official ctse newsletter spring 2007 vol 3. no. 2 · important tribal values.” she also cautioned...

Faculty members who find teaching andresearch to be second nature on their

home turf can run into serious tangleswhen they take their skills overseas andrun into different cultural values, an inter-nationally known journalism educator andconsultant told a group of Hofstra facultyin April. To make the most of their travels,they should give some thought to theproblems they may run into before theypack up for guest lectures, sabbaticals orfellowships with foreign hosts.

Conversations in other lands may soundperfectly normal but be anything but, saidAnn Olson, who spoke April 18 at a lecturesponsored by the Center for Teaching and

Scholarly Excellence. “What people actuallymean may be very different,” she warned.“What is blue over here may not be whatis blue over there.”

The initial tendency, she said, is to assume“that other people far away are like us,feel like us. But sometimes the local prismcan entirely turn on their heads thingsyou would expect to be otherwise.”

For example, a major problem in manyteaching venues overseas, she said, is the

question of plagiarism or academic honesty.When she was teaching journalism inBotswana, she said, she encountered adeeply rooted system of “riders anddrivers.” Those who could provide help,the drivers, were obliged to provide it tothose who needed it, the riders. So whilethe students agreed, in principle, thathonesty might be an important value, thestudents were bewildered that copyingother students’ work was considereddishonest. “The notion of plagiarism wasa difficult one for them to grasp,” Ms.Olson said. “As they saw it, they werehelping their friends, one of theirimportant tribal values.”

She also cautioned that students in manyparts of the world revered their professorsfar more than is common in the UnitedStates. As a result, the faculty who like toencourage classroom discussion anddebate are frequently disappointed by

Official CTSE Newsletter Spring 2007 Vol 3. No. 2

Hofstra at Home and AbroadOn Foreign Turf, Be Prepared to Be Surprised

CTSECTSE

1

Hempstead, New York 115491-800-HOFSTRA, Ext 610

www.hofstra.edu

CENTER FOR TEACHING ANDSCHOLARLY EXCELLENCE

continued on page 11

IN THIS ISSUEMoving From Inspiration to Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Talk of Sorrow, Then Talk of Safety Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A Simple Way to Track Attendance? Absent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4CTSE Survey: Ways to Prevent Plagiarism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Alternatives to Lecture: BRUCE TORFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Having a Word: CAROL PORR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7From the Director: SUSAN LORDE MARTIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Ann Olson is an expert on conductingworkshops and giving lectures abroad.

It looks like an ordinary stand-up, a reporter asking questions, a politician answering.But overseas, as here in Moldova, where the major television station is run by thestate and the Community Party runs the government, questions, answers and audienceunderstanding are entirely different from what Americans expect.

by STEVEN KNOWLTON

2

By STANISLAO G. PUGLIESE

In the fall 2006 issue of the CTSENewsletter, I wrote about the “publishor perish” dictum of our profession.

Junior scholars are understandably anx-ious about their prospects for tenure whenthey are told by senior colleagues that –even at less prestigious universities– a monograph is necessary foracceptance into that tenured guild (orgild?) of the academy. How, they wonder,should they go about finding a publisher?

Junior faculty – and the administration –should be aware, as I wrote last time, that“we now work in a publishing universevastly different from that of our mentors:

Almost gone are the gentlemen edi-tors and society women from NewYork’s “finest” families who devotedthemselves to literature, history, poet-ry and the “life of the mind” withoutworrying too much about a publishinghouse’s bottom line. Indeed, in thedays of yore, it was often considered abadge of honor to lose money! Thosefolks prided themselves on beingbeyond spreadsheets, P&L (profitsand loss) statements, and marketingstratagems. No more. Even universitypresses, always a source of prestigebut usually in the red, have been toldto at least “break even.” The result: apublishing environment where it isincreasingly difficult for junior facul-ty to get that critical first monographpublished.

Here I would like to expand on those ear-lier comments by offering specific adviceon how to approach a potential publisherwith a book project. But after meetingwith colleagues in other disciplines, Imust qualify this advice by pointing outthat it may not be applicable to allbook proposals: I come from a pub-lishing and editing background in(broadly) the humanities, and morespecifically history.

So let’s say you have finally finished amanuscript, or have a good idea forone, and you wish to seek out publish-ers. What’s the first step? One tried-and-

true answer is to turn to your dissertationadviser (more than one has been select-ed solely for connections to editors). Ahigh-powered adviser can often get yourrevised manuscript past the slush pile.

Often we don’t realize that a good answerto that question is right in front of us – or,more precisely, in the back of our man-uscript, in the bibliography. In yourreading, research, and scholarship,pay attention when you come across thesame publishing houses over and over

again. And to the acknowledgments ofscholarly books, where a researcher willoften thank a particular editor. Many aca-demic publishing houses today haveimpressive series devoted to specific areastudies. Look for one where your topicwould fit in.

Visit a prospective publisher’s Web site.Except for the very elite literary firms,who are usually approached through

agents, most publishers offer guidelineson proposing a book manuscript. If youthink you have a potential blockbuster onyour hands, such as the next “Da VinciCode” or “Closing of the AmericanMind,” it may be a good idea to securethe services of an agent (I know a fewexcellent ones), but for the most part, ourwork will eventually reach the right houseand editor without an agent who acts as amidwife. In the same way you didresearch on Hofstra University and yourfuture colleagues before your job inter-view, study a publishing house’s editorialprogram and editors. Learn what theypublish.

What should a proposal look like? Onething to keep in mind is that editors areextraordinarily busy. In addition to thevast amount of reading they need to do toevaluate manuscripts, they read to keepabreast of their field and, hard to believe,even for pleasure. Do not send a completemanuscript unless asked to do so. Send aproposal only to those houses that havepublished related material: if OxfordUniversity Press says it doesn’t pub-lish poetry, there is no reason for you tothink it will publish your verses, even ifyou are the next T.S. Eliot.

Compose a cover letter that will catchthe eye and interest of an editor or (atthe larger houses) an editorial assis-tant, and include a complete, updatedcurriculum vitae. Give serious con-sideration to your title and subtitle.Spend time on crafting a concise,accurate, and riveting brief descrip-tion of your book. If you can’t explainyour book in one paragraph, there’s aproblem. What are its core themes,arguments, issues, and/or topics?What are the distinctive and originalelements of your project that set itapart from other work in the f ield?

This should be followed by a moredetailed description: elaborate on thecore argument(s) and goal(s) of theproposed book. What questions doyou seek to answer? What do youbelieve will be the book’s contribu-tion to the literature in its f ield?

Moving From Inspiration to Publication

Stanislao G. Pugliese

continued on next page

3

By STEVEN R. KNOWLTON

The massacre at Virginia Tech on April16 is having an unsettling effectacross the Hofstra campus and on

college campuses all across the country,according to Hofstra’s director of studentcounseling, Dr. John Guthman.

With a spasm of violence on any col-lege campus, “we realize how vulnera-ble we all are,” Dr. Guthman said. “Werealize that tragedy is sometimes indis-criminate. And then we say: ‘Wow. Thiscould have been me.’ ”

In the days immediately following theshootings, Dr. Guthman said, calls to thecounseling center indicated that many stu-dents here were “very emotionally connect-ed” to the massacre, in which a troubled

Virginia Tech student shot to death 32 peo-ple on the campus and then killed himself.

Dr. Guthman asked all faculty members towatch their students for signs of seriousemotional distress, which often includechanges in memory, comprehension, andconcentration. The faculty have a uniquevantage point to look for these signs, heexplained. They see students several times aweek and are always looking for this sort ofhigher-level brain function. And studentsare usually closer to their professors than toany other adults on a campus.

“Faculty reveal a great deal of ourselves tostudents when we teach,” Dr. Guthman said.

Faculty with concerns about any student areasked to call the counseling center at (516)463-6791. The phone is staffed 9 a.m.-

9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday. At other hours, the linerings through to Public Safety, which canput callers in touch with a 24-hour emer-gency counseling team, Dr. Guthman said.

Particularly with the stress of the end of thesemester, students may start showing abruptchanges in attendance or in the quality oftheir classwork. Any faculty member whois worried about a student’s behavior“should reach out to us,” Dr. Guthman said.“We can outreach to students, sometimescasually and informally.” The outreach cansometimes be more insistent, he said,depending on how urgent the matter seemsto be.

Steven R. Knowlton is a professor of journal-ism and the CTSE’s associate director.

Talk of Sorrow, Then Talk of Safety Nets

Offer a table of contents and outlines ofthe proposed chapters. Each chaptershould have a brief description (100words or so). Try to suggest a unifyingthread or a conceptual framework to tiethe work together. Editors will usually bewilling to read an introduction and a sam-ple chapter.

To assess the project’s potentialaccurately, the acquisitions editor willneed to know how your work fits intothe f ield or how it radically chal-lenges accepted paradigms. Are thereworks already in print that are similar?How does your work differ? Be specifichere. What sets your book apart fromthese titles and would persuade potentialreaders to buy it?

Since even university presses must nowconsider the bottom line, think about themarket for the book. Is it primarily forscholars in your field, or might it be usedas a classroom text? Would it be arequired text or supplementary reading?In which courses might your book beused? Name names: Professors XYZ atUniversity X and the College of Z haveindicated that they might consider usingyour book in courses they teach. List anysecondary markets that may exist for thebook (i.e., the library market, academ-ic associations, etc.).

Don’t overlook the technical matters.What is the expected length of the manu-script? Will there be pictures, tables, orother non-text material, and, if so,approximately how many of each type?Are there any other particular featuresplanned for the book, such as boxed text,a glossary, activities, study questions,an instructor’s guide, etc.? Is themanuscript complete? If not, what isyour expected date of completion? If youknow of potential readers who mightoffer an objective assessment of the man-uscript, list their names, affiliations andcontact information. Will there be illus-trations? If so, are they in color, or blackand white?

Have you explored the possibility of rais-ing funds to defray the cost of illustra-tions, the book cover, indexing or market-ing? (Such funding does exist.) If you canmention that the Society for the Study ofMedieval Tapestries will contribute even$500 to pay for the color reproduction onthe cover, that offer might actually makethe difference between a book’s making itsway to library shelves or not.

Finally, understand that decisions taketime. If an editor is interested, he or shewill let you know and will ask for a com-plete manuscript, then will send copiesto at least two outside readers (every

house has a stable of academic specialistswho fulfill this critical task) and wait fortheir reports. Be warned: this may takeseveral months.

Once the editor has the readers’ reports inhand, the names of the readers will bestripped out and the reports will be sentto you for a reply. If the readers concurthat this is an excellent piece of scholar-ship that merits publication, the majorhurdle has been overcome. But it’s morelikely that one or both readers will sug-gest revisions before publication, and theeditor will invite your response.

This is a critical moment in the proceed-ings: a defensive letter written in a toneof moral outrage (“How could those twoidiots not recognize my brilliance!?”)will surely sink the project. A close, care-ful reading of the reports and a reasonedresponse – accepting valid criticism insome places and defending points in oth-ers – will be far more likely to win overan editor.

Stanislao G. Pugliese, Ph.D. (Hofstra Class of1987) is professor of history and the author,editor or translator of a dozen books onItalian and Italian-American studies. He is aformer consulting editor with Routledge andis now series editor with Palgrave Macmillan.

continued from preceding page

4

By STEVEN R. KNOWLTON

It’s an elemental question, really: Whowas where and when? And for academiceons, college faculty members who

were asked that question about the studentsenrolled in their classes answered it asthey saw fit.

A college teacher has many choices: Callthe roll? Pass around a sign-in sheet? Giveup and let students come to class whenand if they please? Hofstra doesn’t have auniversity-wide attendance policy, andleaves faculty free, for the most part,to do as they see fit.

Mostly.

The exception – and it is a significantone – comes twice a semester, whenLast Date of Attendance rosters aredistributed to faculty mailboxes. Withthese LDAs, the Academic RecordsOffice asks who has stopped comingto class and when was the last time theAWOL students showed up.

Teri A. Cox, assistant director ofAcademic Records, sends out LDAsheets in the fourth and 10th weeks ofeach semester, asking for informationthat only good attendance-takers canprovide. Ms. Cox acknowledges, “Thiscan be a big problem with large classes.”

Still, the federal government and a num-ber of campus administrators want thisinformation. The federal governmentdemands the information about attendance,said Dr. Gertrude M. Cucciniello, dean ofAcademic Records, because it seeksrefunds for any federal grants or loansmade for students who have stoppedattending. Additionally, academicadvisement, the athletic department andother campus groups ask for this informa-tion so they can reach out to students whoare not coming to class.

Since some people want the informationand the federal government demands it,Ms. Cox sends out colored roster sheets

twice each term. And no, they are notcolor-coded. “We ask the guys in the printshop what they have plenty of,” sheexplained, “so whatever color we choosethat time around, all faculty will get thesame color.”

Aided by e-mail reminders from theprovost’s office, the return rate for LDAsis up to about 80 percent, Ms. Cox said.She follows up with personal e-mail andphone calls to faculty members who don’treturn the rosters.

Can’t technology help?

The short answer: no. The slightly morenuanced answer: not yet, anyway, and notat a reasonable price.

Dr. Cucciniello said she and otheradministrators always looked around forpromising technology when they attendedregistrars’ conferences. “There aresessions at these conferences all thetime,” she said, “but nobody’s come upwith a good solution.”

SunGard, the technology firm that makesthe Banner software system, which is in

use at Hofstra and many other universities,“is certainly aware” of the attendanceproblem, Ms. Cox said, but has no easysolution.

There was a flurry of e-mail chatter on thequestion this spring, about the time Ms.Cox sent out her 10th-week roster sheets.Some faculty suggested an electronicrecording system that would have stu-dents record their presence in a classroomby using a card-swipe system; such sys-tems are already in place in many class-

rooms. But most classrooms don’thave them, and even for those that do,when one student opens a door with acard just before the start of class,many students file through the openeddoor without swiping their cards toannounce their presence. Othersthought the university might buyrecording devices for each classroom– essentially electronic sign-insheets – but that was consideredprohibitively expensive.

The University Senate’s UndergraduateAcademic Affairs Committee eventook up the issue last year, said thecommittee chair, Dr. Gregory Maney.Maney said a leading suggestion wasfor expanding the card-swipe systemcampus wide. The matter went to thefull faculty as an information item inDecember 2006, but it ran into opposi-tion from faculty “who thought it was

kind of Big Brotherish,” Maney said.“Some thought it would have a negativeeffect on classroom environments.” Thequestion is now before the chairs’ caucus,he said.

For many Hofstra classes, keeping track ofstudents is easy because there aren’t toomany of them to make keeping track ofthem a chore. Finding a way to keep trackof large classes with a simple but securesystem would be welcomed by manyteachers.


A Simple Way to Track Attendance? Absent

Surely,you think,

technologycan solve all

attendance-recordproblems.

Think again.

5

By MARK MCEVOY

Earlier this semester, the Center forTeaching and Scholarly Excellenceasked Hofstra faculty members to

complete an online survey designed touncover which anti-plagiarism strategieswere being used at Hofstra, and howeffective faculty members found thesestrategies to be. There were 135 responses.The results, which are summarized below,make for interesting reading. Note thatthe survey does not measure the actualeffectiveness of strategies, only theirperceived effectiveness, as estimated bythe faculty members using them. The ideais that in the absence of an objectivemeasure of effectiveness, one useful wayto choose anti-plagiarism strategies is toask those who use them how effective theyseem to be.

The first question asked respondentsto indicate how many cases of plagiarismthey detected in Fall 2006. This questionwas answered by 123 respondents, whoreported a total of 128 cases of plagia-rism, or slightly more than one case perrespondent. (To see the glass as half-full,though, you should note that almost halfof all respondents reported no cases forFall 2006.)

59 (48%) reported no cases.*

33 (27%) reported 1 case.

15 (12%) reported 2 cases.






The second question listed a varietyof plagiarism prevention strategies, andasked respondents to say if they used eachstrategy and, if so, to rate its effectiveness.

Sixty-four respondents requiredstudents to submit assignmentsto Turnitin.com. 2 (3%) rated this strategy as ineffective.

21 (32%) rated this strategy as moderatelyeffective.

41 (64%) rated this strategy as veryeffective.

Fifty-two respondents submittedindividual papers to Turnitin.comwhen suspicious.7 (13%) rated this strategy as ineffective.



Fifty-three respondents includedon assignment sheets anexplanation of what constitutesplagiarism and how it is penalizedat Hofstra.15 (28%) rated this strategy as ineffective



Ninety-six respondents included onthe course syllabus an explanationof what constitutes plagiarism andhow it is penalized at Hofstra.23 (24%) rated this strategy as ineffective



Ninety-one respondents assignedexercises designed to minimizethe possibility of plagiarizedassignments.2 (2%) rated this strategy as ineffective.



Thus, the two strategies rated most effectiveby respondents were designing assignmentsto minimize the chances of plagiarism,and requiring all papers to be submitted toTurnitin.com.

The CTSE will follow up with e-mailsummarizing these results and summarizingthe various other strategies listed byrespondents.

Mark McEvoy is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a member of CTSE.

CTSE Survey: Ways to Prevent Plagiarism

* All percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number, and so totals will not always add up to 100%. Percentagesfor question one are based on the number of respondents to the question; percentages for question two are based on thenumber of respondents who reported using a given strategy.

Mark McEvoy

In this series, I am suggesting ways forstudents to connect with the content

they need to know without listening toextended lectures from the professor.Along the way I’ve been advocating athree-part strategy:

Start by creating a handout that has lots ofcontent, but not so much as to be impracticalin the time allotted – say, one to four pages.

Create a second handout that givesstudents questions to answer or problemsto solve – a classroom activity thatrequires them to think critically, not justrepeat information.

Have a classroom conversation in whichthe students’ responses to the activity arediscussed and the professor delivers“minilectures.”

Let’s take another stabat this approach. Inmany disciplines,researchers have agreat deal of quantita-tive data. Why not putthese data to work inour classes?

Suppose, for example,you have a marketingclass focused on howtarget markets areidentified and thenreached throughadvertising. Prepare acontent-rich handoutin the form of a datatable. The table suppliesa great deal of infor-mation: the names ofseveral heavily adver-tised products; annualsales for each product in a given year;expenditures on advertising in that year;expenditures on print, radio, television,and Internet advertising, in separatecolumns; and a list of the publications,media outlets or programs, and Web siteschosen for that advertising.

Now, what should you ask students to dowith all this information? Prepare a

second handout that includes severalquestions that require students to figureout what the table can tell them.

Some of these questions are simple, askingstudents to read the table: Whichcorporation spent the most on advertising,relative to total sales? To answer that, all thestudents need to do is a little arithmetic.

Other questions require students toconsider the products’ marketing strategies.Why was Product A advertised as it was?What market was it probably aimed at?Why were these advertising vehicles used?

Still other questions could be added toencourage students to frame problems andask questions of their own. What additionalinformation would you like to have seen in

this table? Whatwould such informa-tion allow you tode t e r mine? Wha tmakes this informationrelevant or valuable?

If you look at yourlecture notes andbooks and distill outthe points you need toemphasize, it’s easy towrite questions thatlead to these points.(“Jeopardy” comes tomind.) On the activityhandout, give studentsspace to write downtheir answers. Theirwritten work will pro-vide the basis for thediscussion that comeslater.

In class, have studentswork individually, in pairs or in fours.Give them 15 or 20 minutes to answer theassigned questions. Walk around the roomas the students work, keeping them ontask and answering any questions theymay have.

Alternatively, you can disseminate the twohandouts in advance, perhaps usingBlackboard, and ask students to prepare

their responses on their own time. Thiscan be especially useful with large classes,in which in-class work can be more diffi-cult. (It is not impossible to have largeclasses do in-class work, though – give ita try sometime.)

After you put the class back into full-group mode, ask students for theirresponses to the assigned questions. It canbe a good idea to “cold call” from time totime – i.e., to call on students who havenot raised their hands. This keeps studentson notice to contribute at any moment andprevents extroverts from squeezingintroverts out of the discussion.

A useful slogan to remember is “askbefore you tell.” Ask students to respondto the questions before you put your twocents in. Ask them to elaborate on theirresponses when that’s needed. Improvisequestions and comments that clarifythings.

Once students have done what they canwith a question, add your remarks toensure that the points you need tomake are very clear. Sometimes thatmeans restating what the studentshave appropriately contributed, andsometimes it means filling in spots where

Bruce Torff

6

Alternatives to Lecture by BRUCE TORFF

Letting the Data (and the Students) Do the Talking

continued on page 9

You can tell

students

what you want

them to learn.

Or you can let

them figure

that out – and

remember it.

In a 2002 PSAT exam, the followingstatement appeared as part of the essay

section, and it created a bit of a stir in somequarters of the academic community:

Toni Morrison’s genius enables her to createnovels that arise from and express theinjustice African Americans have endured.

While a construction like this one wentunnoticed by the people who preparedthe exam, there was an outcry from thegrammar police, and perhaps from thepeople who read William Safire’s “OnLanguage” column, which appears weeklyin The New York Times. The pronoun herhas no true antecedent. The readerassumes that her refers to Toni Morrison’s,but the possessive form of a noun istechnically an adjective and thereforecannot serve as the antecedent of a pronoun.While this is an extreme case of grammarsnobbery, it does illustrate an example ofwhat we call “improper reference ofpronouns,” the topic I’ve chosen for this issue.

Let’s talk about pronouns. The pronoun(from the Latin pro, for, and nomen,name) is the part of speech that is usedeither in place of a noun, or that refers toa noun already mentioned, which is calledits antecedent. Everyone is familiar withthe personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it,etc.), but the indefinite pronouns (each,every, anyone, everyone, everybody, etc.)can cause a bit of trouble with agreementbecause, whether they act as nouns oradjectives, they refer to multitudes but areoften singular in construction. The rule isthat pronouns must agree with theirantecedents in person and number. Inaddition, the word to which a pronounrefers should always be clear to the reader;that is, a pronoun and its antecedentshould be instantly recognized as belongingtogether.

First, let’s tackle the question of agreementwith regard to person and number.Singular antecedents require singularpronouns, as in:

Each girl has her own car.

A sentence like that is easy enough. Whatif, however, we have a sentence that readslike this:

When someone has been drinking,______ should not drive.

This last sentence illustrates a currentusage dilemma, which is prompted by thefact that English has no third personsingular form of the personal pronounthat refers to people of either sex. Ofcourse, when I was in school, lo those manyyears ago, the writer simply went with themale version of the personal pronoun: he.We’ve come a long way, baby, and as aresult, the writer has a conundrum: wing itand use the masculine singular (a use thatcan be considered sexist); use he or she,even though such expressions can beawkward; or go with the very popularplural they? The first two choices arethe grammatically correct ones; the thirdchoice is most definitely used informally,but is still considered incorrect by grammarpurists.

In cases like the above, it’s often easier tomake the antecedent plural, as in:

When drivers have been drinking,they should not drive.

Or the sentence could be rewritten sothere is no problem with agreement:

A driver who has been drinkingshould not be behind the wheel of a car.

With regard to this particular agreementproblem, Ben Yagoda, the author of therecently published “When You Catch anAdjective, Kill It,” notes that there are anumber of examples of the plurals they,their, and them being connected to indefi-nite pronoun antecedents in texts beforethe 18th century. He quotes from no lessthan Shakespeare’s “Much Ado AboutNothing” (“God send every one theirheart’s desire!”) and The King JamesBible (“In lowliness of mind let eachesteem others better than themselves”).As we moved into the 18th and 19th

centuries, grammarians became moreinsistent on this particular kind ofagreement. So who is going to tell Stingthat the line in his song “If you love some-one, set them free” contains faulty grammar?

Intervening Antecedents

The personal pronouns should have definiteantecedents and should be placed as nearas possible to their antecedents. Your readersshould not have to look through severalsentences to find a pronoun’s antecedent,nor should they have to manufacture anantecedent for a pronoun. Here’s an exampleof an unclear antecedent that I culled froma book called “Grammatically Correct”:

Keep the medicine stored at roomtemperature. A special bottle is provided.If it is exposed to extremes in temperatures,its potency could be lessened.

Clearly the writer meant to warn the readerthat the medicine’s potency could belessened, not the bottle’s, but since thepronoun it is closer to the noun bottle, thereader automatically assumes that thepronoun refers to bottle. What the writerneeds to do is repeat the noun to which thepronoun refers:

7

Having a Word with CAROL PORR

Everyone Open (His/Her/Their/I Give Up) Book

Carol Porr

continued on page 10

Dear Colleagues,

Reflecting a concern of many of us, theCenter for Teaching and ScholarlyExcellence has had several programs onenhancing a culture of academic integrityon campus. Three years ago Don McCabe,a professor of organization managementat Rutgers University and the foundingpresident of the Center for AcademicIntegrity at Duke University, spoke to thefaculty. Last semester, several facultyworkshops were organized by DavidCallahan, the author of “The CheatingCulture: Why More Americans Are DoingWrong to Get Ahead” and the founder ofthe Demos think tank. Elsewhere in thisnewsletter, you have apreliminary report byMark McEvoy, aCTSE member, on asurvey he conductedon methods for com-bating student plagia-rism.

CTSE members planto continue workingon this subject. I hopethat many of you willshare your thoughtsand best practices fordeveloping a cultureof academic integrityin our classrooms. Irecommend the Website of the Center forAcademic Integrity(www.academicin-tegrity.org) for ideasfor your individualclassrooms and formodel codes that are used university-wideon other campuses. On the Web site youwill also find Ten Principles of AcademicIntegrity, written by Don McCabe andGary Pavela. The most recent update ofthe principles appeared in Change maga-zine, published by Heldref Publications.With the permission of the authors and thepublisher, I quote the principles here foryour consideration.

1. Affirm the importance of academicintegrity.Institutions of higher education arededicated to the pursuit of truth. Facultymembers need to affirm that the pursuit oftruth is grounded in certain core values,including diligence, civility, and honesty.

2. Foster a love of learning.A commitment to academic integrity isreinforced by high academic standards.Most students will thrive in an atmospherewhere academic work is seen as challeng-ing, relevant, useful, and fair.

3. Treat students as ends in themselves.Faculty members should treat their

students as ends inthemselves – deservingindividual attention andconsideration. Studentswill generally recip-rocate by respectingthe best values of theirteachers, including acommitment to aca-demic integrity.

4. Promote an envi-ronment of trust inthe classroom.Most students aremature adults, andvalue an environmentfree of arbitrary rulesand trivial assign-ments, where trust isearned, and given.

5. Encourage studentresponsibility foracademic integrity.

With proper guidance, students can begiven significant responsibility to helpprotect and promote the highest standardsof academic integrity. Students want towork in communities where competitionis fair, integrity is respected, and cheatingis punished. They understand that one ofthe greatest inducements to engaging inacademic dishonesty is the perception thatacademic dishonesty is rampant.

6. Clarify expectations for students.Faculty members have primary responsibilityfor designing and cultivating the educationalenvironment and experience. They mustclarify their expectations in advanceregarding honesty in academic work,including the nature and scope of studentcollaboration. Most students want suchguidance, and welcome it in course syllabi,carefully reviewed by their teachers in class.

7. Develop fair and relevant forms ofassessment.Students expect their academic work to befairly and fully assessed. Faculty membersshould use – and continuously revise –forms of assessment that require activeand creative thought, and promotelearning opportunities for students.

8. Reduce opportunities to engage inacademic dishonesty.Prevention is a critical line of defenseagainst academic dishonesty. Studentsshould not be tempted or induced toengage in acts of academic dishonesty byambiguous policies, undef ined orunrealistic standards for collaboration,inadequate classroom management, orpoor examination security.

8

From the DirectorTo Teach Integrity, Keep It Front and Center

Susan Lorde Martin


If you come

with a new way

to encourage

academic

honesty,

CTSE would

like to hear it.

9

9

students stopped short or went awry. Tryto limit your remarks to three minutes orso – delivering several minilectures in aclass period allows you to add lots ofcontent without overdoing it.

And so the discussion cycles: the professorasks students for their answers to one ofthe assigned questions, students talk aboutwhat they wrote, the professor moderates

a class discussion and possibly adds aminilecture, and then the professor moveson to the next question.

In this sample lesson, a data table hasbeen used to help students learn aboutmarketing. But this three-part strategycan be applied in any discipline. Insteadof a data table, you could use a fewpages of text, a database, or whateveryour subject area seems to need.

This kind of teaching takes students whereyou want them to go, but they get there inthe driver’s seat, not the back seat.

Bruce Torff is an associate professor ofcurriculum and teaching in the School ofEducation and Allied Human Services anda member of the CTSE.

Alternatives to LectureLetting the Data (and the Students) Do the Talking

continued from page 6

From the DirectorTo Teach Integrity, Keep It Front and Center

continued from previous page

9. Challenge academic dishonesty whenit occurs.Students observe how faculty membersbehave, and what values they embrace.Faculty members who ignore or trivializeacademic dishonesty send the messagethat the core values of academic life, andcommunity life in general, are not worthany significant effort to enforce.

10. Help define and support campus-wideacademic integrity standards.Acts of academic dishonesty by individualstudents can occur across artif icialdivisions of departments and schools.Although faculty members should be theprimary role models for academic integrity,responsibility for defining, promoting,and protecting academic integrity must be

a communitywide concern – not only toidentify repeat offenders, and applyconsistent due process procedures, but toaff irm the shared values that makecolleges and universities true communities.

Bes t wishes for an en joyable andproductive summer.

– Susan

Sometimes, you just have to go outside, as on a beautiful day in spring when philosophy instructor John McGuire took his Phil 14 students onto the lawn in front of Barnard Hall for a

discussion of Kant and the Categorical Imperative.

Keep the medicine stored at roomtemperature. A special bottle is provided.If the medicine is exposed to extremesin temperatures, its potency could belessened.

Or the writer could move the interveningnoun to a position in the writing where itwon’t cause confusion:

Keep the medicine stored at roomtemperature. If it is exposed to extremes intemperatures, its potency could belessened. A special bottle is provided.

Another solution would be to enclose thereference to the problematic antecedent inparentheses. This action would effectivelyremove the confusion:

Keep the medicine stored at roomtemperature. (A special insulatingcontainer is provided.) If it is exposedto extremes in temperatures, its potencycould be lessened.

Ambiguous Antecedents

Sometimes a sentence contains more thanone word to which a pronoun couldgrammatically refer. Sentences like theseshould be written in such a way that there isno doubt about the antecedent to the pronoun:

Mary told her mother that herclothes were getting too tight.

I don’t know whose pain I should feel inthis sentence! If Mary told her fatherabout the clothes, there would be noambiguity, but with two females and tootight clothes, we don’t know who shouldget bigger clothes or go on a diet. Correcta sentence like this by making themeaning clear:

Mary noticed that her clothes weregetting too tight, and she complainedabout this situation to her mother.

Or:Mary told her mother, “My clothes

are getting too tight.”

Or:Mary told her mother that her

(Mary’s) clothes were getting too tight.

Here’s another kind of ambiguity thatoccurs when a relative clause (an adjectiveclause introduced by one of the relativepronouns) is misplaced in a sentence:

The dog was hit by a car that jumpedover the fence.

With the weather we’ve had lately, it mayseem entirely possible that cars couldjump fences. What we have here, however,is a clause that is modifying the wrongnoun.

This situation is corrected by placing theclause directly after the noun to which itrefers:

The dog that jumped over the fencewas hit by a car.

Weak Reference

A pronoun should not refer to a wordmerely implied by its context, nor shouldit refer to a word used as a modifier(remember Toni Morrison and hergenius).

Here is an example of a weak pronounreference:

A blue car followed us closely, and hekept blinking his lights at us.

This sentence puts me in mind of theStephen King novel “Christine,” in which acar becomes human. Unless the writer of thissentence is Stephen King, the reference ofthis pronoun is too weak. He refers to noparticular word. Here’s an improved version:

A blue car followed us closely, andthe driver kept blinking his lights at us.

Another example of a weak reference thateven good writers often miss is this one:

My husband is a fanatic sports fan,and he wishes that I would becomeinterested in them.

Them is referring to the adjective sports,not the noun fan. This construction isidentical to the problematic PSAT state-ment about Toni Morrison, but the errorhere is a bit more obvious. While the wordsports is usually a noun, in this case it’sacting like an adjective. Pronouns stand infor or refer to nouns, not any other part ofspeech.

Here’s a corrected version:

My husband is a fanatic sports fan,and he wishes that I would becomeinterested in sports myself.

Broad ReferenceThe reader should know exactly what apronoun stands for, and a pronoun shouldusually not refer broadly to the whole ideaof the preceding clause. Here’s an exam-ple of too broad a reference for a pronoun:

Only 10 students signed up for theworkshop, which was due to poor publicity.

In this sentence it’s difficult for the readerto determine exactly what the relativepronoun which refers to. Correct it bysupplying a referent for the pronoun:

Only 10 students signed up for theworkshop, and this disappointingturnout was due to poor publicity.

Better yet, you could also turn the whichclause into a phrase:

Only 10 students signed up for theworkshop because of poor publicity.

Sometimes the antecedent of the pronounwhich is unclear, as in the followingsentence:

The professor did not object to thestudent’s insensitive remark, whichsurprised me.

In this case, the reader wouldn’t be sure ifthe writer had been surprised by thestudent’s remark or the fact that the pro-fessor didn’t object. Here’s a correctversion:

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Having a WordEveryone Open (His/Her/Their/I Give Up) Book



I was surprised that the professordidn’t object to the student’s insensitiveremark.

There are some constructions that areacceptable in informal writing eventhough they are technically wrong:

The students laughed, which annoyedthe professor.

In this instance, the students’ laughing iswhat has annoyed the professor, and asyou can see from this sentence, there is

technically no antecedent for the relativepronoun which. But the meaning of thesentence is clear enough.

Some of the preceding errors are moreegregious than others. I am constantlyreminding my students that the study ofgrammar is rewarding, albeit sometimesquite frustrating. By sticking sovehemently to the rules, we run the riskof absurdity. Ben Yagoda points out thefoolishness of adhering too strictly tosome of these prescriptive rules.Sentences like “No person shall be forcedto have an abortion against his will” and“Man, being a mammal, breast-feeds his

young” are examples of impossible butgrammatically correct constructions.They put one in mind of the famousquotation attributed to Winston Churchill,who, when corrected for violating the ruleagainst ending a sentence with apreposition, retorted, “That is the sort ofnonsense up with which I will not put!”

Carol Porr is an adjunct instructor ofEnglish and assis tant director ofthe Engl ish Composition Program. Sheis also the English editing consultant to theCTSE.

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their efforts to draw out students’ ideas.“A teacher is the supreme being in manycultures,” Ms. Olson explained. “Peopledo not question you. Rather, they want toplease you.”

Similarly, she added, students in manyparts of the world grow up believing thateducation means “learning to listen and tomemorize. They don’t ask questions. Andthey will never do well if you grade themon class participation. They simply don’tknow how.”

A corollary: “Yes can often mean no,especially with people from the East whodon’t want to lose face by saying no. Youare a guest for them – or at the least anhonored person – and they don’t want tosay no to you.”

Sometimes, she said, when facultytrying to teach overseas come to seethat things are so different, they getdiscouraged, believing that the cul-tural differences are so great theysimply cannot be overcome. This isparticularly true for the faculty members

who are trying the hardest to be sen-sitive to cultural differences.

But Ms. Olson cautioned: “Don’t besilenced by feeling unable to bridgedifferences. Remember that usuallyyou’re there because someone needswhat you know. Try to make it availableto them.”

She also cautioned that the ubiquity ofthe Internet in the United States doesnot mean that the rest of the world isequally wired. The results are thatmuch of the world, particularly theparts where English is not widely spoken,has a seriously skewed view ofAmericans. What foreign studentsbelieve they know about Americansmay have come from newscasts, featurefilms or many other sources, which areoften neither reliable nor accurate.

Still, she said, most of the world isaware of American foreign policy, andmany views are negative. But Ms.Olson said it was important to not bedaunted: remember that “we are notour government. People understand that.”


Hofstra at Home and AbroadOn Foreign Turf, Be Prepared to Be Surprised


Having a WordEveryone Open (His/Her/Their/I Give Up) Book

continued from previous page

Ann Olson and CTSE Director Susan Lorde Martin talked about issues in international teaching.

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Hofstra University continues its commitment to extending equal opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national or ethnicorigin, physical or mental disability, marital or veteran status in the conduct and operation of its educational programs and activities, including admission and employment.

3930:5/07

Office of AdmissionHempstead, New York 11549

DirectorSusan Lorde Martin, J.D.Cypres Family Distinguished Professor of Legal Studies in Business208 Weller HallPhone: (516) 463-5327Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

Associate DirectorSteven R. Knowlton, Ph.D.Professor of Journalism and Mass Media Studies120 Dempster HallPhone: (516) 463-4866Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

Senior AssistantJeanne Racioppi200 West Library WingPhone: (516) 463-6221Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

Program EvaluatorMarc Silver, Ph.D.Professor of Sociology202F Davison HallPhone: (516) 463-5645Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

Quantitatative Analysis ConsultantMichael Barnes, Ph.D.Professor of Psychology101 Hauser HallPhone: (516) 463-5179Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

English Editing ConsultantCarol Porr, M.A.Adjunct Instructor of EnglishAssistant Director Composition Program124A Mason HallPhone: (516) 463-5252Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

Public Speaking ConsultantCindy D. Rosenthal, Ph.D.Associate Professor and Teaching Fellow School for University Studies107 Roosevelt HallPhone: (516) 463-4996Fax: (516) 463-4832E-Mail: [email protected]

Graduate AssistantJennifer Ann Campbell, B.A.200 West Library WingPhone: (516) 463-6221Fax: (516) 463-6505E-Mail: [email protected]

Staff and Contact InformationCurrent CTSE Members

Ralph Acampora (Philosophy) 2005-2008

Amy Baehr (Philosophy) 2004-2007

Debra Comer (Management, Entrepreneurship and General Business) 2004-2007

Michael Giordano (Computer Science) 2005-2008

Jay Hickey (School of Law) 2005-2008

Esther Klein (BCIS/QM) 2005-2008

Janet Lenaghan (Management, Entrepreneurship and General Business) 2006-2009

Christopher Matthews (Anthropology) 2006-2009

Mark McEvoy (Philosophy) 2005-2008

Jennifer Rich (English) 2006-2009

Jin Shin (Psychology) 2005-2008

Mohammed Tafti (BCIS/QM) 2006-2009

Shawn Thelen (Marketing & IB) 2004-2007

Bruce Torff (Curriculum & Teaching) 2005-2008

Elizabeth Venuti (Accounting, Taxation & Legal Studies in Business) 2006-2009

Kathleen Wallace (Philosophy) 2006-2009

official ctse newsletter spring 2007 vol 3. no. 2 · important tribal values.” she also cautioned...

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