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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Jacobs on Blog

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems that we have another person who will not admit to reading it!

The way the questions were asked were left handed complaints about the blog:

1) Is the blog a forum for teaching how to write? (I don't think that the proponents of the blog ever advertised it this way so I would say, the answer is no and there certainly is no intent to make it a teaching forum.)

2) Is the blog juvenile? (I would say that at times, it is. The difference between parody and peoples' definition of juvenility is not well defined. But, that should not hinder contributions.)

3) Does the blog demean people? (I would answer this as saying that it demeans people at worst no more than they have already demeaned themselves. )

4) Is it hard to contribute to the blog or to respond to the blog? (I can certainly say that I, not on the bog's staff and not personally knowing who are, have found no problems in having my comments published.)

I believe this blog has been a service to the university as a whole, not just Arts and Sciences. I am not in the College of Arts and Sciences; however, I daily will pull up the blog on my screen to read events and actions occurring on the campus that are not published elsewhere.

Faculty on this campus have little opportunity to either provide comment on the administration's activities or to provide input to their decision making. The Faculty Senate is a big joke with a large number of administrators (Chairs, Associate Deans, and Directors) holding the position as Senators. The agenda is so filled with administrative speakers that there is no debate amongst the teaching faculty. And when administrators speak before the Faculty Senate, they often evade answering any of the questions asked. At times, they have knowingly lied in their presentations. Both the Provost and the CFO have been caught in their lies.

But this blog has provided an alternative means for both providing information and for providing a sounding board. The providers of this blog deserve a big thank you, our appreciation and our support for their continuous efforts.

Anonymous said...

That's quite a quote by Jacobs regarding the First Amendment:

"...they don't necessarily need exercising in order to be retained as part of our freedoms and culture."

Is he exempting the University?

Anonymous said...

"Is the blog a forum for teaching how to write?"

Affirmative. See here (#4):

http://www.slideshare.net/
frankcalberg/11-advantages-
of-using-a-blog-for-teaching

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:04,

Looks like typical corporate learning programs: all fluff, little substance.

Anonymous said...

If this is you guys teaching writing then I mastered writing at a college level in the 8th grade.

Bloggie said...

Too bad you stopped so soon.

Anonymous said...

Please. This is an excellent forum to teach writing. Many unnecessary words are used to express ideas that require few, and are frequently not worth expressing in the first place.

Length is inserted in the place of substance. It certainly sounds like the college writing I did at this university. Write lots, use big words, say nothing. Got me A's from profs just like you all. I doubt much has changed since the 1990s.

Bloggie said...

That's so sad. You cheated your way through school and now rebuke your professors for it.

Anonymous said...

Didn't cheat. I wrote all my own papers and I write very well now. I'm merely pointing out that in order to write a paper deemed excellent by UT professors, all I had to do was pull together long, repetitive, big-worded ideas. My point is only that the bar for "excellent writing" didn't seem very high. And as you all seem to consider this forum a representative of your efforts to teach writing, it makes sense now.

Bloggie said...

You cheated yourself. Think about it.

Incidentally, in nowise does this blog advertise itself as a writing clinic.

There are few really good writers anywhere. University training on the whole merely tries to make sure you aren't an embarrassment to yourself.

Gretchen Grunt said...

Whoa and hold it! Talk is cheap. Let's have a write off. In a hundred words or less craft an essay titled "The Future of Our A&S College". Post your essay here as a comment and identify yourself with a fake name. The contest ends in a week (Friday, May 14, midnight). Blog readers can discuss and decide which essay entry is in their opinion the best example of The Writer's Craft. The winner will receive a signed copy of Robert Zemsky's faculty-friendly "Remaking the American University: Market-Smart and Mission-Centered" (2005).