I used Edward Said for something other than theory-heavy class discussions

[ziasudra]

So I wrote a reponse to the Times Online article on the effects of religion that I briefly ranted about in this post a couple of days ago. My article is more aimed against Gregory S. Paul's methodology than on the Times Online article itself, and there's also a whole lot of personal ranting somewhere toward the middle/end.

I sent it as a "hey, I wrote something, whaddaya think?" e-mail to my professor. He looked at it, liked it, and now it's published!

*squees*

Here it is -->
We Are the Others
"The generalizations used in the new 'Religion is bad for society' study are a step backwards for social science."

It's probably the most polemic published piece I've written to date. I realize that my own arguments are incomplete (thus problematic in their own way), but I'm happy for what thread of argument that remains after I cut 20% of what I initially wrote.


Kiddies, Revised
I finally got my schedule for working at the middle school. It turns out that I'll be working with specific teachers instead of a specific class of students this year. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, especially since I enjoyed getting to know one class of students very well last year, and I'm afraid this won't happen this year.

But anyway, I'll be working with two main teachers for reading and two other ones for math, and I'll get to work with kids in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.

Let's hope that I'll get all of their names down by the end of October...

.

Comments

[ptyx.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I agree that you could have embased and developped your arguments further; in spite of that, your article conveyed very well the message that Paul's article contains many unjustifiable generalizations, which, I think, was its main purpose.

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

Thakns ^_^

Yeah, my original draft has all sort of quotes from social scientists, ganked from various recently published articles. But as I was rereading the piece, I realized that no one's really going to sit through blocks of highly abstract text just to get to the point I'm trying to make.

This is one of the main tensions that I often experience between my social science and journalism classes -- too "academic" vs. too "lay person-ish." ;p

I'm interested in the academic responses that I'm sure will come in future issues of the journal. Now that's going to be a brain cell-charged discussion revolving around a polemic study ;)

[lynkemma.livejournal.com]

You've been published! Congratulations!

*does little publication-dance involving lots of multi-coloured veils and confetti*

That's rally good - cool in itself, and also, now you've got something to put on your list of published works, right?

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks :)

This is the first time I've experienced the fullness of Web publication. Already I've gotten a wide range of comments to my article, some of them helpful and thoughtful, others not. It's actually quite nerve wrecking to know that there are people out there reading and critiquing your piece. In print publication, only those with a really strong reaction would bother to write to the editor, but in the 'net, it's just a click of a button to vent any after-reading thoughts.

I feel like I've "practiced" enough on LJ to know how to respond to comments (though I have yet to receive any really critical comments for my writing). See, LJ is good for something other than procrastination! ;)

[amrcan-hermione.livejournal.com]

Awww! I was a part of America Reads too, and I miss my kiddies so much! I worked with a kindergarten class at PS 183, and it was a wonderful experience. ::Sigh:: :'-(

Also, congrats on your article. You rock!

Sabrina