Topic: Six-Word Memoirs

10-second review: Based on an idea from the book, Not Quite What I was Planning: Six word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. R Fershleiser and L Smith. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Print.

Summary: At the beginning of the course, students write six-word memoirs. Purpose is to help students in the class get to know each other. They read examples of six-word memoirs. The students write them and add them to a poster.

Here are some examples taken from http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/>

“Constantly seeking the coldest pillow spot.” Kelly-Keith.

“Perfect guy. Bad timing. Heart re-broken.” Derbygirl.

“My life revolves around never knowing.” marsTS.

“Survived terrible upbringing. Life’s getting better.” Jodeyemom.

Comment: Here’s my six-word memoir: “Loved teaching writing; became administrator: blah.” RayS.

Title: “Using Six-Word Memoirs As an Icebreaker and Introduction to the Writing Process.” J Yohe. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (September 2010), 80-81.

Topic: Practicing Bibliography

Summary: Teacher prepares bibliographic information for books, journal articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, web pages, web pages with identifiable authors and copyright dates, web pages lacking identifiable authors and copyright dates, and personal interviews.

Teacher scrambles the information for each source. The students in teams of five or six list the sources in both MLA and APA styles. The first team to finish gets extra credit.

Comment: A good idea to practice constructing bibliographies before being required to make them for real, live research papers. I have found bibliographies to be a source of uneasiness for most students. The point of research papers is the research and the report of the research in the paper. Problems like bibliographies distract students from the real business of the research paper. Anything you can do to make the process more familiar helps. RayS.

Title: “Making a Game of Bibliographies.” AG Mueller. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (September 2010), 79-80.

Topic: Avoiding Gender Bias in Writing and Oral Expression

10-second review: Explores gender unfairness in our writing classes—and all other classes, as well. 

Summary: The author of this article is out to prove gender bias in writing classes—and all other classes, as well. Quote: “One exercise I use in class….is to ask students to evaluate terms we hear daily—‘policeman,’ ‘man’s best friend,’ ‘mankind,’ ‘woman’s work,’ ‘female intuition’ –and to ask questions about what our language assumes about gender.”

Comment: The major issue about giving credit to both sexes in writing about the human race is finding a graceful way to express gender fairness. I offer this advice, which does not solve all gender-fairness problems, but does solve a major issue. With expressions like the following—“Everyone returned to their homes”—which is ungrammatical because “Everyone” is singular and “their” is plural, you have several choices.

The first choice is standard, but sexist:“Everyone returned to his home.” Now the agreement between pronoun and antecedent is acceptable, but sexist. It favors the male point of view. Another choice is sex fair, but ugly in expression: “Everyone returned to her/his home.” Another clever device, but still ugly, is a favorite in my professional journals:” s/he.”  Of course, that device does not solve this problem. 

The better, gender-fairer choice is to begin in the plural and stay there: “The students returned to their homes.” Whenever you start out in the singular, you are asking for trouble. At some point, you are going to need to refer to the singular pronoun, which will present you with the same problem as “Everyone returned to his or her home,” which is ugly. So start in the plural and stay there. The result will be much smoother expression and may result in more precision, as in “The students returned to their homes.” When I’m writing, I stay away from the singular subject. I start in the plural and stay there. RayS.

Topic: College Students' Negative Attitudes Toward Academic Discourse

10-second review: Students have a negative view of academic discourse as controlled by professors in lecturing in large lecture halls and in expectations in writing.

Quote: “Beth writes: As I sit in my lecture halls and watch as students play computer games, text and sleep, it perfectly portrays how the discourse community is unbalanced, lost and ultimately no longer a community…. 500students sit in the dark and try to take notes on a power point that is being read word for word by the professor. There are no discussions or debates where students can ask questions, voice their opinions and bounce ideas off of each other.”

Quote: “Significantly, Beth writes that students are literally ‘in the dark’ in lecture-based classes. She desires a classroom where students’ ideas serve to ‘balance’ a discourse community heavily weighted toward professors.”

Quote: “Students write that large lecture classes make them feel ‘invisible,’ ‘alienated,’ and ‘anonymous.’ Academic discourse makes them feel ‘frustrated,’ ‘excluded,’ and ‘ostracized.’ ”

Comment: We all know that large lectures exist at large universities. One of the strengths of the community college, on the other hand, is the absence of large lectures and the existence of relatively small class sizes.

However, another side of the issue about academic discourse is understanding what it is. Students need to learn that a range exists in writing [and in lecturing] from informal to formal discourse with stages and mixtures of language in between. Students need to learn when to use informal language [close to the characteristics of conversation] and formal language in writing and speaking and when to use them appropriately.

Following is my [RayS’s]description of the characteristics of standard, edited, publishable and formal English:

What is standard, edited, publishable English? The closer students are to conversational English, the farther they are from what I think of as “standard, edited, publishable English” or “formal” English.

In formal English, I discourage the use of the word “there” because, as the opening word of a sentence, “there” postpones the direct expression of the subject of the sentence and causes a problem in subject/verb agreement. The word “there” tends to be used too often by inexperienced writers. Unnecessarily repeated words are the hallmark of inexperienced writers.

I discourage the use of “it,” “get” and its cousins, “getting,” “got,” and “gotten,” and the word “thing,” all of which tend to be needlessly repeated as well as lacking in precision. These words, used sparingly, give a feeling of informality, but needlessly repeated, they clog expression.

Of course, I discourage unnecessary repetition of words of any sort.

I encourage making clear reference to the demonstrative pronouns, “this,” “that,” “these” and “those.” “This idea…”. “That issue….” “These participants…”. And “Those designs….”

I encourage use of the active voice. Direct expression has its virtues.

And I encourage looking for and fixing parallel structure and dangling modifiers which interrupt the flow of expression.

The result is what I call “standard, edited, publishable English” or, “formal English.”

If students learn to write in a range of styles from informal to formal, they will understand and use them appropriately and will no longer view academic discourse as “the enemy.” RayS.

Title: “ ‘The Expression of Wise Others’: Using Students Views of Academic Discourse to Talk about Social Justice.” F Kurtyka. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (September 2010), 47-60.

Topic: Civic Discourse

Note: Sorry for the disruption, folks. I was missing in action because of an unintended hospital stay. Today, I resume my blog. RayS.

10-second review: Relates the teaching of composition to preparing for civic discourse in local community meetings.

Title: “Preparing Students for Active and Informed Civic Discourse.” KRH Barkas. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (September 2010), 35-46.

Summary: The majority of his classes were taken up with projects in which students attended local community meetings and discussed the opportunities and restrictions provided in these meetings. The author gives as an example what occurred over a five-year period in a community in Ohio:

Quote: “The longitudinal case study of civic discourse that I conducted occurred over a five-year period during which I observed over seventy city council meetings of a northeast Ohio city government….”

Quote: “Not only was citizen participation in the discourse of the council meetings restricted, but it was also rather ineffectual because the council meetings typically occurred after decisions by council members had already been made.”

Comment: Sounds like every school board meeting I ever attended. The author is less helpful in talking about how to use a composition class to prepare students for participating in these meetings. At the least the students need to learn how to prepare what they have written for presentation to the meetings’ audiences—either preparation for  reading aloud or as a formal, rehearsed oral presentation. Reading aloud is one of the forgotten skills in the English curriculum. Students need to be shown how to practice reading aloud effectively. And preparation of a formal oral presentation is like any formal speech. RayS.