Read Think b4 u Write

MLA Made Easy?

2012-01-27T11:09:00.000-08:00

Every time you use someone else's ideas or words you must follow it with an in-text citation and an entry on the Works Cited page.

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" (Gibson 1).
Note that this is a direct quote, so it has quotation marks and is immediately followed by an in-text citation (Gibson 1) and that the punctuation (the period) follows the in-text citation. Gibson is the author's last name and the quote was found on page one. Also notice there is no comma between the author's last name and the page number.

When readers see the in-text citation it clues them that there will be an entry on the Works Cited page that begins with Gibson. The works cited entry for the above quote looks like this:

Works Cited
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984. Print.

Note that the book's title is italicized. Every period, colon, and comma are important so be sure you put them in the right place.

The biggest problem I see regarding plagiarism in college writing, is the uncited paraphrase. If it's not your idea, you must cite it. How do I know an uncited paraphrase when I see one? No one knows the exact population of Huntington Beach, or the crime rate for Atlanta - you had to look that stuff up - be sure you cite where you got that information.

Here's a paraphrased example of text followed by an in-text citation:

William Gibson's opening line of Neuromancer is a classic because it captures the tone of the industrial excess and technology of the novel while presenting a vivid image. We all know what a television tuned to static looks like (Gibson 1).

Since Gibson's opening line is paraphrased - We all know what a television tuned to static looks like - it must be followed by an in-text citation (Gibson 1).

Let's look at a slightly different example of the above:

Gibson's image of a television tuned to static betrays a society overrun by technology (1).

Notice that the in-text citation only contains a page number. Why? Because the writer used the author's name in the sentence. Whether the writer uses the author's name in the sentence or includes it in the in-text citation, the writer MUST make an entry on the Works Cited page that references Gibson.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to citations. As a college writer you will be citing essays, articles, movies, television shows, advertising, novels, and text books.

There is a great free resource online at: www.easybib.com. It is a citation generator and is free for MLA citations. Helpful hint: To cite an essay in your English textbook >click on the "All 58 Options" tab, then >click on "Chapter/Anthology". When you come to a fill-in box for which you cannot find information, just skip it.

Was this helpful? What other elements of citation have you confused? Remember, plagiarism can get you kicked out of college, so if you don't understand it, ask you professor, or go to one of the myriad websites that explain citations.

Rhetoric of Political Advertising

2012-01-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

When talking about rhetoric, we think ethos (appeals to authority), pathos (appeals to emotion), or logos (appeals to logic). Advertisers are the kings of exploiting rhetoric to get you to do something, from buying cars or fast food to electing a president.

Political advertisements often use pathos to scare the electorate into voting for a canditdate who will make things "better." Or, they may rely on hope, the way President Obama did in the last election. Today many political advertisments ask, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" the way President Reagan did in 1984.

Constitution Daily has collected the 10 Best Political Advertisements since 1952.

Here's a couple:

’60 – JFK JingleM
Candidate: John F. Kennedy, Democrat
Did he win?: Yes.

Here's an election that turned Kennedy's youth into an asset with the slogan he's "old enough to know and young enough to do."

’64 – “Daisy”
Candidate: Lyndon Johnson, Democrat
Did he win? Yes.

The spectre of atomic annihilation haunted the American public and this ad (which supposedly only ran once) kept Johnson in the oval office.

’84 – “Morning in America”
Candidate: Ronald Regan, Republican
Did he win? Yes.

This is the first political advertisement that asked, "Are you better off now then you were four years ago?" At the beginning of President Reagan's second term, the answer was "Yes!" The voters took a look at their own lives, agreed, and re-elected Reagan.

’08 – Yes We Can
Candidate: Barack Obama, Democrat
Did he win? Yes.

While online political advertisements had been around since 2004, in 2008 President Obama effectively harnessed the communicative power of the internet to get elected.

How do these different advertisements use ethos, pathos, and logos to get their candidate elected? Are they trying to frighten the masses or convince the masses that their logic is correct? What do you think?

Unemployment Rates Among College Graduates

2012-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce recently released a study showing that college graduates have a better chance at finding a job than those with less education. Not a surprise there, but you may be surprised at how much of a difference a college education makes when it comes to earnings and employment. "The overall unemployment rate for recent bachelor's-degree recipients is 8.9 percent, compared with 22.9 percent for recent high-school graduates and 31.5 percent for recent high-school dropouts" (Chronicle of Higher Ed).

But some college majors fare better than others. Students graduating as architects have a 13.9 percent rate of unemployment, while the arts and humanities find 11.1 percent unemployed, and liberal arts are at 9.4 percent. While architects may be an anomoly because of the horrific state of the housing market, industry oriented degrees on the whole are hired at a better rate than teachers and social workers.

Is college worth it?

Another study, "What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors," shows that a college degree is a good investment. "Over their careers, full-time, full-year workers whose highest degree is a bachelor's make 74 percent more, on average, than those whose highest attainment is a high-school diploma." Of course, there is always an exception. "Counseling psychology was the only major for which bachelor's-degree recipients had lower median earnings than high-school graduates."

When looking at earnings over the course of one's lifetime "The typical worker with less than a high-school diploma earns $973,000 over a career, in 2009 dollars, while a worker with a professional degree (mainly in law or medicine) earns $3.6-million" (Chronicle of Higher Ed).

Plagiarism Checker: Good for Grammar Too!

2012-01-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

If you are lucky enough to have access to TurnItIn at your college, I bet you didn't know it can do more than just give you a similarity rating?

TurnItIn now has e-rater, a grammar checker, that works alongside the plagiarism checker. If you don't have TurnItIn at your school, it is available for a fee online at Writecheck.com.

In addition to checking quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material, e-rater looks at grammar, style, mechanics, usage and spelling. Errors are flagged and offer students the option of dismissing e-raters' advice, or clicking on "handbook" for further explanation.

Using e-rater will improve your grammar. As a professor, I know most grammar mistakes are really proofreading errors, but when you run across something truly perplexing, e-rater's grammar handbook can teach you something new.

Before you charge off to TurnItIn with your next paper watch the following demo explaining how it works (the demo is for WriteCheck, but it works like TurnItIn).

WriteCheck Demo & Walkthrough from iP User Experience & Design on Vimeo.

Do your professors a favor and use e-rater to correct your grammar. Believe me, you'll be glad you did!

Plagiarism: Bad

2012-01-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

There was a popular little poetic ditty when I was in college that began: Plagiarize,Let no one else's work evade your eyes, but plagiarize. Today plagiarism is still a huge problem on college campuses--and if you get caught copying someone else's work it could cost you your academic career. By the way, getting kicked out of college for cheating can also destroy your chances at good job--who wants to hire someone that steals? Nobody does.

Most of us know we shouldn't copy anyone else's work, but plagiarism.org reminds us that there are many forms of plagiarism:

Sources Not Cited

1. "The Ghost Writer"
   The writer turns in another's work, word-for-word, as his or her own.
2. "The Photocopy"
   The writer copies significant portions of text straight from a single source, without alteration.
3. "The Potluck Paper"
   The writer tries to disguise plagiarism by copying from several different sources, tweaking the sentences to make them fit together while retaining most of the original phrasing.
4. "The Poor Disguise"
   Although the writer has retained the essential content of the source, he or she has altered the paper's appearance slightly by changing key words and phrases. 5. "The Labor of Laziness"
   The writer takes the time to paraphrase most of the paper from other sources and make it all fit together, instead of spending the same effort on original work.
6. "The Self-Stealer"
   The writer "borrows" generously from his or her previous work, violating policies concerning the expectation of originality adopted by most academic institutions.

Sources Cited (But Still Plagiarized)

7. "The Forgotten Footnote"
   The writer mentions an author's name for a source, but neglects to include specific information on the location of the material referenced. This often masks other forms of plagiarism by obscuring source locations.
8. "The Misinformer"
   The writer provides inaccurate information regarding the sources, making it impossible to find them.
9. "The Too-Perfect Paraphrase"
   The writer properly cites a source, but neglects to put in quotation marks text that has been copied word-for-word, or close to it. Although attributing the basic ideas to the source, the writer is falsely claiming original presentation and interpretation of the information.
10. "The Resourceful Citer"
   The writer properly cites all sources, paraphrasing and using quotations appropriately. The catch? The paper contains almost no original work! It is sometimes difficult to spot this form of plagiarism because it looks like any other well-researched document.
11. "The Perfect Crime"
   Well, we all know it doesn't exist. In this case, the writer properly quotes and cites sources in some places, but goes on to paraphrase other arguments from those sources without citation. This way, the writer tries to pass off the paraphrased material as his or her own analysis of the cited material.

I know some students are not aware of the various forms plagiarism can take, so be careful and shade your eyes, don't plagiarize!

Still not sure why you're in College?

2012-01-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

College is expensive and time consuming, and if you still don't know why you're warming a seat in the lecture hall, you better get with it!

Does money matter to you? According to CNNMoney, in 2011 first-time salaries for business majors were $48,089, while engineers started at $59,435, and liberal arts majors could expect to start at $35,633. In the debt column, The Wall Street Journal says that the class of 2011 graduated with an average college loan bill of $22,900, up 47 percent in the last decade. Yikes!

Still not sure?

Have you ever taken an aptitude test? Careerpath.com has a couple of quizzes that can help you decide. Remember, your career is something you are supposed to do for the rest of your life. You can do something you like, or you can do something to make money, or you can do both? How you ask? If you are good at accounting, but you've always wanted to be an actor, you could do accounting work for a Hollywood studio or agency.

How do you know what you like?

Think about the things that you mastered without anyone ever telling you to practice. Are you a video game aficionado? Are you a killer guitarist? A photographer with a flair for the beautiful? Think about what kind of careers are available in the field? You don't just have to play video games or the guitar to work in the software or music field.

School House Rock: Busy Prepositions

2012-01-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

The little words called the busy "P"s . . . at, far, in, from, by, with, to, on, of, over, across and so many others.

The Preposition's job: "Connect noun or pronoun object to some other word in the sentence . . . and they never stand alone."

But what exactly is a Preposition?
The University of Ottawa Writing Center says:

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.

A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:

     The book is on the table.
     The book is beneath the table.
     The book is leaning against the table.
     The book is beside the table.
     She held the book over the table.
     She read the book during class.

In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.

A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. The most common prepositions are "about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "at," "before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "but," "by," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "for," "from," "in," "inside," "into," "like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto," "out," "outside," "over," "past," "since," "through," "throughout," "till," "to," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until," "up," "upon," "with," "within," and "without."

Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a preposition:

     The children climbed the mountain without fear.

In this sentence, the preposition "without" introduces the noun "fear." The prepositional phrase "without fear" functions as an adverb describing how the children climbed.

     There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was defeated.

Here, the preposition "throughout" introduces the noun phrase "the land." The prepositional phrase acts as an adverb describing the location of the rejoicing.

     The spider crawled slowly along the banister.

The preposition "along" introduces the noun phrase "the banister" and the prepositional phrase "along the banister" acts as an adverb, describing where the spider crawled.

     The dog is hiding under the porch because it knows it will be punished for chewing up a new pair of shoes.

Here the preposition "under" introduces the prepositional phrase "under the porch," which acts as an adverb modifying the compound verb "is hiding."

     The screenwriter searched for the manuscript he was certain was somewhere in his office.

Similarly in this sentence, the preposition "in" introduces a prepositional phrase "in his office," which acts as an adverb describing the location of the missing papers.

Got it? Great! Try this quiz to test your skills.

Schoolhouse Rock: Pronouns

2012-01-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

Next up in the School House Rock repertoire: Pronouns starring Rufus Xavier Sarasparilla . . . and a little bit about pronouns on your résumé.

How'd you like to have a name like Rufus Xavier Sarsasparilla? What if pronouns didn't exist and you had to keep repeating "Rufus Xavier Sarasparilla" instead of "I" or "he"? Wow, pronouns make things a lot easier. "Saying those pronouns over and over can really wear you down."

Here's what the OWL at Purdue has to say about pronouns:

Because a pronoun REFERS to a noun or TAKES THE PLACE OF that noun, you have to use the correct pronoun so that your reader clearly understands which noun your pronoun is referring to.

Therefore, pronouns should:

1. Agree in number. If the pronoun takes the place of a singular noun, you have to use a singular pronoun.

     If a student parks a car on campus, he or she has to buy a parking sticker.
     (NOT: If a student parks a car on campus, they have to buy a parking sticker.)

2. Agree in person. If you are writing in the "first person" (I), don't confuse your reader by switching to the "second person" (you) or "third person" (he, she, they, it, etc.). Similarly, if you are using the "second person," don't switch to "first" or "third."

     When a person comes to class, he or she should have his or her homework ready.
     (NOT: When a person comes to class, you should have your homework ready.)

3. Refer clearly to a specific noun. Don't be vague or ambiguous.

     NOT: Although the motorcycle hit the tree, it was not damaged.
     (Is "it" the motorcycle or the tree?)

Click here if you think you're ready for a pronoun quiz.

I on your résumé

Many career coaches recommend that you avoid using I, me, mine in your resume while using more team building words like ours and we. It says a lot about a person. Think about it, what does it say when an employer reads a résumé filled with phrases like "my team" or "my sales group," it makes the employer wonder if you are a team player. On the other hand, a résumé is selling "I" not "you" so if you need to use I to make your point clear, do so.

Here's a good exercise for eliminating "I" from your resume (It is also helpful when you notice one page of your essay contains sixteen "I"s).

First, write the sentence with I.
I devised a marketing plan with advertising aimed at Generation Y and I increased company profits.

Second, just eliminate I.
Devised a marketing plan with advertising aimed at Generation Y and increased company profits.

Even though this sentence would make most English teachers cringe, if it makes sense, then use it in your résumé!

Résumés: Five Great Things To Do

2012-01-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

Job hunters are always reminded of things they should avoid doing in their résumés. But here are five great things to do with, or include in, your résumé.

1. Show enthusiasm. It's okay to be excited about a job possibility. In fact, enthusiasm is often contagious, and says, "I'm ready to work!" What employer doesn't want an employee that conveys a can-do attitude?

2. Include Awards and Achievements. Employers want to see more than job history. If you've won awards for your work, schooling, special interests, or have done volunteer work, it tells perspective employers that you're willing to go the extra mile and that you are passionate about something.

3. Computer and media skills. Many companies maintain a high internet presence. Why? Because a lot of it it is free, and if you know how to navigate through twitter, blog spot, wordpress, Facebook, LinkedIn or other networking sites, that tells would-be bosses that they have someone who understands marketing more than most. Be sure to include mainstream software too.

4. Publications. Don't have any? Think again. All those blog posts you've stayed up late writing. Perfect. You're a published author. Employers will appreciate your love of the written word, and the fact that you can navigate successfully through the English language. One caveat here -- if your blog is entitled "All the bosses I hate" you should probably avoid putting that on your resume.

5. Use power verbs. What are power verbs? I was in charge of six employees. No! You supervised six employees. Some other power verbs to include on your résumé: executed, improved, produced, developed, directed, compiled, implemented, evaluated, designed, coordinated, and facilitated. Click here for Boston College's .pdf of action verbs.

School House Rock: Conjunctions

2012-01-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Let's jazz it up at Conjunction Junction. If this tune doesn't stick in your head for the rest of the day . . .

Conjunction junction what's your function? Conjunctions are: and (additive, this AND that), but (the opposite of and, not this BUT that), and or (when you have a choice, like this OR that). Conjunctions hook up words, phrases and clauses to make them work right.

Pretty easy, right? Let's look at subordinate conjunctions and coordinate conjunctions.

Here's some tips from the OWL at D'Youville College in New York:

>Subordinate Conjunctions
A subordinate conjunction is a word or phrase that begins a dependent clause. Examples of subordinate conjunctions are the following: since, because, when, if, after, although, until, etc.

Example #1
I don't function as well as I normally do when I get tired.
Explanation: The subordinate conjunction is "when," and it begins the dependent clause "when I get tired."

Example #2
We can't buy groceries since he left his money at home.
Explanation: The subordinate conjunction is "since," and it begins the dependent clause "since he left his money at home."

>Coordinate Conjunctions
A coordinate conjunction is a word or phrase that connects two clauses. There are only 7 coordinate conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, so, for, yet.

Example #1
They went to the theater, and we went with them.
Explanation: The coordinate conjunction is "and," and it connects the two independent clauses.

Example #2
They wanted to go boating in the lake, but the weather was uncooperative.
Explanation: The coordinate conjunction is "but," and it connects the two independent clauses.

Ready to take conjunctions out for a spin? Click here for a Coordinate Conjunction test, and here for a Subordinate Conjunction test.

School House Rock: Verbs

2011-12-30T12:13:00.000-08:00

Let's get funky with verbs!

Verbs are for when you're feeling active. Verbs express action, being, or a state of being. A verb tells you what's happening!

The University of Ottawa Writing Center asks:

What is a verb?

The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the sentence and expresses actions, events, or states of being.

In the following sentence, the verb appears highlighted:

Dracula bites his victims on the neck.

The verb "bites" describes the action Dracula takes.

Verbs in workplace writing and your resume.

According to the OWL at Purdue:

An action verb expresses achievements or something a person does in a concise, persuasive manner.

Why is it Important to Use Action Verbs in Workplace Writing?

You should use action verbs in workplace writing because they make sentences and statements more concise. Since concise writing is easier for readers to understand, it is more reader-centered. Because reader-centered writing is generally more persuasive, action verbs are more convincing than non-action verbs.

The following job description uses a non-action verb:

Was the boss of a team of six service employees

The job description below uses an action verb:

Supervised a team of six service employees

The job description using a non-action verb is less concise. It contains ten words, and it focuses action on a form of the verb "to be" (was).

The job description using an action verb is more concise. It contains seven words, and it focuses action on an action verb (supervised). The job description using an action verb is more powerful and is more persuasive.

Use action verbs in resumes to describe all skills, jobs, or accomplishments. Using action verbs will allow you to highlight the tasks you can do. Word choice is critical in order to describe what you have done and to persuade potential employers to give you an interview.

Think you've got it? Great! Try this action verb test and check your skills.

Rhetoric: Logos

2011-12-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

The rhetoric of logos is based on what it sounds like: logic. According to Aristotle it is supported by "proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech [or text] itself." It is the use of argumentation and rational appeals based on facts, case studies, statistics, anecdotes, experiments, logical reasoning, and analogies. Think of toothpaste commercials that claim "Nine out of ten dentists recommend Crust because studies show it prevents cavities."

Strong arguments should have a balance of ethos (ethical appeals), pathos (emotional appeals), and logos (rational appeals). Logic often seems like the most convincing element of an argument, but many times the listener has to depend on the ethos of the speaker in order to believe the logos of his or her argument. In other words, you have to take the writer's word for it, whatever "it" may be.

McDonald's is not immune to rational appeals. There has to be some logic in our choice to eat there. Watch this commercial and think about how McDonald's uses logos to get customers to buy their product.

How is McDonald's using logos in this commercial? Think about how food advertisers use logos to sell their products. Is the food nutritious, easy to eat, easy to clean up? What is McDonald's saying about their fast food?

If you were an advertising executive, where would you position these commercials? To what demographic would you appeal?

Rhetoric: Pathos

2011-12-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

Pathos refers to the emotion or passion a writer evokes in a reader. It involves stirring people up enough to get them to do or believe something. Aristotle didn't much like this form of persuasion. "The arousing of prejudice, pity, anger, and similar emotions has nothing to do with the essential facts, but is merely a personal appeal to the [wo]man who is judging the case." Advertisers and politicians often revert to pathos because it is the only way you will get somebody to put down the remote, get up of the coach, and do something.

Advertisers or writers can appeal to higher emotions like our belief in fairness and justice, love, or pity; or they can appeal to our lower emotions like greed, lust, revenge, avarice, and jealousy.

Even if you're not a politician or advertiser, think about how you might use pathos in your everyday career to persuade your boss or coworkers to believe or do something you think is important. When is it appropriate to use emotion in the workplace?

Watch this McDonald's commercial aimed at children--you really don't need to know Spanish to understand the appeal:

How is McDonald's using pathos in this commercial? Think of the baser emotions. Think about going to the grocery store with your mom as a little kid. What were you searching for in a cereal, great taste, or the prize inside the package?

Do you think this is an effective commercial? Why or why not?

Rhetoric: Ethos

2011-12-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

"We believe good men more fully and more readily than others," at least that's how Aristotle defined ethos.

Ethos is just one point on the rhetorical triangle and has to do with how people perceive you. As an author, are you competent, fair, and/or an authority on your subject matter? If you want people to believe your premise, or message, you better be.

An August 2011 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education asserts that "ethos is the primary mode of persuasion, and one which we neglect at our peril. Reflect for a moment on how you have been persuaded. When you were a student, which teacher influenced you the most? Probably the one whose character and interaction with students you found most appealing. Which publications do you trust the most? Probably the ones with the best brand (branding being our impoverished substitute for ethos)."

Branding? Yes, branding, as in advertising. And advertisers are experts at manipulating people using ethos, pathos, and logos. They are trying to get you to do something--whether it is believing in a message (think politics) or buying products--you are being manipulated.

So think about ethos or ethical appeals using trustworthiness, credibility, expert testimony, and reliability as you watch these two McDonald's commercials:

Why do you think McDonald's remade this commercial using LeBron James and Dwight Howard?

But it isn't just athletes that give ethos to McDonald's, especially in Japan.

In both sets of McDonald's commercials, the hamburger chain uses ethos in very different ways. How is McDonald's using ethos in each case?

If you were an advertising executive, who would you perceive to be your target market and where would you position these sets of ads?

The Trouble with "I"

2011-12-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

Students often say their high school teachers told them to never use "I" in their papers. I'm not sure I agree, but the problem for high school teachers may be an annoying inundation of "I" constructions, "I think this" and "I believe that" coupled with the uninformed "I" analysis written by teenagers who have been told that they are "entitled to their own opinion." Well, that's just fine, as long as it is an informed opinion and not just an opinion based on some tingling nerve ending.

But is using "I" really bad?

In the Spring 2011 issue of Inside English Charles Hood of Antelope Valley College asks "Why do Students use "I" Appropriately in Speech and Yet so Badly in Papers?" Here are four kinds of student "I" uses that he found ineffective:

The Invisible Man I. That is, there is no human agency in the paper; instead sentences (often fragments) appear out of the ether, passively imply some situation or potential action, then disappear, never to be owned or directed by any named source of potency.

The inane I. "I think Elvis was a famous singer." You don't think this, everybody thinks this.

The Narcissists' I. "This is my paper. In this paper I will do such and such. I have thought about this a lot and I have a lot of sources. I will then do such and such." As Hood remarks, "Just Do It."

The Shoot Yourself in the Foot I. AKA honesty is not always the best policy. Those I-voice papers that (in essence) reveal that the author hates books, did no homework, and has zero interest in the topic at hand. They often start out: "I don't like English."

So what should a student do?

Hood recommends a "nuanced, logical application of I . . . . It is okay to use [I] if it is a vital part of the thing that is being discussed." Furthermore, he believes students should "step forward and sing," while instructors listen to student voices.

Students need to be able to take a chance with their informed "I" opinions. But something students should keep in mind, is that the overuse of any word or construction is annoying to any reader. Think about it? If you had to read paper after paper where every other sentence began with "I", you'd get annoyed too. So don't weaken your argument by inserting yourself with twenty "I"s on a page. Remember, you are writing college papers to make a point -- your point -- so, use a strong "I" where appropriate.

"The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone." ~Henrik Ibsen

School House Rock: Nouns

2011-12-21T10:23:00.001-08:00

Here's the next installment of School House Rock--this time in a country western song about nouns. For the rest of the day you'll be singing "Every person, place, or thing that you can know, ya know their nouns."

But there is a lot more to nouns than just concrete people, animals, places, or things. It is also abstract ideas. Here's a larger explanation of nouns from the University of Ottawa.

Proper Nouns
You always write a proper noun with a capital letter, since the noun represents the name of a specific person, place, or thing. The names of days of the week, months, historical documents, institutions, organizations, religions, their holy texts and their adherents are proper nouns.
     Last year, Jaime had a Baptist and a Buddhist as roommates.

Common Nouns
A common noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general sense -- usually, you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins a sentence. A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun.
     All the gardens in the neighborhood were invaded by beetles this summer.

Concrete Nouns
A concrete noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A concrete noun is the opposite of a abstract noun.
     Whenever they take the dog to the beach, it spends hours chasing waves.

Abstract Nouns
An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you cannot perceive through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun.
     Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp.

Countable Nouns
A countable noun (or count noun) is a noun with both a singular and a plural form, and it names anything (or anyone) that you can count.
     Miriam found six silver dollars in the toe of a sock.

Non-Countable Nouns
A non-countable noun (or mass noun) is a noun which does not have a plural form, and which refers to something that you could (or would) not usually count.
     The furniture is heaped in the middle of the room.

Collective Nouns
A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as a whole is generally as one unit.
     The class was startled by the bursting light bulb.

I bet you never knew there were so many kinds of nouns. Think you've go it? How about a quiz? Try this one from Interlink Language Centers.

Top Five Résumé Mistakes

2011-12-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

Your résumé is your first impression. It should be tailored to fit every potential employer. It says, "This is my best work," which won't get you far if you make these mistakes.

1. Typos/Grammar mistakes
Many companies cull the résumé herd by round filing those with misspelled words or blatant grammar mistakes. So double check it, better yet, get someone to proofread it.

2. Weird Blog or Social Networking site
For some industries, a blog presence is a must. So if you are listing your blog on your résumé, make sure it isn't called, "IH8MyBoss.com". While most people don't list their Facebook page on their résumé, most companies will Google you. It is a cheap way to check on potential employees (and, no, it is not illegal). If you don't want your parents or siblings to see your Facebook page, you need to update it ASAP!

3. Lying
Why isn't this number 1? Because first you'll be Googled, and then it will take some phone calls to verify your employment or educational history, so do NOT embellish job experience or schooling. Do NOT lie about your skills. Do NOT create a fake company with a friend who is your reference (the laughing in the back ground always gives this away).

4. Incorrect/Inappropriate Contact Information
Seriously? Need I explain? Make sure that you check and update your phone and email information. If your email address is "yourfacebites@gmail.com" or "ilovesexonthebeach@yahoo.com" change it.

5. Weird hobbies
Everyone is entitled to do whatever they want on their free time, but some hobbies are weirder than others. Here's a sampling of weird but true hobbies that you probably shouldn't list on your résumé: playing dead and then photographing it, appearing in the background on live television, collecting ecstasy pills, and suing people/companies.

Every time you send out your résumé, read it for accuracy and then check it against the job qualifications of a potential employer. There may be some things you need to adjust or add.

Happy Job Hunting!

School House Rock: Subjects and Predicates

2011-12-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

As a kid, Saturday morning included not only Scooby Doo cartoons, but also School House Rock, cartoons with catchy phrases to help kids learn grammar, U.S. History, math, and science. What better way to learn grammar than to get some crazy tune stuck in your head?

First, watch The Tale of Mr. Morton. Believe me, you'll be humming this until bedtime.

Next, an explanation of Subjects and Predicates from the University of Ottawa.

"Every complete sentence contains two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about the subject. In the following sentences, the predicate is enclosed in brackets { }.

     Judy {runs}.
     Judy and her dog {run on the beach every morning}.

To determine the subject of a sentence, first isolate the verb and then make a question by placing "who?" or "what?" before it -- the answer is the subject.

     The audience littered the theater floor with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn.

The verb in the above sentence is "littered." Who or what littered? The audience did. "The audience" is the subject of the sentence. The predicate (which always includes the verb) goes on to relate something about the subject: what about the audience? It "littered the theater floor with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn."

Think you've got it? Great! Click here for an extra credit quiz on subject and verb agreement.

Formatting College Papers

2011-12-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

What should your professor notice about your paper format? NOTHING!

The only time your professor will notice something about your paper's format is when you don't bother following standard college level formatting, or you do something creative--teachers interpret this as strange or just plain wrong. This tells the professor you cannot follow instructions and leaves them wondering what other instructions you didn't bother following. The last thing you want to do is get your professor in a bad mood when he or she has a red pen in their hand.

There are two basic styles of papers used in college classrooms; one is the APA style (American Psychological Association), and the other is MLA (Modern Language Association). The APA style is used in science classrooms, so if you're going for a Bachelor of Science degree, you'll most likely being using this format (click here for a sample APA paper). If you plan on receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, you'll most likely be using MLA (click here for a sample MLA paper). Most professors will let you know what style they want you to use, and most think you already know what they are talking about when they refer to MLA or APA style.

Since I teach English composition, my students always use MLA - although I will let science majors use APA, so they can get plenty of practice.

Some general rules of thumb:
* Use plain white paper
* Use 1-inch margins
* Use the normal heading (see sample and note that some teachers modify headings for different assignments)
* Make sure your last name is contained in the page number on EACH page
* Double space
* Typefaces: Ariel is fatter than Times New Roman, so it uses up more page space

Some pet peeves:
* Type up and print (or email) all out-of-class work. Do NOT turn in any handwritten assignments.
* Do NOT use extra spaces between headers and titles, titles and the first paragraph, and between paragraphs
* Do NOT use text messaging language ANYWHERE
* Capitalize "I" (no i - see above about text messaging)
* When you think you are done, go back and read the paper's instructions, then modify or correct any deficiencies or mistakes

Once you start writing college papers, these rules will become second nature. Run off the sample paper(s) and keep them in the front of your notebook so you can refer to them if needed.

CSEUB - We're Broke, So Let's Keep Hiring

2011-12-10T11:05:00.001-08:00

According to a CSUEB December 2011 Communique, the following positions were filled:

July 2011
Student services professional I, Planning and Enrollment Management
Administrative support coordinator, University Advancement
Lieutenant, University Police Department
Interim president, President’s Office
Interim vice president, Administration and Finance

August 2011
Information technology consultant, User Support Services
Head track coach, Intercollegiate Athletics
Student services professional III, Student life and Leadership
Student services professional III, Accessibility Services
Interim associate vice president, Human Resources

September 2011
Instructional support tech, Nursing
Assistant water polo coach, Intercollegiate Athletics
Interim director, Center for STEM Education
Track coaching assistant, Intercollegiate Athletics
Administrative analyst, Academic Senate
Registered nurse, Student Health Services
Assistant baseball coach, Intercollegiate Athletics
Director, Server Operations Services
Assistant softball coach, Intercollegiate Athletics
Assistant baseball coach, Intercollegiate Athletics
Athletic trainer, Intercollegiate Athletics
Head baseball coach, Intercollegiate Athletics
Administrative support coordinator, Continuing and International Education
Student services professional II, Nursing
Associate vice president, Information Technology Applications and Support

October 2011
Interim director of Campus Information Services, Administrative Applications
Administrative support coordinator, College of Education and Allied Studies
Student services professional I, Planning and Enrollment Management

Let's tally up the score:
7 - Administrators
11 - Administrative staff
1 - Medical staff
1 - Police staff
8 - Athletic and coaching staff, and

ZERO - Instructors

While CSUEB has hired 28 new people, it doesn't seem to be educating anybody. It seems to have managed to hire even more administrators to manage their way into, err, I mean out of, the current fiscal mess. Salary information for these positions is unavailable. Plus we must have some great sports teams!

Go Pioneers!

The Grinch who Sells Christmas

2011-12-07T09:58:00.001-08:00

I received the cutest Holiday e-card, reminding me there isn't a child alive (not even a puppy) who can stay awake long enough to greet Santa.

Unfortunately, it reminded me of this year's Best Buy commercials dissing Santa--who it seems is only good enough to leave presents for dogs!?

Today, we can understand Scrooge's "Bah! Humbug!" due to the dread everyone feels by the prospect of being mauled at the mall. We forget Scrooge's visitations by the ghosts of Christmas, ghosts who defrosted his cold heart with visions of those less fortunate.

Christmas is a time of innocent awe - children waking their parents at the crack of dawn to see what presents Santa left. When giving is better than receiving and thoughtful gifts are better than $1000 flat screen TVs. Christmas is about families getting together to make ornaments and cookies or working at the local food bank and being thankful. It is not supposed to be a stress-ridden orgy of shopping where children are disappointed by every present and parents need a vacation, or more likely, have to work overtime to pay off all the credit card debt they racked up.

And now we have devolved to dissing Santa, the very essence of childhood wonder, by making Christmas a full contact sport.

Game on, Santa? No. Game over, Best Buy.

CSU Budget Woes Redux

2011-11-20T08:05:00.001-08:00

From the Chancellor's Office:

Your tuition is going up again!

That's right. At the board meeting, held the week before Thanksgiving 2011, the CSU Board of Trustees approved a $498 per year undergraduate tuition increase, effective fall 2012.

Here's some of the other highlights from the CSUEB University Communique:

*The CSU Board of Trustees adopted the 2012-13 budget

*The CSU Board requests state lawmakers provide an additional $333 million in funding.

*Approximately $64 million in revenue would come from tuition fee revenues associated with enrollment growth of 5 percent (approx 20,000 students)

*Tuition for full time undergraduates would rise to $5,970 from $5472 in fall 2012.

*Approximately 45 percent of the CSU's undergraduates would not pay the tuition fee increase due to grants or aid. According to cappex.com 63 percent of CSUEB students receive financial aid.

*Households earning $70,000 or less qualify for financial aid.

It has been reported by Fox that "The increase will be on top of a 12 percent tuition hike that took effect this school year, and a 9 percent increase that was imposed in 2010."

It seems ridiculous for the Chancellor's office to pin its budget hopes on the magnanimity of state lawmakers to "provide an additional $333 million in funding." Since there is virtually no chance that California will give any more money to the CSU system, this sounds like the CSU Board of Trustees is passing the buck.

Is it really true that 45 percent of the CSU student body pays nothing in tuition, so they won't be impacted by the tuition increase? Well, then who will be impacted by the tuition hike? Obviously, parents and students who are paying their college tuition bill, along with the taxpayers. If you have a job, you are a taxpayer - look at your paycheck stub.

If you are one of the students who pay nothing, would you be willing to pay $25 per quarter? The CSU currently educates approximately 412,000 students and if 45 percent of them are on financial aid that would raise $4,635,000 per quarter (412,000 students X 45% X $25) or $13,905,000 annually (3 semesters). While this is a long way from budget gap of $333 million, it's a start.

How about a progressive tuition plan? Student tuition could be based on family earnings, people who earn more would pay more.

How will you be impacted by this next round of tuition increases? If you were in charge, how would you raise revenues and lower costs in the California State University system?

RateMyProfessor.com Research Study

2011-11-19T07:45:00.001-08:00

The Chronicle of Higher Ed published an article entitled, "Researchers RateMyProfessors, and Find It Useful, if not Chili-Pepper Hot." The research "suggests the popular service is a more useful barometer of instructor quality than you might think, at least in the aggregate. And the study, the latest of several indicating RateMyProfessors should not be dismissed, raises questions about how universities should deal with a site whose ratings have been factored into Forbes magazine's college rankings and apparently even into some universities' personnel evaluations."

Another study cited in the article, "concluded that the site's evaluations 'closely matched students' real-life concerns about the quality of instruction in the classroom.The paper added, 'While issues such as personality and appearance did enter into the postings, these were secondary motivators compared to more salient issues such as competence, knowledge, clarity, and helpfulness.'"

Professor Comments

Professors, like the one pictured at left, can get a bit squirrelly when it comes to criticism. Some cherry-picked examples from the Chronicle's article:

"The only way such anonymous online "evals" might actually earn some credibility is if we knew the grade and GPA of the student doing the posting . . . too much opportunity for payback against the prof." Huh? What only smart students will give valid evaluations? Hmmm . . . is that an oxymoron? (Use your dictionary app)!

Here's another: "The lemming response is also a strong biasing factor. A student's remarks about a professor will often be swayed by previous comments made by other students." Students are lemmings? (Use your dictionary app)! It's not a compliment.

And finally,

When discussing voluntary response samples and web polls in my stats class, I show RateMyProfessor on the projector screen, have the students pick a state, pick a school from that state, and pick a teacher from that school. I ask if anyone knows the teacher. Assuming my students are honest, I never use a teacher we know. Then I rate them as helpful, clear, hard and always hot. For the course I put in something like 'intro 101'.

The students laugh along until I click on "submit". Then a shocked silence fills the room as they realize that I really submitted the rating and it's now a permanent part of the web site.

It's a far more effective lesson on web poll validity than any lecture I could give (and it takes less time).

All I can say, I hope he never "picks" me.

The Weird Factors

Weird Factor No. 1. In this time of fiscal crisis, paid college researchers are spending our hard-earned money researching "RateMyProfessor"? Shouldn't they be researching things like, oh I don't know, which professions and what markets will be viable once students graduate?

Weird Factor No. 2. This is the FOURTH academic study of RateMyProfessor.com by an institution of higher learning. AYK? See Weird Factor No. 1.

Weird Factor No. 3. Professors? Chili-Pepper-Hot? Weird.

Weird Factor No. 4. According to The Chronicle's article (and professor comments) you would think that none of these professors ever deign to look at their rating. In the infamous words of Mel Brooks (look him up on Wikipedia), "C'mon you do it, you know you do it. Everybody does it! I just did it and I'm ready to do it again!"

Yes, I have to admit I just looked at my rating.

Do you use RateMyProfessor.com or some other website to make class choices? Do you think taxpayers should continue to fund studies like those mentioned?

CSU Budget Woes

2011-11-18T11:40:00.001-08:00

Students at CSU don't have to be told that their dollar isn't going as far as it used to when it comes to obtaining a college education.

For a larger image click here.

According to this graphic, student tuition has risen 106 percent since 1998. Full-time faculty salaries are down 10 percent while administration pay is up 20 to 23 percent.

Full-time versus Part-time

Most would assume an institution of higher learning would be made up of full-time teachers, but according to the CSU, in 2010 only 35 percent of full-time employees are faculty. In raw numbers the CSU employs 11,227 full-time faculty (teachers) and 20,459 full-time executives/administrators, secretaries, paraprofessionals, skilled crafts persons, and maintenance workers.

But the CSU also employs 11,198 part-time employees and most of them are your teachers: in fact, 9,701. Just 1,497 part-timers make up the ranks of the administration and support staff.

In other words, part-time instructors make up 23 percent of the CSU work force, while only 4 percent of administrators, clerical, other professionals, etc. are part-time workers.

Compensation

According to a 2007 San Francisco Chronicle article, CSU Chancellor "Reed's annual salary of $362,500 would grow to $377,000 under his proposal. Since becoming chancellor in 1998, Reed also has been provided with a state-owned residence as well as a $30,000-a-year retirement supplement from the CSU Foundation." He got the raise and then promptly said the CSU could not afford to give any others.

Full-time lecturers averaged $59,253 in 2010. There are 1,710 employed throughout the CSU system.

Your teachers, part-time lecturers (9,120), averaged $48,706 in 2010. This figure is a full-time equivalent, so very few, if any, of your teachers earned this amount. Figures from the Office of the Chancellor.

Enough is Enough?

So what was the recent one day strike about? According to the California Faculty Association, "Twice Chancellor Reed has insisted that faculty not see a penny of the salary increases negotiated for 2008/09 and 2009/10. Two different neutral fact-finders . . . have recommended that faculty receive some of these increases. But Reed does not care. It has come as no surprise that the Chancellor is now insisting on take-backs."

Where does the money go?

According to the CSU, 84 percent of its budget is spent on salaries for 43,000 employees. Of that 30.4 percent is spent on the 20,928 campus instructors and 30.5 percent is given to the 21,956 administrators, secretaries, executives, plant, fiscal operations, etc.

Most of the budget is spent on people, but 25% of the budget is allocated to "institutional support (fundraising, general administration, fiscal operations, information technology, etc.), operation and management of plant (including energy costs), public service and applied research."

Cost savings and budget cuts

In order to save money, there were furloughs in 2009-2010 and cuts to student enrollment.

CSUEB saved money by investing in solar technology. "The university's solar electric system is estimated to generate 1.45 million kilowatt hours of electricity . . . During peak periods such as summer months the system provides 30 percent of the university's energy needs, saving about $200,000 a year in energy costs."

But when it comes to budget cuts, the CSU is keeping all its options open "including enrolling fewer students in the upcoming academic year and reducing administrative costs while placing a priority on direct instruction and faculty class offerings." But nothing is certain. "By June 1 the CSU will recommend budget options for public review and comment prior to adoption of a budget implementation plan."

This is our school. I have been furloughed and have seen class size double, but it's your education, where should money be spent? Where should funding be cut?

Top 5 Grammar and Spelling Mistakes that Make you Look DUMB

2011-11-15T08:30:00.001-08:00

Every life has its bmups, errr, I mean bumps, but don't let these basic grammar and spelling mistakes be one of them.

One of these errors on a resume can cost you a job. Already have a job? Well, these blunders used often enough in emails or other interoffice communications will keep you on the bottom rung of the ladder.

Leslie Ayers at Free Republic offers seven grammar and spelling mistakes that will make you looks stupid.

Here is Leslie's top 4:

You're / Your
The apostrophe means it's a contraction of two words; "you're" is the short version of "you are" (the "a" is dropped), so if your sentence makes sense if you say "you are," then you're good to use you're. "Your" means it belongs to you, it's yours.

* You're = if you mean "you are" then use the apostrophe
* Your = belonging to you
Correct Example: You're going to love your new job!

It's / Its
This one is confusing, because generally, in addition to being used in contractions, an apostrophe indicates ownership, as in "Dad's new car." But, "it's" is actually the short version of "it is" or "it has." "Its" with no apostrophe means belonging to it.

* It's = it is
* Its = belonging to it
Correct Example: It's important to remember to bring your telephone and its extra battery.

They're / Their / There
"They're" is a contraction of "they are." "Their" means belonging to them. "There" refers to a place (notice that the word "here" is part of it, which is also a place – so if it says here and there, it's a place).

* There = a place
* They're = they are
* Their = belonging to them
Correct Example: They're going to miss their teachers when they leave there.

A lot / Alot / Allot
First the bad news: there is no such word as "alot."

* A lot = a place, like a lot of empty land OR* A lot= an abundant quantity
*Allot= to distribute or parcel out.
Correct Example: There is a lot of confusion about this one, so I'm going to allot ten minutes to review these rules of grammar.

For purposes of college usage avoid using "a lot" to mean abundant. Instead use abundant, plentiful, or large in number.

And number FIVE:

Choosing the incorrect word from Spell Checker.
You've written the sentence, "I am a very fsat typist" in a cover letter attached to your resume. Spell check pops up offering >fast, fat, first. In haste you choose, "fat" making your sentence read, "I am a very fat typist" - meaning large, not phat.

So while you have chosen a correctly spelled word, you've chosen the wrong one. To solve this problem, pay close attention and proofread EVERYTHING before you hit "send" or "print."

Three of these common grammar mistakes deal with contractions, so avoid using contractions and you will eliminate some basic errors.

Can you come up with your own correct examples using one or two of these five basic grammar and spelling errors?

2nd Annual O'Keefe Prize for Graphic Literature

2011-10-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

The English and Art Departments of Diablo Valley College are accepting entries for the 2nd Annual O'Keefe Prize for Graphic Literature--a contest highlighting the best in comics art and writing.

Prizes include $$$$$, a comics prize pack, and publication for the DVC student body.

To enter submit a draft of your graphic essay by November 21, 2011. If you are creating a comic for class, this is the perfect opportunity to not only get a great grade, but also get some recognition and professional feedback. After submitting a draft, you will receive advice from professional writers and artists about how to make your graphic essay even better.

So let your creativity soar and pull out those colored pencils, crayons, paints, and cameras. For more information go to: jamesokeefeprize.blogspot.com.

For a peek at the last year's winner, check out "A Prayer for Uganda" by Lizbeth Brown.

Five Ways to Screw up Your Life with the Internet

2011-09-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I used to announce to students that they had to do a social networking project where they had to publish something relevant to whatever we were studying on their Facebook page and then share it with the class.

Wait for it . . .

About 30 seconds after this announcement, some students would go white, others would start to fidget, while still others looked like their head was about to blow off. Here's what they were thinking, "I have to show my Facebook page to my professor?!@#$"

So think about that. If you wouldn't want your parents or siblings looking at your Facebook page, you need to do some adjusting ASAP!

What? You don't care what your professor or relatives think?

Think about this. When you apply for your dream job, your prospective employer is going to Google you and if your latest post features you in a sexually explicit pose chugging a bottle of tequila, well, guess who isn't going to get the job?

Pajamas media just published a list of the Five Ways to Screw up Your Life with the Internet

1. Upload naked pictures and videos.
Seriously, Anthony Weiner is a former U.S. Representative because he uploaded stupid pics of himself (see above).

2. Have a political blog and a stupid boss.
Seriously. See rule 4, below.

3. Put too much trust in people you don't know.
Yeah, don't move across country to marry your dream guy, he's probably a nightmare.

4. Post something you're not comfortable with EVERYONE seeing.
Remember, that rule about writing essays - don't write about something you don't want everyone to know. Well, the same thing applies to the internet, magnified about a billion times.

5. Let the Internet eat up your life.
People have died--especially, it seems, while playing World of Warcraft.

And oh, I'm not going to ask what dumb things you've put up on your social networking site. But if you're thinking, "I need to go clean up my Facebook page," get to it!

Quit Procrastinating!

2011-09-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

Instead of correcting that stack of rough drafts, or doing my lesson plans, or updating my roll sheets, I decided I really need to do a blog post about New School Year's Resolutions. Suddenly, I discovered I have a tendency to procrastinate and then began scouring YouTube for procrastination videos. After a few Google searches and twenty minutes, I decided the following YouTube video is my favorite:

Then, I spent another twenty minutes Googling "procrastination strategies" and these two seemed like good ideas.

1. Get organized - make a list of what you have to do and prioritize it. I know when I feel overwhelmed by work if I figure out what I should get done first, then second, and third, it helps me feel a little less stressed and actually get something done. However, only do this once because listing can also be a great procrastinating technique.

2. Fear of failure leads to procrastination. Face it, everybody fails sometime. Just take the plunge and get it over with. I bet you'll do just fine.

Which got me thinking about how to avoid procrastinating when it comes to writing papers.

3. Putting off that paper because you don't know how to start. Start in the middle. Start with something you know you want to include, which leads me to . . .

4. Write essays in chunks. Instead of freaking out about the big picture, look at the component parts and start with those (especially the ones that you think will be easy). Starting easy usually leads to clarity on the harder bits.

5. Break your time into manageable chunks. Don't try to write that paper at one sitting. First of all, it will stink and secondly, as a procrastinator, you'll put it off. Write in twenty minute segments then . . .

6. Set aside time to procrastinate. Take a break. Give yourself ten to fifteen minutes to eat, walk your dog, and check your email.

7. While writing or studying, turn OFF your cell phone and make a promise not to check your Facebook page, twitter account, or email.

So students, don't follow my bad example, procrastinating will lead to headaches, sweating through stacks at the last minute, and an occasional mis-corrected quiz. Well, in your case an F on a test (Yes, that's bad).

What is your favorite form of procrastination? How would you resolve to get yourself ahead of the game?While "There's always tomorrow," that paper was due by noon today.

Extraordinary Analysis

2011-09-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Writing a critical analysis is often tricky for college freshman. Instead of writing high school book reports filled with plot summary and description, they are now compelled to write beyond the text -- to "stick his or her neck out." John Trimble reminds writers that "The critic's job is to explain and evaluate--that is, to bring his readers to a better understanding of his subject". But what does that mean?

It means you need a top notch thesis statement. Sometimes it's easier to understand what a critical analysis is by looking at examples of good topic questions.

Here again Trimble gives some good examples:
"How is Hamlet like Horatio--and unlike him?"
or "How does King Claudius win over the enraged Laertes?"

If you think of comic books like any other piece of literature including Hamlet, you can come up with good topic questions that will lead to a great thesis statement.

If we look at Trimble's examples and apply them to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, writers can create topic questions like:

How is Captain Nemo like The Invisible Man--and unlike him?
or how does Mina Murray win over the enraged Mr. Hyde?

The key is to ask how and why questions, questions that can't be answered with a simple "yes" or "no."

Questions like, how is Captain Nemo a science pirate?

In addition to reasoned arguments, graphic novels and comics offer writers another resource for evidence--visuals can also be used to back up thesis statements.

What other how and why topic questions would you ask as a prelude to a critical analysis of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

9/11 is a time to reflect.

9/11 was the worst terrorist attack inflicted on civilians of the United States of America. Innocent men, women, and children died when the Twin Towers fell.

9/11 remembrances can be personal like those who got tattoos, tattoos ranging from remembrances of that terrible day, to remembrances of family and co-workers killed.

9/11 leads some to their local fire departments to leave flowers or attend candlelight vigils. Others go to religious services.

9/11 led our nation to build a national memorial on ground zero where so many lost their lives. Two 7-story waterfalls spill into the base of each missing Twin Tower and "nearly 3,000 names of the men, women, and children killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 are inscribed in bronze on parapets surrounding the twin Memorial pools."

How do you remember those who died on 9/11?

Extraordinary Rhetoric

2011-09-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

Writers, politicians, advertisers and graphic novelists all use rhetoric in the same way--to persuade you to do something, believe something, or buy something. To bring readers and/or viewers, around to their way of thinking.

Creators can rely on ethos (or authority) to get their message across. When the president gives a speech we listen - he is an authority. In the same way, advertisers often use celebrities to sell products. If I buy Kim Kardashian's makeup, I'll look as great as she does because she's an expert at looking good. There are also experts In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where a "menagerie" has been brought together to save the British Empire--all because they have some ethos, as strange as it may be.

Often times you will see advertisements that offer proof that a product works, or statistics that report customer satisfaction. These are appeals to logic or logos. If studies show that 99 percent of people using XYZ toothpaste have whiter teeth, then it's only logical that you buy XYZ toothpaste because everybody wants whiter teeth.

Writers can also use pathos to convince viewers to do something, want something, or buy something. Those commercials that show poor, pathetic dogs and cats waiting at the shelter for a new home make viewers feel sorry for homeless pets--they want to adopt one, or better yet, they send money to those shelters. Consumers can also end up buying products because a television commercial shows what an exciting life you'll have if you buy that new car, plus you'll increase your popularity--and social standing. How about products that show happy, loving families sitting around the dinner table eating McDonald's, Swanson Fried Chicken, Ragu spaghetti, or Round Table pizza? These advertisers are all appealing to your emotions.

According to Stuart Hirschberg in "The Rhetoric of Advertising," consumers are often sucked in by "scenes emanating security and warmth, which the ad invited us to remember as if it were our own past." These kind of "ads thus supply us with false memories and invite us to insert ourselves into this imaginary past and to remember it as if it were our own." Creators of comic books do the same thing.

In the photo above members of The League are gathered around a dinner table. Remnants of the meal are visible and many of the members are having an after dinner smoke. Look at this "family" and think about how the creator is trying to get you--the reader--to insert yourself into this scene. How is your family like the League? Do you have an invisible cousin? A crazy uncle? A bossy aunt? A wanderlust second cousin, once removed? Are you trying to prepare a meal for vegetarians, vegans, and/or people that have a gluten-free diet? What do your family dinners look like and how does Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill use ethos, logos, and especially pathos to invite you into their book?

Visualizing The Price of Pot

2011-09-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Inforporn: The Price of Pot by Cameron Bird at Wired (September 2011).

Click here for the full graphic and article.

Read Think b4 u Write is always attracted to articles and essays with pretty pictures, and while this graphic is nice looking it accompanies an article about the disparities of marijuana laws in the United States.

The graphic displays fluctuations in pricing: the darker the green the cheaper the marijuana ($92 per ounce), while yellow tips the scale at $526 per ounce. The red and purple bars record fines and jail time, and the red cross indicates a medical marijuana state.

In part the article reads, "The US is still of two minds on marijuana: While 16 states now consider it a medicine, others continue to hand down heavy sentences—including jail time—for simple possession."

Do you think this is an effective graphic? Why or why not? Where do you stand on this issue? Should marijuana be legalized? Or should it be illegal? Or is there some compromise? What are your ideas?

Video Essay: Defining Hipsters

2011-08-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

An approved topic for the Regent's exam is to "discuss a stereotype that you once believed but that later proved inaccurate." Stereotyping is defined as "a generalization about a group of people whereby we attribute a defined set of characteristics to this group based on their appearance or our assumptions."

Stereotypes are definitions - we define a certain group by their "group" actions, or perceived group actions by using extended definitions. But are stereotypes always bad? Sometimes we use stereotypes to help us quickly identify and make sense of the world around us. They allow us to make predictions about what to expect from those stereotypes. It costs us relatively little psychologically, we don't have to deal with, or don't have to modify our behavior, because we know how those stereotyped are going to act. But most of all, they are beliefs that are shared, otherwise we wouldn't stereotype in the first place. So stereotypes are superficial, giving us just enough material to get us into some serious trouble. When we let assumptions, or stereotypes, rule our behavior that is when we can get into difficulties.

But we love to laugh at stereotypes . . .

According to Andy Fram at James Madison University's breezejmu "Most people fit stereotypes to some degree. There used to be plausible credibility for denying such horrible accusations. You used to be able to say, 'I wasn't any stereotype. I definitely wasn't a bro, I sure as hell wasn't no smelly hippie, I was my own person.' But then they invented hipsters and you couldn't get away with that anymore."

College humor offers us a definitional visual essay of Hipsters.

So why is it okay to laugh at this stereotype? Is it because Hipsters self-identify as such, because they cultivate the Hipster brand/look?

Another common college essay prompt asks students to "Write an essay in which you define yourself in terms of your race or ethnicity." Does this mean that stereotypes are valid, or unoffensive, if they are autobiographical; when we are asked to define ourselves because of our heritage, family, or community?

We form stereotypes when we run across a broad sample of specific behavior, or presentations of such. Do you think the media has some responsibility for the stereotypes we share? (Remember it takes a whole society to make sense of stereotypes).

When are stereotypes useful? When are they hurtful? Do you think the stereotyped Hipster will prove inaccurate, or do you think it is something those Hipsters are proud of? Can you think of other stereotypes that people are proud of? Can you define yourself based on some stereotype you are proud of?

Video Essay: Classifying and Dividing College Roomates

2011-08-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Students are often asked to write Classification/Division essays that either break apart a whole into parts (Division), or sort items into categories (Classification). A popular prompt for this assignment is to classify roommates into categories - as does this video from www.collegehumor.com.

See all the CollegeHumor Original Videos here.

The video essay takes the broad category of Roommates and then subdivides it into Monsters. From there it divides monstrous roommates into six different kinds from "The Robot" to "The Zombie."

How would you classify your former or current roommates? Can you think of a broad category of roommates (like monsters) and then subdivide it further?

Debt, Red Herrings, and the Church of Global Warming

2011-08-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

James Taranto wrote a column in The Wall Street Journal on the Anti-debt ceiling Republicans that wound up at the global warming issue, an issue that has divided people. An issue that has removed the lens from such environmental disasters as drought-driven famine in Somalia to indigenous cooking fires which "Kill a million and a half people and nobody gives a damn. But become a part of this big climate thing and everyone comes knocking on your door," at least that's what Burkhard Bilger reports in "Hearth Surgery" from The New Yorker, but I digress . . .

James Taranto, a conservative writer, reports that liberals believe, “Some of the congressional Republicans who are preventing action to help the economy are simply intellectual primitives who reject modern economics on the same basis that they reject Darwin and climate science.

"Darwin is a red herring here. Although disparaging people for holding harmless religious beliefs as 'intellectual primitives' is awfully uncivil, we agree . . . that people who 'reject' the theory of natural selection are mistaken."

In argumentation a red herring is a fallacy where an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. So how is Darwin a red herring when it comes to economics? Read on . . .

Taranto goes on to say, "But the comparison between Keynesian economics and global warmism is on target. Both are liberal dogmas disguised, increasingly thinly, as science. Both are supported by circular logic, and thus lack falsifiability, a necessary characteristic of a scientific theory. If the weather gets warmer, that's because of global warming; if it gets colder, that's 'climate change' and proves the theory too. Had unemployment stayed below 8%, as the Obama administration promised it would, that would have proved the 'stimulus' worked; since it peaked at 10% and has held steady above 9%, that proves the stimulus wasn't big enough. Heads I win, tails you lose.”

Here Taranto mentions another logical fallacy--circular reasoning. A circular argument restates the same problem in a different way, such as, "The roads are congested because too many people are driving." Can you see the circle in Taranto's presentation about the debt debate?

A recent article in the The Chronicle of Higher Ed by Laurie Fendrich begins by saying, "I argued that because the majority of the Republican Party is against basic science, the time has come 'for people who are educated to boldly stop pretending that being a Republican is a viable option for an educated person.'" She goes on to connect "global-warming deniers" to the debt crisis. When studying perceived media bias think about why pundits choose certain labels. Obviously, "global-warming deniers" is a reference to "Holocaust-deniers," people who believe that the Holocaust never happened. But it was the vitriol of Professor Fendrich's opinion piece that caught my attention and reminded me of something Freeman Dyson wrote in the foreword to The Best Science and Nature Writing of 2010.

"Environmentalism has now replaced Marxism as the leading secular religion of our age. Environmentalism as a religious movement, with a mystical reverence for nature and a code of ethics based on responsible human stewardship of the planet is already strong and is likely to grow stronger."

Prof. Fendrich's piece reminds one of those "hell fire and brimstone" preachers of old. In the case of climate change, maybe she should consider why there are skeptics in the first place? As the global warming religion heats up, some are skeptical of prophets who profit, such as Al Gore who left office a relative pauper and now lives in splendor with digs in Nashville, Arlington, and Malibu after garnering a Nobel Prize and Academy Award for global warming projects.

Fendrich and Taranto are ideologically opposed, one is a liberal and the other a conservative, so don't expect them to agree. When you begin writing arguments, remember to avoid fallacies and address counterarguments. Yes, you must respond to counterarguments and you should do so in a respectful and logical manner, no matter how "stupid" you think the opposing side.

Visualizing Debt

2011-07-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Visuals are the way most of us receive information and good visuals can be very powerful.

U.S. Debt Problem Visualized

That's $100,000,000, yep, One Hundred Million Dollars in $100 dollar bills (the most counterfeited currency in the world) and it fits nicely on a pallet.

That's One Trillion Dollars and the caption partly reads: "If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now...but ~$700 billion- same amount the banks got during bailout." Those double stacked pallets would cover an entire football field.

That's 15 Trillion dollars . . . the amount of projected U.S. Debt by December 2011 at current rates.

"If you live in USA this is also your personal credit card bill; you are responsible along with everyone else to pay this back."

Visit USDebt.kleptocracy.us/ to see even more debt visuals including one of the U.S.'s unfunded liabilities.

U.S. National Debt Clock

Tables are a very common way to visualize data and the internet can take that a step farther by allowing visual motion. The U.S. National Debt Clock is a real-time, ever-changing running debt clock table. It is not a static data table, it constantly changes.

Here's a screen shot taken of the running U.S. National Debt Clock on July 30, 2011 at 11:40 a.m.

This visual is hard to read, but here are just three pieces of data: as of July 30, 2011 the U.S. National Debt was $14,553,695,312,277. The debt per citizen was $46,660 and the debt per taxpayer was $130,111. For a better real time visual - Click here to go to the U.S. National Debt Clock and see how those numbers have changed.

After looking at the illustrations of the "U.S. debt problem visualized", why do you think the creators made visual statements rather than just giving readers dollar figures? Why include the Statue of Liberty?

How does the U.S. National Debt clock create urgency?

How do U.S. debt visuals alter your perception about the U.S. debt? Do you find them disturbing or reassuring?

Plagiarism and the College Classroom

2011-07-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Cheating is rampant and not just in the college classroom.

Recent scandals include the Atlanta school district where hundreds (yes, hundreds) of teachers and administrators, NOT STUDENTS, changed answers on state wide tests in order for the district to look good (meaning get more money) on standardized tests.

You can blame "No Child Left Behind," for pushing up standards, but my response to those teachers who say the standardized test drove them to it: Didn't you always give tests in your classes? Of course, you did.

But I digress . . .

Great Neck, New York high school students paid to have their SAT tests taken by others with fake IDs and handwriting samples - tests that cost high schoolers $1 a point, meaning some paid more than $2000 for a good SAT score.

David Wangaard and Jason Stephens in the Winter 2011 edition of Excellence and Ethics posted the results of a three-year study of academic motivation and integrity. The two researchers "surveyed over 3,600 students from six economically and ethnically diverse high schools in the northeastern United States and found ninety-five percent of these students reported engaging in at least one form of academic cheating during the past academic year. More troubling still, 57% of these students also agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, 'It is morally wrong to cheat.'"

Panagiotis Ipeirotis, a professor at NYU recently blogged about his experience with plagiarism in the college classroom "and described how crusading against cheating poisoned the class environment and therefore dragged down his teaching evaluations. They fell to a below-average range of 5.3 out of 7.0, when he used to score in the realm of 6.0 to 6.5." Mr. Ipeirotis “paid a significant financial penalty for ‘doing the right thing'."

So what did the professor do?

“'Forget about cheating detection,' [Prof. Ipeirotis] said in an interview. 'It is a losing battle.'”

What lesson can we take away from these scandals? Students know it's wrong to cheat, while professors, administrators and teachers don't want to be financially impacted by enforcing rules against plagiarism.

But what do students want?

That's what Wangaard and Stephens asked some of the students they surveyed and the number one response was: "Schools should create and enforce stricter consequences for dishonesty."

How would you control cheating in the academic setting and what do you think the consequences should be?

Envisioning Information

2011-07-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's much easier to read large collections of data in a visual format and this type of graphic data presentation is a modern phenomenon (relatively speaking). Can you imagine reading all these data points as lists of numbers? Talk about information overload . . . but like all other information you receive visually, everything is done for a reason.

Read the above data points. What has been the trend for winter temperatures in England for the last 350 years? What projections can you make from this trend?

Here's another graph of 10,000 years of global temperatures from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2.

What has been the trend for worldwide temperatures in the last 10,000 years? What projections can you make from this trend?

Here's a different presentation of the same information:

Why do you think the author highlighted certain segments of the data line? The green bars are labelled using periods of human civilization: Minoan warm period, Roman warm period, Medieval warm period, Modern warm period. Why do you suppose the author chose to use civilization labels? Why do you suppose the creator chose to use green shading rather than blue or orange shading?

What does the red line represent, and why is it red?

Why did this creator editorialize the information? In other words, why did he add different colors and labels to his presentation? Does this data confirm what you think about global temperatures? Why or why not? What predictions can you make about global temperature trends based on this data?

Should we make predictions on global temperatures based on any of these graphs? Why or why not?

Dance + Comics = Personal Mythologies

2011-07-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Art Speigelman, author of Maus a comic book about the Holocaust, collaborated with the Philobolus dance company on a project where Sunday strip characters were animated to create dancing comics.

These dancing comics resulted in a mash up of ancient and modern mythologies; where Pan and Medusa ran head on into the Sunday funnies, noir film, detective novels, and movie classics to create a personal mythology, or dream life, that presents a slightly skewed world view, all set to the tinny tunes of early jazz.

Speigelman calls this collaboration a new language, which he termed Still Moving in a short interview he gave about his collaboration with Philobolus.

In addition, Speigelman talks about stories, characters, and movies that resonate from his childhood, stories like The Wizard of Oz and characters like the early Hapless Hooligan from the Sunday funnies. What stories or characters made an impact on your childhood?

Highlights from the Philobolus world premier of Still Moving:

What makes up your personal mythology or dream life? Do you resonate with stories from classic mythology or your own religious beliefs?

Do have fond memories of Johnny Quest, Scooby Doo, or Sponge Bob? What cartoons or comics did you enjoy as a child and how do these stories impact your personality?

And the Peeps just keep on coming . . .

2011-07-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

I went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth--awesome production by the way--and it reminded me of another strangely awesome Shakespeare, or rather Shakespeep, production.

And without further ado, here's Peepeo and Juliet by Plain Jane.

>Click here for the rest of Peepeo and Juliet

A Short History of Visual Communication

2011-07-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

In argumentation, warrants or assumptions can be a tricky concept for readers and writers to grasp.

Claims are supported by evidence and warrants – those underlying beliefs or values taken for granted by bloggers, advertisers, politicians, and writers. Assumptions can come from cultural values, biological or scientific beliefs, intellectual (logical) tenets, or idiosyncratic viewpoints. In writing and visual communication some warrants (or assumptions) are explicit, but most are implied and your understanding of texts, both visual and written, relies heavily on your beliefs.

So having said all that - What does this strip remind you of?

What are some of the underlying warrants or assumptions of this strip?

Since comics often present information in a humorous way, what do you need to know in order to get the joke about visual communication? What is the joke?

The author seems to be making a prediction, what is it? Do you agree or disagree?

Is there anything, or any step, missing from this strip? If so, What?

We'll be right back, after these messages . . .

2011-07-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

When your ethos is about to be destroyed, and you can only rely on your logic to avoid the pathos of your audience, it's time to retreat - or at least that seems to be the implication here.

SPOILER ALERT: In other words, when you admit that everything you've told your fiance is a lie, the only logical thing to do to avoid his or her emotional reaction is to climb into your Range Rover and cower behind the wheel.

Message: "You'll feel safe inside."

Hmmm, I always knew there was something wrong with people who drive Range Rovers. On the other hand, it is a pretty funny commercial and the advertisers were looking for the audience to laugh.

Look at other rhetorical clues, what else were the advertisers trying to tell the audience or saying about people who drive, or would purchase, Range Rovers?

Why I Shouldn't Blog About Politics . . .

2011-07-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Political ideologues can whip trivial episodes and misstatements into a frenzy faster than a washing machine during a heavy duty spin cycle. They engage in all the fallacies we're told to avoid: false analogy (comparing health insurance to car insurance), circular arguments (terrorists don't want TSA screenings, so if you complain about airport screenings you're a terrorist), ad hominem attacks (President Obama is a fascist, socialist, etc.)--you get the idea.

Political pundits usually get everything half-right, or half-wrong, depending on which side of the aisle you sit . . . and just when you think someone is getting unduly chastised by a rabid politico along comes a politician who does something so incredibly idiotic that you just can't help wondering how they got elected in the first place.

Enter Michele Bachmann.

No, it wasn't something she said at a political rally, some over the top promise made to supporters, it was something she signed called The Marriage Vow. With its subtitle "A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family," it could be seen as just another inane promise from a conservative candidate to conservative followers, but one bullet point in the introduction (which has now been removed) read:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

As they text: AYK?

Not only is this completely insensitive, but every school student in American knows slaves had no control over their households and were not allowed to marry. Mothers, fathers, and children could be separated and sold off at the whim of their masters (and often were). Julie Summa, a spokeswoman for the Family Leader the author of the vow, responded by saying, “After careful deliberation and wise insight and input from valued colleagues we deeply respect, we agree that the statement referencing children born into slavery can be misconstrued."

Misconstrued? Again: AYK?

Michele (and Julie) dust of the dunce cap and go take a time out.

Alice in Peepland

2011-07-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Alice in Peepland is the Chicago Tribune's 2011 (People's choice) winner. What a misnomer! Of course, this is the Peeple's choice winner!

This is the Dispeep version, there's no Johnny Peep as the Mallow Hatter to scare the goo out of you. We can clearly see Alice as she waits for the Queen of Carnuba to wax the groundpeep through the Jackrabbit of Spades.

Advertising and Visual Rhetoric

2011-07-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

These days we get most of our information via visuals--television media, magazines, the internet--even newspapers have gone cyber. Go to your local newsstand and you'll find papers featuring huge photographs above the fold. Tucked inside are various pics, graphics, and charts serving up information in a visual way that can be read just like any other text.

But the best servers of visual information (or at least the most creative) are advertisers.

There's a lot to learn about rhetoric by examining how advertisers are manipulating purchasers to buy a myriad of products we may or may not need. Recently, this ad found its way to my mailbox with the caption, "Can you guess the product before the end of the commercial?"

At first I thought it was some weird take on a new HGTV home redecorating show, but since YouTube so graciously provides the product in the header it's a bit of a giveaway.

Marketers know that when the audience feels familiar with something, like The Exorcist, they will feel at ease (a bit counter intuitive in this case), while the humor makes the message stick. Dirt Devil, the most powerful vacuum EVER!

But at the end of day, it's all about sales. So when looking at the details of this TV commercial, details like setting, characters, dress, and social roles, who is going to buy this product?

Celebrate the Fourth with Another History Lesson

2011-07-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Or Conservative Women – The Best Thing to Happen to American History?

Forget Sarah Palin.

Thank you Michele Bachmann.

Congresswoman Bachmann recently said John Quincy Adams and our other founding fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery. George Stephanopoulos reminded Bachman, and all of us, that slavery didn’t end until the Civil War, so the founding fathers couldn’t have been doing much to end that peculiar institution. Stephanopoulos also schooled Bachmann on the cast of founding fathers. John Adams, yes; John Quincy Adams, no.

John Quincy Adams was the son of a founding father and the sixth president of the United States, who, after his term as president was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He railed against slavery and successfully upheld the release of a group of slaves who mutinied on the Spanish slave ship, Amistad, arguing that the Africans had been illegally detained. But he was not a founding father.

When Bachmann asserted that once immigrants arrived in the United States “everybody was the same,” Anderson Cooper reminded us, "Irish immigrants didn't feel the same walking past storefronts with signs reading 'No Irish need not apply.' Japanese Americans didn't feel the same when they were placed in internment camps during World War II. And, of course, enslaved Africans certainly didn't feel the same when they were brought here against their will." True enough.

But isn’t the “we are a nation of immigrants” line something all politicians say? “We define ourselves as a nation of immigrants – a nation that welcomes those willing to embrace America’s precepts. That’s why millions of people, ancestors to most of us, braved hardship and great risk to come here – so they could be free to work and worship and live their lives in peace. The Asian immigrants who made their way to California’s Angel Island. The Germans and Scandinavians who settled across the Midwest. The waves of the Irish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Jewish immigrants who leaned against the railing to catch that first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.” Cooper didn’t school the president when he made these remarks, and why should he? As Americans we know what President Obama and Congresswoman Bachmann meant: America is the land of opportunity.

There is not enough space in cyperspace to debate all the issues surrounding the founding fathers and slavery. Yes, there were slaveholders among them, and yes, holding one human in bondage to another is the worst stain our flag has endured. But one has to wonder if “working tirelessly” only counts when politicians accomplish something. Look at our current congress, those men and women who are working tirelessly to produce a budget and get America working again, while at the same time failing miserably.

On Independence Day Congress, like every other American, should be celebrating our independence by goofing off at the local VFW pancake breakfast, before they hunker down on the curb to watch the 4th of July parade commemorating the spirit that led our forefathers to end slavery and our ancestors to make that arduous trip to America. Tonight when you stretch out under the night sky watching the rocket’s red glare as fireworks arc overhead, remember those that worked, and those that are still working, to keep us free.

Sarah Palin: The Best Thing to Happen to American History?

2011-07-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

During the 2008 presidential election, I taught English at an institute of higher learning where the class focused on politics. What a great way for students to learn something about the presidential candidates, American history, and critical thinking. Throughout the quarter, we had lively and spirited conversations about the limitations on free speech and the press.

For the final, I asked students to analyze a political cartoon that spoofed The New York Times for releasing sensitive material. This Times was dated April 17, 1775 and displayed a drawing of the old north church with headlines that read “One if by land; two if by sea. Secret Lantern Signals of American Colonists Revealed.” The first couple of paragraphs stated that an anonymous source had revealed the “secret plan for tomorrow to warn Patriot Colonist Militia Forces of the route the English Regular Soldiers plan to take as they move their forces to Lexington and Concord.” Student essays were to focus on how political cartoons satirically criticize widely held beliefs, while at the same time considering limits (if any) on a free press. This particular political cartoon referred to a well-known event in American history—Paul Revere’s ride—but with a twist. What if these headlines had appeared in American newspapers in April 1775? How does this cartoonist’s opinion relate to the political climate of 2008?

After twenty minutes of complete silence, I asked the class of California natives, “What’s up? This isn’t a take home final.”

“Who’s Paul Revere?” they responded, en masse.

“You know. ‘Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere’? He warned the colonists about the British invading. One if by land, two if by sea?”

Blank stares. Needless to say, we engaged in an impromptu lesson about Colonial American History–with the help of Google—and students got to take their exams home. But if I gave that same exam today, would I get the same dull reaction? I doubt it.

Recently, when googling “Paul Revere’s ride” the first entry describes how politicians, namely Sarah Palin, are dumbing us down. And whether you love her or hate her, you have to hand it to the former VP candidate for single handedly saving Paul Revere’s legacy.

Were there bells going off in Palin’s head when she talked about Revere warning the British, or the British grabbing American, or rather, British subjects’ guns? How could she be so ignorant of basic American history? Apparently, it’s accidental congruence. Allison Block of NPR asked Professor Robert Allison of Suffolk University, “So Sarah Palin got her history right?”

“Well, yeah, she did. And remember, she is a politician. She's not an historian. And God help us when historians start acting like politicians, and I suppose when politicians start writing history.” Huh? Let’s for one second ignore whether Palin is correct, incorrect, practicing nuanced subtlety, or some other iteration of political maneuvering, and look at it the way Professor Allison did, “Suddenly, Sarah Palin comes to town, makes an off-the-cuff remark about what she learned, and suddenly, you're calling me to find out what I think about Paul Revere and the American Revolution.”

Is Sarah Palin some kind of evil genius?

Whether you love Palin or hate her, she is the greatest thing that has happened to American history in recent memory. One person’s comments sparked a Paul Revere history debate—on Washington Post.com there are 384 related articles about Sarah’s comments. 384! It even made it across the pond with The Telegraph headlining “Sarah Palin defends knowledge of American history.” It’s on the nightly news, the morning talk shows, the internet news, blogs, and fodder around the workplace water cooler. How cool is that? Very cool, especially for connoisseurs of American history and plain old American citizens.

What’s even better, Palin, or rather, the media does this all the time. At a Tea Party rally, Palin crowed, “Party like its 1773,” sparking outright derision from some who asked, “Doesn’t she know the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776?” She probably does, but the Boston Tea Party hit the harbor in 1773. That historical tidbit had long since departed my memory banks until Palin screwed up, errrr, I mean acted like an evil genius, or whatever plan she had in mind that day as I clicked through ten channels before learning that, ummmmm….Gwen Ifill had it wrong. Dare we admit Sarah Palin is right?

So Sarah Palin, do all Americans a favor and keep it up. We could all use the history lessons.

Spider-Peep: Turn Off the Dark

2011-06-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Washington Post Peep Show only included one comic inspired entry - well, actually, an entry inspired by a play, inspired by a movie, inspired by a comic - Spider-Peep: Turn Off the Dark.

From Playpeep: "Star clusters opening night featured the silver-maned, former Presipeep, Bill Chickton, who signed autographs creating aisle congestion not seen since the mallow filled hallways of Dance With the Vamallows.

Other P-Listers included Marshmallow Walters and Jimmy Falpeep who kibitzed with with Fran Peepowitz about Peep-knows-what. The show's tunepeeps, Molo and The Edge were squished by applause." A pip of a night! Ooops. Peep of a night!

And the Bulwer-Lytton 2010 Winner is . . .

2011-06-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

The Bulwer-Lytton worst first line contest is always good for a laugh . . . and should remind writers that sometimes (most times) more is not better.

The 2010 winner is:

"For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."
Molly Ringle
Seattle, WA

Other laughable entries are:

"When Hru-Kar, the alpha-ranking male of the silver-backed gorilla tribe finished unleashing simian hell on Lt. Cavendish, the once handsome young soldier from Her Majesty’s 47th Regiment resembled nothing so much as a crumpled up piece of khaki-colored construction paper that had been dipped in La Victoria chunky salsa."
Greg Homer
Placerville, CA

"As Holmes, who had a nose for danger, quietly fingered the bloody knife and eyed the various body parts strewn along the dark, deserted highway, he placed his ear to the ground and, with his heart in his throat, silently mouthed to his companion, 'Arm yourself, Watson, there is an evil hand afoot ahead.'"
Dennis Pearce
Lexington, KY

"In Southwestern Germany just east of the Luxemburg border and north of France where history pitted various related Hapsburg Royals against each other and the Archbishops of Trier, the Abbots of St. Maximin, various members of the nobility, and mobs of axe-bearing villagers, there stands a ruin whose building stones mostly were carted off to build other buildings."
Mary Ann R Unger
Ewing, NJ

"The Zinfandel poured pinkly from the bottle, like a stream of urine seven hours after eating a bowl of borscht."
Alf Seegert
Salt Lake City, UT

AND in honor of the Bulwer-Lytton winners and all those Peeps out there:

"The trail slimed along like mallow dripping cloudily from the bottle, past the stream where history squished Peep against Chick on the Peepsburg Plain, leaving only the sticky remains of too many rejects from the diorama contest, and as Peepchick Holmes followed the sticky trail, his peepers opened wide as he exclaimed, 'Careful, Dr. Watpeep, there is something gummy underfoot waiting to trap us in soft spongy confection.'"

Click here for the full list of 2010's Bulwer-Lytton winners.

What is your worst opening line for your favorite TV show, book, news story or comic?

Three Cups of Deceit

2011-06-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson is a bit of a staple in college classrooms, including my own. It is a poignant story of one man's struggle to help educate the girls of Afghanistan. A promise he made after being rescued by the villagers of Korphe following an unsuccessful bid to scale K-2, the world’s second highest mountain. He struggled mightily in his cause; the Taliban kidnapped and held him hostage in Waziristan and blew up the schools as fast as he could build them.

His book gave me hope for Afghanistan as it struggled against the Taliban and a purpose for our presence there. I agreed with columnist, Nicholas Kristoff, when he said, “So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration.” But it appears Kristoff and everybody else has been hoodwinked.

Yes, duped, and in the worst sort of way. Not only were Mortenson’s exploits embellished or outright lies, but he also pocketed the majority of the funds he was raising for CAI, the nonprofit outlet he created to build schools in Afghanistan. He took out full-page ads in the New York Times to promote his books and then bought them with CAI funds, while taking private jets to give lectures with paychecks of $30,000.

So, what has Mortenson accomplished? Less than nothing. It is con men like Mortenson that destroy whatever empathy people once had for Afghanistan’s plight, especially its young women, and those young women are the biggest losers in a country where the Taliban reigns.

For more on Mortenson's fall from grace, read the full story in Commentary Magazine.

Level Up Debuts with Epic Draw-Off

2011-06-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

Level Up, the newest work from writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Thien Pham, is now out, and recently the two creators set out on a promotional tour. Here's the scoop on the epic draw-off that ensued, and much more. By Dore' Ripley.

Level Up debut at Graphic Novel Reporter.

What are you reading the summer?

After Johnny Bunko . . .

2011-05-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here comes the summer with its warm weather, sunny beaches, and amusement parks. Before setting off on a long overdue vacation, think about how The Adventures of Johnny Bunko changed your view about the career world?

How will you handle changes to your plans?

Are you willing to make adjust your plan to accommodate fundamental and instrumental motives? Instead of becoming a doctor or a musician, can you see yourself working in those worlds in a different capacity? Say a doctor to the "stars" or a music teacher?

There is no plan?

2011-04-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Diana in The Adventures of Johny Bunko says, "There is no plan." The author, Daniel Pink, is not saying "Don't make a plan." He's simply saying, "Don't count on all (or any) of your plans working out."

Many students and young professionals have a hard time coming to terms with this quote, but if you think about it realistically it seems apparent. For example, do you think that 50 percent of the people who get married plan on getting divorced? No! But that's the average rate of failed marriages in the U.S.

So, after thinking about "There is no plan" versus "Don't count on all your plans coming to fruition," do you have a different view of what your future holds? Are you willing to adjust your plans in order to make way for the future?

Leave an Imprint

2011-03-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

No one lives forever.

As you get older, you look back at your life and ask yourself, "Did I make a difference?" "Did I contribute something?" "Did my being here matter?" In other words, did you do something that left an imprint?

Do you ask yourself these big questions? Or do you avoid them? And more importantly, what imprint do you want to leave?

Are you going to be a force for positive change through your life and career choices?

Make Excellent Mistakes

2011-03-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

What kind of excellent mistake have you made that led you to a later success?

As Daniel Pink, author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need says, "The most successful people make spectacular mistakes--huge, honking screw ups! Why? They're trying to do something big. But each time they make a mistake, they get a little better and move a little closer to excellence."

Are you willing to make mistakes on your road to success?

Persistence Trumps Talent

2011-03-08T13:27:00.001-08:00

How can persistence trump talent?

Talent alone won't get the job done and for some people, work will out do talent. But if you never try you'll never know! As college students, you are going to have to be persistent to gain the talent you will need to succeed at your career goals. Great musicians, artists, and authors may be born, but they won't get anywhere if they do not practice a lot.

Is there a time in your life when you succeeded because of your persistence, rather than your talent? Explain.

Fundamental or Instrumental?

2011-02-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

Are you a person who has chosen his or her career path for instrumental reasons? Do you do things, as Daniel Pink explains, "because you think it's going to lead to something else, regardless of whether you enjoy it or it's worthwhile"? Perhaps, it's a high paying career choice?

OR

Are you a person who has chosen his or her career path due to fundamental reasons? Have you chosen your college major because it will let you do interesting work even you don't know exactly where it will lead?

Why do you think you are a fundamental or instrumental kind of person?

The Most Important Day . . .

2011-01-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

For Helen Keller, the most important day of her life was the day she met Anne Mansfield Sullivan, the woman who would teach her how to communicate with a world that she could not see or hear.

How would you start an essay that began "The most important day of my life was . . ."?

Reading with Attitude

2010-11-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

What were your early attitudes toward reading as you were growing up? Who do you think most shaped or affected your attitudes toward reading?

Reading Memories

2010-09-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

Some of our fondest childhood memories involve learning to read or listening as someone read to us. Describe an early reading memory at home with your parents, guardians, relatives, or siblings.

Reading at Gate C49 - Denver Int'l

2010-08-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

I dropped Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno in my carry-on bag—it’s a pirate story about a slave revolt that could be labeled narrative nonfiction. For some reason, it reminded me of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. Obviously, there’s Watchmen’s comic-within-comic pirate story, “The Black Freighter” where the stranded protagonist falls prey to insanity causing him to become as corrupt as the pirates he has escaped. But more than that, Cereno’s final section entitled “From a Narrative of Voyages and Travels . . .” is filled with pseudo documents, such as legal transcripts, depositions, and diary entries. The Watchmen is interspersed with bogus documents from fictional crime reports and psychological files to a celebrity autobiography entitled Under the Hood.

It’s busy in Denver . . . I only caught a few of titles around me.

A teenage boy in a red sweatshirt is devouring The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I thought this so weird (teenagers reading diet books?) that I had to go look it up. “Rather less 1984 and rather more Death Race 2000, [this] is a gripping story set in a postapocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death” (amazon.com). – Now that makes more sense, considering Worlds of Warcraft, Halo, and the video game fare young men seem to enjoy.

The graying, loafer wearing husband of a mid-century couple is reading Five Minutes with Vito by Anthony Parinello, a how-to book about interacting with “Very Important Top Officers” (being an ex-exec the idea makes me just want to say, “Don’t act like an idiot” and “Get to the point!” His linen clad wife is perusing Stieg Larsson’s thriller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. “Did you know there are three books in this series?” she asks. Luckily, she started with the first.

Love is Frank to a severe looking woman clad in denim.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert now sports a cover with the actress playing the movie role and is being read by a woman who looks like Julia Roberts. I wonder if this traveler is going to Italy, India, or Bali to
find herself?

A crabby woman sporting a cast on her foot (hence the attitude) takes on The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel by Brady Udall. Books with “A Novel” in the title always make me wonder if people buying A Novel would otherwise think they are nonfiction. I mean is there a lonely polygamist? Not likely, especially in this book since the main character is a guy with four wives and 28 children.

What are you reading as you ride the bus, BART, or flying to some dreamy destination?

What are the people around you reading?

Owner Beware: Chinese Domain Name Fraud

2010-07-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

How sweet . . . I just received an email from Angela at YGNetwork in Shanghai who is concerned that someone in China is trying to register my domain name with one of the many new extensions available to internet websites. It ain't just a .com world anymore.

Wow, I better respond. Maybe someday I'll be bigger than CraigsList or Amazon and really, really need those new-fangled extensions. I'll be so big that I'll need someone to manage all my domain names for me. I mean I'll be so busy going to meetings and flying all over tarnation I just won't have time. What's a girl to do?

I can picture Shanghai Angela, a pretty young Asian woman, wearing an impeccably tailored suit in her modern high rise office sipping green tea, and scouring the internet doing her due diligence for her sparkling reputable company, sending each unsuspecting domain owner a saccharine-laced email:

Dear Manager,

We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China. On July,30th,2010, We received HUATAI Company's application that they are registering the name "xxxxxxonline" as their Internet Trademark and "xxxxxxonline.cn","xxxxxxonline.com.cn" ,"xxxxxxonline.asia"domain names etc.,It is China and ASIA domain names.But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so I am sending you this Email to check.According to the principle in China,your company is the owner of the trademark,In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!

Kind regards

Angela Zhang

Angela Zhang

Registration Department Manager
3002, Nanhai Building 854.Nandan Road
Xuhui District, Shanghai
Office: +86 216296 xxxx
Fax: +86 216296 xxx

Should I hit respond? Maybe I should call Angela? No, First I'll forward this to my attorney and see what he has to say. DONE.

Well, first I should have put my thinking cap on, as Miss Nancy at Romper Room used to say, and Google "ygnetwork" -- OMG! It's a SCAM! How could that be? My faith in humanity is destroyed (sniff).

Instead of discovering I had a new cohort in Shanghai Angela, I found Angela was trying to Shanghai my domain name.

Domain owners beware!

Do graphic novels encourage reading?

2010-05-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

After reading graphic novels such as Nevermore, a graphic novel featuring nine of Edgar Allan Poe's more popular horror stories, are you encouraged to read the original text? Does reading graphic adaptations persuade you to seek out other stories written by Edgar Allan Poe? Why or why not?

Media Punk'd by Poe

2010-04-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Edgar Allan Poe wrote a piece for the New York Sun about a "group of British adventurers who had built a propeller-driven balloon, had taken off to cross the English channel . . . and ended up being blown across the Atlantic to a beach in Virginia, thus effecting the first aerial transatlantic crossing. This was BIG news! The Sun's unnamed correspondent [Poe] was the first to . . . interview the intrepid airmen."

Soon other reporters were scrambling "down to Virginia and began cranking out their own exclusive interviews with the [ballooning] Brits. There was only one small problem: There was no balloon, no balloonists, and no transatlantic crossing." But the papers didn't care "they just wanted a hot story, even if they had to make it up" (Bloom Puppets).

Do you think today's newspaper journalists just make up stories? Do you ever embellish your essays to make them more interesting?

What's your medium of choice?

2010-03-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

Our society values the graphically visual medium. Even more so, we value graphics coupled with sound to receive information in the same way most of us navigate the world. Our news and entertainment is almost exclusively received via the television. It can be said that by diminishing textual mediums we have cheapened the word.

When studying authors like Poe do you think graphic novels like Nevermore do justice to the word pictures we create as we read his texts? Why? Or do you think our imaginations can do far more justice to the terror Poe attempts to invoke on his readers? Why?

Fiction as Truth

2010-02-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

When Poe's story, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" was first published he failed to state that it was a fictional work. Instead he let his readers believe that through hypnosis a person could become trapped in their own body.

In 1938, the Orson Welles' radio broadcast of the sci-fi fantasy "War of the Worlds" about aliens invading earth caused a nationwide panic.

In Poe's case the public was prepared to accept the idea of performing surgeries using hypnotism as an anesthetic, a commonly reported phenomenon (albeit untrue). "War of the Worlds" played on the scientific explanation of a crowded universe where sentient alien beings living on Mars.

Have you ever read a fictional work that you thought was true? Why did you believe it was true and what did it cause you to do?

The Pit

2010-02-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Edgar Allan Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum" explores judicial corruption and torture during the Spanish Inquisition, while the updated comic Nevermore resets it in the modern era. How does the Iraq-war era effect the story's plot?
Does your observation of the news and other media sources sway your thinking? If so, how?
Is torture ever justified, or does torture let "all memory of freedom die . . . , smothered under a breathless weight of night"?

Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849

2010-02-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

Why do you think Edgar Allan Poe became a horror writer?

Poe was orphaned as a toddler, but was taken in by a wealthy family. Although never formally adopted, his new mother loved him very much, but when she died, Poe was left with a stern disciplinarian of a foster father.

Poe dropped out of school because of gambling debts. He was disinherited by Allan after quarreling about his inheritance. He joined the military and was court martialed (on purpose). His childhood sweetheart married another man, so he married his 13-year-old cousin, who died young. He pretty much lived his adult life in poverty moving from one writing/editing job to the next.

How do you think these events led to Poe's preoccupation with horror and its related themes?

What events from your own life led you to your chosen career?

A Little Terror Will Help You Grow Up Big and Strong

2010-01-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

As a child we are frightened by creepy clowns and the evil hiding under our beds or the bogeymen inhabiting our closets. Our threshold for terror lies in the innocence of childhood. From walking home in the dark after a vampire film festival to getting lost at the shopping mall, dread dwells in the unexpected as we climb the scaffolds of our mind to the noose of terror that awaits us.

What's your fondest childhood fear?

Reading (only) on BART

2009-12-24T14:16:00.000-08:00

One of Santa's helpers escaped from the North Pole and got on BART in Berkeley. Clad in green fleece and a Seussical Christmas tree hat, the elf pulled out red-framed, polka-dot readers to peruse Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses.

Does texting count as reading? Two "emo" goth hippie girls (okay, picture black flowing skirts like Stevie Nicks wore in the 70s, worn by eerily pale young women with heavy black eye make up whose hair came close to dread locks) got on in West Oakland and proceeded to text each other for the rest of the trip. I am way behind on what the cultural relevance of that is, but . . .

Dare I admit I was reading Barack the Barbarian, a serial comic produced by Devil's Due Publishing? The loin-cloth wearing Barack battles his scantily clad nemesis, Red Sarah, who resembles Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC except for the sword and schoolmarm glasses. Did Raquel kill anything in that movie?

Where do you catch people reading?

Indiana Jones and the Taliban

2009-11-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

The publishers of Three Cups of Tea describe the book as "The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his remarkable humanitarian campaign in the Taliban's backyard" (back cover).

What Indiana Jones-like qualities and skills enable Greg Mortenson to carry out his promise to build schools in Pakistan? What specific events or scenes in the book highlight some of these traits?

Spreading Literacy

2009-11-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

Greg Mortenson ends Three Cups of Tea with a "vision that we all will dedicate the next decade to achieve universal literacy and education for all children, especially for girls. More than 145 million of the world's children are deprived of education due to poverty, exploitation, slavery, gender discrimination, religious extremism, and corrupt governments" (Mortenson and Relin 333).

What is your vision to achieve the goal of universal literacy?

Educating Afghanistan's Girls

2009-11-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

Mortenson encounters Zahir Shah (Afghanistan's former king) and tells the Shah about his hope to open girls' schools in Afghanistan. The Shah, in turn, refers Mortenson to Sadhar Khan. Mortenson hires a jeep, and after escaping a mine field and a shoot out between opium smugglers, finally finds Sadhar Khan. The "mujahadeen shouted with joy and wrapped the startled American in an embrace.

"Yes! Yes! You're Dr. Greg! My comandhan Abdul Rashid has told me about you. This is incredible . . . The Khan catalogued a sea of schoolless girls, far more vast than anything Morteson had imagined" (Mortenson and Relin 329-330).

From what you've read in Three Cups of Tea do you think Mortenson will be as successful in Afghanistan as he was in Pakistan? Why or Why not?

Empowering Women in Central Asia

2009-11-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Greg Mortenson's focus for the CAI is empowering girls through education. On a trip to Korphe, the reporter who accompanies Mortenson is amazed by the pluck of Jahan, a young woman educated in Korphe's school. "Here comes this teenage girl, in the center of a conservative Islamic village, waltzing into a circle of men, breaking through about sixteen layers of traditions at once: She had graduated from school and was the first educated woman in a valley of three thousand people. She didn't defer to anyone, sat down right in front of Greg [Mortenson], and handed him the product of the revolutionary skills she'd acquired--a proposal, in English, to better herself, and improve the life of her village" (Mortenson and Relin 300).

One of the themes of Three Cups of Tea is that education can solve the problem of terrorism. "[T]error doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death" (Mortenson and Relin 292).

Do you, like Mortenson, believe the key to stopping terrorism lies in the revolutionary idea of educating Islamic women? Why or why not.

Terrorists in the News

2009-11-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

After 9/11 Greg Mortenson received a message from the American embassy ordering U.S. "civilians to immediately evacuate the country the embassy called ' the most dangerous place for American nationals on Earth'" (Mortenson and Relin 273).

As Greg Mortenson noted earlier, the media circus descended on Pakistan, "a solid mass of caffeine and deadline-fueled humanity" (262) where "green reporters who know nothing about the region stand up on the roof in flak jackets and act like their backdrop of the Margala Hills is some kind of war zone instead of a place to take kids on the weekends" (264). When Mortenson met with reporters he "tried to talk about the root causes of the conflict--the lack of education in Pakistan, and the rise of the Wahhabi madrassas, and how that led to problems like terrorism" (266).

Do you think the media helped draw attention to the root cause of terrorism, or the lack of education, as Mortenson describes it, or do you think the media had another agenda? Why?

Cherry Trees

2009-10-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

When fighting breaks out between Pakistan and India the villagers of northern Pakistan are forced to flee to a refugee camp located in an unpleasant and inhospitable location. Before building the school in Korphe, Greg Mortenson had to build a bridge, and in this instance, Mortenson has to build "the first uplift water scheme in the history of northern Pakistan" (Mortenson and Relin 221).

What do the cherry trees symbolize for the people of Gultori?

The Red Velvet Box

2009-10-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Why does Mortenson feel that "CAI schools should educate students only up through the fifth grade and focus on increasing the enrollment of girls" (Mortenson and Relin 209)? And, what does this say about Pakistani society?

Why do you think the U.S. requires student education to the 12th grade? And, what does this say about our society?

Equilibrium

2009-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

In Three Cups of Tea, what does the "planet's relentless march towards equilibrium" teach Dr. Hoerni and Greg Mortenson?

How does your life reflect equilibrium?

The Windows Home

2009-10-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

After six days of captivity, Greg Mortenson tears up when he studies a water pik ad in a 17-year-old copy of Time magazine. Three generations of an American family are standing under the tag line, "A smile should be more than a memory" (Mortenson and Relin 169).

How are a culture's advertisements the "windows home" (Mortenson and Relin 168)?

Heroes

2009-09-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest, says, "I was just an enthusiastic mountaineer of modest abilities who was willing to work quite hard and had the necessary imagination and determination . . . I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest. But my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain" (Mortenson and Relin 129, 130). This sentiment sounds a lot like Greg Mortenson and his reasons for wanting to build schools in Pakistan.

Why do you think people like Sir Edmund Hillary and Greg Mortenson find more satisfaction giving rather then taking?

The People Have Spoken

2009-09-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson hits many bumps in the road--he's broke, his girlfriend dumps him, and he is forced to build a bridge before he can build the school at Korphe. What does Mortenson finally realize about these bumps? Do they signify failure or something else?

What bumps have you experienced in your life?

The Hectic American

2009-09-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

Explain how Greg Mortenson's American-style pragmatism (practical consequences and real effects) is at odds with Korphe's patient way of dealing with obstacles as illustrated in Three Cups of Tea.

Rawalpindi

2009-09-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

Shopping in Rawalpindi is a colorful affair filled with long sessions of tea-soaked bargaining prefacing each purchase of materials needed to build the school at Korphe--and for Greg Mortenson those purchases come with a price. For what cause would you sell all the memorabilia from your parents, your favorite car, and the gear from your favorite hobby?

Self Storage

2009-08-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

In chapter four of Three Cups of Tea, the reader learns a lot about Greg Mortenson's background from the contents of his storage unit. What features from Mortenson's background helps him fulfill his promise to the people of Korphe--his promise to build a school for the village children.

The Wrong Side of the River

2009-08-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

In Chapter 2 of Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson loses his way and is rescued by his Balti guide who revives him with paiyu cha. After regaining some strength, Mortenson takes the path on the wrong side of the river, losing his guide again, and finds himself in Korphe where the headman offers him more tea and a place to stay.

Describe an incident you have experienced with hospitality or the kindness of strangers when visiting a foreign place -- or a new place closer to home.

Failure

2009-08-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

In Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson goes to Pakistan intending to climb K2, "The Savage Peak", but as the title of chapter one suggests, he fails, or does he? How was Mortenson among the real heroes of the expedition to K2? Why would you make (or not make) the same kind of sacrifice, a sacrifice of a life goal?

Favorite Peep Movies

2009-08-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

No. 1 - Peeps Attack!

The world is invaded by Peeptians with irresistible weapons and a squishy sense of humor. It seems nothing can stop the evil Peeps. But a teenager from Kansas discovers the frequency of Slim Whitman's yodeling in Peep Love Call explodes the green marshmallow chicks.

No. 2 - Peepbusters

The evil Gozer transforms into the Stay Puft Bunny Man to terrorize Peep City. What can the Peepbusters do to stop his gooey rampage? Cross their proton pack streams to explode the giant bunny, causing molten marshmallow to rain down on the surrounding skyscrapers.

What's your favorite peeps movie?

The Writer's Schizophrenia

2009-07-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

I have had my share of rejection letters--and yes, each one is a little dart to the heart--but I usually respond by sending out a new smattering of agent queries. As an instructor, it reminds me to look for that interesting paragraph, sentence, or turn of phrase in student writing, and compliment it. Having been in sales for years and years, I try to keep in mind that each "no" is just some percentage of a yes, although in my case, I haven't quite figured out the ratio, but . . .

Today was a bit different. I received two emails at the same time about the exact same piece.

Email number one partially read, "While I like the idea of following an Elizabethan playwright, your writing itself seems both too forced and overly calm for the action it describes"--Ouch!

Email number two: "This is quite interesting so far! May I see the full manuscript, as a .doc attachment?"

I think I'll take Door Number Two.

And the 2009 Winner Is . . .

2009-07-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not the winner, but the biggest loser in the Bulwer-Lytton Worst First Lines Contest is David McKenzie of Federal Way, Washington.

"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."

Bulwer-Lytton penned the famous line, "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents" causing sugary goo to run in the streets. It was a massacre at the Peeps factory (for that is where our story is set), bunny blue and peep yellow mixed in a cacophony of green slime that ran into gutters marked, 'Don't pour oil or hazardous waste--outlet to ocean.' . . . Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

A couple of my favorites are:

"The appearance of a thin red beam of light under my office door and the sound of one, then two pair of feet meant my demise was near, that my journey from gum-shoe detective to international agent had gone horribly wrong, until I realized it was my secretary teasing her cat with a laser pointer," by Steve Lynch, San Marcos, CA.

AND . . .

"The wind dry-shaved the cracked earth like a dull razor--the double edge kind from the plastic bag that you shouldn't use more than twice, but you do; but Trevor Earp had to face it as he started the second morning of his hopeless search for Drover, the Irish Wolfhound he had found as a pup near death from a fight with a prairie dog and nursed back to health, stolen by a traveling circus so that the monkey would have something to ride," by Warren Blair, Ashburn, VA.

Go to the Bulwer-Lytton contest website for all the "winners".

HNS Follow Up

2009-06-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

After two weeks, I finally got through my stack of notes, business cards, book marks, web addresses, and handouts from the Historical Novel Society Conference held in Schaumburg, Illinois from June 12 to 14.

Wow! What an education.

From the excellent and diverse panels, such as "Place as Character" and "Is Sex Necessary" and then bouncing between "We're Not in Kansas Anymore" and "Historical Boys" or "Talking the Talk" and "Historical Accuracy vs. Plot," just to mention a few, the problem became trying to choose which events to attend during the allotted time slots. As a writer, I felt energized by the quality and quantity of new ideas, and as a teacher, the pedagogical format was something I strive for. As Horace puts it, the purpose of poetry and literature is to "teach and delight," and this was seamlessly accomplished at the panels I attended.

BTW, the dinners (and cocktail parties) were just as educational. From the interesting and funny conversations--Barbarian Hotness with Dawna Rand, Exotic Erotica with Jade Lee, and submission tips by Pam Strickler-- to great insights offered by not just published authors, but successful published authors. Recommendations by Christopher Gortner (The Last Queen) on website development and promotions plus blog recommendations and writing tips left me with hours of fun research (do sign yourself up for Google Alert, it will certainly make you feel important the first time you get "alerted"). I'm looking forward to Karen Essex's (Leonardo's Swans) next project on Dracula and I believe I now have something to watch on TV after talking to Kamran Pasha, who not only wrote Mother of Believers, but scripts for Sleeper Cell and Kings. OMG! And Diana Gabaldon and Margaret George were both charming and put up with my babbling for at least a couple minutes.

I can't forget to mention the "Late-Night Sex Scene Reading"(Yikes!) and Eileen Charbonneau's revised edition of "Old Time Religion." I can't that line about Aphrodite's nightie out of my head.

I was mesmerized, but next time I must take better notes.

Reading on BART - SF to Walnut Creek

2009-06-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

A half-dozen riders on a super packed train at 11:30 p.m. and I were perusing the program from Tosca. BTW a great production. Lado Ataneli as the evil, Scarpia, and Adrianne Pieczonka as the pious, Tosca, were fab. The weirdest scene-yup, that's the one.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey was being read by a post modern Peter Pan in the tightest dark-green Levis ever, and pointy-toed suede Hush Puppies, topped by a rat pack style fedora.

A tattered copy of Dreams from My Father by the Pres was being passed back and forth by a couple who got off in Berkeley.

BART Transit Connection was being interpreted by a group of teenage Asian tourists who practiced saying, "Excuse me" every 30 seconds or so. BTW, Pleasant Hill and Pleasanton are two different places.

And then, of course, the ever present business man with a manila folder propped on his knees reading memos containing columns of numbers. Geez it's midnight on Friday, as Jimmy Cliff would say, "Stop that train, I wanna get off."

Best Sellers on the Peeps Reading List

2009-06-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

No. 1: Sir Peepsalot or King Arthur and the Peeps of the Round Table

A rousing tale of knightly peeps on a quest for the sword, Excalipeep. Only the true heir of Peepselot can remove the sword from the stone and prove himself worthy to rule Mallowland.

Of course it's no.1 - What did you expect from a Renaissance lit enthusiast?

No 2: The Wizard of Peeps

Can Doropeep make it to the Emerald City?

Will the Cowardly Peep find his courage?

Will the Tin Peep find a heart?

Will the Scarepeep get the brains he always wanted? Although how much good marshmallow brains will do him is questionable.

No. 3: Snow White and the Seven Peeps

There's no accounting for taste and Peeps do have a penchant for fairy tales with sugary sweet endings where the charming Prince Peep awakes his beloved with a saccharin kiss.

Other best sellers on the Peep Times list:

3 Cups of Marshmallow Tea - One peep's mission to promote peace . . . one confection at a time.

American Born Peep - a first rate graphic novel that could be especially cathartic for teens and adults of Peep descent, but peeps of any color would find themselves reflected in the universal themes of self-acceptance, peep pressure, and gooey tension.

Harry Peeper and the Chamber of Mallow - When the Chamber of Mallow is opened again at the Chickwarts School of Peepcraft and Wizardry, second-year student Harry Peeper finds himself in danger from a dark power. Cult classic.

Interred with Their Goo - "The evil that peeps do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their goo."

Pride and Prejudice and Peeps - These days, America is menaced by Peep shows and goo infected computers. What’s next, a Peep Jane Austen? Why, yes. First line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a peep in possession of brains must be in want of more gooey mallow.”

It's summer, have some fun. What would you add to the Peep's reading list?

Reading at Gate C20 - Denver Int'l Airport

2009-06-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

. . . or what I could see from my seat without looking like a stalker freak! I love to observe what people read at airports, unemployment lines, Bart trains, the laundromat, wherever you have to wait around.

I finished CW Gortner's The Last Queen - excellent read (see a short review on my links page) and started Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex. For those Hunter/Jumper folk out there, Essex paints a great scene of Beatrice jumping a gap in the city walls. The adrenaline will feel familiar. So far, so good.

A woman in a charcoal gray suit sitting across from me was reading A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits by Carol and Dinah Mack.

Food and Wine Magazine - I thought this was the most popular magazine in flying heaven, until I went to an airport souvenir shop and noticed it there, and then saw it at every shop in the concourse. Now that's a contract I'd like to have.

The Milford Journal - a long way from home.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was being read by a young woman who made a lot of heavy sighs.

And, of course, a John Grisham book who's title was smaller than the author's name and I didn't have on my long range glasses.

What do you see people reading?

The Last Blog . . .

2009-05-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

. . . for the quarter.

Randy Pausch, author of The Last Lecture (www.hyperionbooks.com), realized he didn't give his last lecture because he wanted to. He gave it because he "had to."
Like Spiderman, Paush believes "with great power, comes great responsibility." As you read the final chapters of The Last Lecture, how would you describe the legacy or message left by Randy Pausch?

Socially Mobile Grinders

2009-05-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

David Brooks in "A Nation of Grinders" (RC,WW 543-547) asks readers, "[H]ow about Abraham Lincoln as the defining capitalist figure of our age?" (543). His answer, "That middle-aged Lincoln represents all the sometimes homely but invariably dreamy pushers who are what American striving is really all about" (543).

The typical American success story does not consist of the billion dollar deal signed behind the doors of mega-corporate board rooms, but comes from "the need to actually execute and finish your strategies" at companies where the culture "encourages the Lincolnian virtues of simplicity and humility." In other words, work hard and do a good job, no matter what your job title. Further, when practiced, this "social mobility reduces class conflict because each person can build his own fortune, rather than taking from the fortunes of others" (547).

What's your response to the notion that "each person's destiny is somehow related to the amount of talent and effort he or she pours into life" and this defines "the very essence of justice" (547)?

Biofuel Salvation

2009-05-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

Vinod Khosla in "My Big Biofuels Bet" (RC,WW 520-527) has "been searching for a renewable fuel that could realistically replace the 140 billion gallons of gasoline consumed in the U.S. each year" (521). He further believes that "corn ethanol is a crucial fist step toward kicking our [USA] oil addiction" (521) by using "cow manure--because this waste powers a facility that turns corn into ethanol" (521). He answers the objection that "there's not enough land to grow crops for ethanol" (527) by saying that "taking land now used to grow export crops and instead planting energy crops, it's feasible to eliminate our need to import oil for gasoline" (527).

Do you believe "that Americans are addicted to oil and alternative fuels are our only salvation" (529)? What do you think about replacing food crops with fuel crops?

Not Just For Nerds?

2009-05-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

"The inherent danger of dealing with strangers is one of the major reasons that online dating has been looked down on" (RC,WW 423), but according to Joshua Slick, the author of "Not Just For Nerds Anymore," this has been largely overcome due to "online ratings and review systems" and "'reputation-management systems'" available at online cites like TrueDater and Opinity. He cites a USA Today article asserting that "technology has made anonymity a thing of the past" (RC,WW 424) meaning online daters "can find out virtually anything about anyone without ever leaving . . . home" (RC,WW 424).

Do you feel that Slick overcomes his readers' objection to online dating and agree that cyber dating is safe and "just as viable for meeting people as going to church or bars" (RC,WW 424)? If so, why? If not, why not? Have you ever gone on a date with someone you met online?

Literacy and Voting Decisions

2009-05-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Kozol in "The Cost of an Illiterate Society," believes that people who can't read or write "are forced to cast a vote of questionable worth. They cannot make informed decisions based on serious print information." He prefaces this comment by quoting James Madison, one of the Founding Fathers, who said, "A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives" (RC,WW 403).

Do you read your voter's handbook? Do you understand your voter's handbook? How do you think your literacy contributes to your voting decisions?

Why We Crave Detail

2009-04-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Stephen King, in a recent interview published in Writer's Digest (May/June 2009), claims that details are what make people "believe the unbelievable . . . that belief and reader absorption come in the details: an overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand for everything. Or a broken billboard. Or weeds growing in the cracks of a library's steps" (50).

In "Why We Crave Horror Movies," originally published in Playboy in 1981, King details good and bad behavior, saying, "When, as children, we hug our rotten little puke of a sister and give her a kiss, all the aunts and uncles smile and twit and cry, 'Isn't he the sweetest little thing?' Such coveted treats as chocolate covered graham crackers often follow. But if we deliberately slam the rotten little puke of a sister's fingers in the door, sanctions follow--angry remonstrance from parents, aunts, and uncles; instead of a chocolate covered graham cracker, a spanking" (RC,WW 381).

Like King's description of the effects of good and bad behavior, write a detailed example of your subject with enough texture, imagination, and particulars for readers to believe and fully understand.

Stereotyping

2009-04-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Tattoos, skin color, or ethnicity, age, and preferred activities can all lead to stereotyping.

But is all stereotyping bad? The authors of They Say/I Say assert, "Some people dislike such labels and may even resent having them applied to themselves. Some feel that such labels put individuals in boxes, stereotyping them and glossing over what makes each individual unique . . . [But] if you categorically reject all labels, you give up an important resource and mislead readers by presenting yourself and others as having no connection to anyone else. You also miss the opportunity to generalize the importance and relevance of your work to some larger conversation . . . The way to minimize the problem of stereotyping, then is not to categorically reject labels but to refine and qualify their use" (Graff 79-80).

How would you improve or refine stereotypes in order to justify using them in your own writing?