On word count and length requirements

I've never understood when students turn in work that doesn't meet the word count or length requirements, especially on the papers after the first turned in for grade.

If you've played a sport - or studied a martial art - consider this analogy. In basket ball or football coaches routinely ask their players to run sprints, where (in Bb for example) they run from baseline to touch the free-throw line, then return and touch the baseline and then run to touch the mid-court line, return to baseline, sprint to far court free throw line, back to baseline then run full court and back. This completes one cycle. Different teams may have different names for the drill, but the drill is repeated multiple times in a practice. [update: most common name according to students - suicides]. Football will use the grid lines on the field and go 10 yrds and back, then 20 yrds, etc.

These drills develop agility, build endurance and foster team dynamics. But players don't enjoy them.

What would a coach do, if asking players to run 5 cycles, a player runs just 1 or 2, then says, "Well coach. You get the point. I think I've shown I understand the drill. I like to be concise."?

Or imagine if you study martial arts, like: wrestling, kung-fu, karate, aikedo or the like. When the coach/teacher (and in Asian martial arts the coach is addressed as "teacher" - Sensei means teacher in Japanese, Lao Sher means teacher in Chinese - these cultures respect teachers as much as Americans respect coaches) - when a new move is taught the coach/ teacher will ask the student/ athlete to repeat the move multiple times - or for a set period of time - say 5 minutes. This builds muscle memory and as well ties verbal and visual instruction to physical movement - which creates neural pathways that make permanent the memory and facilitate recall.

What would a martial arts instructor do if the student/athlete did one repetition and said, "That's enough. I get it. I won't do any more"?

Having participated in formal athletics - and been a scholarship athlete in a martial art - I am hard pressed to remember an example of a student questioning a coaches request for repetitive action, though martial arts instructors are famous for stepping in and working on the move in question with students - which when studying a pugilistic sport, may amount to a butt whipping.

Why is there reluctance to meet minimal length requirements? Colleagues I worked with at KU would simply fail or not grade a paper that failed to meet any minimal requirement. This seems logical.

How can we address rhetoric and grammar, and be fair to all students, if most follow directions and take the necessary risks involved with engagement with the assignment - but some take far fewer risks, and disclose much less information?

Managing distractions

I like the options that teaching in a computer lab brings to writing classes - afterall, writing today is done on computers, but they offer so much distractions. Students aren't the only ones. In presentations to teachers and business people, wise presenters generally block access to the web, and / or expect professional behavior (in real life people lose promotions, jobs and other opportunities - and worse). A business writer explains that we need to stop blaming technology and be honest.

If you are having sex, you have a good sense that very few emails in the whole world need your attention right then. If you are at a birthday party for ten year old boys and they are screaming up and down a soccer field, you are probably bored and emails look a little more enticing. This is not about addicted or not addicted; this is an issue of knowing when email is essential and when it's a distraction.

You have probably been out to dinner with friends and they checked their Blackberry. This means you are not their most important priority at that time, just for that moment. You of course hope that your presence would make you most important, but in fact, it did not. Does that mean your friend is addicted to her Blackberry? No. It means your friend is prioritizing and she's letting you know that .

She elsewhere uses a colorful / NSFW analogy (see last 3 paragraphs) to note that we don't check technology while engaged in sexual congress, because it's fun and interesting. We use it when we're bored and want stimulation. I'd like to add to thoughts.

1. Being plugged means you will miss some of the subtle and not so subtle joys of life. Parents texting during a soccer game will miss seeing their childscore goals and students on facebook or texting during class will miss information and fun
2. learning requires quiet reflection. Sometimes we need to be disengaged from the constant bombardment of stimulus to be open - to give our minds the space we need to move ideas around and rearrange our thinking.
   

We need discipline in using technology - but in my classes lately I'm not seeing self-discipline.

iSearch: advice

1. It's never been a good sign when a writer changes topics without including research from their initial idea. It generally indicates procrastination and lack of effort. Will have to rewrite prompt to control this. Either take one of my suggestions, or show research from initial topic and
   
2. 2 hours reading research is not a sincere effort. For a capstone project assigned the first day of class you should expect to spend at least 15 hours reading, and that doesn't include time spent looking for material. Heck, we spent 3-4 hours in class finding material this semester.
3. ALL work read should be included in your works consulted. Yes, I understand tutors may tell you that if you don't directly cite a source it doesn't go on your works page. That isn't exactly true - if information is not common knowledge the source deserves to be cited. The assignment prompt asks for ALL WORK READ on a "works consulted" page.
   
4. If information is common knowledge it shouldn't go in your "what I learned" page.
   
5. Citing an encyclopedia, dictionary, ehow, Wikipedia, about.com, or ask.com is like peeing in the shower. I don't care that you do it, but please don't talk about it. Quoting such sources makes you look bad.
   
6. 
   

Quoting the dictionary: Faculty responses

In an unscientific poll of Composition 1 instructors at JCCC, 8 have weighed in. When asked how they felt when a writer quoted the dictionary in the introduction of an essay, 7 of 8 chose “Arrgh. I hate it” with the remaining voter selecting “I rarely see it work but it doesn’t bother me.” No one chose a positive (“I love it”) or neutral (“Fine. Whatever.”) response. The survey was anonymous, faculty had to follow a link, and perhaps that attracted only those with strong feelings; however, there seems a consensus that quoting from a dictionary does not succeed in comp. 1 classes or higher classes.

In response to the question I posed to the faculty list-serv , however; colleagues offered more useful, nuanced and reflective replies. I asked (all emphasis – bold – is mine):

How do instructors here feel about students quoting the dictionary (particularly in an introduction)? This may be a personal bias I need to address. I don’t generally like it, and I’ve had colleagues who felt strongly about it, but I once taught from a writing textbook that encouraged the practice…..-I’d like to be able to honestly tell students if this is a personal style issue specific to an individual instructor, or if citing the dictionary is generally unsuccessful with college writing professors.

Prof. Brannan explained:

particularly for developmental writers, patterns and other structure are critical. The dictionary gambit can be used as fluff--which it often is in Comp I, II, and beyond--but is useful for our 106 and 102 writers. It is especially useful when these students also see the classifying/dividing element in good dictionary definitions and have the concept of specific, detailed examples reinforced.

In the Precomposition class (roughly the equivalent to JCCC’s ENGL 106 ) I once taught elsewhere, the book suggested incorporating a dictionary definition. This lends support to Prof. Brannan’s thoughts. Prof. Lillich expressed:

I just finished grading a batch of definition essays and had several students use dictionary definitions as jumping off points/introductions. This is the developmental level in Engl 106, where the chapter on writing the definition essay suggests incorporating the dictionary into your pre-writing and using your specific definition in your essay. I really think it all depends on what level writing you are teaching AND who your students are.

There seems to be consensus. There’s a time and place for it, but Comp 1 students should be in the process of moving out of the practice. Prof Allen wrote:

At the risk of sounding like I worry about template writing a lot, I think this comes back to that. Students are given certain patterns, tricks of the trade early in their writing experiences and they are never moved out of that. What I don't know is why. Are they not given enough opportunities to think? After all, writing requires the ability to think not just regurgitate facts. Or are they encouraged to stick with what "works" for so long that they fear leaving the security of it? What I do know is that the definition opening is one of those strategies encouraged early on as an "opening technique" for young writers.

Maybe my overexposure to the technique (because I teach comp 1) has contributed to some sort of allergy. The repetitive exposure results in a numbness or fugue in others. Prof. Karle explains:

Dictionary definitions are boring and, as I tell my students, a missed opportunity to say something that is actually interesting to the reader and significant to the paper's argument. I also tell my students that if they must define a word, their own definition (for example of the word hero) would be far more interesting to the reader.

Prof. Schmeer tells writers that their goal is to:

grab our attention and “delight the reader”--that is, engage us and make us want to keep reading. Dictionary definitions are the written equivalent of Ben Stein’s character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” It helps to show a YouTube clip of the roll-call scene in FBDO or read students papers aloud in a Ben Stein voice when you explain this. They get it right away…
But beginning writers need templates to follow. I think we all forget that we needed templates at some point, too. Learning to think isn’t easy. Learning to trust your thinking is harder. Learning to trust that what you put on the page is often a poor representation for what you think and you need to think harder and represent those thoughts better is impossible unless you are willing to put forth the effort.

I’m going to share the video link in class next semester to provoke a free write on the analogy Prof. Schmeer talks about (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7zYyTotwfE). I like analogies. Prof. Fitzpatrick posited:

I have always thought of things like modes or the known/new pattern or even “claim-logos support-pathos support-ethos support” models as solid training wheels for students to use while they are finding their bearings in this new world of academic writing. ….But you don’t keep training wheels on forever, and the trick is helping students know when to take those training wheels off —and I think it is particularly difficult in late 106 …and early Comp1 (where some students come in with the stock patterns, which have given them success in high school and that are damn near required for standardized tests, and assume every kind of thought can be squeezed into one of those templates). That is something that, in my opinion, needs to be done on an individual basis with the student and the intention of the essay. But, for me, the place to start is to make sure students understand that these things are training wheels (or scaffolding) that will disappear once the ideas have enough wherewithal to support themselves.

This dialogue responds to the question much better than a simple and reductive rule for or against a practice; hopefully my students will read it. Lance Armstrong could show up to a bike race with training wheels and those who knew of him wouldn’t laugh He’d likely win the race, but for most riders, once they reach sufficient proficiency with a bike the training wheels become a hindrance rather than a help. ( I imagine he’d use them like the wheel weapons in the chariot race in Ben Hur, or like those vicious chrome plastic lug nut covers on semis).

Prof. Heflin makes an important distinction and relates the question to larger issues of research

if the student feels compelled to justify her/his point of view on an idea with a definition, I require that they use an authoritative dictionary, not a common one....so I remind students that they are not doing research by using a common dictionary, but merely doing preliminary research. I push my students to realize that the easy sources can be accessed by anyone, but a scholar accesses the authoritative, hard to find sources, which helps to build the writer's own authority in the process… that is also the rationale I give about avoiding using Wikipedia or eHow or any other abbreviated or condensed encyclopedia--it is not authoritative enough in and of itself (besides other issues).

All comments collected from email over the period of 12/9/10 to 12/12/10 and reprinted with permission of the authors.

Service Team-Based Projects

Groups this semester have created survey's online as part of their research. They request peer participation. Please take these surveys if appropriate and forward (again, as appropriate).

• on academic integrity and ethics http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SJGV5ZY
• on the boundaries between student, athlete and personal freedom (NOTE: survey written for atheletes) http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WDVNV9R

On File Names and formatting

I learn a lot from seeing student digital work, as opposed to merely the paper end-product. We in composition intruction may assume a great deal more word processing skills than students have. Yes, today's students have keyboard skills far superior to those commonly found back in the 80's and 90's, but word-processing and file management skills haven't come far yet. Students routinely use the space bar instead of tabbing or using the center command located in the toolbar. They hit hard return at the end of a line instead of letting the computer wrap words automatically. Sure, it may look CLOSE to right in format on the paper copy, but if one has to edit any of the information it messes everything up. Also for someone who reads papers for a living, close is not the same thing as correct.

Page #'s should also be put in the header, so that they float, and if you take out a paragraph or add content it won't mess up the location of the page numbers. Placing Page numbers in the header also keeps margins the right size and location.

Because a digital file will be moved around and used by people other than one's self it should have a file name that will benefit others. That file-name should include author's name (last name and first initial) and a short and/or abbreviated description of the assignment. Many applications can't handle a space so jam words together or separate with an underline or period. I highly recommend inserting a date or number to designate a version to help distinguish early drafts from late drafts. For an annotated bibliography of a textbook, I'd name it dixong_AnnoText the first time I save it and I'd add the date whenever I saved to a new location - dixong_AnnoText.10.22.10 Editing changes the date modified if you use windows explorer (which everyone should. It's visual, intuitive, quick and convenient), so it is important to keep track of what is the latest revision of your work.

Save multiple copies in multiple places and save often. Those of us who can remember before autosave learned this the hard way. Email a copy to yourself, save it to your home computer, invest in several cheap flash drives,... even most portable media players can simultaneously work as portable storage.

What I'm Learning from the SRTOL Essays: FA2010

• I want students to get away from the idea of correct or incorrect grammar. This thinking indicates a prescriptive rather than descriptive definition of grammar - and runs counter to the goal of the assignment; however, if someone really wants to go there - plan on defining grammar in detail.
• So many thesis statements ended up on the last page. I specifically asked for them in the first paragraph, and in 85% or more of published essays that's where you find them. It makes reading easier and more predictable. Someone this semester asked if they could put the thesis on the last page. I said they could, but that doesn't mean one should. In every case so far where I find the thesis after the first 2 paragraphs it looks like the author wrote until they discovered the thesis then quit when they hit minimum length requirements: typical first draft stuff. They generally should have then moved the thesis to the first paragraph, and then pruned the essay down to just what is relevant or implied by the thesis. Then add support and detail to what's left.
• I'm seeing too "many" superfluous quotes. Wikipedia calls this Scare Quotes. Avoid this. I don't like irony conveyed through quotation marks. Use words. And they don't work for emphasis. Serious explanation here. Check out the blog dedicated to unnecessary quotes here - or the Facebook group - seriously.
• Cliche alert - avoid "in today's society."
  
• Regarding format specifications. Ignoring format requests is antisocial and passive aggressive.
• Overly wordy introductions to quotes - transitions are needed - but empty and redundant information isn't. I repeatedly see, "In the journal article __________ published in ______ by the author _______ it says..." All this information is on the works consulted page - right? So a shorter reference will work. The wordy version makes it almost an appeal to authority. "Smith argues, "Blah, blah, blah" will work just as well. Or "Blah, blah, blah"(Smith 45).
• EVERY SOURCE USED OR MENTIONED SHOWS UP ON THE WORKS PAGE! This is a big deal. Just because I may know of the article, doesn't mean you're excused from citing the source. We need to demonstrate the ability to work with sources. That's a huge objective of this class.
  
• "some people say" is a red flag for a specious argument and a need for more research and support.
  

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png

Cultural or Academic Informants

If one goes to the writing center (WC), one gets the most out of the trip by going in prepared. Have a few specific questions or issues you want to address ready and present them to the consultant before you get started. None of the 1/2 dozen or so WC's I've worked with have prioritized grammar and mechanics, and most try to avoid those "lower order concerns," believing them to be less of a barrier to understanding than higher order concerns like logic or organization. The goal, as Steven North put it, is to create better writers rather than better writing. As a result tutors sometimes find themselves conflicted when faced with international students.

For the Non-native English speaker, immigrant or Generation 1.5 student the boundary between higher order and lower order concerns is blurred. Syntax, word choice, the appropriate use of articles and awkward grammar may not typically thwart understanding between 2 well educated Native-English Speakers from a similar background, but when one comes from an alien environment with different language, culture and values, the typical assumptions can lead to disaster. I've even seen this happen when white upper-middle-class consultants work with students from less privileged urban schools in Toledo, Kansas City, KS and KC MO. Schools tend to train tutors to resist the urge to address lower order concerns even when the tutor's instincts tell them they should. Partly this is to ward off the possibility of the tutor appropriating the student's work. And often grammar and mechanics are not the biggest problem a paper has. Also, IMHO, this keeps the WC from getting too popular. No one wants to create a proofreading center on campus.

Asking for or finding a Cultural Informant provides a solution for NNS and students from diverse backgrounds. The University of Richmond Writing Center tutor training site explains that the role of a cultural or academic informant is to

try to identify the problems that the student is having, and then use a direct approach to teach writing as an academic subject. When we, as ESL tutors, "understand, respect, and respond to the differences between the needs of ESL and native-speaking writers," we can increase the effectiveness of a particular session (Powers 103). For more advanced students, it may be advantageous to show "specific examples of how to fix a particular error, and then to try one on their own, or explain what he/she has fixed" because this process allows the student "to really grasp your ideas, and helps them learn in an effective way," according to Dotty Giordano (Connect, 10/17/97).
All ESL students who enter the writing center come from different backgrounds, and therefore, bring different cultural and social contexts to a tutorial. Although some of the problems that an ESL student has are a result of the rhetorical structure of their native language, "others are social or cultural attitudes and beliefs that will definitely affect the tutor-tutee relationship" (Powers 98). Therefore, the tutor must act as a cultural informant. As an example, the nature of asking questions is different among cultures. For an international student, questioning a tutor, or an authority figure, may be frowned upon in one culture, whereas in ours, it is simply regarded as a means of obtaining information for clarification. Since questioning authority may be considered disrespectful in the eyes of a particular international student, he or she may refrain from asking questions in a tutorial because he or she feels that it is inappropriate. In this situation, the tutor should encourage the student to ask questions and inform him or her that this type of behavior is not considered disrespectful in the eyes of Americans

The term "academic informant" is also used because sometimes non-typical learners, such as dyslexic, dysgraphic, and some students with autism spectrum conditions also benefit from more direct help and communication.

So tell your consultant you want a cultural or academic informant if your learning style needs it, but also let them know specifically what you need work with on your writing. Read the margin and end comments from teachers to get some ideas.

The above research is tertiary - see the Asian EFL Journal on the topic.

Minimum length on Papers

Many students complain that English classes frustrate them because of subjective grading, and that rules of grammar can be flexible. For the most part that isn’t quite true. Teachers do “grade norming” exercises with colleagues and find that we in fact have similar expectations and similar ideas of what constitutes an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or unsuccessful paper. See the syllabus for Grading Rationale. However, I do understand where students are coming from with those comments.

With length or content minimums in my class, we have concrete and objective measures. Most instructors won’t accept a paper under the minimum specified word count or length, or they will simply fail the paper giving it 50 % and not bother going to the work of reading it. After all, the student didn’t bother going to the work of doing the minimum requirement.

I read every paper. Papers that fall under the minimum word count invariably leave me wanting more information. Some papers over the minimum length do too – and that may be reflected in comments about content.

It surprises me though when someone puts in minimal effort (as indicated by a brief response to an assignment) and then expects an "A" or "B." If a "C" is average - barely making the word count shouldn't guarantee you even that.

I had way too many papers under the minimum word length on the first paper this semester, and sometimes I read one that barely makes the minimum. I go back and count the times they used the word "very" or similar such filler. I generally find a relationship between the # of filler words and the word count in that the closer a paper is to the word count cut off - the more empty words or phrases clog up the prose. I did that once too. Read the assignment prompt and the rubric and you'll see why it won't work.

Low tech solution: crowd sourced communication

Several groups of my comp 2 students chose campus communication as a key problem facing students. Last days to drop, deadlines for enrollment and other key dates pass and too many students remain oblivious. Email is an obvious solution - but leads us to a bigger problem: students don't check their school email account. Need to survey students as to why: is institutional spam an issue - or just inertia and habit? In NYC, some helpful and anonymous citizens have chalked/ spray painted useful info on the sidewalk in places it might do the most good. Don't know if that'd work in our situation - but it reaffirms the idea that people are inherently good.

The message board flat screens do OK - but they are limited in how much they can show and chances of timing. We need additional modes of communication for students. My classes suggested making posters a couple times a year - for only the most important info. TOO MUCH INFORMATION DROWNS THE CRUCIAL MESSAGES IN A SEA OF IRRELEVANT DATA.

The School website - default homepage on all campus computers - is not useful. It is designed for strangers to the school. Those enrolled are assumed to log on to a password encrypted page - but that's too much work when you aren't aware that you need information - and on shared computers .... no one does it. We need an public accessible message board / student oriented web page - with quick links to ANGEL, Billington Library, Student Engagement, etc. It should be updated with key up-to-date info.

THAT should be the default homepage on all instructor/ classroom / lab computers.

All the above suggestions come from my SP 2010 comp 2 classes.

On finals

Here is a link to the finals schedule for all classes at JCCC. Read it. I'm following the college determined final schedule.

I'm most of the way thru the iSearch papers. Next year we will make a bigger deal about the correct format for block quotes and works cited information. Other issues that have been covered in class but that I haven't successfully gotten across to a large enough majority of students are:

• why is the hanging indent so hard to grasp? is it because we have to unlearn the standard indent?
• And why do so many students quote sources that are NOT on the works cited page? Do students assume if they mention the author's name or the periodical then it doesn't need to be on the works page? Of course it does. That's where complete bibliographic info should be found. I blogged about this on March 3rd in response to the SRTOL papers. I mentioned it in class, and on every paper I saw it on.
  
• quote marks look like "this," not 'this.' (and notice periods and commas go inside quotes.
  
• any quote that appears on 4 lines should get block quotations treatment (also blogged on - issue addressed in class, etc.).
  
• Read the assignment prompt and follow directions. That's the criteria papers get graded by.

I'm not sure if these issues are pervasive - or if they irritate me so I dwell on them.

In our final you can summarize your iSearch in 2 minutes or less, then we'll open the floor to questions from the class. Very relaxed. No PowerPoint presentations.

What New Students Need to Know.

One of my groups did a project on "Important things students should know before their first day of college" and they published originally to Facebook on May 8th, and it was republished in a local high school paper for the benefit of new students. This is by by Jenna Groth, Alex Soborov, Patrick McMahon and Sunny Shukla. In case the link above doesn't work, we'll reproduce it in it's entirety below:

Sorry if you're getting this if you've already begun college. I couldn't remember if some of you already began college or not and I figured it's better if you get this and learn how to save lots and lots of money when buying your first semester's college textbooks.

If you're a high school teacher and you're getting this, please feel free to show this to your students.

If you're wondering who Alex, Patrick, and Sunny are, they're from one of my classes. This was a class project.

Seniors, you can get cheated out of your valuable money, or you can read this column.

Between enrolling in college, paying for your first college classes, buying the necessities for your dorm and saying goodbye to your high school friends, you probably don’t have the time to think about how to buy your college textbooks. Buying textbooks is easy. All you have to do is go to your college bookstore and ask the salespeople how to buy their grossly-overpriced books. This is a great method….if you want your college to cheat you out of a hundred bucks. There’s actually a better way of buying books that’s only a little time-consuming but will save you lots of money.

First, you start at your college’s bookstore. Not to buy the books, but to look for a series of numbers stamped on the back of the textbooks, known as the ISBN number. After you find those numbers, write them down and then go to a computer and visit www.amazon.com. Look on the site for the textbook search and choose search by ISBN number. Enter in the ISBNs of your books (you can search for more than one book at the same time).

You will probably find several books that are one edition below the books your college’s bookstore sells. They’re almost exactly the same thing your professor expects you to use except instead of costing $150, these books cost as low as $1.50. Your professor usually teaches out of the most recent edition, which college bookstores usually sell, but professors usually understand that not all students have the most recent edition. If your professor insists on using problems from the most recent edition, you can still keep your “primitive” edition of your textbook and ask the cute classmate who sits next to you to let you copy down the problems.

But before you buy the cheap books off of Amazon, you should do a Google search for “college textbooks” and (the city and state your college is in). This will help you find the bookstores that sell books for your college at a discount price. Call these stores up and ask them how much they are selling these books for. Beat the Bookstore, a college bookstore in Lawrence, typically sells its books for whatever the best deal on www.amazon.com is for that particular day. If the bookstore offers you an amount that will lead to you saving money on shipping, ask the manager if you can order your books from the phone and pick them up when you visit your college for orientation over the summer.

If there’s still a book that costs more than $50 on Amazon, you don’t have to give up and buy from the fiendish college bookstore…yet. You should just show up to your first day of class and ask your professor, “What are we going to use our textbook for?” After your professor answers you, follow your question with, “How often are we going to use the textbook?” It is very important that you do not ask, “Do we need to use the textbook?” You probably won’t get an honest answer if you ask it like that because some department deans won’t allow professors to tell students they do not need the book. If your professor says the book won’t be used often, you might not need it. Instead, you can check copies of the book out from the campus library or from the resource centers of the department your class is in (i.e. the English department’s writing lab for a literature or writing class or the math resource center for a math class). Or again, you can copy down the problems from the cute classmate who sits next to you.

If your professor says you have to use the book about once a week and you have tried searching for your book online and through bookstores that aren’t affiliated with your college, it’s time to cave in and buy your book from the college bookstore. Our only advice to you is to not buy an electronic book that costs $10 less than the new books or a customized brief book. These deceptively look like you are saving $10 to $20, but you’re actually losing about $30 because you cannot sell these books back at the end of the semester.

After a semester of adapting to college homework, social life, and professors (who you, of course, looked at performance reviews of on www.ratemyprofessor.com before your first day of class, rather than blindly signing up for a professor and hoping it’s one who actually hopes you pass your classes), you will want a little money back at the end of the semester, right? The important thing to know is that selling back your textbook is also an important money-saving process just like buying your textbook. Instead of rushing to the bookstore that sold you the cheapest book you bought online, you should visit every local bookstore and ask the cashiers what their stores are willing to pay. You will be surprised at how much more generous some book sellers/buyers are. A little bit of searching can get you $50 back.

While you have learned a few tricks of the trade from us, there is still much, much more you need to learn about getting by in college. Grades are different. Homework is different. Even the clubs you got involved in in high school can be intimidating by the new air of professionalism your club officers might expect out of you. Don’t read this column and think you know everything about college. Ask your older cousins, siblings or older friends about navigating college. Ask them anything from how to get an “A” in college to what a permission code is and why asking your professor for it before you enroll for your courses will save you valuable time during orientation.

And most importantly, make sure they teach you to wash your laundry.

doldrums and the kracken

It's that time. Students who can afford to relax - don't; some come to grips with academic and personal goals for the first time; and some need help getting out of bed at the crack of noon.

I feel it - but you can't step in the same river twice (Heraclitus), and the water's different for everyone.

Teachers hustle to keep up with grading - and judging/evaluating takes its toll - and can result in little patience for ... how do real people say insouciance? Where can we find motivation?

Needing empathy, I started my own iSearch. I forgot that databases tell you were to find info - but often don't have direct link/ download. It can make you feel like you're in over your head.

Check google scholar if your school library doesn't have a journal or source you need - and if that fails interlibrary loan is pretty quick - talk to a librarian. I should walk the class thru it. The process for tracking down sources changes every 6 months, but once you get the hang of it, you can figure it out and it can be fun.

The important thing: try something new. Look in new places. Have fun.

Perhaps we should collectively reassess our goals and objectives. Please check out the video. I especially noticed the phalanx at 2:30... the paramilitary utilitarian outfit and choreography had to influence Public Enemy. They make a statement on the paradox of fitting into a system that encourages uniform expression, while discovering one's own voice: intense emotional engagement while simultaneously detached and objective - or cold and mechanical.

It's performance art/punk rock at its finest; Devo flourished in the shadow of disco - and made a bigger impact in Europe and Japan than in the Midwest, tho they did help pioneer the music video. Mark Mothersbaugh - front man - you may know from The Rugrats, or any of a bunch of movie soundtracks. That dude can compose: visually, musically and lyrically.

Another of Devo's songs could sum up my andragogical theory, our course objectives, and the idea - or more accurately a reaction to an idea, that explains most decisions I made up until 2002. Haven't reassessed my life re: said song since. The message is in the vein of Lloyd's dinner party speech from Say Anything.

I'd probably get in trouble for showing you the music video in question - or even using it's name in print.

BTW anyone else want to read Punk Power in the First-Year Writing Classroom? It'd better live up...

Concurrent assignments.

I promised my comp 2 (122) students I’d survey other teachers on an issue. In class I outline the major papers and provide written assignment prompts with the syllabus on the first day of class. I also provide a “grade tracker” with due dates, points for each assignment, etc.

Before the final draft of the first assignment is due, I introduce in class the second paper in class and begin work - including posting topic choices and tentative thesis statements. After collecting the first paper, but before completing the process of writing the second paper – we address and start the third paper. We always start the next paper before completing the current assignment.

A former boss and professor got me started doing this - and I remember talking then about how this will likely be new for students and they may push back against it, but that it pushes the onus of time management from the teacher to the student, it more transparently communicates with the students, etc.

One of my classes pointed this out and questioned the practice - and it impressed me that they noticed an intentional andragogical decision. I'd forgotten that this may be new an challenging. I promised to survey other teachers at this school and perhaps other community colleges and question the ethics, relevance an merit . That practice (of concurrent assignments) started in a four year school - and reflected the educational theory and beliefs of that teaching community. It's time for me to reassess the practice for the current student community.

If you teach composition 122, please take a moment to vote in the survey to the right.