These Style guides, written for the Chicago and APA style outline major parts of speech, important rules, and styles of speaking. Although there are differences between the two guides, both speak of ways to eliminate bias when writing. In the chicago guide, the author mentions how using specific words that should not be used depending on the area of study/context. For example, the author mentions how the word “approximately” should be used over “about” in scientific writing. What words are used over other in your area of study? Have you experienced differences in writing styles due to having a liberal arts experience?

At another point, the author mentions how the singular “they or their” should be excluded when gendered pronouns are avoided, for sentence fluidity’s sake: “Neither is considered acceptable in formal writing…do not use them in a singular sense.” (303). How might this argument be seen differently than an author of a Style Guide on writing?

In the reading last night, the author uses the “Black Box” recordings from an airplane crashing. The way these recordings are made, is that the cockpit records what the pilots talk about throughout the flight using a recorder in an extremely secure box. These recordings are erased if the flight is successful, but the recording is shown if the flight encounters an accident as we saw in the reading. This reminded me of a website I saved a few years ago. This site, grimly but appropriately titled “Last Words” provides a list of black box recordings, from 1962 t0 2010. The recordings detail all that is said during the flight, and there may be translation errors. Regardless, this may be an interesting stouce for a project or for someone who wants to satisfy a morbid curiosity. Just a heads up, some of the content may be disturbing, so take caution in your readings should decide to explore the site.

The site can be found here:

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/lastwords.htm