tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52404262023-11-15T14:05:03.646-05:00The Old BossSame as the new boss.Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-74559986151126194572008-04-12T10:20:00.001-04:002008-04-12T10:20:30.034-04:00New PostUpcoming meeting announcementsAnitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-27643178510423018692008-02-28T21:05:00.001-05:002008-02-28T21:05:07.462-05:00New Friends, Old UsesI'm typing this on my new pal, the AlphaSmart 3000. Those of you with school-age children may be familiar with this little device, as they are used in schools around the country. I picked this up on eBay (for a steal) and I'm playing around with it. I've been thinking about word processing lately--thinking about the tools that we use to write, to compose, to think on "paper." Once in Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-79856070291225826512008-02-01T23:55:00.000-05:002008-02-02T00:00:18.239-05:00Happiness Is ValidationIt makes me smile a little inside--the AWP has made some recommendations for literary training that are close to my heart:The guidelines recommend 12 methods for achieving those goals. "Extensive and diverse reading requirements" leads the list. Instructors should also make sure their students study literary terminology and critical approaches, and that they practice critical reading as well as Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-68368395556382277492008-01-27T10:05:00.001-05:002008-01-27T10:12:46.559-05:00The Future of English StudiesVia a link on the WPA List, I found this YouTube video presentation by Richard E. Miller, Chair of the Rutgers English Department and Executive Director of their Writing Center. The video is a presentation to the Rutgers Board, and begins with a number of university specific comments. As the video progresses, Miller works toward a provocative statement; he argues that in the future, the Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-75560193833483858532008-01-09T23:19:00.000-05:002008-01-16T23:22:00.065-05:00On the Road AgainBy mid-February, I will have spent only one full week in Athens since mid-December. I'm tired, but in a good way and for good reason.Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-91018754971213040082008-01-01T15:39:00.000-05:002008-01-01T15:45:13.898-05:00New YearNew year, new beginnings. I'm home now from my December travels. There's lots to be done; classes start on Monday, Jan. 7 (why so early?) and I have course packets to assemble, syllabi to plan, schedules to craft, labs to inspect. The next three days are going to be a bit hairy, but I must admit that it's fun to think about the new year beginning.Who knows what it will bring? I'm challenging Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-47132238471227160722007-12-18T10:03:00.000-05:002007-12-18T10:20:26.062-05:00Semester EndThe term officially ends for me at 7 p.m. today. By that time, I will have submitted my grades, packed a box filled with exams, papers, notes and textbooks, and labled said box for shipping home. I'm in New York with my sister, her husband, and their new baby, and the grading has taken so much of my time with them that I'm ashamed. I came here to help them, but they have really helped me by Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-72880779230155882482007-11-27T15:50:00.000-05:002007-11-27T16:11:40.218-05:00To Blog or Not to Blog?Ann Althouse, a law-professor-blogger I occasionally read, had this to say about blog writing vs. academic writing in a recent Chronicle discussion of the Juan Cole situation:Successful blog writing is sharp and clear. Controversial opinions will look quite stark. You lay it on the line, and you mean to startle readers and make your opponents mad. Academic writing is temperate and swathed in Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-8311571313255894192007-09-10T22:24:00.000-04:002007-09-10T22:32:38.550-04:00Who Am I?This question was inevitable. I set out in my studies hoping to avoid specialization long enough to figure out what I wanted to spend my time doing. I've done lots of things, but gravitated to particular literary eras (British Romanticism and Modernism), specific interests (rhetoric, religion, technology, pedagogy), and a few favorite writers (Austen, K. Burke, Auden, Yeats). Now, as I survey theAnitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-72899563028644753662007-08-13T20:03:00.000-04:002007-08-13T20:10:11.886-04:00A LetterDear Universe,I'm very, very tired. Completing a dissertation, graduating, entering the job market, prepping two brand new classes, fulfilling administrative duties, training 30-something new teaching assistants, doing laundry, writing an essay for publication, teaching knitting lessons, cleaning house, feeding myself, monitoring my diabetes, balancing my checkbook, and planning a wedding all Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-3063204787918661492007-08-06T15:03:00.000-04:002007-08-06T15:04:23.524-04:00The Promise of a New DayI've graduated and am now post-school. It feels strange, this change, because it feels like nothing has changed at all. After spending Saturday morning in a gown that made me look 100 lbs. heavier and then spending the afternoon at a celebratory cookout that sweat 100 lbs. from me, I find myself in the office looking at the same to-do list, the same textbooks in need of a syllabus, the same desk Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-77021966252127451872007-07-20T10:52:00.000-04:002007-07-20T11:08:22.994-04:00Trained to Not Ask QuestionsOne of the points that came up in my defense had to do with the impetus for the declarative stance of student readers. I had noted that students who recorded internal comments to the poems they were reading made comments which were overwhelmingly declarative, as opposed to questioning. I sensed that it was a reluctance to ask questions, a fear of appearing inexpert; the committee member suggestedAnitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-77979998508077865012007-07-18T10:36:00.001-04:002007-07-18T10:46:13.001-04:00DecisionsIt's been a month since my last post to this blog, and oh, what a month it's been! I've defended my dissertation and next week I'm interviewing for a position at a local university that would set me on a new career path. So many choices lay ahead, not the least of which deal with planning my wedding (!!!) from several states away. I'm exhausted already.At times, change comes into our lives with Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-54130660014188240562007-06-15T22:57:00.000-04:002007-06-15T23:23:36.477-04:00FireI decided to reread Farenheit 451. Reread is, I suppose, a misnomer, since I read this book so long ago that I remembered very little of the actual plot. As I was driving home today, I considered how I liked the book.I decided that I didn't like it, that it was not really all that great, and I started to feel sorry for those poor, poor kids that had to read this thing (I purchased it in the Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-17789708796407101812007-05-20T17:28:00.000-04:002007-06-15T22:42:52.003-04:00The End of the ConferenceOur session was the last one listed for the last panel on the very last day. We had a small, but interested, audience and I thought things went quite well.Except, of course, for a small "wardrobe malfunction."I suppose it must happen to us all at some time. The unzipped fly. The sneaky blouse button. The toilet paper trail on the shoe. But oh, why did I wear such a dangerous wrap blouse with a Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-10813756764597935752007-05-19T11:56:00.000-04:002007-05-20T17:35:53.517-04:00Computers and Writing, Part IIDisclaimer: My conference notes are frequently transcriptions of a talk. These are raw, unedited notes.Session 3.2: Ethics and TechnologySession 5.8: Special Delivery: The Production and Distribution of Multimodal Public RhetoricSession 6.6: Closing the Loop in Cyberspace: Online Learning Environments as Sites for Assessing Learning and TechnologySession 7.4: A Rationale for Using Burkean Theory Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-62991769592429735092007-05-18T13:37:00.000-04:002007-05-18T13:40:53.298-04:00Blogging Computers and Writing, Post 1Disclaimer: I tend to transcribe in my notetaking, so I may be always quoting. These are raw notes, so be kind.Lunch Session: Friday, May 18BloggingSpeaker 1: Lowell Boileau (http://www.detroityes.com/)Lowell is an artist whose paintings reflect the city/changesBegan by thinking of the web as a way to bypass the gallery system to sell his paintings"The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit"--original Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-844492665707308702007-04-12T09:54:00.000-04:002007-04-12T09:59:50.764-04:00Getting Priorities StraightInside Higher Ed reports that there's a disconnect between high school and college instructors with regard to their definitions of "college readiness." Of particular interest to me is the following bit of information:In English, the survey suggests, high school instructors’ focus on the development of students’ ideas overlooks basic grammatical and syntactic skills — possibly leading to an Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-9563795128987446582007-03-31T13:25:00.000-04:002007-03-31T13:29:44.765-04:00Two Minute PostI've got two minutes left on my grading countdown. I'm grading Regents exams today, a delightful task that always gives me cause for a chuckle. I give myself 28 minutes for a packet of 15 essays; any remaining time is "fun" time.Today I learned that faculty shouldn't give comprehensive final exams because they shouldn't expect students to know those things. I also learned that abortion isn't Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-47453894675390834362007-03-26T22:02:00.000-04:002007-03-31T13:52:01.114-04:00. . .and we're back!Not a post about the C's in sight, I see.Returned last night around 9:30 p.m. to find that the ants had not colonized my kitchen as I'd feared. Breathed a sigh of relief, prepped my classes, and went to bed. Now, 24 hours later, I feel ready to at least acknowledge that which I attended.So I chatted with UGA peeps (Lex and Bob and Scott, to name a few), met new peeps*, and did a good bit of Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-38334703271259267272007-03-21T17:00:00.000-04:002007-03-21T17:08:05.179-04:00CCCC 2007We arrived in NYC at 10:30 a.m. and headed to our hotel. Within an hour of checking in, we were on our way to the NY Hilton to get our conference goodies (mainly the 300+ page program books) and map out our subway route. Yes, I said subway; we aren't staying at the conference hotel because it's just too expensive AND I know of this lovely little boutique hotel on the Upper West Side that is tres Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-14094339055900838492007-03-15T21:21:00.000-04:002007-03-15T21:29:21.593-04:00Validation?In a fit of pique during this utterly unproductive Spring Break (in which I've stared endlessly at charts trying to make sense of them) I replied to a post on the WPA listserv. The conversation had turned, as it periodically does, to the matter of the rhet/comp--literature divide. When "writing" became the sub for "rhet/comp" but "literature" remained, I brought out my little soapbox.Long term Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-3512444379612894402007-02-20T12:32:00.000-05:002007-02-20T12:37:30.847-05:00How Many?I've been having size anxiety regarding my dissertation. I suppose the question I want to be asking is "how long is too long?" I'm tortured, however, by the question, how long is long enough?I don't like being thought of as one of those namby-pamby people who want to do the bare-ass minimum, so let me make myself clear--I'm not trying to get out of writing a thorough dissertation. I just don't Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-11312597611249626732007-02-19T12:39:00.000-05:002007-02-19T12:40:36.197-05:00Academics Will Study AnythingSociety for the Study of LostI can now indulge in television with no guilt at all. This is contentment.Anitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240426.post-24761670057379407352007-02-19T11:25:00.000-05:002007-02-19T11:29:58.322-05:00Race Obscures?James Sherley has ended his hunger strike, with the hopes that MIT will continue to review his failed bid for tenure. I find it interesting that Dr. Sherley is an adult stem cell researcher who, according the article about the end of his strike, opposes embryonic research. This seems to me to be a much more provocative point of speculation about his tenure denial. I wonder whether it was his workAnitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07908559037775842118noreply@blogger.com0