Synopsis - September 2009: Director Annotations > Susan Coller Carlson

Building a Community

Greetings and welcome to another edition of the WAC newsletter! We are very excited by the conversations revolving around writing these days and would like to take our newsletter to the next level. Starting next month, the WAC newsletter will live online where everyone can more easily join our community of writers and add their proverbial two cents. You will receive a monthly invitation to visit our blog and will receive highlights of our newest articles via email. You will also have access to an archive of past articles. If you are interested in contributing an article, please be sure to drop us a line.

Many thanks go out to all the authors for their thoughtful contributions this month—your unique experiences and insight add a rich flavor to a topic some may consider bland. But as you will see, writing (and the teaching of writing) does not have to be bland. This month, we are featuring the School of Business and Management and have amassed a collection of articles that clearly show how writing matters outside a writing class—and that writing does not have to be dull. “Writing is More Than Mechanics,” by Dean Vandenbosch, illustrates how writers must seriously consider audience, structure and the story.

Josef Vice discusses how writers must work toward trading in bad writing habits for good. He explains how essays are never perfect the first time around, that we can’t do everything (like focusing on structure and mechanics) all at once, and that everyone has something to say. Susan Honea looks at writing from the perspective of both the instructor and the student (she is in dual roles right now) and Christie Zgourides gives us a fresh perspective on APA claiming, ”APA is as Real World as it gets.” Barbara Russell explores corporate jargon and Catherine Flynn discusses the benefits of peer review.

Robin Nicks provides faculty with great tips on using resources from the Writing Center to help students improve their writing (and make grading papers and providing useful feedback a little easier). Roger Geronimo, who teaches business analytics to graduate students, points out how, in an online environment (where a great deal of our communication with students takes place in “little dialog boxes”) we “must translate verbal skills from the traditional classroom setting into written communication.” Eric Wilson inspires us to try out software like Jing to create visually engaging resources for our classrooms, and James Fleming discusses how a good story can not only entertain, but educate. A story used in the classroom “will only prove successful if it balances entertainment with illumination and the tale itself has a kernel, at very least, of insight and wisdom stuck within it.” Well said, James.

And what does a perfect round de jambe have to do with writing? Joni Boone tells her story and how feedback can be greatly enhanced with audio. Diane Martinez urges us to approach cases of plagiarism as “teaching moments” and Kella Hammond gives us an enlightening story about her language experience in Costa Rica. Finally, Mike Jensen takes a poke at the conversations of men.

I hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter, and please remember that you do have an effect on the students you teach—make it a good one!

Did you know…

Susan Coller Carlson spent a summer living in her car? Susan was researching birds in the Sleeping Bear National Park and could identify well over 100 different species by sight and sound. Susan is the director of the Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative and the Writing Center at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Writing is More Than Mechanics > Dean Betty Vandenbosch

In our efforts to ensure that our students become good writers, we can be tempted to focus on grammar and punctuation at the expense of clarity and focus. When writers spend time organizing themselves before they begin, the impact of their writing can be much more powerful. Good business writers consider the audience, the structure of their argument, and the story that will make their argument compelling, as well as mechanics and style.

Focus on Audience Needs:  The purpose of any communication is to elicit a response. The writer’s task is to create the right message motivating her audience to respond or take action. Every business communication is really a project in microcosm. The writer needs to understand the situation, develop an objective and determine the best way to meet it, given the situation. Additionally, in business writing, brevity is crucial. The writer has no choice but to engage the audience in the first few sentences. More may never be read.

When an audience is supportive, they may be more interested in how than why. In this case, the writer should move from conclusions to the elements of the solution. There is no point going into laborious detail and supporting data if everyone is ready to move forward.

While writers often find it tempting to start with some incontrovertible facts leading up to findings and then conclusions, the structure of a report is much easier to follow if it begins with the conclusions and works back to the findings and data. If it starts with data or findings, people have no context in which to place them, they don’t know why they’re important, they can’t remember them, and they get very bored by their recitation. If it starts with conclusions, the audience can decide whether or not the findings support them and whether or not to pay attention based on their level of agreement with the conclusions themselves.  Focusing our students on their audiences and making those audiences as concrete as possible will make the task of deciding how to begin much easier.

Structure the Message:  The structure of a business report should be such that it shows the logic used to arrive at each conclusion in turn. There are only two ways to provide support: deductively and inductively. A deductive argument starts with a position and builds on it to reach a conclusion. A summary statement that incorporates the conclusion is used to introduce the argument. The figure below provides an example.

The argument above may be enough for an audience that already agrees with the three deductive points. However, more commonly, the audience is interested in support for each finding. An inductive argument is based on the preponderance of the evidence rather than a logical argument. Inductive arguments present specific details in support of the overall point being made. The figure below provides an example.

By encouraging our students to think about the structure of their argument before they start writing, we will help them to become more efficient and much clearer in their thinking and writing.

Tell a Story: A story makes a communication much more compelling. Stories make information easier to remember and they make it more believable (Neuhauser, 1993). If only the facts and findings are presented without a compelling picture to support them, it is less likely that the audience will be convinced. Research into stories shows repeatedly that a story convinces people more than do the facts alone (Martin & Powers, 1983).

But how does someone tell a story in a business report? One way is through headlines. Rather than labeling charts and sections with descriptions of what they contain, they can be labeled with the point to be made. A well-constructed report or presentation should make sense and tell the story, even if one only reads the headlines. Headlines also give the writer the opportunity to direct the audience’s attention.

But sometimes a real story tells much more than headlines ever could. A former colleague of mine, Jeremy Raymond, was once hired by a government ministry to improve its cost management system. One of the questions he investigated was how the current system of cost codes was administered. Quantitative analyses showed that there was about a 30 percent error rate on the codes that were entered into the system. Jeremy interviewed one accounting clerk who told him that whenever the cost code was not on the form he was working with, and he didn’t know it from memory, he looked out his window to find an appropriate license plate in the parking lot. Jeremy included both findings in his final report.

* * * * *
It is our responsibility to teach all facets of writing. We must find ways to help our students think about their audiences, structure their arguments, and tell a story every time they put pen to paper, or more appropriately, fingers to a keyboard.

Martin, J. and Powers, M.E. (1983). Truth or

     corporate propaganda: The value of a good war

     story. In L.R. Pondy, P.J. Frost, G.Morgan, T.C.

     Dandridge, ed. Organization Symbolism, Greenwich,

     CT: JAI Press, 99-101.

Neuhauser, P.C. (1993). Corporate Legends and Lore,

     Austin, TX: PCN Associates, 5-6.

Much of the material and some of the text from this article are excerpted from:

Vandenbosch, B. (2003). Designing Solutions for Your

     Business Problems, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Did you know…

Betty Vandenbosch grew up on a farm, the eldest daughter of Dutch immigrants? She is a sailboat racer and loves rooting for the underdog, a skill she honed by living in Cleveland for 15 years, during which time, not one Cleveland team won a national championship. But now that you’re at Kaplan, you’re certainly on a winning team here!  Betty is the Dean of the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.] 

Practice Makes Perfect—Or Does It? > Josef Vice

Practice makes perfect. Or so many of my students say when I ask them what they should be doing to improve their writing skills. Unfortunately, far too many student writers have learned and long been practicing some less than helpful writing behaviors that not only prevent them from perfecting their writing skills but also prevent them from even moving forward and growing as writers both in their classes and in their work environment.

Not only do we as their teachers have to reinforce the mantra that change is good, but we also have to show them how to change their writing behaviors. One of the hallmarks of a good writer is the willingness to change bad writing habits and learn new ones, even if at first they may seem foreign or impractical. WAC offers us an incredible opportunity as a learning community to help our students replace some of the harmful practices they have held on to with ones that will move them forward.

So what are some poor writing habits we can help them overcome? The three that follow by no means exhaust the list of habits I would like to see changed, but they give us a start, some place to begin helping students to truly become stronger writers.

POOR WRITING HABIT #1: EXPECTING THE “A” ESSAY TO HAPPEN THE FIRST TIME WE WRITE.

Student writers often get very frustrated if they encounter writing problems. They freeze when they encounter problems with researching a complex topic. They get writer’s block if they can’t immediately write a thesis. They panic and feel like failures when they see the comments on a paper that they thought was perfect but that actually has some writing problems, even in the final draft.

So, what can we do to help our students with this issue? We can begin by reminding them that writing is a process and that mistakes and problems not only occur but that these road bumps are part of that process. In fact, I think they are a central component of good writing. We learn from our mistakes, and if we are willing to at first let mistakes happen, we might actually learn how to improve. We, as their teachers, should also share with them the reality that writing is messy and that it doesn’t always go as planned. If we are willing to admit to them that we, too, have these same problems they encounter, they may be better able to cope with these problems when they arise, and if they are able to cope with them, they will hopefully be better able to overcome these problems. It also helps to show them ways you have overcome writing problems, like telling them about that time you shared your draft of a conference paper with a colleague so you could get feedback and apply those recommendations to strengthen your own writing project.

POOR WRITING HABIT #2: TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE.

Most writing classes reinforce the concept of writing as a process, reminding us that writers have to take it one step at a time and not try to do it all at once. But if my experience with students holds true, after they leave that writing class and are no longer “required” to practice the steps to writing well (if there is indeed such a thing-see Writing habit #1), they will revert back to “just writing” and waiting until the last minute to even begin writing. Students often forego the strategies they learn in their writing classes. They stop brainstorming. They forego outlining. They wait until the last minute to draft. They don’t bother with REALLY editing and revising their papers and instead hit spell/grammar check and call it a day.

We can help them with this as well. I know that we are all very busy teaching content, but what if we didn’t just assign them a topic and give them a deadline? What if we actually reinforced these effective writing habits by asking them to discuss their topic ideas in seminar or the discussion board, in advance of our assignment due dates? What if we assigned them to write a draft and had them complete a peer review exercise before they turn in the final version of a project and encourage them to truly revise their papers, to look at them critically and willingly get rid of the details or ideas that simply are not relevant or meaningful to their writing goals in that project? These assignments don’t even have to be graded. They can simply be a part of the process, and that will tell our student writers that those writing practices don’t just apply to when they are forced to do it in a writing class.

POOR WRITING HABIT #3: FORGETTING THAT THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

I truly believe that most of our students don’t write well because they don’t believe in themselves as writers. I think, instead, that they do have something to say and that they can communicate effectively, if given the chance, but they often don’t. And that’s, frankly, partly our fault. I know how hard it is, for example, when grading my students’ papers, not to focus on the errors. We might instead engage in a dialogue with them and help them see not only what they have done well but encourage them even when we are pointing out weaknesses. This is critical to helping them see that they can become strong writers.

We also often assign them writing projects that ask them to regurgitate ideas from sources, rather than to critically think about and respond to the thoughts of others and to actively engage in the concepts that our courses are trying to help them learn. Is it any wonder, then, that they rely heavily on sources, that they avoid interacting with, arguing against, and advancing the ideas they are using from those sources, and is it any surprise that they instead wind up cutting and pasting and plagiarizing? Perhaps they have been taught that is the “way” to write and have had that behavior reinforced by the very assignments we create.

I have no answer for how to solve this problem entirely, since it is necessary sometimes to ask students to flat out repeat information, and summarizing is certainly a valuable skill. I do know, however, that assignments that go beyond asking them to tell us what experts say and that instead ask our students what they think about the topic, that ask them why they agree or disagree with the conclusions they are reading about in the sources they are using, for example, might just allow our writing students to say something original and might just show them that they do have something to say. In addition to helping them find their writing voice, this type of assignment might even help our students master the concepts that we are teaching them in our courses. Or at least I hope so.

Ultimately, by encouraging our student writers to let goof some of their old writing habits and instead learn and practice some new writing behavior, we can lead them to stronger writing and thinking. Practice does not make perfect if the practice itself doesn’t work. We, as teachers,might also learn that what we have been practicing doesn’t always make perfect either.

Did you know…

Josef Vice is a licensed auctioneer and raises chickens?  Josef is a Composition Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

From a Student’s Perspective: Developing Strong Writing Skills in All Courses > Susan Honea

As I recently pondered the concept of Writing Across the Curriculum and how I could make a difference with my CM105 (Effective Writing I for Business Majors) students, I reminded myself I am actually not just a faculty member; I’m also a KU student (Advanced Start Bachelor of Science, Health Science/Nutrition). As an instructor, however, I want to help students understand why writing is so important in all classes and not just for those courses that are writing-intensive. That’s not an easy thing to do! Through my experience as an instructor, I’ve come to realize three areas where we can help our students become better writers and learners: 1) Provide thorough feedback on all written assignments; 2) facilitate discussions with care; and 3) reach out to students.

Provide Thorough Feedback on All Written Assignments

Entry-level writers, such as those I encounter in CM105, usually cannot see the bigger picture regarding their writing. In fact, many of these students are terrified of writing. In addition, students at this level sometimes need remediation in mechanics, which most of our courses aren’t really designed to provide. That’s okay. I see this type of remediation as part of the overall feedback process, and I try to provide detailed, rules-based comments as often as I can. And while I probably don’t need remediation in mechanics in my student papers (although some of my professors may argue that point!), I appreciate when my instructors point out areas where I can write things more concisely.

I have attended several seminars and webinars during which the speakers suggested providing too much, overly detailed feedback is overwhelming and discouraging to students. In my experience as an instructor, however, I have found (and continue to find) students appreciate the fact that I care enough to show them how to improve. Does this mean I should return a two-paragraph restatement of facts with every single word or phrase marked for correction? No, of course not. To a certain extent, there is a fine line between not enough and too much feedback. If I put my student hat on and examine this issue, I can prove I have done much better in those classes where the instructor gave me more feedback; therefore, I try to model my feedback after those instructors who’ve helped me improve the most. For instance, I frame my constructive feedback with positive comments, even if they’re as mundane as, “Thank you for turning in your work on time.” I can’t begin to tell you how much easier it is to accept the criticism when buffer statements are used.

Another important aspect of feedback is to provide students with the rationale behind your comments. For example, if you see an incorrect word usage issue, provide the student with a Writing Center source or Web site for additional tutorials and help. If you see the student has the same or similar errors on future assignments, refer the student for tutoring or ask him or her to seek feedback from a Writing Center tutor.

Facilitate Your Discussions With Care

Our ability to help students improve their writing isn’t exclusively focused on their written projects. I think we actually have more impact in discussion forums. Think about it. Where do we—and our students—spend the most time each unit?

As a student, I see discussion as the only opportunity I have to develop rapport with my instructor and classmates. The discussions I enjoy the most are the ones where the instructor is very active and makes me think. When I put my instructor hat on, I participate in discussion as if I’m actually a player/coach. Think about the messages you post.

• Are you the first person to post in each thread each week? If not, consider whether you might be missing an opportunity to frame the discussion and provide additional helpful resources up front.
• Are you meeting the minimum word count requirements established for your students? If not, perhaps it’s time to consider changing how you respond. After all, the students will model their responses based on what you’ve posted.
• Are you addressing students by name? If you want students to have conversations with their peers, show them how. Remember, we want these students to develop a learning community in each discussion, whether they’re in a writing, marketing, math, or science class.
• Do you tie your initial discussion questions to a specific course outcome? If not, consider whether your students understand how the discussion questions and their responses relate to the course outcomes and their overall success in learning the subject matter. Helping students make these connections also impacts how well students articulate their knowledge.
• Do you provide “outside” activities in addition to what’s available in the course shell? If not, consider previous times you taught the course. With which areas did students struggle? Are there online resources you can provide to help current students avoid these same pitfalls (for example, Writing Center tutorials or other online resources). Try building mini-lecturesusing PowerPoint with narration or Jing! Students love these, and they appreciate your extra efforts.

Don’t Forget About Outreach

Even with all this feedback and interaction, some students need more help building their writing skills. In the classes I take, my attention is captured by the instructors who send emails regarding projects and other items. Why? It shows they care enough to want me to do well.

Have you ever considered how your outside interaction (emails and phone calls) impacts your students? I didn’t until I heard Kimberly Byrd, Accounting Professor in the School of Business and Management, talk about how she has improved student retention in her classes.

Kimberly’s approach is simple but effective. Each unit, she sends a quick email giving each student (yes, they’re customized!) an update on grades, areas for improvement, and offers of assistance. You’re probably thinking this is a time consuming process, but in reality, it’s not.

I adapted Kimberly’s model to my course. To ensure I don’t spend a great deal of time, I send a “canned” email that has a couple of comments customized. Each email is addressed to an individual student and includes a current grade average. If I noticed that all students struggled with a particular area that week, I include a tip to address that one area.

In the last two units, I’ve been struggling with showing students how to create a writers’ workshop in discussion. So my tip this week will include some links to sites on providing constructive feedback to peers. Next week, it will probably be an APA tip or two.

Don’t forget about phone calls. Sometimes that’s the push students need. Just hearing a real voice on the other end of the line may motivate them to participate regularly and substantively.

I am thankful to have experience on both sides of this issue. Understanding what students go through is half the battle to helping them improve. Yes, they’re adults, and yes, we should expect them to take ownership for their own education; but, many of our students aren’t particularly well-prepared for the adventure ahead, and if we can help them navigate the adventure to the best of their abilities, then we’ve added a great deal to their life and educational experiences.

Did you know…

Susan Honea changed her major four times (biology/pre-med, math, accounting, music) before settling on English? What got her attention? Southern literature...and a very good professor!  Susan is a Composition Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Getting Real About APA: What a Documentation System Can Teach About Every Career > Christie Zgourides

No doubt we have all been there: prepared our courses with the best of pedagogy and the noblest of content, with the deepest of thought and the highest of ideals. We enter seminar to be met by a barrage of questions, not about the noblest content, deepest thoughts, and highest ideals, but how many pages does the assignment really have to be, do we really have to use the library, can’t we just get everything off the Internet, and do you really double space with APA? The brilliance of idealistic preparation deflates in the shotgun blast of reality.

For many students there exists The Real World and then there is that strange place called Academia where they learn bizarre things like APA for which they see no relevance or application anywhere else in their known universe. Students dutifully memorize mantras about crediting sources and avoiding plagiarism mostly driven by cautionary tales to stay out of trouble. Deep down most of them know, and some will say out loud, “After I get out of school, I’m never going to use this again.”

Will students ever use APA again? Outside of graduate school, probably not. Are we then wasting our time? Are our hours spent painstakingly noting errors in manuscript formatting, in-text citations, and reference page faux pas an utter squandering of what few moments we have deemed on Earth? Absolutely not.

Why? Because at its core, the greatest value of APA has nothing to do with crediting sourcing and avoiding plagiarism. Its highest calling strikes far beyond Academia, and I argue, nay, I dare anyone to find anything in all of the halls of Academia, virtual or otherwise, that is more about the stuff of The Real World than APA documentation and formatting. How do I know? Because I am a veteran not only of Academia, but also of The Real World. I have managed a multi-million dollar budget, have hired, trained, and fired personnel, and have done all manner of everything related to Real World Business. APA is as Real World as it gets. Here is how. Here is what students need to understand, and here is what professors can explain to help students make those connections.

APA is About Learning to Apply a Format.

Any profession any student can imagine, from criminal justice to nursing to information technology to paralegal to transcriptionist or medical assistant or nursing, requires a plethora of formats. Some formats are simple, pre-set and easy to follow. Others come from the corporate headquarters, professional organizations, accrediting boards, or most daunting, federal agencies. Need I say more?

When I managed a medical practice, we had formats from Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Health and Human Services (HIPAA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC—CLIA regulations for labs), The College of American Pathologists (CAP), physician credentialing, separate processes and forms for the cytology and histology labs, entirely separate processes for administration—procedure forms and manuals, separate documentation formats for the information technology system, particularly backups, and separate documentation formats for risk assessment. That does not begin to address routine business processes for AR/AP, taxes, and auditing. Or the formats and processes for human resources, personnel, or employee health insurances. Then there were the contracts for physicians, other professional employees, service contracts for equipment, and so on. Certainly lawyers drafted many of the contracts, but it all required other documents in certain formats to track all the other documents to be sure everything was up-to-date and audited. We have not even started discussing the required protocols for the pathology reports themselves, which, if violated, could result not only in medical error and harm to the patient, but consequence to the practice. Formats matter. They matter greatly. They are everywhere.

What I discovered managing a business were distinct differences between employees who had a college education, particularly with a documentation system, and those who did not. Those who did have such a background were much better at picking up a new formatting system and applying with minimal to no error, the logic of the system. Those who did not have that background more frequently ignored obvious formatting requirements like margins, heading standards, indentations, and so on. In one stunning moment, I actually had a staff member say out loud, “Oh! This is just like documenting an essay, but with different rules!” Exactly.

What students need to understand is that they live in a world of formats, and all the more so in an ever more technological world. No matter where they go, what profession they seek, they will forever be awash in formats. The sooner they learn how to get inside the logic of a format and apply it correctly, the sooner they will be building a job skill valued by employers—even though those very employers may not be able to specifically articulate that value themselves. No, students may not use APA as a particular format, but they develop the skill of learning to use and apply a format.

APA is About Learning Attention to Detail. 

All documentation systems, by necessity, are rife with detail. The very existence of a documentation system is to capture detail, to be about detail. Learning to pay attention to that detail is an obvious and critical skill, and students develop that skill in part when they learn to apply a documentation system like APA.

In The Real World, details can be measured in lives and dollars. Thousands become sick and many die every year because of medical errors, and those are most often missed details. Millions are lost in business or outright crimes are committed because someone was not paying attention to the details. Increasingly, institutions, systems, and individuals will need to be attuned to and accountable for details. An employee who is good with details is an accurate and a highly valued employee.

Unfortunately, when confronted with the details in APA, many students see them as meaningless gibberish. This is generally compounded by the failure of most APA instruction which does little more than describe what to do, but does not take the next step to explain the meaning or purpose behind the details, or even note that the details have substantive meaning or purpose. As I point out to students, the folks at APA did not sit around a grand table to see how many sneaky and nefarious ways they could come up with to torture the hapless student. When they decided, for example, to come up with a different format for volume, issue, and page numbers it is precisely so each one does look different. Not every source has all three pieces of information, and if a source has only one or two, the format tells us what that number represents without having excessive clutter of “vol.” or “issue” taking up space in longer research projects. Details are not random or irrational, but have meaning and purpose. Knowing that makes the system easier to learn as well as heightens student awareness that details matter.

APA is About Learning There are Few to No Shortcuts.

As soon as students see the massive details and all the rules of APA, the first strategy many try is templates and online shortcuts. In a technological world that is a reasonable approach. Or is it? To always default to a template or assume that there is a technological shortcut or assume that one can truncate the process is a dangerous assumption. In fact, to date, of the online automated citation tools or “machines” that I have tested, not one is accurate. One may have been developed unbeknownst to me that has managed to solve all the intricate what ifs and complexities of names, article titles, and the like, but I remain skeptical. (Likewise, the APA function in Word 2007 is riddled with errors.) For example, APA requires specific treatment with capitalization of titles, and that is rather complex coding—or at least not simple input-output of whatever has been pasted into the field of most online tools. The other notable problem with such tools is, as I term it, garbage in, garbage out. Students are too tempted to mindlessly drop data randomly into fields and assume that whatever comes out is magically “correct.” Have we not heard their protests? That they used such-and-such online, so it MUST be right! Oh, the befuddled student: what could the professor possibly be marking down on their citations? The used technology, the Internet, my goodness, what could have gone wrong?

The faulty assumption is that a given problem (all those rules and details of APA) has a quick fix and one does not really need to fully learn anything because Microsoft and the Internet— to the rescue!—have solved all the menial work of the world. Not so fast. My assurance to students is nothing yet has replaced the human brain. Theirs still has value and must be used. This, I remind them, is good news, because the computer has not yet entirely replaced them. (Context is everything, and students, by this point, have acclimated to my humor.)

Can they use something like Word 2007 to assist? Certainly, but as I point out, they still have to fully understand APA in order to know where the errors are and what they will need to correct the citations. By the time they have done all that, would it have not been simpler to have done it themselves, I ask? Students make different choices on this point, some preferring to correct the errors, others not trusting themselves to catch the myriad of inserted mistakes. Regardless, how they think about and use the technology has changed. The hard lesson is, in The Real World, one cannot delegate responsibility to a technological default, although some try. Thinking still rules.

APA is About Learning to Build Skills in Knowing Where/How to Look Up Details in a Systematized Format. 

When confronting the monstrous whole of APA, many students become dismayed, overwhelmed thinking that they somehow have to learn it all. They need assurance that no sane person accomplishes the feat. Certainly they can and should learn the pattern of the basic format, and through repetition they will learn the most common citations as well as the basic manuscript form; however, as for all the details, the skill they need to build is knowing how to find one’s way quickly through a structured, hierarchical system such as APA reference handbooks or online reference tools. The logic of the organization is echoed in many professional disciplines from the law codes police and paralegals use to the billing and diagnostic coding systems in medicine to the tax codes faced by businesses and accountants—just to name a few examples.

Using a structured system that sets up logical relationships between the parts with logical fine-tuned differences, where the user has to carefully select and apply the correct portion in a given situation is frequently expected in professional settings. APA is excellent preparation for that kind of thinking skill. But is the skill transferable? In my observation, whether students realize it or not, it is. APA contributes to developing a particular type of thinking, a mindset, an approach. Students can best take advantage of this if they are directly told such and have the connections made overtly.

Yes, if students want Real World preparation in their college experience, there is nothing like a good old fashioned dose of APA documentation and manuscript formatting. APA formatting demands they follow an example, pay attention to details, follow all the steps, and understand how to use a structured system of reference material.

Students are right to expect practical application, to demand connections between their education and their future professions. What they may not expect is how close and how real those connections are. And here is the most delightful pay off: if APA is about The Real World, I posit, how many other Academic exercises might they have overlooked that are just as relevant to The Real World? Ah, yes. Welcome to The Real World. Academia is it.

Did you know…

That Christie Zgourides worked in the banking industry, and being the detail-oriented person that she is, became suspicious and collected evidence that the Portland police used to crack an Asian gang case that involved arson and insurance fraud? Now that’s using those APA skills!  Christie is a Composition Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Business Buzzwords—Use Them Or Lose Them? > Barbara Russell

The inspiring article by Sara Sander in the August WAC newsletter made it clear that businesses are demanding better writing skills from university graduates. The title of the report by the National Commission on Writing cited by Dean Sander says it all: Writing: A Ticket to Work…. Or a Ticket Out. It’s part of our job to make that ticket a one-way pass to corporate acceptance for Kaplan students.

As students prepare for the world of work, however, they get caught up in corporate jargon or “business speak” that is quickly overflowing into everyday communication. This practice can be confusing, especially for non-native speakers, and somewhat annoying. One thing that instructors at Kaplan can do is help students inoculate themselves from this epidemic.

My initial exposure to corporate jargon came 25 years ago when I reported in for my first assignment as a writing consultant; it happened to be with a federal government agency. A nice man, who in every other way appeared perfectly normal, introduced me to the project this way: “The reason you’re here is that our MYOP is about to sunset and I’ve been tasked with re-tooling the input documents.” I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or a test of some kind. I did work on that Multiple Year Operations Plan (MYOP) and helped put a new one in place before sunset (expiry), but the experience really was an eye-opener.

So what should our students do about business jargon? If they don’t use it, they may be considered outsiders or not ITL (in the loop), which could, conceivably turn out to be a CLM (career limiting move).

A good middle ground to teach students is that business speak is just that—jargon that might be okay in a business setting if it is expected, but that it is no more appropriate in the real world than casual language is in an academic paper or locker room talk at a family brunch. The danger is that students get enamored with this “cool” talk and the jargon spills over into their normal vocabulary.

So what are some of the current junk words and phrases of corporate life? Some of the old favorites have been around for decades. Who doesn’t remember being asked “why write utilize when you can substitute use or facilitate instead of help”? A recent survey by Oxford University identified literally as the new #1 most irritating expression in England, usurping basically for the first time. Another prime offender: I, personally. This tautology was recently described by BBC commentator John Humphreys as “the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice.”

Among the least favorite examples of business jargon in the UK, according to another survey taken last year, were thinking outside the box, touch base, at the end of the day, going forward, ducks in a row, heads up, bring to the table and pushing the envelope (Simpson, 2008). Wow! Those are so, like, yesterday’s news! We forward-thinking folks in America, here on the bleeding edge, are so far past this level!

Business-speak is so deeply ingrained in our culture that MBA courses for overseas students often provide a list of corporate jargon expressions that students should recognize. The result is that non-English speaking students begin peppering their writing with these expressions, but often use them incorrectly or out of context.

So what are our own worst offenders on this side of the Atlantic? The problem is knowing where to start. A paragraph like this isn’t unusual:

It’s true that we have been negatively impacted by economic factors during the past quarter and have had to undergo a paradigm shift, but our management has been proactive and played hardball in the damage control department, simultaneously applying best practices to pluck the low-hanging fruit and delivering client-focused solutions that give us win-win, results-driven, value-added bottom lines. That mission will continue into the foreseeable future if we drill down our B2B strengths, adopt best- of- breed synergies on a 24/7 continuum and keep our true north matrix firmly in place.

Ok, maybe that’s just a tad over the top, but I’ve seen paragraphs that are almost that bad!

Some of the examples of business speak in modern use come from legitimate sources, and some may eventually become as much a part of the language as baby boomers or Gen-x. Many of the attempts to find the next new thing in terminology are pretty amusing. Take the IT invention for any information product that isn’t electronic—treeware; it means books, magazines or newspapers. Very cute! Another favorite of mine: people-based channels, which means the few remaining non-electronic ways of selling things—in other words, stores. Busy cubicle dwellers eat al desko rather than going out for lunch. And then there are the many colorful new words that mean “fired” without saying “fired” like Bangalored (as in “the entire department was Bangalored last month”) and decruited (used especially for C-suite execs meaning CFO’s, CEO’s, COO’s, etc). In fact, some of the pop culture expressions have a built-in self-esteem factor for us over-the-hill types like when we recognize a marketing campaign that has jumped the shark or when we get saluted on the Unit 10 Discussion Board by a student saying you’re the bomb. Oh come on—admit it; it feels good!

More annoying, though, and worthy of a margin note every time, are the terms that arise from the “verbification” of the language. This term refers to the habit of taking perfectly good nouns and turning them into verbs, a practice which has become a specialty of modern American business. Should any student of Kaplan University ever be encouraged, or even allowed to incent a client or incentivize an employee? Should he or she be permitted to vision an outcome or even be anywhere near where visioning occurs? Especially in mixed company? Tasking is questionable, and actioning is almost as annoying as its cohort, actionable. Operationalize positively boggles the mind and transitioning has a mystical undertone that is surely not intended. Then there’s ballpark, as in “Can you ballpark me an estimate.” I am, like, sooo not cool with that word!

So if everyone within a given organization understands what these terms mean, why are they so bad? For exactly the same reason that the language extremes at the other end of the hierarchy are bad! Because they stigmatize you as a certain type of person, based simply on the language you use. Instead of being classified (probably unfairly) as an illiterate dork, now you’re being classified (equally unfairly) as a corporate clone. Our students are strong, independent, intelligent individuals, not dorks and not clones or robots. Think about it! If your boss at a business meeting answers a question of yours by saying “let’s dialogue that issue offline,” meaning let’s talk about that after the meeting, how does that make you feel about him or her? Warm and fuzzy? Does that person strike you as an inspiring, compassionate, and wise leader? Or as a slick, superficial shmuck? I rest my case.

Another reason for the current heightened concern about business jargon is, oddly enough, the economic collapse of the past two years. We, as Americans, were forced to admit that we believed all those Wall Street weasel words, and we allowed the corporate execs enough wiggle room to bring down the entire global economy. From now on, let’s be clear exactly what we mean, at every level, when we write or speak, and let’s be particularly careful when we’re involved in business. In politics, as well, there’s a definite move towards more accurate and precise language that won’t hide so much double speak. There are many of us, for example, who wish we never had to face the true meaning of collateral damage or preemptive strike.

Maybe we have to learn to live with the least noxious of these new words. Maybe there’s a place for onboarding and repurpose and stakeholders and deliverables, if only because these words summarize rather neatly something that would have taken more words than one to explain. After all, language is meant to evolve and change. So even if these words are not great English, and will annoy the purists, at least they’re not the worst offenders; they merely clutter the landscape.

At the same time, let’s resist, and help our students to resist, the real excesses of business jargon that they will probably encounter in the corporate world, and to recognize what they are truly doing if they’re already out there and find themselves slipping into these hackneyed and annoying usages.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, my mission-critical item for tonight is some face time with my favorite treeware, preferably al bedo.

Simpson, A. (2008,). ‘Thinking outside the box’ is most

     despised business jargon. Telegraph.co.uk, Retrieved

     September 19, 2009 from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

     newstopics/howaboutthat/3532338/Thinking-outside-the-box-

     is-most-despisedbusiness-jargon.html.

Did you know…

Barbara Russell is a licensed contractor and rebuilt a home in Boston that was named New England Dream House? Check it out at www.CohassetreamHouse.com.  Barbara is a Composition Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Peer Review: Benefits and Opportunities > Catherine Flynn

Even as adults committed to careers in education, the words “peer review” may yet bring a shudder. No doubt we all had negative experiences with peer review—both as students and professors! But as educators we recognize the enormous value in peer review and we persevere, determined to reap the rewards we know exist in the process. Before I share some of the peer review strategies we use in the School of Business and Management, I want to share my favorite story about peer review.

In 1997, I was teaching writing at Colorado School of Mines, an elite engineering school in Golden. Taking a writing course was deemed a terrible waste of time by many of these students who possessed amazing skills in math and science. I had students who detested writing and hated only one thing more: peer review. One student in particular grumbled, moaned, complained, shuffled, and snorted when it was time for peer review. However, these students were also grade junkies, so no one was going to skip class even if I was going to subject them to these horrors.

The day for peer review arrived. Teams were established, guidelines reviewed, and papers circulated. Grumbling Student sat at a table with his group, chin to chest, ball cap pulled tight, reading his peer’s paper. I kept an eye on him and was delighted when he sat up in his chair, head lifted. He looked around the room, the hint of a smile on his face, and began completing his peer review form.

I was surprised and terribly curious. The class drew to a close and Grumbling Student came up to turn in his review. I said, "Looks like you had a good experience with the process! Do you think peer review has some value after all?" He smiled large and said, "Peer review is great! I thought I was the worst writer in the class and now I know I'm not!"

Now, of course that is not the purpose of peer review. However, often students do think their writing skill is far below or far above that of their peers. Often peer review lets us know where we are in the scheme of things. Many studies support the use of peer review for improving student writing. What many students and faculty don't realize, though, is how the process of reviewing a peer's paper improves the student’s own writing. Much of the value in this process is via what the students learn about themselves and their own composition skills by reviewing the work of others. It often brings to light weaknesses in the student’s own work, which they can then remedy.

Peer Review in the School of Business and Management

Students in Kaplan’s School of Business and Management graduate programs have the opportunity to complete a Business Communications course. The class is designed to introduce students to concepts of business communications, some they are familiar with and others that may be new. Despite the high percentage of students who are working professionals, a surprising number of students have not participated in a peer review environment, offering and receiving feedback on their writing. And while many express trepidation at the prospect of offering guidance to their peers, the vast majority of students comment at the end of the course that the experience is both valuable and rewarding.

The first peer review assignment students are given in GB 512, Business Communications, is a “safe” review. In Unit 1 of the course, students write a request for funding memo in which they request that their employer scholarship their participation in a business writing course being offered in their community. In the 350-word memo students justify the benefits of a business writing course to their supervisor, outlining the course outcomes, cost, and how the student will manage the time to complete the class. Students submit the assignment at the end of Unit 1. In Unit 2, students post their memos to the Discussion Board Peer Review. They then review memos written by their peers and offer the following: three strengths, three weaknesses, three suggestions for improvement. It’s “safe” because the assignment has already been submitted for a grade, so the reviews are supplements to the feedback the students will receive from the professor. Much of the value comes in becoming comfortable with the peer review process itself and in students being able to see how others managed the same assignment.

The next opportunity students have to complete a peer review is with the rough draft of the course researched proposal. Students are placed in teams in the order in which they post their rough drafts to the discussion forum. This is an excellent strategy for team formation as it means students do not get a team assignment until they have a draft ready for review. I provide a set of specific questions for students to respond to in the review process as this helps direct their efforts. Students review the papers of two peers. We do one final peer review of the PowerPoint presentation in the last unit. Students may choose which PowerPoint they wish to review.

I share with students that one of the most challenging things we are asked to do in our lives, both academically and professionally, is to critique the work of others. What I am asking them to do in the peer review forums is just that: provide one another with useful, tangible, practical advice. I urge students to consider what they would like to hear from their peers and respond to their peers’ work accordingly. While a "good job" here and there can be encouraging, it's not terribly helpful. I encourage students to provide specifics—what won't work in the idea, what grammatical problems exist, what issues will your peer encounter pursuing a specific topic?

The process of peer review is integral to business writing and a significant factor in publishing success for educators in the field of business. Recognition among one’s peers is a valued credential both individually and for institutions as a whole. Educators in business and management see the value of the peer review process in their own careers and often incorporate peer critiques into their classrooms to support the feedback process among their students. Often the emphasis is placed on the value of peer review to the recipient of the input—the person whose writing is being reviewed. And while the writer does receive valuable insight into his or her own writing, an equally powerful outcome of peer review is the insight gained by the student conducting the peer review.

Did you know…

Catherine Flynn was born in Canada and became a citizen of the United States in January 2009? We’re glad to have you on this side of the border, Catherine!  Catherine is a Composition Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Helping Student Writers Improve Their Work: Incorporating Writing Center Materials in Your Course and Grading > Robin Nicks

One thing that I hear from instructors who do not teach writing courses is that they sometimes don’t know how to help their students improve their writing skills. Even as a composition instructor, I have had students for whom I have struggled to find the right method, the technique that finally “clicks.” As instructors, we don’t have to do and be everything to our students, and pointing our students to resources outside of our classes is one of the best and most useful techniques we can add to our teaching arsenals.

The Writing Center has a host of terrific resources that instructors can incorporate into their courses and their feedback. Though it may take some time in the initial stages to set up these comments and links, once it’s set up, it takes just a click of the mouse or a couple of keystrokes to insert them into a student’s paper as one grades.

First, it’s important to know just what the Writing Center offers and where to find each resource. The Writing Center’s home is linked under “My Studies” on KU Campus. From there, students can access Live Tutoring services, a Q & A Center, Paper Review, Writing Workshops and Recordings, and the Writing Reference Library. Instructors can link to these services through Announcements and the Webliography in their courses. I also regularly mention the Writing Center in discussion boards to remind students that the resource exists. I always post a PDF file that explains to students how to access these different services, as well. Students can print the file so that it is at hand as they navigate the site. Seeing instructors promoting the Writing Center’s services will bring them to the attention of students. It will also tell students that their writing is important and that the instructor encourages improvement.

Too, we want to do more than just send students to the Writing Center to get paper reviews. Though it is an invaluable tool that we should encourage our students to use, paper review can be a passive activity. Students’ writing improves more when they become active participants in their learning, as they do with anything. Promoting the other services of the Writing Center encourages active engagement from our students.

Encouraging other, more interactive, services can foster a sense of responsibility in students for their own education. The Q & A Center allows students to post questions about any writing related topic. The service works much like a message board, and students receive answers to their questions quickly. With Live Tutoring, students chat with a tutor in real time to get help with any writing issues they may have. They can get help with thesis statements, APA formatting and documentation, or any other writing related issue. Tutors will work with students until they are more comfortable and confident. They will also direct students to helpful resources through the Writing Reference Library. Reminding students that these services exist by linking to them in our announcements and mentioning them in discussions and paper feedback helps students realize that we value these tools and that they can and will benefit from them. The more students see and hear something, as we all know, the more likely they are to eventually use it.

While we should support our students seeking help from the other services, the Writing Reference Library is the easiest of the resources to incorporate into feedback on student writing assignments. Divided into four areas—Writing Types and Tools, The Writing Process, Research, Citation and Plagiarism, and Writing Mechanics—the tutorials involve any number of writing issues. There are also tutorials to help students create effective PowerPoint presentations and make use of the formatting features in Microsoft Word. I link to the tutorials in all of my feedback to students, in fact. They offer such thorough explanations and step-by-step instructions and guidance that they provide some of the best instruction on writing that I can imagine.

To link to these resources, I use a clipboard utility that allows me to save innumerable clips to simply paste into papers when needed. A quick Internet search will return several different programs, many of which are free. I took a few days to typeup comments to go along with the links, copied the links, and added an appropriate title and category. Now, whenever I grade student papers, I can simply paste the appropriate clip into the student paper. All the student needs to do to access the tutorial is to click the link in his or her paper.

Paper feedback is also a place where I draw students’ attention to the other resources that are offered through the Writing Center one more time. I refer them to the services, include a bit of information about each, and encourage them to make use of those services before the next paper is due. Including these links and this encouragement to use the Writing Center has resulted in far more of my students doing so and in a great deal of improvement in student writing. I have also had students reach out to me to tell me about how useful both the feedback I offer and the help they receive from our Writing Center has been.

Many times, our students are unaware of the many services and opportunities available to them as Kaplan University students. If we can make them aware of the Writing Center and encourage its use, many students will use it. In turn, they will tell their classmates. In my own classes, it’s the word of their classmates that really makes a difference to some students, and if I can get even a couple of students to use the Writing Center through my feedback, announcements and links, I will end up with a large number eventually using it based on the positive reviews of others. For instructors, these small steps will save time and headaches.

Did you know…

Robin Nicks is an avid Vampire Wars player on Facebook? She has a real live 13.5 year old black cat. Halloween is her favorite day of the year...okay, we’re getting the picture. And the title of her dissertation was Fairy Tales and Necrophilia: A New Cultural Context for Antebellum American Sensationalism. Now we’ve got the whole picture!  Robin is a Composition Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Even Mathematicians Need to Know How to Write > Roger Geronimo

In today’s ever increasing communicative demands of the online classroom, those of us who teach the more analytical courses, such as math, finance, and economics, to name a few, need to know how to write good…or is that well? Anyway… In the traditional classroom setting, we merely need to look at students’ expressions, body language, and listen to their comments to know of their frustrations and issues in not understanding a topic. We would then stand up from our desks, and using our verbal and mathematical skills, we would explain on the whiteboard the various formulas or calculations requiring clarification. The student would then nod and smile with gratification or ask follow-up questions.

Piece of cake, right?

Well it’s a bit more difficult in the online environment. Our responses are typed into these little dialog boxes that frankly recognize words far better than the presentation of a formula, calculation, or even columns of numbers. If the columns and numbers are all in alignment when you click submit it is only because of divine intervention. There are, of course, ways to circumvent this issue by attaching Word documents or Excel spreadsheets.

In an online environment, however, we must translate verbal skills from the traditional classroom setting into written communication. Consequently, we must improve our own writing skills. If you were college-educated when I was (I think it was right after the Lincoln Administration), there were no computers. Excel meant to improve or exceed, Lotus was a flower, Gates were a point of entry, and Apple was the fruit that fell on Newton’s head! There was a pad of paper and a pencil. Oh, and don’t forget the old slide rules, the abacus, and the threefoot- long green accounting ledger sheets! A Writing Center? What was that! During that time, we spent thousands of hours relating to numbers, formula’s, calculations, algorithms, and models. Many of us from that era learned to improve our writing skills the same way we improved our computer skills: by doing and teaching ourselves. Our bookshelves are full of the “Dummy” series of self-help books. Now we must assist our students’ understanding of all these analytical tools and methods by using our writing skills.

I improved my own writing skills by writing 10-year strategic plans for a major international conglomerate. This experience was helpful when I wrote economic white papers for the White House for eight years. Suggesting complicated macroeconomic solutions to issues affecting the economy must be written for the understanding of the non-economist (the politician).

Now as a full-time instructor here at Kaplan University teaching graduates business analytics, I demand that students not only demonstrate their understanding of the mathematical concepts by using various formulas and Excel, but they must also explain those formulas and calculations in their own words. For some that is more difficult than the math. My hope, however, is that with my own clear and concise writing skills I can communicate to them what is required and expected. When an assignment is not written to expectations, I will demonstrate to a student how it should be completed; and, if required, I suggest a visit to the Writing Center. We are fortunate to have these resources available.

To quote the great physicist Albert Einstein regarding mathematics: “Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.”

Did you know…

     For a quarter of a century Roger Geronimo has had a secret life as an Italian tenor and has sung throughout North America and Europe? He performs in professional opera choruses, has his own vocal studio, but mostly sings to raise money for charities and organizations, such as Child Cancer Fund, Wolfson Children's Hospital, Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation, St. Jude’s, and dozens of local charities.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Jing Up Your Classroom! > Eric Wilson

Online learning and teaching is a new trend in education and is increasingly becoming popular among the students in high school and college. Kaplan University is no exception to the rule. With Kaplan University High School and Kaplan University, online learning plays a major role of teaching and learning.

One issue both learners and faculty struggle with in the online environment is the lack of face-to-face interaction, which may lead to ineffective communication. In addition to communication breakdown, some online learners are visual learners, so they need a systematic way to see some of the lessons or materials. On the same note, costs have to be reasonable and programs must be simple for both faculty and students to use without harming computers.

TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia and SnagIT, two very powerful screencasting and screen capturing software, developed Jing Project. The project has been running now for three years and it is still running strong. Jing allows faculty and students to do a screenshot or screencast and share Flash videos up to five minutes using online (web URL), email, and even a file. Jing is available for Windows and Macintosh computers and requires users to sign up for a free account with Screencast with 2GB of storage. Users can upgrade to Jing Pro, which allows users to export to Flash or Quicktime, brand their own videos, and use WebCam to film themselves with a nice backdrop. In addition, users can purchase more space on the Screencast.com server for up to 20GB for $9.95 a month.

Some examples of using Jing include:

• Collaborate on a design project
• Share a snapshot of a document
• Narrate vacation or field trip photos
• Show someone how to use a software like iTunes or even Kaplan KU Campus
• Share comments on a student’s homework assignment
• Access web sites
  

At Kaplan University, Jing can also be used to make videos of PowerPoint presentations to use in Seminar or in Announcements, making it more interactive and with more visual appeal. One faculty uses Jing to show his students how to set up various Microsoft ® Excel templates while another uses it to demonstrate how to format papers in APA.

Jing can be obtained at http://jingproject.com. Both Windows and Macintosh versions are available on that screen. In addition, you will need to sign up for the free account. The Pro account is $14.95 a year. If you want to include a webcam of yourself you need to use the Pro account. You can also change the branding and be able to save videos as a Quicktime video. It is recommended to use Flash since it is more universal than Quicktime. I do highly recommend if you are making a video that you write a script so your narration is smoother and more appealing to the viewers.

Many colleagues find using Jing very easy and fun. They engage their online learners by providing that personal touch of seeing your face or even just hearing your voice. Anyone can use it, and it only takes an hour to learn. Good luck, have fun, and be creative!

Did you know…

Eric Wilson is a theater buff? He has been involved in theater and directed over 40 productions including Fiddler on the Roof, Miracle Worker, and Oklahoma! Looks like Roger and Eric should team up!  Eric is a Professor in the School of Business and Management at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Even Adults Like a Good Story > James Fleming

During one of my live seminars a couple of months ago, a student made a surprising request: “Professor, do you have any stories today?” This student’s question was followed by desperate pleas from the rest of the class for me to tell them all a story. Over the previous weeks, I had punctuated my lessons at various points with anecdotes and stories drawn from my own life to illustrate both directly and implicitly some element of the lesson at hand. I did so in order to recapture the attention of my class, which had waned over the previous half hour of detailed discussion of the finer points of argument and persuasion. I quickly switched gears and told an anecdote about me and my wife arguing over where to have dinner. I made my story humorous and sharp and explained the different ways that my wife, who is an attorney, and I approach and engage in argument. The story was a hit and I wound it up by asking my students what the main idea behind the story was. This story served the purpose of having my students think critically about the narrative I had shared and to step back from the anecdote itself and segue back into the realm of academic discourse and the discussion topic at hand. From there, the seminar took a sharp turn and my students seemed more engaged and active during the remaining half of the seminar.

I think the positive response to my story was owed to a couple of different factors. First, the story served to break up the monotony of the discussion and allowed my students the opportunity to leave the position of academic discourse, and step, if even for a moment, into the position of personal discourse. This allowed the students to break from their active roles as students in the class and, also, allowed them the opportunity to view me as not simply their instructor but also as a human being. While my anecdote was simple and revealed very little about my life, it allowed me to connect to my students on a human level. For the moments in which I was telling the story, I stopped being an instructor and, instead, became a human being who faces the same conflicts and experiences as my students do. Second, the story provided entertainment. The importance of entertainment—by which I mean drama and humor—in the classroom cannot be overstated, though it is often given little attention as a form of worthwhile pedagogy. While our main imperative as instructors is to educate and enlighten our students, entertainment is one of the ways by which we can go about engaging our students  in the lessons at hand and maintaining their interest.

Given the success of this experiment, I decided to develop at least two illustrative stories for every seminar I teach. I try to open every seminar discussion with a story that illustrates some of the main ideas we’ll be working with. I try, also, to include a story somewhere around the midpoint of the seminar, usually in order to help explicate or illustrate a complicated idea or process. I structure these stories carefully, and often against my own artistic instincts. As a prose writer, I tend to write fiction that is experimental, fragmented, chaotic, and disordered. But the stories I tell my classes, however, are clear and direct and have readily recognizable points and morals behind them. A classroom story will only prove successful if it balances entertainment with illumination and the tale itself has a kernel, at very least, of insight and wisdom stuck within it.

Did you know…

That when James Fleming was seven, he was in a deli in Hyannis, MA, and next to him stood John F. Kennedy Jr.? The story continues that while people were snapping pictures and pointing, John leaned down and asked James what he should order. James recommended corned beef. John shook his hand and said that that was a good idea because it was his father's favorite sandwich.  James is a Composition Professor at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]