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Common Errors in English Usage and More Search Results

For Philosophy

For Philosophy
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Philosopher’s Index
The Humanities Index (available online through Griffin)

If a library lacks one of these, ask a librarian to show you something similar.

 

Tips:

Begin by looking up your topic in the Encyclopedia Britannica, available through the WSU Libraries pages here. Note bibliographic citations at the end of the articles you read; these may be sources you’ll want to track down. Other computer-based encyclopedias like Encarta are inadequate for the kind of research you will be doing.

Go to WSU Libraries. This is a huge and powerful database (which may also be available online or on CD-ROM at a library near you), but it needs some care in using it. Many other libraries have bound, printed volumes of this as well. Here are some tips:

Don’t use the MLA bibliography to look for articles about Voltaire or Nietzsche. It is best for literature, not philosophy.

After you do your intial search, you can use the “limit search” button to restrict the search to articles and books in English unless you are fluent in some relevant foreign language. Or, alternatively, when you first enter MLA, you can click on the button marked “Advanced Search” and narrow the search to English before you start.

Entries are given ten at a time. To see the next ten, click on the “Next Page” button.

Ignore references to dissertations. You do not have easy access to these and they are usually not considered authoritative sources.

Using the on-line version, copy and paste the bibliographic data into a word processing document to save you time. You can reformat it later.

Do not assume that all these books and articles are available in the WSU library; but you may well be able to get some of them through Summit.

In the case of journal articles you want from WSU note that many of the online databases such as Project Muse go back only a few years–you will need to search the last 25 or 30 years for many of these topics.

Similarly, if the item you are seeking is actually a chapter in a book rather than in a journal, search for the title of the book it appeared in, not the author or title of the chapter.

In the case of books, use the Griffin Catalog at http://www.systems.wsu.edu/griffin/wsugate.htm to search for the author or title. If you have only a subject, but no author or title yet, note that often a keyword search is more effective than a subject start to get started. For instance, to find the English translation of the source of Bizet’s Carmen you need to use “Carmen” and “Merimee” as keywords (you would have read in Grove or the Britannica that Prosper Merimée wrote the original novel).

The MLA Bibliography online covers articles published since 1963, and in the earlier years, many interesting journals were not indexed. But you can read the bibliographies of the articles and books you find here to discover what the classic earlier works are which discuss your topic.

Do not stop at the first few hits. Not all the information you find will be useful. You need to do some background reading on your subject to get a sense of which sources might be helpful. This is the reason for checking the encyclopedia first, before starting your MLA search.

Finally, local students find your materials in the library, and DDP students use the “Request This Item” button in Griffin.

To begin your library research, start at the DDLS website http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/electric/library/, in the left-hand frame, click on “Article Indexes/Full Text & More,” then on “General & Multidisciplinary.” There are several databases on this page that may be helpful to you, depending on your topic:

1. ArticleFirst (request articles from DDLS)

2. JSTOR (full-text)

3. Oxford English Dictionary (full-text)

4. WorldCat (request items from Interlibrary Loan, or DDLS)

At the bottom of the “General & Multidisciplinary” page, you will find another link to “Humanities” resources. Click on that link, and you will find the following databases which may be useful:

1. Art Abstracts (request articles from DDLS)

2. Arts & Humanities Search (request articles from DDLS)

3. Grove Dictionary of Art (full-text)

4. Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (full-text)

5. International Index to Music Periodicals (request articles from DDLS)

6. MLA (request articles from DDLS)

7. Project Muse (full-text)

8. ProQuest Direct (many full-text)

Beware of sources dating back before 1950; most of them are out of date. Normally I will not accept such sources. If you are unclear on how to access any citations you find in the above databases, contact DDLS. (DDPlib@wsu.edu or 1-800-435-5832)

Another service available through Griffin is WorldCat via FirstSearch. Start at the usual Gateway page and click on “Article Indexes/Full Text & More,” then on “General & Multidisciplinary,” then on “FirstSearch.” If you can’t figure out how to create and use login ID and password, ask a librarian. DDP students write Extended Degree Library Services at DDPlib@wsu.edu or phone (800) 435-5832. Once inside FirstSearch, click on the first “Database Areas” link: “Arts & Humanities. Then, under “General Databases,” click on “WorldCat.” This database will give you mostly books, not articles. Some of them may be very old. Beware of sources dating back before 1950. Most of them are out of date. By clicking on “Limit Search” you can limit your search to books dating 1950-1999, or any other two years you want, and while you’re at it, limit the language to English. FirstSearch may tell you whether the book is in the WSU library; but you may also be able to borrow a book we don’t own from another library near you or through the Interlibrary Loan service of your local library. This latter option, however, can be a very slow process, so you need to plan weeks in advance if you want to try it.

A faster alternative is Summit, a free interlibrary loan service for certain Washington and Oregon libraries only. This can be especially valuable if the only copy of a book you need is checked out from WSU. If you do not find what you want in Griffin, click the green “Search Summit” button. Again, ask your librarian if you have questions.

In looking for books, the obvious place to start is Griffin itself. Remember: you cannot search for article titles or authors within Griffin, only for the titles of journals which contain such articles. The natural temptation is to search by subject, but this is usually a mistake unless you know the precise wording of the Library of Congress description of the subject you are looking for. Instead, use “keyword” searching to type in terms that are associated with your subject.

ProQuest, also available through Griffin, is good for doing research on current events, but is rather poor for the kinds of subjects you will be studying in this class. Because ProQuest only goes back to the mid-1980s it is missing many important and useful articles that are included in the MLA bibliography. In addition, MLA contains books as well as articles while ProQuest is confined to articles only. Its only advantage over MLA is that you may be able to view articles you find either as a whole or in part on your computer screen, without having to wait for them to be sent by the library. Give it a try, but don’t spend a lot of time trying to do serious research there. Librarians will be able to give you advice about which databases are most appropriate for your subject.

Searching the Web

The Web is good for pictures, dates, and basic information; but it should not provide the main sources for your paper. Papers based mostly or entirely on Web research will not receive passing grades. Here are some tips on Web searching to get you started. Serious scholarship on the humanities in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries is spotty at best online. However, there are some extremely valuable sources out there. Here are some tips to guide you as you search.

Be flexible about trying different search terms. This bit of advice applies to all kinds of searches, not just on the Web. If you are searching for Voltaire’s influence on the French Revolution, you will probably also want to look separately for sites dealing with Voltaire and sites on the history of the French Revolution. You might also look for the terms “enlightenment” and “revolution” together.

Google is now the premier search engine because it gives better results for most searches, by finding first the sites to which most other sites have linked. The upshot is that pages that others have found useful bounce immediately to the top of Google’s hit list. Try typing in “influence of the enlightenment on the french revolution” (between quotation marks) in Google and you’ll find a ton of papers on this topic other students have written. Be cautious about using them as sources–they aren’t necessarily experts, but you can certainly get ideas here. Just don’t copy them. Remember, I can find these sources just as easily as you can.

Here’s an important tip. The first time I tried this, I mistyped “enlightenment” as “enlightnement,” and found only five pages whose authors had made the same typing error–all of them useless. If you get an unexpectedly small number of hits, check your spelling.

Asking an Expert

Sometimes the easiest way to find a good Web page is to ask someone knowledgeable; but how do you find such a person?

The obvious answer, is TRY ME! In fact, part of this assignment involves me or a librarian giving you suggestions about what sources to look at. You are absolutely expected to follow up on these suggestions. Papers which turn out weak because suggestions were ignored will receive a failing grade. For instance, anyone who is interested in writing about Voltaire and the French Revolution is always told by me to look at an old but excellent source: volumes 7-10 of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization. These are big fat volumes, so may look forbidding; but a few minutes spent with their indexes will teach you more about your topic than many hours of Internet searching (and they’re wonderfully readable). They also have the great advantage of being in just about any library, even small local ones. But the only way you are likely to hear about these books is from me. Asking for help is not “cheating”; it’s one of the main skills we are trying to teach you.

 

Doing your research

Step 1: Gathering and selecting information

One of the secrets of a good research paper is gathering much more information than you will actually use at the end. You want to avoid at all cost writing a paper on sources you don’t understand. Let’s look back at an article I once found on “The Influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution” at the Mining Co. (now defunct). Looking more closely, I found that it refers us to arguments by Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine about the French Revolution. (I also note that the author was not particularly skilled in spelling and punctuation; I wouldn’t want to copy his errors.) In fact, this was a page from a course in which students were reading articles by these two authors. The names are vaguely familiar, but if you look their names up in the encyclopedia you’ll discover that the first was an Englishman and the second an American. Therefore these people may have analyzed the French Revolution; but they were not themselves French, or involved in the Revolution directly. We may decide not to use them, because they tell us more about what non-French contemporaries thought about the Revolution than what modern historians think about it. Encyclopedias are great resources for giving us background information to help explain what we are reading.

Suppose you had used Griffin to look for books whose titles included the words “French Revolution” and found Roger Lawrence Williams’ The French Revolution of 1870-1871. But because you have done background reading on the revolution in the encyclopedia, you realize that this book can’t possibly refer to the 1789 revolution. In fact, there were several “French revolutions” of which only the 1789 one is usually referred to as the French Revolution. You have to know enough about your topic to reject irrelevant sources like this.

Step 2: Evaluating information

Judging authoritativeness

If you find a book in a scholarly library or in the pages of a scholarly journal, it has probably gone through one or more screening processes to ensure that it has some degree of authority and reliability. However, anyone can publish anything on the Web, which is filled with amateurish, biased, fraudulent and satirical pages which can damage your paper if you depend on them. How do you decide whether a Web source you’ve found is from a trustworthy source?

  1. Trust brand names. Articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica may not be perfect, but they come from respectable sources.
  2. Look for scholarly authorship. Is the author a specialist in the field working for a famous or distinguished university?
  3. Do other people frequently refer to this source as authoritative? Check bibliographies.
  4. Has it been selected by some thoughtful scholarly group such as the people who run The English Server at the University of Washington (http://eserver.org/) or created by a well-known institution such as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/)?

Judging Comprehensibility

Use a source only if you understand it. Of course you can increase your comprehension by using dictionaries and encyclopedias; but, if even after trying that, much of what you are reading remains obscure to you, move on to another source you can better understand. Trying to use a source which the student author has not understood is a fatal flaw of many research papers.

Judging relevance

Not every item you find by using a key word or subject search will really be relevant to your topic. You need to define the topic of your paper yourself, not let it be defined by a dumb search engine. This almost always means learning more about a topic than you will be able to use directly in your paper. Be ruthless about throwing away irrelevant material.

Detecting bias

Suppose you had found the site called “The French Revolution” which seemed pretty well organized and straightforward. But as you read through it you note numerous Biblical quotations and much discussion of religious issues. You slowly realize that the author of this site has a very definite point of view: he is a conservative Christian attacking the ideas of the Enlightenment as expressed in the French Revolution. You may or may not agree with him, but you need to judge his words in the light of that information and compare what he says with what other historians say. You may also realize that this is mostly a lecture outline and that you would have to attend his course to get the real substance of his arguments. Don’t let yourself be “captured” by a single source.

Getting help

If you are having trouble deciding whether a source you have found is useful, share it with me and let me advise you. Constant communication with the teacher is an essential tool of doing good research. Don’t flounder on your own. If the source is a Web page, send me the URL at brians@wsu.edu.

For help with the WSU library, write Extended Degree Library Services at DDP@wsu.edu or phone them at (800) 435-5832.

Step 3: Taking notes

Photocopiers and Web browsers have made the gathering and reproduction of raw data much easier; you can even use recent versions of Microsoft Word to open a Web page directly and save it as a document. However, this is not note-taking. Nothing is more frustrating than sitting down on the night before a paper is due to that pile of photocopies and books you gathered weeks ago, only to find that most of it is irrelevant junk and that you desperately need other materials. Spend a good long time in the library or on the Web looking closely at the resources you find to decide whether they are worth copying, checking out, or otherwise reproducing them. A highlighter can be a useful tool in marking important passages (just don’t use one on a library book!), but ultimately you’ll need some real notes. The old file-card system still works well; but if you’re comfortable at a computer you’ll find that organizing your notes in a database or the outline view of your word processing software will work even better. Make sure that every note is securely tagged as coming from a specific source with a complete bibliographic citation (author, title, etc.)

Once you have a good many notes, begin to sort them into groups by topic. Try various arrangements, and a structure for your paper should slowly emerge.

Step 4: Organizing your paper

Always begin with at least an informal outline. Don’t just start writing without any notion of where you are headed.

Create some logical order for your paper. A chronological order may explain how some idea developed. A geographical order may relate a topic across national boundaries.

Digest your sources and use them for your own purposes. A summary of an article followed by another summary of a different article, and so on, is not a paper. It is just a set of notes. You need to compare sources, often referring to two different ones in the same paragraph or even sentence.

Avoid making your big points first and then trailing off into minor ones. Structure your paper to lead up to a strong conclusion.

Step 5: Making Citations

For this class, you will use the Modern Language Association format, which is explained in Arthur C. Banks’ helpful “Guide for Writing Research Papers” at http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtml Pay close attention to the section on “Parenthetical Documentation.” Do not substitute APA style, in which only last name of the author and the date of the article are given. This does not work in the humanities. Page numbers are crucial.

Cite only sources you actually use; use only sources you cite.

Call your list of sources “Sources Cited,” not “Bibliography.” A bibliography is a much more ambitious and thorough project than what you will be doing for this paper.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Cite a source not only when you quote from it, but when you paraphrase from it or draw ideas from it. Failure to do so is plagiarism, and can incur severe penalties (typically, failing the course).

Always introduce your sources by name; don’t just start quoting them. For instance: “Jessica L. Rabbit argues in her article on Los Angeles history that . . . (98).” Note when you mention the author of an article or book in this way, you need not repeat it in the parenthetical citation. Later citations from the same source do not always need introduction if they occur soon after the original one, so you can just cite the source as follows: “(Rabbit 72).”

For information on how to cite Web sources, see this Web page.

Avoiding plagiarism

Computers make it easy to copy. Don’t be tempted. Computers also make it easy to track down the sources of copied information. I am ruthless with plagiarists. Persons caught plagiarizing material in their papers will not be allowed to revise for a better grade. All cases of plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course and a report to Student Conduct.

Other helpful documents

Be sure to check out these before you write your paper:

MANDATORY: Helpful Hints for Writing Class Papers

OPTIONAL BUT EXTREMELY USEFUL: Common Errors in English

These contain directions for avoiding my pet peeves.

Length

The minimum length for this assignment (see syllabus) is very, very short for a research paper. Unless your writing is wonderfully concise, you will need to write more. If you cannot stretch your material to this minimum you don’t have enough material or–more likely–aren’t examining it closely enough. Believe it or not, the chief reason people run out of things to say is that they have defined their topics too broadly. A narrow, tightly-focused topic will allow you to get specific and dig into the finer shades of the topic, and finding enough to write about will be no problem. Avoid vague generalizations.

If your paper reads like an encyclopedia article, giving an overview of a person’s entire career, it is too broad. You need to focus on a narrow subject within the general work of the writer, artist, philosopher, or musician. You should not write at all about their birth, childhood, and education unless they are strictly relevant to your topic.

If you are writing about one of the books we study in this class, your paper needs to go well beyond the ideas and facts presented in the relevant study guide. You are supposed to become something of an expert in your subject, and come up with new information and ideas not already discussed in class.

Revising your paper

Almost all the papers in this course should be revised at least once. That is part of the point of the class, teaching you how to write better. Be sure to incorporate suggestions that are made, particularly broad, general ones like “this section lacks focus–concentrate on a single topic.” Merely cleaning up typos and spelling errors is not revision–it’s proofreading, and will not improve your grade.

Be careful about trying to solve problems by simply moving chunks of text around. Usually you have to do some actual rewriting to improve a paper. When a paragraph is moved, it often needs to be adjusted somewhat to fit within its new environment. If I ask you to develop a section further, do not simply cut it out. You get no increase in grade for simply making the specific spelling and grammatical changes I suggest; you have to do actual rewriting for that.

Seeking help

The point of this assignment is not to fling you in the sea of knowledge and stand by to see if you can avoid the sharks; it is to teach you something more about how to do research in the humanities and write about it. You get no credit for struggling silently on your own. Again, please use the resources available to you: For questions about this assignment, ask me. Keep asking me questions and sending me ideas. If you find yourself tempted to tell someone else “I don’t know what he wants,” it means you need to ask me more questions. For help with the WSU library, ask the DDP librarian at DDPlib@wsu.edu or phone them at (800) 435-5832. If you need help with your writing, try the WSU Online Writing Lab at http://owl.wsu.edu/. You can send them drafts of your paper and they will help guide you through the process of revising it. You can even arrange to “chat” with a writing tutor in a chat room about your work. Take advantage of this terrific resource.

Step 6: Submitting your paper

Pullman students will hand in printed copy in person, but for DDP students, unlike most of your weekly writing assignments, which can be pasted into the forms in the Bridge, you need to send formally formatted papers through “My DDP.” This method is simple and works quite well, but write or phone DDP if you have any questions about how to use it. Be aware that papers submitted through My DDP may take up to a full working day to reach me.

I can open documents created by any version of Microsoft Word and many other word processors. If you are using Word Perfect, or some other word processor, let me know. I can open most of them, but there are a few I can’t.

I can also open any document that has been saved as HTML or in Rich Text Format (RTF).

Revising your paper

Your first draft will be marked up and commented on, but not assigned a letter grade. You will receive credit and a grade for for this paper only after having revised it. Fixing typos and other small slips according to my suggestions is mandatory, but not an important way to improve your grade. The only way to get a good grade is to follow the suggestions spelled out at the very end of your paper, which may call for more research, narrowing of topic, or reorganization of your paper. Note that this revision is mandatory, and that it must be done in order to pass the course.

Created by Paul Brians, July 2, 1998

Revised May 10, 2005

Helpful Hints for Writing Class Papers

Prepared by Paul Brians

The papers you write for this class are supposed to function as the equivalent of take-home exams for which you choose the questions. The point is to show that you have thoroughly read the assigned material, worked closely with the study guides, and can explain and interpret the material as a result. Your grade will be based primarily on how thoroughly you would seem to have done this work.

Choose a well-defined topic which is clearly identified in your title (you don’t need a mysteriously “catchy” title to get teachers to read your papers–that’s our job). Your first paragraph should state clearly and unambiguously what your paper is about. Then the rest of the paper should stick to the topic, not wandering about to unrelated matters.

Your papers may be thesis-based if you wish, and you can even argue with the authors you are studying, but only in a scholarly way. That is, you must thoroughly and clearly present their thinking first, demonstrating your mastery of the texts before you present your own views. In taking sides in any controversy, you must anticipate the arguments of the other side, consider its likely arguments, and deal with those arguments. Literary criticism is not an opportunity for unfettered self-expression: you need to engage with others whose views you may not agree with.

There are plenty of ways to approach these assignments without a thesis, however. You can compare one text with another, trace a theme through a work, discuss a literary technique as it is used in the work, or discuss the relationship between two characters. You can get many ideas for other kinds of topics by consulting Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Literature.

Avoid excessively personal responses. These are serious, scholarly papers, in which your gut feelings and preferences should play very little role. This is the time to show off your analytical skills rather than your emotions.

Avoid talking about what you don’t understand. The time to express doubts and ask questions (the kind you don’t have answers for) is in class discussion, not in formal papers. Never begin a paper by explaining how hard it was to write. Choose topics that you can handle, not ones that baffle you. Go with your strengths.

Avoid expressing contempt for famous authors, music, or art in your writing. If you write that Shakespeare’s sonnets are stupid, you’ll only be inviting your readers to regard you as ignorant. If you can’t stand the sound of harpsichords, that’s your misfortune, but not something to brag about in a paper any more than you should loudly proclaim that you think burgundy is disgusting swill when it is offered at a fine dinner party. If a work is on the syllabus, many people, your teacher included, think it’s important. Try to learn why. Again, you can express your bafflement or repulsion in discussion; but in a paper you need to take it for granted that you have to treat the material with some respect. If you criticize it, you must do so in an informed, sophisticated manner, not just expressing your personal distaste.

You must directly address the material, not focus on tangential matters it reminds you of. You can discuss the relevance of an older text for modern times, but make sure you are not writing a paper about modern times as such, failing to discuss thoroughly the assigned text in its own context. These papers are text-based. Close reading is required.

A good paper covers all the relevant sections of an assigned work. If you focus only on the opening pages it will look as if you didn’t finish the reading assignment.

If you are using research sources, there are certain important considerations to keep especially in mind. Don’t restrict yourself to Web sites and common reference tools such as dictionaries and encyclopedias unless your teacher specifically allows you to. Normally you are expected to use to a research library and real, paper books and journal articles (though more and more journal articles are available online through library services–talk to a reference librarian to get help with this). When drawing on sources, don’t just string quotations together, or paraphrase what they have to say by changing a few words. Master the material and incorporate it into your own argument, still remembering to cite the source you’ve drawn on whether you quote it or not.

Here’s an example: Suppose Sean O’Malley wrote: “Yeats’ poetry, despite the fact that he is often viewed as a spokesman for the Irish people, is often forbiddingly difficult.” This is not such memorable wording that it’s worth quoting directly. Anyone with half a brain can quote (with a modern computer you can even quote without ever reading what you quote); paraphrasing instead demonstrates that you understand your source. But it would be bad writing, verging on plagiarism (and distorting the source), to tinker with his wording like this: “Sean O’Malley says that Yeats, despite speaking for the Irish people, often writes really difficult poems.” Resist the urge to do minor revisions of your sources like this. Here’s a better approach, which acknowledges O’Malley as a source but has digested what he has to say into the writer’s own material: “Whereas Sean O’Malley suggests that Yeats’ reputation as a spokesman for Ireland is inconsistent with the difficulty of his writing; his most typically Irish writing is not in fact that difficult.” Here we see the writer thinking about and using a source, not just reproducing it.

Here are some suggestions that will help you avoid common mechanical errors in preparing your papers. To avoid simple writing errors, consult my Common Errors in English” at http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/”

Most of these details won’t have a big effect on your grade, but following these guidelines will keep me in good humor. Use this page to refer to when interpreting marks on your papers.

  1. If you are not used to writing papers for literature classes, carefully study the first three chapters of Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Literature.
  2. All papers must be typed or printed out on a computer . Double-space throughout, do not put extra space between paragraphs, and use 12-point type.
  3. Allow yourself time to proofread and correct your paper. If you are using a computer, be sure to check the printed output. You will catch errors that you missed on the screen. If you use a commercial typing service, please proofread its work carefully. You are responsible for any errors in the finished product. Pencilled-in corrections ar e always preferable to beautifully typed mistakes.
  4. Always write at least the amount assigned. Shorter papers will receive an F. Quotations, notes and sources do not count in calculating length. There is no maximum length for papers in this class. Always number your pages, by hand if necessary, but you should consult your word processor’s manual to find out how to do this automatically.
  5. Always use 20-weight paper. If you have an ink-jet printer, make sure the cartridge is working properly before the day on which you plan to do your printing. Last-minute printer problems are not an acceptable excuse for turning a paper in on time. If all else fails, send in your paper by e-mail attachment or bring it to class on a floppy disk.
  6. Never put a class paper into any kind of folder , especially those plastic ones with the snap-on spines. Fasten your paper together with a staple or a paper clip.
  7. Be sure to give your paper a specific title which clearly describes its contents. “Modern Literature” or “Humanities 303” is not a title. Nor should you simply use the name of the work you are discussing. “Dead Cats in Tom Sawyer ” is more like it. See Barnet on choosing a topic and a title (26-33).
  8. Learn the proper critical vocabulary from Barnet terms like “setting,” “point of view,” “irony,” etc. Study Barnet’s sample papers in chapters 4 and 5.
  9. Do not underline or italicize your paper’s title or place it in quotation marks. Underlining titles is an old-fashioned form of quotation. You aren’t quoting your own title. When you do quote a title, italicize it if it is a book or a work which could be printed as a book; place it between quotation marks if it is a short poem, short story, essay, or other work which would be published only as part of a book.
  10. Always space before parentheses . It is never correct to omit the space before a parenthesis.
  11. Learn how to type true dashes on your computer (a Macintosh dash is typed by holding down the shift and option keys and pressing the hyphen key). If you cannot type true dashes, use double hyphens, like this (–). Here are examples of dash and hyphen usage: correct: word—word, incorrect: word -word, incorrect: word – word. Never leave spaces around a dash. Do not use dashes where you should use hyphens. Learn how to use semicolons and colons correctly. For instance, quotations may be introduced with a colon, but never with a semicolon.
  12. Learn when to use apostrophes (in contractions, as in “don’t,” where the apostrophe stands for the missing letter–in this case, an “o,”–and in possessives, as in “Harry’s Bar”). The only possessives which do not use apostrophes are the pronouns “yours,” “ours,” “theirs,” “its,” and–of course–“mine,” “his,” and “hers.” People almost never insert apostrophes in the last three; just remember that the first four are treated the same. “It’s” with an apostrophe is always the contraction for “it is.”
  13. Periods go after parentheses which are a part of the same sentence (like this). However, if you are quoting a sentence or phrase which ends with a question mark or exclamation mark treat it like this: “Help!’ he shouted” (7). Or: “Don’t forget to save your document!” (7). Note that you need both the exclamation point and the period. The parenthesis is part of your sentence and needs to be included in it. However, in a block quot ation which is set off, no punctuation follows the parenthesis citing the page from which the quotation comes (see 15 below for set-off quotations).
  14. Double space throughout your paper, even in quotations set off and in notes. This gives me room to make comments and corrections.
  15. Prose quotations of five lines or more and all verse quotations of four lines or more must be set off in a block quotation like this:

    Mary had a little lamb,
    Its fleece was white as snow,
    And everywhere that Mary went,
    The lamb was sure to go.

    Pay special attention to the requirement to preserve the ends of lines of verse just as they appear in the original. If your quotation of verse is shorter, then you need to mark the line ends with a slash: “Mary had a little lamb,/Its fleece was white as snow.” In quoting prose, indent from the left only, not from the right. When you set off a quotation, be sure not to add quotation marks around the material, since setting it off is itself a mark of quotation. If the passage quoted already contains quotation marks within it, they must of course be retained.

  16. Use single quotation marks only for a quotation within a quotation. It is an error to use them simply because the quoted material consists of single words or short phrases. Generally avoid ironic quotation marks like this: “He was an ‘intellectual.'” The temptation to use such marks usually means you have not yet found the precise word or phrase you need.
  17. All modern computers allow you to use accent marks in words such as “fiancé”. Learn how to make them on your computer, or insert them by hand. Never use an apostrophe as a substitute for an accent mark. You can find instructions for typing accent marks at http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html (Macintosh users scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for the relatively simple Mac instructions).
  18. Ellipses are never necessary at the beginning of a quotation, and seldom at the end of one. The main use of an ellipsis is to mark omitted words in the middle of a quotation: “The novel can trace its origins in the distant past to the 12th-century romance” can become “The novel can trace its origins . . . to the 12th-century romance.” The three dots which mark the ellipsis show that some words have been left out. If you are just quoting a brief phrase, you don’t need to show that words surrounding the phrase have been omitted: that’s obvious, so no ellipsis is necessary. When you quote a substantial excerpt from a sentence, however, and the quotation ends your own sentence, you need to type a period after the last word and then follow with the three dots, like this: “He was unable to see the dark ground in front of him. . . . .” To keep the dots of your ellipses from breaking onto two separate lines, learn how to type nonbreaking spaces between them.
  19. When writing passages of plot summary, use the present tense , even when the story itself is written in the past tense. Be careful to be consistent about tense throughout your paper. Do not switch back and forth between present and past. Be especially careful when you continue to summarize after quoting a passage from your source which itself uses the past tense. It may trick you into continuing to use the past instead of switching back to the present.
  20. Introduce all quotations. Don’t just begin quoting a source abruptly. For example: “As Robert J. Brown remarks in The Wisdom of the Ages, Some people are unwise.'” The first time you cite an author, use both first and last names. In subsequent references, use only the last name. Quote only when necessary. Quote material you go on to analyze or discuss. Paraphrase whenever that would be more efficient or clear than quoting, but remember that paraphrases must be cited with parenthetical notes, just like quotations. Avoid ending a paper with a quotation.
  21. Cite all outside sources whether you quote them or merely use their ideas, according to the MLA form. (For a quick guide to MLA citation style, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html.) Do not use footnotes or endnotes. The parenthetical method of citation is very simple, once learned, but make sure you use MLA style and not APA. Your list of sources should be called “Sources Cited” or–if there is only one–“Source Cited,” and these words must not be put in quotation marks or underlined. You will never write anything in a paper for this class which deserves to be called a bibliography.
  22. When citing the main book under discussion as your source, you need not cite the author’s name if it is obvious from the context.
  23. Note that block quotations are cited differently, with the citation beginning in the middle of the page under the last line of the quotation.
  24. In citing long verse works with numbered lines, cite the line numbers, not the page numbers. You may also need to cite act and scene numbers in plays.
  25. Despite what you may have heard, it is not incorrect to use the first person in formal writing, especially when you are expressing an opinion. Another common misconception is the idea that you should avoid repeating words. When a certain word is the word you need, then that is the word you should use. A good rule of thumb is: avoid frequently repeating the same adjectives and adverbs; do consistently use the same nouns and verbs when you are referring to the same objects and actions.
  26. Use your spelling-checker but also proofread manually. It won’t solve all your problems, but it will help. Most papers which receive low grades for sloppy writing are yanked off the printer moments before coming to class. Give yourself time to proofread your final printed copy with care.
  27. The professor’s pet peeve: “A lot” is always two words. There is no such word as “alot,” no matter how many times you may read it in other people’s writing.
  28. Another pet peeve: Don’t write “time period.” It’s redundant. Write either “time” or “period.”
  29. Strive for a clear, simple, direct style. Avoid obscure jargon, needlessly complex sentence construction and flowery language for its own sake. Always use the simplest style which can adequately convey your thoughts.
  30. A common flaw in papers is the lack of a good conclusion. A conclusion should not simply repeat or summarize what you have said before (in a brief paper I am not going to forget what you have said by the time I reach the end). If your concluding paragraph reads a lot like your opening one, strike it out and write a real conclusion.
  31. Never cut class while trying in vain to get your paper to print. If you have last-minute printer problems, send me a copy by e-mail attachment. I can convert and print from just about any computer format. If even that is impossible, still come to class and ask for my help.

Last revised April 9, 2006.

Public Talks & Presentations


Public Talks & Presentations

Paul Brians
11734 Kirk Ave NE
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
206 780-5926
paulbrians@gmail.com

The Roots of Star Wars: or, Why Princess Leia Fights Like a Girl (75 min.)

When George Lucas planned his original Star Wars trilogy he had in mind the model of the 1940s Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials. This lively presentation demonstrates how closely he hewed to that model by comparing clips from the older films with the same sorts of scenes as transformed by Lucas. It also emphasizes his basic conservatism regarding women’s roles, especially the ways in which Princess Leia is depicted as much more traditionally “feminine” than her counterparts in the old serials, who often displayed more competence, courage, and strength.

The Art of the American Comic Strip (60 min.)

The comic strip as we know it is an American invention. This illustrated talk concentrates on the innovative artists who created the most visually interesting and influential strips from the classic period (1905–1945) and also takes a look at some current artists. Included in this discussion are such strips as Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo, Frank King’s Gasoline Alley, Cliff Sterrett’sPolly and Her Pals, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts, and Lynn Johnston’s For Better or for Worse. Because the presentation focuses on the visual aspect of the color Sunday strips, there is no need for the audience to read lots of text or follow complex plot lines. A bibliography of currently available reprints of the strips discussed is provided.

Krishna as Lover (60-75 min.)

This multimedia presentation can be presented in shorter or longer formats as needed. It explores the art, music, dance, and poetry that reflect the popular Hindu images of Krishna as lover of his consort Radha, and of all humanity. It concentrates particularly on the art which illustrates the classic Gita Govinda. The material is placed in the context of erotic mysticism, a thread of which runs through most of the world’s great religions.

Classic American Love Songs (60-90 min.)

This presentation can be given in various lengths as desired. It concentrates on the texts and music of “standards” from the 1930s and 40s, showing how the popular culture of that period treated love themes, and how the music was performed by classic artists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. These songs, by composers like George Gershwin,  Duke Ellington, and Richard Rodgers, are still widely popular today, including among a remarkable number of young people. Ends with an illustrated version of Cole Porter’s You’re the Top.

Love in European Art (60 min.)

A visual presentation of famous and influential paintings depicting love, from ancient times to the present, exploring traditional themes and images and tracing changing attitudes toward love through the centuries.

The Goddess of Love in Art (60 min.)

Images of Aphrodite/Venus and Eros/Cupid in art ranging from ancient Greece to modern times, concentrating on themes and motifs.

When Is a Rose Not a Rose (30 min.)

This talk explores the image of the rose in love poetry from ancient Rome to modern America. Roses have traditionally had more to do with seduction than with romance. Suitable for poetry and reading groups, garden clubs, literature classes.

Science Fiction Film Classics (30 min. plus film showing)

This is a series of short illustrated talks prefacing showings of classic science fiction movies. Films available include 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Abyss, Blade Runner, Brazil, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, The Iron Giant, It Came from Outer Space, Metropolis, Dr. Strangelove, and The Thing. Each talk puts the film in its historical context, explores the techniques and imagery of the filmmakers, and explores various other issues. One of the goals of this series is to dispel the image of SF as being primarily about “monsters from outer space” or killer robots.

Common Errors in English Usage (60 min.)

Explores in a lively and entertaining manner some of the patterns that people struggle with in trying to speak and write standard English. Explains how Paul Brians’ popular Web site Common Errors in English seeks to provide unthreatening and helpful guidance for users of English.

Watch a video of Paul Brians’ illustrated lecture on student activism at Washington State University 1968-1970 on YouTube.

All presentations require a good digital projector to which a laptop can be connected, a screen, and a room which can be suitably darkened. Some also use speakers for sound, though small portable speakers can be provided by the presenter if necessary. Add any discussion time desired to the stated presentation lengths.

Paul Brians is a retired Professor of English who taught at Washington State University, Pullman, for 40 years. He has a Ph.D. in comparative literature and has taught, written, and lectured widely on popular culture, world literature, and the history of ideas. He has published many articles and several books, including Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction 1895-1984 (Kent State Univ. Press),Modern South Asian Literature in English (Greenwood Press), and Common Errors in English Usage (William, James & Co.).

He and his wife now live on Bainbridge Island. He has lectured internationally, in Moscow, Bonn, other German cities and in various cities in the U.S. including Washington D.C.,  Las Vegas, and Portland. He has lectured regionally in Sequim, at the University of Washington, The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, and the Shoreline branch of the Seattle Public Library, where he was the keynote speaker in 2007 for a community reading project of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Paul Brians Vita

Education (Institutions, degrees, dates)

  • Ph.D., Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 1968
  • M.A., Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 1966
  • B.A., Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon, 1964
  • Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California 1960-62

Experience (Positions and Dates)

  • Assistant Professor of English, 1968-1977
  • Associate Professor of English, 1977-1988
  • Professor of English, 1988- 2008
  • Retired 2008-present

Professional Recognition and Honors

  • Inducted into The Quarter Century Club of WSU, 1993.
  • Burlington Northern Award for excellence in teaching, 1992.
  • “Inquiring Mind” speaker, 1990-92.
  • Faculty Library Award, 1988.
  • Member, faculty of World Civilizations 110/111 (a group of twenty faculty members selected from ninety applicants to be trained as teachers for a new world civilizations course).
  • “Nuclear War in Fiction,” invited address for History Honorary annual banquet, 1984.
  • “The New Censorship,” invited address for Holland Library Faculty Recognition Award talk, Spring, 1983
  • “Pornography and the Arts,” invited address for the Art Department Enrichment Series, WSU, March 23, 1971.

Publications

Books

  • Modern South Asian Literature in English. Greenwood Press, 2003.
  • Common Errors in English Usage. William, James, 2003. Second Edition, 2008.
  • Reading About the World, Vols. 1 & 2 (ed.). Third Edition, Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing, 1999.
  • Reading About the World, Vols. 1 & 2 (ed.). Second edition, American Heritage Custom Publishing, 1996. Contributed translations of the following selections: Anna Comnena: The Alexiad, Emile Zola: Germinal, Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams, Ren/(c) Descartes: The Discourse on Method, Montaigne: Essay on Cannibals, Francois Rabelais: Letter from Gargantua to his son Pantagruel; adapted translations of the following: Angelo Poliziano: Quis Dabit Capiti Meo Aquam (Lament on the Death of Lorenzo di Medici), Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, The Young Woman and Her Five Lovers, from Tales from the Thousand and One Nights.
  • Reading About the World, Vols. 1 & 2. (ed.) HarperCollins Custom Publishing, 1994.
  • Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895-1984. Kent State University Press, 1987. [Refereed]
  • Bawdy Tales from the Courts of Medieval France (trans. & ed.), Harper & Row, 1975. [Refereed]

Other Publications

  • Common Errors in English Usage Daily Boxed Calendar. Wilsonville, OR: William, James, 2008.
  • Common Errors in English Usage Daily Boxed Calendar. Wilsonville, OR: William, James, 2007.
  • Common Errors in English Usage Daily Boxed Calendar. Wilsonville, OR: William, James, 2006
  • Common Errors in English Usage Daily Boxed Calendar. Wilsonville, OR: William, James, 2005.

E-Publications

  • Nuclear Texts & Contexts (1998-1995) created and made available “here“
  • Study Guide for Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed, as a supplement to the e-book version of the novel in the following formats: Acrobat eBook Reader, Microsoft Reader, and Palm Reader, March, 2002.

Web-Based

Newsletter

  • Nuclear Texts & Contexts, issue #1, Fall, 1988 (edited and wrote most of the issue), issue #2, Spring 1989 (edited and wrote much of the issue), issue #3, Fall, 1989 (became sole editor with this issue, wrote several articles), issue #4, Spring 1990, issue #5, Fall 1990, issue #6, Spring 1991, issue #7, Fall 1991, issue #8, Fall 1992. Resigned editorship with Fall 1992 issue. Published on Web site at http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/ntc/ (2003).

Articles

  • “Let’s Clear Something Up,” columns on language usage for Blueprint magazine May-June 2007 (p. 16), June-July 2007 (p.22), and January-February, 2008 (p. 18).
  • Entries on “Nuclear War,” “Post-Holocaust Societies,” and “The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Lee Guin (1974)” in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Gary Westfahl. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.
  • “Good Words Gone Bad,” by Candace Murphy, Oakland Tribune, October 25, 2005, was based largely on a phone interview with me.
  • “Multimedia Made Simple, The Hard Way,” World History Connected, Vol. 1, no. 2 (May 2004); an online journal for world history teachers. http://worldhistoryconnected.press.uiuc.edu/1.2/brians.html[Commissioned article with interactive online multimedia examples]
  • “Classical Turkey,” Washington State Magazine (Fall 2003): 18-19. [Commissioned article with photographs by myself.]
  • “Annotating The Satanic Verses: An Example of Internet Research and Publication,” Computers and the Humanities 33 (December 1999): 247-264. [Refereed]
  • “Study Guide for Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz,” SFRA Review no. 242 (October 1999), pp. 6-19.
  • “Writing English by Ear,” The Editorial Eye, 21:6 (June 1998) pp. 1-4. Solicited by the editor of this newsletter for professional editors and revised by her while I was in Japan. About 60% of the article is as I wrote it. Paid contribution.
  • “Nuclear Family/Nuclear War,” in Nancy Anisfield, ed. The Nightmare Considered: Critical Essays on Nuclear War Literature. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Press, 1991. (A slightly revised version of the paper originally published in Essays in Language and Literature (Spring 1990).
  • “Nuclear War Fiction for Young Readers: A Commentary and Annotated Bibliography,” in Philip John Davies, ed. Science Fiction, Social Conflict and War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990. [An earlier, abridged version of this article, without most of the notes and without any of the annotated bibliography, was published as “Nuclear Fiction for Children” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1988; but I consider this the definitive version of the article.
  • “Nuclear Family/Nuclear War,” Papers on Language and Literature, 26 (1990): pp. 134-142.
  • “Atomic Bomb Day” (pp. 32-33) and “Hiroshima Day (pp. 309-311) in Read More About It: An Encyclopedia of Information Sources on Historical Figures and Events. Vol. 3. Ann Arbor: The Pierian Press, 1989 (commissioned).
  • with Vladimir Gakov: “Nuclear-War Themes in Soviet Science Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography.” Science-Fiction Studies 16(1989): 67-84. (In this collaborative effort, the research was primarily Gakov’s responsibility; but I extensively revised and edited his first draft, and helped shape and write the introduction.) [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear Fiction for Children,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 1988, pp. 24-27[Commissioned]
  • “And That Was the Future . . . The World Will End Tomorrow,” Futures, August 1988, pp. 424-433 [Commissioned]
  • “Red Holocaust: The Atomic Conquest of the West,” Extrapolation, 28 (1987), pp. 319-329.
  • “SF Summit in Moscow.” Locus, October, 1987. [Refereed]
  • “Revival of Learning: Science After the Nuclear Holocaust in Science Fiction,” Phoenix from the Ashes: The Literature of the Remade World, ed. Carl Yoke. Greenwood Press, 1987. [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear War/Post-Nuclear Fiction,” Columbiana (Winter 1987), pp. 31-33
  • “Nuclear War Fiction Collection at Washington State University, The,” College & Research Libraries News, 48 (March, 1987), pp.115-18.
  • Resources for the Study of Nuclear War in Fiction,” Science-Fiction Studies, July 1986, 5 pp. [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear War in Science Fiction, 1945-1959,” Science-Fiction Studies, vol. 11, part 3 (1984), pp. 253-263. [Refereed]
  • “Americans Learn to Love the Bomb,” New York Times, July 17, 1985 (reprinted in the U.S. and abroad through the Times News Service. This article plus two interviews provided the basis for Konrad Ege’s article, “La culture populaire flirte avec la bombe,” Le Monde diplomatique, June 1986.
  • “The Day They Tested the Rec Room,” (short story) CoEvolution Quarterly (Summer 1981), pp. 116-1234.
  • “Sexuality and the Opposite Sex: Variations on a Theme by Théophile Gautier and Anais Nin,” Essays in Literature (Spring 1977), pp. 122-137. Edited version printed in Philip K. Jason. The Critical Response to Anis Nin.Westport: Connecticut, 1996. [Refereed]
  • “Versions of Immortality,” New Venture, 4 (Summer 1976), 1 p.
  • “Paul Aebischer and the OEGab d’Oliver,'” Romance Notes, Winter 1974, pp. 1-8. [Refereed]

Translations

  • Anna Comnena: Alexiad (selection on the Crusaders originally published in Reading About the World), reprinted in Brummett, Edgar, Hackett, Jewsbury, Taylor, Bailkey, Lewis, Wallbank, Silverberg: Civilization Past and Present,10th Edition, Addison Wesley Longman, 2002. Reprinted in the 11th edition, 2004.
  • Rene Descartes: selection from Discourse on Method (originally published in Reading About the World), published on a Web site supporting the Houghton Mifflin textbook, Mosaic: Perspectives on Western Civilization, 2001.
  • Leo Africanus: selection from Description of Africa (originally published in Reading About the World) reprinted in Middle Ages Reference Library (Farmington Hills, Minn.: Gale Research, 2000) in both hard covers and on CD-ROM. Also reprinted in a book containing materials for students to practice advance placement essay writing, published by Social Studies School Service, 2004. Adopted as  an Internet History Sourcebook by the Aga Khan Humanities Project, Tajikistan, 2005. Reprinted in High School United States History for the 11th Grade Level (Pearson Prentice Hall), a set of teaching materials in paper and electronic forms, 2006. Reprinted in The Making of the Modern World (University of Houston, 2006).

Photographs

  • Photograph from Vejer de la Frontera, Spain, in Seattle Times Sunday travel section, August 10, 2008.
  • Exhibit of photographs, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Washington State University, Spring 2008.
  • Two photographs (of a Roman street in Turkey and Tudor cottages near Hever Castle) used in a National Geographic Channel documentary on the history of the toilet in the series Everyday Things, Nov. 7 2006.
  • Photo of roman toilet from Ephesus, printed in an article on the history of toilets, Environmental Building News, February 2004. Reprinted by HPAC Engineering newsletter, 2004. Used in a History Channel documentary called “Modern Marvels: Sewers,” and in a nonprofit educational video for Sacramento, California wastewater treatment plant tours 2005.
  • Photo of SCUE cyber café reproduced at About.com for an article about cyber cafes, December 2004.

Review Articles

  • Carpenter, Charles A. Dramatists and the Bomb: American and British Playwrights Confront the Nuclear Age, 1945-1964. Science-Fiction Studies, Vol. 27, pp. 318-319.
  • Seed, David, ed. Imagining Apocalypse: Studies in Cultural Crisis. Science-Fiction Studies, vol. 27, pp. 364-365.
  • Sallis, James. Ash of Stars: On the Writing of Samuel R. Delany, Utopian Studies 9 (1998), 312-314.
  • Bozzetto, Roger, Max Duperray, Alain Chareye-Mejan, eds. Eros: XI Congr/Aes du Cerli (Actes du XI colloque du Cerli, Aix-en-Provence Janvier 1990), Utopian Studies 3(1992):131-133.
  • Broderick, Mick. Nuclear Movies: A Critical Analysis and Filmography of International Feature Length Films Dealing with Experimentation, Aliens, Terrorism, Holocaust and Other Disaster Scenarios, 1914-1989, IAFA Newsletter, Summer, 1992, pp. 33-34.
  • Broderick, Mick. Nuclear Movies: A Critical Analysis and Filmography,” SFRA Review, June 1992, pp. 27-28.
  • Lenz, Millicent. Nuclear Age Literature for Youth,” SFRA Review, April 1992, pp. 32-34.
  1. Bruce Franklin, War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination, for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1989), pp. 48-51.
  • “Tom Moylan: Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination.” Extrapolation Fall 1988, pp. 285-288.
  • “Rambo’s Relatives,” American Book Review, March/April 1986, 2 pp.
  • Review of six volumes of nuclear war fiction, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Chicago, IL), March 1986, pp. 50-53.
  • “Dealing with Nuclear Catastrophe,” Science-Fiction Studies (Montreal, Quebec), July 1986, 2 pp.
  • Feature review: Newman, John and Michael Unsworth. Future War Novels: An Annotated Bibliography of Works in English Published Since 1946,” Reference Services Review, vol. 13, no. 1 (Ann Arbor, MI), 1985, p. 20.
  • “The Cretan Glance,” Modernist Studies (June 1982), pp. 245-247.
  • “Anais Nin: Delta of Venus,” Under the Sign of Pisces: Anais Nin and Her Circle (Columbus, OH) (Winter 1978), 4 pp.
  • Three books on French surrealism: Yearbook on Comparative and General Literature, 19 (Bloomington, IN, 1970), 4 pp.

Creative Productivity

Poetry Readings

  • Poetry for Children, 1982.
  • Contemporary Poetry for Children, 1980.
  • Sex, Dope, and Cheap Thrills (for an off-campus group), 1978.
  • Science Fiction Poetry, 1977.
  • Medieval and Renaissance Women Poets, 1976, repeated 1977.
  • Excerpts from Nikos Kazantzakis: The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, 1976,
  • My translation of Jean Tardieu’s play: The Subway Lovers, 1975.
  • James Dickey, 1972.
  • Researched, wrote and read a lengthy poem entitled “ABM ABC” as my contribution to a panel discussion of a proposed antiballistic missile system, University of Idaho, 1969.

Other creative activity based on teaching and research

  • Transferred numerous photo tours to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, WSU Library: http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/paul_brians/, Fall 2007.
  • Transferred CD discography to Holland Library and updated it with many new entries, 2006.
  • Created photo tour of Spain, Summer 2006, mounted on the World Civlizations site,: http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/tours/spain/
  • Original photos donated to the World Civilizations image repository in the library’s Division of Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Fall 2006.
  • Also created 40-minute video accompanied by music based on Spain photos, summer, 2006.
  • Began process of transferring video series of lectures on classical music to DVD and editing them into new versions, completed Spring 2005.
  • Created photo tour of Greece, 2005.
  • Created photo tour of China, completed 2005
  • Created online tour of Vienna, Prague, and Budapest based on my own photographs and mounted it on the World Civilizations Web site and donated high-resolution copies to Holland Library’s World Civilizations Image Database, 2004.
  • Donated hundreds of my photos of China and Greece to the World Civilizations Image Database in Holland Library, 2004.
  • Created a new, greatly expanded edition of Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, and mounted it on the Web at https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/11/16/nuclear-holocausts-atomic-war-in-fiction/, 2003. Added several entries, 2004.
  • Created a Web tour of Ireland based on my own photos, focusing on architecture and archaeological sites for the General Education program and mounted it on the World Civilizations site, Summer 2003. Many of the photos have been mounted on a searchable database by Holland Library Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections.
  • With the aid of a Co-Teach grant, I completed a digitized collection of music from the library’s CDs now being served via streaming mp3 from the library’s audio reserves collection to students in Gen Ed 111, summer 2003. Besides selecting the music, I wrote extensive annotations to help students listen intelligently to the selections.
  • Scanned and edited my photos from the WSU World Civilizations tour of India and Thailand in 1992-1993, and created a Web site displaying them, and again donated high-resolution copies to the MASC collection.
  • Converted Humanities 303 from Speakeasy to Bridge format, 2003.
  • Created and maintain searchable databases on the Web for Anglophone fiction, science fiction, feature films, and compact discs in Holland Library. My filmography has been adopted as the official filmography of the Film Studies Program, linked to their Web site, Fall 2003.
  • Created a Web tour of Turkey based on my own photos, focussing on architecture and archaeological sites for the General Education program and mounted it on the World Civilizations site, Fall 2002. A larger selection of my photos has been mounted on a searchable database by Holland Library Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections.
  • Created a history of European classical music 1750-1914, for which I digitized sound samples, researched and annotated them, and mounted the result on the Holland server as streaming audio, Spring 2001.
  • Created a survey of world music for Gen Ed 110 (World Civilizations to 1500), digitized sound samples, researched and annotated them, and mounted the result on the Holland server as streaming audio, Summer 2001. Created and distributed CD-ROM,Aeos of the source files for use by World Civ faculty.
  • Selected and annotated the fiction for a display of science fiction in the library atrium during October, 2000.
  • Wrote a brief essay entitled “‘Postcolonial Literature’: Problems with the Term” and published it on the Web, Fall 1998.
  • Created a study guide for Arundhati Roy’s novel, The God of Small Things, and published it on the Web, 1998.
  • Created a Web site concerning ancient Japanese architecture for World Civilizations using my own photographs from a May, 1998 trip, Fall, 1998.
  • Created numerous on-line resources to teach Humanities 303 as an Extended Degree Programs class, including music and art assignments to be done by distance-learning students, introductions to the Enlightenment, European Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, 19th-Century Russian Literature, The Influence of Nietzsche, 19th-Century Socialism, and “Misconceptions, Confusions, and Conflicts Concerning Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism, ” 1998.
  • Contributed and annotated several images from my personal photographs in Paris, Greece, Rome, India and Boston to the WSU media collection, 1996.
  • Created notes for Anglophone Literature course and mounted them on the World Wide Web, 1996.
  • Created study guides for Love in the Arts and put them on the World Wide Web, 1995.
  • Converted Hum 303 packet to HTML code and mounted it on the World Wide Web, 1994.
  • Created detailed study guides to the science fiction taught in English 333, attracting substantial attention from users around the country, 1994.
  • Created syllabus with linked resources for General Education 110 and mounted it on the Web, 1994-96.
  • Created supplement to my Nuclear Holocausts bibliography and mounted it on the Web.
  • Mounted Web version of my article, “Terminator vs. Terminator: Nuclear War as Video Game“.
  • Electronically published the translations of Lyubov Sirota’s Chernobyl poetry on the Web, adding illustrations from her book and from photographs provided personally by her. Mounted Russian texts of the originals on the Web, (1996).
  • Conceived of and supervised creation of a multimedia module on the history of writing in the West, 1994.
  • Created a seven-part series of videotapes tracing the history of European classical music for use in the WHETS version of my Humanities 303 course, Fall 1993.
  • A multimedia production of Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top,” Fall 1991.
  • Created incidental music tape for WSU Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, featuring Renaissance music, Spring 1987, with Paula Elliot.
  • As a member of the materials subcommittee of the world civilizations planning group, helped create tapes of music to be used in Humanities 110 and 111. Most of the music is from my personal collection.
  • Created and catalogued collection of Medieval and Renaissance music on compact disc for Humanities courses, 1987.
  • Reading from The Wind in the Willows, Holland Library, 1985.
  • Reading of fiction depicting nuclear war, Holland Library, 1985.
  • Arranged and provided notes for exhibition in Holland Library: “Nuclear Holocausts: Holland Library’s Collection of Fiction Depicting Nuclear War and Its Aftermath,” 1985.
  • Reading of Joan D. Vinge’s short story “Tin Soldier” at the Gaia Coffeehouse, 1982.
  • Produced and coordinated series of cable FM broadcasts for English Department, 1982-85.
  • Produced and coordinated series of cable FM broadcasts for Humanities, 1982.
  • Organized and moderated program, “The Bomb and the Arts,” for Ground Zero Week, 1982.
  • Assembled, edited, recorded, and prepared notes for programs of music by women composers and women jazz artists for Women’s Arts Festival.
  • Assembled and arranged series of science fiction radio tapes for broadcast by library cable FM system.
  • Designed and created sets of tapes and notes covering the history of music from Gregorian Chant to Stravinsky for use in Humanities courses.

Professional Papers Presented

  • “Techniques for Mixing Text, Stills, and Clips in Computer-Based Film Lectures,” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, October 21, 2005.
  • “The Roots of Star Wars, or Why Princess Leia Fights Like a Girl,” Science Fiction Research Association, Las Vegas, July 2005.
  • “The Irrelevance of ‘Postcolonialism’ to South Asian Literature,” South Asian Literature Association, San Diego, December 27, 2003.

Published Conference Papers

  • “Teaching about Nuclear War through Fiction,” Nuclear War Education: A Survey of Different Perspectives and Resources, ed Robert Ehrlich. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987. [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1945-1982,” Literature and War: Reflections and Refractions, ed. Elizabeth W. Trahan. Monterey Institute of International Studies, 1985. Note: the title assigned to this paper by the editor is incorrect. It should have been “Some Distinguishing Characteristics of Nuclear War Fiction.” [Refereed]

Pedagogical papers and talks

  • “The Roots of Star Wars, or Why Princess Leia Fights Like a Girl,” Department of English Colloquium, 2005.
  • “Teaching Wole Soyinka,” Conference on Wole Soyinka, Central Florida University, February, 2003.
  • Presentation on creating and maintaining online audio reserves for the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Music Library Association annual meeting, in Pullman, May 2001.
  • Presentation to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Music Library Association on music resources on the Internet, Seattle Public Library, Spring 1995. This involved extensive research preparing a printed guide for use by the librarians (a copy is in my file).
  • Joint talk (with Paula Elliot) on the library research project in the World Civilizations course, invited as presenters at a workshop entitled “Colleagues in Education,” dealing with faculty/librarian collaboration, Whitman College, 1992.
  • “Multimedia in a World Civilizations Course.” A joint lecture/multimedia demonstration (with Phil Scuderi) for “Computers Across the Curriculum: A Conference on Technology in the Freshman Year,” sponsored by the City University of New York, Office of Academic Computing, New York, 1992.
  • Slide lecture on “Nuclear Chic: Nuclear War Imagery in the Popular Culture.” This slide lecture was given in various forms to twelve audiences during 1989, including four sections of English 101, T.V. Reed’s Introduction to American Studies class, the Math/English/Honors students (and repeated for that group every year annually through 1993), the Unitarian churches of Moscow and Wenatchee, the Common Ministry at WSU, and Relaxicon (a science fiction convention in Moscow). It was also delivered as an invited address at the University of California-SDavis in June, 1989, and at Seattle University in the fall of 1989. In 1990, it was given at the following conferences, for which it was refereed: The International conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, FL; The Science Fiction Research Association, San Diego, CA; a Soviet-American conference called “Facing Apocalypse II,” Newport, RI; and the Conference of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education, and Development, Dayton, OH. It was also delivered as part of the Washington Commission for the Humanities Inquiring Mind series at the WCH annual meeting (Tacoma) and for the Beta Omicron Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (Seattle). In 1991 it was delivered at a region science fiction convention in Spokane, at a meeting of a community group in Sequim, Washington, at Whitman College, and at Yakima Community College. It was given in 1992 at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, at Edmonds Public Library, at Eastern Washington University, Cheney, for eight visiting faculty members from Far Eastern State University, Vladivostok. In 1997 I toured three German cities giving the presentation, and in the fall of 1999 made a version of it into a Web site called “Nuke Pop.”
  • “Learning About Nuclear War Through Fiction,” Arizona Honors Academy, Flagstaff, AZ, June 1988 (invited address).
  • “Nuclear War/Nuclear Families,” Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Spring 1988. [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear War/Nuclear Families,” Modern Language Association, Winter, 1988. [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear War Fiction for Children,” Eaton Conference on War and Science Fiction, University of California, Riverside, Spring 1988.
  • “Teaching a Pilot Section of a Freshman Course in World Civilizations,” Conference on the First Year Experience, Toronto, Fall 1988. [Refereed]
  • with Paula Elliot: “A Library Biography Project for a World Civilizations Class,” Conference on Faculty-Librarian collaboration, Evergreen State College, Fall 1988. (About 2/3 of this paper was written by Ms. Elliot.)
  • “Nuclear War Fiction for Young Readers,” International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Houston, 1987. [Refereed]
  • “The Russians and the Nuclear Threat: Teaching About Attitudes Toward Nuclear War Using Recent Fiction,” George Mason University Conference on Nuclear War and Peace Education, 1987. [Refereed]
  • “Science Fiction and Nuclear Reality,” Seventh World Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War,” Moscow, USSR, 1987.
  • “The Nuclear War Fiction Collection at Washington State University,” Northwestern Popular Culture Association, Tacoma, WA, 1987 (invited).
  • “Red Holocaust: The Atomic Conquest of the United States in Fiction,” Science Fiction Research Association, San Diego, CA, 1986.
  • “Women Authors of Nuclear War Fiction,” jointly authored with Jane Winston-Dolan, InterFace ’85, Marietta, GA, 1985. [Refereed]
  • “The Revival of Learning: Science After the Nuclear Holocaust in Science Fiction,” Fifth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Boca Raton, FL, 1984. [Refereed]
  • “Samuel R. Delany’s Triton as a Psychological Satire,” Fifth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Boca Raton, FL, 1984. [Refereed]
  • “Nuclear War in Science Fiction, 1945-1959,” League of Women Voters, Moscow, ID, 1984.
  • “Nuclear War in Fiction: Some Defining Characteristics,” Pullman Unitarian Fellowship, 1984 (invited). Also for Lewiston-Clarkson Ground Zero, 1984.
  • “Surrealism and Rock,” WSU English Department, 1976.
  • “Technique in Erotic Fiction,” WSU English Department, 1974.

Professional Service Outside of WSU (consulting, services on boards and panels, editing journals, etc., with year)

  • Placed “Four Seasons in the Palouse” video on YouTube, Fall 2006, viewed by 129 people by 2/3/07, featured as streaming video on the official WSU video site, Experience WSU, Summer 2006.
  • Reviewed article for possible publication in Ariel: A Review of International Literature, 2006.
  • Reviewed article for possible publication in Borderlands, 2006
  • Paid reviewer of a book manuscript for Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
  • Paid reviewer of a book manuscript for Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
  • Referee for a proposal for a conference proposal for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, February 2004.
  • Paid reviewer for Foresight: Modern British Science Fiction, Wesleyan University Press, 2004.
  • Reviewed manuscript for Mosaic, June 2004.
  • Paid reviewer of World History Texts: Patterns of World History, for Longman Publishers, August 2004.
  • Paid reviewer of Understanding the Bible by Stephen Harris, 6th edtion, for McGraw-Hill, October 2004.
  • Paid reviewer for John P. McKay, et al.: A History of World Societies, Sixth Edition, 2003.
  • Paid reviewer for a proposed science fiction reader for St. Martin, Aeos Press, Fall, 2002.
  • Paid reviewer for proposed postcolonial reader from Houghton-Mifflin, April 2002.
  • Paid reviewer for From Outer Space to Innerspace, McGraw-Hill, October 1995.
  • Paid reviewer of Stephen Harris, Understanding the Bible, Mayfield Press, July 1995.
  • Evaluated manuscript on science fiction and politics for University of Georgia Press, Fall 1994.
  • Outside tenure reviewer for Joseph Dewey, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, 1992.
  • Paid reviewer of sixth edition of Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Literature, HarperCollins, 1991.
  • Editor, Nuclear Texts & Contexts, 1988-1992.
  • Editor, Membership Directory, International Society for the Study of Nuclear Texts and Contexts, 1989-1991.
  • Edited and published Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Bomb: A Bibliography of Literature and the Arts by James R. Bennett and Karen Clark
  • Consultant to grant proposal on military research, 1987.
  • Contributed to “Nuclear War: A Teaching Guide, Humanities,” by Philip N. Gilbertson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December, 1984.
  • Sent course syllabi and information about nuclear war research to many professors across the country responding to the Bulletin article, 1985-86.
  • WCH-funded Symposium on “Liberation Theology,” 1984.
  • Proposal to WCH, “What the Women’s Movement Means to Ethnic Women: A Current and Historical Perspective,” Consulting Humanist, 1983.
  • Proposal to Idaho Commission on the Humanities on Early Childhood Education, 1980.
  • NEH-funded grant for a WSU production of Chinese opera, 1978.
  • WCH-funded series on teaching religion in the public schools for the WSU Religious Studies Program, 1977.
  • YWCA-sponsored “Early Childhood Education,” 1976-77.
  • NEH-funded program on sex education for KSPS TV , 1974.

Committee or Administrative Service at WSU (Committee memberships, offices, with dates)

  • Faculty Status Committee, 2005-2007.
  • University Advisory Committee on Computing and Telecommunications, 2006-2007.
  • Chair, Faculty Senate Academic Integrity Task Force, 2005. Submitted final report 2005.
  • Represented Graduate School at a doctoral dissertation defense, Department of Economics, 2003.
  • Participant in the Critical Thinking Project, Summer & Fall, 2003.
  • Represented Graduate School at a doctoral dissertation defense, Department of Psychology, 2002.
  • Film Studies Steering Committee, 2001-2008.
  • Chair, Technology Subcommittee, Film Studies Program, 2001-2008.
  • Student Publications Board, 2000-2002.
  • Library Advisory Committee, 1999-2001.
  • Represented Graduate School at a doctoral dissertation defense, College of Education, 1998.
  • African Studies Committee, 1992-96.
  • Coordinating committee to plan events for observing the quincentennial of Columbus’ voyage to the New World, 1992.
  • CIR subcommittee to establish video standards for the campus network, 1992-1993.
  • Multimedia Planning Group, 1991-1993.
  • Nominations committee for Faculty Senate officers, 1990-1992.
  • Chair, Academic Steering Committee on Computing and Telecommunications, 1989-91.
  • Member, Academic Steering Committee on Computing and Telecommunications, 1988-89.
  • Planning Committee of the World Civilizations faculty, 1989-90.
  • Faculty Senate, 1987-90.
  • Committee to review applications for summer support for graduate students, for the Associate Vice Provost for Research, 1988.
  • Helped design and produce a brochure for the Humanities Core Curriculum Project, with Jo Hockenhull and Paula Elliot, Summer 1987.
  • Selected as teacher of pilot section of Humanities/World Civilizations 110: The New Stone Age to 1500, Fall 1987 and 1988.
  • Curriculum Committee of the World Civilizations faculty, Spring 1987-1990.
  • Materials Committee of the World Civilizations faculty, Spring 1987-1990.
  • NEH Faculty Group (Planning Committee for new NEH-funded World Civilizations courses), 1987.
  • NEH World Civilizations Advisory Committee, Fall, 1986-88.
  • Reinstatement Committee, 1984.
  • Academic Advising Subcommittee (Academic Affairs Committee), 1983-86; Chair, 1984-85.
  • President, WSU Chapter of AAUP, 1982-83.
  • Vice-President, WSU Chapter of AAUP, 1981-82
  • Peace Studies Committee, 1981-1985
  • Member, Religious Studies Faculty, 1980?-1990.
  • New Student Orientation, 1970-75.
  • Freshman-Faculty Weekend, 1968-74.
  • Coordinator, ASWSU Draft Counseling Center, 1972.
  • EPC Subcommittee on ROTC, 1969-70.
  • Coordinator, Humanities courses, 1972-present.

College or Division

  • Reviewer of Birgitta Ingemanson for promotion in Foreign Languages, 2007.
  • Reviewer of Prof. Zhin-Min Dong for promotion in Foreign Languages, 2004.
  • Chair, Committee to review candidates for the Sahlin Excellence in Service Award, 2000 -2002.
  • Committee to do initial planning for symposium on “Liberal Arts in the New Millennium.”
  • Represented the College at one meeting of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce committee to plan Millennium observances.
  • Division Library Committee, 1989-1993.
  • Committee to review candidates for the Mullen Award, for the Dean of the College of Sciences and Arts, 1988.
  • Evaluation of Transfer credits for Humanities courses, 1981-present.
  • Examining students in Summer Honors Reading Program.

Department

  • Director of Undergraduate Studies, 2004-2008.
  • Member, Committee on Curriculum and Planning, 2003-2005.
  • Coordinator, Humanities courses, 1970-2008.
  • English Department Library Liaison, 2001-2004.
  • Search committee, Modern British Literature search, Fall 2001-Spring 2002.
  • Committee to revise departmental evaluation forms, 2000-2001.
  • MA Exam committee 1999-2000
  • Mock job interviews with graduate students, Fall 1998.
  • Chair, search committee for creative writing position, 1998.
  • *Undergraduate Studies Committee, 1998-present.
  • Chair, Teaching and Technology Committee, 1996-present.
  • Member, Teaching and Technology Committee, 2001.
  • Chair’s Advisory Committee, Spring 1996.
  • Chair, MA Exam Committee, Fall 1992-Spring 1993.
  • MA Exam Committee, 1991.
  • Search committee, Tri-Cities position, 1989.
  • Editor, English News and Notes, 1989-1992.
  • Search committee for director of Avery Microcomputer Laboratory.
  • Undergraduate Studies Committee, 1992.
  • Library Committee, 1970-?, 1988-1993.
  • Temporary member of Graduate Studies Committee (replacing Louise Schleiner), Spring, 1988.
  • Avery Microcomputer Laboratory Policy Committee, 1988-1989.
  • Graduate Faculty member, 1988-2008.
  • Chair, Graduate Foreign Language Competency Examination Committee, 1987-2001.
  • *Preparation and distribution of publicity about the Humanities program, mostly aimed at new students, 1980-present.
  • Scholarship Committee, 1986-1992.
  • Committee to Design a New Faculty Evaluation Form, Spring 1975.
  • Freshman Composition Exemption Examination Committee, 1974-1984.
  • Committee to review requirements for English majors, 1972.
  • Committee to form a Chairman’s Advisory Committee.

Other Service at WSU

Public Lectures on Campus on Scholarly Topics

  • “The Roots of Star Wars, or Why Princess Leia Fights Like a Girl,” several times for recruiting events 2007-2008.
  • “Art of the Counter-Culture in the 1960s,” an invited illustrated address associated with the Museum of Art’s exhibition, “Art & Context: the 50s and 60s,”  Nov. 2, 2006.
  • Showing of video based on my photos of Spain, Holland Library, Nov. 6, 2006.
  • Panel on Wole Soyinka with the author participating, February 3, 2005. Also introduced Soyinka’s poetry reading the same day.
  • “The Roots of Star Wars, or Why Princess Leia Fights Like a Girl,” Departmental Colloquium, repeated for Art à la Carte, 2005.
  • Talk on My Fair Lady and English usage after a performance of the musical at Portland Center Stage, February 27, 2005.
  • ”Architecture from China,” Art a la carte presentation with Trevor Bond, based on my photographs now in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections World Civilizations database, 2004.
  • “Research at a Distance,” presentation for Critical Thinking Project series on English 567 course offered via distance learning. February 5, 2004.
  • Presentation of multimedia samples from my “Love in the Arts” class for WSU Preview, Spring 2000, 2001 & 2002.
  • “Three Indian Authors: Tagore, Narayan, and Desai” English Department Graduate Program Colloquium, November 28, 2001.
  • Invited presentation to the Foreign Languages Department on Internet publication and teaching (paid), April 14, 2001.
  • “Krishna, the Lover, in Art,” Art a la Carte presentation, February, 2001.
  • Organized and ran Indian film series Fall 2000, with Azfar Hussain. I helped to choose the films, secured them, scheduled them, wrote and distributed almost all of the publicity and trained Azfar in the use of the equipment to show DVDs and VHS tapes.
  • Three presentations of multimedia samples from my “Love in the Arts” class for New Student Programs, Spring, Summer, and Fall, 1999.
  • “The Chutneyfication of Literature,” readings from and remarks about recent South Asian literature, Art /* la carte series, Fall 1998.
  • “Annotating The Satanic Verses: An Example of Internet Research and Publication,” English Department colloquium, Spring 1997.
  • “Medieval Songs” multimedia presentation with Paula Elliot, for the WSU Foundation Silver Associates, March, 1997.
  • “Classic American Love Songs,” for the Math-English Honors Competition program, 1996-1997.
  • “World Civilizations Materials on the World Wide Web,” World Civilizations workshop, August, 1996.
  • Lecture on Hildegard of Bingen’s poetry as part of a Hildegard symposium sponsored by the History Club, Fall 1994.
  • Lectures to World Civilizations workshop August, 1994 on African Literature and African art and architecture (the latter using multimedia materials).
  • Presentation to visiting journalism teachers of relevant resources on the Internet, for the Journalism Department,July 1994 .
  • Presentation to World Civilization faculty workshop on teaching about the music and poetry of India, August 1993. Also participated in a panel discussion of the experiences of those of us who had gone on the WSU-sponsored trip to India in December 1992-January 1993.
  • Multimedia lecture on early African civilizations for Residence Life Staff during program “Ticket to Tomorrow: Issues for Understanding the World We Live In,” 1993.
  • Talk on my project to edit and publish the Chernobyl poems of Liubov Sirota, for visiting faculty members from Far Eastern University, Vladivostok, 1992.
  • Lecture on the history of Judaism, World Civilizations workshop, 1992.
  • Lecture on Medieval lyric poetry and music, World Civilizations Workshop, 1991.
  • Presentation on World Civilization multimedia project, Faculty Day, 1991.
  • See above, “Professional Papers Presented,” for details of presentations on campus of “Nuclear Chic.”
  • Talk on nuclear war fiction scholarship to English and Math Scholarship contestants, 1988.
  • “Strategies for Capturing Student Interest,” part of the Faculty Seminars on Effective Teaching sponsored by the WSU Faculty Development Committee, March 1988.
  • “Nuclear War in Science Fiction, ” Palouse SANE, CUB noontime series on War and the Arts, September 1987.
  • University-wide talk on my nuclear war research and trip to the Soviet Union, September, 1987 (invited, sponsored by Department of English).
  • “An Introduction to Nuclear War in Fiction,” Stevens Hall, 1987.
  • “Nuclear War Fiction for Young Readers,” to English and Math Scholarship contestants, 1987.
  • Talk on my research on nuclear war fiction, to English and Math Scholarship contestants, 1986.
  • “Underground Comix,” Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Holland Library, 1986.
  • “The New Censorship: Feminists and Pornography,” Invited address for Library Faculty Award Presentation, 1984.
  • “Science Fiction and Nuclear War,” (Ground Zero: “The Bomb and the Arts” Symposium, 1982.
  • “Current Feminist Science Fiction,” Women’s Center, 1978.
  • “Pornography and Erotic Art,” Sex Information Center Staff, 1979 (twice).
  • “Feminism and Science Fiction,” 1979.
  • “Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time,” Women’s Center, 1978.
  • “Science Fiction and the Idea of the American Frontier,” American Studies Group, 1978.
  • “Images of Childhood in Art and Literature,” 1976.
  • “Sex and Sexuality in Literature,” Women’s Art Festival, 1975.
  • Lectures and debates for the League for the Promotion of Militant Atheism, 1972-74.
  • “The Oppression of Women in Literature,” 1970.

Guest Lectures to colleagues’ classes

  • “Writing and Publishing Science Fiction,” for Paula Coomer’s course on writing science fiction and horror, summer, 2005.
  • South Asian Literature in English and Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey, presentation to Asia 301, February 2004.
  • Using multimedia to present music in the classroom, a demonstration involving classic American popular songs for Camille Roman, English 555 seminar, March 2002.
  • Art on Biblical Themes, for English/Humanities 335, October 29, 2001.
  • Media lecture on Krishna, god of love, for Virginia Hyde graduate seminar, April 18, 2001.
  • Art and music on Biblical themes, two lectures for English 335, Fall, 1998.
  • Presentation of Internet resources for the study of English to English 512, Fall, 1995-1997.
  • Presentations on “postcolonial” studies to English 512, Fall, 1996 & 1997.
  • Lecture on the poetry of N/(c)gritude for a minicourse on African studies, Spring 1993.
  • Lecture on women poets before 1600, for Barbara Harbach’s Women’s Studies class, 1993.
  • Talk on my project to edit and publish the Chernobyl poems of Liubov Sirota, for Susan-Wyche Smith’s English 198 class, 1992.
  • Slide lecture on love in art for Deborah Haynes,Aeo art history class, 1992.
  • See above, “Professional Papers Presented,” for details of presentations on campus of “Nuclear Chic.”
  • “Feminist Utopias,” Women’s Studies 200: Introduction to Women’s Studies, Spring, 1987.
  • “Exodus,” English 335, The Bible as Literature, Spring 1987.
  • “Nuclear War in Fiction,” for the Continuing Education evening course, “Nuclear War: Issues of the Day,” 1985.
  • “The Aftermath of World War III in Fiction,” Seminar on WWIII, Political Science 322, 1984.
  • “Women in Science Fiction,” Foreign Lang. 505, Seminar on Images of Women in the Arts, 1984.
  • “Religion and Nuclear War in Fiction, 1945-1982,” Religious Studies Seminar, 1984.
  • “Death in Children’s Books,” UNIV 280, 1982.
  • “Interracial Children’s Books,” Education Seminar, 1981, repeated for Child and Family Studies class, 1982.
  • “Contemporary Children’s Poetry,” Education Seminar, 1981.
  • “Emile Zola’s Germinal and Nineteenth-Century Radicalism,” French Civilization, 1980.
  • “Women in Erotic Art,” Women Artists Fine Arts course, 1979.
  • “Children’s Picture Books,” two lectures for English 495, 1978.
  • “Pornography and Erotic Art,” Psychology 230 (Human Sexuality); 8 times.
  • “Science Fiction and the Idea of the American Frontier,” 1979, Engl/Hist 316.
  • “Sex in Underground Comix,” 1974, English seminar on Sex in Literature.
  • “Atheism,” 1974, Philosophy 101.
  • “Science Fiction,” 1974, English 101.

Computer-oriented service at WSU

  • Installed self-designed presentations on classical art and architecture on departmental laptops for use by Humanities instructors, 2005-2006.
  • Set up and trouble-shot the departmental portable computer, Fall 1997.
  • Helped configure and make sure standards were met for classroom multimedia/computer equipment in Avery, 1997-present.
  • Proofreading and editing Richard Hooker’s on-line World Civilizations course, 1997.
  • *World Civilizations home page Web master, 1995-2005.
  • Gathered numerous resources from the World Wide Web for adding images to the WSU media collection and helped draw up criteria for adding to the collection.
  • Gathered, downloaded, and printed out large quantities of material relating to Africa for Abdoulaye Saine, chair of the African Studies Committee, 1994.
  • Gave extensive computer training to Departmental Secretary Nelly Zamora early in the summer of 1994.
  • Trained WSU News Bureau staff in using the Internet for their work, Spring 1994.
  • Presented uses of the Internet for humanists at a workshop sponsored by WSU Computing entitled “CIRcling the Globe,” 1992.
  • Instructed colleagues and departmental secretaries in using e-mail, 1992-1993.
  • Installed memory upgrade in the computer of the secretary of the Office of General Education, 1993.
  • Answered numerous trouble-shooting calls, 1986-present.

Other Service at WSU

  • Regularly requested science fiction, classical music by women and African-Americans, and films on DVD for addition to the MMR collection.
  • Maintained an informal list of information on “postcolonial” and South Asian literature for local faculty and students.
  • Donated over a hundred volumes of nuclear war fiction to the WSU library, 2005.
  • Donated over a hundred underground comic books, alternative newspapers and other ephemera from the 1960s to the WSU library Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, 2005.
  • Conceived of and helped plan for visit to campus by Nigerian author Wole Soyinka and Soyinka expert Femi Euba, funded, 2003-2004.
  • Donated over 700 slides of European art and architecture to the Department of Fine Arts slide collection, 2004.
  • Donated copies of the New York Times Book Review and Locus to the Bookie trade book department, 2000-2004.
  • Created and maintained Palouse Cultural Events Calendar, the only online source which combined events both on and off campus for Pullman and Moscow, ending Fall 2005.
  • Donated large collection of classical music and film soundtrack long-playing records and a DVD player to the Music Library, 2003.

Professional Service Outside of WSU

  • Served on review committee for best graduate student paper contest for the Science Fiction Research Association, 2006-2008, chaired committee 2008.
  • Donated 366 volumes of nuclear war fiction to the University of Iowa, 2005.

Off-Campus Lectures

  • Common Errors in English Usage, Wordstock, Portland, Oregon, November 11, 2007.
  • “Turning Web Writing into Printed Publications,” workshop at Wordstock, Portland, Oregon, November 11, 2007.
  • Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,  invited public lecture for the Fishtrap Center, Enterprise, Oregon, February 21, 2006, repeated for King County Library System, Shoreline, Washington, Fall 2007.
  • Nuke/Pop slide lecture, Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, Seattle, August 6, 2004 (paid).
  • Readings from Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, for the Pullman Historical Club, 1999. (Paid).
  • Formal debate with Douglas Wilson at the University of Idaho on the subject, Resolved: “Belief in God is necessary for a valid ethics,” Fall 1999.
  • Invited talk and debate about Christian fundamentalism at St. Andrew, Aeos College, Moscow, Idaho, Fall 1999.
  • Presentation on Rushdie research for students being recruited at Vancouver, via WHETS, Spring 1998.
  • Talk on the flood narrative as part of the Moscow Public Library,Aeos Community Enrichment Program discussion series on Genesis, Fall 1997.
  • Five presentations at the 28th annual Amerikastudientagung, Bonn, Germany (workshop for German high school teachers of American studies, invited and paid for by the American Information Service, Department of State):
  • May 8, 1997: Presentation of the film Blade Runner
  • May 9, 1997: “Future Visions: A Survey of American Science Fiction.”
  • May 9 & 10, 1997: “Teaching Science Fiction” workshops
  • May 10, 1997: “Blade Runner: The Book and the Movie”
  • May 11, 1997: “Nuclear Chic: Images of Nuclear War in American Culture” at the James F. Byrnes Institute, Stuttgart (invited and paid for by the Institute)
  • May 14, 1997: “Nuclear Chic: Images of Nuclear War in American Culture” at the Carl Schurz Haus, Freiberg (invited and paid for by the Haus).
  • For a group touring Provence, a lecture/reading on troubadour poetry, June, 1996 (paid).
  • For a group touring classical Greek sites, on the Arcadian ideal in European culture, and a two talks about and performance of brief excerpts from the Oresteia of Aeschylus, May 1993.
  • For a community study group, a lecture on Nigerian author Wole Soyinka, 1993.
  • “Children’s Nuclear War Fiction,” Seattle University, 1989.
  • “Learning About Nuclear War Through Fiction,” Seattle University, 1989.
  • “How to Argue with Christians,” Student Humanist Association, University of Idaho, 1989.
  • “Bible Abuse: The Misuse of the Bible.” Student Humanist Association, University of Idaho, 1989.
  • “Teaching a Pilot Section of World Civilizations,” Danforth Scholars Group, February 1988.
  • “Science Fiction and the Future of Government,” invited address at a Washington State 4-H conference on constitutional futures, Olympia, February 1988.
  • Talk on my research and trip to the USSR to Social Concerns Group, at University of Idaho, 1987.
  • “Nuclear War in Fiction,” two talks at Pullman High School, 1987.
  • “Nuclear War in Fiction,” Eastern Washington University, Spokane Higher Education Center, 1987.
  • “Recent Nuclear War Fiction,” Lewis and Clark College library noon lecture series, 1987.
  • “The Best Nuclear War Fiction for Young Readers,” Young Readers Group, Public Library, 1987.
  • “Atheism and Humanism,” Moscow High School, 1976-1987.
  • “Teaching About Utopias/Dystopias,” Society for Utopian Studies, Monterey, CA, 1986.
  • “Nuclear War in Science Fiction,” Moscow Science Fiction Convention, 1985.
  • “Beautiful Books for Preschoolers,” Cooperative Daycare Center, 1982.
  • “Books for Children of Single Parents,” Palouse Area Singles Group, 1978.
  • “Nonfiction Books for Preschoolers,” Community Day Care School staff, 1978.
  • “Pornography and Erotic Art,” for the Palouse Area Singles Group, 1978.
  • “The Western Background to Racism,” symposium on Racism and the Public Schools, 1978.
  • “Pornography, Obscenity and Privacy,” symposium on privacy, Pacific Lutheran University, 1978.
  • “Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time,” for the Common Ministry, 1978.
  • “Atheism,” formal debate with Professor Nicholas Gier, Philosophy Department, University of Idaho, 1973.

Off-Campus Presentations and Websites

  • Slightly revised WSU/Palouse photo tour, 2005-2006.
  • Added a number of regional photographic tours to my WSU/Palouse Web site, 2003-4.
  • Conducted a small workshop for teachers on using science fiction in the classroom, Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, Seattle, August 7, 2004 (paid).
  • Created a Web tour of WSU and the Palouse aimed especially at orienting new graduate students and faculty to the area, August, 2002, at http://users.pullman.com/brians/index.html.
  • Interview on the protests against the World Trade Organization for Web-based radio station in New Orleans, 1999.
  • “Current Changes in the U.S.S.R.: A Recent Visitor’s View,” panel of Russians and Americans discussing nuclear war, sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Spokane, Sacred Heart Hospital Auditorium.
  • “Women: Planning for the Future” (Facilitator), Northwest Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Moscow, Idaho, 1979.
  • “Sex in Science Fiction” (chair and speaker), Moscow Science Fiction Convention, 1979.
  • “The Radical Teacher,” Conference on English Education, Portland, Oregon, 1971.

Radio and Television Appearances

  • Radio interview about Common Errors in English Usage on Youth Radio, KPFT Houston, August 14, 2009.
  • Radio panel with author David Guterson about Snow Falling on Cedars, BBC World Book Club, February 7, 2009.
  • Radio interview about Common Errors in English Usage on The Lionel Show, Air America, December 18, 2008.
  • Panelist on World Book Club interview with Wole Soyinka, BBC radio, May 2007.
  • Radio interview about “Mr. Gradgrind’s Literal Answers to Rhetorical Questions, by Scott Simon for the National Public Radio Show Weekend Edition Saturday, Fall, 2007.
  • Radio interview about nuclear war in films: “Nuclear Disarmament: An Impossible Dream?” interviewed by Margot Adler for the National Public Radio show Justice Talking, October 9, 2006.
  • Radio interview about English errors on “Wordmaster,” Voice of America, August 23, 2005.
  • Radio interview about “Common Errors in English”, KUOW, Seattle, April 26, 2004.
  • Radio interview on Stanislaw Lem,Aeos Solaris and the Tarkovsky and Soderbergh film versions of it, broadcast January 25, 2003, Radio Free Europe (translated into Russian).
  • Radio interview on Common Errors, Nashville Public Radio. 2002.
  • Radio interview on nuclear war fiction, KXLY, Seattle, 1988
  • Radio interview on nuclear war fiction, KXL, Portland, 1988
  • Appeared in a Soviet documentary about the Seventh IPPNW Congress broadcast in the Soviet Union, 1987.
  • Radio interview on trip to Russia, KXLY, Spokane, 1987.
  • Radio interview on trip to Russia and research, KPBX, Spokane, 1987.
  • Radio interviews on current trends in nuclear war fiction on KIRO (Seattle), KING (Seattle), 1985; KRPL (Moscow, ID), KXLY (Spokane), 1984
  • “Nuclear War in Fiction,” segment on”Grassroots Journal,” KWSU-TV, 1984
  • Produced programs for women’s music program on Polish composer Graznia Bacewicz and Ella Fitzgerald, KZUU-FM, 1982
  • Produced and hosted weekly show, “Radio’s Golden Age,” KZUU-FM, 1982-1984.
  • “Children’s Picture Books,” KWSU-TV, Pullman, WA, 1978.
  • “The Pagan Origins of Christmas,” KUID-FM, 1975.
  • Panel on sex education, KSPS-TV, Spokane, 1974.
  • Debate with Nicholas Gier on Theism vs. Atheism on KUID-FM, 1973.
  • Panel discussion of a new Idaho obscenity statute, KUID-TV, 1973.
  • “The New Pornography,” interview, KUID-FM, Moscow, ID, 1973.

Articles about my work

(many others not yet listed here)

  • “Speaking of English,” by Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 28, 2004, p. A6 & A8.

Miscellaneous Service

  • Donated large collection of nuclear war fiction to Holland Library, Fall 2007.
  • Donated a collection of science fiction by women authors to Holland Library, Fall 2006.
  • Exhibit of international Disney Comic books at Neill Public Library, Summer, 2006.
  • Exhibit of international Floaty Pens at Brain Education Library, Fall 2006.
  • Created a photo calendar of my regional photographs and posted it for free downloading on my personal Website, 2005.
  • Supplied photos of the McConnell Mansion in Moscow for a presentation by Kathleen Ryan of Design North to the Latah County Historical Society, July, 2005.
  • Supplied photo of Japan for Asia Program poster, WSU, 2005.
  • Identified and contributed music for presentation by Birgitta Ingemanson for the rededication of Thompson Hall, September 23, 2000.
  • Donated a large collection of comic books and other ephemera relating to nuclear war to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections in Holland/New Library, 2000.
  • Donated over 1,000 underground comic books, underground newspapers, and other ,Aeo60s-related items to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections in Holland/New Library, 2000.
  • Consulted with representatives of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cooperative Extension Service about distance learning via the Web.
  • Coached soprano Karen Wicklund on the pronunciation of words in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky for a concert, Spring 1995.
  • Spoke on career planning at New Faculty Orientation, Fall 1993.
  • Selected and prepared color photocopies and captions from slides in my collection of popular culture nuclear weapons imagery for a touring exhibit entitled “Yes, In My Back Yard?” curated by Helen Slade, opening in Richland, Washington, February 4-27, 1992. Exhibit traveled to WSU, Spring 1996.
  • *Acting, from 1990 to the present, as agent and editor for Liubov Sirota, a poet living now in Kiev, who was injured by the Chernobyl explosion. I have arranged for her poems about the disaster to be translated and published and solicited from Dr. Adolph Harash of Moscow State University an introduction, which I also had translated. Selections were read to music on the National Public Radio program Terra Infirma on April 1, 1992; the poem “Radiophobia” was published in the August 5, 1992 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association; one other poem was published in New York Quarterly, all the poems and a revised version of the introduction appeared in Calyx , Winter 1992/1993, and in Selections on Words and Healing edited by Sue Brannan Walker & Rosaly Demaios Roffman (Mobile, Alabama: Negative Capability Press). The article by Dr. Harash has also appeared in the Canadian magazine Woman’s World. I continue to communicate with Sirota from time to time. One poem was reprinted in a Calyx Books anthology of women, Aeos poetry, 2002.
  • In late 1999 I edited, annotated, and added to the site pictures from the abandoned city of Pripyat and the Chernobyl reactor by Lyubov Sirota’s son Sasha. During January 2001, edited more pictures by Lyubov Sirota herself, with her annotations translated by Birgitta Ingemanson.
  • Advised Professor Yuri Mironetz of Far Eastern University, Vladivostok, on how to design and teach a course in science fiction (the first to be offered in Russia), 1992. Supplied Prof. Mironetz with numerous books and articles to aid him in his teaching. The course was successfully given Spring, 1993.
  • Compiled and edited an anthology of literature for use in World Civilizations (Gen Ed 110), consisting of mostly lyric poetry from many cultures, with an introductory teacher’s guide written by myself. Reproduced by the General Education Office and distributed to 110 instructors at the World Civilizations workshop, Summer, 1992.

Community Service

  • Member, film committee, Kenworthy Film Society, 2002-2007. I recommended many of the films shown at this nonprofit theater.
  • Computer Services for Pullman NOW and Palouse SANE, 1980s.
  • Membership Secretary, Pullman NOW, 1986-89.
  • Secretary, Washington State Conference of AAUP, 1983-84; reelected for 1984-86.
  • “Why It Is in the Interests of Whites to Combat Racism,” talk, Pullman, YWCA, 1983.
  • Speaker for NOW on Awareness Week Panel: “How can abortion be made as unnecessary as possible?” 1983
  • Judge, Pullman Chapter of NOW, essay context, 1983.
  • Secretary, Pullman Chapter of the National Organization for Women, 1982-83.
  • “The Causes and Prevention of War,” address, Whitman College, 1980.
  • Training draft counselors for the Walla Walla Society of Friends, 1980.
  • Panel discussion on draft registration, Whitman College, 1980.
  • Talks on the draft to various campus and community groups, workshops and training sessions, 1980.
  • Class on “Religious Themes in Science Fiction,” with Rev. Roger Pettenger, Common Ministry, 1977.
  • Free University class on children’s picture books, taught six times, 1977-82
  • Annual lecture on “Atheism and Humanism” to world history classes at Moscow High School, Moscow, ID, 1976-1988.
  • Coordinator, Community Free University, 1970-present.
  • Leader of various classes in the CFU, including two dealing with literature: “Intimacy” and “Contemporary Utopias”, 1969-1971.
  • Author of a draft counseling column for the Daily Evergreen, 1970-73.
  • Draft counseling, 1968-1980.

 

Retirement address

Keynote speech for English Dept. Awards Ceremony, April 15, 2008

Teaching, Politics, & Me

Paul Brians

I’ve been asked to look back over my career in this highly political season, and I’ve decided to share with you some thoughts about my work in English and its relationship to politics. I think in many ways my career has been quite typical of many English professors, but some of our ideals and practices have been the target of criticism from some colleagues who have different ideas about the proper relationship of politics to English studies, and that’s the subject I want to explore.

I’ll begin with a well-known quotation from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

As a young teenager who loved books I was fascinated by Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. What a concept! Bookish scholars not only understand the course of history, they can secretly shape it. Talk about being the “unaknowledged legislators of the world”! I read it a half-dozen times.

But then I read Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, which scrambled my brain and rendered me an unfit reader for Asimov’s simplistic fantasy. The complexity and vividness with which the Russian author conveyed the contradictions, tensions, convolutions of human experience blew open a window that gave me new idea of what fiction could do.

As a Comparative Literature Ph.D. student at Indiana University in the 60s, I learned not only how to read literature across national, linguistic, and temporal boundaries, but also how to relate literature to music, art, and philosophy. My interests gradually shifted to the history of ideas as reflected in the arts, and that is the course I have pursued ever since, in a variety of ways.

Part of situating literature in history is situating it politically, and my MA thesis was a exploration of the unique achievement of Emile Zola’s Germinal in exploring the complexities of the labor movements and various radical philosophies fermenting in the late 19th century. During this time, the Vietnam War was heating up, and when I arrived in Pullman in 1968, I plunged headfirst into the anti-war movement, writing an anti-ballistic missile poem, radical critiques of conservative religious thought for a small activist group, and numerous letters to the editor. I was
the only really active faculty member of the local Students for a Democratic Society chapter, and wound up as a delegate at the disastrous 1969 Chicago SDS convention where the organization tore itself apart as the University of Wisconsin chapter sprang to its feet waving Mao’s little red book at every opportunity and the national leadership unveiled the manifesto of what was to become the terrorist cell known as the Weather Underground.

It was routine in that period to speak of liberals with scorn, and to escalate the ideal status from dissenter to radical to revolutionary—although these terms were seldom clearly defined. For a while I was influenced in the same direction, but my basic political beliefs and instincts have always remained essentially liberal. I’m just not ashamed to say so any more. Years of close study of Marx and Marxism and visits to the Soviet Union and China convinced me that although Marxist analysis can provide useful insights into problems and issues, Marxist solutions are usually worse than the problems they purport to solve.

As certain voices in the movement grew more and more extreme and irrational, they progressively shed their following, until the group optimistically shouting “the people united shall never be defeated” were a pathetic remnant speaking for almost no one. My own political activities shifted to support for the nascent women’s movement (I was an officer in the Pullman NOW chapter for several years), and I began a long career of exploring and teaching about women writers, composers, and artists which has continued to the present.

All during this period, while introducing Zola, Marx, Lenin, and other radical texts into my teaching, and offering courses on utopian topics, I continued to revel in the opportunity to share with my students the complexities and nuances of writers whose concerns were very different: Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, and Virginia Woolf, to name just a few.

It became common among activist teachers in the 70s and 80s to argue that since absolute neutrality was impossible, students deserved an overt statement of the teacher’s political stance. But although in politics outside the classroom I strove to define my position and articulate it forcefully, in the study of literature I wanted my students to be able to immerse themselves in the widest possible range of experiences and ideas. One thing I most value about literature is precisely that it challenges our certainties, makes us think more complexly about ideas and
issues. When I first read Nietzsche he horrified and repelled me, but when I revisited him years later I realized that although I would always resist much of what he had to say, he opened up new ways of understanding life as an adventure in the creation of values as a human enterprise. He also undermined any attraction that finding an ultimate universal truth might have had for me.

I also was convinced that overtly activist teaching can deteriorate very quickly into preaching to the choir on the one hand and alienating students who differ on the other. I respected my students enough to think that they could arrive at their own positions in much the same way I had, not by becoming my disciple, but by exploring a wide range of ideas and experiences and applying their minds and personal experiences to them. I am proud of the fact that students were often unable to figure out where I stood on issues I spoke about even as I articulated with some passion arguments that could be made from various perspectives. I think that sort of traditionally humanist/liberal approach provides a stronger basis for students to deal with political issues once they leave the academy, building up and keeping their intellectual muscles and tendons flexible.

I discovered as time passed that many of those whose thought had been shaped in the sixties took a rather different path. For them, the classroom was an extension of—or even replacement for—their activism. Arguing that neutrality is impossible and that students deserved to know honestly the positions they held, they became open advocates of defined political positions and shaped their curricula to channel young minds in the political paths they advocated.

Huge bodies of politically oriented criticism and theory grew up to eventually dominate literary studies in the eighties and later. The only “serious” ways to regard literature were political: once you had figured out who was being oppressed, who caricatured, who silenced in a text, you knew all that was really significant. I contributed my own bit when I reacted to the Reagan revival of the Cold War by launching into a ten-year study of the vast corpus of nuclear war fiction. It led to some very interesting opportunities for me, and I think the work was worth while; but in some ways I regret having polluted my head with so many wretched post-nuclear holocaust fantasies. The canon wars of the 70s and 80s were essentially an attempt to rank authors by their degree of alignment with the political concerns of the teachers. I was glad to help widen the curriculum to include previously unheard voices by women and writers of color; but the widespread insistence on discussing only issues of power and oppression rendered much of the result simplistic and mind-numbing. Those aspects of literature reflecting less than “progressive” values were called “problematic” and teachers who still emphasized esthetic and formal concerns were often disdained.

I have always thought this was a mistake, for several reasons.

First of all, this sort of overtly politicized teaching expressed a basic distrust in the ability of students to sort through the complex maze of human ideas and arrive at their own conclusions. Few of us deserve disciples, and the kind of teaching I admire most resembles more that of Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra in which he dismisses his listeners and tells them to resist him if they can, and find their own paths.

Second, a convert to a view argued one-sidedly is acutely vulnerable to disillusionment and apostasy: better to seriously engage the most powerful and intelligent arguments of your opponents. I learned a lot studying Plato: mostly how to resist him. If I had been taught to resist Plato I might well have been more eager to see value in his ideas.

Third, when we sort out writers according to how well they match our political agendas, we deprive ourselves of some of the richest experiences literature has to offer. There is greatness in the forthright angry eloquence of a Claude McKay or a Malcolm X, but there is also greatness in the fiercely complex ideas of a Derek Walcott or a Samuel R. Delany.

Two of the authors I was instrumental in bringing to this campus illustrate this point. The late Octavia Butler wrote powerfully—even fiercely—about matters of race and oppression; but often in ways that made readers on all sides acutely uncomfortable. She identified not only tensions generated by inequalities, but by profound flaws in the individual characters of all races and classes. Wole Soyinka disappointed the “post-colonial” crowd and orthodox Marxists by refusing to make the evils of colonialism his subject, instead preferring to focus on the nightmare into which Nigeria and other African nations descended during his lifetime. The fact that he preferred not to spend his time analyzing how all of this disarray was partly the legacy of the British in West Africa did not signify that he held them guiltless: after all, he wrote a book advocating reparations for slavery. But his body of work might well bear a label common to many Anglophone writers from non-Western nations: “This story is not about you.” To many writers from some nations, “postcolonial” studies is another way of Europeans introducing themselves into the center of the picture. It is remarkable how very distant most fiction from India, Nigeria, Jamaica, and other countries is from the agendas of postcolonial scholars, even those from the same countries. All too often, the scholarly agenda is reduced to the level of carping and complaining about insufficiently political authors in tediously repetitive critiques.

I also spent five years intensively studying Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, which occupies a territory deeply troubling to committed literary activists. He fiercely attacks the tendency of the white majority to demonize all foreigners and view them as interchangeable, but he also fiercely attacks Iranian fundamentalism and Sikh terrorism. And he mocks Trotskyites and other activists. The temptation of some is to dismiss him as a reactionary; but there is much more to Rushdie’s novel than he’s often given credit for, and he literally—if unintentionally—put his life on the line when he wrote it.

Fourth, formal esthetic qualities are, of course, the very qualities that attract most readers to literature; and denigrating them alienates a great many students. The 90’s revival of the old Stalinist term “formalism” to denigrate esthetic considerations repelled me. For most students literature which is not alluring or engrossing in some sense is not worth talking about. Social and political concerns can be far more effectively discussed directly using sociology, political science, psychology and other disciplines rather than literary criticism.

Finally, if political activity has any justification, it is the hope of creating a better life. The puritanical tendency of some teacher-activists to scorn the sheer pleasure that literature can bring evinces a certain insensitivity to the richness of life’s possibilities. Literature which puzzles, exhilarates, frightens, excites, and amuses is worth exploring and celebrating. If we choose only literature which forwards our pet agendas we are little better than the worst sort of Victorian critic who disdained any writing judged not properly edifying. “Problematic” is the new “improper.”

One of the greatest gifts the reading of literature can convey is surprise: the opening of our minds and hearts to ideas and feelings we had never previously experienced. If we approach each text always already knowing what we shall find, we are not only bad readers, but impoverished human beings. All too much modern literary scholarship teaches us nothing new, but circles around the same familiar set of ideas. Often the more complex the language and theory involved, the more simplistic the conclusions being made.

Fortunately younger faculty and students alike are interested in a much wider range of approaches to literature than the last generation; and I see more adventurous, independent thought among my colleagues and students these days than I have for a long, long time.

I want to conclude by making a few remarks about the work that I’m best known for outside the university, my website Common Errors in English and the various publications derived from it. A standard objection to this sort of thing is that correctness in English usage is a social construction, and that the proper role of the professionals should be confined to tracking changing usage and celebrating diversity. Yet English professors are not the gatekeepers of usage, and their permission to stray from traditional usage goes unheard by the general public.
Instead, people want to know how they can make themselves clear, impress their readers, communicate effectively.

It is precisely because language usage is an artificial social construction that one needs a lot of information to navigate the dangerous waters of modern English to avoid embarrassment and disdain. We can tell bosses that they should ignore the tendency of their job applicants to write “for all intensive purposes” and “one in the same.” They are not listening. The pronunciation by eastern newscasters of our neighbor state’s name as “Oregawn” alienates listeners. The tendency to call a slash a “backslash” confuses computer users. Mistakes are essentially social, but that does not make them unreal: we need to know the social reality which our words encounter when others read or hear them. Some English teachers are happy to critique the obfuscatory jargon and and cliches of bureaucrats but not to address the verbal gaffes of the downtrodden: but who needs more help? Who is more endangered by linguistic patterns that arouse contempt?

My attitude is not to smugly announce what is right and wrong, but to provide information: speaking of “tradegy” will not impress your English professor, “oriental” offends a lot of Asians, but using “decimate” to mean “utterly destroy” probably offends only truly picky people you can safely ignore. This is information: social information.

So how do I reconcile my praise of ambiguity and complexity in literary studies and my praise of clarity and consistency in language usage?

First, literature is often at its best when it’s ambiguous and puzzling; ordinary communication is not.

Second, the complexities and surprises of literature are intentional and lead us to admire the writers when we understand them whereas verbal and written stumbles are mostly unintentional and tend to make people look foolish or poorly educated. Knowing standard usage lets you make a conscious choice of whether to say “penultimate” when you mean “last” or “exalt” when you mean “exult.”

Third, the drive to prune the canon and throw open the doors of English usage flowed from similar impulses: to reject the irreducible complexity of both literature and social interaction in the service a political ideal.

Finally, my experience of trying to explain language matters to a broad public using simple language and humorous illustrations seems to have found a large audience hungry for such material. Millions of visitors to my site and thousands of e-mails reinforce every day the notion that people find guidance on language matters just plain useful.

I’m happy to have worked in a department where there is a lively variety of approaches to both language and literature, where students can encounter both challenging complexity and helpful clarification, and where my wildly varied and sometimes unorthodox approaches to scholarship and teaching have been more than tolerated—they’ve even been rewarded, sometimes by the very people who disapproved of them.

The sort of narrow politicization of English studies I’ve focused on is looking increasingly dated nationally, and certainly does not characterize the majority of younger scholars I’ve encountered here. Though we are constantly pressured to mold ourselves in the service of mission statements and benchmarks, I am content that English at Washington State University will remain gloriously unorganized and varied. Today’s students are fortunate to be able to plunge into the rich, messy stew that is English studies at WSU.

Books by Paul Brians

I’ve had a varied career and none of my books has much to do with the others; but here’s information about each of them.

Bawdy Tales from the Courts of Medieval France

This is a collection of stories ranging from risqué to raunchy from mostly obscure Medieval French originals. The book was published in paperback as a Harper Torchbook in 1973, but was too sensational for classroom use and not sensational enough for popular sales. Harper & Row decided to put out a hardcover edition to stimulate library sales (at that time libraries seldom bought paperbacks), but they never advertised it and few were sold. After selling the bulk of the first edition, Harper & Row sold off most of the rest to a reseller cheap and let it go out of print. However, the book has entertained and informed quite a few people (including Barbara Tuchman, who cited it in A Distant Mirror), including some teachers who use photocopies of certain stories in their classes. For this I get an occasional royalty check. It includes the only English translation of a very rare Arthurian tale, "The Knight of the Sword" in which Gawain is tested on a magical bed, as well as such low-brow entertainments as "The Lady Who Was Castrated" and "The Lay of the Lecher." The hardbound library edition is extremely rare (I have a few copies for sale to libraries only), but paper copies appear from time to time at reasonable prices from used book dealers. Try searching at ABEBooks.com
This is a collection of stories ranging from risqué to raunchy from mostly obscure Medieval French originals. The book was published in paperback as a Harper Torchbook in 1973, but was too sensational for classroom use and not sensational enough for popular sales. Harper & Row decided to put out a hardcover edition to stimulate library sales (at that time libraries seldom bought paperbacks), but they never advertised it and few were sold. After selling the bulk of the first edition, Harper & Row sold off most of the rest to a reseller cheap and let it go out of print.
However, the book has entertained and informed quite a few people (including Barbara Tuchman, who cited it in A Distant Mirror), including some teachers who use photocopies of certain stories in their classes. For this I get an occasional royalty check. It includes the only English translation of a very rare Arthurian tale, “The Knight of the Sword” in which Gawain is tested on a magical bed, as well as such low-brow entertainments as “The Lady Who Was Castrated” and “The Lay of the Lecher.”
The hardbound library edition is extremely rare (I have a few copies for sale to libraries only), but paper copies appear from time to time at reasonable prices from used book dealers. Try searching at ABEBooks.com
Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction 1895-1984 This history and annotated bibliography of nuclear war as it has been depicted in fiction was the product of ten years of research. I published widely on the subject until the end of the Cold War led to a sharp dropoff in interest in the subject. The first edition of 1986 almost sold out before Kent State University Press remaindered it. There are no copies presently available for sale, but many libraries own a copy. However, this book has been rendered obsolete by the Web publication of the second edition, which should be used instead.
Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction 1895-1984
This history and annotated bibliography of nuclear war as it has been depicted in fiction was the product of ten years of research. I published widely on the subject until the end of the Cold War led to a sharp dropoff in interest in the subject. The first edition of 1986 almost sold out before Kent State University Press remaindered it. There are no copies presently available for sale, but many libraries own a copy. However, this book has been rendered obsolete by the Web publication of the second edition, which should be used instead.

Reading About the World, Vols. 1 & 2. A custom-published reader for the study of world civilizations. Samples and further information are available by clicking on the title above. Copies can be purchased from Amazon.com.
Reading About the World, Vols. 1 & 2.
A custom-published reader for the study of world civilizations. Samples and further information are available by clicking on the title above. Copies can be purchased from Amazon.com.

reader_cover_2

Common Errors in English Usage Published 2003 by William, James Co., this is the book version of my popular Web site, "Common Errors in English." It is a usage guide which attempts to be helpful and entertaining without overwhelming the reader with technical detail. Click here to read more about the book.
Common Errors in English Usage
Published 2003 by William, James Co., this is the book version of my popular Web site, “Common Errors in English.” It is a usage guide which attempts to be helpful and entertaining without overwhelming the reader with technical detail.

Modern South Asian Literature in English Published 2003 by Greenwood Press. This is a discussion of some authors from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka who write fiction in English (Attia Hosain, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry, Bharati Mukherjee, R. K. Narayan, Michael Ondaatje, Raja Rao, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Shyam Selvadurai, Khushwant Singh, Bapsi Sidhwa, Manil Suri, and Rabindranath Tagore). These essays are aimed at being helpful to readers beginning to explore this popular literature. It avoids fearsome theoretical and critical vocabulary and aims at explaining what needs explaining without giving away plot surprises. Ideal for libraries, reading groups, and beginning college courses on the subject.
Modern South Asian Literature in English
Published 2003 by Greenwood Press. This is a discussion of some authors from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka who write fiction in English (Attia Hosain, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry, Bharati Mukherjee, R. K. Narayan, Michael Ondaatje, Raja Rao, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Shyam Selvadurai, Khushwant Singh, Bapsi Sidhwa, Manil Suri, and Rabindranath Tagore). These essays are aimed at being helpful to readers beginning to explore this popular literature. It avoids fearsome theoretical and critical vocabulary and aims at explaining what needs explaining without giving away plot surprises. Ideal for libraries, reading groups, and beginning college courses on the subject.

This book (Island Seasons Press, 2010) is a self-published collection of photographs of Bainbridge Island, Washington, focusing on characteristic flowers and other plants in different times of year. Information is provided about parks, hikes, other attractions, and various seasonal events on the island. For more information, write paulbrians@gmail.com.
This book (Island Seasons Press, 2010) is a self-published collection of photographs of Bainbridge Island, Washington, focusing on characteristic flowers and other plants in different times of year. Information is provided about parks, hikes, other attractions, and various seasonal events on the island. For more information, write paulbrians@gmail.com.

For a full list of my publications, including articles, contributed chapters in books, and e-publications, see my vita.

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020.

Paul Brians’ Home Page

Mr. Gradgrind’s Literal Answers to Rhetorical Questions

People commonly ask empty rhetorical questions that rarely receive any sort of sensible answer. When you have had your surfeit of poetical whimsy and are ready for some good, hard facts, come here to be set straight.

The world would be much improved if those engaging in windy musings were more often brought up short by a nice, sharp definition or a pointed rebuke. Even the fantastical William Shakespeare, asking himself “Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?” goes on (admittedly at excessive length) to list a number of reasons for answering in the negative.

Of course, some questions are so ill-framed as to admit of no sensible answer. Example: Where have you been all my life? It so happens that this question has never been addressed to me; but if it were I should be at a loss to detail the many addresses at which I have resided and worked during the span of existence of some other person, even if I knew that person’s precise date of birth. Such idle musings are best ignored.

However, one can learn much by discovering facts that provide satisfactory answers to questions one might suppose at first glance to be pointless. This page is devoted to the pursuit of such answers.

What is so rare as a day in June?

June having 30 days, it is clear that days in April, September, and November are precisely as “rare,”or as common, though they are slightly less common than days in January, March, May, July, August, October, and December. Days in February are the least common, of course, so it is nonsensical to consider June days as particularly rare.

Where are the snows of yesteryear?

If the question refers to the melted product of last winter’s snowfall, the answer can sometimes be derived by analyzing the volume of water in the catch basins of dams located on streams downhill from the point of original snowfall. More precise measures may be taken of those snows that contribute to glaciers which move at regular rates ranging from a few centimeters to a hundred meters per year. The easiest place to locate such snow, however, is in the extreme arctic and antarctic regions, where, although snow is very rare and sparse, it remains satisfactorily frozen and fixed in place indefinitely.

How high the moon?

It varies between 356,000 and 407,000 km in distance from the surface of the earth, its average distance being 384,400 km.

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

D. Kolb and E.K.E. Gunderson’s study, “Alcoholism in the United States Navy” reports that attempts to prevent, diagnose and rehabilitate sailors suffering from alcohol-related problems are to a measurable degree superior to the older approach of simple hospitalization (published in Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 183-194).

Who wrote the Book of Love?

René of Anjou, King of Naples 1435-1480, wrote and illustrated his Book of Love (Le cueur d’amours espris) some time after 1473 while living idly in Provence.

Tell me why the ivy twines.

Not all ivies do twine, of course: some are mere creeping vines. However, climbing ivies such as are commonly seen covering academic buildings maximize their exposure to light by using twining tendrils to affix themselves to other plants and objects in order to gain altitude and escape their shade.

Would you like to swing on a star?

There has been a good deal of research into the use of long tethers linking space probes which could use the gravitational differential between linked units closer to and farther from a massive object to generate both electrical and kinetic energy (see L. Johnson, B. Gilchrist, R. D. Estes and E. Lorenzini: Advances in Space Research, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 1055-1063 (1999). However, problems of scale and temperature make it unlikely that this technique will be applied to interstellar navigation any time in the near future; so you would be wise to limit your wishes to swinging from a planet.

How long has this been going on?

Data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe produce an estimated age for the universe of 13.7 billion years, plus or minus a 1% margin of error.

What is to be done?

I find that the Filofax A5 System Organizer efficiently tracks my appointments with a minimum of fuss and is generally superior to the personal information management software products so widely touted by computer enthusiasts.

What’s up, Doc?

Presuming that the doctor addressed is a physician, one must assume that the question refers to the identity of the topmost parts of the human body, in which case the short answer is the frontal lobe of the brain, the skull, the scalp, and–if any–the hair.

How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen Paris?

Administered commodity prices resulting in an average profit per farmer of no more than $50,000 per annum should be adequate to discourage profligate trips to France.

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

No one well informed, of course, since the writer in question died in 1941; but during her lifetime she was known to have a sharp tongue, and many persons had reason to fear her wit.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Generally the petals of the flowering parts of plants wither and fall off to decay in the surrounding soil while the remainder is converted into fruiting bodies. However, the blossoms of early-flowering fruit trees such as plums and cherries are particularly subject to the destructive effects of spring rains.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Though the poet neglects to enumerate them, providing instead a mere list, a simple inventory establishes that–if we omit the purely hypothetical posthumous final one–Elizabeth Barrett loved Robert Browning in precisely seven ways.

Mr. Gradgrind recommends to those seeking guidance in matters of language the fine book by Dr. Paul Brians: Common Errors in English Usage, illustrated with excellent engravings and published by the firm of William, James & Co.

common-errors-cover

Listen to Paul Brians discussing and reading from this page on his podcast.

Write to Mr. Gradgrind

Paul Brians’ home page

Last revised July 7, 2007.

Syllabus for Online Graduate-Level Science Fiction Course

Teaching Science Fiction in High School Classes

Developed by Paul Brians

Note: this course is no longer being offered. The syllabus is being made available for people who may want ideas about how to teach such a course.

Course Overview

      Note: This is a preliminary syllabus provided to help potential students get an idea of the course ahead of time. Changes may be made before the course actually begins. Because this is a compressed course taught in half the usual time, and is offered at the graduate level, students should expect to set aside adequate time to do the work. Considering it as approximately the equivalent of a half-time job should be adequate. Because it is a discussion course, students are responsible for setting aside the time to work on it consistently. This is not a “flex-time” course which can be done at leisure.

Although the general public thinks of science fiction (SF) primarily as a phenomenon of escapist movies and television shows, there is also a large body of fine written SF which qualifies as good literature by any standard. This course seeks to familiarize students with written SF as literature rather than as a pop culture phenomenon. Students will learn the history of written SF, study specific major works (both novels and short stories), and become acquainted with literary criticism in the field.

Goals

When you have completed this course, you will be able to:

  • identify outstanding authors and works which may be recommended to students, encouraging them to explore beyond Star Wars novels and other pop series
  • locate scholarly sources to support the study of works of SF
  • design and create materials to help students understand works of SF

 

Course Outline

Assignments for Week One (Due 9:00 AM, June 23)

      Readings

      1. Donald Palumbo: “Science Fiction” (DDLS reserves).
      2. H. G. Wells: War of the Worlds

(if you do not get your textbooks in time, use the online edition at Bartleby.com http://www.bartleby.com/1002/ to get your reading done by the assigned date

          .)

        1. John J. Pierce: “The Prophet Wells ” (DDLS reserves).
        2. Brian Aldiss: “H. G. Wells” (DDLS reserves).

Heads-up: On July 7 you will turn in an annotated bibliography of books, articles, and other resources that you intend to use in researching your topic. Use MLA style documentation, and for each item, explain how you think it will contribute to your research project. Correspond with Prof. Brians now to negotiate your topic and begin searching for sources right away.

Course Work

Assignments for Week Two (due 9:00 AM, June 30)
Readings

        1. Sign up for research topic.
        2. Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles
        3. Gary K. Wolfe: “The Frontier Myth in Ray Bradbury” (DDLS online reserves)
        4. Walter M. Miller: A Canticle for Leibowitz
        5. Paul Brians “The Long-Term Effects of Nuclear War,” in Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction.
        6. Brooks Landon: Science Fiction After 1900, Chapters One and Two

Course Work:

      1. Contributions to online discussion of both The Martian Chronicles and A Canticle for Leibowitz, including responses to related study guides and supplementary readings.
      2. Contribution to online discussion of assigned chapters in Landon.

Assignments for Week Three (due 9:00 AM, July 7)
Readings

    1. Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris
    2. Study Guide for Solaris
    3. Istvan Scicsery-Ronay, Jr.: “The Book Is the Alien: On Certain and Uncertain Readings of Lem’s Solaris (DDLS Reserves)”
    4. Brooks Landon: Science Fiction Since 1900: Chapter 3
  • Read Veronica Hollinger’s “Contemporary Trends in Science Fiction Criticism, 1980-1999.” Course Work
    1. Post annotated bibliography for research paper in “My DDP”.
    2. Contribute to discussion of Lem’s Solaris.
    3. Contribute to discussion of Brooks Landon’s book, Chapter 3.
    4. In the threaded discussion called “Science Fiction Criticism” identify two or three of the critical works that Hollinger discusses which interest you and briefly explain why.

    Assignments for Week Four (due 9:00 AM, July 14)
    Readings

    1. Philip K. Dick’s Blade Runner
    2. Landon, Chapter 4
    3. William M. Kolb: “Blade Runner: Film Notes” (in DDLS reserves)

    Viewing

    1. After reading the novel view Blade Runner the film, preferably the director’s cut, using the Kolb article to guide your note-taking.

    Course Work

    1. Contribute to discussion of Blade Runner including comparison of the book with the film.
    2. Contribute to the discussion of Landon, Chapter 4.

    Assignments for Week Five (due 9:00 AM, July 21)
    Readings

    1. Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed
    2. Study Guide for Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed
    4. Ursula LeGuin: “Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown” (DDLS reserves)
    5. Tom Moylan: “Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed” (DDLS reserves)

    Course Work

    1. Contribute to discussion of The Dispossessed following the guidelines in the syllabus for online discussion.

    Assignments for Week Six (due 9:00 AM, July 28)
    Reading

    1. The selected stories from the Norton Book of Science Fiction which are discussed in the study guide.
    2. The study guide for the Norton Book of Science Fiction

    Course Work

    1. Submit research paper.
    2. Contribute to discussion of short stories and respond to the contributions of others.

    Assignments for Week Seven (due 9:00 AM, August 4)
    Readings

    1. William Gibson’s Neuromancer
    2. Study guide for Neuromancer
    3. Landon: Science Fiction After 1900, Chapter 5
    4. Lance Olsen: “Who Was that Man?” (DDLS reserves)
    5. Nicola Nixon: “Cyberpunk: Preparing the Ground for Revolution or Keeping the Boys Satisfied?” (DDLS reserves)

    Course work

    1. Contribute to discussion of Neuromancer and cyberpunk
    2. Continue to revise your research paper, corresponding with the professor about what you are doing.

    Assignments for Week Eight (due 9:00 AM, August 11)
    Readings

    1. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
    2. Study Guide for The Handmaid’s Tale
    3. Raffaella Baccolini: “Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of Katharine Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler” (DDLS reserves)
    4. Joanna Russ: “The Image of Women in Science Fiction” (DDLS reserves)

    Course Work

    1. Contribute to discussion of The Handmaid’s Tale, drawing on the study guide and the Russ article
    2. Submit final draft of research paper

Resources

Books

Note: Editions of SF read may vary; any edition will do.

Brooks Landon: Science Fiction After 1900: From Steam Man to the Stars. New York: Twayne, 1997.

H. G. Wells: War of the Worlds

Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles

Walter M. Miller: A Canticle for Leibowitz

Stanislaw Lem: Solaris

Philip K. Dick: Blade Runner

Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed

Ursula LeGuin & Brian Attebury, eds.: The Norton Book of Science Fiction.

William Gibson: Neuromancer

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale

 

Course Work and Grading

Written assignments

Readings and Discussion (50%)

Contributions to the online threaded discussions will be judged by the following criteria:

      1. They must be made in a timely fashion.
      2. They must demonstrate a careful and thoughtful reading of the assigned writings, including the study guides and supplementary critical and historical material.
      3. When discussing fiction, they must attempt to answer at least some of the questions in the related study guide (but please don’t write answers to all the study questions; leave some room for other students to contribute).
      4. For each assignment each student is also expected to respond to one or more of the points raised by another student, saying more than “I agree” or “I disagree.” Offer examples, additional arguments, counter-arguments, comparisons, related ideas, do comparisons.
      5. Contributions should not read like book reviews giving purely personal reactions; they should focus on what you have learned or think you can teach others about these texts.
      6. Try to think of ways you could use what you have studied for this assignment in the classroom and sketch out possible approaches for teaching.
      7. Posts should act as the opening comments in an ongoing discussion, not seeking to close off debate with the last word, but inviting responses. It is perfectly legitimate to ask questions or ask for clarification of points you don’t understand.
      8. Contributions should whenever possible bring in useful comparative material from other readings, films, discussions with students, etc.

Responses to other students’ posts in the online threaded discussions will be judged by the following criteria:

      1. Students are expected to take part continuously in discussion by making responses over the course of a week, not logging in just once a week to do everything at once. The due dates are final deadlines, but students are encouraged whenever possible to do their work earlier so that others have plenty of time to respond.
      2. You must go beyond merely agreeing or disagreeing to make substantial points.
      3. You must express yourself in civil language, avoiding insults and dismissiveness.
      4. Your posts should contribute to ongoing discussion, helping to develop ideas and themes raised in the original posts. Whenever possible try to tie together different viewpoints or make comparisons.
      5. Responses should not be made constantly to the same individual or small group. Try to spread responses around. If challenging or difficult posts have been made, try to respond to them rather than choosing easier ones.

Research paper (50%)
Research projects will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

      1. Topics should be chosen from the list provided by the professor, or developed in correspondence with him.
      2. The choice of topic must be made by the end of the second week of the course and research must proceed in a timely manner.
      3. Students must continually correspond with the professor about their research, trying out ideas, asking questions, etc.
      4. WSU library resources must be used; papers may not draw solely on Web resources. Students must display knowledge of the major SF research sources highlighted in the course bibliography.
      5. Papers must display an ability to draw on scholarly sources to prepare to teach the fiction being studied.
      6. Papers must be written in standard formal English. For writing tips, see Paul Brians’ Web publication Common Errors in English.
      7. For citations of sources, use MLA style as explained on the Purdue University OWL pages.
      8. The final grade will depend heavily on the extent to which the final draft is revised and improved in response to comments by the professor and other class members.

Tips for Collaboration and Netiquette

Expectations

You are expected to master the basic material covered by the course, be prepared by reading the assigned material (and re-reading material you’ve read before), meet deadlines, actively participate in the Bridge discussion activities, and collaborate with fellow class members to achieve the course objectives. Appropriate professional behavior demonstrating respect for classmates and instructors is expected. Questions of academic dishonesty will be dealt with in accordance the Washington State University Academic Integrity Standards and Procedures.

Late Policy

Since your interaction with your classmates is crucial to this class, any posts made after one week beyond the initial due date for an activity will not be counted for grading purposes.

commas

What follows is not a comprehensive guide to the many uses of commas, but a quick tour of the most common errors involving them.

The first thing to note is that the comma often marks a brief pause in the flow of a sentence, and helpfully marks off one phrase from another. If you write “I plan to see Shirley and Fred will go shopping while we visit” your readers are naturally going to think the announced visit will be to both Shirley and Fred until the second half surprises them into realizing that Fred is not involved in this visit at all. A simple comma makes everything clear: “I plan to see Shirley, and Fred will go shopping while we visit.” People who read and write little have trouble with commas if they deal with English primarily as a spoken language, where emphasis and rhythm mark out phrases. It takes a conscious effort to translate the rhythm of a sentence into writing using punctuation.

Not many people other than creative writers have the occasion to write dialogue, but it is surprising how few understand that introductory words and phrases have to be separated from the main body of speech in direct address: “Well, what did you think of that?” “Good evening, Mr. Nightingale.”

Commas often help set off interrupting matter within sentences. The proper term for this sort of word or phrase is “parenthetical.” There are three ways to handle parenthetical matter. For asides sharply interrupting the flow of the sentence (think of your own examples) use parentheses. For many other kinds of fairly strong interjections, dashes—if you know how to type them properly—work best. Milder interruptions, like this, are nicely set off with commas. Many writers don’t realize that they are setting off a phrase, so they begin with the first comma but omit the second, which should conclude the parenthetical matter. Check for this sort of thing in your proofreading.

A standard use for commas is to separate the items in a series: “cats, dogs, and gerbils.” Authorities differ as to whether that final comma before the “and” is required. Follow the style recommended by your teacher, editor, or boss when you have to please them; but if you are on your own, I suggest you use the final comma. It often removes ambiguities.

A different kind of series has to do with a string of adjectives modifying a single noun: “He was a tall, strong, handsome, but stupid man.” But when the adjective becomes an adverb modifying another adjective instead of the noun, then no comma is used: “He was wearing a garish bright green tie.” A simple test: if you could logically insert “and” between the adjectives in a series like this, you need commas.

English teachers refer to sentences where clauses requiring some stronger punctuation are instead lightly pasted together with a comma as “comma splices.” Here’s an example: “He brought her a dozen roses, he had forgotten she was allergic to them.” In this sentence the reader needs to be brought up sharply and reoriented mid-sentence with a semicolon; a comma is too weak to do the trick. Here’s a worse example of a comma splice: “It was a beautiful day outside, she remembered just in time to grab the coffee mug.” There is no obvious logical connection between the two parts of this sentence. They don’t belong in the same sentence at all. The comma should be a period, with the rest being turned into a separate sentence.

Some writers insert commas seemingly at random: “The unabridged dictionary, was used mainly to press flowers.” When you’re not certain a comma is required, read your sentence aloud. If it doesn’t seem natural to insert a slight pause or hesitation at the point marked by the comma, it should probably be omitted.

See also colons/semicolons and hyphens & dashes.

Hear Paul Brians discuss commas on his Common Errors in English Podcast.

Back to list of errors

 

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