3 Types of Erroneous Use of Dashes

3 Types of Erroneous Use of Dashes 3 Types of Erroneous Use of Dashes 3 Types of Erroneous Use of Dashes By Mark Nichol Dashes, like semicolons, are basically commas with superpowers. However, while semicolons take the place of commas to set off independent clauses or separate a series of list items in which at least one item itself consists of a list, a single dash denotes an abrupt break in syntax, and a pair of dashes signal a parenthetical phrase that is more emphatic than one bracketed by commas (or parentheses). In the following examples, though, dashes are misused. Discussion after each sentence describes the problem, and a revision illustrates a solution. 1. Everybody thinks their job title should be capitalized- and why not- it’s about them. In this sentence, the writer has conflated the two functions of a dash. What follows capitalized is an emphatically delivered opinion about the previous assertion, and the first dash is correct, but then the writer seeks to repeat the effect by setting off â€Å"it’s about them.† However, the result is that â€Å"and why not† mistakenly appears to be a parenthetical phrase. For this reason, single dashes cannot be used consecutively, even at a greater remove, so the second emphatic phrase must be distinguished in another way: â€Å"Everybody thinks their job title should be capitalized- and why not? It’s about them.† 2. Changing channels on the radio while driving- even adjusting your vehicle’s climate controls are distracting activities. Here, the opposite error is committed. The writer apparently intended to sequester a parenthetical phrase from the main clause but neglected to provide a complementary second dash: â€Å"Changing channels on the radio while driving- and even adjusting your vehicle’s climate controls- are distracting activities.† 3. Combined with a focus on disruptive innovations like artificial intelligence, telehealth, and virtual care- an abundance of new data is becoming available to healthcare providers. Here, the flaw is that the dash is inserted in place of a comma to suggest a syntactical swerve, but the syntax itself does not take off in a new direction, and a quotidian comma is appropriate: â€Å"Combined with a focus on disruptive innovations like artificial intelligence, telehealth, and virtual care, an abundance of new data is becoming available to healthcare providers.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Cost-Effective vs. Cost-EfficientWhen to Form a Plural with an ApostropheHow often is "bimonthly"?

Anne Sexton’s Twisted Version of Sleeping Beauty

Anne Sexton’s Twisted Version of Sleeping Beauty Sleeping Beauty’s Sexual Scars in Anne Sexton’s â€Å"Briar Rose† Parents often use fairytales as bedtime stories for their children. Anne Sexton takes these often light-hearted and whimsical tales and spins them into a creation of her own. According to Diana Hume George in â€Å"An Overview of Sexton’s Canon,† Sexton, â€Å"updated their contexts and language to point out their applications to and parallels with modern life, and she exposed the dark psychic core of each tale in ways that inverted or even reversed their normative meanings.† The poem â€Å"Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty),† begins with a girl in a hypnotic state, sitting on her father’s lap. The stanza is ominous and uncomfortable to read, setting the tone for the rest of the poem. In the following stanzas, the traditional fairytale plays out but as it continues, Briar Rose’s happy ending is nowhere to be seen. Sexton focuses on pivotal events in the story and twists them in a way that recreates the original fairytale and exposes its darker unde rtones that are otherwise overlooked in the original story. Sexton begins the first stanza in third person and describes a girl in a hypnotic trance in order to establish the unsettling tone for the rest of the poem. The speaker states that, â€Å"She is stuck in the time machine, / suddenly two years old sucking her thumb† (l. 7-8). The girl regresses to a younger age, making her more childlike and vulnerable. The speaker goes on to state that the girl struggles to find her mother but instead, her father is the one to hold her. Whilst on his lap, he tells her, â€Å"Come be my snooky / and I will give you a root† (l. 21-22). Snooky is slang for ones romantic partner and a root is phallic in shape. For the father to tell his daughter this immediately signals the incestual undertones that will be present later on. Over the course of the poem, Briar Rose’s life is marked by unfortunate events. The first one occurs when she is only a baby. Her father held a christening for her but he only owned twelve gold plates and therefore only invited twelve fairies. The thirteenth fairy, feeling spurned, prophesizes that â€Å"The princess shall prick herself on a spinning wheel in her fifteenth year and then fall down dead. Kaputt!† (l. 37-40). The use of a silly phrase such as â€Å"Kaputt!† contrasts greatly to the grave tone of the situation. It highlights the intended lethalness of the curse, which is otherwise glossed over in the watered-down, bedtime version of the fairytale. In response to the curse, the king becomes overbearing in his need to protect his daughter. He orders every spindle in the kingdom to be destroyed. This makes sense in regards to the prophecy but the king’s orders eventually become more extreme. The speaker states that, â€Å"He forced every male in the court / to scour his tongue with Bab-o / lest they poison the air she dwelt in† (l. 60-62) By having the men clean themselves with a modern-day product containing bleach, it is as if the king wants the men to purify themselves so that they will not corrupt his daughter. The curse said nothing of specifically men doing harm to Briar Rose though, so the king’s need to protect her becomes obsession-like. The king’s obsession over his own daughter’s purity is the beginning of the incestual undertones that subverts the original tale’s message of sefless love. Try as he might, the king’s precautions to keep Briar Rose safe from both men and the curse are thwarted, resulting in the second pivotal moment within the story. Inevitably, Briar rose pricks her finger on a spinning wheel, sending both her and the inhabitants of the kingdom into a deep slumber. The speaker describes the sleeping inhabitants in terms of modern-day parallels, such as comparing the frogs to zombies and the trees to metal. By doing so, the slumbering kingdom’s fate becomes more sinister, as if the inhabitants are petrified instead of simply sleeping. Over the years, many princes try to break the curse but they, â€Å"had not scoured their tongues / so they were held by the thorns / and thus were crucified† (l. 86-88). The princes dying show the king’s control over Briar Rose, even while she sleeps. Ultimately, they cannot rescue her because they had not scoured their tongues as the men of the court had done and thus were deemed unfit in the father’s eyes. A hundred years pass and a prince finally breaks the curse, although everything is not what it seems. In the third pivotal event, when the prince kisses Briar Rose awake, she cries, â€Å"Daddy! Daddy!† (l. 96). After being awakened after such a frightful occurrence, it would only make sense for a girl to cry out for her father, but Briar Rose was specifically awakened by a kiss. This implicates that the father has kissed Briar Rose as well, giving the reader a glimpse of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child. At this point, the original fairytale ends with Briar Rose living happily ever after with her prince. In Sexton’s version of the story, Briar Rose awakening marks the beginning of her downward spiral. Although Briar Rose marries the prince, she becomes an insomniac, still haunted by the memories of her father’s sexual abuse. She becomes dependent on drugs and cannot sleep, â€Å"without the court chemist / mixing her some knock-out drops / and never in the prince’s presence† (l. 106-108). Briar Rose becomes more and more disturbed by the memories her father’s sexual abuse but refuses to let her spouse know. Briar Rose’s sexual abuse at the hands of her father results in the overall deterioration of both her mental and physical health. Briar Rose’s health steadily worsens until she descends into a state of delirium. The speaker switches from that of third person to first and says, â€Å"I must not sleep / for while asleep I’m ninety / and think I’m dying† (l. 120-122). Briar Rose goes back and forth between different points of her life, from when she was a small child at the hands of her father to when she was in the hundred-year slumber. Because of this, Briar Rose becomes even more dependent on drugs, similarly to how real-life victims of sexual abuse can fall victim to drug usage in order to cope with their past. In the following stanza, it becomes evident that the girl in the beginning of the poem is the modern-day parallel to Sexton’s recreated version of Sleeping Beauty. In the first stanza, the little girl is just â€Å"learning to talk again† (l. 10). She lost her will to talk after being sexually abused but slowly starts to come forth with what happened, just as Briar Rose begins to do. The speaker says, â€Å"I was forced backward. / I was forced forward† (l. 145-146). The movements mimic the sexual positions that her father forced her into when she was younger. Although older and now married, Briar Rose still feels like a prisoner to her father. This directly subverts the wholesome image of the king in the original tale. In Anne Sexton’s version of Sleeping Beauty’s, the king is the true villain of the story because of what he did to his daughter. By raping her as a child, he ensures a lifetime of unhappiness to follow. In the traditional fairytale, a prince eventually thwarts the thirteenth fairy’s curse and awakens the princess with true love’s kiss. It embodies a wholesome message of good conquering evil. Sexton twisted the fairytale and utilized specific themes within it – such as a father’s love – in order to give voice to victims of incest and sexual abuse. In reality, many victims do not lead a happy life because of the memories of abuse that stay with them, long after it ends. By doing the same to Briar Rose, Sexton shows that not everyone can live a happily ever after.

Tourism and France Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tourism and France - Research Paper Example The international tourists provide importance to rich natural vegetation, cultural and historical heritage of a tourist destination. Within this context, France is one of the best examples for the rapid growth and development of tourism as a profitable business. Thesis statement: The economic, cultural and social impacts of tourism in the French society prove that tourism is a business, which is interconnected with the process of development. The glory of France as an international tourist destination is interconnected with Charles VIII, because he conquered Mont Aiguille in France (say, in the year 1492). This incident is important in the history of tourism in France because the same deeply influenced the development of mountaineering as an adventure sport. Hudman and Jackson stated that, â€Å"France has a long history of tourism and well-established reputation of being the playground of Europe† (p.200). In the field of beach tourism in France, the inauguration of seaside resort in Dieppe in the year 1822 is another development. Within the context of infrastructure development, especially the development of railroad network in 1850-1850 is another initiative, which accelerated tourism. One can see that resorts and casinos play an important role in the development of tourism. For instance, the launching of Monte-Carlo Resort and the casino attached to the same is another development in the field of tourism in Fra nce. Most of the international tourists are interested in music and entertainment. In the year 1867, the French authorities in Orange, which deeply influenced the tourism sector, organized a music festival. The opening of the first tourist office in the year 1889 and the opening of the National Tourist Office in the year 1910 are other historical developments. Besides, the establishment of the Vanoise National Park (say, in 1963) in France initiated the development of sustainable tourism. The creation of French Conservatory for Coastal

Demon Lover Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Demon Lover - Essay Example The aura of this story is psychological because the mysterious letter is a physical element with mental and emotional implications. We all have demons; the skeletons in Mrs. Drover’s closet in this story happen to be real. The man Mrs. Drover was intended to marry, before he was sent to war told her he did not know how long he would be gone, but she had nothing to do to await his return. Months after his departure he is reported missing, presumably killed. For years she goes unnoticed and un-admired by men. When her mother and sister fear she is past all hope, at 32 she secures the affections of William Drover. They marry and have three children. Her fiancà © is the incarnate ghost of her past which has been haunting her since she attempted to her live her life after his disappearance. She struggles with the fact that she doesn’t know why she agreed to marry a man who was not kind to her. She still sees it as a suspension she was in and was not able to get out of. Something that still haunts her and makes her think of him, whether as a threat or as a person she left or could not wait for. She may feel guilt but it may be at her own actions. Guilt of feeling emotion for a man who did not treat her the way she wanted to be treated. When Mrs. Drover is described in her house, a house boarded-up and damaged by war, it’s painting for the reader an image of her life as affected by her long-lost fiancà ©; like her house, she’s damaged though emotionally, and boarded up and abandoned. She also described as living in the country-side, away from the house and with her new family. If one were to see the story this way, we could also see her in the house presently to clean out the remnants of her feelings for her fiance, or to begin the final battle to get him out of her mind. This is supported by the description of the weather as we’re introduced to the deserted house: overcast, as if preparing to storm and later, we hear rain. This description has nothing to do on her doubts of her fiance’s disappearance; it just helps describe her journey in a clear way, though on her, a physical sign of her war is seen through a nervous twitch of her mouth. We should realize the fact that psychological st ories such as this one are made for the reader, so we need to pay attention to the fact that Elizabeth Bowen is trying to direct our minds down certain path, especially when introducing us to the house. She is trying to set a mood that is bleak, sinister and warning of something darker being imminent. The neighborhood being described as war-torn makes the area seem tormented, â€Å"Against the next batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark, broken chimneys and parapets stood out† (Bowen, 1). This mood is also set by the weather in the beginning of the story where Bowen is trying to build an atmosphere of tension. This story is psychological because Mrs. Drover’s evils are either a figment of her imagination, or they’re products of her ex-fiance’s threats, which are both physical and emotional. The letter she finds in her house is the first example of a physical threat, whether it is from him or not, she perceives the letter to be a threat in the way tha t the writer makes this whole story affect the reader: through controlled vagueness which causes the imagination of the recipient run wild and cause damage. The other physical reminder of her lover is the scar on her hand from

Witch Craft :: essays research papers

Around the seventeenth century, the belief in witches and witch craft was almost everywhere. The Church of Rome, more than three hundred years ago, allowed punishments for the use of witch craft and after that thousands of suspected people were burned alive, drowned or hanged. In the sixteenth century, more than one hundred thousand accused and convicted people burned in the flames, in Germany. In England, enlightened men adopted the belief. The famous Sir Matthew Hale, who flourished during the civil war, the commonwealth and the period of the restoration of monarchy, repeatedly sentenced persons to death accused of witch craft. The Puritans brought the belief with them to America. They established laws for the punishment of witches, and before 1648, four people had suffered death for the supposed offence, in the neighborhood of Boston. The ministers of the gospel there were shadowed by the delusion, and because of their powerful social influence, they did more to foster the wild e xcitement and produce the distressing results of what is known in history as "Salem witch craft," than all others. In 1688, a wayward daughter of John Goodwin of Boston, about thirteen years of age, accused a servant girl of stealing some of the family linen. The servant's mother, a "wild Irish woman" and a Roman Catholic, impassioned disapproval the accuser as a false witness. The young girl, in revenge, pretended to be bewitched by the Irish woman. Some others of her family followed her example. They would alternately become deaf, dumb and blind, bark like dogs and purr like cats, but none of them lost their appetites or sleep. The Rev. Cotton Mather, a simple and conceited minister rushed to Goodwin's house to ease the witchery by prayer. Wonderful were the supposed effects of his desire. The devil was controlled by them for the time. Then four other ministers of Boston and one of Salem, as superstitious as himself, joined Mather they spent a whole day in the house of the "afflicted" in fasting and prayer, the result of which was the delivery of one of the family from the power of the witch. This was enough proof for the minds of the ministers that there must be a witch in the case, and these ignorant minister prosecuted the ignorant Irish woman as such. She was confused before the court, and spoke sometimes in her native Irish language, which nobody could understand, and which her accusers and judges explain into involuntary confession.

Smile and Smiling Specific Purpose

Preparation Outline: Informative Speech on Smiling Specific Purpose: to inform my speech class about the many things Your Smile can do. Thesis: After listening to my speech, my audience should be informed about how â€Å"Your Smile† can do many things; have an effect on you and others around you, and how it has an effect on your brain. Introduction I. Smiling is something most people enjoy. I’m a happy and very positive person, so I smile a lot. It turns out that when I smile, the world smiles back. In my research about smiling I referred to sources such as cbsnews. com, science. owstuffworks. com, bizzikid. co. uk II. Smiling can affect the way you feel. It feels good to smile and be smiled at. People like to be surrounded by others who are positive and make them feel good. III. A smile is a great way to start any conversation, and makes others more receptive to you. It adds to what you have to offer. Transition: Let’s start with how a smile can affect you and o thers around you. Body I. A smile can affect you and others around you. A. It lifts our mood as well as the moods of those around us. B. It can make us appear more attractive to others. C.It can be contagious. D. Make you look younger E. Help you build rapport F. Helps reassure the other person of your sincerity. Transition: Now that we have talked about how your smile can affect you and others around you, let’s move on to how your smile affects your brain. II. How Your Smile Affects Your Brain A. Each time you smile at a person, their brain coaxes them to return the favor. B. Facial changes involved in smiling have direct effects on certain brain activities associated with happiness. Smiling triggers your feel good chemicals in your brain.C. Just the simple act of smiling releases endorphins from the brain into the blood. In conclusion, today we have discussed how your smile can affect you and others around you. We also talked about how a smile affects your brain. Conclusion I. Smiling is a way to promote happiness within yourself and others. Smiling is a very important part of connecting and getting to know someone. II. Choosing to smile can make a difference in everything you do that day. A smile can brighten your mood, improve your outlook, and lead you to make positive choices.So when you smile not only will you make yourself feel better, you will also attract positive energy into your life. References Makes you look younger. Freeman, D. W. (2011, November 10). Smiling makes people look younger, study shows. . Retrieved from http://www. cbsnews. com/8301-504763_162-57322365-10391704/smiling-makes-people-look-younger-study-shows/ How your smile affects your brain. science. howstuffworks. com Layton, J. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://science. howstuffworks. com/life/smilinghappy1. htm Feel good chemicals. Bizzikid . (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. bizzikid. co. uk/healthwellbeingsmiling. html

Hamlet, By William Shakespeare - 1907 Words

â€Å"Frailty, thy name is woman!† (1.2. 150). This controversial line, followed by several more from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, displays a widespread view towards women that portrays them as being weak and contingent towards men. Throughout the play, two women, Ophelia and Gertrude, are shown to be dependent on the men in their lives. They both take on a foolish obedient state of mind. Even though they share this common characteristic, Ophelia and Gertrude are very different characters. Ophelia is a beautiful, young woman who is the love interest of the protagonist, Hamlet. Ophelia obeys her father, Polonius, without hesitation and has little experience with making her own decisions. Gertrude was the wife of Old Hamlet, and is†¦show more content†¦Early literature was â€Å"mostly men who composed these works and male critics who vouched for their greatness† (Gardiner 395). Early works of literature typically portrayed the society that was around them. In general, women did not have freedom to do as they chose. They were to listen to the men and do as they were told. The typical culture in a patriarchal society viewed women as objects and not as independent individuals. In Hamlet, Ophelia and Gertrude were merely accessories to the men and served in aiding to the plot. Ophelia grew up relying on the men in her life to tell her what to do. She followed the direction from her father and brother even if it meant hurting her beloved Hamlet. Act 1 was the first time Ophelia’s obedience was displayed. Her brother Laertes, and her father Polonius told her to stay away from Hamlet. With very few words of persuasion she replied with, â€Å"I shall obey, my lord† (1.3. 145). Ophelia demonstrated no capability of expressing her desires or the motivation to survive on her own. It was not her fault that she behaved in this way because women in her society were not supposed to rely on themselves. â€Å"Ophelia is not only misunderstood by the men in her life, but grossly underestimated by them† (Rooks 477). Ophelia had the potential to think on her own and choose