colons always run away from me.
But the exercise was to write a passage with no punctuation at all. They suggested something hectic.
So, my mind latched onto that one time last year at the humane society. It was summer - the busy season. And none of the other volunteers were there. So, I was jumping back and forth trying to keep up with the baby bird feeds and everything else that had to be done.
So, here's what I wrote.

It's summer baby bird season at the humane society and everyone's busy but today the other volunteers are gone and it's only me and the employees there's a lot to do dishes laundry and cleaning between feeds and then the timer starts its high pitched beeping I have to stop it before I go crazy I start feeding baby birds the cute sweet little guys flutter their wings cheep and open their big mouthes wide there's robins jays mockingbirds finches sparrows and usually others but when I'm done I have to mix up raccoon food and bring in dishes of leftover brown sludge when it's late it's time to close up animals are put to bed garbage and recycling are taken out dish water is dumped and finally I can sign out and go home to a hot shower.

(Helps to read it out loud to understand it)
Here's what it should really be.

It's summer-baby bird season at the humane society, and everyone's busy. But today the other volunteers are gone, and it's only me and the employees. There's a lot to do: dishes, laundry, and cleaning between feeds, and then the timer starts its high pitched beeping. I have to stop it before I go crazy. I start feeding baby birds. The cute, sweet little guys flutter their wings, cheep, and open their big mouthes wide. There's robins, jays, mockingbirds, finches sparrows, and usually others. But when I'm done, I have to mix up raccoon food and bring in dishes of leftover brown sludge. When it's late, it's time to close up. Animals are put to bed, garbage and recycling are taken out, dish water is dumped, and finally I can sign out and go home to a hot shower.

When I went back just now to put in the punctuation, I realized that I'd unconsciously added a lot more "ands" to compensate for run-on sentence, but I took the ones out that made no sense when it was broken into sentences. So you will never see them! Wahahahah!

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