Would You Please Start Arguing Part 2 of 4

Would You Please Start Arguing Part 2 of 4

Welcome back to my serial piece–I’ll pick up where I left off last week, on the idea that it is difficult to abandon old techniques and move toward new ones, argumentatively. Something that exacerbates the comment-section mentality is that we’re experiencing...
Would You Please Start Arguing Part 2 of 4

Would You Please Start Arguing? Part 1 of 4

I thought for this first week, I’d share a bit of the talk I gave at the TYCA Midwest conference in Indianapolis earlier this month called “Would You Please Start Arguing? When Academic Argument, ‘Mere’ Opinion, and Comments Section Culture Collide”. In the talk I...
“Your Conspiracy Theory Assignment Changed My Life”

“Your Conspiracy Theory Assignment Changed My Life”

 I have, in the past, asked ENG 112 students to research a debunked scientific theory or conspiracy theory that people still believe today. As they research, they must create a theory about why some folks to continue to hold that belief despite it being proven false....
Ekphrasis Into the Arctic at the Dennos

Ekphrasis Into the Arctic at the Dennos

Into the Arctic is a traveling exhibit that’s at the Dennos Museum until the end of the calendar year 2017. The exhibit provides incredible vistas of northern Canada painted en plein air under sometimes incredible conditions. In the videos that accompany the...
Would You Please Start Arguing Part 2 of 4

How Can I Get My Students to Start Fighting?

I read an article in the New York Times this week called “Kids, Would you Please Start Fighting?” and I was struck by the thesis of the piece, especially as it relates to argument writing courses. The author discusses how argument is the genesis for...