Students in my feature writing are completing a nonfiction writing experiment about their commutes to and from campus. Some are adding pics with their features, some aren’t. The pub date is to begin late this week.
The 299.47 Feature Writing Posse
Archive for May, 2009
Commute
Monday, May 18th, 2009Cheerios Fails FDA’s Lie Detector Test
Sunday, May 17th, 2009[You Never Saw This on the Evening News]
Ken PowellÂ
Chairman of the Board and CEOÂ
General MillsÂ
One General Mills BoulevardÂ
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55426
Dear Mr. Powell:Â
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed the label and labeling of your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal. FDA’s review found serious violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and the applicable regulations in Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR). You can find copies of the Act and these regulations through links in FDA’s home page at http://www.fda.gov.
Based on claims made on your product’s label, we have determined that your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease. Specifically, your Cheerios® product bears the following claims ort its label:
Â
Read more here.
Attention Savvy, Enterprising Journalism Students: “Programming for Everyone”
Saturday, May 16th, 2009I posted the following on Hunter-L, the College listserv:
Someone has been posting notices in the North Building about this course, “Programming for Everyone,” CSCI, 133, Registration Code: 5020. Only 23 seats. Summer session.
I strongly suggest savvy, enterprising J-students to enroll ASAP if possible. A brief description from http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/csci – “If you’re in any of the sciences or maths then you know you’re going to write some programs eventually, and, if you’re in the arts, then you want to create new media.”
Whoa! Sounds like a prescription for journalism students, especially those with entrepreneurial instincts. It’s only a matter of time before serious journalism programs start considering programming instruction (uh oh, turf war) for their best students.
Hop the wave now before the stampede. Can’t get in the class? Do the minor later on.
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WORDPRESS has shown me the way.
Murray Kempton Awards for Undergraduate Journalism
Saturday, May 16th, 2009I am urging bunches of my students to apply.
Submissions for the CUNY 2009 Murray Kempton Awards for Undergraduate Journalism are now being accepted.
Wikipedia: 1, Journalism: 0
Thursday, May 14th, 2009Subject: Fwd: Wikipedia: 1, Journalism: 0 To: gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu Hi, Greg, Check this out. Really fascinating study of the use of Wikipedia by professionals. PFW Patricia Woodard Hunter College Library [Originally from Sarah Laleman Ward to Library Staff A real-life example of the need for source evaluation and fact-checking:]
Irish student hoaxes world’s media with fake quote
My Response to P. Woodward (a confession of sorts):
D:F/M – Ethnic News Reporting: 399.31
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009Because Blackboard at City University of New York is down* (“Blackboard Down” makes me think of Ridley Scott’s and Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down, about a crash-and-burn crisis ever there was one), some  D:f/M instructors are hawking their “wares” to students on fm-l and, of course, a teeny-weeny few like me hawk on Hunter-L as well:
Students:
This experimental class uses multimedia via the WORD, Youtube, podcasting, blogging, twitter, facebook, myspace, et. al – to teach students how to tell and disseminate stories about issues in immigrant and ethnic communities.
Writing
Saturday, May 9th, 2009Hi. Just a reminder that you are scheduled to attend a Focus Group for W-course instructors on Thursday, May 7th, from 4-6 p.m. in room 409B in the Thomas Hunter Building. You will receive a stipend of $75.54 (two hours on a Non-teaching Adjunct line) for participating. Notes will be taken, but all comments will be kept anonymous.
The Writing Across the Curriculum Program appreciates your help in exploring the issues involved in teaching Significant Writing courses. We hope to use what we learn at these sessions to better serve Hunter’s faculty, and we hope the sessions are useful to you in preparing to teach future W-designated courses.
See you tomorrow,
Dennis Paoli
Co-coordinator,
Writing across the Curriculum Program
So, I went. And I participated. And I didn’t do what I had said in an email to the co-coordinator about what I was thinking about doing at the focus group: Outing my colleagues whom I feel undermine students’ writing efforts, especially those colleagues who don’t make rewriting an essential part of their Significant Writing classes.
Let’s get real. Writing is about rewriting. Don’t teach rewriting? Then it ain’t writing they’re teaching.
So, I sent the following to Dennis Paoli after I completed the focus group:
A 30-40P Episode Ever There Was One
Friday, May 8th, 2009I came across this student-instructor correspondence [provided later in this post] while searching for other material on my hard drive. The Student-In-Question was an excellent writer as well as considerably bright. He was in his late 20s or early 30s.
In my class, he also was functionally indolent.
I plan to use this anecdote and others for my tome about The Four Barnacles of the Apocalypse.
Lori Berenson Update: Her Newborn Baby Is Salvador Anespori Apari Berenson
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009From Mark & Rhoda Berenson:
To Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson – Despite the odds she faced owing to compromised health after 13.5 years of incarceration in harsh Peruvian prison environments, Lori gave birth Wednesday morning May 6 in Lima. Salvador Anespori Apari Berenson was delivered via Caesarian-section due to Lori’s precarious back condition that will require delicate spinal surgery to prevent permanent nerve damage.  Surgery will be scheduled after she recovers from childbirth.
File Photo: Lori in a Lima Courtroom, March 22, 2001