Seriously, Why Did We Learn Cursive? (My Goals)

Seriously, Why Did We Learn Cursive?

            In all our years in schooling we were taught specific ideas and rules about writing. And almost every year we would be told that what we had previously learned the year(s) before is wrong (or at least not fully correct).  When I decided to sign up for this class, I accepted the notion that a fairly large amount of what I believed I knew about grammar and everything involving the subject would plausibly be incorrect.  I could not have been more intrigued.

            While I have always considered myself a decent writer, I do run into minuscule errors more frequently than I would care for: errors such as a run on sentence or two, or using a semicolon incorrectly, etc.  And, like the snow in Pullman, many of these little things would build up and I would end up with something as confusing as Pullman’s weather. So, as far as this semester of class goes, there are definitely a few particulars I would care to fix.

            Apparently run on sentences are a large problem I have.  I enjoy explaining things in great detail and because of that I struggle to form cohesive, shorter, sentences. Instead, I make a sentence anywhere from two to five lines in length. While it may sound correct in my head, often it becomes quite the opposite once on paper. So, a skill I would like to be taught this semester is how to correctly use symbols such as colons, semicolons, dash marks, commas, and so on to help mend my exaggerated sentences. Though this seems like a task I should have mastered well before college, as I have said before, it is hard to really know what is correct with the rules changing so frequently. One professor says it is one way, a different professor says something else, not to mention the computers now having the ability to virtually tell me I am wrong (thank god that little paper-clip dude is no longer with us…).

            There are so many little nitpicked things about writing that I just want to master, the majority of which I have already stated.  It would be ridiculous of me to list every single matter out and explain in detail the problems I have with writing, mostly because that would take too long. I do not have the time nor the inclination to explain in detail obviously, and you, as the reader, certainly do not have the patience for it. My point being that what it is I want to learn or take away from this class is the ability to fully understand how grammar works within writing. I want to know all the ins and outs, all the small details, because fixing those small details will add up in a big way.