Monday, August 20, 2012


We Begin Again!

Multiple binaries: that's what we face when we discuss research methods:

1. Empirical research versus Lore
2. Empirical Research versus Library Research
3. Qualitative versus Quantitative
4. Library versus Field
5. Descriptive versus Experimental
6. Action Research versus typical Academic Research

By exploring the "excluded middles" these binaries create, I hope we can discover some useful ways to think about research in our own lives as professional writers!

posted by Stevens Amidon at 1:45 PM 1 comments

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Weekly Update


  • Steve Amidon
    For Monday's class. We will begin class in the Walb Union, G21-G21A, listening to Don Byrd, a poet and scholar who is part of our Visiting Writer's series. Please spread the word to your classmates.
    4 minutes ago · · ·
  • Steve Amidon
    From Mary:

    1) “ellipsis” Per. 4 has 29 students, and Per. 7 fifteen.



    2) “polyptoton” “Choosy mothers choose Jif.”



    Here’s one from Shakespeare, Sonnet 116



    “ . . . love is not love

    Which alters when it alteration finds,

    Or bends with the remover to remove . . . “



    3) “erotema” from Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Convention:



    “Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? . . . “



    An emphatic “No” is implied in his question as he urges war against the British.
    on Monday · · ·
  • Leslie E. Mackey
    Ellipsis: "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something"--Plato; Beauty is a plague on women; plastic surgery even more so.

    Erotema: "Hath not a Jew eyes?/ Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?/If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh?/If you poison us, do we not die?"--Shakespeare; What will order require us to sacrifice?

    Polyptoton: "Choosy mothers choose jif!"; Stupidity in the hands of the stupid results in the stupidly disasterous.
    on Monday · · ·
  • Martha Eagleson
    Erotema - Ellipsis - Polypton - Ellipsis:
    What were you thinking . . . out all night! Your behavior is insufferable and you will suffer the consequences. If you think you won't be punished, you're . . . .

    Okay . . . I just finished reading Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" and she uses ellipses in a variety of ways. SOMETIMES SHE USES ELLIPSIS POINTS, SOMETIMES NOT. If this very last sentence is a 'true' ellipsis (similar to Dr. Amidon's and my classmates' examples below), what do you call my three examples with the ellipsis points/dots?
    last Monday · · ·
      • Steve Amidon You made me pull out my manual, in this case "The Gregg Reference Manual," a pretty good handbook for secretaries. Besides being used to indicate omiissions in quoted material, or ellipsis in general, the use of three spaced periods with one space before and after each period, these marks are sometimes used at the end of the sentence to indicate that the thought trails off at the end, showing a degree of uncertainty, or an abrupt suspension of thought.
        March 21 at 2:49pm ·
      • Steve Amidon They are also used in advertising copy like a bullitt.
        March 21 at 2:50pm ·
  • Ryan Quandt
    Ellipsis: It is absolutely necessary and absolutely not graded
    Erotema: We will chase perfection, which is unobtanable, but along the way we will achieve greatness - Vince Lombardi
    Polypoton: If they want a fight, then we will bring the fight to them. The best defense is a good offense.
    on Monday · · ·
  • Deakin Chipps
    Ellipsis: The end is nigh, stop it.

    Erotema: For what but war can endless war breed?

    Polyptoton: Morality is moral only when it is voluntary.
    on Monday · · ·
  • Matthew Willits
    Polyptoton: He had obtained the unobtainable.

    Ellipsis: Don't do any of this, because it doesn't count, and you won't be graded on it; but also do it, because it does, and you will.

    Erotema: How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pull it down?
    last Sunday · · ·
  • Andrew N Johnson
    Erotema: Why would I care what she thinks?
    Ellipsis: Sympathy won't make it any better, only time.
    Polyptoton: Here is one my uncle told me once when I was driving too fast in a construction zone, along side those oraange construction-zone barrels: If we dont quit barrelin' ass, we are gonna catch some barrels in the ass.
    last Sunday · · ·
  • Shem Hinkle
    Polyptoton: Place the philosophical category into categories which are categorical. :)

    Erotema: Getting a drug addict to kick the habit is near impossible: A horse can be led to water, but it cannot be made to drink.

    Ellipsis: Some students don't have to study much to get good grades, but I most certainly do!
    last Sunday · · ·
  • Tricia Day
    Polyptoton- The army sergeant disarmed the armor from the soldier.
    Ellipsis- Zeus was the King of all the gods, Hera the queen.
    Erotema- Do you have to be so annoying?
    last Saturday · · ·
  • Melissa Hirsch
    Erotema: The disaster in Japan is horrifying! Can you believe it!
    Ellipsis: My husband only has two pairs of shoes, and I have twenty! He wears the same pair of shoes every day, but I change.
    Polyptoton: I wish I could believe the unbelievable new story I just heard on the news!
    about a week ago · · ·
      • Leslie E. Mackey you are so into EXCLAMATION points!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P
        March 18 at 3:03pm ·
  • Carrie Brooks
    Litotes: "She is not as young as she was."
    Hyperbole: I had a ton of homework.
    Assonance: Dead in the middle of little Italy, little did we know that we riddled two middle men who didn't do diddily.
    about 2 weeks ago · · ·
  • Steve Amidon
    Shem mentioned an academic article about Heraclitus which better described the Greek notion of Logos. I've put it on Blackboard in the readings. It is not required, but it is really good (though complex) reading!
    about 3 weeks ago · · ·
      • Steve Amidon A great quote from the essay: "A truth has found its most perfect form precisely when it burns." p. 442
        March 7 at 10:18am ·
  • Martha Eagleson
    Hello, Spring Breakers - Since my first attempt was really a metaphor, here's another go at a METONYMY: I will be going to the Windy City for a conference.
    Now with that done, I'm going to hit the BOTTLE (another metonymy?:))
    Enjoy your week!
    about 2 weeks ago · · ·
  • Leslie E. Mackey
    The other day in class when Dr. Amidon was discussing American mythology and its importance on the individual, it made me think of these two books I read for an independent study a couple years ago: "The Myth of the American Superhero" by John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett; "Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism" by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence. I thought some of you nerdy people might be interested in checking one of them out.
    about 3 weeks ago · · ·
      • Ryan Quandt Myth of the American Superhero was good
        March 4 at 8:06pm ·
  • Steve Amidon
    I've e-mailed evryone a copy of the midterm review, in both PDF and Powerpoint formats. You can also find a link to it on my web page.
    about a month ago · · ·
  • Steve Amidon
    O

    • posted by Stevens Amidon at 7:16 AM 0 comments