Friday, 10 Dec 2010

I will not be up at the university tomorrow, as I have now two children, not just one, home ill. Please slip any outstanding papers under my door or into my box, and I will fetch them some time on the weekend.  Grades should all be posted by Monday.

Official date change

Just to officially inform you: term papers are now due on Monday, December 6th.

Please have your papers in my box or under my door before 2 pm on that date.  Unless you have arranged an extension previously, I WILL be deducting marks for late papers received after this point. If you can’t get up, make sure your hard copy is emailed to me before the deadline; I will could that as submitted, but you will still need to get a hard copy to me during the week sometime.

Serious bugbear

I heard the following advertisement on the radio the other day and almost drove off the road in angst:

“Willow Valley Garden utilizes the freshest, seasonal, organic, locally grown and raised produce and meat.” (http://willowvalleygarden.blogspot.com/)

These two words are not interchangeable. Here is the difference, copied from a book you all should read: Getting the Words Right, by T.A.R. Cheney (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 1983)

“Utilize is not an elegant variation of the word use; it has its own distinct meaning. When you utilize something, you make do with something not normally used for the purpose, e.g., you utilize a dime when the bloody screwdriver is nowhere to be found. If the screwdriver were there, you’d use it, not utilize a stupid dime for the purpose.

Use use when you mean use, and utilize only when it’s properly used to mean–to use something not normally used.”

(http://users.wpi.edu/~nab/sci_eng/99_Apr_22.html)

Please do NOT use “utilize” unless it really is the word you mean.  If I read utilize used incorrectly in one more paper–or hear it misused one more time in the media–I think I am going to go mad!

Writing assessment answers

I am SO sorry I have not posted these before now!  I know some of you have not shown them to me, but the due date was last week, so the moment has passed.  Here is the answer key in .pdf.

All answers

Readings for the last class

I have now posted the readings for WWI literature.  It is a hard topic for two reasons: there is so much good poetry and short story to consider; we are also short on time…

Please read as much as you can get to; I recognize that I have listed significantly more than we will actually discuss.  Be sure to read the titles in bold, please.

Readings-Prose: from We Wasn’t Pals: Betha Carveth, “The Diary of a Canadian Nurse” (30-31); Nellie McClung and Private Simmons, “The Blackest Chapter of All” (143-49); L. Moore Cosgrave, “1915-The Development of Hate,” “1916-Personal Hate Changes to Loathing,” and “1917-The Loathing Changes to Silent Contempt” (2-3; 97-98; 179-81); Stanley A. Rutledge, “Over Boys and At Them” and “Willie Gierke” (13; 68-69)
Posted in “Readings”: Charles Yale Harrison, “The Sniper”
In Sugars and Moss: J. G. Sime, “Munitions!” (485-90)
Readings-Poetry:
Titles without page numbers can be found under “Readings” World War I poetry”
Coleman, Helena: “When First He Put the Khaki On” (1917)
McCrae, John: “In Flanders’ Fields” (127)
Prewett, Frank: “Card Game” (14); “I Stared at the Dead” (142); “Voices of Women” (178); “Burial Stones”; “The Somme Valley”
Roberts, Charles G. D.: “Going Over“
Roberts, Theodore Goodridge “A Billet in Flanders (1915)” (111)
Ross, W. W. E.: “Soldiery” (4)
Sarson, H. Smiley: “The Shell” (11) “Laventie Church” (12)
Scott, Duncan Campbell: “Question and Answer”; “Lines on a Monument”; “After Battle”; “Somewhere in France”; “To a Canadian Aviator who Died for his Country in France” (1915); “The Fallen”; “To the Canadian Mothers: 1914-1918″
Scott, Frederick George: “Call Back Our Dead“; “The Penalty”
Service, Robert: “The Call”: “The Volunteer“; “Lark”; “Faith”; “Song of Winter Weather”; “On the Wire” (192-93); “The Stretcher-Bearer“; “The Song of the Pacifist”
Trotter, Bernard Freeman: “Smoke” (33) “Ici Repose” (150-51)
Wood, Fred B: “The Issue“

Seeking your opinions

In the past, I have posted the slides for student and lecture presentations as “Galleries,” which means you have to click on each individual image to enlarge it.  I have now discovered the “Slideshow” option, and have posted the Powerpoint presentations from the Afro-Canadian literature seminars, as well as a couple of others, as slideshows.  Could you please find one of each type of posting, check it out, and get back to me as individuals regarding which you consider to be more useful? I can do either, but would like to be consistent.  My choice will depend upon what you like best, as it is all posted with you in mind…

Please email me or reply to this post with your opinions.

Thanks,

Karyn

OMG – nun uv U wld do this, fur shur?

Here is an interesting article, in .html and .pdf format, that elicits a number of unmentionable responses from me… I will leave them to your fertile imaginations:

“Dante, Ed.” “The Shadow Scholar.” The Chronicle Review. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.

“The Shadow Scholar” in .pdf format

Term paper proposals

All of the term paper proposals submitted on time should now be graded. Go to WebCT and look under the “Graded” tab in “Assignments” (I believe). When you are viewing the document I have returned to you, make sure you have Track Changes set to “Highlight changes on screen” (or whatever words your version of the software uses). If you cannot view the edits, please email me!!! I can .pdf the document with edits revealed and send that on to you.

I will be grading the rest of the proposals later this afternoon, so if yours is not graded, keep an eye on the spot today and tomorrow morning.

Seminar readings for tomorrow

I have just received notice from one of the presenters that the readings they would like to look at are as follows:

“War against the Iroquois” (1609) by Champlain from Voyages; “Relation of What Occurred among the Hurons” (1635) by Brebeuf from The Jesuit Relations; “Massacre of the Esquimaux (Third Expedition)” by Samuel Hearne; “Nahathaway Customs and Beliefs (1792 – 1806) by David Thompson; “Journey to England with an Inuit Family” (1772) by George Cartwright.  These are all in the text, in the first section.

Sorry for the late notice; see how many of these you can get to.

Timing of assignments

It has been brought to my attention that assignments on WebCT are due at noon. This is erroneous. With the exception of Critical Reviews, which are due by the beginning of class, all assignments for this class are due at midnight on the due date.