{"id":191,"date":"2012-09-05T10:23:30","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T14:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=191"},"modified":"2012-09-05T10:38:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T14:38:19","slug":"out-damned-gravy-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2012\/09\/05\/out-damned-gravy-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Out, Damned (Gravy) Spot!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2012\/09\/gravy2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-194\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2012\/09\/gravy2.jpg\" alt=\"gravy spot\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2012\/09\/gravy2.jpg 480w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2012\/09\/gravy2-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Image courtesy of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/atom.smasher.org\/bar-b-q\/\" target=\"_blank\">Make your Own Bar-B-Q Sign<\/a>&#8220;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Imagine an orator making a speech after a formal dinner, and imagine the speaker doing so very well. In the end, however, a large segment of the audience never recalls the content because of the large gravy spot on the speaker&#8217;s tie or blouse.<\/p>\n<p>The speaker lost the audience. So what are the sorts of small errors that make otherwise sympathetic readers stop reading? A general list may be nigh impossible, but I will take a stab at what most perturbs academic readers of student prose. In doing so, I won&#8217;t focus on the fatal flaws of novice writing: sweeping generalizations, sentence fragments, lack of support for claims.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Confused words.<\/strong> One does not hear the difference, in speech, between the homonyms &#8220;here&#8221; and &#8220;hear,&#8221; but in writing, such gaffs make the writer look unprofessional, if not ignorant. See our Center&#8217;s list of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/writing2.richmond.edu\/writing\/wweb\/conford.html\" target=\"_blank\">Commonly Confused Words<\/a>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Overstatement.<\/strong> One study or source does not conclusive proof make, even if it is a valid source or study. Academics expect an abundance of supporting evidence, including admissions as to where more study may be needed or the limitations of a source. One might write &#8220;the 2011 study only considered effects on male college students at private universities&#8221; as a way to present such data.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Names.\u00a0<\/strong>Student writers often use both first and last names for sources. It may be appropriate to cite a full name on first reference or for clarity when, say, two Smiths have been cited. But in most cases, in-text sources need only a last-name reference. A graver (gravier?) spot is to misspell the name of a source. I once had a reader of an article stop on page one when I did this, back in grad school. He said &#8220;after that I did not trust your prose any longer.&#8221; Ouch.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Format errors.<\/strong> APA, MLA, Chicago, and similar are not systems of fiendish torture. Writers use them to get work into a format needed for a particular journal or conference proceeding. I frequently see errors with a misplaced parenthesis, italics and double quotations both used for titles of sources, and the like. A first cousin of this problem can be adding blank lines between paragraphs, odd indents, and other mechanical gaffs. When in doubt&#8230;ask the prof!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These &#8220;spots&#8221; come to mind right away. Got more? Let me know in the comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image courtesy of &#8220;Make your Own Bar-B-Q Sign&#8220; Imagine an orator making a speech after a formal dinner, and imagine the speaker doing so very well. In the end, however, a large segment of the audience never recalls the content because of the large gravy spot on the speaker&#8217;s tie or blouse. The speaker lost &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2012\/09\/05\/out-damned-gravy-spot\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Out, Damned (Gravy) Spot!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1181,1173,99,2511],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-culture","category-grammar","category-writing","category-writing-instruction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcsCNV-35","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}