Learning Log Unit 3 : Style Academy

https://styleacademy.byu.edu/writing-sentences/

Day 1 - 3/17/20
Cover the Basics - Writing Sentences

Myka sang, and it surprised her mother.

Mykas mom was surprised after hearing her sing.
When Myka sings, it surprises her mother.
Surprising her mother, Myka sang.
Myka’s singing surprised her mother.
Myka surprised her mother after she sang.
Mykas mother was very surprised when she heard her sing.
It surprised her mother when Myka sang.
If Myka sings, her mother gets surprised.
Myka, surprising her mother, sang.

Non-hibakusha employers developed a prejudice against the survivors as word get around that
they were prone to all sorts of ailments, and that even those like Nakamura-san, who were not
cruelly maimed and had not developed any serious overt symptoms were unreliable workers,
since most of them seemed to suffer, as she did, from the mysterious but real malaise that came
to be known as one kind of lasting A-bomb sickness: a nagging weakness and weariness,
dizziness now and then, digestive troubles, all aggravated by a feeling of oppression, a sense of
doom, for it was said that unspeakable diseases might at any time plant nasty flowers in the
bodies of their victims, and even in those of their descendants. - John Hersey, ​Hiroshima

Day 2 - 3/19/20
Phrases and Clauses & More Clauses

1. The little girl picked up her fancily dressed barbie doll and played outside, while the rain
poured.
2. After dinner, we made a delicious chocolate cake for dessert, with lots of frosting.
3. Annie was reading her book for her book report while she was listening to music, it was
distracting her.

While geopolitical conflicts between nations will always be with us, this doesn’t mean we need
to be afraid of each other.
Geopolitical conflicts between nations will always be with us, but this doesn’t mean we need to
be afraid of each other.
We don’t need to be afraid of eachother even though geopolitical conflicts between nations will
always be with us.

Day 3 - 3/23/20
Manipulating Sentence Parts

Putting his own preferences above everything else, Snowden self-indulgently short-circuited the
democratic structures of accountability.
Snowden self-indulgently short-circuited the democratic structures of accountability, while he
put his own preferences above everything else.
Snowden, putting his own preferences above everything else, self-indulgently short circuited the
democratic structures of accountability.

Day 4 - 3/25/20
Understanding Sentence Combining

Exercise #1: Bill Bryson, ​A Short History of Nearly Everything,​ NY: Broadway Books, 2003, pp.
299
1. Scientists know about stromatolites, they have known about them for years, scientists
knew about them from fossil formations. In 1961 they got a real surprise, they discovered
a community of living stromatolites. They discovered them at Shark Bay, which is on the
remote northwest coast of Australia.
2. This was most unexpected, in fact, it was some years before scientists realized quite what
they had found.
3. Shark Bay is a tourist attraction today, at least it is as much of a tourist attraction as a
place hundreds of miles from anywhere much, it is dozens of miles from anywhere at all
can ever be.
4. Boardwalks have been built, they have been built out into the bay. Visitors can stroll over
the water, they can get a good look at the stromatolites, stromatolites quietly respire just
beneath the surface.
5. They are lusterless, and gray. I stated this is an earlier book, they look like very large
cow-pats.
6. It is a curiously giddying moment, the moment when you can find yourself staring at
living remnants of Earth. The remnants are from 3.5 billion years ago.

Exercise #2: Ruth Reichl, ​Tender at the Bone​, NY: Broadway Books, 1998, pp. 147
1. The weeks passed, Maurice slowly grey grayer, and more wrinkled.
2. He stopped wearing makeup, his impeccable clothes were sometimes spotted. He lost the
bounce in his step.
 3. One day I came in earlier than usual, I found him in the dining room, he was running
frantically from table to table.
4. “Look at this plate!” he shouted at me. He held it up, his finger was across the long crack,
it was jagged through the middle.
5. He hurled it at the wall, he watched it shatter. The shards skittered onto the carpet, it was
in tiny pieces.
6. He went to another table, he examined the plates. He hurled another one, he hurled it
against the wall.
7. He hurled another one.

Day 5 - 3/30/20
Participles and Participial Phrases

- I fell ten feet to the ground, landing on my back.

- I fell ten feet to the ground, and I landed on my back.
- When I fell ten geet to the ground, I landed on my back.

While all of these sentences are the same, they all are different. They have the same meaning, but
some of them just get straight to the point and others have more cushion and words that aren’t
really necessary. One of them is in past tense, the others are in present tense. Some have really
good flow and others don’t really work together.

There are two participles. One is “shifting in the weight of the line… kneeling carefully” and
then “submerged, for more than a minute, watching… boat moved.” They both provide a vivid
description of the action and provide important information.

1. The girl looked into the camera, anxiously waiting for her picture to be taken.
2. The tired injured girl rested on her crutches.
3. Waiting for someone to help, the girls stood in the road by the side of the car.

Day 6 - 4/1/20
Corona Journal #1

So it has been about two and a half weeks since the whole no school/quarantine thing has
happened. At first I was actually kind of excited about having no school for two weeks and I was
so excited for my cruise that I was supposed to leave on this saturday. Well since then, we had a
very scary earthquake, my cheer banquet was canceled, my senior year got canceled, my senior
trip cruise was canceled and I am losing my mind. I just want to get out of the house and have
chick-fil-a. This whole thing is crazy and I don’t know how I am going to be able to do another
month of this. But it makes me realize what I am grateful for and how blessed we really are. It
kind of sucks that it had to be my senior year that is going down the drain, but it's alright. I am
trying to find things to do and now that the weather is starting to get warmer I can do my
homework outside. I have cleaned my room so many times, tumbled outside because I miss
cheer so much, and I go on a walk everyday. I hope things get back to normal soon because once
they do I might get a graduation, I get to reschedule my cruise, and me and my family can go
somewhere out to eat because I think I have eaten enough chicken nuggets.

Day 7 - 4/14/20
Corona Journal #2

Last week was spring break, well it was supposed to be. I was supposed to be on a cruise
in the carribean eating all the inecream I wanted, but instead I was stuck at home. I really miss
my friends, and my grandparents. We went to my grandparents house and just bought them
cookies and some groceries. We always visit them, and this time was just different. I miss
normal life and the freedom that we used to have. It’s weird to think that it's already been a
month since this all went down. A month ago I didn’t have any concern about whether
graduation was going to happen, if we got senior dinner dance, if we got to have the spirit bowl,
if I was going to get my medical assisting license, and if I was going to get to finish my last three
months of cheer. I have struggled a lot with my “new normal” and how life is now, but i’m
trying to find the silver lining of it all. During this quarantine, I found out I got a full ride
scholarship to college, and I finally decided where I am going, and I've had a lot of time to spend
with my family. I am grateful that I have this time to spend with them as our lives are always
busy. I also have had time to reflect on what is happening in our world right now. As I'm sitting
here at my kitchen counter with tears streaming down my face, learning that school is online for
the rest of the year and coming to the scary and sad reality that my senior year is gone, I'm
devastated, upset, confused, and unhopeful. This is the most important time of my life and I will
never get it back. I don’t know how to accept it and I don’t know if I ever will, but the most
important lesson I’ve learned from this is to never take anything for granted because you never
know when it is all going to slip away. :(