EPTi can answer general questions about college, specific questions about english comp, any questions about the sexy world of graduate english studies, or anything else that's relevant. let 'em rip!
[bored] ask a freshman english comp instructor
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
i can answer general questions about college, specific questions about english comp, any questions about the sexy world of graduate english studies, or anything else that's relevant. let 'em rip! | ||
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sob3k
United States7572 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 12:41 sob3k wrote: How angry are you when incoming freshmen don't have stylish cursive? quoi? | ||
Empyrean
16968 Posts
In any case, all freshmen at my school had to take a mandatory writing class. I've never been so horrified to find that some people literally still don't know basic conventions of English grammar and syntax. (to be fair, he was an engineer). | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
I never had to take a freshman-type English comp class because of AP Eng Lit+Lang credits, but most people I knew did not like them so much. Most of those people were probably engineers who didn't give a semblance of a crap about the class though. Writing is important for everybody though, so they really should be caring. Have you ever had international students? | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 13:11 Myrmidon wrote: Yeah, that must be the discouraging thing about teaching classes that lots of people have to take, that's outside their majors. I never had to take a freshman-type English comp class because of AP Eng Lit+Lang credits, but most people I knew did not like them so much. Most of those people were probably engineers who didn't give a semblance of a crap about the class though. Writing is important for everybody though, so they really should be caring. Have you ever had international students? usually about a third of every class is international students/ELL students (english language learners), they create some unique challenges for the class but aren't really a huge detriment depending on how well they speak english. i've always wanted to ask my korean students if they play BW, but am afraid that might be racial profiling, haha. | ||
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Ilikestarcraft
Korea (South)17726 Posts
. I still think writing is tedious trying to organize everything, but when you finish its nice to have a product that you could call your work. Also I don't know about the other people in my class but I enjoyed the writing we read in class too. Just curious, how do you approach teaching your class generally as in your plan. Also is there any writers whose works you usually make your students read in class? | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 13:22 Ilikestarcraft wrote: When I was a freshmen the class I had the most fun with was an intro English comp class . I still think writing is tedious trying to organize everything, but when you finish its nice to have a product that you could call your work. Also I don't know about the other people in my class but I enjoyed the writing we read in class too. Just curious, how do you approach teaching your class generally as in your plan. Also is there any writers whose works you usually make your students read in class? the class is mainly an application of the zone of proximal development concept in that we start with small, basic writing assignments and develop into more complicated writing tasks. at the beginning of the class, students will be writing papers that are just a basic rhetorical analysis and by the end are writing a full-fledged research paper. it's pretty cool how well scaffolding assignments that way can work. i've had my students read a wide variety of things, but recently i've been having a lot of success teaching some of the essays by David Foster Wallace. students have really responded to his humor/writing excellence. i tried making the class hard in the beginning and taught foucault and other things about surveillance societies, but i wised up to that quickly | ||
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Sinensis
United States2513 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 13:37 Sinensis wrote: Any chance you could post some funny papers? Always love reading a bad/ridiculous freshman paper. contractually obligated not to  there have been some real gems, though. i've read three papers about twilight.. | ||
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Endymion
United States3701 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 13:43 Endymion wrote: My freshman writing class was amazing (my professor was a super hot 30 year old woman who played WoW..), and she only gave us one assignment for the whole semester.. And I wrote it one Starcraft.. Love you Ms. Olivia! Anyways, have you ever been inspired by a student's writing? Kind of like a Good Will Hunting scenario? not sure if i've necessarily been inspired by a student's writing, but there have been plenty of students who have impressed the hell out of me and i've written them glowing letters of recommendation. it's nice to be a part of seeing a student succeed for sure | ||
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Empyrean
16968 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 14:03 Empyrean wrote: What's your stance on Alain de Botton, by the way? can't say i've come across him too much, what should i have a stance on? in general i think it's okay for people to make philosophy more approachable if it doesn't stop there. hopefully it inspires people to read the philosophers he writes about | ||
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Ilikestarcraft
Korea (South)17726 Posts
On June 15 2011 13:28 benjammin wrote: i tried making the class hard in the beginning and taught foucault and other things about surveillance societies, but i wised up to that quickly The part I enjoyed most about my English comp class was stuff like that actually haha. I think my ideas of a fun class are different from most people... I remember when my instructor gave out sheets to write about ourselves, in the section written tell me something about yourself I wrote I competitively play a real time strategy computer game called Starcraft lol. Too bad he didn't say anything about it. | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 14:10 Ilikestarcraft wrote: The part I enjoyed most about my English comp class was stuff like that actually haha. I think my ideas of a fun class are different from most people... I remember when my instructor gave out sheets to write about ourselves, in the section written tell me something about yourself I wrote I competitively play a real time strategy computer game called Starcraft lol. Too bad he didn't say anything about it. it's always a hard balance between how much you can challenge students so that they're interested and not become overwhelmed and skipping readings. i'm sure that says more about me as a teacher, though. i think next year i'll ramp up the difficulty, but i'd rather have students participating and engaged. it ain't easy | ||
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Empyrean
16968 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 17:54 Empyrean wrote: Are the writing courses themed at all? At my school freshmen had the choice of choosing between 25 or so themed writing seminars. I ended up choosing one on urban planning, civic engineering, and how "space" relates to our daily lives. It was quite interesting. yep! each instructor gets to construct his or her own theme for the class. we assign a sort of textbook for the class that contains a variety of readings, but instructors are free to choose their own content. basically, everything is in service of a set of goals that every class tries to accomplish, and you're free to use whatever content you think can best do that. i've done a class on foucault and power, one on the intelligent design debate, and one on literary collage and argumentation. coming up with how to teach the material you want is one of the most fun parts of the job. | ||
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Empyrean
16968 Posts
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Servius_Fulvius
United States947 Posts
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Pawsom
United States928 Posts
On June 15 2011 20:14 Empyrean wrote: Is there anyone in college who still tries to argue for intelligent design? :< Trollololol. Of course there are... | ||
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Empyrean
16968 Posts
On June 15 2011 23:09 Servius_Fulvius wrote: So you're in graduate english studies, huh? I'm in graduate engineering right now. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. Is it true that graduate work in ANY department is incredibly hard? Yes, because all doctorate degrees require original research. | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 20:14 Empyrean wrote: Is there anyone in college who still tries to argue for intelligent design? :< you'd be surprised i had planned that course to be an examination of the logical fallacies in the intelligent design debate, but a few people in the class seemed to agree with them.. | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On June 15 2011 23:09 Servius_Fulvius wrote: So you're in graduate english studies, huh? I'm in graduate engineering right now. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. Is it true that graduate work in ANY department is incredibly hard? i think in the end it all scales the same. i think my coursework in english is easier than other phds, but that's balanced by the fact that as a TA i have to teach an entire class and grade all the work, which is more than most TAs have to do. however, the actual dissertation is extraordinarily difficult, so i'm enjoying my time while i have it.. | ||
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Servius_Fulvius
United States947 Posts
On June 16 2011 05:00 benjammin wrote: i think in the end it all scales the same. i think my coursework in english is easier than other phds, but that's balanced by the fact that as a TA i have to teach an entire class and grade all the work, which is more than most TAs have to do. however, the actual dissertation is extraordinarily difficult, so i'm enjoying my time while i have it.. Fair enough! I've heard the same from other departments so I'm glad to see it's the same throughout. I just finished my first year which was almost exclusively classes. Those SUCKED! Two more classes and research for the masters. The research is a lot easier. Thesis and dissertation committees are, by nature, really hard on everyone, but I guess we have a handicap: results speak for themselves. Actually, that would explain why a lot of my foreign classmates get away with ONLY using English to communicate with professors and peers..... On the plus side, we only have to grade. I was kind of disappointed since I think teaching would be fun, but if I had to worry about a class on top of everything else this year I'm fairly certain I would have exploded! | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
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