There is an “our” in group, if you don’t mind mixing the letters up

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hi Everyone:

I just finished working with a few classes that were all about teamwork. Happily, some of the teams were superb. Everyone participated fully and contributed as equally as possible. They got a very high grades on their project and they deserved their stellar grades.

Sadly, not all the teams worked out well. Some of the team members were MIA, no-show, no-loads who posted the group project in their own assignment folders, knowing full well that they hadn’t contributed a lick. (I worked on  a team once where one of our members contributed “great job, folks” and “my name is spelled with a ‘ph’ instead of a ‘v’ to a 42-page paper. I won’t be forgetting Stephen very soon, that’s for sure, since he also got an A on the assignment.)

So what’s a student to do???? Stay in touch with your instructor, for one thing.  When someone tells me after the fact that one teammate didn’t do a thing, there’s not much I can do about it. If you tell me this a few weeks into the project, I can try to reach out to the student and get him or her moving. Or not.

The important issue here is to let the instructor know! I ‘fire’ nonproductive group members and stick them on a team by themselves. That way, you can work unhindered by an albatross and the person who is sticking it to you is now stuck on his or her own.

Stay in touch! Let the professor know what’s happening and we will help. Do not suffer in silence, and don’t let a freeloader get away with submitting your work! The word “our” is in “group,” you just have to move the letters around a bit!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

The devil is in the details or paying attention to the little things

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Students love to get good grades. I love to give them. But I only give them if the student deserves to be rewarded for his or her effort.

Oftentimes, students have the right idea but they get bogged down in the details. Or they forget that the small things really do matter. Things like making sure you have the right formatting on the assignment, especially if the professor has given you an example.

Here’s the deal: If I take the time to post an example, don’t say, “Oh, I’ve got it” and only look at the top of the page. Go ahead, while you’re there anyway, and look over the whole document. Taking a few extra minutes can make the difference between your truly understanding how to write a modified block business letter and writing a block memo/letter hybrid. Guess which one gets the good grade and which one doesn’t?

Take the time to re=read your document one more time before you submit it. Otherwise, it will look like ewe didn’t take the thyme to prove reed your essy and that ewe jus didn’t car. Why do all that work and mess up in the end?

Even better, read it out loud. It’s amazing what mistakes you will find if you do that. The devil really is in the details.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

An apostrophe is not a comma or vice versa

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Believe it or not, some students mistake a possessive apostrophe (students’ confusion) for a comma (students, confusion). Oh, my, let’s set the record straight.

You have students who possess something. Therefore, you use a possessive apostrophe like this:

One student has something: Let’s overcome the student’s confusion in completing a task.

Two or more students have something: The two students’ confusion was palatable.

Neither of those examples needed a comma. Anywhere.

Do not use a comma between a subject and a verb. For example, I saw something like this today:

The students, confusion was palatable.

No, it wasn’t. (Well, perhaps it was but this is not the way to write it.)

The groups, formation…. Nope, that doesn’t cut it, either. Instead try the following:

The group’s formation was spurred on by Jim. (Actually, this is passive voice construction. To make it active voice, write it as follows: Jim spurred on the group’s formation.)

Hope this helps!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

When do I use a semi-colon?

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Oh, those semi-colons! I’ve seen students who wrote one word (However; this is not a good thing) and dumped a semi-colon into the sentence immediately. That’s not the way to go, folks.

Others students use them to connect partial sentences with other partial sentences (A dog; came down the road; to fetch.) Nope. No matter how tempting it is to fill in the blanks in your sentence with the charming semi-colon, please resist.

So where in the world DO they belong? For starters, they make a great addition to a situation where you have two perfectly good, but short, related sentences. That is, the two sentences are about the same topic and are right next to one another, but they look a bit lonesome. Here’s an example:

My parents are both living in Florida; they like the year-round warm weather.

By themselves, the sentences are fine and dandy but together they are much stronger. Their structure is less choppy; they take your writing to a higher level.

They also belong where you have a bunch of things in the same sentence but there are commas in the bunches. Here’s an example of that:

The deceased is survived by Sarah Jennings, of New York City; John Jennings, of Nashville, Tennessee; and Paul Jennings, of Baltimore, Maryland.

Yes, that is an obituary example. I thought you were dying to see it. (Just kidding here.)

Here’s a less morbid example:

I am taking several things to the gym, including my red, white, and blue running shoes; my purple, blue, and gold T-shirt; and my aqua, yellow, and white shorts. (Please note that you would clash with yourself, but I digress.)

I hope this helps you see semi-colons in a different light; they really are wonderful punctuation markers.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Sometimes folks are going to disagree

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I was teaching face-to-face recently when one of my students commented that she disagreed with what the other students said during a discussion. She was pretty upset.

I tried explaining that college is a place where we have diverse folks with differing opinions but that everyone in my class has a right to his or her own opinions and that I was comfortable in having them express them.

The girl, a Millennial, seemed nonplussed by the idea that it was okay to think differently from someone else. Everyone, it seemed, should agree with her.

Can you please tell me: Have I missed something? While I have students who are conservative, liberal, straight, gay, transgender, or whatever, I allow everyone to speak freely in my class, provided they are not offensive. Miss Millennial disagreed with that, sharing that she really had the insight that others lacked.

We ended the class with my thanking the students for their insight on a movie and a video we had watched that day, but I really felt that she was put off by my allowing others to share diverse opinions.

What do you think about this?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Keeping the professor in the loop

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Sometimes bad stuff happens in the course of the semester. Occasionally, that bad stuff means that you have gotten behind in your work. Sometimes you can work things out with the professor so that you can get back on track. Let’s talk about how to do that.

I have military folks in my classes from time to time. Well, actually, I have military folks in my classes all the time. Most of them are superb folks who sincerely want to finish their college degrees, either for advancement within the military or for a better job when they get out. They are highly motivated.

If you are going on deployment, let the instructor know, especially if you will lose Internet service. Get a note from your commanding officer, if possible. Document your challenges and your instructor will be more likely to give you extra time to complete an assignment.

If you are going on vacation, sorry Charlie. That’s not a good reason for me to give you extra time. I’ve had students disappear for 2-3 weeks. They knew they’d be in college during the trip, but they chose to take it anyway. It’s a choice, so you will have to live with the consequences. Don’t come to me, crying about your grade. I was in college for fourteen years and I scheduled all vacations so they didn’t interfere with my studies. It can be done because I’ve done it.

Don’t be a member of the Excuse of the Week club. I was teaching an 8-week course once where a gal didn’t show up for the first five weeks, except to make excuses. She wanted to be allowed to complete 8 weeks of work in 3. It didn’t  go well. The first week and a half, she just wasn’t feeling good.

Then  her kids got runny noses for another week or so, then she had to clean the house up because she was so focused on them that she didn’t clean the house for the first three weeks of class. Those must have been some runny noses, to mess up the house so badly that it took another week to clean. (Note: No one was sick enough to go to the doctor at any time.)

Let’s see now….that makes four weeks and she still had another week to go. If I recall, she started feeling poorly again or maybe the snail had to go to the vet or maybe the goldfish was looking a bit under the weather.

Got the drift here? If you have a legitimate excuse, the professor will usually work with you. If not, he or she won’t. It might not be easy, but it is pretty simple.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Paying attention in class, even if it’s online

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

One of the biggest challenges an instructor has is to capture the attention of his or her students. And keep it.

When I was in high school, I had an instructor who would jump up on his desk, if he thought we weren’t paying attention. He was an English instructor and I always thought that was rather undignified.

A psychology teacher of mine would pick up his guitar and start singing “Rocky Raccoon,” if he thought students’ minds were lagging. It was fun but didn’t teach us anything about his subject matter.

In college, I once saw a student do a strip tease to garner the attention of the class while she was giving a speech. It worked. The girls wondered what she would take off next, and the guys hoped it would be good. Her speech was…very effective. She was talking about dressing for success and had a complete business outfit on by the time she finished speaking.

So how do you keep your mind focused? Read the chapter before you hear the lecture on it. Take copious notes (to stay awake!). If you find yourself falling asleep, hold your breath for 15 seconds. Ask questions. Be engaged in what the professor is saying and discuss it with him or her during and outside of class.

If you’re online, ask questions in the Ask the Professor section and send him or her an email to ask for additional information and resources. (Note: Do not do this to the point of annoyance!)

Don’t just sit there like a lump!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Announcements, announcements, announcements

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Okay. Your instructor posts those terribly boring announcements a couple of times a week. The professor probably drones on and on and puts you to sleep by the second paragraph, right? Why in the world would you want to read them?

There are several really good reasons to check them out, no matter how apparently dull and dreadful.

First, they might contain something you need to know to complete your assignment.

Second, they might offer guidance on how to “work smarter, not harder” as you complete said assignment.

Third, we don’t post them for our own health. Perhaps we will tell you you don’t have to do the assignment. (Okay, there’s a fat chance of that, but stranger things have been known to happen in the world of academia.)

Fourth, we might explain something that’s muddy or unclear; taking just a minute or two to read what we’ve said MIGHT be of benefit to you.

Finally, we don’t usually answer our email at 11:58 (if your assignment is due at 11:59) and you might find your answer in the announcements.

Your call here, but I highly recommend checking out the announcements section of your course a few times a week. (Of course, I write these wonderful announcements, so I might be slightly prejudiced towards reading them, but…maybe this is just another pearl of wisdom from an experienced instructor. Please note that I am leaning towards the latter, rather than the former….)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

To Ph.D. or not to Ph.D., that is the question

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

It can be challenging to get your college degree. If it was an easy task, everyone would be doing it. They aren’t. If you are, you are a special person.

But what about higher, higher education? Is a master’s degree or Ph.D. in your future? Let’s talk about that for a moment.

What are the degree requirements for the field you hope to enter? What are the requirements for Plan B? Plan C? Keep in mind that many people never end up working in the field that they studied for their undergraduate degree. We all probably know folks who got an education in business and ended up doing retail at the mall. (This is an honest job, but you hardly need an advanced degree to sell pantyhose.)

I know a history major who never worked a single day as a history teacher or anything else history-related. He’s a volleyball coach. While this is an excellent career path (coaching)  and it lent itself to his personal physical fitness, he didn’t need a history degree to coach volleyball. But, since he teaches at a college, he did need a degree and he loved history, so why not?

I know another fellow who became the dean of a college. He, too, was an undergrad history major. However, he got two advanced degrees in business and those degrees got him the credentials he needed to run a college. (He wrote history books on the side, to follow his love of history. It worked well for him.)

So, what degree (or degrees) would help you be outstanding in your chosen field? What is your Plan B? How much will your degree cost? How much will the degree increase your income? How will you finance your degree? Can you get a grant that you don’t have to pay back, to pay for all or some of your advanced degree?

Keep in mind the intangibles on this topic, as well. How will you feel after you get the degree? That feel-good feeling might be all you need to launch yourself on your advanced degree. If that is the case, go for it and don’t look back. A fellow I know is preparing to earn his third Ph.D. He loves to learn and wants to be Dr. Dr. Dr. So-and-So someday. If he can afford it and his wife doesn’t mind, why not? It makes him feel worthwhile and he enjoys being in college.

What’s your story? I would love to hear it!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

 

Lenience in lateness leads to lost jobs

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

One of the colleges where I teach has adopted a new policy: nothing is late until it is really late. Five days late. The students are not docked until the assignment is more than four days late, so on the fifth day, the students lose 2 points out of 100. Big deal.

On the sixth day, the recalcitrant student will lose another two points. Again, big deal. This goes on until the paper is ten days late, with a penalty of 20 points. After that, he or she can still turn the paper in, with no increase in the penalty.

What is my point? In the world of business, people who don’t show up for work get fired. People who don’t turn in work to their boss on time also find themselves suddenly unemployed.

I would argue that tardiness without penalty is setting these students up for failure in the business world. I may be old-fashioned here. I would love to get your take on this.

So what do you think? Should there be some accountability here? (Can you tell which way I’m leaning on this issue?) Do stop by and let me know what you think of this new look at college.

Best,

Dr. Sheri