Updates

Hello, class:

Thanks for your interesting and insightful commentary so far this semester. There's no post due for Monday, but do remember to bring a hard copy of your final draft to class on Monday.

Have a good weekend!

--Elizabeth

Dan Macon - Limerick

I really did enjoy reading this article. I do agree with Limerick to some extent. I do find myself awt times taking courses in which the proffessors make thiings entirely too difficult to understand. I believe that is not there intensions, but they do not realise how dull the reading is for students. I think it has to do with the way they present the readings. They need to use the students language to grab there attention and then push maybe a little towards there own language. I believe the profs should aim to build upon students creativity and individuality not just load them with dull readings with complex language.

Rubin Response

One problem with academic discourse is that it is assumed that people know what a professor or student is talking about and a brief explanation is entirely too short and does not fully inform. This assumption that everyone already knows what they are talking about can lead to confusion and miscommunication. An example of this is in Rubin’s article when she discusses the teacher’s bare boned syllabi. The worst examples being the “listers” and the “scolders” both of which don’t give enough useful information and end up frustration and stressing out their students. In my opinion it wouldn’t hurt to slow things down and explain important information more clearly. I say risk be redundant for the sake of better understanding.

Response Fri Sept 7

The problem that I focused on in the readings was the inefficient communication between student and educator. Limerick and Rubin had similar views that stated it’s not the illegible syllabus that creates confusion; it’s the lack of communication between a student and educator.

Rubin wanted you to know what it was like from the student’s point of view. From the student’s perspective, the syllabus was hard and incomprehensible. Limerick wanted you to know what it was like from an educator’s point of view. Although both give different views, they are giving the same major point, academic discourse. In order for a student to succeed to the best of their abilities, there needs to be a mutual understanding. The mutual understanding needs to be known by both educator and student and as soon as possible. The understanding includes the awareness of the student to be able to ask and receive help from the educator and the awareness of the educator to be asked and give out help to the student.

As hshoenl said in the education class the first thing we were told to do with a new class was to get to know the students. That way the students feel welcomed by you and you also feel welcomed by the students. There is already some respect built into getting to know the students.

Rubin`

Rubin points out the problem with the syllabus. The problem Rubin has with the syllabus is that it is vague and she cannot undersand it. I've had problems with syllabi in the past because of a lack of standardization. Syllabi that are not detailed ultimately cause problems for the students and make an unsuccessful coarse. Although professors may mention which books are neccessary, when homework is assigned, ect. in class, the students feel more respected and secure when it is on the syllabus and they know exactly what to expect.

The average full time student has four to six classes, works part-time and is socially involved, whether its friends or on campus activities. Knowing exactly what's due in a future date will put the students' minds at ease. Rubin also mentions knowing the prerequisites neccessary for the course, this is also a helpful addition that would make life easier for the student. When life is easy for students, class is better for the professor because students are well prepared and excited about class and discussions.

limerick response

i could not agree more with what Limerick has stated because there are times that our assigned reading is so dull and so abstract that discussing a portion of it, is almost impossible. i have an ethics class, just one class out of my other 4, but the reading that i just finished for the thursdays class was just dull. trying to figure out how to talk about it was tough. then you have professors who when giving lectures try to impress us with huge words and sentance structure that you sit there with your mouth open thinking huh and then if like me you just start to day dream or doodle or something. a lot of writing to me is done with a certain about of arrogance, the author is some how saying that i am smarter then you and if you do not understand what i am writing then that means i have more education then you, i am smarter, etc. as we mentioned in some peoples response that professors want us to write something using our sources as a guide but if we interpert something wrong, or we right it in a way that is easily understood then many times we the student are wrong. this is just my opinion however.

Limerick

In this article, Limerick is stating the fact that professors are making thing entirly too difficult to understand. Yeah, these profs may be brilliant in there field of study but they have defaulted to writing in a very dull and complex way. In the passage it says that these profs think that this is what the students want. The point is, the professors do not spark any type of creative and unique language from the students because thier personal language is so flat and lame. The profs need to know that students do not learn based on there ridiculous Once they get to the point of acedemic ingenious, they alomost give up on writing in a creative way. Professors feel that writing in this "dull and dreary way" is what people want. All in all, it limits students creativity and individuality.

My response to Limerick

In Limerick's article she kept mentioning how a lot of academic writing is dull, and long sentences. then the professors just ask for the opposite thing in return something that has your own voice to it. but to use the reading as a guide for your writing. I find that most of the time people will just pick a sentence or two and somehow word it into their paper if they did not understand the long and boring reading. I think that it is a problem it is hard to find good understandable good academic writing. I think that most of the people who write those things are not thinking how a reader would react to this. There are very few textbooks that i had not found difficult or interesting to read. I would think that when an academic writer is writing something for others to learn from that it should be tough at parts but pretty understanding. Most of the time I do not think that is the case.