Evaluating Peer's Grammar Structure and Style

Page 1 & 2: Read topic, then read my response, then read two of my classmates responses, and then separately respond to each classmate by answering: How, in general, are they alike? How do they differ? Why?
(You should respond to one classmates per page)
Topic:
On the subject of grammar and style guides, find one (one at least, though you could find one of each) and answer all of the following questions in regard to it:
1. Describe your favorite grammar/style guide. Under what circumstances did you acquire or learn about it?
2. Look up a specific grammatical rule and then a specific stylistic rule. How does the guidance differ?
4. Which guides would you use for which special purposes? Would you ever ignore a suggestion from a particular guide? Why or why not?
5. If you had could buy a new grammar/style guide, which one would you buy? Or if you aren't sure, what characteristics would you be looking for?
6. A great deal of grammar and stylistic advice is available online. Do you still prefer books or online guidance? Why or why not?
My response: My favorite style guide is the American Psychological Association (APA). It is a guide often applied in social sciences and which provides guidelines for paper citations, layout, style, references and abstract. I learned about APA while I was writing academic papers back in college. Commonly used grammatical rule and a stylistic rule are online citation styles and writer's handbook. The difference between the two is that one is used online while the other is used manually. An online citation style is whereby an individual insert references into an online software which then inserts them into an academic paper.
A writer's handbook is a guide for how to manually inserting references into paper. I use MLA style when citing English literature academic papers. The in-text citations of this style require the name of a reference's author and its page number. Sometimes, the style may suggest that the year of publication also be included. I usually ignore such suggestions.
When buying a new grammar/style guide, I would look for one that is easier to reference in an academic paper. Some guides have complicated requirements, such as asking a student to include a reference's author name, year of publication and page number. I believe such requirements are hard to access and put a strain on the student. Grammar and stylistic advice found online are often the best due to their convenience. It is easier to find a guide on the internet as all one needs is a computer with a connection. On the other hand, a book can only be bought or accessed in a library, which takes much longer than online guides to get.
Some classmates may recommended Chicago/Turabian and Harvard citation guides. These guides are much different regarding paper format, in-text citations and general referencing.
Classmates 1:
I am choosing MLA style grammar/style guide. Since I was in middle school, my teachers have recommended OWL at Purdue website which has an extensive list of the rules and examples of each for MLA, APA, and Chicago Style. It has helped me understand and become familiar with each of the formats over the years. A specific stylistic rule reads as follows:
- In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
A specific grammatical rule reads as follows:
- Write out numbers beginning sentences.
The guidance for a stylistic rule has to do with formatting and what the layout of the paper will be. Grammatical rules have to do with how to write properly in the MLA style. The grammatical guide should be used when writing and when trying to figure out how to write correctly and properly. The style guide should be used when formatting the paper and figuring out how to lay it out. The only time that I can think of ignoring the style or grammar guide is when your instructor specifically directs you to disregard a style or grammar rule. I do not own a style guide, but if I were to purchase one I would want to purchase the OWL at Purdue style/grammar guide. I would purchase this one, because teachers throughout my schooling career, including college, have referred to it over and over and it seems very reliable and universally used. I actually prefer books, because they are usually more reliable than online sources. I also like that it gives me consistency because when using online sources, if you use multiple that is, then different websites can offer conflicting advice. This does not usually happen with books. The APA style guide seems similar, just differing on certain grammatical rules and formatting rules. This biggest difference that I can see between APA and MLA is the citation. MLA requires the author's last name and the page number, and APA requires the author's last name and the year published. Both of these rules are useful for different reason and in different contexts.
Classmate 2:
I do not have a favorite grammar/style guide, but as the only other student that has posted chose APA I decided to go with the MLA style guide. MLA stands for Modern Language Association. It is used to write papers and cite sources. I first became familiar with this style in a prior English course.
A grammatical rule is to capitalize the name of articles and books, but not to capitalize prepositions or conjunctions unless they fall at the beginning of the title. A style rule would be that the essay should be written in 12 point font that is legible, such as Times New Roman. Grammatical is more about the language itself where style is more about the appearance of the document.
You would use a grammatical guide when trying to figure out the best way to write a work or what the best punctuation would be. Use a style guide to determine the alignment and best presentation of the document. I believe the only time a guide should be disregarded is when the style might hinder the information being provided. If a style change makes the information easily misconstrued then you need to change the guide you are using or alter it, at the very least.
If I had to buy a new grammar/style guide I would look for one the indicated it was the best for whatever project I was working on. If the document I will be producing is to be used online then I want the best style guide to guide me in creating something appealing for an online format. If I were to use one for an essay due in class I would want to use whatever the professor determined would be best or simply stated they wanted us to use.
choosing between an online guide and a book can be difficult. If the format is set to one particular style whose guidelines are in a book that I know my professor is using then I'd say the book would be best. For my own sporadic use of grammar and style guides, I'd have to say that a reputable online site would be best to determine which style I'd need to use, unless my professor specified otherwise. This is because it gives me a wider variety to look at and allows me to compare the styles to determine what might be best for my project.
The main difference that immediately would make up my mind on which to use between the MLA and APA formats is related to the intended purpose of the formats. APA is most commonly used for social sciences where MLA is most commonly used for Liberal Arts and Humanities. They are alike in the sense that they are both used for academic papers and relate to works cited formats.