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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

22

Columbia University English Department Promises To Undermine Its Students

HEHIt is amusing that Columbia's undergraduate English class schedule included a course called "The Book Review," which taught students... how to review books. Also amusing is that it is now canceled, according to the Observer, due to the death of much of the nation's book reviewing pages. Thing is, Columbia has this all backwards. Now is exactly when students should be taught how to perform criticism! What better time than the Internet age to teach people the Big Three Do-Not-Dos of critique? (I'd tell you what they are, but then you will never buy my book, "The Big Three and the Twelve Lesser Do-Not-Dos of Critique," which I am going to self-publish sometime in 2012, if I do not starve to death first.) Anyway, this book-reviewing class, if properly taught, would actually give great benefit, because it would prevent the young people from making the same mistakes over and over again, because with each generation (and by "generation," I mean each crop of kids every two years that starts blogs and has no idea that anyone has ever blogged before) comes the same common mistakes. ("The Four Classic Mistakes of the New Blogger" is my chapter four, so, you know, see you in 2012 with that.) Why is Columbia tying its educational program to the death of print? Fortunately, Columbia has the future financial health of its students in mind, as, according to its roster, it still offers classes named "Comparative Modern Texts: Competing Isms' Modernism and the Avant-Garde" and "Caribbean Disaporic Literature," though apparently at least one of those course titles is incorrectly punctuated and the other includes an obvious misspelling.

22 Comments / Post A Comment

mathnet
mathnet (#27)

STRONGLY WOULD READ

WindowSeat
WindowSeat (#180)

Barter chapters for food!

Baboleen
Baboleen (#1,430)

The University is probably having a tough time finding someone on staff willing to teach the subject matter. The School of Business in the college I work for has a similar problem finding within its faculty, someone willing to teach Business Ethics.

Meeg
Meeg (#309)

At my law school, rumor was that they made professors who slept with students and stuff teach ethics as some sort of ironic punishment

Abe Sauer
Abe Sauer (#148)

Is one of the classic mistakes run-on sentences? OR wait wait... NO PARAGRAPH BREAKS??????

Choire Sicha

Those are called CHOICES. I'm old enough to make them. :) Also none of the sentences above are run-on. You should reel your reading back to the 19th century, you might be surprised what goes on with this wacky language of ours! Did you know they used to use COMMAS after M-DASHES, when appropriate???

Abe Sauer
Abe Sauer (#148)

"Anyway, this book-reviewing class, if properly taught, would actually give great benefit, because it would prevent the young people from making the same mistakes over and over again, because with each generation (and by "generation," I mean each crop of kids every two years that starts blogs and has no idea that anyone has ever blogged before) comes the same common mistakes."

Abe Sauer
Abe Sauer (#148)

Just sayin....

avb212
avb212 (#1,293)

Scarlet fever moved writers to make a lot of interesting stylistic choices, I found.

Choire Sicha

And just think, only almost seven decades after the death of Joyce, people are afraid of a complicated yet completely appropriate sentence!

DON'T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE AND HUG YOU ABE SAUER.

Abe Sauer
Abe Sauer (#148)

Oooooooh, I LOVE these kind of sentences. I mean, such a love is the only way to appreciate DFW. But I'll remember that when I send you my next.....

Abe Sauer
Abe Sauer (#148)

And "ONLY" seven decades...

CaptainFantastic

I'll buy an egg cream for whomever appropriately uses a comma after an M-dash.

HiredGoons
HiredGoons (#603)

Fuck! Now I want an egg cream.

garge
garge (#736)

"Why are you always invisible--," I started to type as Gchat went down for the third time this week.

CaptainFantastic

Ha. I should have added: in an Awl post.

MatthewGallaway
MatthewGallaway (#1,239)

This to me raises the question of which blog will be the first to found an accredited university. Let's face it: if bloggers can kill 'old media,' there's no reason why 'old education' shouldn't be next. In the year 2k21, excited teens across the nation will be opening acceptance e-mails from The Awl U. (Tuition $300k/$eme$ter.)

jennie
jennie (#25)

and that blog's name is "mama will take you to school"

btw: median blog post already written.

“I was new to the city and scared, so I drank too much and met someone.”

by S/F-J

SarahHeartburn

My vote, Choire; not a run on sentence. Repeating the same conjunction is acceptable. It probably wouldn't pass on the TOEFL or Cambridge exams, but fuck them.

katiebakes
katiebakes (#32)

Wait: I really want to know at least ONE Do-Not-Do and/or Classic Mistake. Please? I'll even settle for a Twelve Lesser. Come on, help us help you help us.

pourover
pourover (#1,309)

Yes, please; like one of the victims in "Untraceable," you can blink it to us in Morse.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper

Can you tweet it?

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