MLA Thoughts 4

by Dr Davis on January 3, 2010

Questions for presenters
While I was at the conference, I saw that some people on the panel received more questions. I think that is okay, as long as each person has a question. So I wrote a note to myself that for SCMLA, where I am a secretary for a session, that I should see if we can get early drafts of the papers and read them to prepare questions.

I’d even be willing to read them the week of…

I will see what we can do.

Old cookbooks
One of the phenomenal sessions I went to included a discussion of the Orrery receipt book, usually acknowledged as Lady Ranelagh’s. (I thought the presented made an EXCELLENT point for Orrery as author.)

from_art_of_cookery_courtesy_of_schlesinger_library_180pxThis particular receipt (old word for recipe) book has no stains on it. Was it used? Well, the earliest printed cookbooks have frontispieces which show the mistress of the house reading the recipes to the servants. Or rewriting the recipe from the receipt book for more educated servants to follow. (As in the example from The Art of Cookery from the Schlesinger Library.) So, yes, it probably was.

I would say, in light of the three hands (at least) among the composers and the significant emendations and content listings, that this was a well-used receipt book.

Co-author?
What do you call a person who takes a work and makes substantive changes to it, particularly without the knowledge of the original author?

I don’t think you could call them a co-author, although the presenter was deliberate in her use of this term.

Other terms used in this session were:
compilers
writers
recasting (so recasters?)
shearing (taking away from some work in order to fit it for another use)
manipulation of genres
creator (Who is the author of a recipe?)

I suggested, afterwards, that everyone kept using the term “appropriation.” The person appropriated the writing and changed it to make it their own. The work was appropriated. Perhaps the term we are looking for here, when a person takes a work and changes or recasts or shears it is Appropriator? We have an author and an author-appropriator? Or appropriator-author?

I think the idea does make the second person less responsible for the text, but many times they ARE less responsible for the text. They did not create it. Instead they took it, changed it, and made it something different, something usable and useful in their context. So they were not the originator-author, but they were an author.

I like, in fact, the idea of calling them appropriator-authors and originator-authors. It shows that both were authors, but it shows which came first. I would say that an appropriator-author is, perhaps, a derivative work, but not necessarily in the negative sense. The nuns would never have used Samuel Woodford’s text as it was. But they could make use of it through the use of the appropriator-author. By the substantive changes, the work becomes a different work and it is, in that sense, a new work.

That was Jaime Goodrich’s amazing talk that this came out of, btw.

The best session that I went to was the one which sparked this blog post.

298. The Josephine A. Roberts Forum: Early Modern Women’s Manuscripts

3:30–4:45 p.m., Grand Ballroom Salon L, Philadelphia Marriott

Program arranged by the Renaissance English Text Society

Presiding: Elizabeth H. Hageman, Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham; Margaret P. Hannay, Siena Coll.

1. “‘Not Secretly Done’: Private Prayerbooks in the Court of Katherine Parr,” Susan M. Felch, Calvin Coll.

2. “Lady Katherine Ranelagh or Lady Margaret Orrery? Reattributing Authorship for The Boyle Family Receipt Book,” Michelle DiMeo, Univ. of Warwick

3. “Who Is Mrs. M. B.? Monastic Authorship and Dame Clementia Cary’s Psalms,” Jaime Goodrich, Wayne State Univ.

They presenters were all prepared, articulate, and persuasive.

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When Students Aren’t Reading

by Dr Davis on January 3, 2010

I am very sensitive to students not reading the work and getting through classes okay. I got a B in a class where I was reading (but not comprehending) the long texts and another student got an A by reading the Cliff Notes. (This was grad school, btw.)

So reading on the Chronicle’s fora about students not reading really struck a chord with me.

Here are the best suggestions:

From Rebelgirl:

[L]azy ones got by reading Wikipedia, SparkNotes, etc., paraphrasing daily questions from those, then taking notes on class discussion. Found this out as OP did, overhearing comments. Made the ID part of the final exam a weed-out by reading the cheat sites I knew students were using, then making sure that ID passages were not referenced in any. Oh, the sweating bullets atmosphere in the final exam room. Funnily enough, earnest strugglers did fine; lazy ones, not so much.

This is what I do regularly. It does take more work. But I like it. It avoids those students like the one in my Am Lit class.

Hegemony suggested:

I ask them to take out a piece of paper and summarize the text in two paragraphs. (Longer or shorter depending on whether the text is a novel or a short story.) Then I ask someone to read theirs aloud and we all contribute pieces that should be added. Then I collect them. It really reveals who’s been doing the reading — [it] exerts pressure to do it, since they won’t be able to hide. It also helpful reveals where they tend to have misunderstood the plot.

I like this, too. It lets me know who is reading and it does let the skimmers know they are going to have to actually read and/or finish the work.

Lizzy said:

I make sure to put questions on the exams that come directly from the reading; they’re specific enough that students who are coming to class but not doing the reading won’t be able to answer them.

Again, I do this. It’s because I’ve had students come to class and use other students’ reading to do well on the tests. I don’t like that.

Oh, Hegemony has another good idea:

There’s another thing I do when students are unprepared — I say, “Ah, you didn’t get to the reading? Okay, we’ll count on you next time.” And the whole class watches as I note the name down on a sheet of paper. Then I start the next class with a question like, “Jim, will you summarize this week’s reading for us?” I have to say they’re never unprepared at that point. And once their name’s on my list, I keep them in my sights, asking them questions for the rest of the term. Later, if I suspect they’re unprepared, I say, “Jim, are you with us today?” If not, the name goes down on the paper with a matter-of-fact expression. Sometimes I do joke with them: “Scott, you haven’t done today’s reading either? Or you, Brittany? Is that the Corner of Shame over there?” The names go down on the paper. You’d think the students would resent this, but I’ve never got a nasty comment on it. They seem to accept it as well-deserved, and I even get the sense that some appreciate it.

I’m going to keep a list like this. The Reading List of Shame. And perhaps one for the Reading List of Honor. How would you get your name on there?

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