The essays I am posting on Humanities Commons are also on Librarything and Goodreads. These aren’t reviews. They are thoughts about the state of literary fiction, intended principally for writers and critics involved in seeing where literature might be able to go. Each one uses a book as an example of some current problem in writing.

This essay describes the popular Bechdel Test—a measure of women’s dialogue in films—in terms of social network analysis within fictional narrative. It argues that this form of vernacular criticism arrives at a productive convergence with contemporary academic critical methodologies in surface and postcritical reading practices, on the one hand,…[Read more]

This handout serves as a guide for student peer-reviewers to provide useful feedback to the writer. The open-ended questions walk the reviewer through the rhetorical analysis essay and provide a structure for evaluating the thesis, organization, rhetorical strategies, and use of pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos in the paper. The Rhetorical…[Read more]

A detailed description of an innovative, but short-lived, graduate training program for two-year college faculty that began in 1975 at Carnegie Mellon University may offer possibilities for new programs that can benefit both two-year colleges and universities.

Many varieties of French have changed over the years from expressing predicate
negation (Geurts 1998) with ne alone, to the embracing construction ne … pas, and then
to postverbal pas alone (Jespersen 1917). When the increase in the frequency of
ne … pas over time is plotted on a graph, it takes the S shape of the logistic function
(Kroch 198…[Read more]

This handout explains in clear and simple terms what a strong thesis statement should–and should not be. Examples of the four main types of ‘weak’ thesis statements are given, along with four corresponding ‘strong’ thesis statements. I have successfully used this handout in workshopping students’ thesis ideas.

This handout explains in clear and simple terms what a strong thesis statement should–and should not be. Examples of the four main types of ‘weak’ thesis statements are given, along with four corresponding ‘strong’ thesis statements. I have successfully used this handout in workshopping students’ thesis ideas.

Selected Topics in Applied Linguistics: How to Choose a Theory. I offer a critical exploration of some of the conditions involved in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA), as well as of the paradoxical approaches in the theoretical questions, methods, categories, and perspectives of ISLA.
The discussion proceeds with a very short…[Read more]

Selected Topics in Applied Linguistics: How to Choose a Theory. I offer a critical exploration of some of the conditions involved in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA), as well as of the paradoxical approaches in the theoretical questions, methods, categories, and perspectives of ISLA.
The discussion proceeds with a very short…[Read more]

Selected Topics in Applied Linguistics: How to Choose a Theory. I offer a critical exploration of some of the conditions involved in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA), as well as of the paradoxical approaches in the theoretical questions, methods, categories, and perspectives of ISLA.
The discussion proceeds with a very short…[Read more]

Prepared for session 366 on the 2017 convention program, Shapes of the English Major Today, arranged by the ADE Ad Hoc Committee on the English Major, this presentation summarizes trends in bachelor’s degree completions using time series degree completions data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), as compiled by the National…[Read more]

372 [HUM] 19th Century Literature of the British Empire and the Americas. 3 credit hours. Literary and cultural texts in English from 1800 to 1900 focusing on global British literature and literatures of the Americas.

My investment in the course.
I am concerned about our country’s inability to work against climate change, the mass i…[Read more]