Words That Work by Frank Luntz

You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs. It's not enough to be correct or reasonable or even brilliant. The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener's shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. -xi

In essence, it is listener-centered; their perceptions trump whatever "objective" reality a given word or phrase you use might be presumed to have. Again, what matters isn't what you say, it's what people hear. -xiv

In particular, there are seven additional words that have particular powers of persuasion in the world of business, politics, and everyday life, starting with the most powerful: "consequences." -xxv

[The seven new words are consequences, impact, diplomacy, dialogue, reliability, mission, and commitment.)

Never use a sentence when a phrase will do, and never use four words when three can say just as much. -7

So when it comes to effective communication, small beats large, short beats long, and plain beats complex. And sometimes a visual beats them all. -8

As individuals, while we appreciate the predictability of friends and family, we also cherish those things that surprise and shock us--provided that the outcome is pleasant rather than painful. It's the reason why many of us, in our free time, prefer to try different vacation destinations, different hotels, different restaurants, and different experiences rather than the tried and true. -15

Few words--indeed, few messages of any kind--whether in politics or in the business world, are ingested in isolation. Their meanings are shaped and shaded by the regional biases, life experiences, education, assumptions, and prejudices of those who receive them. -35

The language lesson: A+B+C does not necessarily equal C+B+A. The order of presentation determines the reaction. The right order equals the right context. -41

Americans say we are spending too much on "welfare" (42 percent) rather than too little (23 percent). Yet an overwhelming 68 percent of Americans think we are spending too little on "assistance to the poor," versus a mere 7 percent who think we're spending too much. --46

What I'm arguing is that "welfare" and "assistance to the poor" are in fact different topics. --47

We are a nation of moderate, cautious people with a reform bent, a conservative temperament, and a can-do spirit. We will rise to every occasion and meet every crisis, but we would rather not. -61

Ironically, one of the most effective negative attacks in politics is to accuse your opponent of being . . . negative. -61

I return to the Warren Beatty mantra once again: "People forget what you say, but they remember how you made them feel." -82

Tell someone "two plus two," but let him put them together himself and say "four"--and he is transformed from a passive observer to an active participant. -83

The same people who have no problem forking over $2.65 for a cappuccino at Starbucks will complain bitterly about the cost of a $2.65 pill that keeps them sufficiently health and active so that they can consume whatever unhealthy item Starbucks is selling. -95

Most cereals geared toward children sell energy, excitement, adventure, and the potential for fun--even more than the actual taste of the sugar-coated rice or wheat puffs in the cardboard box. -104

Among Advertising Age's top 100 ad campaigns of all time:
-Only eight involve sex.
-Only seven feature celebrities.
-Only four play on consumer fears and insecurities.
The idea has primacy. Accessible language rules. --117

He broke a cardinal rule of political communication: never repeat a criticism as part of your rebuttal. -120

[The following are a list of Words that Work: Words changed to similar ones with better connotations.]

Gambling vs Gaming
Estate Tax vs Death Tax
Liquor vs Spirits
Capitalism vs the Free Market
Honest Data vs Accurate Data
Banks vs Credit Unions
Corporate Accountability vs Corporate Responsibility

Since I knew that many people would only read the first and last items in the document, I asked that the Contract begin and end with the two highest-priority proposals in the eyes of the voters: a balanced budget amendment and term limits. -156

From a polling perspective, "personalizing" Social Security has a 17 percent advantage over "privatizing" it. -170

Myth: Americans Read
False.
In all my years of conducting polls, dial sessions, and focus groups, I've found again and again that nobody reads. -187

[Tony Robbins quote]
Words change our emotions, whether we know it or not, so I teach people what I call transformational vocabulary--the words you use to change your emotions. I don't mean looking in the mirror and saying "I am good enough, I am strong enough, and by golly people love me." I'm not talking about that crap.
I am talking about a one word change. If I say to you, "We are going to have a break and we are going to have some nutritious food, nutritious snacks. . . ' look at your faces [the participants shake their heads, frowning], but if I say they are delicious . . . [laughter] . . . a very different reaction. -206

And that's why the term "family values" (45 percent) tests better than "traditional values" (18 percent), "American values" (17 percent), or "community values" (11 percent). -217




-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Franks Ten Language Rules
Simplicity: small words
Brevity: short sentences
Credibility
Consistency
Novelty
Sound and texture matter
Be aspirational
Visualize
Ask a question
Provide context and relevance
and sometimes

A strong visual will trump them all.

Thinking Clearly About Taxes

The first thing to get straight is the different types of taxes
income tax
capital gains tax
property tax
Payroll tax
Sales tax
Estate tax
Corporate taxes
State and Federal fees for X,Y, and Z

The next thing to get straight is the different types of income tax systems
Progressive
Flat
(the only alternative to income tax systems is a sales tax system)

The third thing to get straight is tax history.
We used to be taxed at much higher rates at some points.
There were some times with incredible growth under this system.
We used to be taxed at much lower rates at some points.
There were some times with incredible growth under this system.

The fourth thing to get straight is what happens when tax rates are changed.
Republicans believe it will increase economic growth and (perhaps) tax revenues. They believe that the top earners are the investors in new businesses that spur economic growth. Therefore they would (probably) prefer to cut the top rates and leave others unchanged.
Democrats believe that targeted tax cuts are more effective at this than across the board rate drops. Dems believe that taxes are more like dues.
Everyone intelligent accepts that poor and rich people will react to having additional money in different ways. The poor spend it locally. The rich may spend it, save it, or invest it.

The fifth thing to get straight is who you can trust about taxes.
Neither party.
Snopes.com, politifact.com, factcheck.com
The tax policy institute and the Club for Growth are informative but dangerous. They both have an agenda.
The CBO, GAO, and the OMB are more reliable.
Media matters, fair.org - can be trusted to bust republican lies about em
MRO.org, drudge report - can be trusted to bust liberal lies about em

Our minds can be a pain in the ass

http://www.cracked.com/article_18823_5-insane-ways-words-can-control-your-mind.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_18823_5-insane-ways-words-can-control-your-mind_p2.html


http://www.cracked.com/article_18704_5-mind-blowing-ways-your-memory-plays-tricks-you.html?wa_user1=4&wa_user2=Science&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended

Key Questions about Nonverbal Communication

1. What does research say about nonverbal communication and its function?
2. What are tutors trying to accomplish?
3. Is there any research about NVC and tutoring?
4. What does the research say about NVC and tutoring?
5. Is there any research about NVC and teaching?
6. What does the research say about NVC and teaching?
7. What are the major methods of performing nonverbal research?
8. Are there any important articles about tutoring and nonverbal communication?
9. Are there any important articles about nonverbal communication that are relevant, even though they don't directly reference teaching/tutoring?
10. Are writing center directors aware of nonverbal communication research?
11.Is nonverbal communication ability a factor in tutor hiring?
12.Is nonverbal communication ability a factor in tutor training?
13.Is nonverbal communication ability a factor in tutor evaluations/professional development?
14.

Stumbling on Happiness

by Daniel Gilbert

Rather than saying that such brains are predicting, let's say they are nexting.
Yours is nexting right now. For example, at this moment you may be consciously thinking about the sentence you just read, or about the key ring in your pocket that is jammed uncomfortably against your thigh, or about whether the War of 1812 really deserves its own overture. Whatever you are thinking, your thoughts are surely about something other than the word with which this sentence will end. But even as you hear these very words echoing in your very head, and think whatever thoughts they inspire, your brain is using the word it is reading right now and the words it read just before to make a reasonable guess about the identity of the word it will read next, which is what allows you to read so fluently. (6-7)

The surprisingly right answer is that people find it gratifying to exercise control--not just for the futures it buys them, but for the exercise itself. Being effective--changing things, influencing things, making things happen--is one of the fundamental needs with which human brains seem to be naturally endowed. -22

We insist on steering our boats because we think we have a pretty good idea of where we should go, but the truth is that much of our steering is in vain--not because the boat won't respond, and not because we can't find our destination, but because the future is fundamentally different than it appears through the prospectiscope. Just as we experience illusions of eyesight ("Isn't it strange how one line looks longer than the other even though it isn't?") and illusions of hindsight ("Isn't it strange how I can't remember taking out the garbage even though I did?"), so too do we experience illusions of foresight--and all three types of illusion are explained by the same basic principles of human psychology. (25)

In Part III, "Realism," I will tell you about the second shortcoming: Imagination works so quickly, quietly, and effectively that we are insufficiently skeptical of its products. (26)

In Part IV, "Presentism," I will tell you about the second shortcoming: Imagination's products are . . . well, not particularly imaginative, which is why the imagined future often looks so much like the actual present. (26)

In Part V, "Rationalization," I will tell you about the third shortcoming: Imagination has a hard time telling us how we will think about the future when we get there. If we have trouble foreseeing future events, then we have even more trouble foreseeing future events, then we have even more trouble foreseeing how we will see them when they happen. (26)

Apparently, the describers' verbal descriptions of their experiences "overwrote" their memories of the experiences themselves, and they ended up remembering not what they had experienced but what they had said about what they experienced. (44)

Studies such as these demonstrate that once we have an experience, we cannot simply set it aside and see the world as we would have seen it had the experience never happened. (53)

[He uses the story of Adolph Fischer and George Eastman and an example. Both supported worker's rights and had surprising endings to their life story. Eastman was a success who committed suicide. Fischer was a failure, hanged for a crime that he didn't commit, yet he said his last day was the "happiest day of his life."]

This general finding--that information acquired after an event alters memory of the event--has been replicated so many times in so many different laboratory and field settings that it has left most scientists convinced of two things. First, the act of remembering involves "filling in" details that were not actually stored; and second, we generally cannot tell when we are doing this because filling in happens quickly and unconsciously. (88)

Experiments such as these suggest that we do not outgrow realism so much as we learn to outfox it, and that even as adults our perceptions are characterized by an initial moment of realism. (97)

There are endless variations on spaghetti, and this particular variation you imagined surely influenced how much you expected to enjoy the experience. Because these details are so crucial to an accurate prediction of your response to the event you were imagining, and because these important details were not known, you would have been wise to withhold your prediction . . . (100)

Pigeons have no trouble figuring out that the presence of a light signals an opportunity for eating, but they cannot learn the same thing about the absence of a light. Research suggests that human beings are a bit like pigeons in this regard. (107)

If the past is a wall with some holes, the future is a hole with no walls. (126)

When we have an experience--hearing a particular sonata, making love with a particular person, watching the sun set from a particular window of a particular room--on successive occasions, we quickly begin to adapt to it, and the experience yields less pleasure each time. Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it marriage. But human beings have discovered two devices that allow them to combat this tendency: variety and time. (144)

One of the reasons why most of us think of ourselves as talented, friendly, wise, and fair-minded is that these words are the lexical equivalents of a Necker cube, and the human mind naturally exploits each word's ambiguity for its own gratification. (174)

We may see the world through rose-colored glasses, but rose-colored glasses are neither opaque nor clear. They can't be opaque because we need to see the world clearly enough to participate in it--to pilot helicopters, harvest corn, diaper babies, and all the other stuff that smart mammals need to do in order to survive and thrive. But they can't be clear because we need their rosy tint to motivate us to design the helicopters ("I'm sure this thing will fly"), plant the corn ("This year will be a banner crop") and tolerate the babies ("What a bundle of joy!"). We cannot do without reality and we cannot do without illusion. Each serves a purpose, each imposes a limit on the influence of the other, and our experience of the world is the artful compromise that these tough competitors negotiate. (177)

For example, studies reveal that people have a penchant for asking questions that are subtly engineered to manipulate the answers they receive. A question such as "Am I the best lover you've ever had?" is dangerous because it has only one answer that can make us truly happy, but a question such as "What do you like best about my lovemaking?" is brilliant because it has only one answer that can make us truly miserable (or two if you count "It reminds me of Wilt Chamberlain"). (182)

Wilhelm von Osten was a retired schoolteacher who in 1891 claimed that his stallion, whom he called Clever Hans, could answer questions about current events, mathematics, and a host of other topics by tapping the ground with his foreleg. For instance, when Osten would ask Clever Hans to add three and five, the horse would wait until his master had finished asking the question, tap eight times, then stop. Sometimes, instead of asking the question, Olsten would write it on a card and hold it up for Clever Hans to read, and the horse seemed to understand written language every bit as well as it understood speech. Clever Hans didn't get every question right, of course, but he did much better than anyone else with hooves, and his public performances were so impressive that he soon became the toast of Berlin. But in 1904 the director of the Berlin Psychological Institute sent his student, Oskar Pfungst, to look into the matter more carefully, and Pfungst noticed that Clever Hans was much more likely to give the wrong answer when Osten was standing in back of the horse than in front of it, or when Osten himself did not know the answer to the question the horse had been asked. In a series of experiments, Clever Pfungst was able to show that Clever Hans could indeed read--but that what he could read was Osten's body language. (190)

In fact, practice and coaching are the two means by which we learn just about everything we know. Firsthand knowledge and secondhand knowledge are the only two kinds of knowledge there are, and no matter what task we master-- pooping, cooking, investing, bobsledding--that mastery is always a product of direct experience and/or of listening to those who have had direct experience. (216)

Waiting for Superman, my notes

This piece comes off primarily as a hit piece on teacher's unions and the concept of tenure.

It follows some individual students in difficult situations and displays the reality of the "lottery" that high performing schools hold. In essence, this lottery means that open spots in charter schools and excellent schools must be assigned randomly.

The problem is that the film shows current problems but glosses over their sources. It proposes a villain.

Tenure comes from a number of sources
1. Teachers are tasked with teaching the most up to date information available about a given subject. This, quite naturally, contradicts the ideas of some parents. When the latest and best information contradicts a belief that people feel strongly about, a la evolution, ignorant people try to get the teacher fired.
2. Teachers are tasked with teaching all children. This, quite naturally, means that teachers frequently teach one or two children who are difficult to handle. Some of these children resent the teacher and try to hurt him/her by making false statements about the teacher.
3. Teachers are tasked with communicating with every child's parent. This, quite naturally means teachers frequently must communicate with one or more parents who are difficult to handle. These parents believe that educating a child is the teacher's responsibility, not a shared one. Some of these parents try to get a teacher fired if a child fails, even if the child only showed for school one of every three days.
4. Without video cameras running in classrooms, no objective data about a teacher's classroom performance is available.

To sum up
1. Teachers must sometimes teach facts that contradict popular beliefs.
2. Teachers must sometimes deal with difficult children, who lie to try to get a teacher fired.
3. Teachers must sometimes deal with difficult parents, who refuse to take responsibility for their child's learning. These parents also attempt to get a teacher fired.
4. There is no objective data available about how teachers teach.


Here is an excellent criticism of the movie: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/wfsm-o07.shtml

Rules for Mental Health

1. Feelings prove nothing.
2. One person's experience proves nothing.
3. The truth of an idea is not what convinces people. The utility of an idea is what convinces people, and the economics of an idea is what convinces people to convince people.
4. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, curiosity got the cat killed.
5. No one is straight. Everyone is bent, and some of us are crooked.
6. For every event, construct three separate explanations before you decide on them.
7. To be intelligent, construct at least 5 and include another that says none of the above.
8. Since we naturally avoid unpleasant information, seek it out. Read magazines which oppose your positions on issues, but remember the research on cognitive dissonance.
9. Since all individuals are biased, getting a random sample is a great way to counteract bias.
10. Since we are biased because of our limited experiences, having a wide background of experiences also counteracts bias.
11. Meaning is context dependent, since context can be infinitely extended, there is no final meaning.
12.Innocence is not the absence of experience. Innocence is the absence of second thought.
13. The mind is a muscle. The reason some people hate to think is the same reason other people hate to work out.

The Economics of Ideas

The concept:

Whether an idea is commonly supported, well researched, etc., doesn't always tell you very much about it's truth.

What that tells you is that someone finds that idea profitable.

The explanation:

I have a friend who is a New York Yankees fan. However, when the New York Yankees win the world series, he doesn't bother to call and brag. He knows what I would say.

I would say, "so what? They outspend almost everyone. It takes more than that to impress me."

The funny thing is that I feel the same way about ideas. There is a "degree of difficulty" which I place on any new information I come across. This degree of difficulty tells me how to react to it.

In politics, my thinking works like this:

The court of public opinion is much like a regular court. Each side in a debate, or point of view, finds an intelligent speaker to present their point of view.

Much like a court of law, those with more money hire more people and better speakers to present their case.

Unlike a court of law, there is no requirement that both sides get to speak. On tv, those without the ability and desire to pay, don't speak.

Therefore

Since there is more money to be made by arguing for the interests of the wealthy than there is in arguing for justice, fairness, and empathy, those arguments will be made more often in public.

Since there is more money to be made researching ideas that support the powerful, ideas that support the powerful will be studied more often, and supported by more data.

Examples:
T

Local Tutoring Numbers and Websites

Huntington
Kumon
Autry
Apple Tutoring and Learning Center
Sylvan
Crescendo

Practice- Podcast Notes

What do we know about practice?

1. Ericcson's study of human expertise finds that the biggest contributor to human excellence is deliberate practice.

2. Csikszentmihalyi's study of flow says that we must attempt tasks of appropriate levels of difficulty in order to get "lost" in an activity, in order to get flow.

3. Practice must be deliberate. Practice must be toward a goal.

4. Practice must be regular. You can't cram for a physical fitness test.

5. Practice must have feedback.

6. You can practice too much.

7. Practice is not self-motivating.

Local Writing Center Websites

Cincinnati State Writing Center-
http://www.cincinnatistate.edu/real-world-academics/student-services/writing-center

Raymond Walters Writing Center-
http://www.rwc.uc.edu/writing_center/index.html
513-745-5733

Xavier University Human Resources
http://www.xavier.edu/hr/jobs/index.cfm

Xavier University Writing Center
http://www.xavier.edu/writing_center/
513-745-2875

Thomas More College Writing Center
http://www.thomasmore.edu/english/writing_center.cfm?group2=Writing%20Center
859-341-5800
writingcenter@thomasmore.edu.


NKU Writing Center
http://lap.nku.edu/writingcenter/index.php
(859) 572-5475. Office hours are M-F, 8:15 am to 4:30 pm, though tutoring can occur in the Center till 7:00 pm, M-R.

College Reading and Learning Association
http://www.crla.net/

Ohio State Writing Center
http://cstw.osu.edu/writingcenter
614-688-4291.
Dr. Doug Dangler, Writing Center Coordinator
485B Mendenhall Lab
Office: (614) 292-1308
Email: dangler.6@osu.edu

Ohio State University at Lima Writing Center
http://lima.osu.edu/academics/writing/



The Writing Center Directory
http://web.stcloudstate.edu/writeplace/wcd/us/ohio.html

Care.com
http://www.care.com/tutoring-melanie-p1087-q1554.html#utm_content=&utm_medium=online&utm_campaign=Seekers_Tutoring&utm_source=superpages&utm_term=tutoring&

MLA Podcast Notes

MLA Podcast

Like a secret handshake for English teachers.
Like showing up to a job interview in a business suit.

I. Who?


II. Why?
a. Accidental standard - ("proper English" was one dialect that became privileged)
b. Deliberate Standard - When websites became important, a standard needed to be developed.

III. Why? Audience Issues
a. students
b. English teachers

The Wisdom of Crowds

by James Surowiecki

In that sense, Gustave Le Bon had things exactly backward. If you put together a big enough and diverse enough group of people and ask them to "make decisions affecting matters of general interest," that group's decisions will, over time, be "intellectually [superior] to the isolated individual," no matter how smart of well-informed he is. -introduction, xvii

As sociologists Jack B. Soll and Richard Larrick put it, we feel the need to "chase the expert."  The argument of this book is that chasing the expert is a mistake, and a costly one at that.   We should stop hunting and ask the crowd (which, of course, includes the geniuses as well as everyone else) instead.   Chances are, it knows.  -xv

[The book concentrates on three kinds of problems. 1. Cognition problems- problems where a definite answer will be known. 2. Coordination problems- How do members of a group figure out how to coordinate their behavior with each other? (for example, driving laws) 3. Cooperation problems- the challenge of getting self-interested, distrustful people to work together.]

Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise. -xix

Tellingly, they quoted the Cornell economist Maureen O'Hara, who has said, "While markets appear to work in practice, we are not sure how they work in theory."  -9

[Talking about the speed of the market's reaction to the challenger disaster... The market made one company's stock tumble the most.]
The market was smart that day because it satisfied the four conditions that characterize wise crowds: diversity of opinion (each person should have some private information, even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of known facts), independence (people's opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around them), decentralization (people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge), and aggregation (some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision). If a group satisfies those conditions, its judgment is likely to be accurate. -10

After all, think about what happens if you ask a hundred people to run a 100-meter race, and then average their times. The average time will not be better than the time of the fastest runners. It will be worse. It will be a mediocre time. But ask a hundred people to answer a question or solve a problem, and the average answer will often be at least as good as the answer of the smartest member. With most things, the average is mediocrity. With decision making, it's often excellence. -11

What makes a system successful is its ability to recognize losers and kill them quickly. Or, rather, what makes a system successful is its ability to generate lots of losers and then to recognize them as such and kill them off. Sometimes the messiest approach is the wisest. -29

The point of Page's[Scott Page] experiment is that diversity is, on its own, valuable, so that the simple fact of making a group diverse makes it better at problem solving. -30

Finally, we seek out experts because we get, as the writer Nassim Taleb asserts, "fooled by randomness." If there are enough people out there making predictions, a few of them are going to compile an impressive record over time. That does not mean that the record was the product of skill, nor does it mean that the record will continue into the future. -36

Corporations, after all, are supposed to be maximizing their profits. That means their business practices are their strategic choices should be rationally determined, not shaped by history or by unwritten cultural rules. And yet the odd thing is that convention has a profound effect on economic life and on the way companies do business. -97

A scientist does not enter his lab as a blank slate, waiting to hear what the data will tell him. Instead he enters it as someone whose understanding of what problems are interesting, what problems can be solved, and what problems are interesting, what problems can be solved, and what problems should be solved has been shaped by the interests (in both senses of the word) of his community. -165

A successful hypothesis is a hypothesis that most scientists find credible, not a hypothesis that most scientists have tested for themselves and found to be true. -169

Social scientists who study juries often differentiate between two approaches juries take. Evidence-based juries usually don't even take a vote until after they've spent some time talking over the case, sifting through the evidence, and explicitly contemplating alternative explanations. Verdict-based juries, by contrast, see their mission as reaching a decision as quickly and decisively as possible. -178

This matters because all the evidence suggests that the order in which people speak has a profound effect on the course of a discussion. Earlier comments are more influential, and they tend to provide a framework within which the discussion occurs. -186

If you talk a lot in a group, people will tend to think of you as influential almost by default. Talkative people are not necessarily well liked by other members of the group, but they are listened to. -187

Another study of fifty-two middle managers found that there was a correlation between upward mobility and not telling the boss about things that had gone wrong. The most successful executives tended not to disclose information about fights, budget problems, and so on. -205

But the old corporate model and what happened to it are still worth paying attention to because in some deep way the assumptions that underwrote that model--that integration, hierarchy, and the concentration of power in a few hands lead to success--continue to exert a powerful hold on much of American business. -207

The idea of the wisdom of crowds is not that a group will always give you the right answer but that on average it will consistently come up with a better answer than any individual could provide. -235

. . . you don't see bubbles in the real economy, which is to say the economy where you buy and sell television sets and apples and haircuts. In other words, the price of televisions doesn't suddenly double overnight, only to crash a few months later. -245

As Richard Posner puts it: "Experts constitute a distinct class in society, with values and perspectives that differ systematically from those of ordinary people. Without supposing that the man in the street has any penetrating insights denied the expert, or is immune from demagoguery, we may nevertheless think it reassuring that political power is shared between experts and nonexperts rather than being a monopoly of the former." -268

Long Term TO DO LIST

1. Address sliding porch doors
2. Grout and caulk in the bathroom/ tile
3. Scan my photos with the digital scanner
4. Set up a new list of bookmarks
5. Test audacity as a recording software
6. Post an ad on craigslist
7. Apply with tutoring services
8. Talk to unemployment about the poll worker gig
9. Replace a light socket
10. Add a light socket

Language Power and Consciousness

by Guy Allen, from the Bedford anthology Teaching Writing, 3rd edition

[His basic idea is the power of personal writing]

Basic training exercises include collecting and revising examples of wordiness and cliches, replacing passives and forms of "to be" with active, specific verbs, replacing vagueness with detail, building parallel phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, and transforming weak writing into strong writing. -77

In other words, the expression of the self and its experience through language somehow develops the whole person, so that the evidence of development appears in the various things people do with their lives. -89

Grammar is not a dress code. Grammar, as Chomsky and other linguists have pointed out, is the internal system that allows us to generate and understand infinite new meanings from finite vocabulary. "The normal use of language is . . . free and undetermined but yet appropriate to situations, and it is recognized as appropriate by other participants in the discourse situation" (Chomsky 56-59). The academic addiction to rigid, formal discourse situations is like putting on a tuxedo every time we step out of the house. -93

The work with language leads inevitably to work with the self and its life among other selves. The self uses sharpened language skills in a free and undetermined way to speak to itself and to speak to others. -95

The "writing problem" in our universities is really a humanism problem. We teach humanism and dodge its practice. We ask our students to study and understand meaning at the same time that we offer little opportunity for them to make original meaning. -95

Language is the tool of the human mind, whatever the mind's enterprise. Language can help us to live unconsciously, or it can help us to live consciously. -96

The Upside of Irrationality

by Dan Ariely "Contrafreeloading," a term coined by the animal psychologist Glen Jensen, refers to the finding that many animals prefer to earn food rather than simply eating identical but freely accessible food. -60 

 That is, as long as fish, bird, gerbils, rats, mice, monkeys, and chimpanzees don't have to work too hard, they frequently prefer to earn their food. In fact, among all the animals tested so far the only species that prefers the lazy route is--you guessed it--the commendably rational cat. -62 

 In my mind, one person who understands, better than anyone else, the delicate balance between the desire to feel pride of ownership and the wish to not spend too much time in the kitchen is Sandra Lee of "Semi-Homemade" fame. Lee has literally patented a precise equation delineating the point at which the crossover occurs: the "70/30 Semi-Homemade Philosophy." -87

 The origami and Legos experiments taught us that we become attached to things that we invest effort in creating, and, once that happens, we start overvaluing these objects. Our next question was whether we are aware or unaware of our tendency to ascribe increased value to our beloved creatures. -97 The lack of difference between the two bidding approaches suggested not only that we overvalue our own creations but also that we are largely unaware of this tendency; we mistakenly think that others love our work as much as we do. -99 This would be nice, but the reality is that science is carried out by human beings. As such, scientists are constrained by the same 20-watt-per-hour computing device (the brain) and the same biases (such as a preference for our own creations) as other mortals. In the scientific world, the Not-Invented-Here bias is fondly called the "toothbrush theory." The idea is that everyone wants a toothbrush, everyone needs one, everyone has one, but no one wants to use anyone else's. -117 Look around. Do you notice a general revenge reaction on the part of the public in response to the increase of bad treatment on the part of companies and institutions? Do you encounter more rudeness, ignorance, nonchalance, and sometimes hostility in stores, on flights, at car rental counters, and so on than ever before? I am not sure who started this chicken and egg problem, but as we consumers encounter offensive service, we become angrier and tend to take it out on the next service provider--whether or not he or she is responsible for our bad experience. -143 This cycle, which is what drive us to keep up with the Joneses, is also known as the hedonic treadmill. We look forward to the things that will make us happy, but we don't realize how short lived this happiness will be, and when adaptation hits we look for the next new thing. -175 The moral of the story? You may think that taking a break during an irritating or boring experience will be good for you, but a break actually decreases your ability to adapt, making the experience seem worse when you have to return to it. When cleaning your house or doing your taxes, the trick is to stick with it until you are done. -179 Overall, this means that the improvement in the market efficiency for young professionals has come, to a certain extent, at the cost of market inefficiency for young romantic partners. -217 The most practical news is this: if we do nothing while we are feeling an emotion, there is no short- or long term harm that can come to us. However, if we react to the emotion by making a decision, we may not only regret the immediate outcome, but we may also create a long-lasting pattern of decisions that will continue to misguide us for a long time. -276

From "Clueless in Academe"

This is from the anthology, Teaching Composition, by Bedford St Martin...

[Discussing what unites different fields]
Whatever the differences between their specialized jargons, they have all learned to play the following game: listen closely to others, summarize them in a recognizable way, and make your own relevant argument. This argument literacy, the ability to listen, summarize, and respond, is rightly viewed as central to being educated. - 33-34

In giving priority to ideas and arguments, however, I don't minimize the importance of qualities that can't be reduced to pure rationality--emotional intelligence, moral character, visual and aesthetic sensitivity, and creativity in storytelling and personal narrative. What I do claim is that training in these qualities will be incomplete if students are unable to translate them into persuasive public discourse. -34

Nor does privileging argumentation in the curriculum necessarily represent the ethnocentric or racist bias that some make it out to be. On the contrary, since effective argument starts with attentive listening, training in argument is central to multicultural understanding and respect for otherness. -34

Given the genius-worship that runs through our culture, academics are often admired for speaking above other people's heads, but knowing this fact somehow doesn't save me from embarrassment when I fumble painfully to explain what I do to nonacademic relatives and friends. -35

Students must not only read texts, but find things to say about them, and no text tells you what to say about it. -39

In my educational writing, I am best known for the argument that the wisest response we can make to the philosophical and social conflicts that have disrupted education is to "teach the conflicts' themselves, to bring controversy to the center of the academic curriculum. -41

. . . the ultimate motivation of my argument for teaching the conflicts is the need to clarify academic culture, not just to resolve spats among academics or cultural factions. -41

We take for granted, for example, that reflecting in a self-conscious way about experience--"intellectualizing"-- is something our students naturally see the point of and way to learn to do better. -43

The idea that, below their apparent surface, texts harbor deep meanings that cry out for interpretation, analysis, and debate is one of those assumptions that seems so normal once we are socialized into academia that we forget how counterintuitive it can be. -45

If what authors intend does not seem a genuine problem, then making a problem of unintended psychological or social meanings in texts seems all the more patently a waste of time. -47

Why would any sane person go out of his or her way to say things that are "arguable"? Just as common sense suggests that it is foolish to invent problems that did not previously exist, it also suggests that the point of writing and speaking is to make statements that nobody is likely to dispute. -50

The Writing Center Journal Vol 30 Nu 1

[From "The Polarities of Context in the Writing Center Conference" by Joseph Janangelo, WCJ 8.2 (1988) 31-6]

Conferences with one's own students are always influenced by personal context. They differ from first-time tutorial encounters in that teachers have "personal knowledge" of their student writers' strengths and weaknesses-- where they are with a piece of writing and where our experience tells us they need to be in order to succeed in the academic community. -16

[From "Introduction to 'Multicultural Voices: Peer Tutoring and Critical Reflection in the Writing Center" by Nancy Maloney grimm]

Although we have plenty of multicultural readers to use in classrooms, as a field we have yet to develop practices, principles, and genres that encourage student writers to represent bicultural experiences, to articulate their cultural backgrounds in ways that attain academic validation and to connect literacy with meaningful personal aspirations. -37

There is clearly a persistent reappearing thread of change-agent aspiration in writing center scholarship, an aspiration that becomes less idealistic and more realistic when we start changing the things we can, such as the linguistic, cultural, racial, social, and disciplinary diversity of our undergraduate staff. As other introductions in this anniversary issue indicate, much of what we can accomplish in writing centers has to do with how we construe the contexts in which we work. -38

[From Multi-cultural Voices: Peer Tutoring and Critical Reflection in the Writing Center, WCJ 12.1 (1991): 11-33

Our version of critical reflection in tutor-training programs focuses on conscious explorations of language within a society stratified by race and cultural background and the implications of this social context for education. -41

As Knoblauch and Brannon point out it is important for teacher--and similarly tutors--to develop a conscious philosophical basis for their work because "nothing short of that consciousness will make instruction sensible and deliberate, the result of knowledge, not folklore, and of design, not just custom or accident. -45

[New writer]
In my own writing classes, I had studied the ways that educational, cultural, and social hierarchies inhibited students' use of writing for liberation (most students seemed to see writing as a means of coercion), enforced a formalist agenda of correctness over the force of meaning, and functioned to exclude non-mainstream students instead of empower them. -52

[Multiliteracies, Social Futures, and Writing Centers

This notion of multiliteracies has to do in part with new text forms and new means of communication associated with the information age and knowledge economies of the globalized markets and societies of late capitalism. -88

My guess is that writing centers will more and more define themselves as multiliteracy centers. Many are already doing so--tutoring oral presentations, adding online tutorials, offering workshops in evaluating web sources, being more conscious of document design. -89

[Queering the Writing Center by Harry Denney, WCJ 25.2 (2005): 39-62]
Gillespie and Lerner describe commonplace mindsets about writing centers as garrets for skills--builging and testing, as generative spaces for confidence and collaboration, and as critical arenas in which to problem-pose institutional and social discursive practices (147-150). -95

Producing better writers, to extend Stephen North's aphorism, involves understanding the manufacture and dynamics of identity, a process that involves on-going self-discovery and reconciliation with collective identities and discourse communities. -96

Learning to code-switch between "standard" discourse practices and community-based ones does not necessarily translate into practical empowerment: speaking a white, middle-class, academic vernacular enables outsiders to gain access to that discourse community, but such code-switchers do not eliminate the ubiquitous presence of racism, sexism, and nationalism and their marginalizing effects. -102

As students learn to construct essays with an attention to audience that forces them away from safe confines of the personal and the local, their ways of knowing confront a complex interplay of the dominant, the oppositional, the subversive, and the self. -103

Skills Students Might Want to Know

- How to use a comma, semicolon, colon
- How to write a good description
- How to write a good story
- How to write a good hook/attention getter
- How to write transitions
- How to take notes on short stories, novels, essays and textbooks
- How to write memos, resumes, cover letters
- How to analyze a narrative in terms of language use
- How to analyze a narrative in terms of story structure
- How to analyze a narrative in terms of class relations, gender relations, historical forces, and individual intentions.
- How to analyze a book about ideas
- How to write persuasive arguments
- How to decode unfamiliar words
- How to increase your vocabulary.
- How to do believable/top-notch research
- How to write a variety of sentences
- How to write more interesting sentences.
- How to generate ideas.
- How to spot tricky language in contracts, advertisements.
- How to write an interesting thesis
- How to write a supportable thesis
- How to summarize stories, novels, movies, arguments.
- How to determine/talk about a writer's style.
- How to determine/talk about a writer's intention.
- How to read academic journals.
- how to expand on short ideas
- how to write song lyrics
- how to write about visuals
- how to improve grammar
- how to remember things better
- how to reduce wordiness
- avoiding cliches

Imitate Then Innovate

The sincerest form of flattery
-authenticity vs bonding/rapport
-one size fits all in a multi sized world
-shaped by our culture, but we need to adapt to our context
-conversational style
-conversational topics
-mirroring
-style and manner of dress
our communication is assessed by student response, no tutor intention
-emphasizing true similarities is a form of authentic bonding.

Educational Visuals and Demonstrations

1. Rose colored glasses- We all see the world through lenses. We can't tell the exact type of lens till we clean it or change it.

2. Horse with blinders- We can never see everything. We can, however, take off our blinders and widen our frame of vision.

3. Eye doctor- The large device with the flipping lenses... Can you see it better or worse with this lens? How about with this lens?

4. Ladder of Abstraction- A ladder with visuals placed along the side that go from concrete to abstract. Climb too high, and you can't breathe. Stay on the ground, and you can never get anywhere.

5. Glass of water- 1/2 full, 1/2 empty. This example is about descriptions and freedom. How do you feel about a 1/2 full glass? How do you feel about a 1/2 empty one? Can you choose to look at things either way?

6.

Defending Access

by Mike Rose
These are notes I took while reading

Key Ideas
Deficit Theories- Basic Writers were lacking something
Initiation Theories- Basic Writers are Trying to Join a New Community and Learn a New Discourse

-African American literacy in the past was explicitly political. The fact that it was illegal proves it.
-Basic Writing should be seen as acts that negotiate the situations that students of color face in majority dominated institutions.
-He is arguing in favor of pluralistic standards, standards which empower, rather than gatekeep.
-He talks about students from oppositional cultures, those that define themselves as against majority culture. (I personally think religious students are from oppositional cultures.)
-"clash of cultural styles" as a possible cause of poor performance
- The clash of cultural styles theory in an educational context suggests that "misunderstandings" among well-meaning teachers and students cause poor performance in schools.
-It is hard to explain why some minority cultures thrive academically under this theory.
-It seems that the way cultures view school has a big impact, perhaps more than features of linguistic use.

A Letter to Maggie, by James Slevin

From Teaching Composition: Background Readings

This is a letter to a new teacher who is worried.

What's the difference between having a point and making a point?- abstract

Slevin ultimately comes to suggest that the essential material of a good writing course belongs to the category of "evidence"---what counts as evidence, what does the evidence mean, what points can it support?-abstract

What matters in college writing, more than any writing they have done before and perhaps more than any writing or speaking they will do later, what matters is evidence. -60

Politicians, pundits, advertisers have in common a studied commitment to assertion, often at the level of the sound bite. Neither evidence nor competing assertions make any difference, except as part of a staged drama. -60

I wish my students could distinguish between having a point (or having a thesis) and making a point (or a thesis). (It is curious that the phrase, "making a thesis," is not idiomatic, and yet it is the heart of academic work.) We all have points but don't often make them. -61

Precisely because academic culture is never like that--we are never omniscient, our work is almost never a matter of life and death, our conclusions never entirely conclusive, never closing on exactly the right answer that will effectively eliminate the need for any further work in our fields--because of all that, we found Columbo a weekly delight. -62

We talk a great deal about examining the assumptions behind a thesis, looking at the bias of the author we are reading or the work we are composing. That is an important thing to do, but it doesn't necessarily clarify what is at stake in undertaking this critique. The point is not simply to identify bias but to explain what that particular bias does with the evidence at hand--how it misinterprets or inadequately explains the evidence, occasionally even distorting it. -63

I should rephrase that and say that the heart of academic writing is the process of supporting, testing, and complicating theses, not just having them. -64

The Making of Meaning, Ann Berthoff

This is a selection from a longer work.

From Teaching Composition: Background Readings, 3rd Ed, Bedford/St Martins

Thus writing is not like cooking a particular dish; writing may resemble, at one stage or another, some phase of say, making a cream sauce, but it is not sequential or "linear"; it is not measurement, followed by amalgamation and transformation. An analogy for writing that is based on culinary experience would have to include ways of calculating the guests' preferences, as well as ways of determining what's on the shelf--the cook's and the grocer's--and what's in the purse. -293

Our job is to design sequences of assignments that let our students discover what language can do, what they can do with language. Kenneth Koch got poetry out of his youngsters because he gave them syntactic structures to play with; Sylvia Aston-Warner's "key vocabulary" became what she called "the captions of the dynamic life itself"; Paulo Freire's "generative words" provided the means by which the peasants in his literacy classes--"culture circles"--could name the world. -295

Meanings change as we think about them; statements and events, significances and interpretations can mean different things to different people at different times. -295

We know reality not directly but by means of the meanings we make. (The role of critical thinking is, of course, to review and revise those meanings.) What we know, we know in some form--perceptual or conceptual. --295

The ability to speak is innate, but language can only be realized in a social context. Dialogue, that is to say, is essential to the making of meaning and thus learning to write. -297

Thinking in Third Person

"Speak the truth of today and don't worry about tomorrow. If tomorrow contradicts today, tomorrow can stand up for itself."


When a student asked me why I forced him to write in the third person, I said something that surprised me, something I think is highly debatable. For that reason, I think it is a good idea to discuss it. After all, science advances through the process of elimination, why shouldn't the softer sciences?

I said, "We teach students to write in third person because we are hoping that they will learn to think in third person."

To begin with, to think in third person is ridiculous. We are always human beings, from a culture, from a father and a mother, from a hometown, and from DNA which, like a snowflake, has never been duplicated.

I think many of us think of objectivity like a light switch. Either we are objective or we are not. Either we are fair or we are biased. But it is not a light switch. Even if it was, postmodernism has reminded us that human beings don't have the ability to turn it on.

Instead of imagining objectivity like a light switch, what if we entertain the idea that it is a dimmer. Even if the switch is broken, even if it cannot get to total light or total darkness, compared to the alternative, it is much better to have your hand upon the switch.

That is what we hope to teach you.
This is a skill that does not come naturally; evolution doesn't prepare you to think like this. Presenting your ideas to diverse groups of people, people who do not share your culture, your parents, or your hometown, people who will not accept your ideas because of how you look or who you are, is how you prepare to think like this.

This is why writing about "boring" topics are better practice that writing about something you choose.
This is what businesses want from you, to think about a situation clearly. No one will pay you to keep talking about and thinking about yourself.









----------------------------------------

-Noone speaks Standard English
-Noone writes Standard English
-Everyone has a limited perspective
-Everyone has a biased perspective.
-Everyone writes from a birds "I" view.

-----------------------------------------------

The brain is a jump to conclusions machine.   Trying to explain one's thoughts in detail is one method of thinking more objectively.   A second method is by focusing on the evidence before creating an interpretation of the evidence.

Quotes from Thieves in High Places

by Jim Hightower

The Pedagogy of Riddles

In zen buddhism, the means to enlightenment, to transformational change, is solving an unsolvable riddle called a koan.

For example, "what is the sound of one hand clapping?"
For example, "what is the color of the wind?"

All of their usual intellectual techniques are frustrated. The riddle is designed to have no logical answer. It is given by an authority figure, who confidently explains that it does have a meaning, that he/she knows the meaning, but that there is no benefit from being told the meaning.

the only benefit is from unraveling the mystery oneself.

Now the naive perspective thinks this is crazy. How could the answer not be the important part? And there are a bunch of typical attempts to avoid doing the work.

Well this is just like reading a novel to determine it's "meaning."

I've heard somewhere that Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddle went as follows: how many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?

The answer is four. What you call something doesn't change what it is... But by saying that so quickly, I changed one thing. Your level of participation. Your level of involvement.

Consider these points.
1. The phenomenon of teaching tales is prevalent in almost every culture.
2. We value ambiguity in literature. Why? Why don't we read Harry Potter books or John Grisham novels?

Reading Students

In our profession, it is safe to assume that many of us are better as reading texts than we are at reading people. The job of non-directive tutoring, however, requires exactly that. A tutor must be alert for signs of anxiety, frustration, surprise, and happiness in clients, yet I believe few of us are taught exactly what these emotions look like.
The reason for this is simple: diversity. In a tutoring environment populated by students of different races, it seems

Are there universal patterns in nonverbal communication?
What are they?
Is it possible to use these patterns to read students?

Is reading students ethical?
Do tutors already do this, consciously or unconsciously?
Does reading students offer potential benefits to tutors?
Can tutors read students accurately without training?
Can tutors be trained to read students accurately? What kind of training might help?
What happens when a tutor is trying to read someone from another culture?

Rogerian Rhetoric: Ethical Growth through Alternative Forms of Argumentation

Rogerian Rhetoric: Ethical Growth through Alternative Forms of Argumentation

 

by Doug Brent. An excerpt from Teaching Argument in the Composition Course, p297- The ideal rhetorical situation as described by Plato involves an audience that, like his hero Socrates, is "not less happy to be refuted than to refute" (Gorgias 17). Alas, this attitude is rare among real, vulnerable human beings who are not characters in a Platonic dialogue. -298 The therapist, in Rogers' view, is not a healer, but rather a facilitator of healing. -298 Rogerian rhetoric as recreated by Young, Becker and Pike is aimed at those situation in which more confrontational techniques are most apt to fail: that is, in highly emotional situations in which opposing sides fail to establish even provisional grounds for discussion. -299 As a form of arrangement, Rogerian rhetoric may not always be appropriate; if communicative bridges are already in place, it may not be necessary to build them, and in some forms of triadic communication it may be desirable to udnerline only one's own point of view. -307 [Discussing feminist objections to this] The problem, as lamb puts it, is that Rogerian rhetoric feels "feminine rather than feminist" (17). -308 [This rhetoric doesn't seem tied to the concept of female empowerment. Perhaps it is addressed at helping males with a typical male shortcoming.] [The next objection is to a presumption about language under Rogerian rhetoric] As developed by Young, Becker, and Pike under the influence of General Semantics (by way of Anatol Rappaport's studies in conflict resolution). Rogerian rhetoric insists on a nonevaluative, neutral language of pure description that modern language theory, even without reference to feminist insights, rejects as impossible (Brent "Reassessment"). -309 To deal with the second problem, "neutral" language must be valued not as a pure good in itself, but in a dialectical relationship with emotional language and the connection with self that emotion entails. -310

Revisiting "the idea of a writing center"

Revisiting "the idea of a writing center"

by Stephen North from The Writing center journal, vol 15, number 1, fall 1994 Four problems with his old piece: A. His description of the writer's motivation is naive. It isn't that writers aren't motivated, it is that they are not motivated to be great writers. They want great writing. B. the metaphor of tutor as participant observer is naive. Tutors can't drop their culture or pretend it doesn't exist. They can't simply join the writer in his/her process. They are working in a center, which in itself is a violation/transformation of that process. C. Our special perspective makes the injunction to never criticize a teacher or an assignment a little extreme. there are bad teachers and bad assignments, and being upfront about that fact can be helpful to tutor morale. This passage places a high burden on tutors D. The idea of making the center be the writing CENTER on campus is naive. Large campuses cannot possibly do that. There is too much change for him to predict the future of writing centers. His college is moving toward writing tracks in the English major. This will bring the self-motivated writers to the center. This will encourage long-term relationships. 3. Talk with teachers will be required.

Rogerian Argument

Rogerian Argument- Writing Theory

From Rhetoric: Discovery and Change with Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, Kenneth L. Pike, Carl R. Rogers This article is an excerpt from Teaching Argument in the Composition Course, 97-111. Abstract: In fact, Roger's theories, which are taken from small-group therapy, reverse the traditional order of things in argumentation; instead of the writer or speaker being the primary focus, the listener or reader is given first priority. It is up to rhetors to fully understand their interlocutor's point of view, no matter how foreign or complex, and, more importantly, to state this point of view to the audience's satisfaction before explaining their own. Rogerian argument rests on the assumption that out of a need to preserve the stability of his image, a person will refuse to consider alternatives that he feels are threatening, and hence that changing a person's image depends on eliminating this sense of threat. Much of men's resistance to economic argument seems explainable by this assumption. -97 Many people engaged in arguments ignore the effect that different context can have on a statement; they often say flatly, "It's true, and I can't imagine how any reasonable man could disagree with it." They might get further in an argument if they said, "If we consider it in such-and-such a context, or if we assume certain conditions, then it is true." -99 The statement is also true in a psychological context: Literature can help people become more perceptive about human problems and human conflict, and as a result more willing and able to deal with them intelligently. Opponents in an argument often, perhaps usually, disagree not because of fallacious reasoning or ignorance of the facts but because of the different contexts in which they see the problem. They may think that they are talking about the same subject when actually they aren't. -100 The threat-reducing acts we have already discussed can help to create trust; a more explicit and direct method, however it to show that writer and reader are similar in relevant ways. The writer can either build or discover bridges (e.g., shared attitudes, experiences, and values [. . .]) that will encourage trust and lead to further interaction. -102 ----------------------------------------

Signs of Truthfullness

Signs of Truthfulness is Witness Accounts
From Derren Brown's book, Tricks of the Mind, p246-249

1. Unstructured production- Truthful, unrehearsed stories, tend to jump forward and backward in time.
2. Quantity of details- the richer the details, the more likely it is true
3. Contextual embedding- If the story takes place within the context of daily life rather than within a vaccuum.
4. Descriptions of Interactions- True stories are more likely to involve interactions between the characters. (A reacting to B)
5. Reproduction of speech- few liars will reproduce parts of a dialogue in their stories
6. Unexpected complications during the incident. -If the story doesn't have them, it is less likely to be true.
7. Unusual details- Often superfluous to the main thrust of the story.
8. Accurately reported details misunderstood- Reporting facts where the meaning is lost on the teller.
9. Accounts of subjective mental state- Reference to feelings or thoughts during the story.
10. Attribution of the perpetrator's mental state.- For example, "he was clearly annoyed because of XXX..."
11. Spontaneous corrections- little corrections or dropped in additions
12. Admitting a lack of memory. - "I cant remember where we ate..."
13. Raising doubts about one's own testimony. - "I might have this wrong. My memory is hazy."
14. Self-deprecation- Referring to details that might incriminate himself or make him feel foolish.

Podcast about Introductions- writing center

Hello. I’m Jeff Cook, one of the tutors who works at the writing center in the Center for Access and Transition, and I’m about to give you my suggestions for writing an introduction for a college-level paper. First, get out a piece of paper and a writing instrument. At the top, I want you to write Introduction in big letters. Now you are going to spend a minute writing everything you know about introductions. I’m asking you to do this because this is the way that all learning works. You will understand more of what I say and remember it longer if you do this. The more you do, the more you know, and the longer you remember. This is the way all reading and listening works. If you tried this trick with all your reading assignments, you would be amazed how much more you remember when the test comes around. Ok. So I want you to pause this podcast and write everything you can think of about introductions. I’m going to pause for ten seconds, then I’ll start my explanation. [Pause] Since most of you aren’t finished writing, pause the podcast now and restart it once you are finished. Did you do it? Good. If you didn’t, you are probably wasting your time listening to me talk. People who listen to talks without applying them are like people who go to the gym and don’t work out. While I talk, I want you to take notes on anything that seems unfamiliar or anything that seems really clear. In other words, don’t try to remember everything from this, try to learn something from what I have to say. [Pause] Ok. Now imagine that you are in a public place. Maybe it’s a restaurant. Maybe it’s a shopping mall. Maybe it’s a baseball game or a church service. Now at this place, a stranger walks up to you to start a conversation. Other than whether that stranger is good looking, ask yourself this: what are the things that I want the stranger to do, in order to pull me into that conversation? Well, the stranger would have to get my interest in the subject, give me a little background, and let me know where the conversation was going. It has to be in that order. If the stranger can’t get my interest, I will ignore him. If the stranger gives no background, I’ll be confused. If the stranger gives too much background, I’ll get impatient. Have you ever listened to someone who made no attempt to talk about what interests you? Have you ever listened to a story where someone felt they had to explain WAY too much in order to understand a story? For me, this happens when my girlfriend tells me stories about the people at her work. Suddenly, I need to know someone’s whole dating history to understand a prank involving her car. Have you ever listened to someone talk about something and had no idea why they just told you that? Those situations aren’t fun when you’re face to face with a person. They are even less fun when you are dealing with writing. So English teachers got together in our secret island lair many years ago and created a simple set of ideas that cover how to write introductions. Not everyone of us uses the exact same words to describe the ideas, but the ideas are always the same. An introduction, in its simplest explanation requires three things. A hook. Background information. (and almost always) A Thesis The hook is where the writer grabs the reader’s attention. In the opening few sentences, the writer must convince the reader that the topic is important. There are dozens of techniques for doing this, and we’ll be covering some of them in another podcast. The background information section is where the writer builds context for his/her audience. Knowing what to include and what is unnecessary is an art. Is the paper intended for an audience that knows the subject? Or is the paper intended to introduce the audience to the subject? For example, a narrative about one’s own life will require a lot of background information because few readers directly know what the author’s life is like. However, a paper written about the Cincinnati Bengals will probably find a very knowledgeable audience here in Cincinnati, Ohio. The third part of the introduction is the most important, the thesis statement. The thesis statement is a single sentence that introduces the controlling+ idea of a paper. Finding an appropriate thesis statement is very tricky, and for this reason, it will be covered in its own podcast. Those are the main three concepts that you need in a piece of writing. Those are the same three concepts that a stranger needs to use when starting a conversation. If you notice, these concepts start with something broad, and then they get more and more specific until the paragraph reaches the thesis statement. And that’s all you need to know about introductions. The unfortunate thing is that, you guessed it, knowing is only half the battle. In order to get any use out of this information, you will have to apply it to something. Take the piece of paper with your notes on it, and turn it over. Imagine that you have been asked to write a persuasive paper about a topic of your choice. Spend a few minutes and ask yourself how you would write the three main sections of the introduction. Ask yourself, how am I going to interest the reader in my subject? Ask yourself, what does the reader need to know about my subject in order to understand the basics? Ask yourself, what do I want to convince the reader of? I’m not suggesting you write an introduction right now. What I am saying is that you need to immediately use this information in order to remember it. So simply write down an answer to those three questions. The topic can be anything you want. Ask yourself, how am I going to interest the reader in my subject? Ask yourself, what does the reader need to know about my subject in order to understand the basics? Ask yourself, what do I want to convince the reader of? I’ll wait. [Pause] Have you got your answers written down or in your head? If so, you have just done the hardest part of writing an introduction. Review what you wrote down before this podcast and see if your understanding of introductions has changed at all during these few minutes. If you need more practice, try examining old papers of your own to see what has gone wrong with your introductions. There are also additional resources and examples in this folder for those of you who want them. You only get better at things that you practice. So, once you practice this, the introductions to your papers will be more entertaining, more informative, and more convincing. And, oh yeah, Your teachers will love you for it.

Introduction to Podcasts

Introduction to Podcasts

Hello. My name is Jeff Cook, and I’m one of the tutors that works in the Center for Access and Transition, a place I will often refer to as the CAT.. I tutor writing, and I spend most of my time in Sander Hall room 110, the tutoring center.
In this podcast, I’ll be explaining…. Well… podcasts. I’ll tell what they are, what they are not, and how to get the most out of them.
So lets begin.

What is a podcast?
A podcast is a downloadable sound file that can be played on a computer or an mp3 player. The podcasts will cover topics in writing and mathematics that students in the CAT courses struggle with.
Each of these podcasts will include an explanation of a concept, the reason why the concept is important, and some instructions for students to follow while they listen. After listening to a podcast, opportunities to practice applying this concept will be given.
Ok. To review. We are going to explain a thing, tell you why it’s important, then give you a chance to practice it.

Now lets talk about what a podcast isn’t.
A podcast is not a homework helper. We will not be covering how to do a specific paper for a specific teacher. We will be covering general ideas in writing and math.
A podcast isn’t a teacher. You cannot ask it questions or receive feedback from it. Learning something new is almost impossible without the chance to do that.
A podcast isn’t a substitute for a professor’s explanation. Since your professor gives the grades in your class, you would be crazy to skip class and think this will make up for what you lost. We might not explain a concept the same way as a professor.
Do you hear me? you’d be crazy to think that is a substitute for a professor’s explanation.
A podcast is a way to get reminded of what you already know. When a professor covers a subject and you can’t remember how they explained it, turn on a podcast.

A podcast is like getting golf tips from tiger woods.
A podcast is like getting swimming tips from Michael Phelps.
A podcast is like getting guitar playing tips from Eric Clapton.
A podcast is some advice from an expert. Just listening to it won’t help you much.
Just listening to a podcast is like watching tiger woods play. It won’t make you a better golfer. It’s like watching other people exercise. It won’t help you lose weight.
In order to get the most out of these. You will need to do three things. You will need to remind yourself of what you already know about the topic. You will need to take notes while the podcast plays, then you’ll need to try to apply the concept to your specific class.
In other words, this is a recipe. But you have to do the cooking.
With these podcasts, you will have all the basic information you need to succeed in the CAT writing and math courses. It will be available to you at anytime, from anywhere with internet access.
So look over the list of available podcasts. Ask yourself, “ is this a concept I know well?”
Then get to work.

Audience Podcast- My notes

Audience Podcast- My notes

Audience: Why English Class is not like Math class. One of the most important things to understand about college level writing is writing for an appropriate audience. This means writing for college professors is going to different than the writing that was done in high school. This means writing for professor Jones is going to be slightly different than writing for professor Smith. You wouldn’t could the exact same meal for two people with different tastes. You can’t write the exact same paper for two different audiences and have it be effective. In English class, we work with words, and one of the main things to understand about words is that we judge them based on a)whether they are correct and b) whether they are effective What we mean when we say writing is correct, is that it follows the standard rules of written English. What we mean when we say writing is effective, is that it gets the desired response from the audience. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An example, 2+2= 4 You would write this the same way to an American and an Egyptian, a Brazilian, or South African. But you if you wanted to express thanks, you would write a different word to all four of these people. The point is that, in order to be effective, the words have to change when the audience changes. ------------------------------------------------------------ Because of this, it is smart to ask ourselves several questions about the audience for our particular paper when choosing a topic. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- AUDIENCE PODCAST Imagine that you are in the airport of a foreign country, and you suddenly realize that you need to go to the bathroom. You scan the section of the terminal, looking up and down the long corridors for signs. People hurry by in all directions, so you decide to stop one of them. Over and over you say, “where is the nearest bathroom?” But many of the travelers do not stop. And those that stop don’t speak English. Suddenly, at the last second, you remember that you are in Mexico, where the people speak Spanish. When you turn to the next person, you say, “donde esta el banjo?” He quickly responds by pointing down the hall, allowing you to dash off in time to avoid an embarrassing situation. [Pause] That anecdote is meant to prove a point, that smart people know that audience is important. In this podcast, I will explain why audience is important. Then I will cover the three main ways writing can be tailored to an audience. While I am explaining those things, I will give you a short list of concrete suggestions for how to tailor your writing for an academic audience. In order to gain something from listening to this, you will need to get out a pen and paper. When you hear me say the phrase: What You Need To Know, write down what I say. After listening, look at some of the examples and practice exercises, to get a better understanding. WHY AUDIENCE IS IMPORTANT Once of the most important things to understand about human communication is that we judge it differently than we judge mathematics. We judge communication according to the situation where it occurs. We call that situation the context. Since this is the case, a good communicator, a smooth talker tailors what he has to say to a specific audience. Since this is the case, a smart student or a successful employee does the same thing. There are lots of examples from daily life of judging words based on their contexts. If a person says something hurtful during an angry confrontation, we judge it differently than we would if it was said calmly over dinner. Comedians in comedy clubs say outrageous things that would get most people fired if the same statements were made at work. In other words, we judge whether a statement is appropriate by when and where it was said. We also judge it by whether it has its desired effect. Considering audience when speaking or writing is one of the most important things you can do to guarantee you are going to get the desired effect, whether you are writing a college essay or approaching a stranger to ask where the bathroom is. How TO CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE SAYING OR WRITING ACCORDING TO YOUR AUDIENCE There are three basic ways to adapt to an academic audience: choosing your words, choosing your examples, and choosing your presentation. These three methods are designed to give the audience the information they need in a way that they find convincing. Choosing words The first way we change our message to suit an audience is by changing the words we use to describe things. We use words that are familiar to the audience so that we avoid having to give unnecessary information. If I am talking to my grandmother, I say I sent a message to my friend. If I am talking to my girlfriend, I say that I texted them. This prevents my grandmother from becoming confused by a new word, and it keeps me from having to give an unwanted explanation. What you need to know is this: In academic papers, we avoid using words that are loaded with emotional connotations. We also try to use key terms from a subject in order to appeal to a specific audience. Choosing examples When writing a paper or trying to make a point, it is important to choose examples carefully. If you choose the wrong example, your audience might be confused, unconvinced, or offended. If you choose a truly terrible example, your audience might become all three. What you need to know is this: Different types of examples are considered to be more or less credible in a given subject. Within that subject, certain types of examples are going to be more or less effective. In academic writing, you want to find examples that are credible, comprehensible, and compelling to a wide audience. In general, this means avoiding pop culture references, personal experiences, and clichés. Pop culture references might not be understood. Personal experiences might not be believed, and clichés are not compelling. Some of the best examples to use are examples that relate to the personal lives of the members of your audience. Throughout these podcasts, I will be using a large number of examples about school, eating, work, and parents. I chose to do this because my audience is largely college students. Choosing your presentation Choosing the way you present your ideas is the third way to adapt to an audience, and it is the most difficult. It is much like choosing the outfit your wear to work or to school. Some people throw on the first thing that they see in their closet and walk out the door. If you’ve ever seen how I dress, you’ll know that I’m that type of guy. Other people plan out an entire outfit, making sure that the shoes match their shirt or their earrings match their necklace. When those people walk around, everyone who sees them gets the message, “I care about the way I look.” In college, choosing the way you present your ideas is all about sending the message that “I care about what I have to say in this paper.” What you need to know: In academic writing, your audience has certain expectations. There are different formats for different subjects, but you must be certain to follow those formats. Search online for a sample paper if you need help matching an MLA or an APA format paper. If your paper has specific requirements, you must be certain to meet those requirements. So let me recap the main points for you. For any audience, you will need to change the way you communicate in order to be effective. For an academic audience, you need to watch your word choices. Avoid slang. Include technical terms when you can be sure the audience will know them. Avoid terms with emotional connotations when possible. For an academic audience, you will need to watch your choice of examples. Usually this means no personal experiences, no pop culture references, and no clichés. And finally, for an academic audience, you will need to watch your presentation of ideas. If you are asked to do a certain type of paper, it is academic suicide not to follow the expected format.

Nonverbal Communication Sources

NVC in Everyday Life, textbook by Remland

"No more Teachers' Dirty Looks: Effects of Teacher Nonverbal Behavior on Student Outcomes." Applications of Nonverbal Communication. By Ronald E. Riggio

NVC in the Classroom, Patrick W. Miller, PhD
This short pamphlet focuses on k-12 classroom environments. It has a good quiz and a good table of cross cultural comparisons in the back.

Body Language, Julius Fast, c1970
This is a best seller and one of the first popular classics in the field. Most of the information is outdated and there is no cross cultural evidence of note.


Telling Lies, Paul Ekman, 1985 (my version is a 2009)
Lie detection isn't a crucial part of NVC in education. However, this book is a wonderful example of systematic study of the art of lie catching, including common interpretive biases.

The Everything Body Language Book by Shelly Hagen, c2008
This, like the Complete Idiot's Guide to Body Language, is a introduction to the subject. It has a short overview of almost everything, and the material was fact checked by David Givens of the Nonverbal Dictionary Fame



Nonverbal Communication, by Albert Mehrabian, c1972

He is one of the forefathers of NVC research; he created the concept of immediacy, one of the most studied concepts in NVC. It is well researched in relation to education. His concepts of verbal immediacy in the book are startling and fascinating.

"Breaking the code of silence: a study of teachers' nonverbal decoding accuracy of foreign language anxiety", Language Teaching Research 11.2 (2007) pp209-221

"Nonverbal Communication and Writing Lab Tutorials" by Gina Claywell, paper presented at the 1992 CCCC convention. 8pg

"The Effects of Teacher Clarity and Nonverbal Immediacy on Student Learning, Recevier Apprehension and Affect. Communication Education, 52 (2), 135. Retrieved May 13,2008 from Academic Search Complete database.

"Writing Lab Tutors: Hidden Messages That Matter" by Grace Ritz Amigone, Writing Lab Journal. 24-29

Nonverbal Communication and the Study of Teaching, Anita E. Woolfolk and Charles M Galloway, Theory into Practice, Volume XXIV, Number 1, c 2001, 77-84

Nonverbal Communicaiton: Do You Really Say What You Mean? By Paul Preston, Ph.D., The University of Montevallo, Journal of Healthcare Management 50:2 March/april 2005. 83-86

Teaching Nonverbal Communication, by David C. Schwebel and Milton Schwebel, College Teaching, vol 50, no 3, (Summer, 2002) pp 88-91

Immediacy in the Classroom: Research and Practical implications, Kelly A Rocca, ppt presentation at the "Student Motivations and Attitudes: The Role of teh Affective Domain in Geoscience Learning" conference, Northfield, MN, Feb 12, 2007

The Complete Idiots Guide to Body Language, Peter A Anderson, Ph.D, c2004
This general public treatment of the subject is truly excellent. Anderson has written one of the best textbooks on the subject and this is a good start. There is a whole chapter on body language in education.

The Power of Body Language, Tonya Reiman, Pocket Books, c 2007.
Her information all checks out, but it comes from self-study, outside of a university environment. She is also a public/motivational speaker. Her youtube clips from the O'reilly Factor are fascinating.

Richmond, Virginia P., James C. McCroskey, and Mark L. Hickson. Nonverbal Behavior in Interpersonal Relations. Boston: Pearson Education, 2008. Print.
This is chapter 14, teacher and student nonverbal relationships. Quotes are available in the body language megaquote list.


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PDF Files

Applications of Nonverbal Communication, edited by Ronald E Riggio and Robert S Feldman, c2005, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates. 327 pages

Beliefs about the Nonverbal Expression of Social Power, Dana R. Carney, Judith A. Hall, and Lavonia Smith LeBeau, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 105-123

Body Language in the Classroom, Patrick M Miller, Techniques, November/December 2005. www.acteonline.com

Unmasking the Face. Paul Ekman.
This book explains his theory of microexpressions and divides the face into three regions to aid in analysis.

Listening, Nonverbal Communication Training. Susan Timm. Northern Illinios University. Betty L Schroeder. International Journal of Listening. Vol 14. 2000. 109-128

Nonverbal Communication and the Study of Teaching. Anita E. Woolfolk and Charles M Galloway. Theory into Practice. volume xxiv number 1. C 2001

Nonverbal Communication Tests as Predictors of Success in Psychology and Counseling. By Samuel A Livingstone. c1980. 38pages
This study examined a number of different nonverbal tests and compared them to reports of success in psychology and counseling.

The role of gesture in bilingual education. Does Gesture Enhance Learning? Ruth Breckinridge Church, Saba Ayman-Nolley and Shahrzad Mahootian, Northeastern Illinois University, Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 303-319.

ERIC Identifier: ED380847
Publication Date: 1995-00-00
Author: Sensenbaugh, Roger
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading English and Communication Bloomington IN.

How Effective Communication Can Enhance Teaching at the College Level. ERIC Digest.

What do learners make of teachers’ gestures
in the language classroom? DANIELA SIME. IRAL 44 (2006), 211–230 0019042X/2006/044-0211
DOI 10.1515/IRAL.2006.009

The Power of Nonverbal Communication. By Henry H. Calero. Silver Lake Publishing. c2005. 315pages.

A Method for Teaching About Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. Methods and Techniques. By Mark Costanzo and Dane Archer. Vol 18. No 4. Dec 1991.

Breaking the Code of Silence: A study of teachers nonverbal decoding accuracy of foreign language anxiety. Language Teaching Research. 11.2. (2007) pp209-221


Intercultural nonverbal communication: A bibliography. Kitao, Kenji; Kitac, S. Kathleen. Jul
87. published reference materials

Nonverbal Communication. Powerpoint. Binod Kumar Thakur and Kumar Nishant.

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HANDOUTS FOR USE IN CENTER OR PRESENTATIONS

Evaluating your nonverbal communication skills.

Source: The Language of Emotional Intelligence, by Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. 1 page handout

Nonverbal Communication in Teaching, Howard Smith, Review of Education research, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Autumn, 1979), pp. 631-672.
This is somewhat dated. There is a k-12 focus.

Smith, Sandi W. The Prototypical feature of the Outstanding Professor from the Female and Male Undergraduate Perspective: The Roles of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. paper presented at the annual Meeting of the Western States Communication Association (San Jose, CA, Feb 23-27, 1994.)
The conclusions are fairly obvious. However, this is a good resource.




Thompson, Isabelle. Scaffolding in the Writing Center: A Microanalysis of an Experienced Tutor's Verbal and Nonverbal Tutoring Strategies. Written Communication 2009; 26; 417 originally published online Aug 13, 2009. Retrieved in 2010
This is an award winning study of a single tutoring session in great detail. She breaks down all activity into three categories (direct instruction, cognitive scaffolding, and motivational scaffolding). Illustrators are discussed, broken into Beattie's 4 categories, then narrowed to topic gestures and interactional gestures. The only real use of nvc information is with gestures.



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Unpublished dissertations/theses

Ragland, Nathan Basil. "Writing Center Tutorials and Gender Differences in Nonverbal Communication." Department of English. University of Louisville, Louisville KY, Dec 2005

Boudreaux, Marjory A. Toward Awareness: A Study of Nonverbal Behavior in the Writing Conference. Indiana University of Pennslyvania, May 1998