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Collaborative Learning Activity: Poetry Writing
We sat around a table with interesting objects we had brought from home. A community of poet wannabes. Or poetry machines, Randy Marshall our chief instigator cheekily called us. He led us to write poems inspired by the stories we shared about the items. A good activity that I could use one day with my students, if Randy doesn’t mind.Poetry writing sharpens our minds and writing. I like the opportunity it provides for us to be precise and playful with words. It is a great learning activity to try in…
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Blogging is Not a To-Do List Item
Sometimes we don’t know how good we have it until it is gone. The Blizzard of 2015 in New York sent some cross-continental friends whatsapp-ing me two days ago to check if I was out of harm’s way. Some of them think I’m still in New York state. It brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. My dad used to worry about things like these. It is a blessing to be a child of someone. To have someone worry about you; enough to call and wonder…
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Crusading for Careful Crisp Writing
I begin with a story of a time in a graduate writing class. We were assigned to write dissertation abstracts. It was time to share our work. A colleague projected hers with the instructor’s document camera. We could all read what she wrote except that I could not make out what the abstract was all about. The writing was convoluted and full of technical words from the specific subject area. Surprisingly, everyone around me applauded and the instructor lavished praise on her. This was several years back. I wished I…
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The Writing Process
Source: http://www.historicroyalpalaces.com/victorian-writing-set.html “If the only time you decide to enjoy yourself is when everything is perfect, you are never going to have much fun!” – Joyce Meyer R-i-g-h-t! Writing a dissertation is often described as an isolating and alienating experience. It’s not much fun most times, and far from perfect. One really needs to make a deliberate choice to focus on the good parts and create some fun for oneself. “Such as?” When everything becomes overwhelming, I walk away and do something I enjoy and find inspiration in. Get away…
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Percolating thoughts on diss writing
“The goal of a research paper is not to inform the reader what others have to say about a topic, but to draw on what others have to say about a topic and engage the sources in order to thoughtfully offer a unique perspective on the issue at hand. This is accomplished through two major types of research papers….” Argumentative and analytical. Purdue OWL web.
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Writing Tip
Something to note as I write: The group was “intrigued by the challenge of creating short stories that would defy audiences’ expectations of the subject,” said Aniston. “We wanted the balance of drama with humor and irreverence … we wanted stories that were informative without being heavy-handed. Oh, and they needed to be brilliantly written.” Read more.
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Modern Cuneiform
i stare oblivious to the glare paper mountains scaled, as yet in vain there is no respite thoughts they desist word strings, one and then a few in caprice, halts and spews solitude incubates this industry of zeal and rage ~ author, ywk, jan 17, 2010
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Paulo Freire, Boal, hooks…
More names to get acquainted with. Wish I know how to speed-read! Just lugged 10 books back from the Bird Lib. The librarian even placed them in a bag for me. Wow! The library is spiffing up not just physically. R sent me a paper she had co-authored on a title I had envisioned for a possible project. But of course, my research will extend their study. I will develop a new perspective to the topic as an instructional design research student doing interdisciplinary work. She also sent me links…
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Funneling Down
I feel like I’m plunging deeper into the funnel, from a broad topic to an increasingly narrower focus (I think this metaphor came from Sari Biklen’s book on writing a qual research dissertation). What a blessing in disguise not doing my original topic is! I realize I’m a pretty intuitive person. I sensed from writing that 10-11 pages of my first proposal (a lot of hard work it was) that something was not going right. Abandoning it was hard. Not having support after thinking I had it was even harder.…
