Tutees all expect different things from their appointments. To grasp tutee expectations,  there are a few questions that you can ask to gauge these. Examples of these are:

What was the assignment? When is the due date?

What is your position/angle on the issue?

Can you paraphrase the author’s main idea/argument for me?

What is your main argument?

Do you have any concerns about your writing?

When it comes to the actual draft that is presented, there is a different set of questions that should be the focus of discussion. Some questions include:

Why did you make that choice?

What revisions have you already made?

Error analysis?

Error analysis is the way you react, priortize, and deal with the errors present in your tutee’s work. The overall goal of error analysis, however, is not for the tutor to realize and deal with the mistake but for the tutee to do so through dialogue. Hopefully, you have realized by now that there is a proper way to do an error analysis.

There are steps in proper error analysis, which are:

1. Draw attention to an area (sentence) where there is an error. Allow the tutee to correct the mistake themself. If this doesn’t work move on to step 2.

2. Point out, in general, the type of mistake (ex: “there’s a punctation error in the sentence”). Again, allow the tutee to self-correct. Move on to step 3 if this does not work.

3. Point out the specific mistake in the sentence (ex: “the problem is with this comma”). Allow the tutee to self-correct. If the tutee is unable to do so, ask him/her why they put the comma, or other error, there (what rule they were following).

4. Explain the correct usage/rule that applies to the error. Finally, help the tutee correct the error while discussing why your are changing it.

5. Move on to the next error (that’s similar) so that the tutee can apply their new knowledge.

Bleeding red?

To avoid bleeding red (marking up the tutee’s paper), ensure that most of the corrections are discussion-based. This means that you and the tutee should talk through the errors in the paper, focusing on higher-order (global) concerns first.

*Note- Higher-order concerns are errors that relate more to comphresion of the assignment than to nit-picky details (misplaced commas).

The answer, in part, is that people have natural personality preferences that effect the way they behave.

These personality preferences are broken down into four categories by the Myers-Briggs test. The first category, Judging, has two personality traits- “thinking” and “feeling”. Thinking is exhibited as a personality trait when a person is logical and impersonal when coming to conclusions about various situations. In the Myers-Briggs test this trait is denoted by a capital T. Feeling is shown by a person who is subjective and personal when coming to conclusions. This trait is marked by a capital F in the test.

Perceiving is the next category. The two traits in this category are “sensing” and “intuition”. Sensing is achieved when a person takes in the facts of the situation that they are currently in without adding any extra details. Sensing is shown by capital S. Intuition, represented by N, is when a person adds details or scenarios to the situation that they are currently in/perceiving.

The next category does not have an actual name but deals with an individual’s social preference. “Extravert” and “introvert” are the two traits in this category. Extraverts, E in the test, are people who prefer and thrive in social settings, i.e. the person jumping up to meet you at the party, while introverts, I in the test, prefer inner (mental) worlds rather than personal interaction, the person who doesn’t make eye contact.

Finally, the last category is also nameless but deals with how a person judges a situation/scenario. The ”perceptive” trait involves the person taking in facts about the situation without passing judgement/making a decision about it. People who are perceptive are typically described as “go with the flow” and denoted by P. “Judging” is the trait that allows people to judge/make decisions about any given situation. This trait is J in the test.

It is important to note that people naturally have traits in each category that they prefer; these traits, over time, become the dominant preference/process. Someone who is naturally inclined to introversion would show this inclination in the test and real life. However, as people cannot live solely in any one inclination from a category, the other trait will develop as well becoming the auxiliary preference. The auxiliary preference is used when the dominant preference is rendered useless due to the specific situation the individual is in. This is how an introvert can express extravert qualities.

While each trait, when paired with the other category preferences, creates a unique individual, it is easier to connect/relate to people with whom you share traits.

Astrobotic Technology has signed a two-year contract with NASA to build and test robotic excavators to mine the moon; they have stiff competition though should they fail. In total 26 companies are vying to be the first to mine the moon.

NASA shouldn’t be the only agency or force blamed for this destructive interest in the moon. The beloved internet giant, Google, has a stake in the race. In fact, Google is offering $30 million to the first majorly privately-owned company to land a functioning robot on the moon’s surface.

This information raised a few disturbing questions for me like: who gave us authority to mine the moon, how do we know such an action is safe, and are we so inept at caring for our own planet that we have to take resources from others?

Please feel free to write to your senators, representatives, or even the President if this horrible decision of man-kind bothers you.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Jack loves Jill.

Why can’t they grasp that?

Against their will

Problems are created

Perhaps all others

Should be sedated.

Of how I will soon be left behind.

Now I am wishing back time

That has no pattern or rhyme.

We all go our separate ways

And look back on the good old days.

I will miss them all soon

Which makes me sound a loon.

They claim we will stay in touch

But that will not happen very much.

Now is the time to start afresh

With courage upon my breast.

Some of my poems have been published in magazines recently. The Envoy and The Cornfield Review have each accepted a work to be published. While I don’t get paid for the publication, it does allow me the chance to broaden my audience and understand publishing a little better.

Poems accepted:

Suburbia- The Cornfield Review (2011)

Youth-  The Envoy (2011)

Ode to the Rabbit- The Envoy (2011)

Stench- The Envoy (2010)

1. Seek Shelter then reinforce it, fool.

2. Stockpile, stockpile, stockpile. Basically, anything you can get your hands on, take home.

3. Find a fresh water source- those jugs of water will only last so long.

4. Avoid Wal-Mart, or any other major grocery chain. Where are other survivors going to go? Bingo, Wal-Mart, also known as Wal- Don’t All These Humans Smell Delicious.

Things you’ll absolutely need:

Guns + Ammo (you’ll also need to know how to use them)

Knife

A Variety of Canned Food (after three weeks of nothing but baked beans, you’ll gladly become zombie dinner)

Wood + Matches

Water

Seeds (if you plan on growing your own food)

2 x 4′s (to reinforce your crib, dummy)

Medical Kit (that zombie bite on your shoulder needs to be treated for infection, good luck)

Glogster seems to be geared towards younger people (comparable to myspace). But that’s not to say that older people (p.s. I’m in the older group) don’t use it as well.

Nevertheless, I created a glog (still not sure how that name came to be) which is titled Ode to the Rabbit. It’s a poem that I have previously submitted to a literary magazine. Here’s the link:

http://www.glogster.com/glog.php?glog_id=15041273&scale=100

I was really inspired by the “What I Want” travelling stanza from Kent State University.

Utopia is an ideal. Hard to define yet perfect in essence. Typically, the idea utopia is associated with a social or political community. This idea stems from Sir Thomas More’s book Utopia which contained a perfect social society set on an island. His book literally birthed the genre of utopia as it was the first of its kind; and in the year 1516, no less.

A utopian political community offers equal power and status to every member of that society. Does this sound familiar? It should. Karl Marx, “the father of communism”, believed that a utopian society would be achieved through communism. According to Marx, the Proletariat were to rise up against the Bourgeois. This revolution would ensure that everyone in the society is equal. From the experiences of today’s world, we know that this is not always the case in communistic societies. In theory, a utopian political society is plausible; in practice, it often leads to suffering and injustice.

I must, in this instant, dispel the idea that the concept of utopia only applies to a political society. In fact, the idea also applies to ecological, economical, and religious societies. The idea of a “green” world in which everyone recycles, reduces, and reuses is a utopian ideal that strikes at the heart of an ecological society. A utopian ideal in an economical society is everyone not wanting for material goods. The idea of Heaven is a religious utopian concept. Heaven is a place where everyone lives in harmony and happiness, the epitome of utopia. Ecological, economical, and religious societies each have a component of utopia present.

In literature, utopian fiction typically consists of a political society. Utopia has inspired another genre, dystopia. Dystopia is the yin to utopia’s yang. Dystopia shows the dark, seedy underbelly of a utopian society. A controlling, repressive state posing as a utopian society is the mainstay of dystopia. Individuality, creativity, and thinking are all squashed in a dystopian society.