RE: health warning and RT

it was more of a high school thing, and i haven't encountered it at all in
college, but my qualm remains with wondering how many students' abilities were
squashed or forced back inside when grammar was crammed down thier throat? the
vast majority of students' first writing experience comes in school, and if on
thier first impression they see writing or english as a stringent and tedious
discipline, most would surely be turned off.

>===== Original Message From Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> =====
>That sounds like a H.S. thing to me, Matthew, more than a college thing,
although
>I'm sure it depends on which college you attend. Will teaches composition
and he
>has a completely different emphasis. I've read some composition theory and
it all
>tended to be a bit wary of a purely "grammarian" approach. I had one very,
very
>bright student once who was sooooo uptight about following the rules she
almost
>couldn't write -- or, at least, it stressed her too much. I told her to
lighten
>up. I told her that her ideas were more important than perfect grammar and
>documentation in early stages. I told her any good copy editor can fix
>grammatical mistakes (she seldom had any), but no one could give her her own
good
>ideas -- those she has to find for herself.
>
>Don't know if it helped much, but she got an A in my class :). One of maybe
2 or
>3 that got an A. I hope that chilled her out a bit. She was a Princeton
student
>just taking a class or two at my college for whatever reason.
>
>RE: the Royal Tennenbaums --
>
>I thought Bill Murray did a pretty good job, but he didn't really seem to
have
>much of a part. He seemed like a stereotypical spineless academic/victim
type
>goofball. Okay, yeah, the scene where he lit up when the kid misplaced all
his
>blocks was a riot :).
>
>Gwyneth Paltrow's character was sooooo repressed and depressed in just about
every
>way possible that it was hard to like her. She did well being completely
flat.
>But I thought she really shone in the tent scene. I think she did the best
she
>could with the part she was given...
>
>What about Angelica Houston? I love her in just about everything I see her
in.
>This too.
>
>Jim
>
>"Matthew S. Mahoney" wrote:
>
>> load of mahoney?
>>
>> and, while i dont wish to start another thread, my objection is a venting
of
>> frustration against a grading system where grammar is assigned as much
worth
>> as content. i think it is precisely that objectivity that lends itself to
such
>> "popularity" and frequency among writers or teachers-its easy to get
identify,
>> and thus easy to master-but how many younger writers or students do we all
>> know who worry needlessly about grammatical rules instead of being
encouraged
>> to fulfill their creative potential? and while i certainly understand the
>> enormous change in meaning given the subtle placing of commas, etc, the
>> scrutiny of those rules as a whole disgusts me.
>>
>> >===== Original Message From Matt Kozusko <mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu>
>> =====
>> >"Matthew S. Mahoney" wrote:
>> >
>> >> other symptoms include: appreciating material for intrinsic value, not
>> petty
>> >> and arbitrary grammatical rules.
>> >
>> >Ah, the separation of form and content! We've been through this load of
>> >mahoney before. Anyway, "intrinsic value" is surely more "arbitrary" a
>> >matter than grammar, which at least approaches objectivity.
>> >
>> >--
>> >Il n'y a pas de hors texte,
>> >
>> >Matt
>> >-
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>> " I would gladly trade all my friends for the company of children."
>> -Albert Einstien
>>
>> Matthew S. Mahoney
>> Station B 8209
>> matthew.s.mahoney@vanderbilt.edu
>>
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>-
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" I would gladly trade all my friends for the company of children."
                                                -Albert Einstien

Matthew S. Mahoney
Station B 8209
matthew.s.mahoney@vanderbilt.edu

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Received on Wed Sep 4 15:12:23 2002