Category: Uncategorized

Via Johndan’s blog, I came across this interesting interview with Lawrence Lessing, who is the law professor who runs creative commons and who is probably the leading voice on questions regarding copyright and technology. Interesting stuff and something I might need/use for 516 or a new version of the cyberspace course.

Also, when I did a search for Lessing, I came across this March column of his in WIRED about how Pennsylvania has made it illegal for local municipalities to offer WiFi service. This is something I blogged about a while ago, but Lessing’s op-ed piece is interesting.

It’s been a banner year for the state of Iowa for the NCAA basketball tournament. All three of the major state schools– the University of Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Northern Iowa– are in the “big dance.” If Drake had managed to get it together, it could have been pretty much a clean sweep.

In any event, go Hawks, I hope UNI does okay (gotta root for the home town team), and go whoever is playing ISU. :-)

The “new SAT” with its writing test rolled out yesterday. There are a boatload of articles out there in the press–for example, see NCTE’s “InBox” articles for this week and this post at Number 2 Pencil. Friday morning’s version of “Morning Edition” featured Steve “you’re not Bob Edwards” Inskeep trying out one of the writing prompts (with a computer, he points out). There was a big front page article in the local Ann Arbor News, and I’m guessing there was a big front page article in your local newspaper, too.

One interesting and off the beaten path article I read was “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Dave Goldenberg. It’s in something called “Gelf Magazine,” which seems to me to really just be a collaborative blog. Anyway, Goldenberg is writing from the perspective of someone who used to be a SAT tutor/coach, and he has a couple of interesting observations that I haven’t read elsewhere. First off, Goldenberg argues that the cause of the “changes” in the SAT actually come from Richard Atkinson, who was (until 2003) President of the University of California system, and who was threatening to dump the SAT unless they did something to improve it. I hadn’t heard that one before, but given the size of the California system, this makes some sense.

Second, Goldenberg is convinced that the test is very coachable, even though the College Board claims otherwise, and the writing portion of the test is the most coachable part of all:

[T]he new writing section (read: a barely modified old writing SAT II) is perhaps the most coachable of any part of any SAT, including all of the SAT II subject tests. (Another ICR survey found that students who received Princeton Review tutoring on their Writing SAT II raised their scores an average of 137 points. Comparable preparation on other SAT II subject tests yielded an increase of around 80 points). A colleague of mine in New York claimed that if given six months’ time, he could help any student get an 800 on the writing test, regardless of the student’s previous score, even 500 or lower. Some of my students also gained about 300 points on the writing test.

Given the prompts I’ve seen, this makes a lot of sense to me. If I were to “coach/teach” test takers, I would be sure to hammer home the idea of writing in a very clear paragraph form (not necessarily a 5 paragraph essay, but something like it), and I would get students to memorize one or two generic “life anecdotes” they could use to frame their essay. I’d recommend this because the prompts seem general enough to allow this sort of “boiler plate” application, and because I think it would read pretty well for evaluators. It seems to me that you don’t want too generic of a 5 paragraph essay, one that begins “In society today;” on the other hand, it also seems to me that you can’t be too creative or take too many risks. Oh yeah– and work on the handwriting, too.

Of course, none of this is “writing” per se. Sharon Crowley talked about this a lot better than I can years and years ago, but essentially, this kind of writing is really filling out a form. But that’s what the test is asking for, isn’t it?

Anyway, I’ve read and written enough about things leading up to the test. What I want to read now are stories/accounts from folks who actually took the test. When all is said and done, I’m curious about how it went.

Some famous building
Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

It’s been a pretty crazy week around here, which is why I haven’t posted much of anything. Just to hit a couple highlights:

* I went to New York City “on business” Monday and Tuesday– details about what business I was on later on. I had a very nice meal with our friend Annette S. at a place called The Turkish Kitchen. Turkish food, it turns out, is pretty much the same as Greek food, though I am certain that neither Turks nor Greeks feel this way. Anyway, really good appetizers and desert, pretty good entrees.

* I got snowed in on Tuesday night in NYC. Fortunately, I figured this out before I went out to the airport, so I was able to have a comfy night in a comfy hotel. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 3:30 am on Wednesday to catch a 6 am flight back home. And just to add to the challenge of it all, I had to teach Wednesday night.

freakin’ more snow
Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

* And ENOUGH WITH THE SNOW ALREADY! I haven’t been out yet (but I have to walk the dog pretty soon), but it looks like we had two or so inches last night, which I think means we’ve set a record for local snow fall for the year. Jeesh. Here’s a picture looking out the window of my study/guest room at the back yard at it.

* Oh, and to top it all off: instead of dieting, I’ve been stress eating for the last month, and, because of things like going to New York, I’ve managed to eat out quite a bit lately, too. This morning, I feel particularly bloated, and, because I have a nasty cold, I feel quite icky. It ain’t good.

I’m going to postpone getting back on the diet wagon for at least a week because I’m going to San Francisco for a convention. But when I get back home, I’m going back to the South Beach diet. I know, I know, some say it’s a fad and all that, and I did get to a point last time when I was on it when I just got “stuck.” But all I know it’s the only thing I’ve ever done where I’ve actually lost some weight. Stay tuned for more adventures in dieting….

I’m trying to fight off a cold, recover from a busy week that included unexpected travel (which also involved being unexpectedly snowed in), and prepare for the upcoming CCCCs pretty much all at the same time. All of which means my head is feeling pretty fuzzy this morning, so you’ll have to bear with me here….

Anyway, Collin’s blog has hosted a lively conversation about the idea of giving a conference presentation by reading an essay (essentially, staying on script), or by speaking from notes. Collin says his presentation this year will actually be a “talk” based on notes and not a paper that he reads word for word, and he suggests that things might be better if more folks took this approach. I would have posted something over there about all this, but it’s been a while since I’ve written much here anyway. So several thoughts:

• My own “speaking role” at this year’s CCCCs is quite small, limited to my place on a “Special Interest Group” session about creative writing. I’m going to be talking about the use of blogs and the “writerly life.” Essentially, I see blogs as a double-edged sword: I find blogging to be a good way to brainstorm and prewrite and I also think it is a great way to get your writing “out there,” which is the goal of any writer, creative or otherwise. On the other hand, I also find blogging to be a fine procrastination tool. Anyway, I’ll have a handout with some recommended blog reading and I’ll “hold forth” for a few minutes tops. What I’m getting at is for this year’s CCCCs, there isn’t much point in my writing up a paper per se.
• I’ve seen bad conference presentations where the speaker simply reads a paper, and I’ve seen bad conference presentations where the speaker attempts to speak from notes. In other words, I don’t think to read or not to read is the problem. I think the problem, as Bradley Dilger points out in the comments on Collin’s post, is that a lot of conference presentations are flat-out poorly prepared.

  If you “read a paper” for a conference presentation that you wrote on the plane and/or on bar napkins the night before, you’ll probably give a pretty crappy presentation. If you “talk from notes” for a presentation prepared in a similar way, you’ll probably give a pretty crappy presentation, too.

• I don’t know if we need to go to a system where we force presenters to prepare by requiring them to actually prepare ahead of time, if for no other reason because conference presentations aren’t usually “worth” it. Let me put it this way: if I had to spend a lot of time writing up a tight essay in order to participate in a conference presentation, then I would probably just send it out to a journal for review.

  I actually kind of like the fact that conference presentations don’t have to be as “thought out” or sharp as a journal article. Sure, there are a lot of half-baked conference presentations; I’ve given a few myself. But I also think most of my publications first began life as a conference presentation which I revised based on feedback at the conference.

• I think whether or not to read a paper or to give a talk based on notes has a lot to do with one’s comfort (or lack thereof) as a public speaker, but it also depends on the forum. When I go to the CCCCs and I go to one of the “featured speaker” sessions, I want to hear those folks read a paper, kind of the same way when I go to a fiction or poetry reading, I want to hear that writer read her or his own work.

  But frankly, my favorite sessions to be on and to see at conferences aren’t papers but roundtables, the ones where folks on a panel each make a short statement and then the bulk of the time is an exchange between panel members and the audience. Which is kind of what I’m hoping happens at my SIG.

Ack. I think I need some cold medicine….

From the comic strip Non Sequitur.

Even though this is the kind of thing I do in front of my computer all the time…

Numa Numa Dance movie (warning: big and noisy download)

PS: I had meant to post this in the middle of the week, which is why I pre-dated it…

Getting ready for the CCCCs in San Francisco, but don’t really know what to do? Check out John “A Writing Teacher” Lovas’ list of stuff to do while not attending sessions. John is a native, so I’m going to trust him on this.

Surprisingly, there was only one free wireless hotspot on his list near the Moscone Center. It couldn’t be that I have better network access in little ‘ol Ypsilanti, could it?

I haven’t had much of a “break” this winter break. I’ve been pretty busy working on some writing projects, getting caught up with teaching, and dealing with some other stressful things. Mostly “good” stress, but not all good, and stress is still stress.

Anyway, I did have a bit of fun. Among other things, I bought the new expansion pack to The Sims 2, “University.” I’m sure that Samantha is jealous.

As a (near) middle-aged male college professor, I don’t think I’m the typical player of The Sims 2. Still, I find the game a good distraction (beats a lot of what’s on TV nowadays), and I figured that this new “College-themed” supplement would be right up my alley. It’s pretty good, though, like many other things with The Sims, this new supplement makes some pretty weird assumptions.

I understand that you can’t really make an entertaining “game” out of the academic life, so it probably isn’t surprising that “University” is more about the social life of college: the dorms, frat houses, hanging out, and so forth. Sims do have to go to class and they declare majors, and different majors are good for different future careers. Most of the majors seem to correspond well to future careers: being an art major will help your Sim in the artist career path, being an economics major will help in a business career path, etc.

So, what’s the best career path for a literature major? Criminal. I kid you not.

I think I’ll play a literature major. Who knows? Maybe he’ll grow up to be a mob leader.

Oh, and PS: at least the makers of The Sims value literature more than philosophy. The ideal career path for philosophy majors is “slacker.”

Will’s school had the first and second grade musical program last night, a production called A Book is a Magic Carpet. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but it’s the best our zoomless and aging digital camera could do. I’m hoping for some better pictures with the film camera.

As this link to a google search suggests, this is a commonly performed production, sort of the grade school equivalent of Guys and Dolls or The Sound of Music. It’s more or less a medley of songs about various children’s books– a number about Dr. Seuss, “Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to work we go,” a couple of numbers about how good it is to read, etc.

Some of the parts included White Rabbit (along with Alice, of course), Snow White (with the dwarfs and the hi-ho number), Fox in Sox, Frogs, and Toads. Will actually had a major speaking part, “narrator #1.” There were a total of four narrators, and these kids pretty much said everything. Some of Will’s lines included:

• “Books are magic carpets that can take us anywhere we want to go. Come on. Hop on board!”
• “Yes, he did, sir! He wrote many! Maybe even ten or twenty! He wrote Horton Hears a Who… of Zooks and Yooks and green eggs, too! Now it’s time to go sir, now, sir” (this was during the Dr. Suess number).
• “I love mud puddles. And they remind me of my favorite book– called Mud. Hey, look! There’s the little girl from Mud now!” (this was a tough ling because Will kept saying “I don’t really like that book.”)
• And a lot of “hey, look there!” and “I don’t know; what do you think?”

Anyway, he did a fantastic job and it was of course the best production I’ve seen, well, ever. Of course, I might be a bit biased.