I really appreciate having the opportunity to share my work, and I was able to do that last Thursday thanks to the Dissertation Fellows Conference: those of us given a dissertation fellowship for the 08-09 school year were required to provide a 20-25 page excerpt and then give a 15-20 minute talk based on the work we've... Continue Reading →
Hmm. . .
"unconscious cerebration": Phrase used to describe the views of a school of invention dubbed the "new romantics" by Richard Young in "Concepts of Art and the Teaching of Writing" (I'm reading the text in Landmark Essays on Rhetorical Invention, edited (not coincidentally) by Richard Young and Yameng Liu. I like it. Even though I know... Continue Reading →
And now, some quotes I found particularly interesting from these surveys
Question 1: "Why did you enroll in ENG 225 (required for major, wanted more composition courses, etc.)?" I wanted to enroll in a course that would give me more experience with different writing styles Cuz [sic] it was required, had I better understood the format of the course, I would have signed up for personal... Continue Reading →
Initial observations from the 225 surveys
12/16 (17) students filled out survey-approximately 1/3 left at least one question blank, and the questions left blank most often were the definitions. Most people took it because it was required by their major/program; 1 person took it on the recommendation of a pre-law adviser; a few people took it to develop their writing skills... Continue Reading →
Guess what I found?
A "Topoi" widget over on Widgetbox, which was apparently developed by the writing program at USC (Southern Cal and not South Carolina, I do believe). You can post it on Myspace, Facebook, iGoogle, various blogging platforms. . .huh. Check it out:
what have I done today, exactly?
yoga from 8-9. might have been my most productive hour all day. made a stab at cleaning out my myMiami inbox. . .though there's still 5 pages worth of messages to get through. perused Google reader. rinse. repeat. checked other emails. . . see #3. read maybe 3 pages of E.W. Harrington's Rhetoric and the Scientific Method of... Continue Reading →
yoga and remembered rapture
Writer's block would be putting it mildly. . .I am avoiding the dissertation, completely and totally. Even though I am sitting here in the library with my fellow dissertators, who I know are being productive. Meanwhile, I'm perusing google reader, checking email and facebook, and thinking about insignificant wedding details. How did I make it... Continue Reading →
Once again. . .
I disappeared for a while. In the meantime, though, I did send my dissertation director 19 pages of a chapter, which she read and responded to in a conference with me yesterday. The chapter should end up being twice as long as it is now. . .I need to complicate the designations on which I... Continue Reading →
I should be working on my second chapter
by now. But I'm not. . .I'm still overwhelmed by the joy of knowing as much as humanly possible about invention studies. Ack. On the bright side, I've been thinking of other ways to complicate my place as topos in invention studies discussion, thanks to the (old) review-essay I just finished--"A Critical Survey of Resources... Continue Reading →
Selecting Facts and Avoiding Wedding Meltdowns
I have not gotten as much dissertation work done today as I would have liked, due to the fact that I am worried about my wedding: my mother, who I love dearly and for whom I am grateful during the wedding planning process, has been looking for reception sites. She found one she loved--The Brown... Continue Reading →
essaying the plains 