Uses+of+Intonation

=="My argument in this book is that linguistic and rhetorical virtues grow wild like weeds in our careless speech. That is, even though careless speaking gives us language that's wrong for careful writing, nevertheless it is full of valuable linguistic resources that we need even for our most careful and formal writing. But if we want to use these virtues to improve our writing, it helps to recognize them and harvest them. Most people have learned to freewrite or write with ease--getting rough drafts that didn't cause them much anxiety and pain--but then when they revise, they rip out the good weeds with the bad. That is, they get rid of all the good language they already have in their rough writing, in their efforts to get rid of what's wrong." (Elbow, Vernacular Eloquence, p. 78)==
 * __Elbow's Thesis__**

"I am an advocate of reading aloud and it is a strategy that I use with my students to help them construct meaning of the piece they read. One issue I have with my students whenever they read aloud is that they do so without prosody and adherence to the punctuation marks. They speed read and fly right through a comma, drop their voices at an exclamation mark or question mark and barely pause (let alone stop) at a period. Because of these felonious occurrences in reading, they barely or don’t gather any meaning from the text." Ann-Marie Richardson

"Why not have students write the way they speak or think, and then have them analyze their own writing in the same way that they did a rap or an overheard lunch conversation? They are already using a lot of crafty language tools in their spoken language. Getting them to recognize the power of their own voice and style is a challenge, especially with reluctant writers, but I believe it could make all the difference." Kristen Smith
 * Use of Spontaneous Speech**

Is speech or writing spontaneous?
Communication, written or spoken, even if spontaneous, requires some degree of thought in advance. One cannot effectively communicate without some idea of what is going to come out of them before it actually appears. One should not be surprised by one’s own statements at the time they are made.

For example, I do not revise/rewrite/edit my blog entries (//okay, I do correct typographical errors as they occur//); otherwise, they are what they are as they come forth on the computer screen, in all their spontaneous, unplanned glory. Does that mean that when I open my word processor that I have no idea what might come forth from my fingertips as I type? Of course not. Without planning what I am going to write, I know that what I write will be either initiated by or a response to something I have read. I have yet to be surprised by something I have written!