Grammar sticklers may have OCD

 In the past, many people believed that correcting other people’s grammar was simply rude and unnecessary. However, in this article, Dennis Baron tries to explain that the actions some of these people may be justified. There is now evidence that they are actually ill, suffering from a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder or oppositional defiant disorder (OCD/ODD). Prior to this discovery, scientists had found a grammar gene (technically named the FOXP2 gene), which may be responsible for a number of “grammatical ills,” including the incapability to form complex sentences or to correctly use the passive voice. There is now evidence that there is an alternative form of this gene called FOXP2.1 that may actually cause some of us to obsessively correct other people’s grammar. The article continues to talk about the two researchers who are spearheading this study and writing in the current issue of the Journal of Syntactic Cognition. L. Malevich and H.D. Lo studied the fMRIs of self-diagnosed grammar sticklers as they were exposed to a variety of solecisms ranging from “split infinitives and sentence-final prepositions to phrases like between you and I and apple’s $2.49 a bag. The two researchers found that those being studied showed markers of brain activity also commonly observed in OCD/ODD patients. There is a new push to add this disorder to the DSM-5, the latest edition of the standard catalogue of psychological disorders, scheduled for publication this year. These new findings seem to have complicated this already controversial issue, especially with Bob Lowth, founder and president of the Society for the Propagation of Pure English (SPoPE). He strongly objects to this kind of medicalization of grammatical correction saying, “It’s bad English that’s sick, not correcting it. I suppose the next thing is that workers will want health insurance coverage for their misplaced modifiers.” While this discovery was the first step in correcting this medical ill, it goes a long way towards “finding, explaining, and helping us deal with, their obsession with enforcing on the hapless public an idiosyncratic and often undertheorized idea of what’s right or wrong in speech and writing.” He closes the article in saying that if defining this societal faux pas as a psychological syndrome helps us find a cure, then ultimately both society and language itself stands to benefit. I find this article and the entire study fascinating because this discovery really seems to throw a twist into the very controversial issue of correcting other people’s grammar.

Do you believe that this new discovery gives people that suffer from this illness the right to correct grammar? Should scientists be working on treatment for this? Or is it something trivial that should not be worried about?

Roger Ebert on Video Games

            “Okay, kids, play on my lawn” is a follow up article from Movie Critic Roger Ebert, responding to the many comments he received after his article titled “Video games can never be art.” Ebert beings the article by expressing regret that he had ever mentioned the topic of video games, saying that he “would never express an opinion on a movie I hadn't seen. Yet I declared as an axiom that video games can never be Art.” He also mentions that among the comments he received, most of them were not toxic or mean-spirited, and only a dozen or so had to be deleted. The main point that Ebert highlights among them was that he “should not have written that entry without being more familiar with the actual experience of video games.”

            Ebert mentioned that many people suggested games that he should play that would sway him that video games were art (Myst, Shadow of the Colossus, and Cosmology of Kyoto among them), and even said that Kellee Santiago, the woman who gave the TED Talk which Ebert was responding to in his article and an employee at Sony offered a Playstation and a selection of games for him to play. Ebert then reluctantly admitted that he had no desire to play any of the video games and that he “was in a lose-lose position.”

            Later in the article after bringing up a conversation he had with filmmaker Clive Barker, who suspected that Ebert’s problem with games was that he believes that games provide too much malleability in their narrative to keep the focus that makes a good story, which Ebert agrees to. He finally concludes after searching for a proper definition of art that he can’t find a definition, and that if someone was emotionally moved enough by a game that it affected them so much, then to them, it could very well be art. At the same time he did not relent his original point that games can never be art, but rather admits that to some, it very well may be.

            In this article I do believe that Roger Ebert managed to please both camps, though to varying degrees. It’s a very touchy subject, and many people are very defensive of video games. That being said, Ebert is very well-respected as a critic, so bowing to random commenters on the internet might not look good for him. By relenting his point to a degree but still keeping its spirit, I think he successfully addressed everyone and made the nature of his argument clear. I personally do believe that gaming can be art, as there are visuals, characters, and stories within games I’ve played that have emotionally affected me more than certain books or movies, though I do admit that movies, literature, painting, and other types of art have had more time to evolve, so it’s difficult for Video Games to stand among them seriously.

            Do you believe gaming can ever be art? Did Ebert relent too much to the masses on the internet due to peer pressure? Ebert posted a poll online asking people if they valued the book Huckleberry Finn or a good game more. What is your opinion on that, and why?

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/okay_kids_play_on_my_lawn.html

"The Problems of Plagiarism" by Rebecca Moore Howard

Rebecca Moore Howard’s “The Problems of Plagiarism” opens up the questions I think many students, teachers, writers, and more can relate to: What is plagiarism and how can it be defined, who is to be punished for such crimes, and how do you catch the plagiarist in the first place? Then arose the idea of “patchwriting,” in which Howard believes should not be considered plagiarism. Patchwriting, to Howard, is the changing or deleting of a few words to create a new sentence out of the previous one. Agreeing with Harold Bloom on his comment noting that “all writing today is influenced,” and “we do not write alone, and often it is texts, not people, with whom we collaborate.” (p. 4)

College sources today suggest that good writers cite most everything and do not patchwrite.(p.4) Howard argues that it is simply a way of putting down in words what we have learned from scholarly writers, and in the medieval times it would not be considered so criminal like.

How do you feel about patchwriting?

Should it be considered plagiarism or not?

Why do you think there is so much confusion regarding plagiarism?

Wikipedia: Reliable or Not?

In the article “It's a Wiki, Wiki World” by Chris Taylor and Coco Masters, they talk about the development of wikipedia, the ideas behind it, and how it relates to other open source software. Jimmy Wales is the creator of wikipedia, and a couple things led to his decision to undergo this challenge. First, Wales was home schooled, and loved reading the Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book. Then, in 1989, he discovered the internet, and began to meet people online. He decided that he would try to take both of these interests, which led to the eventual creation of wikipedia.

Wales' first attempt at an online encyclopedia was called Nubeia, and after two years, he had managed to post just twelve articles. Later, he realized that the reason Nubeia was not successful was because it had many stages of fact checking and peer-review. Then Wales thought of wikis and his knowledgeable online friends. He then launched wikipedia, allowing anyone to edit the content and improve upon the articles.

We all know the rest of the story. Wikipedia grew bigger than Nubeia in just two weeks, and today has over 1.5 million articles, making it the largest encyclopedia to date. However, the fact that anyone can write anything on wikipedia has led to the belief that it is inaccurate. This article challenges that claim in several ways. The one that I found most surprising was the statistic that, on average, if you post a bad word in an article, it will take less than two minutes for it to be removed. This is because enthusiasts about any subject can follow relating articles, get updates when they are changed, and then correct the changes if they are inaccurate.

Wikipedia also has the advantage of multiple viewpoints existing inside the same article, as each article has many authors. The more viewpoints, the better overview of a subject the reader gets. To compare it to class, you could say that while the Encyclopedia Britannica is more focused on the “they say”, wikipedia is packed with both “they say” and “I say”.

I think that wikipedia has become a much more reliable resource than it used to be, and it will only continue to improve. Like Wales, I am an optimistic person, but I think that the idea of people sharing knowledge online is important and a great tool. Like always, you have to be critical of any information you may find on wikipedia, but the same can be said for any website. The difference with wikipedia is that it allows for incorrect information to be taken down or changed by anyone, and has a large following that is willing to devote some of their day to keep it articles accurate.

What do you think of the use of online wikis such as wikipedia? Can we ever trust websites such as these to have accurate information? Should we only use wikipedia as a “first step” in our searches? Or should we completely disregard wikis, and only use sources that cannot be changed by the general public?

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=56c69416-9590-470d-a86a-b4a678772983%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=20&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=17165329

Just for fun

Check out this article on New and Necessary Punctuation marks. Maybe we can get these to catch on. I'm personally a big fan of the friendly period.

In case you like seeing the links:
http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6872071/8-new-and-necessary-punctuation-marks

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-the-person-in-charge-of-new-punctuation

American Otaku: Fans or Critics?

Believe it or not, anime is pretty popular in America apart from other countries beside Japan.  However, anime fans, or otaku, don’t always abide by the rules when it comes to viewing and translating shows. My topic for my exploration paper explores the issue of fansubbing (and sometimes fandubbing), which is when fans create their own subtitles directly translating (or attempting to) the original Japanese into English. However, the article I have chosen explains the popularity of anime in America as well as the challenges American dubbing teams face when creating English dubbed (officially dubbed, I might add) versions of shows. Charles Solomon, a professor of animation at UCLA, is the author of the article, titled “The State of the Art of the Anime Dub.” 

He starts by stating the importance of the English dub, saying it can make or break the audience’s opinion of the show, as it is hard for American otaku to relate to the show if not translated correctly, while respecting the original Japanese script. Japanese figures of speech and idioms are very different than those of Westerners, which can be hard for fans to understand. In addition, finding actors that can portray the proper emotions and personalities for characters, even behind a mic, poses a great challenge. Directors must decide if the cast should be close to the voices of the original Japanese cast, or reinvented with a new English version. One more challenge, which is probably joked about the most with anime, is having English voice actors match their words with the mouth flapping of the character originally animated to speech Japanese. To help this, voice actors record individually, so they can focus on their own character. However, they must also remember that their character is interacting with others, even if they are not in the recording booth. 

Solomon cites a great example of an anime English dub done right, which is Fullmetal Alchemist (one of my personal favorites). He explains even though Vic Mignogna (VA of the main character, Ed) hadn’t met Aaron Dismuke (VA of Ed’s brother, Al) when they started recording, they still created a very authentic brotherly bond on the show, as if they’d known each other for years. 

Overall, Solomon wants to explain that though American otaku can be very critical of English dubs, they often don’t understand the difficulty of producing them. So, what's your opinion on English dubbed anime (if you have seen any)? Why do you think it is as popular as it is in America? If you've watched any, what are your favorites and why did you like it?

Additionally, I have attached a few clips of english dubbed anime for you to reference to if you've never seen anime. I highly recommend all for viewing though :). The first is from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Ed, the one I talked about, is the blonde kid and his brother Al, is in the suit (long story). The second is from Ouran High School Host Club (context: the boys are all rich, they invaded her home, and they are trying not to offend the girl because she's not). The third is a clip from Hetalia, a historical satire parodying the world's nations (context: England and France hate each other and constantly fight. Each person represents a country. England has the bushy eyebrows, France has the long blond hair, America is the one with the glasses).

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/arts/television/09solo.html?_r=0

"The I Stop Coming to School": Understanding Absenteeism in an Adult English as a Second Language Program

In the article “’Then I Stop Coming to School’: Understanding Absenteeism in an Adult English as a Second Language Program” by Susan Schalge and Kay Soga, they tried to see the reason behind absenteeism in English as a Second Language (ESL) class through their “ethnographic research on attrition and assesses the contribution of anthropology to a practical understanding of this case.” (151). Through this research, they can see the factors of the absentees of the students and come up with solutions for it.

The first factor that they found is the dissatisfaction of the students that came from their anxiety about the topics or goals of the class that are unpredictable for them. They became bored and frustrated as they did not meet their expectation. They give a real example that one of ESL students wanted to ask questions but the teacher seems to be busy, and his willingness to ask started fading away as the time went by. This is one of the problems that leads to the absent of the students. Schalge and Soga mention that when the students were asked about what they learn on the class, “the typical first response was silence” or “many things. (157). There is no specific detail about what they learn. And then, the next factor is the uncertainty of the student population that leads to the unpredictable learning topics and goals. Because of it, the students have hard time to follow the subject matter in the class. Moreover, a problem like miscommunication of the classroom management styles appears, and increases the frustration of the students. Schalge and Soga give some example like a student want to learn about grammar but the students only got a lot of vocabularies.

Based on those reasons, they both come out with two solutions for the two factors. Teachers need to make a better curriculum structure and make more effective communication among staff and students about their goals and expectation for the students. Also, teachers need to estimate the students’ abilities to facilitate their communication in order to develop their interest toward learning English.

As a student from other country, I can see what the points of Schalge and Soga are. I can relate it with my own school life back in my college. It’s also because of the different culture where the curriculum of learning English is different with the curriculum in my own country. It took time to me for adapting with the new system in here, so I had a hard time to learn. And then, it leads to some absents in the class.

Do you think there are other factors that can cause absents in ESL class?

What also some advises that you can give to the teachers?

Do you think the curriculum is already good enough?

What the students should do or say in order to avoid all those problems?

Link: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b88854af-2d61-442e-a42b-7f865a0f8600%40sessionmgr10&vid=2&hid=12

Julie's Blog Post

Motoko Rich put together this article with a series of perspectives regarding whether digital literacy is acceptable, or if print literacy is more of an advantage. In this new “digital age” world we live in, technology has not only shaped the way we read and write, but the way we think.  Our generation is mostly dependent on the quick and easy access to information that the internet provides us with.

So what is the problem with gaining information quickly and easily? Researchers have shown that standardized reading tests scores have declined, and they are linking it to time spent on the internet and not on tangible books.  Federal Statistics show that kids who read for fun once a day will on average score higher on the reading test than kids who do not read. Studies also show that kids who spend more time on the internet have a more difficult time figuring out whether a source is reliable or not. Scientists in this article are claiming that the internet has made kid’s attention spans less precise.

On the other hand, people argued that even if it’s just on the internet, at least these kids are reading something. They aren’t spending their free time watching television, they are surfing the internet and engaging in some sort of text.  One kid in the article, who is dyslexic, said he found himself more comfortable on the internet, because it skips the unimportant details that most books include. Some may consider this lazy, while other busy bodies may see this as a convenient alternative to books. Many people are rooting on the use of internet as our society has become a digital world. The internet is a source for kids and adults to use to engage in different kinds of viewpoints. It allows for conversation of any given topic. Not to mention, the internet allows us to cover a large amount of topic in just a short time.

Both sides to this issue have many good points. The question is which side will benefit our lives more?

Should schools stick to books or incorporate the internet into learning?

Do you think that the internet is just a lazy cop out to avoid work?

Which do you prefer, print or digital literacy?

What do you think about how our society has turned into a digital age type of learning environment?

The Great Canon Controversy

My Exploring and Issue topic is focused on the "Great Books" and the canon of great works. What I chose to explore is the controversy over the use of great books in the higher educations curriculum. These books are works from authors like Aristotle, Plato or Charles Dickens. The text "The Great Canon Controversy" explores the question of whether these books should be continued to be taught as part of the college curriculum or be replaced by newer more recent texts. The author of the text William Casement wrote his book to provide an overview of the canon controversy, as well as provide what he thinks is a sensible resolution to it as well. Casement takes a nonpartisan position on the subject but at the same time is supporter of the canon. Casement's book is divided into three parts and an conclusion. In part one Casement explores the history of teaching the great works in the past and how it has changed.  He points out that in the twentieth century the main justification for teaching the great books was the development of critical thinking, and an understanding of the universals of human nature. Part two covers the anticanon movement and its claims that the western canon is not as beneficial as the supporters of the canon claim it to be. In part two Casement claims that anticanonism is faulty in many ways giving specific examples of why he believes this. Part three is Casement speaking on how the canon that is taught should be reformed to be practical in current college curriculum.

Questions: 

What importance does the canon serve in modern times?(Why do people continue to study Shakespeare?)

How important do you think the great works are to higher education? Who would you side with, defenders of the canon, anticanonists, or someone like Casement who speaks for revision of the canon?

Chosen Post: In Defense of the Graphic Novel

In her article "In Defense of the Graphic Novel", author Kathryn Hansen rallies for the acceptance of graphic novels in the literary world and in the classroom. As a teacher who utilizes the graphic novel in the classroom, she has seen firsthand how graphic novels can interest students who would otherwise have a hard time focusing on a traditional book. They are also easier to understand for those with subpar reading skills or those for whom English is a secondary language. On the other hand, she has found that the addition of images  can challenge a higher-level reader's analytic skills because of the added visual information. While she recognizes the criticism toward this relatively new medium, she ultimately asks for acceptance from others and recalls that the traditional novel faced the same issues before it was ultimately accepted in the 18th century.

On the other hand, critics of the graphic novel argue that the graphic novel is simply not suitable for the classroom. The genre is still young, and only a select few graphic novels are 'civilized' enough to be considered as literature. However, I would argue that there are examples of this in every genre. For every literary classic like The Great Gatsby or Of Mice and Men, there are hundreds of novels like Twilight that have no business being anywhere near a classroom. As with all things, generalizations about the entirety of graphic novels are unwise. Dismissing all graphic novels as childish and immature would cause one to miss out on true classics like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and, Maus, all of which, in my opinion are as 'deep'or deeper than any of the classics taught in schools today.


Link:  http://www.ncte.org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1022-nov2012/EJ1022Defense.pdf

1) What is your viewpoint in this debate? Can graphic novels be considered literature?

2) Would you ever take a class in which graphic novels were used as part of the curriculum?

3) What changes need to be made in the graphic novel genre before it can be accepted as literature, if any?

Teaching Standard English

“Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard?” is a reading about personal experience of the writer, Linda M. Christensen.  English from Boston, Texas, and from Los Angeles might be different in some pronunciation and word using. Linda has to avoid the word lawyer and lay in order not making people burst into laughter after hearing her pronunciation. The questions arise from this kind of event, who determines which one is “standard English” and which one is “nonstandard”. A bias also arises as people using nonstandard English, which are their home language. This problem is getting serious. As people want to pay more attention to the “correct” English, they are indirectly decreasing their attention on engaging, persuading and even entertaining. Realize it or not, the teacher has the main role on solving this issue. Some teacher might just humiliate or put down students’ home language indirectly, and just straight to the point what is right or what is wrong. People will start losing their passion and honesty about their world without knowing who benefits from the rules, who makes the rules, and who loses from the rules.

Linda study English for about fifteen years to become an English teacher and teach her student about “Standard English”. She has experienced being down because of her own English. Therefore, she changes the way an English teacher supposed to teach. By inviting her former student, she showed that it’s OK to have “nonstandard English”. In fact, after hearing her former student with a weird pronunciation, students to be open about themselves. The problems like homosexual in families even arise in the discussion as the students start being honest and being open. Rather than putting students down because of “standard English”, teachers need to encourage students and don’t let them blame their own selves for the low grade on English or poor SAT scores. As a good teacher, she has the role to empower student with the right English without throwing away their English value.

I really agree with Linda that “Standard English” is not supposed to be a wall to block people’s creativities and ideas. By being down, people cannot stand on their own feet to defend their argument, as they are afraid of making mistakes. People need to value their own English that they learn from their home. Because without worrying about their English, someone can easily express their thought about something. I really like when Linda said, “… what I said was more important than how I said it.”

Do you agree that Standard English is not everything on discussion? Do we just need to stay back and let this issue keep happening? What can you do to give impact to the people who don’t have the “correct” English? What do you thing the right role for an English teacher?