Posts by Isaac Sweeney
May 7, 2012, 01:38 PM ET
Loose Deadlines and Procrastination
I implemented a
policy a couple of years ago that has caused colleagues to raise
eyebrows at a number of institutions and in a number of
departments. I believe this policy is a good one in a perfect
world, but I would like to get some opinions from readers here.
The policy concerns deadlines. In all
of my classes, students write essays of one type or another, but
I'll focus on ENG 101, of freshman composition. In here, students
write three medium-length essays that make up most of their grade
for the semester. These essays have due dates. The kicker is that I
don't enforce these deadlines; they are loose deadlines. Let me
explain. I have the deadlines because some people seem to work
better with a deadline in mind. The deadlines also mark the end of
one paper and the beginning of another for the purposes of in-class
activities. I don't enforce the deadlines, though, because I
view...
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April 23, 2012, 11:02 AM ET
Dear Student
In a recent post,
I talked about some apathetic
students. Some comments suggested I'm not an engaging enough
instructor. I expect a certain amount of resistance to almost any
post I write, but one comment did disturb me. Evan DeliFi, who
claims to be a student, said, "As a student who pays for my own
education I view myself as my teachers' employer. I am paying for a
service and I should be able to consume as much or as little of
that service within the pre-determined bounds that I am paying for.
It is your job as a teacher to make class-time engaging and
necessary for success in the classroom. I have been through far too
many classes where everything covered in the lecture was in the
book and attendance offered no tangible benefit to me in terms of
achievement on the exams. In these cases as long as the teacher
doesn't score points for attendance, which by the way is absurd, I
would...
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February 29, 2012, 11:30 AM ET
Can We Overproduce a Degree?
At the New Faculty
Majority's
national summit in January, an administrator from the
University of Cincinnati told the first panel of speakers that she
would like to see the summit address "the 850-pound gorilla in the
room," which is the overproduction of Ph.D.'s. If there weren't so
many English Ph.D.'s, she said, then English adjuncts could make
more money, find more secure jobs, etc. Basically, she was saying
that we are flooding the market with Ph.D.'s when there aren't
enough jobs in academe for people with that credential. As some in
the room applauded, I felt very uneasy. I kept thinking to myself,
"So there are a lot of Ph.D.'s. Is it possible to overproduce a
degree?" If I trace my sense of unease, I come up with a
fundamental difference of opinion I have with this person from the
University of Cincinnati, one that brings up an age-old debate:
What is the purpose of a Ph.D.? I...
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January 17, 2012, 08:33 AM ET
Cheating Is Hard Work
I catch a few
plagiarists each semester, but this semester, I caught seven, a
record high for me. This is not a record I enjoy, though I'm glad I
caught these students. But man, does plagiarism bother me. I teach
English and writing, so plagiarism bothers me for the obvious
ethical reasons. Beyond that, it bothers me because if the
plagiarists would have put as much effort into doing the work as
they put into avoiding the work, they would've at least had a shot
at passing. Let me explain. In one particular case of plagiarism, a
student copied and pasted an article from the Internet. The
original article was semi-interesting in its concept, but failed to
execute well. It was something about legalizing prostitution.
Anyway, in a strange move to avoid getting caught, I guess, the
student mixed up the paragraphs of this copied piece. I suppose the
student then realized that the paragraphs ...
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September 21, 2011, 09:47 AM ET
'A' New Adjunct Movement
If you see a red
“A” on a colleague’s door, it probably doesn’t mean “Adultery.” The
“A” is for “Adjunct.” I first heard of this movement from Katherine
Burke, a part-time instructor in the School of Theatre and Dance at
Kent State University, who posted the idea on the Con Job:
Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Faculty Facebook page. She
didn’t come up with the idea originally, she says, but she is
committed to raising awareness, especially among students. You can
see a photo of Burke’s “A” at her
blog. A red “A” signifies that you are an adjunct, some other
contingent faculty member, or that you sympathize with contingent
faculty members. The idea is to signify some level of unification
and to spread awareness. Imagine if a student sees more and more
red letters on faculty doors. The student may even see a room full
of letters, or letters mysteriously ...
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July 6, 2011, 11:23 AM ET
The Golden Letter
Some readers have
asked me about the cover letter that helped me get the interview
that landed my new tenure-track job at Richard Bland College, a
junior college in Virginia. Before I share the letter, I should
tell you what I knew about the position before applying. I knew it
was one of those rare tenure-track jobs. I knew that Richard Bland
placed a high value on teaching, more so than on research. I also
knew that the person RBC hired would be the adviser for the
school's creative magazine. Realizing I would have to compete with
terminal-degree holders (I only have an M.A.), my goal was to keep
this cover letter short and catchy, and to use it to lead whoever
was reading it to my CV, references, transcript, and other
application materials. To be honest, I didn't think I had a shot at
all at getting an interview.
Dear PERSON'S NAME,
With this cover letter, I want desperately to reveal ...Read More
June 21, 2011, 10:45 AM ET
Want the Tenure Track? Don't Keep Quiet
Last week, I was
offered a tenure-track position. Come August, I will officially be
an assistant professor of English at Richard Bland College, a
two-year campus in Virginia that is associated with the College of
William and Mary. I'm still reeling. It's been a strange path to
the tenure track, in my opinion. If you've been following my posts,
you probably agree. I know there are many, many people still
searching for tenure-track work. I can't offer tons of advice, but
I can offer a few hints, which I will try to do in the coming
weeks. In The
Chronicle's Forums and article comments, one piece of
advice comes up again and again. Apparently, there's an unwritten
rule that, in academe, you're not supposed to voice your opinions
if you see something wrong with higher education. Administrators
don't seem to like it when you do that as a job candidate. Other
faculty members don't seem to...
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On Hiring is The Chronicle's blog about the ins and outs of college hiring, with articles and advice from around the Web.