enjoying home-improvement but craving some read/write time

Well, my parents have been here visiting Deb and me since last Thursday. I should find some other verb than “visiting,” though because having my Dad here is like a Christmas morning for the home-owner. Or like rubbing a bottle and getting a contractor-Genie who is granting us not just three wishes but [...]

Elbow and Bartholomae and Emerson (note to self: get a copy of this)

This looks interesting, especially the Emersonian angle.
Wiley, Mark. “Writing in the American Grain: Peter Elbow’s and David Bartholomae’s Emersonian Pedagogies of Empowerment.” Writing Instructor, v9 n1-2 p57-66 Fall-Win 1990.
ABSTRACT: Argues that, although Peter Elbow’s and David Bartholomae’s pedagogies attempt in different ways to authorize students to write, both rely on the experience and resistance to [...]

English language offers most? opportunities for individuality, development and growth

The other day I came across this quote on the back of one of my books. (I’m trying to decide which books come with me to OSU and which stay home.)
It “is not true, as most other nations believe, that English is ‘an illogical, chaotic language, unsuited for clear thinking,’ it is undeniable that [...]

Vicki Tolar Burton article on John Wesley (note to self: get a copy)

Vicki Tolar Burton, “John Wesley and the Liberty to Speak: The Rhetorical and Literacy Practices of Early Methodism.” College Composition and Communication, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Sep., 2001), pp. 65-91 doi:10.2307/359063
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-096X(200109)53%3A1%3C65%3AJWATLT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y#abstract

Adjuncts and Graduation Rates

At the end of my recent post on a report on California community colleges, I noted that I didn’t like its suggestion that giving CCs more flexibility to hire non-full-time faculty would help student success and retention.  Well, thankfully, I just found a report at Inside Higher Ed (via NCTE Newsletter) that shows a correlation [...]

“Plot against the loud happy writing people.”

I’m cleaning out my email files here at the YVCC Writing Center, since this is virtually my last day here. Weird feeling, that. But, anyway, I remember this magnetic poetry sentence which appeared on our white board one day (students were free to play with the words whenever they wanted to), and I [...]

reminder to get access to Charles Tryon’s “Writing and Citizenship: Using Blogs to Teach First-Year Composition”

Note to self: get a copy of this.  Looks interesting, especially the emphasis on what’s unique to blogs: “blogging’s ephemerality, its focus on the everyday, and its no-holds-barred…”
Tryon, Charles
Writing and Citizenship: Using Blogs to Teach First-Year Composition
Pedagogy - Volume 6, Issue 1, Winter 2006, pp. 128-132

Duke University Press
Pedagogy 6.1 (2006) 128-132 [...]

Harry Potter and death in western literature

I just came across this article, published before the release of Deathly Hallows, the final Harry Potter book. I wanted to quote a some of it because I want to begin to think about the whole question of how death is handled in western lit. It does strike me, as is noted in [...]