Letters to the Editor
designated_knitter
Published Letters: 82 Editor's Choice: 3
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Ms. Paglia Fails North Carolina's 4th grade writing assessment.
[Read the article: Hillary vs. Obama: It's a drawl!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yesterday my son took part in a state-wide standardized writing assessment that is a result of the "no child left behind.... even if they have to be dragged kicking and screaming" act.
Fortunately, for our state, Ms. Paglia wasn't participating because she would have just brought down our already dismal passing rate. Ms. Paglia's 4-pages of idle ramblings does not possess any of the "Five Features of Effective Writing" ( http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/few-features )
Focus -- Ms. Paglia's piece is devoid of any focus. What the heck does dropped cocoa beans have to do with Democratic presidential hopefuls or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. For goodness sake -- pick a topic and stick with it!
Organization -- There is no central organization to her piece or logical flow from a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. The piece definitely does not possess "a clear pregression of related ideas and/or events" nor is it "unified and complete".
Support and Elaboration -- Many other letters have already covered this point -- anything else I would add on this topic would be redundant.
Style -- "Style is the control of language that is appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of the writing task". Ms. Paglia's style is inconsistent and she can't decide whether she wants to try to cram as many words from her "GRE-Vocabulary-Word-a-Day" calendar as possible into a single sentence; or whether she wants to write like "I'm really really smart but I can be cute and folksy just like you common people". My experience (so take it with a block of salt!) is that the most insecure and intellectually lacking individuals tend to write in the most complex and verbose style possible. It is as if they are trying to cover up their lack of intelligence with lots of fancy words.
Conventions -- Convention has to do with sentence formation which should not "impede with the reader's understanding of the ideas conveyed". Now I may be showing my own lack of intelligence BUT, I really don't understand what ideas Ms Paglia is trying to convey. I'm not sure if she knows either except that she wants us to know that she likes FOX and Greta van Sustern, she has written many books, she took her son to see a sponge -bob impersonator and she believes that she is the only person that is "progressing intellectually". Oh, and that we can look forward to that article when she will stoop to our level and actually "flatter" a few of us by responding to our letters -- ooooo pick me! pick me!
BTW, are we supposed to be impressed by the fact that she was distracting students from taking exams while reading a literary critique of a Horror novel that was written for the gay/lesbian demographic? I'm thinking if that is the most pressing thing on her schedule, then she needs to get a real job!
You would think after all these years of writing books and articles that Ms. Paglia would have mastered at least one or two of these "Features" but you would be wrong. You would also think that she might have had an editor at some point that would try to keep her from looking like a patronizing pseudo-academic snob. Again, you would be wrong.
So I would suggest that Ms. Paglia actually come to North Carolina and take attend the 4th grade so that she , too, can master the same writing principles that my son has managed to learn. She can even hear an authentic Southern Drawl since she seems to be so obsessed by dialects. If she does come, I hope she likes sweet tea.
p.s. In case Ms. Paglia or any of our Drudgery readers would care to pick apart my letter for its literary greatness, go for it. I do not claim to be a professional author. I'm just a mom of a 4th grader who is being subjected to unfunded state mandates and a math geek -- we math geeks aren't supposed to know how to write... but I can "cipher" real good!
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I agree about anonymous not being allowed...
[Read the article: Salon's new letters registration policy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anonymous letters should not be allowed. Anonymous does not equal posting with your actual name. I'm posting as designated_knitter -- presumably, none of you know who I am, where I live, my gender, my political persuasion.
Hopefully cutting down on anonymous posts would cut down on the drive-by Drudge readers who come over when Paglia is let out of her cage. (ok... I guess you now know my political persuasion).
Finally, if you think posting anonymously is going to protect you, unless you are using some IP anonymizer etc, you are still traceable. If you are truly that afraid, then posting on a public website probably is not really a good idea.