Week 9

The -isms were very interesting this week.  It made me realize that there are some things that I say or write all the time that I need to eliminate.  One area is consistent treatment of the sexes.  This section of the reading made me realize that I do describe and categorize women differently than men.  I have never meant anything by it, it is just something I have done without realizing how wrong or unnecessary it really is.  The example in the book that made me laugh discussed a sports story about a new female coach described as a "curly-headed blonde."  I thought that was funny because if you said that about a male coach it would sound totally ridiculous.  The sad part is that if I heard a woman described like that I would never think anything of it.  This is something that I need to change and it is something that I am going to work on.

Another section that really opened my eyes is the "Don't Reinforce Stereotypes by "Exceptions."  The book states that doing this is pretty much just as bad as using the stereotype itself.  I have never thought about it in that light but it is totally true.  The book states that "writing that a Mexican-American is hardworking and even-tempered implies that Mexican-Americans in general are indolent and volatile."  If we act as if something like that is an exception or a surprise we are actually reinforcing a stereotype.

I have a six-year-old, African-American, adopted brother.  Ever since he has come into our family I have been more sensitive to racist comments and stereotypes.  I try hard to treat everybody equally because I really hope my brother will receive the same treatment as he grows up.  This chapter has helped me realize that there is even more I can and should be working on, and that I still have a lot of room to improve.

Editing Mistake of the Week

I have been thinking about getting a BMX bike.  I ride a lot with my kids so I want something that I can just throw around and not worry about.  Because of this I have been looking at the KSL Classifieds.  There are so many editing mistakes throughout the ads.  Here is one of them.

$9000

Mongoose bmx

Kearns, UT   84119   |   Oct 26, 2014

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I have a very nice mongoose bmx it is nice it rides good and it has no damage only a little scratch nothing serious the bike is in good condition if you have any question please contact me thanks

 

 This ad doesn't use a single punctuation mark in the entire description.  Plus he said it rides good when he should have said it rides well.  I think it would be safe to say that there might be some run-ons happening in this ad!