In these confusing times, many false prophets – trumpeting their heresies to the skies – are in positions of power and influence confusing the minds of the young. Colleges today, and bookstores, and the internet are a babble of conflicting idiocies. Through all this noise and mud, Sin Boldly! clears a path and shines a light for sanity.

The purpose of this book is to give those still searching for their voice the kick in the pants they need to join the strivers. It also is aimed at the many strivers who need the encouragement to strive harder, to persevere, to keep on keeping on. Last but not least, Dr. Dave reveals the difference between the merely noisy and the sweet tones of pure Jazz, between words that confuse and words that communicate, between nonsense and common sense.

Whether writing memos to the boss, freshman papers, or best-selling novels, a writer needs what every jazz player cherishes: technical skill and a willingness to put oneself out there naked to the world, exposed, vulnerable, but wailing with the spirit. Too many would-be writers are 98 word weaklings hiding behind timid little sheets of paper terrified that some verbal bully will spit ink in their faces. But to write is to put oneself on stage, naked before the world. To realize that, to accept that, to learn how to do that is the foremost requirement for success. Go for it!

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For details and examples from the book :

Table of Contents

APPRECIATION

“Bullitt: A Meditation on Style”- a poem by Perri Pagonis

INTRODUCTION: What it’s all about.

SOME REALLY CRUDE BASICS
What is a college paper? / Format and length / Timing counts / How Much Work do I have to do?

CHOOSING A TOPIC AND TELLING YOUR STORY
K.I.S.S. / Plagiarize / Brainstorming / Why Must we fight? / Daring Dissent / Swindler’s List / Finding Patterns: Comparisons and Contrasts / Freeing the Slaves / End with a Bang / Before Plunging in

IN THE BEGINNING: Pulling your creation out of the void
Do I really need an outline? / What’s in a title? / The Topic paragraph / Topic Sentences / Keep the flow going / Sentences and Paragraphs / Be Specific

CHOOSING A VOICE
Whom must you pretend to be? / Faking Other Voices / Sin Boldly! / Dialogue / Voices to Avoid / Dissing the Prof / Imagining your Audience/ Ungrammatical Voices / Breezy or Pompous?

PLAIN STYLE AMERICAN POPULISM
Yankee Doodle’s Macaroni / McMurphy’s “average asshole” / The all-American con-man / Postmodern Language / Empowering or Cowering / PC Patty / Business and other Jargon

CHOOSING WORDS
Piss and Urine / Being Niggardly about the Paddy Wagon / Snobs and Slobs / Cliches / Say what you mean & mean what you say / Sexist Language / Past and Present / Poetic Prose

ARGUING YOUR CASE
If it fits… / No Right or Wrong / Battle Tactics / VGs, AEs, and OAs / Show what you Know / Keep Your Argument Grounded/ Refute! Reply! Fight Back!

HOW TO LOSE YOUR CASE
Circular Reasoning / Just say no to “just” / Post Hoc, Propter Hoc/ Ad hominem / False Choices / Non Sequiters / Teleological false assumptions / Blaming the Victim / Emotionally Logical

FOR INSTANCE: 2 EXAMPLES
“Robert Frost: Gentle New England Satanist” / “Women are like Boxcars”

LITERARY GAMES
The “Deep Inner meaning” Debate / Searching for Symbols / Texts in Context / Cynics and Essentialists / RaceGenderClass / Theory Sluts / Analyze Don’t Moralize

THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
What’s the dif? / Free to be? Free at all? / Nature and Nurture / Praise and Blame / Cause and Effect/ Constructed Snobs and Essential Slobs

GRAMMATICAL HORRORS
ONW-Omit Needless Words / NAS-Not a sentence / MM –Misplaced Modifer / A Problem with parallelism / a=they? / AWK-awkward / OOG–beyond AWK / BB-back to back / Typo-Typographical Errors / SP–Spelling / WW-Wrong Word

SOME REALLY STUPID MISTAKES
Its, it’s, its’, The Possessive / The Split Infinitive / “Hopefully” and other controversies / Adjective or adverb? / Prepositions and Their Pronouns / Fewer and less / Who and whom / Unclear referents / I, me, mine / Subjunctive Dreams / Plurals / Hyphens / Must of alot

“PUNCT’UATION!?!”
Clueless High School Teachers / Commas / Semicolons / Colons / Quotation Marks / Parentheses( ), Brackets [], and dashes —

CITING SOURCES SUCCESSFULLY
MLA Style / APA Style / Citing Cyberspace

A SAMPLE QUIZ WITH COMMENTS

CONCLUDING SERMON