Category: Rhetoric

White Vernacular English: The Boss of Student Writing

6/1/2018

Photo: 12news

I’ve taught freshman composition courses for almost two years now, expecting my diverse body of students from multicultural backgrounds to all coalesce and perform to one standard above all others: White Vernacular English (WVE) or White American Vernacular English (WAVE). As writers, we pride ourselves on being open-minded yet authentic, and we hope our students do the same—as long as they adhere to what we consider valid style of writing. Why have the rigid, outdated principles the foundation of college composition was built on not shifted to accept other vernaculars?

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Stop Hating on “They:” Language Evolution and Gender Pronouns

4/15/2015

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American English Grammar. A 300 level course. At 8:00 a.m. I took my seat, mid row, and looked down to find a single slip of paper on my desk. One sat on each desk and as each student filed in, a buzzing silence filled the room.

by Jessica O'Shea

Everyone wants a slice of cake for themselves.

The only text on the paper. The professor, a woman who had taught the course many times, took her position at the front. She asked us what, if anything, was grammatically wrong with the sentence. Silence reigned. One girl bravely raised her hand. “Nothing?” The professor’s smile was grim. Incorrect. You’ve failed. Return to grade school, do not pass Go.

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Obscenity In Modern Lit: Where Do We Draw the Line?

3/16/2015

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by Kaitlin Zeilman

Human beings are artistic and creative by nature. There always should be a conduit for fresh ideas not only to enrich the mind, but also to enlarge possibilities for the world in general. Limiting the options for the creative freedom of others never should be considered an option. Does anyone really think a law could have stopped Chopin, Huxley, or Salinger from writing some of the greatest works of our time?

Author Martin C. Dillon from SUNY Binghamton said everyone has different notions of what could be considered obscene. Authors depict or allude to the subject of sexuality or innuendo differently based on personal style, or per each individual body of work. Where do we draw the line for the sake of creative and artistic freedom? Classics such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Madame Bovary have been banned from some libraries and schools because of the sexual content, yet these books are considered by many to be highly respected literary art. Where does the gauntlet fall?

Should lawmakers and conservative groups be able to limit what might seemingly be uncomfortable to some, even if such literary works have a message that extends far beyond the face value of the content?

(Photos courtesy of Flickr and Wikipedia.)

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The 320-Pound Racist in the (Locker) Room

10/2/2014

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by Steve Royek

The professional football career of Richie Incognito is probably over and he faces a life of being known as the white player who harassed black teammate Jonathan Martin with threatening and racist texts and voice messages.

Could he, however, soon be trading in his orange and turquoise Miami Dolphins’ uniform for an orange prison jumpsuit?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

If Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. had his way, he just might.

Of all the names swirling around this sad, salacious scandal of language-based threats and violent rhetoric, one of the most interesting might be that of the former U.S. Supreme Court justice. Holmes authored the landmark 1919 “Schenck v. United States” opinion that set legal guidelines

for violent speech with the often-quoted “shouting fire in a theatre” analogy. “Schenck” was the first high court ruling to carve out an exception to the once-absolute Freedom of Speech protection in the Bill of Rights.

Over the years, those exceptions have been crystalized into a three-part test of protected violent speech: Is there intent to commit a violent act, is that action imminent, and is there a strong likelihood the act will be carried out? All three of these tests appear to have been met in the Incognito affair, which opens up the player to criminal charges of terroristic threats.

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Prompt Perceptions

3/3/2013

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Prompt Perceptions:
Considerations of the Uses and Attitudes of Writing Prompts

Karen Holloway

image credit: ThinkGeek

A magazine exists, as part of a graduate program at the university where you are a grad student. You are an editor for this literary magazine. Your professor / managing editor gives you an assignment: Choose a specific and interesting literary-based topic and write an editorial. Add to the current discussions on this topic. 800-1500 words.

This is your prompt. Prompts are the topic provided, and the call to action for a writing task. They are the question or challenge for which we, the doers, are posed. You find this assignment interesting by nature. You decide to look into the prompt, that it is likely that such a thing cannot be dated to any specific event or time. But you wonder when the prompt as a literary device became popular? Your online search yields results like: “SAT Writing Prompts for Practice,” “A Goldmine of Journal Prompts,” “Getting Real: Authenticity in Writing Prompts.” These seem like a mix of exercises for students advancing to college, adults who enjoy writing, and professional and aspiring writers. However, you can recall being prompted in grade school. You once wrote a reinterpretation of a play, a nature journal, and of course, “What did you do over summer break?”

You think, it happened before that; when you were a small child? We prompt our children before they learn to read or write? “What other things start with the letter ‘D’? Can you tell me a story about the things you see on the way to school?” We do this to reinforce education out of the classroom, to encourage a fondness for long-term learning.

America’s college freshman composition classroom of the 1960s and 70s allowed free, expressive writing, new journalism and discussions of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement. With the 80s came the culture war and the “all-prompt,” career-driven curriculum. The 90s brought out the debate between the “personal” and the “academic” writing to be taught and the urge to identify political inequalities and empower students to take action through their writing. The 00s brought new questions between genre lines and the decline of the printed newspaper and the emergence of blogs. Now we explore new media writing and multimodal works; a realm where graphic memoirs and screen prose are being pushed. All this, through prompts from our teachers and peers or society.

There are perceptions surrounding prompts. Some writers find simple joy in them; approach them as brainstorming teasers or challenges.

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White Vernacular English: The Boss of Student Writing

Stop Hating on “They:” Language Evolution and Gender Pronouns

Obscenity In Modern Lit: Where Do We Draw the Line?

The 320-Pound Racist in the (Locker) Room

Prompt Perceptions

Prompt Perceptions:
Considerations of the Uses and Attitudes of Writing Prompts

Karen Holloway

Archives

Categories

White Vernacular English: The Boss of Student Writing

Stop Hating on “They:” Language Evolution and Gender Pronouns

Obscenity In Modern Lit: Where Do We Draw the Line?

The 320-Pound Racist in the (Locker) Room

Prompt Perceptions

Prompt Perceptions: Considerations of the Uses and Attitudes of Writing PromptsKaren Holloway

Archives

Categories

Prompt Perceptions:
Considerations of the Uses and Attitudes of Writing Prompts

Karen Holloway