Hey Prof, Why I Gotta Do This?
In our pedagogy courses, we toss around the terms “instructional objectives” and “course learning outcomes” like they are unquestionable cornerstones of classroom work. We might be proud of our lesson plan templates, with their four-bullet objectives heading up the daily agenda. But how often do our students make a clear connection between our course instructional […]
Babel-ing about the Tower of Power
The title of this post is a play on words. I know, it’s not immediately evident, but this wordplay has just been swimming through my head in the last few weeks. The Tower of Babel is a biblical story about power, and about language. And lately, those things have really reared their head in a […]
Grammarly: Garbage or a Godsend?
Today, I saw a post in a forum online for a group that I belong to asking for some support to reject an administrator’s push to purchase Grammarly for the department. Many people quickly responded in support of the post, complete with a youtube video that I will link here entitled “Grammarly is garbage.” Several […]
On Agreement in Science as a Virtue
In the introduction to Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science, Harris remarks that “the overall agreement that [scientists] achieve is amazing when compared to politics or religion or literary criticism” (1). I’m not sure on what basis this claim is made, but it’s made with such authority, and by a scientist, that on first read I simply […]
The Prevalence of False Ideas
In his book The History and Theory of Rhetoric, James Herrick remarks that “Aristotle believed that false ideas prevail only when advocates of what is true fail to understand rhetoric.” Is this true, however? False ideas, such as those spread by our most recent former president, were perpetuated without any training in rhetoric, and yet many […]
Does Aristotle have Street Cred?
Can you recall a time when you knew Aristotle’s name, but you didn’t really know why he was important? Do your students know, or care, about Aristotle? I don’t remember the first time I heard the name “Aristotle.” It was probably in an elementary or middle school ancient history unit. But certainly, when it came […]