Comments | luninosity: best quote from today's faculty meeting

luninosity

best quote from today's faculty meeting

Sep 19, 2011 17:37

So, I teach in the English Department at Unnamed Large State University here in SoCal. Today, at our fall orientation meeting, the head of our writing program tried to explain ways to combat plagiarism. This culminated in this glorious piece of advice ( Read more... )

adventures in academia, i love my job, life

Comments 9

citizenjess September 20 2011, 05:18:17 UTC

Man, the plagiarism talk never gets old. I mean, until it does. :P

luninosity September 20 2011, 17:26:35 UTC

Yeah... well, at least this one was enlivened by creepiness!

We start classes on Friday, so this is prep week; what about you? :D

citizenjess September 21 2011, 03:03:41 UTC

This is week ... five, I think, of a 16-week semester? Things are already like super-intense. I'm dyin' a little. D:

luninosity September 21 2011, 19:51:43 UTC

Ooh, semesters. I'm not sure if that's better, or worse. The 10-week quarters are sometimes killer, over here, but I'm so used to them now that 16 weeks sounds very long! I'm not sure I generally like any of my students enough to want to see them for another 6 weeks. (Actually, that's not true. I've had some GREAT students. They're just not the majority.)

Hey, writing fic is a good escape from the intensity, right? :D

Thread 5

cursor_mundi September 21 2011, 00:52:42 UTC

Bwahahaha, no, no, you SHOULD ASK. Make it a diagnostic question! Creep them out, they will drop your class, and the semester will be easy sailing. Uh, not that I have done this sort of thing...or rather, I seem to have lost the knack: I used to be able to whittle my 15 down to 12 or 13, and now...now I have 16, for my sins. :(

luninosity September 21 2011, 19:48:30 UTC

...16! I have 20 currently enrolled (limit is 21 students), but we start classes on Friday, so we'll see how many turn up with add/drop slips.

My syllabus, however, currently contains Lord Dunsany's 1928 short story 'The Sword of Welleran," a selection of fairy tales, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the bit from Neil Gaiman's Sandman that deals with said play. So it should be fun. The importance/difficulties of desire and chastity might even come up, who knows?

emmademarais October 3 2011, 19:55:35 UTC

See, now I have more to fangirl you with than just your X-Men fic! I'm back in school working on a PhD so I can teach at the Uni level so I'm jealous you're already there. (This coming from someone who once *attended* an Unnamed Large State University in SoCal.) Now you add that you're teaching fairy tales, Midsummer *and* Sandman? /swoons/ Can I be your TA while I'm waiting for my degree to finish? /big grin/

luninosity October 3 2011, 22:57:40 UTC

Oh, more people are certainly welcome (even if only virtually so)! Have you read any Lord Dunsany? Totally worth it, despite occasional torturously long sentences. *grin* I do love my university. They give us a lot of freedom to have fun. (Over the summer I taught a Robin Hood in Popular Culture course, and the one before that was Batman.)

What area is your PhD going to be in? (Also, I went to UC Irvine as an undergrad--where'd you go, when you were here? apparently I am destined to remain a California person...)