Category Archives: teaching

Lanham definition of rhetoric; the Aim of Education(s)

Posted on February 23, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I need to remember this somewhere, why not the blog. Now you can remember it, too. “Rhetoric” has not always been a dirty word, the opposite of sincerity, truth, and good intentions. For most of its life it meant the … Continue reading →

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Student Strikes Gold

Posted on February 19, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I had my students do an assignment in which they had to characterize blogs. One student offered these nuggets: Fourth, the blog that is the most idiotic tends to win. This is just like high school. The weird blog is … Continue reading →

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On Thinking and Clarity

Posted on January 27, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

The following material is a response to Richard Lanham’s Style: An Anti-Textbook. I shared it with my expository students today. It relies on a ridiculous simplification. My use of the terms “rhetoric” and “composition” are completely idiosyncratic and reductionary. I’ll … Continue reading →

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Fish on Donoghue on the State of the Humanities

Posted on January 20, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Stanley Fish has a review of Frank Donoghue’s recent book The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. Reading his review, I couldn’t help but think of my recent post on the links between my teaching … Continue reading →

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Thinking about First Posts and Abouts

Posted on January 20, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today my students will be setting up there blogs. I wanted to think about first posts and/or about pages. These are important to establish the tone, feel, and personality of a blog. Here’s some source material: mxrk raw thought dooce … Continue reading →

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Productive Mess Hits the Airwaves

Posted on January 16, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Here’s some shameless self-promotion: the new issue of Kairos includes my article with Nathaniel Rivers and Ryan Weber “Productive Mess: First-Year Composition Takes the University’s Agonism Online.” The article has two main arguments: first, it discusses how to better integrate … Continue reading →

Posted in digital-citizenship, education, kairos, rhetoric, teaching, technology, theory-in-practice, victory-is-mine, web2.0, writing-tech | Comments Off on Productive Mess Hits the Airwaves

Tour of the Internets

Posted on January 15, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Here’s a work in progress. Next semester I am giving my students a tour of the internet early in our digital citizenship course. Please feel free to make suggestions in the comments. General Resources for starting a blog-type thingie Rands … Continue reading →

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Jack McCoy, Ciceronian Rhetoric, and the art of Pathetic Conclusions

Posted on January 14, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Tomorrow I’m planning a quick, introductory lecture on Ciceronian argument. As such, I’ll be referring to the six-part structure extracted from the Catiline Orations and discussed at length in De Inventione. In brief: Exordium [prepares the hearer… this can be … Continue reading →

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Expository Writing as Digital Citizenship

Posted on January 6, 2009 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Its a new semester, and I am teaching two sections of upper-division expository writing. I am excited to return to a previous approach: blogging as composition. Last time I tried this with freshman we and we were quite pleased with … Continue reading →

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To my students…One more(s) time….

Posted on December 11, 2008 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

So I’m grading final papers. You italicize or underline a major work, such as a book, journal, or magazine. You quote a part of that work, such as an article. You italicize or underline a major work, such as a … Continue reading →

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