My visit to academia

Posted on January 27, 2006 by John

One of the smartest people I know asked me a few weeks back to be a “guest lecturer” for a hybrid online-and-classroom English class she’s teaching at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif. Kelly (who happens to be my sister-in-law) asked me to put together some material on how to read an analyze a newspaper article. What are the differences between news, analysis and opinion? What should you know about the sources the reporter has chosen for his or her story? Over the next few days, the students are supposed to read my material, plus some news stories that Kelly picked out as examples, and post messages to an online message board. Then I, as guest lecturer, respond to the messages, answer questions and what have you.

I have to say I’m really looking forward to it — although I hope I can keep up, and that I don’t get too pompous in my responses.

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  • http://mycropht.blogspot.com/ Katherine Coble

    I take it Kelly’s not in the DAR?!?

  • http://mycropht.blogspot.com/ Katherine Coble

    I take it Kelly’s not in the DAR?!?

  • http://gaddabout.blogspot.com Matt

    John, make sure you mention the Rule of Thumb: If you smack your forefinger and thumb on the table and the thumb hurts, then the article was written by a Commie pinko. If the forefinger hurts, it was written by a Nazi fascist.

    At least that’s method I would use to predict which crank would next call the city desk so I could mentally prepare myself.

    “I’m sorry to inform you, dear reader, but there’s no such thing as a ‘newspaper license,’ although I wish you the best of luck in having our ‘license’ revoked.”

  • http://gaddabout.blogspot.com Matt

    John, make sure you mention the Rule of Thumb: If you smack your forefinger and thumb on the table and the thumb hurts, then the article was written by a Commie pinko. If the forefinger hurts, it was written by a Nazi fascist.

    At least that’s method I would use to predict which crank would next call the city desk so I could mentally prepare myself.

    “I’m sorry to inform you, dear reader, but there’s no such thing as a ‘newspaper license,’ although I wish you the best of luck in having our ‘license’ revoked.”

  • http://lakeneuron.com/2006/02/14/my-new-hat/ Lake Neuron » My new hat

    [...] Like it? It was knitted for me by my English professor sister-in-law, and I got it in the mail yesterday along with a thank you card from the students of a hybrid online class to which I contributed recently. [...]

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