Let me get this straight: so the goal of this course is to get *undergraduate* research posted on Wikipedia...so it can be considered "expert knowledge" and promptly plagiarized by other lazy undergrads?!Shove over, Bubba. Imma need some of that bourbon.
YES BOURBON PLEASE
ReplyDeleteGet them for the house.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm supplying bourbon for the house this time.
DeleteIn fairness, the instructor seems to be trying to *raise* student writing to the level of wiki-pda, which we should all be able to agree is a worthy short-term goal.
ReplyDeleteRaising student writing to the level of Wikipedia. Sweet mother of fuck that's a depressing goal.
ReplyDeleteBubba? (looks hopeful)
It reminds me of Harold Bloom's criticism of Harry Potter novels. He was horrified that their advocates note without irony that they prepare young readers to go on to become readers of Steven King novels.
DeleteBack in the '60s, my Dad didn't like me to read Mad magazines, or even Doctor Seuss, so I instead took to reading Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Now, adults are happy when kids do any reading whatsoever.
OK, well, Frod, I was allowed to read anything, as long as it was the printed word -- comics, porn, the back of a cereal box, my dad's linguistic textbooks, whatever. TV was all but forbidden. By the time I was 7 I was reading about 15 hours a week and grew up to be an English prof. So, you know, any reading whatsoever is still OK with me.
DeleteLike F&T, my sibling and I had no real restrictions on reading material growing up, so I support the any-reading-is-good philosophy. (Among my favorites were the copies of Ms. magazine that my mother carefully planted around the house.) The only downside for me is that my eyes have been nearsighted to blindness level since high school, but hey! I made it through grad school in a lit department! (And there's always Lasik!)
DeleteSo, F&T, if you read 15 hrs a week you will end an English professor . That's my story too -- not in English -- and yet the dumbest student in my High School class is now Speaker at the regional house of representatives, with a clear shot to governorship. So maybe we should encourage our children to stay away from books.
Delete(Speaker, house of representatives, governorship roughly translate their equivalents in the old country).
Counterexample (and Froderick is probably another): I, like Froad, read anything that I could get my hands on, better than 15 hours a week (sometimes reading 1200 pages in one sitting). I did better on my linguistic SAT and GRE than I did in the math.
DeleteBut I'm not an English proffie.
OMG, I rebelled against going into teaching, but it was genetically predetermined for me to become an English prof b/c of my reading habits. Confounded by that damned reading!
DeleteIf I could get my college students to read anything beyond Wikipedia (which they only read to get randomly irrelevant quotes), I'd probably be marginally happier than I am now.
Jules Verne versus Mad magazine? Now I think I understand your trouble with the Doppler effect.
DeleteI guess I'm lucky. Most of my students are almost at that level.
ReplyDeleteScrew the bourbon; it's Everclear® time.
I think I might need some bath salts!
ReplyDelete