creating a world of complexities and continuums

Spring break week, so I’m off work (though no pay :-() and I get some juicy reading and writing time. I should be doing some laundry or picking up this cluttered office, but it’s almost noon and I’m still sitting, reading blogs and articles and “playing with” my own blog.
I just came across Michael Faris [...]

Monty Python’s Argument Clinic sketch

Josh has been writing questions on the whiteboards the last few weeks.  Just now he wrote this week’s question: ”What is an academic argument?”  That made me think of the argument clinic and posting a shortened version of it on the whiteboards (as a way to get students to comment).  We may or may not do [...]

what’s the use of adding “tension” to a thesis?

I think one reason that adding “tension” to a thesis — or, in other words, making a thesis sufficiently nuanced — is important is simply because it makes the thesis more interesting right off the bat. It supplies an implicit reason why the thesis is important. And, like I said, it enables the thesis to [...]

exquisite theses… with tension to boot!

After my explanation, at the Staff Meeting, of what adding “tension” to a thesis was, we played a round of exquisite corpse… or, in this case, exquisite thesis.  I think the first two are the best.
Although several pink pick-up trucks scream that bags are wooden, the frog people quickly drink smoldering manure. (!!!oooh!!!)
Although beautiful dry-erase boards say [...]

“thesis tension”

The other day, Gail arrived for her consultation upset that she had failed a test in her English 101 class.  She showed me that in one part she had totally misunderstood what adding “tension” to a thesis was.  At that moment, I realized that I didn’t know what it was either.  (Turns out no one else [...]