How to say nothing in 500 words

What does "Concise" mean? Is writing the art of spinning bllsht into gold? Isn't a grammatically clean paper all you really need for an "A"? Do students really think instructors can't see through BS? OR do students think BS is what is expected? (After all we see nothing but BS on TV, in the news, from those around us)....
Turns out back in the '50s a prof. had some brilliant insight into this. I've only just scanned it - but it comes highly recommended by a colleague.

• the essay
• a blog post on it by someone else.

The writer's job is to take a boring idea, and make it interesting.

Rules for beginning writers.

Got wind of this advice for beginning writers from BoingBoing, who found it from VS Naipaul.

1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words.

2. Each sentence should make a clear statement. It should add to the statement that went before. A good paragraph is a series of clear, linked statements.

3. Do not use big words. If your computer tells you that your average word is more than five letters long, there is something wrong. The use of small words compels you to think about what you are writing. Even difficult ideas can be broken down into small words.

4. Never use words whose meaning you are not sure of. If you break this rule you should look for other work.

They found it here. I agree with Cory Doctorow that these rules should not be absolute - with the exception of # 4. What will it take for people to use the dictionary? And yet when dictionary is used - will they resist the impulse to cite it as a source?

When a toddler announces to a dinner party that they have pooped and wiped themselves, we find it acceptable and even cute. When an adolescent does the same - not cute and only acceptable if we have very low expectations of said adolescent. We expect students to use dictionaries and encyclopedias, but we don't look for that as sources on papers.

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"].

On Creating and Editing Audio

All students in comp 1 participate in team based learning where they create and edit audio. Many students already know about and have used Audacity - but for those who don't, it is a free open-source program for recording and editing sound using a computer. It's pretty amazing - and you could probably figure out how to download by going to their website, but KU has some great step-by-step instructions in a PDF here, but the web page here has more detail and better graphics.

• NOTE: downloading the Lame encoder is necessary to export the audacity project files as Mp3's.
• Note also that it will edit Mp3's but not WMA (Windows Media Audio - what my voice recorder uses), so I went to CNET and downloaded a free WMA to Mp3 converter.

Most Cell phones and personal media players will record audio, but what format they use to record sound varies. You will need to figure that out to find the correct program to download that would convert to Mp3. I recommend CNET.

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.

Writing and Power

Grabbed the above image from a boingboing post on Woody Guthrie, an old artist activist who wrote a couple of my favorite songs (the motorcycle song and alice's restaurant).

I like it because it highlights a point I try to make with my classes - that language, and writing specifically, is all about power.

What I'm learning Re: SRTOL Papers - Rhetoric

These comments apply to many papers.

I see semantic confusion facts vs. opinions (if this is a rhetorical ploy - it doesn't work on the well-educated; consider your audience).

I hear semantic confusion. Define terms as you will use them. The papers have taught me that voice may be to dialect what an individual is to a small community. Voice may be personal and unique - and dialect may be where we find social connections and collective identity. No class has discussed "Voice" as eloquently as this semester. Consult reference books but don't directly quote them unless absolutely necessary. Paraphrase - define for yourself. Goals of this class require demonstration of nuanced understanding of at least all the terms and concepts listed here. 2 people used the word "slang." What did I say about that? (Scroll down page of link to see written record).

People still call America a "melting pot"? For at least a couple decades (before most of you were born) I've read and been told this metaphor oppresses individual rights. Everything that goes into such a pot loses its individuality and unique/ distinctive characteristics and integrity. It disappears into the stew (or is it a pot of molten metal which produces new alloys? As a kid I saw metal), hence the politically correct image: we are a "tossed salad." Each item contributes to a whole while retaining its integrity and individual flavor. At least a dozen or so papers so far go off on the melting pot analogy. Is the tossed salad thing political correctness gone too far? Do we need the melting pot analogy? Why? Are students reacting against political correctness or have they simply been exposed exclusively to conservative/ dated images?

The people who founded this country spoke English so ... (immigrants should learn it, we should all have a standard dialect, etc)? This argument reminds me of the assertion that English was good enough for Christ, it should be good enough for immigrants. Re: English roots of our founders:

1. What about the millions of Native Americans who'd lived here for millennia. Don't they count? Why not?
2. What about California and the west, as well as Florida - which if we discount native Americans (big if) were settled by Spanish speakers and which Spain claimed or settled before England or colonials?
   
3. In lands added to the United States by the Louisiana purchase (from France) - this includes Kansas - the original white settlers/ missionaries spoke French.
4. BTW - Most know Kansas takes its name from the Kansa Indians - so why the superflous "s" at the end? Appleton's Journal- volume 15 page 758, published in 1876, as well as other sources - notes that it is the phonetic English pronunciation of notes taken by French missionaries. In French final "s" sounds get dropped. Our current state name results from a mispronunciation due to common ignorance of French and or the etymology of the name. If we appeal to tradition/ origins should we start pronouncing our state's name "Kansa"?

English is the most difficult language to learn? Says who? According to what criteria? What research or evidence supports this opinion (not fact)? I've heard this statement from people who speak only English, but I've never heard a non-native speaker of English say this. The polyglots I know rather emphatically say this is not true. Even a cursory web search (wikipedia, other) calls this assumption into question.

All grammar and style advice should be funny

Fake APStylebook posts style advice for writing - the site makes me laugh consistently and sometimes I agree with their point. Sometimes it's bogus - but generally funny. attached is a screengrab from what I found worthy of retweeting (BTW: follow me here on twitter if enough people did I might actually keep up with it).

I decided to follow them on the advice of a student who gets updates to his cell phone.

This reminds me somewhat of The Transitive Vampire - a grammar handbook for the doomed. It actually does a great job teaching grammar - on purpose.

Passive voice

When I speak of excessive use of passive voice (or passive verbs) I refer to the over use of "to be" verbs: is, are, was, were, be, being, been and am.

Passive verbs are to writing what salt is to the American diet. The human body needs salt- and if and when it is totally eliminated from a person's diet that person will eventually die. But we tend to eat way too much salt. It's everywhere! It has become a health problem that leads to health problems and the early death of too many people (fat works in the metaphor too).

Same with passive verbs. Good writing will have a few - but first drafts always have too many - and with some students I only see first drafts. We have to learn to reduce our reliance on passives.

Passives

• can make sentences longer than they need to be - resulting in wordy constructions
• hide or obscure agency - who did what? Politicians have long used passives for non-apologies for various heinous acts
• suck the life out of writing. Active verbs have more ... action. Stuff happens.
• were once tacitly, if not explicitly, encouraged in medical schools. In 2006, my boss at the KU Med Writing Center showed me research that indicates this habit - with the intent to hide agency in case of malpractice cases - actually exacerbates the filing of malpractice suits. Modern med schools now, at least publicly and officially, no longer encourage passive voice in medical reports (eg. "the patient's temperature was 106" is now better, "the nurse recorded the patients temperature at 106" ).
  

Sometimes the problem may come from cognitive malware installed by previous writing instructors, such as directives "Don't use first person in any writing!" in which the teacher probably meant to address other issues such as wordiness and over-reliance on opinion rather than fact or support. I don't mind an occasional use of first person - especially if it reduces passive verbs. But that's just me ;)

There's an online interactive tutorial from punctilious.org that we should use in class. I've also started collecting links re: passive voice/ passive verbs on the social bookmarking site.

JCCC Writing Center resources

Located on the 3rd floor of the library in room 308, the Writing Center (or WC) holds a slew of resources. they have a copy of each textbook used by English and Journalism faculty - maybe each text book used by humanities. MLA Handbooks, EasyWriters, and other style and usage texts also litter the tables.

Many instructors keep a binder with assignment prompts and examples of student work. Sometimes an example is worth more than any other kind of explanation. Look for mine.

They also have scads of handouts, but the most useful resources are the peer consultants. Talk to them.

REMEMBER: you need your JCCC ID card for many services.

essay writing

Daily Writing tips, a writing instruction and learning blog, has a useful post on essay writing. The link also has links to instructions on writing student essays, literary essays and perhaps other types of essays. The problem most students have is that they haven't read many essays before.

They also mention the 5-paragraph essay(click for wikipedia explanation). The grad students at KU back in the day much maligned the 5 paragraph essay for being too formulaic and ...lame. But it's a legitimate form of organization - just not a form students use often in my classes. I have no prejudice against it. I'm reminded of a favorite quote, "when the only tool you have is a hammer - everything looks like a nail." Most comp 1 instructors assume students know the 5 paragraph essay form, but maybe we shouldn't assume.

Outside of formal class/ student assignments -most people don't write essays often; HOWEVER, the essay form is alive and well . I'm reading (OK - listening to the audio book - an authentic form of reading IMHO) a collection of essays by Malcolm Gladwell called What the Dog Saw. Of it, the New York Times book review says

Have you ever wondered why there are so many kinds of mustard but only one kind of ketchup? Or what Cézanne did before painting his first significant works in his 50s? Have you hungered for the story behind the Veg-O-Matic, star of the frenetic late-night TV ads? Or wanted to know where Led Zeppelin got the riff in “Whole Lotta Love”?

Gladwell tracks it down - does the research - and writes essays about it. See press release here, see Amazon to buy here, or check out the audio book from Billington Library here on JCCC campus.

He shows how essays can be surprisingly engaging.

To recap: reading essays may be the best preparation to writing good essays.

Don't forget about your textbook as a source of interesting essays. The Norton Field Guide has some fun stuff.

The shape of student journals to come

We will be keeping journals (or working files) in Comp 1. Nothing has been shown to improve writing skill as much as daily writing. Some classes have used the $.09 spiral notebooks, some have used the 3 prong portfolio folders, and too many have gone rogue and turned in some sort of 3 ring monstrosity that makes transporting them ...challenging. I went into this in detail in the first educational blog I wrote for. In them we will keep daily writings, handouts, drafts of essays and some homework.

I taught a graduate class at KU that posted journal entries online in personal blogs. The results impressed people who evaluated me - but there were challenges.

A professor writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education makes a provocative case for posting all journal writing online - his class found fame and fortune and learned something along the way. He says:

By changing their homework assignments from disposable, private conversations between them and me (the way printed or e-mailed assignments work in students’ minds) into public, online statements that became part of a continuing conversation, we realized very real benefits. The very first semester I began asking students to share their homework this way, a popular e-learning newsletter found and liked one of my students’ essays and pointed its readers to the student’s blog. When the visits and comments from professionals around the world started coming in, students realized that the papers they were writing weren’t just throw-away pieces for class – they were read and discussed by their future peers out in the world. The result was a teacher’s dream — the students’ writing became a little longer, a little more thoughtful, and a little more representative of their actual intellectual abilities. And this benefit came by simply asking students to submit their homework through a different channel. They were already going to write and submit it; I was already going to read it.

Blogs can be private - by invitation only - or public (which is more fun). And you can add video, photos, links and such.

Whatever our classes decide - the journals should be in a uniform format. That maximizes my time reading and responding and minimizes confusion and hassle.

Qualifiers of Certainty: what they say

I've noted the use and abuse of qualifiers from our first papers - particularly those I've called "filler" such as: "I think," "I believe," "In my opinion," "I feel," "In my eyes," and "From my perspective." I call these filler because their use is generally out of habit - casual readers might not consciously register them.

Compositions teachers shouldn't be casual readers. The qualifiers above generally signal uncertainty, a lack of confidence, an unwillingness to commit to a thought or statement, or worse (ie that other words from the paper are NOT the writer's thoughts...plagiarism). These words and phrases at best add word count but add little meaning. Use them sparingly if at all.

If a person writes something, shouldn't the reader assume it to be the writer's thoughts?

A lack of confidence may be a personal shortcoming that education is meant to remedy - or it could signal a lack of research, and writers should become experts on the topic of their papers.

These qualifiers show up in the first drafts of many skilled writers - including (and perhaps particularly) myself. Editing and revision takes care of this. So excessive use of qualifiers of uncertainty communicate the lack of proofreading.

Reponse to late drafts Metaphor Paper

Most of the drafts are really shaping up, but all will need clarification and refinement to be "A" papers. I scratched most of everybody's introductions - so don't take it personal. What's relevant to me is the student's assessment of the language of the magazine article they chose. With few, if any, exceptions my advice has been to more closely establish the link between the papers and the articles they should be examining.

I've seen few good thesis statements yet. Some can be infered from the overall text - but that's more work for me and less educational for students so all theses should appear in the first sentence. They should be statements not questions - at least in my class. Often the answer to the question students identify as a thesis statement is the thesis. Make sure the thesis statement is clear and specific. It should be able to stand alone and make sense. If you read it, and only it, you know the point of the essay. If you have to use a pronoun make sure the antecedent is clear.

Make sure the relationship of all paragraphs to the thesis is clear. The history or general utility of metaphors isn't necessary. If something isn't necessary or relevant to your thesis - omit it.

The thesis statement should mention the article and the theme (or the effect of the figurative language). For example,

In "Giget goes to Spanish Harlem" George Carlin pokes fun at the racist roots of many common idioms.

• We need to photo-copy the source articles and attach them to the next draft, and use passages - with quotes and page #'s
  
• We need to attach the bibliography info (ie works consulted page)
  
• I want to see a new draft with these items briefly in class on Tuesday, 11-10-9 (30 points)
  

At times this week I've been cranky. Various reasons. Don't read too much into my tone in my comments - I want to be honest and direct. Sometimes it could come across blunt or tactless. Hope not.

Your ideas have generally been good, and wonder about the correlation of those who missed early conferences and article choice/deadlines with the papers that looked like first drafts.

Active Learning - ad campaign:

Many students mentioned a preference for "hands on" learning. Some called it by different names. Several students called it Visual learning. Dewey might have called it experience based learning. In Comp 1 we will start an activity either Friday, 9.18.9 or Wed. 9.23.9, that has been successful in my classes. Details and handouts are available online. Monday (9.21.9), we tour the library, and it might be useful to find some car related literature, such as reviews, promotional copy, etc.

I used this for my teaching demo, in the interview that landed this job.