Comments for Cultivated Pages

Comment on “The Fate of the Sentence” by Laura

Laura — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:40:08 +0000

Yeah, my friend Chanel says she’s kind of fastidious about text messages and always writes complete sentences, properly punctuated. I don’t. Maybe when I’m faster at text messaging I’ll start writing full sentences without abbreviations. But for now it just takes me so long to create the message, I’m gonna abbreviate big time.

But, yeah, what a thought: a semi-colon in a text message! It would be like seeing a participial phrase in a text message. :-D

Comment on “The Fate of the Sentence” by Miss Marjie

Miss Marjie — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:05:22 +0000

Funny, more than half the time, I use complete sentences when text messaging. I even punctuate them correctly. There is nothing in this world more pompous than a semicolon in a text message. ;)

Comment on fun with Wordle… rhetoric… God… body… by Laura

Laura — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:30:39 +0000

Nope, I’m in Yakima.
I played way too long with Wordle yesterday. it was ridiculous. :-)

Comment on fun with Wordle… rhetoric… God… body… by Sara Jameson

Sara Jameson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:28:42 +0000

Certainly rhetoric is God’s body. In the beginning was the word/logos and the logos was with God and the logos was God.

I just had fun with this to, but for some reason my office computer will not show Wordle on Firefox, only on IE. Tedious! Are you in town?

Comment on fun with Wordle… rhetoric… God… body… by Sara Jameson

Sara Jameson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:26:42 +0000

Certainly rhetoric is God’s body. In the beginning was the word/logos and the logos was with God and the logos was God.

I just had fun with this to, but for some reason my office computer will not show Wordle on Firefox, only on IE. Tedious! Are you in town?

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Portuguese

Portuguese — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:36:49 +0000

Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation :) Anyway … nice blog to visit.

cheers, Portuguese!

Comment on bumper sticker by Laura

Laura — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:26:09 +0000

heheh, yeah, see — you’re gettin’ it! ;-)

Yummmmy tradition.

Nah, you don’t ruin everything. You keep everything nicely stirred up.

BTW, How’s the Shipman’s Tale coming?

Comment on bumper sticker by Travis

Travis — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:43:37 +0000

well, okay, i do love stuffing. vegetarian. …see, i ruin everything.

Comment on bumper sticker by Laura

Laura — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:56:58 +0000

yes, you don’t strike me as the tradition type, Travis. :-)

however alliterative that is!

Tradition, though, is just like any other human construct: contains some good, some bad. Always a mixture. I guess that’s always my point.

Comment on bumper sticker by Travis

Travis — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:28:09 +0000

i’m not one for “tradition.” hardly ever.

i’m always this cynical. :)

Comment on start off with the answer? by Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:51:52 +0000

Laura: I thought you might like to know I threw some notes on my class this quarter on my blog. I really do want to contribute to it more often. I just have to figure out how to find the time.

Re models: I’m more likely to give them models and break the steps down pretty small now than I was before. I used to say, “Here, write an essay. You’ll figure it out.” They didn’t. Your music analogy is great, by the way. Now I give them more steps and suggestions and models. Still, there are no really good formulas, and in the end, they organization has to occur in response to the purpose and projected audience of the piece.

Comment on start off with the answer? by Laura

Laura — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:01:57 +0000

I know that is the way I learned — imitating models, until I learned enough to know how to break the rules. I guess the main “right answer” or goal for writing students is “affect your reader the way you want to affect your reader.”

Hmmm… Writing is an art, but we don’t ever teach other arts by asking students to reinvent the wheel, huh. I mean, we don’t teach composers by telling them, “Here, write a symphony.” We teach them music theory, scales, modulation, and examples from great composers, and then they break the molds and do their own thing (if they’re good). So, obviously students have to be taught techniques and models before they can become creative (as in flexible) writers.

It all comes down to degree, doesn’t it — how much modeling, how much technique, and how much freedom.

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Laura

Laura — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:12:39 +0000

Heheh, yes, it’s true I don’t talk about vegetables. :-) Thanks, Sara. I’m glad to hear you read it that way, too. I love your description, actually: “a garden of ideas! Where never a weed word shall spring! or maybe riotous blooming and tendrils of thinking.”

And thanks, Chanel, too. Oh, yes, you kneeeew how snobbish I am! ;-)

I’m thinking I’ll go with Michael’s advice and add some permanent “about” box (something in addition to the “About” page) and keep the title for now. If this wordpress template allowed a tagline, that would help.

Comment on start off with the answer? by Sara J

Sara J — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:00:23 +0000

Many of our students definitely want to know the right answer - how they should do something. Asking them to reinvent the wheel, the thesis, the organization, scares and frustrates some of them. The idea that writing is an art and that there are many possible good (if not also right) answers can make class a challenge. This may be why they like seeing examples of successful essays. On the other hand, in business and tech writing, we have more formulas and formats to use, and there are definitely more “right” and “wrong” approaches here, yet surprisingly we get memo-letter hybrids and wonder how it was that the students didn’t notice.

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Sara J

Sara J — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:55:52 +0000

Looks like all the bases are covered so far, but for what it’s worth, I have been reading this as cultivating in a garden - at least a garden of ideas! Where never a weed word shall spring! or maybe riotous blooming and tendrils of thinking. That sort of thing.. Now you have an explanation above - so that should avoid any confusion. it’s true that you don’t talk much about vegetables.

By the way, what is this “possibly related posts - automatically generated”? Looks intriguing!
Sara

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Chanel

Chanel — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:31:10 +0000

I thought you meant cultivating as in working-on, nourishing, etc, but it may be because I know you and know you aren’t, you know, snobby. :)

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Laura

Laura — Mon, 26 May 2008 05:00:27 +0000

Thanks, Michael. I’m glad to hear you thought of the word that way — really glad, actually. Good idea about the permanent post. I would like to retain, if possible, that sense of cultivating as in nourishing or tending one’s thoughts (as a scholar) and students’ writing (as a teacher). Hmmm, I’ll keep thinkin’ about it. Thanks again.

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Michael Faris

Michael Faris — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:07:29 +0000

Hi, Laura. When I first read read your title, “refined” never came to my mind. Instead, I thought about “cultivating” your thinking, about tending to it and letting it grow. I suppose etymologically the two meanings are very close, but I read your title more as a process than a final product.

Perhaps if you still like your title but you’re uneasy with the connotations, you can have a permanent post at the top of the page that explains your title. This allows you to keep the title, but offers you the opportunity to explain it.

Of course, title changes are also good.

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Laura

Laura — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:17:49 +0000

Hi, Shannon. Hi, Marjorie.

Thanks for the feedback! I’m a bit amazed at myself for going two years without remembering the first connotation of that word. I guess it shows how much someone can get attached to one shade of meaning and forget the rest.

I really really don’t want people assuming I mean “educated” or “refined,” even if they change their mind later. I’m a little horrified to think that’s what people have been thinking. So I am going to try to come up with a new name that better fits what I mean (or switch to a name emphasizing something else).

It can just take me an inordinate amount of time to think of a name! I spent way too much time on it.

Thanks again, both of you. Shannon, I look forward to hearing some time about your experiences with religious texts. And I love hearing that they can elicit some beautiful writing. That’s cool.

Comment on yikes, should I change my blog name? by Miss Marjie

Miss Marjie — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:18:03 +0000

I always assumed you meant “educated” or “refined,” and not the garden cultivation. Tags like “discourse theory,” “higher education,” and “Academic vs. Expressive Writing” never really nudged me toward the idea of the organic or gardening, though I did recognize that was another meaning for it when I first looked at your page. It can be read either, of course, but assumptions might fall heavier on one side. Then again, maybe everyone is not like me. :)