various variouses - an irritation of reviews, a blather of classes, and a pensiveness of writings
How irritating is it when a professional (?) reviewer is actually a really mediocre writer?
Some guy posted a link to his review on a fairly profi-looking website, and yet when you read the review, it sounds like a book essay a high schooler would write - a high-schooler who didn't much care for the book or their English grade and just wanted to get through the class.
Let's put it this way: When I teaching critiquing in class, I show how you make your way through a critique/review of any type of media. You've got Introduction (basic info, summarize w/o revealing) Evaluation (anaylsis, pros and cons, compare and contrast, go over the book and what's good.bad and why) and Conclusion (overall judgement (should never jsut be one sentence!), rating, and recommendations of similar works.) Doesn't have to be in exactly that order, but if one of these sections is missing, it'll feel like an incomplete review.
That review up there? 3/4 of it is summarizing. (I tell my students: never have your summary longer than your evaluation!) There's no real analysis of ideas, themes - he mentions them, but in a summarizing way - no specific examples, no particular likes or dislikes. I still don't know what he really thinks of this book, nor why. He starts off the review with a trite listing of genres, but then never explains why and how the book is like those genres - no examples, aagin, no specifics, nothing but generalized statements. Sloppy. And, to cap it all, his language is irritating - he tosses in a casual dig at the author's theology in an otherwise-positive paragraph (dude, keep your positives with positives and don't toss in a random neg, that's offputting! esp at the end of a paragraph, where it gets more attention!), and he casually mentions, in a paragraph competely unrelated in any way to sexuality, a character being "a prude" (son, unless she's sniffy about sexuality that ain't the right word - in fact, how bout just excise that from your vocab altogether?). Sloppy, again - not an organized or outlines review, itfeels like - it seems more just like thoughts that are put together in the order they occurred.
In conclusion: I do not care for this review and probably not for the reviewer either. Yuck.
~:~:~:~:~
Speaking of a completely different note, May holiday's technically done now, and today I'll be having my one class of the week. Yes indeed. I've decided that over the holiday I'd not do gradingwork, but now that it's done I need to get onto my grading, since it has a high possibility of whelming me over. Luckily the journals are easy this week (only three classes, with a light and easy topic of "do something creative"), so that'll be doable grading.
(I like this topic, though, because my students :D One guy made a tiny origami backpack. For his journal! Another wrote a poem! Several took artsy photos - a couple took photos of things they had made in other classes. I love seeing how they interpret creativity :D)
Model International Academic Conference continues to be a pointless silly class, but ya gotta deal with stuff like that in any job; I'm just trying to make it as painless as possible. I'm going to want to start working on my resume, too - next week is Resumes and CVs, and while I've got templates for those students who're just trying to get through things, I know that those students who'll be needing resumes and CVs soon will be wanting extra help with that, and so I want to have good examples. I'mna look up some sample engineers' resumes as well, just to be able to present them with different types.
~:~:~:~:~
One of the things I'm going to want to do in the next couple months is my workshop. I'm planning up a workshop for study-abroad students - how to do it, what to do, what it's like, and suchforth - and I want it to be as useful as possible. I also want to try to do it bilingually, in Chinese and in English, and so I'mna hafta work hard on that - OTOH, I think it'll be a fantastic way to use the Chinese I have and to force me to be able to talk about these things. YAAAY VOCABULARY EXPANSION
I intend it sort of like this:
Wkshp 1: 1.5-2hr -- Studying Abroad - Going There
-- what you need to study abroad: preparation, paperwork, choosing schools, Resume, PS, CV, references, recommendations, packing, things to know before you go
Wkshp 2: 1.5-2hr -- Studying Abroad - Once You're There
-- what you need once you're there: visa types/residency, where you can do those papers, whom to talk to for issues, campus resources, how to get the most out of the experience
Basically, all the stuff I would've wanted to know before coming to live in China. Hell, I've known people who live here for ages and don't know about X or Y or Z obvious thing, just because they weren't ever told. Also, there's a huge tendency for Chinese SA students to spend overmuch time studying - mostly because that's what they already do here/learned all their life but partially also out of language-shyness and differences in social behavior - and they need to know what resources are available to them and how to integrate with those laowais in whose country they are now living.
I've proposed the workshop before, but I'mna write up a sort of goalsheet for it and present that, and see if I can't get this thing off the ground. Ideally I'd teach it at the end of May and again at the end of June, but that might not be possible. We'll see.
~:~:~:~:~
Oh, writing, you're also in my brain. You're always in my brain. You're like a miasma right now, and I mean that as in rennaissance miasma theory, as in if I cough on someone they get writing-ideas.
for my Day of Dangerous Recklessness: one rejection, one ???, and two no-answers.
Right now I need to finish the story I'm already on. It is near to done, and then I need to run over it with my rewriting car and put in all the proper parts and earlier mentions of etc that make it make thematic sense, as well as take out the Early Installment Weirdness that doesn't make sense with the whole. (This is why you edit, folks.) Then I will shove it into the spotlight, I E have another Day OF Dangerous Recklessness where I submit it to hopefully nice places.
Aaaaand after that?
Well, right now I've got a pile of ideas for dat webcomic. D'you guys remember my nanomango? (Nov. 2010, just before I restarted on Olinscarr.) Well, it's gratifying to know that I can re-go-back to old unfinished ideas and finish, or at least conintue, them. That's good. I'm getting to finish things. I like it.
Wanyway, Dis Webcomic: this is my plan for it:
1) think about it whenever I feel like it.
2) draw whenever I feel like it.
3) long-term, whenever I get my own webspace, post it there.
See, the reason that's good is because: it's not competative. It's not like those beautiful, amazing comics that people with actualy artistic skill do - it's just sort of Pico's brain making a visual story. And I'm okay with that, because drawing is soemthing I've long ago decided: don't fuckin stress over it. You like drawing? great! You're not hot shit at it? no big! do it when you want, to the extent you want, and then when you're happy with it be happy with it.
I do love the comic medium, and the things you can do with a visual story and make all the words and pictures right there. But I know my one would be very start-and-stop, and it wouldn't be particularly popular since it's not the Hero's Journey or anything particularly epic. (It sort of epitomizes weirdness in a Pico way, though, so that pleases me.) So popular's not what I'm going for - ain't gonna market it. I do, however, strongly believe that stories are to be shared and shown, and so I'll put it up, accessible and seeable for those who want to see.
(Dat's what personal websites are for: whatever you want :D)
Aside that looooong tangent on that story - I've been sorta thinking Olinscarr a bit as well. Brain isn't being helpful with canon right now, but I am definitely thinking world-things, and so I think it might be time for fic/experimental short bits to figure out ideas.
I do think my idea of that last post would be an absolutely delightful fun to try to make happen, somehow, and Olinscarr is a natural venue - but hell, maybe even w/o 'scarr connections it'd be fun.
~:~:~:~:~:~
Okay so I've been writing this journal for a long time so I think I should do productive things now. I do think it's good I'm getting back to LJ - it's good for me to write down my thoughts; helps me organize 'em. So look forward to Pico more often than the previous year! Whee!
Some guy posted a link to his review on a fairly profi-looking website, and yet when you read the review, it sounds like a book essay a high schooler would write - a high-schooler who didn't much care for the book or their English grade and just wanted to get through the class.
Let's put it this way: When I teaching critiquing in class, I show how you make your way through a critique/review of any type of media. You've got Introduction (basic info, summarize w/o revealing) Evaluation (anaylsis, pros and cons, compare and contrast, go over the book and what's good.bad and why) and Conclusion (overall judgement (should never jsut be one sentence!), rating, and recommendations of similar works.) Doesn't have to be in exactly that order, but if one of these sections is missing, it'll feel like an incomplete review.
That review up there? 3/4 of it is summarizing. (I tell my students: never have your summary longer than your evaluation!) There's no real analysis of ideas, themes - he mentions them, but in a summarizing way - no specific examples, no particular likes or dislikes. I still don't know what he really thinks of this book, nor why. He starts off the review with a trite listing of genres, but then never explains why and how the book is like those genres - no examples, aagin, no specifics, nothing but generalized statements. Sloppy. And, to cap it all, his language is irritating - he tosses in a casual dig at the author's theology in an otherwise-positive paragraph (dude, keep your positives with positives and don't toss in a random neg, that's offputting! esp at the end of a paragraph, where it gets more attention!), and he casually mentions, in a paragraph competely unrelated in any way to sexuality, a character being "a prude" (son, unless she's sniffy about sexuality that ain't the right word - in fact, how bout just excise that from your vocab altogether?). Sloppy, again - not an organized or outlines review, itfeels like - it seems more just like thoughts that are put together in the order they occurred.
In conclusion: I do not care for this review and probably not for the reviewer either. Yuck.
~:~:~:~:~
Speaking of a completely different note, May holiday's technically done now, and today I'll be having my one class of the week. Yes indeed. I've decided that over the holiday I'd not do gradingwork, but now that it's done I need to get onto my grading, since it has a high possibility of whelming me over. Luckily the journals are easy this week (only three classes, with a light and easy topic of "do something creative"), so that'll be doable grading.
(I like this topic, though, because my students :D One guy made a tiny origami backpack. For his journal! Another wrote a poem! Several took artsy photos - a couple took photos of things they had made in other classes. I love seeing how they interpret creativity :D)
Model International Academic Conference continues to be a pointless silly class, but ya gotta deal with stuff like that in any job; I'm just trying to make it as painless as possible. I'm going to want to start working on my resume, too - next week is Resumes and CVs, and while I've got templates for those students who're just trying to get through things, I know that those students who'll be needing resumes and CVs soon will be wanting extra help with that, and so I want to have good examples. I'mna look up some sample engineers' resumes as well, just to be able to present them with different types.
~:~:~:~:~
One of the things I'm going to want to do in the next couple months is my workshop. I'm planning up a workshop for study-abroad students - how to do it, what to do, what it's like, and suchforth - and I want it to be as useful as possible. I also want to try to do it bilingually, in Chinese and in English, and so I'mna hafta work hard on that - OTOH, I think it'll be a fantastic way to use the Chinese I have and to force me to be able to talk about these things. YAAAY VOCABULARY EXPANSION
I intend it sort of like this:
Wkshp 1: 1.5-2hr -- Studying Abroad - Going There
-- what you need to study abroad: preparation, paperwork, choosing schools, Resume, PS, CV, references, recommendations, packing, things to know before you go
Wkshp 2: 1.5-2hr -- Studying Abroad - Once You're There
-- what you need once you're there: visa types/residency, where you can do those papers, whom to talk to for issues, campus resources, how to get the most out of the experience
Basically, all the stuff I would've wanted to know before coming to live in China. Hell, I've known people who live here for ages and don't know about X or Y or Z obvious thing, just because they weren't ever told. Also, there's a huge tendency for Chinese SA students to spend overmuch time studying - mostly because that's what they already do here/learned all their life but partially also out of language-shyness and differences in social behavior - and they need to know what resources are available to them and how to integrate with those laowais in whose country they are now living.
I've proposed the workshop before, but I'mna write up a sort of goalsheet for it and present that, and see if I can't get this thing off the ground. Ideally I'd teach it at the end of May and again at the end of June, but that might not be possible. We'll see.
~:~:~:~:~
Oh, writing, you're also in my brain. You're always in my brain. You're like a miasma right now, and I mean that as in rennaissance miasma theory, as in if I cough on someone they get writing-ideas.
for my Day of Dangerous Recklessness: one rejection, one ???, and two no-answers.
Right now I need to finish the story I'm already on. It is near to done, and then I need to run over it with my rewriting car and put in all the proper parts and earlier mentions of etc that make it make thematic sense, as well as take out the Early Installment Weirdness that doesn't make sense with the whole. (This is why you edit, folks.) Then I will shove it into the spotlight, I E have another Day OF Dangerous Recklessness where I submit it to hopefully nice places.
Aaaaand after that?
Well, right now I've got a pile of ideas for dat webcomic. D'you guys remember my nanomango? (Nov. 2010, just before I restarted on Olinscarr.) Well, it's gratifying to know that I can re-go-back to old unfinished ideas and finish, or at least conintue, them. That's good. I'm getting to finish things. I like it.
Wanyway, Dis Webcomic: this is my plan for it:
1) think about it whenever I feel like it.
2) draw whenever I feel like it.
3) long-term, whenever I get my own webspace, post it there.
See, the reason that's good is because: it's not competative. It's not like those beautiful, amazing comics that people with actualy artistic skill do - it's just sort of Pico's brain making a visual story. And I'm okay with that, because drawing is soemthing I've long ago decided: don't fuckin stress over it. You like drawing? great! You're not hot shit at it? no big! do it when you want, to the extent you want, and then when you're happy with it be happy with it.
I do love the comic medium, and the things you can do with a visual story and make all the words and pictures right there. But I know my one would be very start-and-stop, and it wouldn't be particularly popular since it's not the Hero's Journey or anything particularly epic. (It sort of epitomizes weirdness in a Pico way, though, so that pleases me.) So popular's not what I'm going for - ain't gonna market it. I do, however, strongly believe that stories are to be shared and shown, and so I'll put it up, accessible and seeable for those who want to see.
(Dat's what personal websites are for: whatever you want :D)
Aside that looooong tangent on that story - I've been sorta thinking Olinscarr a bit as well. Brain isn't being helpful with canon right now, but I am definitely thinking world-things, and so I think it might be time for fic/experimental short bits to figure out ideas.
I do think my idea of that last post would be an absolutely delightful fun to try to make happen, somehow, and Olinscarr is a natural venue - but hell, maybe even w/o 'scarr connections it'd be fun.
~:~:~:~:~:~
Okay so I've been writing this journal for a long time so I think I should do productive things now. I do think it's good I'm getting back to LJ - it's good for me to write down my thoughts; helps me organize 'em. So look forward to Pico more often than the previous year! Whee!