Metaphor paper - tips and advice

One way of looking at the Metaphor paper is in how it addresses the Course Goals and Objectives: From the English Department Program Guide for Comp 2 (ENGL 122) it says:

II. Students Will Demonstrate Ability to Read and Think Critically About Texts
A. Profile texts and determine potential biases.

• Identify approximate demographics for ideal audience of individual articles, journals, books, and student essays.
• Determine biases or viewpoints appealed to through analysis of the vocabulary, support, and organization of a text.

B. Comprehend the content and intention of texts.

• Summarize an article's content effectively.
• Describe the author's intention or agenda.

C. Evaluate the biases and reliability of sources.

• Identify language that reveals a bias.
• Distinguish and identify arguments based in logos, pathos and ethos.
• Locate logical fallacies in student and professional texts independently.
• Recognize personal and cultural biases that influence readers.

The papers I saw today had less summary and more quotes - ties to the text to analyze - than earlier semester's rough drafts. We've evidently done a better job talking about that. Additionally, I'd like to stress and iterate or reiterate that

• A works cited section or page will be needed. The article MUST be cited end-text.
  
• A thesis statement mentioning the article summarized by name will be needed in the first paragraph.
• Read creatively - don't merely translate the metaphor into literal language. Find a theme, bias or cultural slant.
  

Irony - grading papers

Thanks to the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal for this one [URL="http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2179"].

in-text citation - ellipsis

Ellipsis (plural ellipses) deserve some discussion. Check out the following sources:

• wikipedia
• Purdue's online writing center
• the JCCC writing center on ellipsis

In prose, ellipses are not generally needed at the beginning or end of a quote. The rule is different for poetry - and if there is confusion between the above sources - my rule is no ellipsis at the beginning or end of a quote. Even if you end a quote before the period. Even if the first part of the sentence is left off.

MLA has gone back and forth on whether brackets [...] are needed to clarify that you inserted ellipsis rather than include punctuation found in the original source - so that one is you call. Just be consistent.

in-text citations the basics

Duke has a great guide to parenthetical citations with MLA - and as a KU alum it's hard to praise Duke. St. Cloud U. Writing Center also has a guide which points out how to cite when the author's name is mentioned in the text.

Something that bugs me - when I see the long and drawn-out slow wind up. It isn't concise. It amounts to filler. For example

Stephen Krashen, a world authority on No Child Left Behind and author of "Remarks on Race to the Top," wrote an interesting article. In it he said, and I think correctly, "Students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families score outscore all or nearly all other countries on international tests."

This is too wordy. The end text citation will give me the title of the article, and appeals to authority should be carefully used. Krashen is popular, but not the authority you might expect among serious scholars. It's better to frame the quote for your purposes, and let the parenthetical citation do much of the work for you.

Testing may not be the solution to our problems in education, but fighting poverty. "Students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families score outscore all or nearly all other countries on international tests " (Krashen).

It's shorter, and conveys much more information. Note: the above came from a web source. If it's a pdf, or paginated source - such as print - insert the page number after the author's last name but without commas. The two links above to a great job explaining that.

Semicolons and colons

One of the punctuation issues that recurr most often involves the use of semicolons. This matters because - the way a semicolon functions - if one uses a semicolon where a comma or colon are needed, it creates a sentence fragment, which is a grammatical misdeed of the most heinous order.

I like semicolons and don't want to discourage their use - so check out the Oatmeal's humorous exploration of semicolons - they have the grammar right.

Also, check out a less funny but equally useful comparison contrast explanation of semicolons vs. colons at Xavier University's Writing Center website.

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?

Technology expectations in the classroom

Had a couple students balk at using the Learning Management System - and even computers in general - in an English class. Teaching writing has always been about teaching technology, and inventions from the printing press to the typewriter and word processor have redefined our writing processes.

You get to this by going to the school website> enroll> Search class schedule>then enter “English> as a search term> then hover over f2f (face to face). It may be for all classes on campus - but I know it works with any English class.

Click the image to see it larger - and I'll reproduce the text below:

Face-to-Face Courses (F2F)

Face-to-Face instruction takes place in a classroom. Based on JCCC's Statement of General Education. Students in all classes, including face-to-face classes, are expected to use technology appropriate to the course content and as needed to access web-based course materials. Face-to-face classes typically require access to computer equipment (either at home or in college labs provided for student use) and basic computing skills utilizing standard office, business and web browsing applications.

When students enroll, they agree these conditions - but they may not be aware of it.