February 2010
2 posts
"Revisiting the Past: The Historical Context of... →
Tricia Gallant’s article—the text for Roosevelt’s Faculty Brown-Bag Discussion on Wednesday, March 3—takes a surprising historical look at definitions of, and changing attitudes toward, plagiarism in U.S. colleges and universities. Join us in AUD 232 or SCH 332 from 11:30-1:00 to talk about Gallant’s ideas, and about your own strategies for encouraging ethical...
When "writing is the most irksome thing in the...
The discipline academic writers need in order to keep those fingers on the keyboard can be hard to learn, especially when we really don’t know what we want or need to say. But the only way to get the work done is to plug away—even when Facebook, friends, and French fries are much more compelling than the task in front of us. While some of our distractions are new, the problem we face is...
August 2009
1 post
December 2008
3 posts
Which books will you be taking with you?
Now that it’s finals week, it’s a good idea to look over all the books you read in your classes this semester. Some you’ll undoubtedly sell back, but there should also be a few that you’re going to hang onto—either because you loved them, or because you need to keep thinking about them. Was there a book in one of your courses that you *hated* at the beginning of the...
“No two persons ever read the same book.”
– Edmund Wilson
November 2008
3 posts
A roadmap to simplicity
Ever get a writing assignment that asked you to do too many things? Ever drafted an argument that confused even *you*, the person who developed it? When you look over your notes or your draft, and what you’ve got feels like a jumbled mess, maybe it’s time to “map” out your work.
There are lots of ways to visualize the argument you’re making in a paper, but here are a...
“A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
October 2008
15 posts
Writing social justice....for money?
Students in Roosevelt’s LIBS 201 class—Writing Social Justice—sometimes ask how they can use the writing skills they develop in college in order to make a difference, *and* make a living, after they graduate. While there’s always a (small) chance that you or one of your classmates will quickly become a famous writer after graduation, don’t wait for fame to find you....
“We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do...”
– Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
What do teachers say about Wikipedia?
Writing teachers sometimes say the name “Wikipedia” in the same tone of disgust that nutritionists save for phrases like “Wendy’s Baconator.” The truth is, though, that a lot of your teachers actually use Wikipedia on a regular basis. Read this blog post to find out how teachers (and other educated types) really feel about Wikipedia.
Roosevelt Writing Center →
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Reading backwards
If you’re taking ENG 100 or 101 at Roosevelt, you know by now that these courses are just as much about reading as they are about writing. For most of us, it’s only when we’re reading a text for the second or third time that we really start to understand what the writer is trying to do—and, more important, what we want to say about the writer’s ideas.
Sometimes,...
“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other...”
– German novelist Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
How Obama Writes His Speeches - TIME →
Reading about or talking with other writers about how they draft their essays/books/speeches can help you develop writing practices that work for you. Barack Obama drafts what he’s planning to say on a yellow legal pad before he types anything on his laptop. How do *you* get started?
How do *you* mark up a text?
Before you write an essay in a Composition class, you’ve almost always got some reading to do. But how do you figure out what a reading is saying, and how it might help you address the assignment your teacher has given you?
Take a look at one writer’s notes on a reading (right). What do you notice? She doesn’t just highlight the text with a yellow marker. She poses questions,...
