Riddle:
The Buffalo Riddle
Grammar Note:
Not Because
Lecture:
Promises and Prizes
New Task:
Editorial Draft
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David Hodges
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I like to be called David, but “Mister Hodges” and “Professor” are popular choices. My ESL students’ charming alternative, “Mister David,” is my favorite by far.
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Newspaperlessness 
The sentence from the riddle can be translated to this:
Buffalo buffalo (bisons from the city of Buffalo) Buffalo buffalo buffalo (bullied by other bison from Buffalo) buffalo Buffalo buffalo (in turn bully other bison from Buffalo)
The lesson? Some words simply have multiple meanings as well as different forms of speech.
Following a negative verb with “because” can create confusion (unexpected interpretations) for readers and should be used with caution. For example:
“I don’t love you because you’re beautiful.” May have been intended to mean that beauty is not the only factor in my love, but it really says that beauty is a factor in my non-love for you. The better way to say it would be:
“I love you not just for your beauty.” Or “I love you, but not because you’re beautiful.” Or, better yet, be more descriptive and toss out ‘not because’ entirely. “I love you for your beauty and your generous heart.”
Every essay must deliver on its promises. If one is going to talk about the negative effects of vaping, one should not say “Vaping has negative effects,” or “Vaping is a serious problem,” at least not if they do not deliver on why these statements are true. They should give explanations such as, “vaping products contain unknown and/or dangerous substances that lead to a certain illness.” A movie scene that conveys its purpose (e.g one that gives at least a small climax to that scene) is a good example of delivering on promises. The main enemy of promises with prizes is “talked-about language.” Another point that this leads to is that one should not waste their sentences. Background information is okay, but useless information will make the reader lose interest.
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10/1/2019 notes
0. As always, class started with a riddle – this time with the “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo,” riddle, which is technically grammatically correct. It’s actual meaning is: “The American Bison from Buffalo, NY, that are bullied by bison from Buffalo, bully other bison from Buffalo, NY.”
0. It’s best not to start with or, in general, use constructions like “not because”. For example, “I don’t love you because you’re beautiful, “ is a sentence that instantly loses the intended target’s attention and the rest for the sentence is insignificant, even though the author’s intentions were good. Instead, something like “ I love you for your beauty” is much better. If there are words with “not,” they should be replaced with synonyms.
1. Just like in real life, in writing, it’s important to deliver on promises already made to the reader, who may be unsatisfied after reading our work and/or whose attention may be abruptly lost because we kept him waiting for too long.
2. Our next task – the Editorial draft, where we get to be the voice of God. Important note: do not refer to yourself, do not say “I.”, We” is fine.
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10/1
The Buffalo Riddle
– Determine the meaning of nouns and verb
– Buffalo(proper noun): city of Buffalo / (regular noun): bison buffalo / (verb): bullying
Not Because
– “because” can make to confuse
– Good: I love you, but not because you’re beautiful.
– Good: I love you not just for your beauty.
– Best: I love you for your beauty and your generous heart.
Promises and Prizes
– Makes no promise awards no prizes
– Makes and delivers on a promise with a prize
Editorial Draft
– Use “We” instead of “I”
– Use casual citation
* I didn’t take this class because I was sick… So I just read the agenda and I wrote this note.
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Never utter the sentence “I don’t love you because you’re beautiful”. The first four words lose the person you are talking to.
Not Because…
Not to do this, to avoid this. Second option eliminates possibility of confusion. No need to explain the statement or confuse while explaining it. It is not fair. It is unfair.
Continue to engage in feedback please, ask for more assistance.
Never make promises in writing and not follow up on them. Waiting longer than a paragraph to fulfill a promise will lose the interest of a reader, which is very hard to acquire.
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Class started with a riddle in which you learn the word buffalo as 3 different meanings.
WE then learned that `not because` is confusing and not to use it.
When making promises and prizes you must show proof when gibing out prizes and to also no make a lot of promises .
We then finished with going over the assignment.
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Buffalo has three different meaning
Learned the difference between “not because”. Have to be very precise with what you mean in order to portray a clear message to readers
Promises and Prizes: If you make a promise or prize, you need to back that up or else the readers will become uninterested. Also, no promises or prizes makes readers lose interest quickly.
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Tues Oct 1
We started off class with a riddle on complete sentences. I was intrigued to find that buffalo had three meanings.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
American bison from Buffalo harass and bully bison from Buffalo which in turn causes those bison from Buffalo to bully and harass American bison from Buffalo.
We then moved on to using Not Because in our writing. Remove the possibility of being confused while reading.
Not to do this
To avoid this
Bad: I don’t love you because you’re beautiful.
Good: I love you, but not because you’re beautiful.
Good: I love you not just for your beauty.
BEST: I love you for your beauty and your generous heart.
Writing mechanics and fixing sentences
1. Coats was fired because he violated workplace policy.
2. An employer is prohibited to fire a person who has anxiety because they are taking the correct medication to deal with the issue.
3. In Colorado marijuana is legalized as well as alcohol.
4. Coats was trying to ease the pain he endured everyday.
5. It is unfair to discriminate against him.
6. He was not harming anyone at his job by smoking marijuana on his own time.
7. The secret service prevented Omar Gonzalez from penetrating deep into the White House.
8. The Secret Service is not responding to the breach under question.
9. Julia Pierson’s incompetence might cost her her job.
10. The intruder was carrying a 4 inch blade so deadly was not necessary.
We then moved on to hints and prizes during writing. When wiring you should immediately explain your thoughts and back them up with evidence. Claims made with no pay off are useless. Cut out all of the junk in the paper and just prove the point.
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Today we started with a buffalo riddle, and I rephrased it to say, “Bison from Buffalo bully other bison from Buffalo, who in turn harass other bison from Buffalo.” Next, we moved onto a grammar section to avoid using ‘not because’ in our papers. It is too confusing and could have multiple different meanings instead of what the author is portraying. I felt very confident in the sentences I revised, and I now fully understand the exercise. The next topic we discussed was promises and prizes. The lesson was very helpful in explaining exactly how to write to keep our readers without making them wait for something in our writing that may never come.
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10/1/2019
[] Starting class, we used a riddle “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” The point of the riddle was to determine the meaning from the nouns and verb inside of the sentence. Buffalo is a proper noun – city of Buffalo, a regular noun – bison buffalo, and a verb – bullying.
[] “Not Because” – using the word “because” can confuse the reader. In the example “I don’t love you because you are beautiful” makes the reader assume you don’t the person. A good lternative to this would be “I love you, but not because you are beautiful.”
[] We continued to discuss grammar and how words such as don’t and isn’t can confuse the reader with the word because. We then looked at 10 sentences and revised all of the sentences.
[] Being vague in your writing can cause a reader to become more and more uninterested in what you have to say. Readers need evidence and promises to be hooked into keep reading.
[] A promise is the information that is being said first, then the prize is the information that is to come. The writer needs to make robust prize claims that will keep the reader engaged and reading.
[] Editorial – Do not use “I” use “WE” instead. Only link the article, and don’t refer to yourself as an individual.
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10/1
NOTES
The Buffalo riddle which surprisingly is grammatically correct which is absolutely crazy how you can use one word 8 times and still have a correct sentence. The word Buffalo or buffalo have two complete different meanings and buffalo has two meanings to itself, so you can really make a surprising full sentence out of just this word.
Sentence structures can be very confusing and the use of ‘Not Because’ is usually placed wrong which my confuse a reader.
Attempted to revise 10 sentences using the right use of words rather than longer, more, contradictive sentences. We used words that would make sentences not positive and negative at the same time, but rather make them shorter and more understanding.
Promises and Prizes:
You need promise with a prize which is that you need to be more descriptive in your paragraph because if you don’t, your reader can just get confused on the details on what your trying to represent.
Need to be way more detailed or your reader will not follow.
Talked a little about editorials and where we need to look to find them. Learned what an editorial is in a newspaper and how they are never really wrong because its how the author feels about the newspaper.
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NOTES:
Buffalo Riddle:
-Buffalo has three meanings and when all made into a sentence, creates a grammatically correct sentence.
-Buffalo buffalo same as Rowan students. Buffalo from buffalo, students from Rowan. Buffalo also means to bully and could represent the city of Buffalo.
Grammar:
-Not because
-I didn’t bring my umbrella because it rained.
This sentence is not correct. It could create other reasons. The “because” throws the sentence off. There could be another reason that they brought the umbrella.
-The best way to fix these sentences is to not use “because” and rephrase.
-It’s not fair because…= It’s unfair because
Getting rid of the “not” (negative) makes it so it does not affect the “Because” (positive).
Lecture: Promises and Prizes
-Do not be vague when introducing something. Do not throat clear. Adding a promise benefits the writing and the readers will continue reading.
-Deliver prizes so that readers do not go somewhere else.
-When a promise is given and a prizes should follow immediately after. If there is a break, the reading is not effective making it’s point.
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Today’s riddle starts off with a sentence that is somehow grammatically correct and we try to understand the 3 different meanings of the word buffalo in the sentence. You can not use a negative form of a verb and then explain it. Never ‘not because’ but you could use ‘because not’. We worked toward fixing negative verbs with positive verbs to make our sentences make more sense. In our writings we need to identify ‘the controversy’ or ‘the problem’ and instead say what the problem or controversy actually is. The prizes should be delivered soon after the promise is given and they should equate to how big or small the promise is. The Promises and Prizes section today was very helpful because I definitely needed help with this in my own writing and now I will be more aware of it and be able to look at examples for help if I need it. We learn how different the newspaper is from what we write in this class. When writing an opinionated article we get to be the voice of God and say how the world should be.
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In class today:
– We started with the Buffalo Riddle and discussed not only the three different meanings of “buffalo” but also how they all can be used in the same sentence correctly
– We discussed using ‘not because’ sentences and why we shouldn’t use them. Those sentences tend to trick the reader/audience into believing something that isn’t true.
– It’s unfair because… vs. It’s not fair because…
– ^ ‘Unfair’ is better than ‘not fair’ because the ‘not fair’ can be open to be something interpreted different ways whereas ‘unfair’ has a specific purpose and meaning.
– We discussed and analyzed prizes and promises within texts and how to use them to advance our writing.
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NOTES: In this grammatically correct sentence, there is three different meanings to buffalo. One is to bully, the other other meaning of buffalo is a noun for the American bison, and the last meaning for buffalo is the city in New York.
“not because”
– Don’t begin with a negative form verb and then explain why.
– Its always best to keep it positive because after someone hears the negative part of the sentence they may misunderstand or stop listening.
– Using because and a negative statement may lead to confusing so avoiding them would make your sentence more clear.
“promises and prizes”
– we need to make our promises and follow with the prizes
– should have sentences the connect and keep the readers engaged in the reading
– if you make a promise and don’t follow up the reader is going to lose focus
– bigger promises need to have a direct prize after the promise
–
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10/1/19
– You should not use because in sentences that start with a negative verb because this could cause ambiguity in the meaning of the sentence. Instead you should use a straightforward non negative claim or better eliminate the use of because all together in your sentence.
– Don’t be vague in your writing instead, write to keep readers engaged and interested by being concise and specific. Don’t give away all the information in your intro paragraph, give your reader something to look forward to in the body paragraphs in order to keep them reading. Every time you make a promise in your writing you need to deliver them right away if they are small and eventually if they are big promises.
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We started off class with a buffalo riddle, this was a sentence with the one word buffalo repeated multiple times to form a meaningful sentence since it has multiple meanings to it. We then had to rewrite the sentence just to make it a little clearer for the readers.
Then we went over grammar and how you should never use a negative verb to start off a sentence. You should always start with a positive verb with your sentences. Also you can just add not because to the sentence.
Lastly we talked about promises and prizes, which we learned to keep the readers happy, your sentences should connect to each other. The promise of your writing is when you explain your writing and the prize is what comes after the promise which is the information that makes the promise true.
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10/1
buffalo riddle- different meaning of buffalo
not because- use it in different way, even though correct can word better
make the sentences positive rather than a negative connotation
keep feedback please coming
promises and prizes- keep the audience entertained without being too vague
allow people to stay questioning what you are about to speak on
editorial draft assignment- opinion piece (see agenda link for details)
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Not because
-Do not use “not because”
– Do not begin with a negative verb then explain
*Example: I don’t love you because you’re beautiful.
*Example: It’s not fair because should be: It is unfair because
Feedback
-First ask for feed back on structure then sentences then grammar and syntactic.
Promises and Prizes
-In order to keep a reader engaged a writer must provide promises and then deliver prizes.
-Claims should be made to keep a reader engaged.
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10/01/2019 Notes
The Buffalo Riddle:
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”
– This is a grammatically correct sentence.
– “Buffalo” has three meanings. It is a proper noun (city of Buffalo), a common noun (bison), and a verb (to bully).
“Not Because”:
– A negative verb with “because” create confusion for readers.
– “I don’t love you because you’re beautiful.” The “I don’t love you” at the beginning of the sentence makes readers assume that the person doesn’t love them at all.
– The sentence “I love you, but not because you’re beautiful,” is a good alternative.
– We review and revise several sentences that used negative verbs with because and replaced those negatives with positive verbs.
Promises and Prizes:
– In order to keep readers engaged, we must provide promises and also award prizes from these promises. Evidence should be provided for claims.
Editorial Draft:
. Tasks – Write an editorial on any current news story
– “We” should be used instead of “I”
– Use casual citation
– Use essential components listed
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Notes 10/1:
– Riddle answer: Bisons from buffalo whom other Buffalo buffalo push around and push around Buffalo buffalo.
– Never start a negative construction and then say not because
Ex. I don’t love you because you’re beautiful
– Instead start with a positive than you can say the negatives later
– Readers need to be hooked in and keep the interests throughout the writing. Feed the readers a promise or promise them a prize to engage the reader.
– Don’t give EVERYTHING away in the first paragraph but give enough detail to interest and also inform the reader.
– Making a “promise” is as simple as writing a sentence and then following up on it with a “prize.”
Ex. The changes in my high school were apparent: dress code was implicated, water wasn’t allowed in classrooms, and security escorted us to the bathroom now.
– A promise is the starting of some information coming up, and the prize is the information that follows.
– Editorial: do NOT say “I” Say “WE” if anything. Do not refer to yourself as an individual. No naming articles, just link the article to the word.
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Class started with a riddle about a sentence that is grammatically correct containing the same word: buffalo. Mr. Hodges stated that sentence would be: Bison from Buffalo that bison from Buffalo push around also push around bisons from Buffalo.
We talked about grammar and why sentences that follow a negative verb with because are confusing. Instead of saying, “I don’t love you because you’re beautiful,” one should say, “I love you, but not because you’re beautiful.” In the first sentence, the negation is heard first which causes the reader not to listen. The best sentence would remove because.
To keep readers happy, one should not make any promises and not fulfill it. The readers will lose interest. Beating around the bush does not keep readers happy. The green text in the table we looked at, were specific when they spoke of how many suffered and from what about teen vapers. The red text states there is a controversy but does not state what the controversy was. The promise can be fulfilled throughout one paragraph as long as they are given. Alex Rosenberg states, “…different kinds of problems climate change presents.” The reader would ask, what problems? The next sentence says, “they are economical, political and philosophical.” He lists the type of problems he was talking about and captures the reader’s attention.
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The riddle for the day shows how the english language can be very very confusing. The word Buffalo is used 8 different times and has at least three different meanings. Meanings include buffalo as in the american bison, Buffalo as in the New York city, and buffalo as in the verb which means to harass or intimidate. “Not because” phrases are phrases in which there is a need to be more positive in a sense. Examples include: “I don’t love you because you’re beautiful”. This example shows that the listener or reader would be upset after the first four words. It can be rephrased by saying “I love you not only for your beauty, but because of your generous heart”. It is better to start with positive than negatives to pull the readers or listeners in. If a promise is made, it needs to be kept and maybe delivered soon enough so that the readers stay interested. Some promise or prize needs to be awarded to the readers to keep them interested in what you may be saying. Essays can be filled with prizes and few promises and still be fine. Something can be explained over a multitude of paragraphs so there is nothing wrong with it.
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Sentence that start with a negative can confuse the readers. It’s better to have a straight forward claim without negatives because it is less confusing for the readers and it is more bold. Replace negative verbs with positive verbs. Readers need a promise in the text and they need to fulfill that promise somewhere in the writing with detail. It makes the reading more fun and draws attention to the text with all the details.
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Buffalo Riddle
-Homophones and homonyms can make a sentence tricky, but once you understand the meaning of each word, rephrasing “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” becomes way clearer.
-What the sentence actually means: Buffalo bison, that Buffalo bison bully, also bully Buffalo bison.
Not Because
-When talking to a significant other, you never want to say “I don’t love you because…” for, they already have it in their head you don’t love them.
-Like talking to your partner, when writing a claim, it’s crucial to make your points as clear as day in a single sentence.
-Instead of saying “I don’t love you because…” get rid of the negative and say why you love them.
Promises and Prizes
-Readers need both periodic promises of evidence and claims to keep them hooked in an argument.
-Being vague about your claims makes your premise weak, thus causing the reader to lose interest.
-One must make robust claims that makes promises and delivers prizes.
-Your promises made in an essay don’t have to match up with the amount of prizes, as long as they meet your points.
-Make your promises and deliver you prize: “I trusted they would be fine once they got out of Nashville to rural Tennessee. I was wrong.”
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Buffalo Riddle: How is “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” a grammatically correct sentence? Buffalo has three meanings. Proper Noun: City of Buffalo, NY. Common Noun: An American bison. Verb: to bully, harass. Three times buffalo is referred to in this sentence.
Not Because: Sentences that follow a negative verb with because create confusion for readers. Example – I don’t love you because you’re beautiful. That sentence should be changed to – I love you for your beauty and your generous heart. We were given 10 different sentences and had to revise them with boldness, specificity and directness. We also had to replace negative verbs with positive verbs.
Promises and Prizes: We need to know how to keep readers happy. We need to deliver on a promise with a prize.We should make robust claims about the subject manner to keep our readers engaged.
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– The buffalo riddle sentence was a complete and grammatically correct sentence and we tried to simplify it into a understandable sentence. There are 3 meanings for buffalo. Buffalo is a city in New York, buffalo is a noun for the American bison, and the verb buffalo means harass.
– In a sentence the sentence should with a negative verb should not have because included. For a better way to say it, you should have a positive verb with not because after.
– Promise and Prizes – In your writing to keep your readers interested you should have a sentence that fully connect to each other such as: Teen vaping who died this year, had suffered lung ailments, purchased bootleg e-cigs with oil in them. The promise is where you explain the idea of your writing and the prize is the information that fulfills the promise.
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