The Dash

I love getting feedback from you.

This blog is a conversation I have with myself, yet publicized for all of you to read. I enjoy reading your comments on my thoughts or stories. I love when you encourage me and I love even more when you give me advice or share your stories. I am excited when I log on and see that someone has written something. It makes me want to share more with you, to see what you have to say about another topic.

Today (well actually, just about 30 minutes ago) Lawson, Caroline's boyfriend, called and told me to put up another post on my blog.

He sounded irritated that it had been 4 days since I'd said anything. I told him that I had just put one up and to chill. But, really, it made me feel good that he enjoyed reading my stuff.

I then asked Lawson for permission to post the following conversation we had via facebook. It was funny and I wanted to share it with you.

This is just an example of how I enjoy getting feedback even in the form of constructive criticism:



Lawson:

Hey.
Thought you might want to know about this. My english teacher this semester actually showed me dashes because I was not using them in my papers. Turns out they are great—perfectly acceptable in literature—and are used to emphasize something in the middle of a sentence or move the sentence along to the next thought or conclusion (at the end of a sentence they work almost exactly like a semicolon, but I like dashes better because they keep the reader moving.) The next paper, my teacher showed me not to use "-", but to use the longer "—" when I want to use a dash. I don't know what key combo for that is on your computer, but I just noticed on your blog you use "-", which is generally more for connected words like "super-duper," for lack of a better example. I love your blog. Your prose style is very interesting—you use dashes well to move your pieces along. Keep writing!p.s. I haven't forgotten about how I said I am looking into Sabbath for you...... Shouldn't be too long til I get back to you with some kind of comment.

Becca:

Lawson,
you are awesome --Caroline is lucky to have you. Thanks for the compliment on my prose style... I didn't know I had a style. I write like I would like to speak. I'm just not quick enough to speak like I write because whe I write I can go back and erase and make long sentences more concise. Stuff like that. I will start to use the dash more. I always forget and haven't really had a lot of training on the dash. I think the short one is called a hyphen. That's the problem with typing. When you write you can make a line and assume it is what you meant it to be. On the computer, you actually have to know those particular grammar rules.Keep me updated when you see me using incorrect grammar. One day when I'm famous I will have to know these things.
-Becca

Lawson:

Hyphen. True. That is what it is called. Haha. Everybody's got a style. A lot of people really stink at putting their talking style on paper. Hannah, actually, is someone who really writes things EXACTLY like she says them—it is amazing to me. Notice it some time. Have a good day!




So that was our conversation. For those of you who pay attention, I have started using the dash written as "--" instead of the way I was using it: "-".

Anyway.

This was just to show you how much I like getting comments from you. It's fun to have these conversations, even if they are short. So for those of you who read and never comment (Laura Beene, Jimmy Shelburne, Judy, Carolyn S.) I'd love to hear from you. Just be sure to leave your name so I can give you credit. :-)