Meebo Chat

Hi everyone: I'm trying out a new instant messaging tool. If you see that I am online you can use the window below to message me.


(Remember that this a public chat and others will be able to see your comments.)
(10/1) PS: Okay, so far it looks like it works to view the chat using the browser Internet Explorer but from Mozilla Firefox messages you type just disappear instead of showing up in the log window. Secondly, I think maybe the chat is private, after all. Let's keep experimenting and find out. If you like, click on the Comments button below to leave me a message about how it is or isn't for you.

Infant Mortality Rate

Hi all: Here's the info I promised to look up. According to the CIA World Factbook website, here are the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The lower the number, the better:

• The best countries, statistically speaking, to have a baby are Singapore (2.30), Sweden (2.76), and Japan (2.80).
• The United States has 6.37 infant deaths per 1,000, and Cuba is still slightly ahead of us at 6.04. Greece, the European Union, Germany, Portugal, and the Slovenia also still have lower mortality by the estimates in this report.
• The most dangerous countries are Angola, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan, at 184.44, 158.27, and 157.43 deaths respectively. (What a huge gap there is!)

Source: Central Intelligence Agency. "Infant Mortality Rate" page on The World Factbook website. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html.

Hola, guapa!

You could probably guess from the context in Barbara Kingsolver's essay, "Somebody's Baby," what the meaning is of: Hola, guapa! It means, "Hi, beautiful!" When you need to look up a phrase in a foreign language, though, Google Language Tools is a handy tool. Go to Google.com and click the Language Tools link next to the search box. The online tool will translate the text. The renderings are far from perfect, but usually tell you what you need to know.

Anonymous Posts Allowed

I've changed the blog settings to allow anonymous comments, so you don't need to be signed up as a contributor to the blog to comment on items posted here. Anyone in the class is welcome to click on the Comments button at the bottom of an item on the blog and say what they think about it.

Essay 2, 3, and 4 handouts on Website

If anyone is curious about upcoming essays, the handouts for Essays 2, 3, and 4 now available on my academic web site at http://academics.keene.edu/tmendham/FPC.htm.
Essay 2 http://academics.keene.edu/tmendham/documents/Essay2RespondingToATextFa07.doc
Essay 3 http://academics.keene.edu/tmendham/documents/Essay3NarrativeWithResearchFa07FPC_Web.doc
Essay 4 http://academics.keene.edu/tmendham/documents/Essay4FormalInformalTourDeForceFa07_web.doc
If anyone is having trouble opening the Word documents, I can also post different versions of the files--just let me know.

Redbook's Photoshopping of Faith Hill

A blog called Jezebel provides an example of the kind of digital alteration of images that Susan Bordo laments in "The Empire of Images in our World of Bodies." You can find it at http://jezebel.com/gossip/top/heres-our-winner-redbook-shatters-our-faith-in-well-not-publishing-but-maybe-god-278919.php

Handy Overview of the Organization of Academic Essays

A good quick overview of the structure of academic essays can be found at: http://www.ccis.edu/departments/WritingCenter/documents/basicessay.html

Group Work on Summarizing and Susan Bordo's "The Empire of Images"

In order to put into practice what we've learned about summarizing effectively from Chapter Two of They Say/I Say (Graff and Berkenstein 28-47), the class will be divided into three small groups.
GROUP ONE: Pretend that you are writing an essay in which you argue that girls are in fact not made up of "sugar and spice and everything nice." Your group's job is to write a summary of Susan Bordo's "The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies" to use in your essay that is accurate, uses some of the verbs from page 37 of Graff, and is tailored toward your argument.
GROUP TWO: Pretend that you are writing an essay in which you argue that girls are in fact not made up of "sugar and spice and everything nice." Your group's job is to write an inaccurate summary of Susan Bordo's "The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies" that is tailored to use in your essay but which uses, alas, at least two "closet cliches."
GROUP THREE: Pretend that you are writing an essay in which you argue that girls are in fact not made up of "sugar and spice and everything nice." Your group's job is to write a summary of Susan Bordo's "The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies" which, although it is accurate takes the unfortunate form of a bland "list summary" and which is not tailored to advance the point of your essay.

Troy Police Station

Hi, College Writing I class:
Here's a link to the WMUR story, "Bulldozer Barrels into Police Station: Police Say Man Had a Grudge Against Department."
http://www.wmur.com/news/14018582/detail.html

TROY, N.H. -- A man stole a bulldozer from a construction site and slammed
into the Troy police station early Friday morning, police said.
Police said Stanley Burt, 34, stole a bulldozer, drove
it up a road in Troy, maneuvered behind Town Hall and crashed it into the police
department.
"Mr. Burt drove the bulldozer into the police station, backed
up, drove it in again, backed up and hit it a final time," Sgt. David Griffin
said.

Received Ideas Phone Messages

Here are the phone messages that students have left for the Received Ideas phone message assignment in College Writing I. The purpose of this assignment is to build community within our group, demonstrate that writing is a social act, and give students practice identifying and articulating received ideas and their own reactions to them.

Bigger Classroom #5 - Curtis' Received Idea
Curtis was the first one to call in his response to the received idea phone message assignment. Thanks, Curtis!




Bigger Classroom #6 - Nick's Received Idea
This is Nick's response to the received idea phone message assignment, in which he discusses steroid use among athletes. Thanks for being one of the first, Nick!




Bigger Classroom #7 - Cliff's Received Idea
Cliff talks about the phrase "Everything happens for a reason."




Bigger Classroom #8 - Nate's Received Idea
Nate's interested in the saying, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people."



Bigger Classroom #9 - Linda's Received Idea

Linda identifies the view that "Everyone know that kids today have no work ethic."




Bigger Classroom #10 - Dawn's Received Idea
Dawn has chosen the truism, "Television rots your brain."




Bigger Classroom #11 - Hank's Received Idea
Hank takes on one of the biggest nomenclature about-faces of our time: Pluto is not a planet.




Bigger Classroom #12 - Beth's Received Idea
Beth considers the preconceived idea that boys are easier to raise than girls.