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General Strategy |
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Teachers: |
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www.sonshi.com/learn.html (an excellent website for exploring this classic text on strategy). I will add a commentary explaining how to use such a guide in your everyday teaching, including how to use it in student exercises. |
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Sun Tzu, The Art of War |
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LEADERSHIP
“Being superior to others is nothing other than having people talk about your affairs and listening to their opinions. The general run of people settle for their own opinions and thus never excel. Having a discussion with a person is one step in excelling him. A certain person discussed with me the written materials at the clan office. He is better than someone like me in writing and researching. In seeking correction from others, you excel them.”
—Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure, trans. William Scott Wilson |
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PLAGIARISM Plagiarism continues to bedevil high schools, colleges, and the professional world. Here are two excellent websites written by teachers for teachers. Students will benefit from reading these websites critically in order to understand how to avoid the problem, rather than deal with the fallout from committing plagiarism either intentionally or unintentionally. |
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College Entrance Essays cause a great deal of anxiety among college-bound students. Here is an article from the Boston Globe explores how over-polished essays are received and evaluated by admissions officers. |
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ESSAY WRITING |
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Nick Carbone, “Thinking and Talking About Plagiarism.” Pay special attention to his discussion of “Do’s and Don’ts,” a list he developed after deciding that his previous approaches to the subject of plagiarism adopted an inappropriate tone. |
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Bruce H. Leland, “Plagiarism and the Web.” Lists extensive resources that instructors use in dealing with plagiarism, including links to websites that provide papers for students to download and claim as their own. |
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Whatever one’s high school experience may be, first year college writing courses—usually called Composition or Composition and Rhetoric courses, though there are many variations—can be challenging. For fine example of what such courses involve, check out the University of South Florida’s page for students and teachers. |
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FIRST YEAR COLLEGE WRITING |
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For Students: |
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FOCUS
“Do not let your mind stand still even when you are in repose, but do not let it speed up even when you are involved in quick actions. The mind should not be distracted by the body, nor the body distracted by the mind. . . . Though the mind appears weak on the surface, it should be strong at the bottom.”
—Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, trans. William Scott Wilson |
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Punctuation and grammar earn you no credit, but handle them badly and you surely will destroy your authority as a writer. There are many fine sites devoted to hard conventions (grammar, spelling, punctuation) and soft conventions (voice, point of view), though a little research will demonstrate that they may not agree on all points or even contain errors. Here is a site built by a university Writing Center that provides excellent guidance. |
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MECHANICS AND STYLE |
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This is Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (known as “OWL”), a wonderful source of free handouts, quizzes, and guides to many aspects of writing. A strong resource for high school and college students alike. |
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An interesting selection from a grammar and style guide by Jack Lynch, arranged alphabetically. Worth grazing—you will find something interesting. |
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Snippets of bad writing, with an invitation to rewrite and improve them. Useful for students and teachers. |
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Several websites in the For Students section below are first-rate ones for teachers, too. The OWL handout site is becoming a standard resource. I recommend the two plagiarism sites particularly. The following two quotes are relevant to students and teachers: ask students to explain what they mean. |
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The Honorable Classroom: Personal Training and Tutoring for Excellence |
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Resources |
