February 2012
7 posts
1 tag
Vicious & Viscous
Twice in the past few days, I’ve noticed this mistake, once in an essay in the writing center and once in this list of terrifying places.
People, these words are not the same:
Vicious: adjective usually referring to something dreadful or evil.
Viscous: adjective usually referring to a substance that is gelatin-like and thick.
Now, let’s imagine this sentence from the previously...
Grammar Superheroes
So this isn’t exactly about the writing center, but it is about my job teaching writing to college freshmen, and it is awesome. I’ve also decided that I need to chronicle amusing writing anecdotes, even if they happened before I started this tumblr.
A Facebook status from September 20, 2011:
When I assign my students homework of writing compound sentences, I get super excited to...
3 tags
Rastafarian Dickens
The writing center is dead today, so I decided to read back through my Facebook timeline for some writing center stories. Here’s a status update from Halloween:
In the writing center today, I learned that Ebenezer Scrooge’s partner was, in fact, Bob Marley. Clearly, I’ve been reading the wrong version of A Christmas Carol all these years.
New Writing Center Hobby →
A fellow teacher, knowing my fascination with dystopia and apocalypse, suggested National Geographic’s show Doomsday Preppers. I’ve been watching clips (and one full episode from YouTube) online since we haven’t been busy today.
If you come into the writing center and find a growing stock of freeze-dried foods and ammo, don’t be surprised.
Viggo Mortensen
A student in the senior seminar course for Intercultural Studies (missions) just brought his major assignment. One of his sources on a 1910 missions conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, was edited by Viggo Mortensen. I asked the student if it was THE Viggo Mortensen, and we looked it up.
No. There are two Viggo Mortensens in this world! One is the beautiful actor (Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, the...
Welcome!
I tend to update my Facebook status with amusing anecdotes from the writing center, but I decided that perhaps a fun tumblr would be a better way to update. So, friends I have invited to view this blog…welcome! (That probably mostly includes my BFF Harvin. Hi, Harvin!)
