Sunday, April 27, 2008

On Excellence

On Excellence

“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare, said a wise man. If so, what happens to excellence when we eliminate the difficulty and the rarity?”

- Edward Abbey, “Down the River” in Desert Solitaire [1]

“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”
- Pearl S. Buck

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

- Aristotle

Read:

Benjamin Hoff, “The Crooked Tree”
Mark Donald Ludwig, “Look out for more Blairs”
Bill Puka, “Student Cheating: As Serious an Academic Integrity Problem as Faculty-Administration Business as Usual?”
Nancy Gibbs, “Reading Between the Lies: A young reporter who stole and made up stories forces the New York Times to take stock”

After Reading:

Where does value come from? What causes something to have value? How do we achieve excellence? Or do we ever achieve excellence? Do you feel pressure to achieve excellence? Is cheating a result of these pressures for excellence?

After considering the readings and the previous questions, write a 1-2 page essay on the topic of your choice dealing with concept of excellence. Use quotes or ideas from the articles to support your position.

[1] Ballata, Phyllis. “On Excellence” Writing from Life: Collecting and Connecting. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1997. 60.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Rubric for Education Essay

Stimulating Ideas (15 points)
The writing…
____ contains a clearly stated thesis statement.
____ supports the thesis with facts, examples, and/or quotations.
____ thoroughly supports the writer’s position.

Logical Organization (15 points)
____ includes a clear beginning, a strong middle, and an effective ending.
____ presents ideas in an organized manner to best support the thesis statement.
____ uses transitions to link sentences, paragraphs, and ideas.

Engaging Voice (5 points)
____ speaks clearly and knowledgeably.
____ offers a unique and engaging discussion of the topic.

Effective Sentence Style (5 points)
____ flows smoothly from one idea to the next.
____ shows a variety of sentence length and structures.
____ balances the level of discussion, quoted material, and variety of sources.

Correct, Accurate, Copy (10 points)
____ exhibits the basic rules of writing.
____ uses - MLA, APA, Chicago, other - documentation properly.

____ Total Points (50)

Monday, April 7, 2008

Week 1 - Rubric for Resume, Cover Letter and Personal Statement

1. Accurate spelling:
a. no spelling errors = 5 points
b. 1-2 spelling errors = 3 points
c. 3-4 spelling errors = 1 point
2. Accurate capitalization:
a. no capitalization errors = 5 points
b. 1-2 capitalization errors = 3 points
c. 3-4 capitalization errors = 1 point
3. Accurate punctuation:
a. no punctuation errors = 5 points
b. 1-2 punctuation errors = 3 points
c. 3-4 punctuation errors = 1 point
4. Includes all required components for each (resume, cover letter, personal statement)
a. resume: name, address, phone number, e-mail address, statement of goal/objective,
education, activities and skills, and work experience = 35 points.
b. cover letter: heading with date; inside address includes person's name, title/department
name, address; salutation; body(includes a statement of the position you applying for,
evidence of your qualifications for the position, expression of interest in an interview;
closing; your typed name = 35 points.
c. personal statement: catches reader's attention; provided appropriate evidence of why you
are qualified for the position for which you are applying; evidence of uniqueness; succinct
(not wordy); adheres to stated word limit of 250-500 words; tailored to the job or position
you are applying for = 35 points.
Total of 50 points each for the resume, cover letter and personal statement.

Week 2 - What is Education?

"Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?"
-Aldo Leopold, "March: The Geese Return" in A Sand County Almanac
with Essays on Conservation from Round River.

"Education, I fear is learning to see one thing by going blind to another."
-Aldo Leopold, "Manitoba: Clandeboye" in A Sand County Almanac
with Essays on Conservation from Round River.


“Life is large and surprising and mysterious, and we don’t know what we need to know. When I was a student I refused certain subjects because I thought they were irrelevant to the duties of a writer, and I have had to take them up, clumsily and late, to understand my duties as a man. What we need in education is not relevance, but abundance, variety, adventurousness, thoroughness. A student should suppose that he needs to learn everything he can, and he should suppose that he will need to know much more than he can learn.”

- Wendell Berry, “Think Little” [1]
[1] Ballata, Phyllis. “What is Education?” Writing from Life: Collecting and Connecting. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1997. 11 and 52.

PROJECT
Read:
Mark Twain, “Two Ways of Seeing the River”
Malcolm X with Alex Haley, “How I Discovered Words: A Homemade Education”
Loren Eisely, “The Hidden Teacher”

After Reading:
Define education from your perspective.

Write a 1-2 page essay explaining your perspective of education. Use your own experiences as a student, the points of view from the three readings, and Dead Poets Society to support your position.