November, 2009 Maxims Date : 11-19 20:12: Views: 1731 Comments : 0 Topic :Aphorisms Aphorisms Date : 11-17 13:25: Views: 1017 Comments : 0 Topic :Aphorisms Review of The Lexicographer's Dilemma Date : 11-03 19:51: Views: 5315 Comments : 0 Topic :Books gpullman@gsu.edu | Published: 08-04 2008 Title: Why learn to write or think? Topic: CTW Interesting rant over there at "Building a Software Company" about an incompetent and inarticulate VP for sales. It is called "How to Hire an Idiot." There's a really wonderful piece about the need for effective writing towards the end of the narrative. It's too full of explitives to quote and length here but worth a click. (link). Well, maybe just a taste. I started reading this thing and my face dropped in horror. It was the writing of a grade schooler. I'm no professional writer either, but... it was absolutely awful. Simplistic writing, full of cliches, full of grammatical errors, and absolutely lacking in any structure. It was just random thoughts strung together, topics bouncing around from idea to idea from one sentence to the next. There was no exposition of the customer's problem and how we were going to solve it, it was just him gushing about how "great" our product is and how "lots" of people like it. It was dizzying to read because there was no logic behind it -- it was along the lines of "This product is great. You will like this product, guaranteed. It has feature A. Feature C is great because it's so easy to use! It has feature B. The other great thing about feature C is tons of people told us they love it. Tons. It has feature D." (New paragraph)... on and on for 15 pages. Published: 07-22 2008 Title: Highschoolers and short answer essays Topic: CTW Article about texas kids having trouble reading a passage and then writing about it using critical thinking skills. Calls in to question teaching methods based on test scores. link Published: 07-18 2008 Title: Levels of accomplishment Topic: CTW A four point operationalized scale from least to most accomplished. knows the material -- can repeat what was said and done in class can use the material -- can apply the material to new situations or create new tasks can infer and predict from the material -- can explain the material, its development and future or trajectory can create new material -- can add to the body of knowledge, at least in some small way (undergrads after all) Input
AdminAdd Email updates Links
Aldaily Blogrunner Books24/7 Digg Gizmodo Google News Inform Internet news LifeHacker News Now UK News Wire Overheard NYC rhetcomp Sifry's Alerts Web Dev Hndbk Webcreme Topics 8123 (47)adult literacy (20) Aphorisms (8) Blogging (81) Blogging & Teaching (3) Blogging History (0) Blogging Software (16) Books (34) CMS (5) commonplaces (22) Composition (9) critical thinking (3) CSS (33) CTW (3) DTP (2) E-texts (1) Epolitics (2) Home Repair (1) InfoVis (2) Java (0) Javascript (3) misc (29) MySQL (1) news (1) Open source (3) PHP (35) PR (2) QEP (3) rhetoric (39) Robotic grading (6) RSS (6) Social Software (2) Software (9) Teaching (15) Usability (2) Writing (41) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||