The problem with following rules

Rules exist for a reason. They give us guidelines to follow, and they show us how to get from point A to point B with minimal fuss. They keep order and prevent society from falling into chaos. At least, most of them do. Some of them don’t. Some rules restrict us, blind us to possibilities, [...]

Online discussions, online courses, and heteronormative binaries

Both of the articles I’m looking at today were published in Computers and Composition. The first is “‘Always a Shadow of Hope’: Heteronormative binaries in an online discussion of sexuality and sexual orientation” by Heidi McKee. The othere is “Power, language, and identity: Voices from an online course” by L.E. Sujo de Montes, Sally M. [...]

Binaries, Gender, and Pegagogy

Today’s post is brought to you by “Breaking out of Binaries: Reconceptualizing Gender and its Relationship to Language in Computer-Mediated Communication” by Michelle Rodino and “Dis/Integrating the Gay/Queer Binary: ‘Reconstructed Identity Politics’ for a Performative Pedagogy” by Karen Kopelson. In Rodino’s article, we look at actual gender identity. Kopelson will take us into sexuality. But [...]

So obvious that it’s invisible: Letting go of the words

As I sit here reading Janice (Ginny) Redish’s book Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works, I find myself over and over saying “well, yeah. Duh.” The things Redish is suggesting, like that a website needs to have a search bar at the top of the page, or that links need to [...]

Figures of Speech

Today I’m looking at Arthur Quinn’s great book Figures of Speech: 60 ways to turn a phrase. It’s a very short book about style, about the different ways to play with words and when to do them. More importantly, it’s a pretty comprehensive glossary of terms, so that I know that when I spell something [...]

Usable Pedagogies and Open Source

Stephanie Schnieder wrote Usable Pedagogies: Usability, Rhetoric, and Sociocultural Pedagogy in the Technical Writing Classroom, which seems in theme with the last couple entries. So I’ll start there. The article  is essentially about how usability can support a sociocultural pedagogy. It presents ways in which usability can help with technical writing. Specifically, it suggests that [...]

More technology and pedagogy

Originally, the last entry was going to include all four sources (those two and these two). But it ended up taking so long to talk about those two that these got bumped. I have no idea why I’m telling you this. The first article I’m looking at here is Jeff Rice’s Cyborgography: A pedagogy of [...]

Online Pedagogy and the problems it brings

This entry is going to cover two articles. There’s Anonymity versus Commitment: the dangers of education on the Internet by Hubert L. Dreyfus (2002), and Respond Now! E-mail, Acceleration, and a Pedagogy of Patience by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (2004). So there is at least a common theme: online pedagogy. Which I’m interested in. I included [...]

Why I don’t like the term “Rough Draft”

I mentioned this a while ago, but nothing I ever write is ‘rough.’ Not even this post. Even though I’m writing it as I come up with what I want to say, I still won’t call it rough. One way to read what I’m saying is to think that I’m suggesting that everything I write, [...]

Teaching Style, by Edward P.J. Corbett

I just finished reading Corbett’s article, published in  Style in Rhetoric and Composition (a critical sourcebook) edited by Paul Butler. The article seems to be mostly about why students are unable to analyze style, along with a few suggestions of ways to do it. What’s interesting is that Corbett seems to believe that the reason [...]