Fwd: FW: Citations and the punitive university: Kurt Schick: Dan Novak: Rich Murray 2011.10.31
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rich Murray <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 11:06 AM Subject: Re: FW: Citations and the punitive university To: Dan Novak <[email protected]>, Rich Murray <[email protected]>, Rich Murray <[email protected]> Yer yersef a pretty bold, original, creative, original, lucid, deep, inspiring thinker writer... On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Dan Novak <[email protected]> wrote: > ** ** ** ** ** ** ** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* URI General Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of *Dan Novak > *Sent:* **Monday, October 31, 2011** **12:33 PM** > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: Citations and the punitive university > > ** ** > > Good Morning!**** > > ** ** > > I am sure I am in a minority here – so don’t waste too much breath on me. > But I have rarely heard such good sense, common sense, sound sense from an > academic before! A gift from warm hands, a warm heart, a balanced > perspective. **** > > ** ** > > I couldn’t agree more with the below article.**** > > ** ** > > What’s involved here is not just paper etiquette, pro forma protocol, and > the gospel according to Hoyle – but a real pedagogical and university > mission divide. **** > > ** ** > > Progressive educator and philosopher John Dewey would be proud of our > Chronicle author and this article. It runs against the paranoid grain of > so much of contemporary education practice on all levels – including of > course, the Leave No Child Behind well-meaning debacle. Dewey was right: > true measures arise in pursuing authentic process.**** > > ** ** > > Education, like government, has polar shifted so much to the ideologically > conservative axis that we have barely realized how much the self-doubting > assessment mania has left things in charge of the accountability-accountant > mentality. **** > > ** ** > > We know there’s plenty wrong with higher ed and we keep thinking, the more > screws to tighten up on student performance the better, the more external > checks the better the core process of learning is. It works less and > less and we are perplexed as to why. Without our armada of extrinsic > measures – and correlative threats and pressures – we feel there is no > rigor and less results. We keep falling according to international > standards of achievement, we keep sliding, but don’t know why. How can > we be competitive? **** > > ** ** > > Where have standards gone? *O tempora, o mores!* We are nice, use fancy > techniques, plead with students for their own welfare, but they don’t seem > to respond on cue. Or maybe they do. They know that the underlying > context (threat) is that grades are important for a job. Or else! And > they do work diligently in this punishing regime. And yet there is not > an iota of joy in this process, and perhaps less real achievement. Not > to mention students’ viscerally knowing that a degree in this similarly > constricted jobs environment means less and less. The treadmill, as > eloquently evidenced and attested to in the below expose of one of the > obsessive cogs in this debilitating and interlocking machinery, goes on. * > *** > > ** ** > > We need to rediscover some indigenous American strengths – our creativity, > our curiosity and our restless willingness to explore. We’ve almost > forgotten these things! We do need to jettison our plausible Puritanism > and endless educational and attitudinal corsets. We need to shift from a > culture of extrinsic motivations and measures that hobble the real > excitement and passion of learning to rediscover the intrinsic motivations > and measures, the satisfactions that attend tons and tons of work and > refinement done in a way that codifies freedom and expresses an almost > athletic and superlative joy. **** > > ** ** > > Best writing teacher I ever had (in high school) made us write and read to > the very edge of our boundaries and beyond. He was incredibly demanding! > But our passion, learning and enjoyment, our genuine and hard-won > refinement, eventually matched his. We became truly active and empowered > beings and not empty and impoverished marionettes.**** > > ** ** > > There is much to be learned in the ultimately satisfying shift in American > culture from the ironically debasing rants of pseudo-rigor to a new ethos > that – like a true learning society – summons our collective best. We > think we are involved in inquiry; we are not. Under all the make-nice > icing, we currently suffer in the punitive university. **** > > ** ** > > Cheers, Dan Novak**** > > ** ** > > **** > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* URI General Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of *Dr. Rosa Maria Pegueros > *Sent:* **Sunday, October 30, 2011** **7:09 PM** > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Citations**** > > ** ** > > *They'll have to rip them out of my cold, dead hands!***** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > Chronicle of Higher Education**** > > http://chronicle.com/article/Citation-Obsession-Get-Over/129575/**** > > ** ** > > **October 30, 2011****** > *Citation Obsession? Get Over It!* > > [image: Citation Obsession? Get Over It! 1]**** > > *Michael Morgenstern for The Chronicle* > > Enlarge > Image<http://chronicle.com/article/Citation-Obsession-Get-Over/129575/> > **** > > *By Kurt Schick* > > My university recently convened an emergency "summit" for librarians, > tutors, and concerned faculty members to solve a citation crisis. Our > library help desks reportedly cannot complete their core mission of > assisting students with information literacy (finding, choosing, and using > sources) because students keep pestering them with questions about how to > format obscure citations: "I'm analyzing poetry for my 'Punk Literature' > seminar. Using MLA style, how do I cite a limerick scribbled in the > third-floor toilet?"**** > > Meanwhile, the writing center stinks of fear as students struggle to > decipher APA, MLA, AP, and Chicago (or is it Turabian?) documentation > styles, which seem as alien and absurd to them as using a typewriter. > Academic departments and even whole colleges consistently beg the library > and writing center for workshops to rehabilitate their worst citation > transgressors. Bibliographic citation has apparently eclipsed perfect > grammar and the five-paragraph theme as the preoccupation of persnickety > professors.**** > > What a colossal waste. Citation style remains the most arbitrary, > formulaic, and prescriptive element of academic writing taught in American > high schools and colleges. Now a sacred academic shibboleth, citation > persists despite the incredibly high cost-benefit ratio of trying to teach > students something they (and we should also) recognize as relatively > useless to them as developing writers.**** > > Professors' obsession with citation formatting is relatively new. Many of > us over the age of 40 probably cannot remember learning much about citation > styles until graduate school—not because our memories have faded, but > because our teachers knew better than to demand that we fret about such > specialized, scholarly formalities. It's not that they were teaching us to > be sloppy scholars, either. On the contrary, they emphasized how to > effectively and responsibly locate, evaluate, and integrate other writers' > words and ideas into our own writing better, perhaps, than we teach > students to do today. Surely, the uneven quality of information available > online makes it more important for writers to know how to evaluate the > worth of their sources than how to parse pedantic rules and display their > expertise in footnoting.**** > > What I advocate here is not to dispense with teaching students how to use > sources but rather to abandon our fixation on the form rather than the > function of source attribution. Here's why: We cannot control how much time > and effort students invest in a particular writing assignment; we can only > influence how they distribute their energies. Professors' overattention to > flawless citation (or grammar) creates predictable results: Students expend > a disproportionate amount of precious time and attention trying to avoid > making mistakes. Soon, they also begin to associate "good" writing with > mechanically following rules rather than developing good ideas.**** > > In contrast, experienced writers (like us) edit meticulously only after > they have allocated substantial effort to more complex and consequential > writing tasks, such as refining their topics, selecting and processing > their sources, organizing their ideas, and drafting and revising their > manuscripts to improve focus and coherence. Nitpicky professors hinder > student writers' development by effectively forcing them to invest more > time and thinking in less important elements of writing.**** > > Recent research by the Citation Project <http://site.citationproject.net/> > corroborates > how severely teachers' citation psychosis has diminished students' > information-literacy skills, in particular. Rebecca Moore Howard and Sandra > Jamieson blame "plagiarism hysteria," which compels teachers to punish > improper citation more than reward students' effective use of sources' > words and ideas. Thus, clever students master quotation "mining" and sloppy > paraphrasing, and they rarely summarize (or, presumably, deeply read or > understand) their sources. Why should they, when success equals completing > a checklist ("*minimum of six sources including two books, two > peer-reviewed articles ... proper MLA format, including a period before the > parenthetical citation for block quotations*") rather than composing > writing that engages readers with sophisticated content or, heaven forbid, > eloquent prose? Should we not judge writing on its content and character > rather than its surface features?**** > > The intricacies and formalities of citation become useful to scholars only > when they publish their work. Until then, they need a bookkeeping system to > keep track of where they found things (a system that others might later use > to retrace their steps), and some means of attributing their sources and > thus establishing the credibility of information for their audiences. More > than anything, source attribution enables students—who, by virtue of being > students, don't yet know much about a subject—to borrow knowledge and ethos > from those who do. It's just about that simple.**** > > What might be more surprising is how simple formal citation mechanics > really are. Citation contents are virtually the same across styles and > disciplines: author's name(s), title(s), publication information. As anyone > who's translated a manuscript from MLA to APA and then to > ****Chicago****format knows, the only differences are sequence, punctuation, > and format. > Why, then, could we not simply ask students to include a list of references > with the essential information? Why couldn't we wait to infect them with > citation fever until they are ready to publish (and then hand them the > appropriate style guide, which is typically no more difficult to follow > than instructions for programming your DVR)?**** > > We could then reinvest time wasted on formatting to teach more-important > skills like selecting credible sources, recognizing bias or faulty > arguments, paraphrasing and summarizing effectively, and attributing > sourced information persuasively and responsibly.**** > > If anything, we should abandon trivial roadblocks so that students can > write more often in more classes. Recent research demonstrates how > effectively and efficiently writing can improve comprehension of content in > any discipline. Writing also enables students to practice analysis, > synthesis, and other skills that constitute critical, creative, and even > civic thinking. If writing provides one of our best means to enhance > learning outcomes across the curriculum, then more writing equals more > learning. Why would we design writing assignments with obstacles that > discourage students from learning?**** > > *Kurt Schick teaches writing at ******James**** ****Madison**** **** > University******. > * > > ** ** > > -- **** > > Dr. Rosa Maria Pegueros, J.D., Ph.D. > Associate Professor > Department of History > & Women's Studies Program > ****University of Rhode Island**, **RI** **02881-0817**** > Phone: (401) 874-4092; Fax 874-2595 > E-mail: [email protected] > http://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/pegueros.html > Professing History: > http://professinghistory.blogspot.com/**** > > "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducated > the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who > feels pride. And you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." > > -Cesar E. Chavez**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > ** ** >
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