Language Diversity in the Classroom A pervasive, collective memory in our culture is that of the “Melting Pot” as a force to amalgamate all immigrants coming to United States shores into the ideal “American.” Unfortunately, along with the rather…
Author Archive for lmarik
A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing—Commentary
by lmarik • • 2 Comments
I found this article by Linda Flower and John Hayes fascinating. As they state at the end of the article, “Writers and teachers of writing have long argued that one learns through the act of writing itself, but it has…
bell hooks, “Rebel’s Dilemma,” commentary
by lmarik • • 1 Comment
In her short piece, “Rebel’s Dilemma,” bell hooks describes the balance between being an academic and a “rebel,” as she states the following: “Academia was where we worked but we wanted a life on the outside. We did not…
Paul Kei Matsuda: Composition Studies and ESL Writing: A Disciplinary Division of Labor, a commentary
by lmarik • • 0 Comments
Where do Composition Studies and ESL Writing overlap? It seems to me that Matsuda’s main point is that we need to find the answer to this question to better provide for our second language writers. His history of the division…
Commentary: Preparing Them for Remediation?
by lmarik • • 1 Comment
I found Rearticulating Articulation by Russell and Foster a fascinating read. A “cross-national perspective” really does shift the way one looks at oneself, one’s culture, and in this case, one’s educational system. I didn’t realize that the United States…
Chat transcript from missed class 3/12
by lmarik • • 0 Comments
Transcript from 3/12 “cyber class,” abridged and edited to summarize and to remove chat formatting interference, with a brief summary at the end.
The Bartholomae/Elbow Debate–Commentary #5
by lmarik • • 0 Comments
Weighing in on the Bartholomae/Elbow debate, I find, happily, that I can encompass both of these intelligent thinkers into my teaching philosophy. Elbow’s emphasis is audience and the importance of being a real reader. He wants teachers to throw…
Musings on Terministic Screens and the Queen of Domesticity, Commentary
by lmarik • • 2 Comments
Burke’s concept of terministic screens or the “reality” that “has been built up for us through nothing but our symbol systems” (48) is a useful construct. It’s sort of a more elaborate, more far-reaching conception of looking at the world…
Commentary: On the Study Methods of Our Time, Giambattista Vico
by lmarik • • 0 Comments
Vico made me laugh at first with his ethnocentric insistence that his Italian culture had in fact surpassed the “Ancients” in many ways, most notably in scientific tools and patterns of thinking. His need to place his culture as superior,…
Walking a Mile in Ancient Indian Rhetorical Shoes, Commentary
by lmarik • • 1 Comment
In “Rethinking Rhetoric from an Indian Perspective,” Keith Lloyd argues for the inclusion of the Nyaya Sutra text, an ancient Indian debate manual, in the field of rhetorical study. Lloyd claims that the reasoning patterns included in this text, which…